LogicalLeadGuitar.com
Newsletter #10
In this issue of the Logical Lead Guitar newsletter I'm going do something a little different. I've taken the time to give you a detailed overview of the techniques and concepts that are most important for you to know, understand, and master.
I've put a lot of thought into this, particularly because I deal with these very issues on a daily basis with my private and group guitar students not to mention in my own playing and practicing. To achieve the most from your guitar playing and in the shortest amount of time you'll want to organize your thinking and your practice regimen around the areas covered below:
What Should You Be
Practicing?
By Adam St. James
I teach from 50 to 60 private students each week. They're at every end of the spectrum age-wise and playing-wise: I've got 7 year olds and 70 year olds, beginners and advanced players. Of course there are way more students closer to beginner than advanced.
I get a little frustrated as a teacher when I don't see my students advancing as fast as I think they are capable. Even when they do practice regularly, they sometimes fail to make the leaps and bounds I hope they will.
That often leads me to really grill them on what it is they spend all their time practicing, and at that point I can usually make quite a few suggestions that straighten them out, and gets them on the fast track.
Here are the main concepts and techniques you should be practicing, listed in a very organized and specific overview. Keep in mind that, as a teacher and a person who was extremely self-motivated, I envision that you will be equally self-motivated. I imagine that you do seek to play advanced rhythm guitar and to become at least reasonably competent on lead guitar.
Keep in mind that all of the suggestions below are in addition to playing songs you already know (you're still perfecting them, right? So am I!), and learning (or writing) new songs. You've got to continue having fun on the guitar so keep playing your songs!
1) The C-A-G-E-D System. You should know all five basic open string chords C, A, G, E, and D. Together these chords make up the "C-A-G-E-D System." You should also realize that these five chords are the shapes behind every other possible chord on the fretboard, including all the barre chords (that's where the "system" comes into effect). You should be able to move fluently and quickly from any one of these chords to any other. You should also be able to play all the common minor or 7th chord variations on these chords. If you don't already know all this, get some books and study up. But no matter what else you do, keep working these chords repeatedly until you have mastered them.
2) Barre Chords. The E-shape ("root six") and A-shape ("root five") barre chords are absolutely essential for playing the vast majority of the music of the past 50 years. If you can't already change fluently and quickly from any one barre chord to any other including back and forth from an E-shape to an A-shape chord then you need to spend some serious time perfecting these chords. And relying on power chords is cheating: You've got to be able to play the full barre chords, or you'll never be a competent guitarist. You get bonus points for learning to play barred versions of the G, C, and D shape chords.
3) Timing and Counting. You should learn how to count the simple stuff, like quarter notes in 4/4 time; eighth note patterns (1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and); sixteenth note patterns (1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a,), and triplet patterns (1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let, 4-trip-let). You should also work on counting through an entire song, keeping in time with the drummer. The way you count multiple measures is: 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4-, 4-2-3-4, 5-2-3-4, etc. Then work on counting like this while you play. Dumb down the playing part if necessary while you count and count out loud. Get a metronome and use it every day!
4) Scales. You'll never be much of a lead guitarist if you don't learn your scales inside and out. Start with the pentatonic scales. With only five notes per octave, they're easier to remember. And because there are five notes per octave, there are five different pentatonic scale patterns which make up each key. Later, you should begin working on the seven diatonic (major and minor) scale patterns. There are seven diatonic scale patterns because there are seven notes in one octave of a diatonic scale pattern, one different pattern starting on each of the seven notes. And fortunately, the five pentatonic patterns form the "skeletons" of the seven diatonic patterns, so by the time you've learned the pents, you're most of the way done learning your diatonic scales. This stuff takes time, but the effort pays off in countless ways: finger agility, ear-training, understanding music theory, lead-guitar playing ability, understanding chord progressions, and too many others to mention!
5) Arpeggios. After you've mastered scales, start working on arpeggios (an arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time). Arpeggios by themselves actually aren't tremendously useful, but it is the knowledge of where the arpeggio tones fall across the neck (and likewise, across your scale patterns) that allows you to play truly pro-level lead guitar. They don't have to be complicated, either. And playing them can actually be fun, because they're very musical sounding.
6) Music Theory. It doesn't take much to begin to learn the basics of music theory. For example, you've probably heard of a I-IV-V (one-four-five) chord progression, the basic 12-bar blues. Did you know those numbers (and we use Roman numerals to indicate chords in a chord progression) come from the major scale? If you're playing a I-IV-V chord progression in the key of C major, for example, you're playing chords built on the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the C major scale (C, F, and G.) All music theory including the numbering of chord progressions like we just discussed, and all the funny chord names (such as E7#9) come from the numbers we assign to the notes in a major scale. You can learn much more of this just about anywhere, online, in books, from friends. It's not that difficult, and it will improve your guitar playing, so get going!
7) Exercises. I've got a million of them that I do regularly, and they make a huge difference in my playing. Guitar exercises include fret-hand exercises and pick-hand (or fingerpicking) exercises. They can be found in many courses and all over the internet. Make them a daily routine and your playing will really start to advance quickly.
8) Songs, songs, and more songs! Of course you've got to have fun playing too. Every day you should play at least a couple of songs. Here are some suggestions for solid practice routines: 1) Learn every song on an album by your favorite artist. Don't just learn the hits, or one or two songs you like. Learn everything on the CD. You'll grow immeasurably from this effort. 2) Make yourself a set list of songs you know and make sure you play every song at least once a week (until the list just gets to be too big, of course like after you've learned dozens and dozens or hundreds of songs). 3) Make sure you understand the "arrangement" of the songs you are playing. The arrangement of a song tells you what order to play the parts in (ie., intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, outro, etc.) and how many times each.
This is an overview of the main disciplines involved in both musicianship and guitar playing. Refer back to this article as the months go by to keep yourself on track. And just keep chipping away at all the skills and concepts mentioned above. The joy in guitar playing is really in the journey. You'll never learn everything there is to learn on guitar you'll never master every technique and every style of guitar playing know to man. But the path leads ever on, and the fun never stops.
You Can Do This!
What Is Logical
Lead Guitar?
If you've already learned your scales but still don't understand how they are used to play music and solos on the guitar, THIS IS THE COURSE FOR YOU!
Or if you only know some of the five different pentatonic and seven different diatonic scale patterns which cover the fretboard in any key, THIS IS THE COURSE FOR YOU!
Or if you don't know anything at all about scales but want to learn, THEN THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE MOST USER FRIENDLY COURSE FOR YOU!
Logical Lead Guitar is a DVD-based guitar course that goes where no other course has gone before! Instead of just showing you scale patterns and a few exercises, and then leaving you on your own to figure out how pro guitarists actually use these scale patterns to play awesome solos, I've actually shown you on DVD and in nearly 500 Tab and sheet music examples exactly how to break scales and arpeggios apart string by string and fret by fret and actually do something useful with them!
The course includes two DVDs (nearly four hours of close-up instruction), a one-hour audio CD packed with sample solos and jam tracks, and 11 course books totaling 563 pages!
To see a video sample and learn more about Logical Lead Guitar
In the meantime
Practice, Practice, PRACTICE!
Adam St. James
PERMISSION
SETTINGS: Our records indicate we have your permission to send email to this
address. Logical Lead Guitar will not sell, rent, or share your email address
to outside parties. To unsubscribe click here and simply send the message.