Easy Two-Guitar Arrangement

In the lesson An Easy Way to Arrange Songs For Two Guitars I showed how to use three note chord inversions based on the open E, A and D chord positions to create song arrangements.

 

“It’s quite simple to learn easy ways to arrange your favourite songs so that each guitarist plays a slightly different part, giving each player an increased challenge and enjoyment. And it also makes for a more interesting arrangement to listen to.”

 

I got a few questions on that post asking about what chord inversions to play on particular chord progressions. So in this lesson I’m showing some examples with the actual inversions you can use. I hope these will help to answer your questions if you’re unsure how to get started.

 

For each example, I’ll assume that one guitar plays full chords in the familiar open positions at the head of the neck. The other guitar can play the inversions shown below, based on the E, A and D shapes.

 

Song Progression - Am7, Em, F and G

For this song that uses the Am7, Em, F and G chords you can choose any of the inversions presented below for each chord. You can even mix up these inversions – play one of them the first time around and another the next.

 

The column headings below describe the open chord shape that the inversion comes from and the numbers in each column indicate the frets to finger on the 1st (at the top), 2nd and 3rd strings.

Over the Am7 chord, play:

Em shape, Dm shape, Am shape
5         8         12
5         8         13
5         10        14 

Over the Em chord, play:

Dm shape, Am shape
3         7
5         8
4         9

Over the F chord, play:

D shape, A shape
5        8
6        10
5        10

Over the G chord, play:

D shape, A shape
7        10
8        12
7        12

 

Song Progression – D, G and A

Let’s take a look at another example in the key of D. The available inversions of each chord are shown below.

 

Over the D chord, play: 
A shape, E shape 
5        10 
7        10
7        11

 

Over the G chord, play:

D shape, A shape, E shape
7        10       3
8        12       3
7        12       4

 

Over the A chord, play: 
E shape, D shape 
5        9 
5        10 
6        9

 

I hope that these concrete examples will be useful to you and help you get started making easy two-guitar song arrangements.

 

Remember, that you can use any of the available inversions for each chord, and you can mix them up, playing notes from different inversions. When you first start, work out the shapes and notes you’ll use in advance. As you get more experienced you’ll be able to make them up as you play.

 

When you first start to experiment with them it might take you some time to work out where to play them for each chord. But with a little practice you'll start to learn the positions by heart and be able to pick them out on the fly.

Blues Guitar Solo - Repetition Example

Last week in Blues Guitar Soloing Tip - Say It Again I wrote about how use of repetition in your guitar solos can help give them more structure and focus.

I came across a blues-jazz guitar solo on YouTube that shows a nice example of using repeated notes and short phrases.

See how the solo below makes frequent use of short sequences of repeated notes, often on the same string.

 

Guitar Techniques – Chord Picking Exercises

Here is a lesson in the series on guitar picking and strumming techniques for intermediate guitar players. In this lesson we’ll be seeing some exercises designed to develop pick hand skill so you can learn to pick specific strings accurately.

 

One of the most difficult things to learn is the position of your picking hand. It takes time to develop the feel so you’ll know when your hand is in the right place.

 

As you first work on the picking exercises below you will be tempted by two traps:

• Looking at the strings as you pick them all the time
• Resting a part of your hand or a spare finger on the guitar somewhere to hold it in position

 

At first you will need to spend some time looking at where your hand is to check you are picking the right strings. But try not to get into the habit of looking at it all the time – remember the aim is to develop a feel so your arm and hand automatically fall into the right position. You can try working in front of a mirror, this gives you a different angle of view so you won’t be head down staring at your hand.

 

You’ll see some players resting their little finger (or pinky) on the table just below the strings to keep their hand in position. Although this does make it easier to get your hand in place at first, it stops you moving your hand freely longer term so try to avoid it.

 

Now, as you keep these two points in mind, have a go at the exercises below…

 

Chord Picking Exercises 1

This first series of exercises uses a stationary E chord – that way you don’t have to worry about what the other hand is doing at the same time. Repeat each exercise a few times over, your focus should be on hitting the right strings with your pick and keeping an even tempo.

For the quarter notes in this exercise you can use down strokes only.

 

Chord Picking Exercises 2

This second series of exercises uses an A chord. The rhythms become a little more complicated here and there are both up and down strokes to play. Notice how the different picked notes give more movement than strumming all six strings, even without changing the chord.

Conclusion

To learn how to pick a specific string, or group of strings, you need to spend time to develop a good sense of the position of your picking hand so that the pick falls on just the string, or strings, you want.

 

The exercises above are examples of the kind of picking practice you can add to your routine to build this sense. There’s no need to spend ages on them, simply choose a couple of exercises and spend 2 or 3 minutes on them each time you practice. Repetition over time will take care of the rest. You can make up your own exercises too, just remember to keep the chord fretting simple so you can focus all your attention on your picking hand.

Does Practice Really Make Perfect with Guitar?

Ever since man first picked up a piece of wood and started banging it rhythmically on a rock, there's been a competitive streak between people who play music. In fact, it's the same for many disciplines in life. In playgrounds across the world you'll hear kids screaming "I'm better than you" and so forth.

 

If you play guitar, which presumably you do, you'll no doubt have had moments when you questioned your ability, thought that you're not 'cut out for it', and considered giving up. You can rest assured that you're certainly not alone.

 

Whilst there's no doubt that certain people pick up guitar playing quicker than others, do you believe that you can only master the instrument if you were born to do it, or can anyone do it with enough practice?

 

Practice, practice, practice

From a very young age, kids are encouraged to pick up an instrument and learn to express themselves through music. It's where a lot of us got started playing guitar. But how many kids do you think picked up a guitar on day one and could instantly pull off a bit of Dragonforce? None. Not one. It simply doesn't work that way.

 

And that's one of the great things about playing guitar; anyone can pick one up and give it their best shot.

 

Those that are born with a natural aptitude will of course progress slightly quicker than others, and maybe get their head around the intricacies of musical theory faster, but there's one thing that will always be an absolutely crucial element in any guitarist's success: practice.

 

A lot like hard work

As you’ll well know, guitar is a discipline which requires a huge degree of dedication. Perhaps one of the biggest pulls for people who start playing is that it’s actually quite easy to learn how to play simple pieces. In fact, there’s probably an entire legion of guitar players who only have four or five songs in their repertoire which they’ve learned via tabs on the web. This is just fine, and in fact it’s one of the number one reasons that a lot of people start to play - they want to be able to emulate their favourite bands and show off to their friends.

 

But by using this fundamental ability as a springboard, and by mixing in the right amount of practice, these players can actually become true professionals - eventually starting to write their own songs, and amazing their friends in new ways. It can’t be stressed enough just how inspirational and rewarding playing guitar can be, as long as you put the time in. Like any other skill, talent, or ability in life, it’s only when you’ve become completely comfortable with the instrument, gone through all the trial and error, and discovered a certain synergy with your guitar - and even when you think you’ve mastered it, there’s always more to learn!

 

Emulate your idols

Think of your favourite guitarist: maybe that's Santana, maybe it's Slash, or maybe it's another person who's name begins with 's'. The point is, even with the undeniable skill and natural ability they all have, they would never have got so far without practicing.

 

So, in a sense, the most effective combination that produces an exceptional guitarist is a bit of natural aptitude and a lot of practice. Or, for those without that natural affinity with a guitar, a heck of a lot of practicing. There are no magic wands that can be waved to make you the perfect guitarist, and no matter how good you get, if you stop practicing you'll eventually stop being so good. So practice really does make perfect.

 

The guitar is an instrument that can give you a life-long passion and a hobby that really pays. It’s an instrument which has been with us through the ages, and the members of the next generation of maestros are picking up their guitars every day.

 

Do you have to be ‘born with it’? Of course not. With time, dedication, and a true passion for music, you’ll find that you really can master the guitar. Never think it will be easy, because the truth is it’ll be anything but; however there aren’t many more rewarding pursuits than mastering the guitar.

 

So what are you waiting for? Pick up your axe now and get practicing!

 

About the Author

Dee Mason is self-taught and has been playing (with varying levels of success) for twelve years. When she isn’t performing, she writes on behalf of a leading ticket sales site and various other music publications.

 

Photo by Courtney Carmody.

Blues Guitar Soloing Tip - Say It Again

The other week I was lucky enough to see a performance of Ravel’s Bolero played by a solo tuba player. That tuba could only play one note at a time but the song sounded wonderful nevertheless.

 

One thing that struck me during the performance was the amount of repetition that occurs in the tune. It returns often to familiar melodies, repeating them many times throughout the piece. That repetition gave a feeling of wholeness, a feeling that it’s a single cohesive piece of music.

 

Now a lot of blues guitar solos I create seem to lack that cohesion. Which is a good reason to introduce more repetition into my blues playing. Maybe you could use some repeats too, so here are some ideas to make good use of repetition in blues guitar solos…

 

Repeat a Single Note

Us would-be blues guitarists are always in a hurry. Rushing to get to the next note in the scale, never taking time to appreciate the note we’re at.

 

Here’s an opportunity to slow down, spend some time with that note and get more out of it. You can play just one note several times over instead of running aimlessly up and down the scale.

 

The root note of the current chord is a good choice for repetition. Other notes that work well are the fifth, the third or the seventh (the chord tones). Here’s an example phrase that could be played over an A chord.

 

T-Bone Walker Unison Bends

The Texas blues master T-Bone Walker introduced a great way to repeat a note in a blues solo. It’s been used by countless other players since, most notably by Chuck Berry for whom it was a signature sound.

 

Play a note once by bending up to it from two frets below. Then follow up by playing the same note on an adjacent string (a unison). The example licks show common positions for this move found in the first position minor pentatonic or blues box.

 

       

In the first example the note on the third string is bent up from the 4th to the 5th scale degree before playing the same 5th on the second string. The second example shows a bend from the b7th to the root on the second string followed by the same root note on the first string. Note that you can also use a slide in place of those bends.

 

Motives and Sequencing

A motive is a short phrase that can be used as part of a lick or solo. Motives are easily repeated. You can also move motives around in the same key by starting the phrase on a different note each time. The example below shows one of these moving motives, which is called a sequence.

Repeated Lick

So far we’ve repeated single notes and short phrases. But as Ravel shows us you can take longer melodies and repeat them to great effect too. Choose a two or four bar lick as a “theme” and repeat it often during your blues guitar solo. For example you could use the same two or four bar lick over all the I chords of your blues solo.

 

Another way to do this is to take a one or two bar lick and use it as a beginning throughout your solo. Each time you play this “theme” lick you follow it up with a different ending for the next bar or two. This works great for call and response style solos.

 

Play It Again, Sam

Like Sam the pianist in the 1942 film Casablanca, don’t hesitate to play it again. Repetition is an important tool that will give better structure and more focus to your blues guitar solos.

 

To recap, you can:

 

1. Repeat a single note

2. Use unison bends, or slides to repeat a note

3. Repeat motives, or start them on different notes to create sequences

4. Use theme licks throughout your solo

 

And remember, a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, but repetition will make your solo fly.

 

Hear how repetition is used in Ravel’s Bolero performed by South-Korean guitarist Sungha Jung.

Guitar Solos – Teach Your Guitar to Talk

Today I'm sharing a useful two-part lesson that will help you to learn to improvise better and improve your guitar solos.

In this two-part lesson on Language Based Soloing from the Guitar Noise blog teacher Tom Serb shows you a fun way to learn how to create solos that really speak. The lesson suggests you apply learn to play guitar solos by following the processes a young child follows when they learns to speak.

Learning to Improvise, the Usual Way

If you've already tried to learn the art of improvising guitar solos then the process below will probably be familiar to you:

• Learn a scale fingering
• Learn that you can use this fingering over certain chords
• Struggle to play a solo with the fingering
• Wonder how the scale pattern can ever sound like the real solos you hear
• If you’re lucky, happen across a good-sounding series of notes... and wonder why it was right
  

After trying that for a while you might feel that you'll just never understand how to turn those scale patterns into real guitar solos. If you've ever felt this way then I'm confident you'll enjoy working with Tom's suggestions.

Teach Your Guitar to Talk

Tom's process shows you how to learn to improvise in the same way a young child learns to talk. By applying some of the steps two year olds go through as they learn to talk you can learn to create better sounding guitar solos.

 

You might think there's nothing a young child can teach you about playing guitar, but, as Tom puts it,

"I know you’re not two years old. You might have learned a scale fingering or two (or ten or twenty), but I can assure you that taking the big step back to the very beginning of language acquisition will change the way you solo: you’ll be more deliberate about it, and actually communicate in music."

Fluent Guitar Solos

Do you struggle to improvise guitar solos that really "speak"? Then try out the learning process described in Language Based Soloing Part 1 and Part 2. It looks like a great way to develop more fluent and meaningful guitar solos.

 

Photo by Mister Wilson.

Guitar Rhythm Picking Exercises

A little while ago I wrote about working to improve my blues guitar soloing skills. During this work I noticed that one problem with my solos was my tendency to play too many eighth notes. This led to solos that were rhythmically boring.

 

When I thought about how to solve this problem, I realized that I had fallen into the eighth note trap.

 

The Eighth Note Trap

Eighth notes are the basic up and down picks on each beat. When we play guitar we often strum or pick up and down in this rhythm. If we’re not careful then it becomes such a habit that we have a hard time picking other rhythms.

 

It’s not surprising, because if we spend a lot of time picking eighth notes then it’s what our finger memory automatically plays when we’re busy concentrating on other things. The solution to avoid this trap is to develop your finger memory so it's comfortable playing other rhythms too. To do this I use some rhythm exercises I made up in my practice routine.

 

In this post I'm sharing a few of the rhythm patterns I've used to practice and develop my finger memory for different rhythms. I'll also describe why I chose those patterns and how you can adapt and extend them to make up more of your own.

 

One String Rhythm Exercises

The first exercises to work on use only one string and one note. This allows you to focus on picking the rhythm without other complications to think about.

 

Here are a couple of examples of the kind of rhythm patterns I use. There are some practice notes below the diagrams.

Practice Notes

Here are a few notes on practice with these patterns…

 

1. The rhythm patterns are short, one bar each. This gives a focused exercise that’s easy to measure so you can see how well you did (record yourself playing to check this).

 

2. To avoid falling into the trap of repeating one or two patterns the secret is to create a library of different patterns. Try to come up with at least ten different rhythm patterns.

3. Write down your rhythm patterns. That way you don’t forget them from day to day.

 

4. As you get more proficient you can string together patterns from your library to create two, four, eight bar patterns.

 

5. When you’ve mastered the pattern with one note, increase the difficulty by using two or three notes on the same string.

 

6. These exercises are not something to practice for hours on end. You can easily play through a pattern or two in only a minute or two during your practice session.

 

One way to proceed is to pick one pattern to start with. Work on it at a comfortable tempo each day at the start of your guitar practice. When you can play it with no mistakes at your chosen tempo, pick another pattern and add it. Over the next days play the first pattern again a couple of times and then move on to the next pattern.

 

You can continue in this way adding patterns in the days and weeks that follow. As you add more patterns, drop the older ones so you don’t end up practicing lots of patterns for hours on end.

 

String Skipping Rhythm Patterns

Playing the right rhythm on one string is a good start. But most of the time a solo or lick involves several strings.
Therefore, the next logical step to develop your rhythm picking skills is to work on more than one string.

 

In this lesson I'm only going to show a couple of two-string rhythm pattern examples, below, but once you're done with two-strings you should move on to three, four, five, and finally six strings.

In Summary…

• Rhythm picking is just like any other guitar skill. It needs to be practiced.
• Rhythm exercises like the ones in this lesson are a great way to focus on your rhythm picking skills without other distractions.
• Start with something simple, a rhythm on just one string, and gradually work up.
• Don't spend more than a few minutes each day on the exercises. Time and repetition will burn them into your finger memory.
• As you get familiar with one pattern move on to add another to your routine. After adding several new patterns, drop the older ones so you don't end up doing nothing but playing rhythm patterns.

Pocket Jamz Guitar Tabs application

I discovered a recent iPhone & iPad guitar app that looks interesting. Pocket Jamz Guitar Tabs is a tab viewer and playback app with access to fully-licensed guitar tabs.

Here are a few highlights from the feature list...

• Automated tablature playback with adjustable tempo
• Ability to set loop points- to practice and repeat difficult measures
• In-song, context sensitive chords and effects library
• Embedded browser to allow tab download straight from the net.
• Beginner, Intermediate and Expert tab selection in the song store
• Multi track song support with selectable tracks
• Music can rendered in either Tab notation, or musical notation, or both simultaneously (in the iPad version)
  

A limited free version of the app is available so you can try it out. Pocket Jamz GuitarTabs Lite offers a fully-featured tab player, song store and song library as well as limited download/upload capabilities. You can download the feature-limited Pocket Jamz Guitar Tabs Lite from the App Store.

I don't have an iPhone so I haven't tested the app myself, but it looks nice. If you have tested this app and want to share your experience please use the comments link below.

 

For more info visit Pocket Jamz Guitar Tabs web site.

Not So Ugly Guitar Amps

A few weeks ago my post Why Are Guitar Amps So Ugly? stimulated a lot of comments.

 

Of course, it came as no surprise that taste in amplifier looks, just like tone, is a personal matter; one man’s ugly amp is another’s beauty. Some readers love the looks of their amp. But plenty of others agreed that the “black breeze block” is not always well suited to the living room.

 

Since that post was published some helpful readers have suggested amps that could be more suited to life in the living room (special thanks to reader Adrien R). In this post I've gathered a few of their suggestions.

 

A word of warning before you proceed... many of these amps are expensive... :-(

 

• A bunch of beauties in various styles can be found in "Tone aside, what amp do you think looks the best?" a Best Looking Amp thread at The Gear Page forum. 

 

• Some nice looking amps, and some choice of colours are proposed by Somatome Amps.

 

• Another small amp company offering some amps with well-finished wooden housing, Basic Audio Amplifiers.

 

These links show that there is some hope for those seeking an amp with different looks. The downside is that it seems you have to pay a lot if that’s what you want...

 

Fender Blues Junior

For those on a smaller budget, one amp I found that I think offers quite good looks for the home setting is the Fender Blues Junior.

 

The Blues Junior is a great sounding and versatile amp that can be used for practice, small jams and rehearsals, or even for concerts – with a microphone through a PA if more power is needed. Its control knobs are hidden in a recess in the rear top of the amp, hidden from the view. So from the front it has a neat and tidy appearance that looks just like a speaker.

 

Another nice point is that it has been produced in several special editions with the same electronics but different colour schemes and speakers. You can get an overview of these editions in this article, Fender Blues Junior Editions. I've also seen a few more editions out there, like the emerald green one you can see in this video demo.

The Blues Junior is still a little expensive compared to transistor practice amps and probably won't be in everybody's budget. But you do get really nice all-tube tone and have some choice of colours. I’ve seen some in my neck of the woods for between 300 and 350 euros.

Guitar Techniques – Playing Silence

"I think the perfect music is probably silence and, as musicians, all [we] really do is create a rather beautiful and ornate frame for that perfection that is… silence." – Sting

 

When you begin to learn to play guitar your efforts are all focused on learning to play notes. Your aim is to play as many notes as you can as cleanly as you can and you strive to avoid those muffled notes that don't ring out.

 

Through many hours of practice you gradually develop your ability to play chords with no muffled, buzzing or rattling notes in them. When you get to this point you feel quite pleased with yourself and you can learn to play a bunch of songs with a pleasant sound.

 

But as you progress and learn to play more songs you discover that often many of the notes you learned seem to be left out. For example, when you look at the tab of a favourite song you notice that only two or three notes of an otherwise familiar chord shape are missing.

Not a lot of guitar tuition I've seen teaches this, but to sound like a real guitar player you have to learn how to not play notes. In music, the notes you don’t play are as important as those you do play. Some goes as far as saying that making music is the art of playing the right silences.

 

How Do You Play Silence?

There are several guitar techniques you should learn to master the art of playing silences. Here's a list of useful techniques to practice.

 

1. Picking Skills

When first playing your guitar strums are probably not very accurate. You probably simply aimed to hit as many strings as you could with your pick or fingers.

 

You can learn to strike only certain notes by developing accuracy in your picking or strumming techniques. You should be able to deliberately strum only one, two or three adjacent strings. You can also learn skills such as hybrid picking to pick non-adjacent strings at the same time.

 

2. Pick Hand Muting

Another way to limit the sounds produced by the guitar is to mute strings with the strumming or picking hand. There are several ways to do this: palm muting, muting with the edge of the pick or a finger.

These techniques can be used to mute strings to stronger or lesser degrees so that the string is either completely muted or gives a short percussive sound.

 

3. Fretting Hand Muting

Your other option as a guitar player is to mute strings with your fretting hand. This can be done to mute all the strings to cut the duration of a note. You can also use your fretting fingers to mute strings adjacent to the notes you do want to play so that only those notes are heard.

 

Conclusion

Mastering the art of not playing notes on the guitar is just as important as learning how to play notes. Many sounds used by guitarists depend on muting or muffling certain notes just as much as getting other notes to sound cleanly.

 

In the coming weeks Not Playing Guitar  will include specific lessons and exercises for each of the techniques listed above. Be sure you click here to register for free updates so you don't miss them.

 

Picture by fmerenda.