Get your fingerstyle on!

If you’re intrigued by fingerstyle guitar playing but haven’t yet found a way into feeling comfortable with the technique involved, then you’re not alone.

It took me ten years of dabbling on and off with fingerstyle guitar before I finally felt like I had a handle on how to fingerpick. Then, I found a teacher who upended everything I thought I knew and sent me back to basics with the fundamentals of how to use the thumb and fingers to make fingerstyle guitar music.

This guide is what I wish I’d had 15 years ago when I first started exploring fingerstyle guitar. Fingerstyle guitar technique really isn’t that complicated. Yes, it’s challenging to master the many applications that arise in all sorts of different music, but virtually anyone can have a solid handle on the best approach to fingerstyle guitar technique in a very short period of time.

The four fundamentals of fingerstyle guitar playing are:

1. The Hand Position

2. How the Thumb Moves

3. How the Fingers Move

4. How to Coordinate the Movements of the Fingers and the Thumb

Let’s dive right in!

The Fingerstyle Hand Position

The key with how you hold your hand when you play fingerstyle is to allow your hand to move as naturally as possible.

To get your hand in the right position, follow these instructions:

• Extend the arm you’re going to use to pluck the strings straight out in front of you.
• Keeping your wrist straight, allow your fingers to relax and hang down from your hand.
• Keep your thumb extended out from your hand.
• Now, keep your hand in that same orientation and bring it down to the strings of your guitar.
• Pay close attention to two ways you might lose the right form here: don’t allow your fingers to flatten out and don’t let your arm rotate down toward the floor.

Once your hand is in good position, it’s time to start using the thumb and fingers to play some notes.

How the Thumb Moves for Fingerstyle Guitar

Consider the thumb to exist in its own world separate from the fingers. When it plays, it should sweep wide of the fingers. Don’t allow your thumb to bump into your fingers while you play.

The bulk of the thumb’s movement comes from the big powerful muscle at the junction where the thumb meets the hand.

Finally, as you move your thumb, don’t just let it float and hover out above and beyond the strings. Always try to bounce your thumb back behind the next string it has to play. That way, your thumb will always be in a place where it can do something musically useful.

How the Fingers Move for Fingerstyle Guitar

With the fingers, the name of the game is moving from the highest knuckle where the fingers meet the rest of the hand.

The most common mistake beginners make is clawing at the strings and using the knuckle closest to the fingertips to try to make notes happen. It’s almost impossible to stay relaxed while playing this way.

All your power, control, speed and nuance come from the middle and top knuckles. A small amount of energy from the highest knuckle translates into a whole lot of movement in the fingertip as it plays through the string.

Check out these two images to see the before and after of the index finger as it prepares and then plays through its string:

Before

After

Go slowly at the beginning and develop the habit of moving your fingers from the highest knuckle almost like you’re waving your fingers through the strings.

Try this exercise to help you get the feel for the proper finger movement: keep your index, middle and ring finger together as one unit. Place these fingers on three consecutive strings (the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings work nicely) and then make a waving motion with your fingers as you pull your fingers through their strings. Wave your fingers all the way back and make them touch your palm. When you perform this movement, notice how much your fingers move high up where your fingers join your hand.

Get used to this “waving” sensation as you play through the strings with your fingers. The more you move from higher up in the fingers toward the hand, the more control and power your playing will have.

How to Coordinate the Movements of the Fingers and the Thumb

Those first three points will put you in a great place to be able to play beginning fingerstyle guitar music.

However, as you go deeper with fingerstyle guitar, you’ll quickly discover that one of the biggest challenges of playing more challenging pieces is how to coordinate the various fingers and the thumb.

When your technique works for you, the experience of playing more challenging music feels like your fingers are like spider legs walking efficiently across the strings. They’re never lost–they always know right where they are, where they need to be next and how to work together with the other fingers to get there.

To begin developing this spider sense in your fingers, think in terms of “preparing” your fingers whenever possible.

Get your fingers to the string they’re about to play a little early and “prepare.” Put a little energy into the string and have them ready to play when their turn comes along.

The easiest way to play with this idea is to play your fingers in order: thumb, index, middle, ring finger.

After you play through all four fingers, as you sweep back around to begin the next cycle with your thumb, put the fingers back on their respective strings. As your thumb plays, the index, middle and ring fingers are already in contact with the strings they’ll be playing.

By working on preparing your fingers ahead of time, you’ll train them to stay closer to the strings ready to play their next note.

Build on Top of this Fingerstyle Foundation

Ultimately, fingerstyle guitar can become as complicated and nuanced as you want to make it. These pointers will get you moving so that you can tackle your favorite fingerstyle guitar challenges whether they’re Chet Atkins arrangements, classical pieces or fingerstyle blues numbers.

Demystifying Fingerstyle Guitar is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

The Maestro

It seems to me that one of the biggest hurdles beginner jazz guitarists face when it comes to comping is getting away from the bulky barre chords we all memorize when we first start playing. You know, the “all you have to do is lift up your pinky to get a minor 7th” kind of chords. It’s very hard to get to a point where you start playing less to actually say more.

The smallest number of notes you can play on your own to play any kind of harmony is to notes which, when played together, is known as a dyad.

In the world of jazz guitar, dyads are a great way to keep the soundscape open while still maintaining some semblance of a harmony. Especially if you are playing with another harmonic instrument (e.g. piano, vibes) you need to keep your chords tight and light.

And so, today we’re going to work on a few ideas to improve your comping using our little friends the dyads.

Will Any Old Notes Do?

No. Let’s talk about that first. I mean, technically the answer is “yes,” but if you want to sound like you know what you’re doing you should consider targeting the “right” notes. For example, when playing a standard 7th chord (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th) you will probably want your dyad to be comprised of the 3rd and 7th. These two notes will define the larger character of the chord; meaning, I’m not worried about altered tones at the moment.

So to start I want you to pick a song — or I’ll pick for you; how about There Will Never Be Another You — and figure out the dyads for each chord in the ‘A’ section.

Go ahead… I’ll wait until your done.

(Yes, this is the part when you actually have to do some work on your own. Don’t be a slacker!)

The Dyads

Here is the chord progression:

EbMaj7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Dm7b5 / / /  |  G7 / / /  |  Cm7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Bbm7 / / /  |  Eb7 / / /  |
AbMaj7 / / /  |  Db7 / / /  |  EbMaj7 / / /  |  Cm7 / / /  |  F7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Fm7 / / /  |  Bb7 / / /  |

And… here are the dyads for each chord:

EbMaj7: G, D
Dm7b5: F, C
G7: B, F
Cm7: Eb, Bb
Bbm7: Db, Ab
Eb7: G, Db
AbMaj7: C, G
Db7: F, Cb
EbMaj7: G, D
Cm7: Eb, Bb
F7: A, Eb
Fm7: Ab, Eb
Bb7: D, Ab

Figuring out the dyads were really Assignment #1, but I know you all cheated so we’ll give you another first assignment.

Assignment #1

On the guitar, take each set of adjacent two strings (E/A, A/D, D/G, D/B, B/E) and play all of the dyads. Only play all of the dyads on each string group separately; don’t combine them.

Assignment #2

One you have done this on all five string group combinations, play the inversions. For example, on the EbMaj7 where you were playing the G note on the low E string and the D note on the A string, now I want you to reverse them.

Assignment #3

Now, what I want you to do is connect the chords together using the least amount of voice movement you can. For example, for the first two dyads, it’s best to keep the same interval and just move the whole dyad down a whole step; the G from the EbMaj7 move to the F of the Dm7b5, and the D from the EbMaj7 moves to the C.

For the next chord, however, it’s better to invert the dyad. Doing so allows you to keep the F as a common note between the two chords and move the C from the Dm7b5 moves to B (the 3rd of the G7).

The more common notes you can keep between chords, the less work you have to do, and the better you will sound. (Trust me, you will.)

Assignment #4

Now that you have some inversion ideas down, try to stay in one area of the fingerboard and utilize all five string groups to comp your way through the entire ‘A’ section. Feel free to take a few chords an octave higher or lower to break things up. (Remember, when comping behind someone you want to stay out of their range, so don’t just jump around the octaves for the hell of it. But you should try it to understand the principle.)

Assignment #5

Here’s where it gets fun. Don’t confine yourself to adjacent-string groups anymore. You still obviously want to only play dyads, but try widening the intervals a bit by skipping a few strings in between notes. Repeat the previous assignments using this new fingering.

Assignment #6

At this point I think it’s safe for you to use more than just the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. For m7b5 chord, try using the b5 and the 7 as your dyads. For altered dominants, try the 3rd or 7th and one of the altered tones (b5, #b, b9, #9). Bear in mind, however, that when you finally start to play with other musicians (keep reading…) you will want to keep your chords simple so you and the person you’re backing up aren’t tripping all over each other.

Assignment #7

Stop sitting in your bedroom playing by yourself. Using dyads will make you a better comper, but if you are playing by yourself then you’ll never really “get” it. Go out and find someone to comp behind. That’s when you’ll really put your practice to the test and see how dyads work.

A surefire way to kickstart your comping and get to the next level is to remove yourself from those Doobie Brothers chords you’ve been playing your whole life. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be jazz! Just think of how insanely awesome your death metal band would sound if you were comping instead of riffing and playing dyads instead of drop-tune power chords?

Good luck!

Better Comping With Dyads is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

These are not the roots you're looking for.

It’s fun chord Friday here on Fretterverse! I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve broken out the staff paper and done some actual guitar work. I hope you had a chance to digest and start working on yesterday’s phrasing exercise. Though you should continue with the phrasing work from yesterday, today we’re going to go back to my favorite subject.

One thing that I love about jazz is the variety of tonal colors coming from the harmony instruments. A good comper will never play the exact same thing twice in the same song, very unlike rock and roll. It’s this variety that adds the spice to the soup and makes for a very tasty tune.

And so with that in mind we’re going to look at a concept that I call “root substitutions.” The general premise here is to substitute the note of a chord – in this case, the root (duh!) – with another note in order to give your comping a much more interesting sound.

How interesting? Well, that part is up to you. All I can do is give you hints and suggestions. I will tell you that these chord subs, along with a very nice looking, wide-brimmed, red velvet pimp hat, will make you the coolest player ever! Since I’m all out of hats, I’ll have to help you with the chords.

First, a few concepts. In jazz, frequently the person providing the harmony will raise the 4th note of the major chord scale in order to give a Lydian sound. So we’re going to do the same thing. Throughout the examples we’ll be playing in the key of C Major but raising the ‘F’ notes to ‘F#’ for a Lydian sound. Do not get confused! We are not playing in the key of D Major, as much as your ear and brain may want to think that way. We’re still playing in C Major but using a Lydian sound.

The basic chords we’ll be using are standard diatonic 7th chords with the 5th removed, working on the 5-4-3 string group (A, D, G strings). Here is the first chord:

As I said, no 5th. Taking out the 5th will open up the chord’s sound a bit. With this structure in mind, and taking the #11 substitution into consideration, here are all of the chords in C Major:

As you play through the examples, again, remember that we’re in C Major. The second chord is going to sound like a D7, which technically speaking it is, but you have to think in terms of C. If it helps, use a backing track to play a walking bass line in C to help get the sound in your head. You can take the root note of each chord and displace them up an octave to help avoid register clashes with the bass:

Try both of those on the 5-4-3 string group and get the sound into your ear. When you have done this a few times, go back to the first set of chords and substitute the root note of each chord with the next note of the C Major scale (keeping in mind the #11).

As you can see, in the first chord we substituted the root – ‘C’ – with the next higher note of a C Major scale – ‘D’. The next chords replaces ‘D’ with ‘E’, and the next chord replaces ‘E’ with ‘F#’. What I love about these substitutions is that the typical guitar chord intervals are changed to give us more piano-like voicings instead. I much prefer these sounds to the ones created by the typical block chord.

But, everyone’s mileage may vary. If these chords are way too hip for your elbow-patched blazer, you can displace the new root of each chord up an octave as well:

A tad bit too much on the Masterpiece Theater for my taste, but it’s better to have all of these chords available in your mental chord dictionary.

Once you’ve practiced this chord substitution for a while, you can move the entire chord structures up an octave. This may end up sounding much better when a bass player is present. Obviously, you want to be able to play all of these chord ideas in every key and in every area of the fingerboard. You can also start to add more substitutions to hip the chords up even more – especially on the V7 chords of each key.

Bottom line? Experiment and have fun!

Chord Hacks: Root Substitutions is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Today’s article is a guest post from guitarist Brett McQueen.

I think fingerpicking was one of the hardest things I had to learn for guitar. I always had problems getting my fingers to be steady and independent enough to cleanly pluck a string. However, like anything else, you have to start somewhere and it just takes some time and practice.

In this lesson, we’re going to look at a basic fingerpicking pattern, one that helped me develop some independence between my fingers. You’ll be able to use this for many different types of songs and over many different chords.

Finger Position

I see a lot of beginner fingerpickers using only their thumb and index finger to pick. Some people I’ve seen are surprisingly fast and quick at this, but by using only these two fingers, you really limit your speed and accuracy in the long run. What we want to do is use four fingers instead of two–our thumb (T), index (I), middle (M), and ring finger.

Generally, your thumb will be responsible for plucking the lowest three strings – the E, A, and D strings – while your index finger will be responsible for plucking the G string, your middle finger the B string, and your ring finger the high E string. This whole position can move up or down a string, but this should be considered your “start” position.

Fingerpicking Pattern #1

Our first fingerpicking pattern will use that default position. We are going to play over a C major chord. You will need to know how to read guitar tab to see these patterns.

At the top of each tab, we have the designated finger we will use to pluck the note, while at the bottom of the tab we have the meter or the time in which we will play the pattern. We will want to be counting out the time as we play.

As you can see, we will use our thumb to pluck the C note on the third fret of the A string, then our middle finger to pluck the C note on the 1st fret of the B string, then our thumb pluck the E note on the second fret of the D string, and then our index finger to pluck the open G string. Then, we repeat the pattern.

You will want to start very slow at first. Speed will come naturally as you get more comfortable, so don’t force it. Each string should ring out clearly and without any buzzing. When you can play this pattern up to speed with your eyes closed, you’re ready to move on.

Alternating Bass Fingerpicking Pattern

Once we get comfortable with the first pattern, we can use the same C chord but alternate the bass notes being plucked. The rule of thumb is that you want to pluck the bass note that is the root note of whatever chord you are playing. For example, in this case we are playing a C chord, so the first bass note we pluck should be a C note.

In this pattern, we will alternate the bass from the C on the third fret of the A string to the G on the third fret of the low E string.

Again, you want to start slow, and you want to make sure you are counting aloud and playing in time. Each note should ring out clearly without any buzz or interference.

Adding a Chord Change

When you feel up for the challenge, you can even add in a chord change with the alternating bass fingerpicking pattern. In this example, we will change from a C major chord to an A minor chord. You’ll notice that we alternate the bass in both chords.

Again, start slow and practice good time. When you get a good grasp on these patterns, you can start applying them to different songs you know by just modifying the tempo and the chords you play the pattern over. What songs can you think of that this pattern could fit over.

Fingerpicking for Beginners is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Not exactly what I was thinking of

Scales, scales, scales. They are what makes the world go around. Without them we would have to rely on boring creativity and originality. (Just kidding.)

Having a healthy dose of scales at your disposal is essential to becoming a good guitarist and composer. Scales open up compositional doorways that might otherwise be closed to us by just relying on the typical Major and Pentatonic sounds we are accustomed to.

Today I want to share with you a handful of exotic scales that you may not have ever seen before.

How to Use The Scales

The ultimate use is obviously up to you, but I suggest you try to approach these scales in a few different ways:

1. Learn to play the scale in all positions.
2. Figure out what the triad and 7th chords for each scale degree are.
3. Understand what other chords this scale can work over.
4. Write some music with the scales.

At first these may seem like no-brainers, but you would be surprised how few of us actually do this. But for once I’m not here to chastise and wag my finger at the bad students, I’m here to expose y’all to some interesting sounding exotic scales. Hope you like ‘em!

Leading Whole Tone

Neighboring Tone (Major)

Lydian Minor

CMaj7/F# (Bitonal)

Hungarian Major (Altered)

Six Tone Symmetrical

8 Tone Diminished

Algerian

Pelog (Altered)

Exotic Scales is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Since we here in America are heading into an extended holiday weekend to celebrate our birthday, I figured it would be a good time to get some of these tracks done so you all can practice in between your beer and hot dogs.

If you all can do me the solid of downloading the tracks to your computer first that would be awesome. It will cut down on the bandwidth usage and save me a few pesos.

I still have a few more that I would like to do, including some rock, latin, and fusion tracks, but these should keep you plenty busy for now.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend (holiday or not), and encourage you all to keep going and enjoy!

Jam Track Friday is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

The basic tracks are the normal, standard chord progression. No surprises, with one at 110 beats-per-minute and the other at 200.

The advanced tracks have slightly more complex chord changes, but nothing crazy. They are also at 100 and 200 beats-per-minute.

The jam tracks can be found on the Downloads page.

Enjoy!

Rhythm Changes Jam Tracks Added is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

I'd like some 2% 4th chords, please.

As I have discussed in previous posts, traditional harmony/theory constructs chords in intervals of a third. There is another type of chord construction that is quite common in jazz, called “quartal harmony” or sometimes better known as “4th chords.”

Quartal harmony is most commonly associated with the modal jazz of the late 1950′s and 60′s. For those of you who have ever heard the greatest jazz recording ever made – Miles Davis‘ Kind of Blue – you are already familiar with the sound.

Quartal harmony and 4th chords translate extremely well to the guitar, making anyone who plays them an instant multi-platinum record selling artist and put on the Grammy short list. (It’s true, just ask Lil’ Wayne; he’ll tell ya.)

Let’s hip ourselves to a little modal jazz and quartal harmony, shall we?

Would you rather I throw one of these wrenches at you instead?

One of the great aspects of 4th chords is their slightly ambiguous/rootless quality. Because they don’t contain any tension notes such as the 3rd and 7th in a traditional chord, they have something of a more mysterious and aloof sound to them (to my ears, anyway). To form 4th chords, simply stack a chord using intervals of a 4th. Here is what they look like in D:

Now, I’m hoping you played through this example before continuing to read, because I purposely threw a wrench into the works. Did you figure out what it was? If not, please go back, play through the chords, and think about the concept for a minute. See if you can figure it out. It’s a great exercise for your brain.

You should have noticed that some of these chords are not built in perfect fourth intervals. The third chord, for example, has the notes Bb to E, which is a tritone/augmented 4th, not a perfect fourth (which should be Eb). So why are we not using perfect fourths? The answer is because we’re playing music, not engaging in theoretical discussions about music. You always have to keep in mind that it has to sound right just as much (if not more) as be right from an academic standpoint. If you are playing a quartal harmony vamp in ‘D’ the Eb will probably not sound very good. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t. It’s up to you to figure out what is appropriate and go from there. In most modal songs the E natural note will most likely sound better, so your chord will include the tritone from Bb to E and then stack the ‘A’ note as a perfect fourth above ‘E’. Read that again if it doesn’t make sense, especially the part about playing music.

Quartal Harmony Comping

Now when we comp, as mentioned in several other posts, we don’t necessarily want to play thick chords with lots of voices. This muddies up the music and makes it difficult for the soloist to stretch out. For that reason, we can remove the root voice of each chord and only play the three upper voices, like this:

The sound is essentially the same, but it breathes a little better.

Chord Inversions

One very cool feature of these chords occurs when you start to use inversions. By taking the bottom note of each chord and transposing it up one octave, you create some very hip chord voicings that you can use in your comping.

Definitely play these voicings over a ‘D’ bass vamp and listen to how they sound. The 2nd intervals sound great to me, very pianistic in nature. You can also experiment with a second inversion, moving what is now the bottom note up an octave as well. (Figure this out on your own, folks. I want to keep your brains actively working.)

You don’t have to only play these chords over modal tunes, by the way. These chords also sound great as substitutes for many minor chords, especially minor 11 chords. Again, let your ear guide you; if it sounds good then use it. If not, modify it. If that still doesn’t work, throw it out and do something else.

That is, in a nutshell, the concept of 4th chords and playing quartal harmony. I suggest you get some modal playalong tunes (or use Band in a Box) and go to town for a while. Also experiment with moving voices in each chord so you’re not just clunking chord after chord. If you have not heard Kind of Blue, buy it and absorb it. If you don’t know who McCoy Tyner is, now is the time to start thinking about non-guitarists for a spell.

4th Chords and Quartal Harmony is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

A triad, as you all hopefully know, is a series of three notes of a scale, stacked one on top of another. If you need more of a refresher please read my posts on chord structures and chord inversions.

Today I’d like to talk about upper structure triads and how you can use them to spice up your already smokin’ solos. Just a small dose of triads in your daily guitar diet will give you enough musical protein to extend your playing life for decades to come.

So What the Hell is an Upper Structure Triad?

Yeah, that’s probably a good place to start. Let’s take a look at what I call a master chord structure. This is basically a scale organized as one chord by stacking each note in intervals of a third. In the key of C Major this becomes a CMaj13:

To form an upper structure triad we basically just deal with the chord tones starting from the 5th and higher. So in the case of a CMaj13 chord we have three upper structure triads – G Major, B Diminished, and D minor.

You can use all four triad types: Major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

There are many books and websites that will go on to say that a “true” upper structure triad is one in which there is at least one allowable tension that is not an avoid note. For example, triads containing the note ‘F’ from a CMaj7/13 chord are typically considered not good upper structure triads because ‘F’ (the 11th) doesn’t sound well against the 3rd of a C triad (C, E, G). The question here becomes what someone’s definition of an allowable tension is. Frankly I don’t really care. As long as it sounds cool, play it!

Okay, so back to the upper structure triads. If you play a G Major triad over a C Major chord, you are basically highlighting the 5th, 7th, and 9th notes of the scale. This is a very cool sound because you are putting emphasis on notes that don’t strongly imply the chord. If you play a B diminished triad you get the 7th, 9th, and 11th. (Again, some people don’t like this because of the ‘F’ against the ‘E’, but I think so long as you don’t hang on the ‘F’ then it sounds fine.) Playing a D minor triad gives you the 9th, 11th, and 13th.

It is a little tricky at first because, especially for those of us that grew up playing rock, we’re not used to hearing these sounds. Playing an ‘A’ over a C Major chord can be very foreign to rock players and will take some time to get used to. I suggest that you spend some time working with the diatonic possibilities. Spell out each chord to the 13th and then figure out what each triad is. Play each triad over a chord backing track so you can hear the changes.

Alterations

But you don’t have to stick with diatonic triads, either. There are a ton of possibilities for playing different triads from borrowed key signatures in order to get very hip sounds. Here are some suggestions for upper structure triads borrowed from other keys:

• CMaj7 chord: DMaj, Bmin to get a Lydian sound.
• C7 chord: DMaj, BbAug to get a Lydian (b7) sound.
• C7 chord: GbMaj, AbMaj, Dbmin, Ebmin to get an “alt” sound.
• C7 chord: DAug to get a whole tone sound.
• Cm7: AbMaj to get a Phrygian sound.
• Cm7b5: AbMaj, BbMaj to get a Locrian nat. 9 sound.

How about a few that you can quiz yourself on?

• What does playing an EMaj triad over CMaj7 give you?
• What does playing an F#Maj triad over CMaj7 give you?
• What does playing a Dmin triad over Cm7 give you?

I hope you are playing these while figuring out the answers, rather than just using your theory brain (hint, hint).

Triad Stacking/Polychords

Once you have gotten a few of these under your belt you should obviously try injecting them into your solos. I don’t suggest you only play triads for a solo, however – that would get very lame. But, you can stack a few triads into polychords for a phrase or two and get some awesome sounding runs. For example, over a C7 chord you can see from the above list that you have a lot of choices to create different sounds. So how about playing a few of them one right after another? For example:

Triads are cool, triads are fun. Triads will get you chicks you never thought you could get. Seriously, try it!

Upper Structure Triad Soloing is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

If you’ve ever wondered where the “Rhythm” in “Rhythm and Blues” comes from, now you know. “Rhythm Changes” is a chord progression found in many jazz songs, modeled after the song “I Got Rhythm,” which was written by George and Ira Gershwin. It has become one of the most important song structures in jazz, and if you have any desire to be a jazz performer you absolutely need to have the song nailed.

Today I want to give you a general overview of the changes, some variations, and a few ideas on how to improvise over them.

(This really would be a cool book, though…)

The Chord Changes

Let’s start with the typical chord progression for a Rhythm Changes song. Unless the bandleader is on crack, Rhythm Changes will always be played in Bb.

‘A’ Section

BbMaj7 / Gm7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

BbMaj7 / Bb7 / |  Eb7 / Edim / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Repeat this ‘A’ section

‘B’ Section

D7  /  /  /  |  D7 /  /  / | G7 /  /  /  | G7 /  /  / |  C7 /  /  /  |  C7 /  /  /  | F7 /  /  / |  F7 /  /  /  |

‘A’ Section

BbMaj7 / Gm7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7  F7  BbMaj7 / |

It’s a pretty simple progression, actually, with an AABA song form.

Basic Chord Substitutions

Quite often you will see chord substitutions taking place to spice up the harmony a bit. The first and most obvious one happens right in the first measure, where players will often turn the Gm7 into a G7 to lead into the Cm7 more smoothly:

BbMaj7 / G7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Sometimes you will also see the Gm7 turned into a Bdim, which gives you chromatic root movement from Bb to C:

BbMaj7 / Bdim / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Both ways sound cool, and you’ll definitely have to keep on your toes to hear what the rest of the band is playing to know how to address the harmony.

You can certainly play with the other chords as well, but since this is a “Dummies” post I’m going to stick with the most common and basic elements.

Improvisation

So, how do we improvise over this song? First, keep in mind that this song is generally played “up”, meaning fast. The more experienced the players, the faster they generally like to play the song to give them more of a challenge. My suggestion to you, as a newbie, would be to take the changes slowly! (I will make a playalong track with the basic changes and put it on the Downloads page this week.)

If you feel so inclined, you can simply play Bb Major over the entire ‘A’ section. If you do this then there will be a few wrong notes. (The Bb over the G7, for example, will give a #9 sound, which technically isn’t wrong but you’ll probably alert everyone to the fact that you are a beginner if you are careless). But it’s an okay place to start.

If you really want to start digging in from the get-go, I suggest you start with simple arpeggios. Don’t try to be fancy, just get the sound in your head.

Here’s another one:

Next, start adding some altered tones. For example, every time you hit one of the dominant 7 chords, play the b9.

I hope you’re starting to get the idea. You can also use the tritone substitution principle; when playing over a dominant 7 chord, play your line as if you were playing over its tritone substitution. So, for example, over the G7 you would play a C#7 line. Here are a few ideas over the ‘B’ section:

Comping

Because Rhythm Changes songs are usually played very quickly, you don’t want to play full chords when you comp. It will sound muddy, you will probably have a coronary trying to get to each chord, and it won’t give the improviser any sonic room to play in. Here are some suggestions for how to comp over the changes:

1. Small voicings. Only play the 3rd and 7th of each chord (dyads).
2. Guide tones. Play only one note that represents the harmony, in a scalar fashion.
3. Don’t play all the time. Especially in the bridge, there is no need to play the entire time. Sit out for a few chords, or maybe even a bar or two. Give the song some breathing room.
4. Basic chords. Keep the chords simple; don’t add many extensions, and leave out any alterations (b9, #5, etc). The alterations will be covered by the improviser should he choose to play them. If you add the alterations then you and the person you are comping behind are going to run into each other and it will sound like crap.
5. Simple rhythms. Keep your rhythms simple and clean. Don’t add a lot of syncopation. Remember, the song is going by very quickly. You don’t want to present problems for the rest of the band, and certainly not for the people listening. KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)

Rhythm Changes on its face is not an impossible hurdle. But, the possible changes and alterations can make it somewhat daunting (I still struggle with it). These changes are to be digested slowly. Don’t go nuts trying to fit in every alteration, substitution, and chromatic idea all at once. Take your time and work through the ideas one at a time. Play diatonically first, then progress through simple alterations (like the b9 I described above). In time you will get it.

Of course, transcribing the masters is a great way to learn. Here is a list of some heads that are Rhythm Changes. I suggest you find as many recordings as you can and start listening.

Ah-Leu-Cha
Anthropology
Cotton Tail
Crazeology
The Eternal Triangle
Flying Home
Good Bait
Lester Leaps In
Moose the Mooche
Move
Oleo
Rhythm-a-ning
Seven Come Eleven
The Theme

Rhythm Changes for Dummies is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.