Scale Geometry: Two-string Horizontal Major  Scales Shapes Once major scale shapes are mastered in position, many guitar students come to the erroneous conclusion that they have mastered the diatonic scale.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  There exist an endless manner in which scales can be approached and expressed.  One that is particularly helpful

Guitar Improvisational Phrasing Lesson 1:  Introduction to the Play/Rest Approach and Basic Groupings It is painfully simple to distinguish a novice improviser from one with more experience  by listening not to what each plays, but what each does not.  A novice prattles on endlessly, stringing together ideas thoughtlessly and without rest, hell-bent on impressing the

The Three Basic Song Forms Quality songwriting is an interplay of variation and repetition.  Themes, motives and lyrics must occur often enough to build audience familiarity while providing enough new content to consistently engage their interest.  In order to facilitate this dynamic, contemporary songwriters have developed a few common song forms that recur frequently.  This

Flanger Pedal User’s Guide  Flanging is the aural cousin of the phase-shifting effect, using a time-based method to create similar interference.  Like a phaser, the flanger begins by splitting the signal into two pathways.  While one is unaffected, the “wet” signal is delayed by an amount indiscernible to the human ear (usually less than 20

Blues Rhythm 9: A New Form While the form we have used so far is one of the most common in contemporary blues, frequently blues progressions will add an additional IV chord in the second measure and a V chord in the twelfth bar. | I7  | IV7   | I7   | I7 |

Electric Guitar Tone Series: Phaser Effects Pedals  Having covered the more common effects of distortion and delay, we will now venture into the more peculiar territory of modulation effects.  The most common modulation effects are phase shifting, flange and chorus, which each split the guitar signal into two paths, shift the waveform of one path

Blues Rhythm Lesson 8: Arpeggiating Chords An arpeggio is a chord play melodically, one note at a time.  A chord can be arpeggiated in a harmonic context but simply playing one note at a time from within the voicing.  This is a common comping tool in slower blues.  Players can make up their own arpeggiating

Lick Development Techniques  Composers use certain techniques to vary their original themes into entire pieces.  Improvisers can use these same development techniques when using motifs in soloing, but also as a way to make their lick vocabulary more personal and free flowing. Original Lick: I copped this lick from BB King’s “Thrill Is Gone.”  Technique

Another funky extension to spice up your blues is the 13th.  It is often combined with the 9th as they work in concert to create a very “cool” sound.  As such, the 13th chord is frequently used in a funkier blues style.  We can make our rhythm 16th-note based to increase the funkiness of our