Sam's Report

(Sam is my one of my friend's sons.)

Hey Barret its sam im doing a report on the invention of the electric guitar a musical innovation and heres some questions: How do you think the electric guitar changes Jazz? Do you think rock would be as it is if it werent for the electric guitar? Do you think the electric guitar made a huge difference in music or not?

Hi Sam,

The electrification of the guitar made it loud enough to move out of its previous role as a supporting rhythm instrument in jazz bands and into sharing the lead spot with saxes, trumpets, and clarinets. One of the first major jazz guitarists was Charlie Christian with Benny Goodman's band. Musicians still study Charlie Christian's playing today. The guitar is a good instrument to play jazz on because it can provide chordal accompaniment like a piano, and also play expressive single note lines like a sax or trumpet, or shift quickly between both roles in rapid succession, sometimes even doing both at once. A good example of this chord-melody style of playing was Joe Pass.

The popularization of solid-body electric guitars and basses by Les Paul and Leo Fender made even louder volumes possible without feedback problems. This in turn made it easier for bands to play loud enough to fill a venue with sound with fewer microphones and less equipment needed overall. Rock music in part became successful because entertainment for a large audience could be provided by just 4 or 5 musicians instead of a bigger group. Instead of a big bus and a large entourage, you could start with a van and a few dedicated members.

The electric guitar has advantages over other instruments in its tonal flexibility; it's a very expressive instrument, with body types, pickups, effects, and amplifiers all creating huge variety in tone. It's also got lots of visual appeal because 1) you can move around the stage or dance while playing it, and 2) its playing position makes it easy for people to watch each note being produced. This is harder to see on a keyboard or wind instrument.

The answer to your final question is yes. Without electric guitar there are many kinds of music that would probably not even exist: rock, metal, punk, and modern blues.

twitter posts

My twitter username is BarrettTag. (Yes, that's ttT in there.)

http://twitter.com/BarrettTag

Trying to tie blog posts, tweets, and other updates together.

Intro Lick from "Wrecked on the Sirens' Rocks." You can play it!

Click the play button below to start the half-speed version.

Click here to load the notation in a separate page.

The rectangular marks represent downstrokes of the pick. The V's are upstrokes.

Dan's Major Triad Diagrams

After his post, Dan replied with some nice diagrams he made of the major triads. You can see these and many more at his website.



Root Position



First Inversion





Second Inversion

The 12 close-voiced triads

Dan writes:
>
> Hello Barrett,
>
> I'm a beginning guitarist, and I've been working my way
> through your "Guitar Fretboard Workbook". It is a great
> workbook, and I really like your style of "read it, write
> it, play it" which really helps me learn.
>
> As you state late in Chapter 22, I've been constructing a
> final project workbook with all sorts of shapes, chords,
> scales, and arpeggios. However I am confused by one item.
> You recommend to make diagrams of 72 triads (12 major, 12
> minor, etc.). I cannot figure out how to come up with 12
> major triad chords. In chapter 14 you show five patterns of
> each triad and then talk about inversions, but I still can't
> figure out how you come up with 12. Did you mean 15? Five
> triad patterns plus five first inversions plus five second
> inversions?
>
> Please let me know how to come up with a good practice list
> for triads.
>
> Thanks, Dan
>


Hi Dan,

The last sentence on page 44 of Chapter 14 says, "We will divide each (triad shape) into four small three-string shapes..."

Here is another way to look at it that I think you'll find helpful.

If you stay on one stringset (a group of adjacent strings), there are three triad voicings. Play this example on the top three strings for D major.

-2--5--10-----
-3--7--10-----
-2--7--11-----
--------------
--------------
--------------

Those are, in order, 2nd inversion, root position, and 1st inversion.

On the next string set, the same D major triad goes like this:
--------------
-3--7--10-----
-2--7--11-----
-4--7--12-----
--------------
--------------
Those are 1st inversion, 2nd inversion, root position.

Following this systematic exhaustion we have 4 possible sets of adjacent strings: 321 432 543 654. Multiply that 4 by the 3 inversions on each stringset and you get 12 close-voiced triads.

Here are the major triads on the other two stringsets.

--------------
--------------
-2--7--11-----
-4--7--12-----
-5--9--12-----
--------------

-------------
-------------
-------------
-4--7---12---
-5--9---12---
-5--10--14---

The list does not yet include any open-voiced triads like this, which would greatly increase the number of permutations:

-5-
-3-
---
-4-
---
---

Some of the inversions are shared by two root shape/pattern numbers. For example, this voicing is shared by Pattern 2 and Pattern 3.

---
-7-
-7-
-7-
---
---

Thanks for your mail, and congratulations on finishing the book.

All the best,
Barrett

Does One Book Include the Stuff in the Other?

> Hey Barrett,
>
> I was webshopping for a good book on learning the
> fingerboard. Been playing guitar for over 30 years and bass
> for over 15 years, but the fingerboard has continued to
> elude me.
>
> Your books look promising, and I am interested in the
> Fretboard workbook or the Chord Tone Soloing book. However,
> I've read in several reviews that the first is sort of
> incorporated in the latter. So if I buy Chord Tone, will I
> need the other one?
>
> Also, if you are familiar with the guitargrid system
> (www.guitargrid.com), can you explain how your system is
> different?
>
> I hope you can clarify this. Like many musicians, I have
> loads of books already, but I have been disappointed so many
> times.
>
> Thanks, Alex V.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for writing. Since your stated purpose in the first line of your email was to learn the fingerboard, I would say you should get the Guitar Fretboard Workbook first. That is exactly what it teaches.

In the reviews there are people who prefer the Fretboard Workbook over Chord Tone Soloing, and vice versa. The books are not the same. Chord Tone Soloing is slightly more advanced, so generally speaking I (and some other teachers who use both books) recommend the Fretboard Workbook first. The amount of years you've already played (30) may or may not have a bearing on the decision. I can't tell from here.

The Fretboard Workbook drills you with diagram exercises on every kind of shape: roots, intervals, scales, arpeggios, and chords. It is foundation for both lead and rhythm work.

Chord Tone Soloing does have a chapter that covers those shapes, but there are no specific written exercises for them. Instead this book spends most of its time helping you prepare yourself to hit the right notes over any chord progression you might encounter while soloing.

I tried to take a look at the sample lesson at guitargrid.com, but it said displaying samples would "reveal key elements of the entire method," so they couldn't show them. That means I can't evaluate it!

I think any decent book will show you the material; its success does not depend on any secrets but instead on the clarity of its writing, and whether it gives you assignments to force you, the student, into doing the work. That's what I've learned in my 22 years as a GIT instructor. Teachers must give lots of assignments or the student will gloss over the material.

Thanks again, and I wish you the greatest rewards on the guitar.
Barrett

Practicing Harmonized 3rds and 6ths Within Patterns

Hey Barrett,

I am incorporating the Guitar Fretboard Workbook and Chord-Tone Soloing into my newly dedicated practice regime. Well done!

I have a question. I am starting off my sessions with playing 2 of the 5 scale shapes in one key doing the descending 2,3,4, and five note patterns demonstrated on pg 30 of CTS then in melodic 3rds and 4ths. Tough but great. I want to move on to the Diatonic 3rds and 6ths but I am confused.

On pg. 34 it shows the C going up in thirds with the C scale on the G string and then in 6ths with it on the B. I think how I can see how to practice them on adjacent strings but I don't know how to practice them within each of the five patterns.

Am I missing something or is there somewhere you can point me to get an idea of how to practice them?

I have been a guitar maker for years, acoustic and electric, so if you need anything or have a question please feel free to ask. I also make and repair pickups if you ever have one crap out on you.

Thanks again and continued success,

Andrew
****************************
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for buying and using my books. I applaud your addition of diatonic 4ths to your practice regime, because it shows initiative. Those are not explicitly demonstrated in the book.

You need to shift between at least two adjacent scale patterns in order to play harmonized 3rds throughout a key, because it's not possible for a string to produce two fundamental pitches at once. With 6ths, this problem does not occur, so we'll be able to play them entirely within a single fingering pattern.

You did not say which two of the five patterns you have learned, so they might not be adjacent ones.

Starting from square one then, here is one octave's worth of Pattern One in D major. Play the first note with your little finger. Memorize the scale.

D major, Pattern One
------------------
-------------2-3--
---------2-4------
---2-4-5----------
-5----------------
------------------

Now learn this ten-note chunk of Pattern Two in D major. This one should start with the middle finger.

D major, Pattern Two
---------------------
-----------------5-7-
-----------4-6-7-----
-----4-5-7-----------
-5-7-----------------
---------------------

The pitches of the scale are named with letters, like this:
D E F# G A B C# D

or with scale degree numbers like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Notice these numbers are SCALE DEGREES, not fret numbers.

To start harmonized 3rds, we play scale degrees 1 and 3 (D and F#) together. We can think of these as part of Pattern One or of Pattern Two of the scale, because they are common to both.

---
---
---
-4-
-5-
---

Next we'll play scale degrees 2 and 4 (E and G) together. These notes cannot be played simultaneously in Pattern One because they'd be on the same string, so we move up into Pattern Two.

---
---
---
-5-
-7-
---

To get the next two-note chord (also called a double stop), we'll shift back into Pattern One. The two notes can't be played together as a chord in Pattern Two. The notes are F# and A, scale degrees 3 and 5.

---
---
-2-
-4-
---
---

The next 3rd-interval double stop is from scale degrees 4 to 6, G to B. These are common to Pattern One and Pattern Two.

---
---
-4-
-5-
---
---

Now we are up to degrees 5 and 7 of the scale: A and C#. We are in Pattern Two again.

---
---
-6-
-7-
---
---

Next, degrees 6 to 8. These are back in Pattern One.

---
-3-
-4-
---
---
---

We're going to learn at least one octave's worth of harmonized 3rds here, so we need to keep going. This is 7 to 2 in the scale, C# to E.

---
-5-
-6-
---
---
---

Now here's 1 to 3 again, but an octave higher than where we started.

---
-7-
-7-
---
---
---

After some practice of the above steps, we get this: a D major scale harmonized in 3rds with minimal shifting.

------------------------------------
-----------3-5-7---7-5-3------------
-----2-4-6-4-6-7---7-6-4-6-4-2------
-4-5-4-5-7---------------7-5-4-5-4--
-5-7---------------------------7-5--
------------------------------------

For harmonized 6ths, shifting out of one position is not required because the notes are far enough apart to never risk being on the same string.

-------------5-7---7-5--------------
-------5-7-8-----------8-7-5--------
-4-6-7-----4-6-7---7-6-4-----7-6-4--
-----4-5-7---------------7-5-4------
-5-7---------------------------7-5--
------------------------------------

Of course, shifting out of position will be required if we want to continue the pattern into higher or lower registers of music, so don't stop with just the examples I showed you. Learn it all over the place, and move it to all the other keys!

Thanks for your question, it is a good one.

With your permission I'd like to send you free mp3s from my new CD, with hopes that if you like it enough, someday you might pick it up.

Here's the title track:
http://monsterguitars.com/cd01/Barrett_Tagliarino-02-Throttle_Twister.mp3

Feel free to share it with as many friends as possible.

Thanks again,

Barrett
http://monsterguitars.com