Acoustic Guitar Player

This guitar scale is the final one in may six part series on Pentatonic Scales.  As you my remember from my previous web blog posts, I decided to do a short series because many players have difficulty following through if there is too much information.  To work steadily through a half a dozen scales won’t hurt too much but the benefits will be many because a little self-discipline goes a long way.  And the way I have written most of these scales is a little unusual to try and prevent players monotonusly running their fingers up and down the fretboard, but the fingerings are interesting and I know from experience that they will force you to think a little when you play them.

Most guitar players avoid the flat keys, they stick to C, D , A , G and E, because they are guitar friendly.  So let’s break the habit a little with this one and do a B Flat.  The key of B flat includes the notes B flat, C, D, E flat, F, G A  and B flat. 

But the Pentatonic I’ve used (penta being 5) is Bb, C, D, F, G .  Note the fingering of the exercise, I jump to the 5th fret after playing the open G and a few of notes later I jump up a fret.  And then decscending I move back to fret one.  Playing this way will force you to think.

To download the printable guitar scale in TAB and music notes click below:

TAB and Music Notes Guitar Scale Pentatonic Major in B Flat

My next set of six short tutorials will cover Chord Construction Made Easy

The John Butler acoustic  twelve string version of Message in a Bottle, what an interesting combination.

Two things that really appeal to me as a musician are:

1) Restraint and understatement
2) Interpretation of other peoples tunes

The ability to not overplay, even if you have the ability to, is a real art, to hold back and create a little tension and space.  I think many of the reggae musicians have mastered that art,; and the ability to imply music and hold back so the listener unconsciously fills in the gaps.

Interpretation is something that not all players can get their head around because they often wish to repeat what they have heard and not have a second thought that a song may have other possibilities.

I’ve stated before that I like John Butler’s music and when I heard him doing the Police tune, ‘Message in a Bottle’ I was very impressed with the way he made it his own. I like the rhythm part, the brushes as the acoustic bass.

To hear more John Butler click the link John Butler

Todays video youtube post is Lighning Hopkins, the classic acoustic blues guitar player, he has influenced thousands of players across the world.  He was a Texas Blues player and was inspired by Blind Lemon Jefferson. His music holds an important part in Blues Guitar history. There are two songs here, they speak for themself, in it you’ll hear where many of the riffs and guitar lines that are played across the world have come from. Hopkins often included the talking style of vocals. It’s a music lesson in itself.

Enjoy!

It was about 35 years ago when I first purchased a Stefan Grossman guitar book on blues, in those days, very few music books had guitar TAB. That may sound odd to a lot of people now. The books back then were generally arranged for Piano/ Vocal, that means they had little to do with the guitar and were really just a piano arrangement of the tune. Here’s a few Acoustic Blues Guitar Books worth exploring to help you be a better blues player.

Stefan Grossman’s Early Masters of American Blues Guitar: Mississippi John Hurt Music by Mississippi John Hurt, transcribed by Stefan Grossman. Guitar tablature songbook and examples CD for acoustic guitar. Series: Stefan Grossman’s Early Masters of American Blues Guitar. 96 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.F3176GTA) See more info…

Complete Acoustic Blues Method: Beginning Acoustic Blues Guitar By Lou Manzi. For Guitar. Guitar Method or Supplement. Acoustic; Blues. Book & CD. Published by Alfred Publishing. (22866) See more info…

Stefan Grossman’s Early Masters of American Blues Guitar: Blind Blake Music by Blind Blake, transcribed by Stefan Grossman. Guitar tablature songbook and examples CD for acoustic guitar. Series: Stefan Grossman’s Early Masters of American Blues Guitar. 96 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.F3432GTA) See more info…

Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil are both legends in Brazil, I think it’s important to hear the great players from other cultures and not get locked into one style.  I became aware of Milton in the mid seventies when he appeared on a Wayne Shorter ( weather Report) album.   The song Raca, appeared on one the easrlier Milton solo albums.  It’s another way of expressing music with a guitar.  Both these two musicians are known for their songwriting. There rhhym playing is excellent…try playing it.

This Pentatonic Major Scale in D is very useful on acoustic guitar. Note how I’ve used the open E string to create a bit of time to jump up the fretboard to the 7th fret.  This scale is very suitable for improvising over a D chord, it doesn’t include the Blue Note of the Country Blues scales.  The Blue note would be an F at the 3rd fret on the 4th string. 

 The notes of this scale are D E F sharp A B and I’ll include the next D so it sounds complete. Leraning simple scales like these are very usually for acoustic players, a lot of acoustic players when they are jamming will just all play the same chords.  A little aresnal of scales will enable you to create a bit of interest in a tune by using simple improvisation.  When two guitar players play the same thing at the same time,  then tend to squash each other.  Look for ways of creating space, the ‘Less is More’ principle is very useful in music. 

Ok, how to play the scale:  Start in the 2nd position, this means the first finger lines up at the second fret.  Ones you play the open E on the high string, move up to the 7th fret.  When descending, once you hit the high E note again on the open E string, move back to the second postion.  

Enjoy it, once you know the scale start to break it up into little melodic musical phrases.

To download the printable version click the link:
Pentatonic Major Scale for Guitar in D

This is part 5 of the 6 part series of Pentatonic scales, Part 6 will be uploaded within the next 5 days

To view part Part 4:
http://the-guitarplayer.com/2008/06/12/pentatonic-major-scale-in-a-part-4-of-6/

Dominic Frasca may not be familiar to a lot of guitar players, but he’s worth checking out.  He’s extremely innovative and is one of the players that is now expanding the possibilities of the guitar.  As guitar players it’s important to be open to new ways of playing.  This youtube is a sample of his work. He’s a serious player, so in the next day or so I’ll post about something that is not as intense.  Credit where it is due, Dominic Frasca is definitely out on his own, redefining how to play a guitar.

It’s always good to hear great electric guitar players on acoustic guitar, it enables the listener to put their music into some sort of manageble, understandable picture where we don’t have to try and decipher what is going on behind the electronics. there is some very good guitar work at about 2 minutes 30 seconds onwards , I like the sound of the guitar very much.  He keeps the whole song going and his timing is great.  Some of the wonderful electric lead guitar players manage to play a little out of time when they are solo.  Enjoy this.

Pierre Bensusan was that good as a guitar player in the mid nineteen eighties that the great (late) Michael Hedges recorded a song in dedication to him on the Aerial Boundaries album, the song was called Bensusan.  After Michael Hedges died, Pierre Bensusan recorded a song in dedication to him called So Long Michael.  Both these players have left an incredible mark on the development of acoustic guitar playing.  Bensusan had some very good early albums, Musiques and Solilai.  My favourite is the Intuite album.

This youtube video features Bensusan doing the traditional tune ‘Merrily Kissed the Quaker’.   Bensusan plays predominantly in DADGAD.  In this video he is playing a Lowden Guitar. Fortunately I’ve been enjoying his playing since the mid eighties and is the player that inspired me to play DADGAD tuning back then.

This guy is so darn good it’s scary.

If you love acoustic guitar and also Blues, the chances are you’d like Stevie Ray Vaughan playing acoustic blues.  I saw Stevie Ray play years ago with his trio, sensational.  But I never saw him play acoustic guitar, unfortunate.  I did get to see him play that beautiful white strat, possibly the sweetest slow blues guitar I ever heard. 

On this youTube video he is playing a twelve string with his lazy strum (said in an affectionate way) , it’s in E and is called ‘Pride and Joy’

For some simple Country Blues scales to help you improvise go to: Country Blues Scales

This is the fourth pentatonic Scale in my six part series of Pentatonic scales.  When I write the fingering for these scales I often think about what is suitable for the acoustic guitar.  I’m writing them in a manner that will get you out of the habit of just running your fingers up and down the neck.

This one is in A, use it over a chord pattern that uses A D and E.  The notes of this five note scale are A B C sharp E and F#.  The ascending is quite straight forward, start on an open A but be ready in the second position.  The descending part is great on the acoustic, you move up to the 5th fret and uses a couple of open notes and then moves back to the 2nd fret.

An additional thing that I’ve done with it is to put it into 3/4 time, count 1 2 3 1 2 3 123 etc, placing a slight emphasis on the first beat.  

 For part three click on scale link

 Part five will be added in the very near future.

John Mayer is still very young but in a few short years he’s been able to gain the respect of guitar players across the world.  This youtube video on acoustic guitar is called Heart of Life; he manages to to mantain a a solid vocal part while having rather interesting rhythmic guitar parts.  This is less frantic than some of his other material, it has a reasonably simple underlying chord pattern.  It’s extremely musical.

A few days back I posted about John Mayer playing with Eric Clapton.  A great combo. 
Click the link to see it http://the-guitarplayer.com/?p=185

Jack Johnson, the man that has redifined the word ‘relax’ and Ben Harper, a player that has always managed to player with a maturity way beyond his age.  To have them together is quite a treat.  For quite a few years during the eighties and nineties there wasn’t a lot happening in mainstream music regarding acoustic singer guitar players, YES, there were plenty of people playing acoustic and singing but it seemed very unfashionable for a long time.  In the 70’s we had, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, john Martyn, Nick Drake Seals and Crofts and others but as the other electric styles came to the fore, the great acoustic singer guitarists didn’t really get much of a mention.  Now there’s Jack Johnson and Ben Harper,  John Mayer, John Butler, Ash Grunwwald and others making people take notice of the singer guitar players once again, minus the Marshall stacks, being accepted as household names.  This will no doubt open the doorway for thousands of others to follow and take up the beautiful artform of singer guitarist.

Enjoy this video, it’s a song called ‘gone’ from the’On and On’ album . Sweey, very very Sweet playing.

Check out Harry Manx at my other guitar Blog Site - Harry Manx youtube

This is the 3rd article about guitar scales, this is pentatonic major scale in the Key of E.  It’s very useful for improvising in the Key of E, it’s reasonably ’safe sounding’ and difficult to go wrong with it if you are soloing in E.  The notes are E, F sharp, G sharp, B, C sharp.  It would be useable over a standard sort of chord pattern in E which included E A and B.  Yes it is useable over other chords,  but if you are new to improvisation just get it down so it works over those chords.  You’ll notice there will be strong and weak tones.

As always, when I write scales I write them with a few twists to prevent you from becoming lazy and to help you focus on what you are doing.  The version I have written starts on the second fret, moves to the 4th, then the 7th and briefly to the 9th.

When descending, you’ll notice I’ve added some open notes on the first and second string.  This is a great way to play, because you’ll get a nice ringing tone of the open notes, almost bell like and it gives you a split-second to change frets.  The bluegrass guys are great at this. 

 The printable version is available in pdf, don’t ruin your eyes trying to work off the screen, print them out and create a folder of them all so you can work through them away from the computer, minus the distraction of checking your email

Click below for the Printable PDF TABS and Notation for guitar

Pentatonic Scales for guitar in E Tab and notation

Here is the link for Part 2 of the Pentatonic series http://the-guitarplayer.com/?p=181

Practice slowly

Ani diFranco doing I’m not Angry anymore on youTube was the song that made me stand up and notice how good she was. This recording is the pinnacle of acoustic music, not because of its complexity, more for its ability to state what needs to be said in a a song, I think a lot of people would or will be moved by this song, it’s so emotional and it’s a very daring song in the way that she manages to lare bare her emotions on the public stage, something that very few people dare to do.

This real music.
Ani diFranco doing I’m not Angry anymore on youTube was the song that made me stand up and notice how good she was. This recording is the pinnacle of acoustic music, not because of its complexity, more for its ability to state what needs to be said in a a song, I think a lot of people would or will be moved by this song, it’s so emotional and it’s a very daring song in the way that she manages to lare bare her emotions on the public stage, something that very few people dare to do.

This real music.

John Mayer and Eric Clapton, a nice combination.  It’s always great to see some of the older musicians playing with much younger ones.   It’s a reasonably simple song, John Mayer takes a short guitar break, he has a very nice sensde of melody and Clapton takes over quite seamlessly. It works very well, it’s music, both playing fingerstyle on acoustics, the balance of the two guitars is very good.  The song is called Broken Hearted.

The Pentatonic Major scale is pretty common amongst rock players.  I’ve written it here in the key of G.  It consists of 5 notes,  G A B D E. If someone were to turn those notes into a chord it would be a G6 add9 , some might call it a G6 sus2.  It’s a fairly straight sounding scale, useful if you are reasonably new to guitar playing, it is a good foundation to work from when improvising over a G chord. 

I’ve added a little twist to it (as always) because I think it’s important not to become lazy.   The first part is very straight forward. Then once you’ve hit the top note on the high sounding E string, I’ve written it so it doesn’t descend directly, it steps down (lower sounding) by missing a note and then goes back up and down etc.  This exercise, when played like this will help you to learn to play across strings and it will help you to hear intervals (the distance betwen notes). Eventually you’ll play it automatically once your hearing has developed a little.

Here’s a great guitar tip:  Learn to hum your solos (to yourself if you like, not through the front of house PA speakers ). This will help you develop a great sense of melody, what you hear in you head you’ll eventually be able to play. 

Guitar Scales Pentatonic Major in G

Part 3 will be written within 3 days, come back and visit.

Are you feeling a little stuck and having difficulty organizing your practice?

 Well, I’ve decided to do a six part  series on scales to get the old fingers going, READ ON

 This is the first of a six part series on guitar scales. I’ve done them for both TAB and guitar music notation.

The Pentatonic scale is the most basic scale used for improvisation.  It is very useful and at the same time. probably the most boring scale possible. Useful because it’s easy to master

and apply, and boring because it is so easy and useful, it is possible to get stuck on it and not venture too far away from it.

I have named this scale the Pentatonic Minor because it is a five note scale, Penta meaning five and Minor because the relationship between the 1st and second note of the scale is a tone and a half (3 frets) apart, this is a minor 3rd interval.  But lets keep it simple for now.

The guitar lends itself to this type of scale, it’s easy to play, and play it can be played fast without too much sweat because there are only two notes played on each string, this enables the player to pick up and down and then move to the next string.

If you’re just starting out just play the first 3 bars, get it going nice and steady, play in time, relaxed and with feeling.

BUT if you can already play, you’re not getting off that easy.  I’ve created an exercise that moves up the fretboard.  It starts at fret one, then moves to fret four, then seven, then ten.  I prefer to work this way than just move robotically up the fretboard fret by fret.  It will force you to think a little more.

The chords behind each one of these sclaes would be:

F minor for 3 bars,  Ab minor for 3 bars, B minorfor 3 bars, D minor for 3 bars

Practice these scales smoothly.  This is not a race!  Oh yeah, turn the tele off.

To download the 1st of the printable Guitar Scales for Rock Guitar Pentatonic Minor click the link below

 Guitar Scales for Rock, Pentatonic Minor Scale pdf

Paul Gilbert on acoustic guitar, you may remember him from Racer X and Mr Big.  In this youtube video he’s on a nylon string guitar.  He is quite clear about his abilities at playing something that resembles Flamenco.  It’s worth watching his fretting hand closely, I’ve seen very few guitar players with such long fingers. I like to see players take a style or a tune and make it their own, and this is a perfect example of it.  His right hand has a very ‘tight’ sort of technique, unusual but effective.  Watching him play it’s easy to see his dedication and commitment to guitar.  I’m very impressed, his music has a freshness to it.  And the fact that he toured in 2007 with Satriani is no doubt a certification of how good he really is.

Enjoy. If you want to see some contemporay flamenco guitar, check out Paco de Lucia

This Ali Farka Toure youTube also has Boubacar Traore. The musicians from Mali in Africa have a sound that to some of us sounds like the roots of the blues.  Listening and being inspired by musicians of other cultures is a very healthy thing to do., it will help you open up to new ways of exploring the music that is within you waiting to come out.  Blues great Ry Cooder recorded recorded a fantastic album with Ali.  A lot of the riffs these guys play are very hummable and have a nice bounce in them.  This video is well worth a look. This music has an almost trance like feel to it.

You might also like to hear Harry Manx the Canadian guy that mixes Indian music on his Mohan Vina with the Blues, I have posted at my other blog about him.  Click Here to see  Harry Manx youTube

The Kenny Rankin youtube video is from the seventies.  While many other players were playing steel strings in the 70’s Kenny Rankin preferred to play nylon string instead, and realistically it suited his style and complemented his voice.  THe video is a song that he wrote called Peaceful, made famous by Helen Reddy.  A lot of players were turning towards punk while Kenny Rankin was doing his own thing, quite mellow.  I particularly liked his voice and his style was often flavored  with latin rhythms in songs like Haven’t We Met.  Kenny Rankin did covers of songs like no-one else.  I remember him also singing backing vocals on one of the Joni albums.  If you were around and listenening to music at that time and had encountered Kenny Rankins music you might understand why I have posted this youTube, it’s historical. 

I like music of all styles and don’t limit myself.  It’s inspiring to hear different players all expressing their own musical voice in their own personal way.

Flamenco Guitar and Paco de Lucia for most of us are one and the same.  Paco and his guitar have been on the world stage for some years now.  His no nonsense approach has set the benchmark for other players to work towards. Many people became aware of him because of his playing in the trio with John McLaughlin and Al di Meola, or John McLaughlin and Lary Corryell.  I have a magnificent recording of him playing the music of Manuel  De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat.

This video was recorded just over 30 years ago, so keep in mind the standard that Paco is playing to now.  Another player that I also enjoy is Paco Pena, less fiery as de Lucia but still brilliant. 

Paco de Lucia’s music has transcended styles and has added a new dimension to Flamenco guitar by using elements of contemporary jazz.  Although this music is on nylon string guitar it is more than a worthy addition to this acoustic guitar site as many younger players may not be aware of Paco’s brilliance.

For transcriptions of Paco’s music, see below.

Paco de Lucia Scores, Book 1 La fabulosa guitarra de Paco de Lucia. For Guitar (Classical). Transcribed solos. RGB Arte Visual. Flamenco. Level: Intermediate-Advanced. Book. 160 pages. Published by RGB Arte Visual. (20983) See more info…

This site is about Guitar Education,  if you don’t know Norman Blake, his playing is worth exploring, that’s why I’ve posted about him.

Norman Blake is a Bluegrass Folk Country legend.  He is highly respected amongst guitar players and has played back up guitar for Bob Dylan.  He has influenced more guitar players than you imagine.

Have you ever wondered why some guitar players are so good?

Simple, in many cases they have worked through a lot of the old bluegrass / Irish tunes. 

I have noticed that players that play tunes and have avoided hours of scales have a much better sense of melody than those that ’shred’ scales.  In fact I find scale shredding quite horrendous. 

This important: Once you get rid of ideas of being stuck in one particular style your playing will open up. Be open to learning, all the great players are.

To watch Norman Blake flat picking guitar is a guitar lesson in fluency of both left and right hands. This tune starts on an Em shape with a Capo on the 3rd fret, this means it’s a G minor.  The tune is full of guitar fills, guitar breaks full of lines and chords.  Note his use of open strings in his solos and how all of his breaks resolve nicely.  to play to the standard that he does is no small feat, just try it!

This blog/site is updated regularly. Drop back regularly for articles, youTubes, TAB, notation and other material to aid you on your musical journey.

So here’s Norman Blakes youtUbe video live in action. enjoy it!
I also author another blog site. The acousticguitarist, here’s the guitar site link.

I’ve always l;oved Joni Mitchells guitar playing.  And as you may know she went on to play with some of the worlds great musicians, such as the late Jaco Pastorias, Pat Metheny and others.  This song Big Yellow Taxi, although simple in structure is rhythmically brilliant and has inspired many players to play.  The following video was recording was recorded in 1970.

This song was environmentally friendly when green was considered hippy and lefty.  Well it took almost 40 years for the community to catch up and it’ll probably take another 40 years for guitar players to recognize Joni’s contribution to the development of the acoustic guitar. Thankyou Canada.

Sometimes it gets a little hard to work out what chords guitarists are playing, especially if they are using open tunings on the guitar, or play chords that are not your standard Minors, Majors or Seventh.  I’ve listed  acouple of song books that are available that includes a lot of Joni’s tunes.  Hits and Misses.  Now don’t be fooled by the one called Misses, they are as good as the Hits.  You will find a lot of her common ones in the Hits book.  Click below for more info.

Hits By Joni Mitchell. Guitar tablature songbook for guitar and voice. 124 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.PG9666) See more info…

Misses By Joni Mitchell. Guitar tablature songbook for guitar and voice. 112 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.PG9667) See more info…

I love my Dog was one of the early songs by Cat Stevens.  It’s great every now and then to not be so serious about music and play simple tunes.  So here’s a song for all the dog loving guitar players.  It made me laugh when I first heard it, but really dogs often outlive many relationships.  I’m not sure if he had to explain himself when he wrote this song.

Listen closely to the second guitar in this tune that really compliments the main guitar part.  I’m sure many guitar players took up the guitar because they wanted to be singer songwriters in the style of Cat Stevens. 

To quote another site: Stevens wrote this about a dachshund he found tied to a post when he was young. When nobody claimed the dog, he took it home and grew attached to it. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=283

Hey thanks for the idea Ekim

Learning Acoustic Guitar can be a little easier than you think.  I have writiten an article at my other Acoustic Guitar Blog Site.  The article includes a couple of simple things that you vcan do to get yourself started.  If you are new to this site, you may not realise that I author a number of Guitar Blogs.  The article is at the acousticguitarist, the link will take you straight to the article.  Why do it the hard way?