String Bending Help

Dear Mr Tagliarino,
In the book "Interval Studies and Lead Guitar Technique", you discuss fret hand damping technique - I have a quick question about that.

When bending on the guitar mostly on the high E string, I find that the B string often slides under my bending (ring finger) and then the B string also rings out. 

I have been trying to figure out how to stop that. On bends, I touch the B (to mute it) with my index finger, but because the ring finger is fretting a higher fret, the B string still rings out.

I also always mute with my palm, but on a bend, the palm mutes the B string but sometimes also will mute the sound of the E string as it gets bent up.

The only thing that works but it is not so easy is that i try to have my index and middle finger helping to bend the E string but at the same time touching and pushing the B string up and away and helping to keep it from getting under my ring finger and ringing out.

I was wondering how you keep the b string from ringing out? 

Thank You so much - I know you are really busy!
Azi

Yeah Azi! Great question!

Option 3 is the best way: get under the B string and use the fingertip to push the string out of the way as you bend. It will get better with practice. You need a slight rolling motion so the string catches on your fingertip.

I actually use the same ring finger tip to do both: bend the E string, and move the B string out of the way.

While you're working on it, try adjusting your string action a little bit higher at the bridge, especially for the strings that don't want to cooperate with you (mostly the B). It also helps to have jumbo frets on your guitar - I like Dunlop 6105 frets for bending. You can really get under those strings with the big frets under you.

Thanks!

Barrett

Interleaved Practice

When I started working in LA, the pace was crazy and I'd often get thrown into the deep end. We'd get maybe one or two rehearsals in---sometimes none at all---then start gigging. There'd be lots of mistakes on the first show or two. We just had to play through them (no do-overs allowed of course!) and try to keep the crowd with us.

But I noticed that the mistakes disappeared within just a couple shows. It was nerve-wracking, but the memorization happened much faster there than in my home practice, where I'd play one thing over and over until I thought I had it down cold. This confirmed what I'd been told by my teachers: one hour on a gig is worth ten of rehearsal.

But the research suggests that it's not just the high-pressure environment that makes you learn faster. It's the interleaving-induced forgetting and remembering.

If you have 30 new charts to memorize by Saturday, the traditional approach would be to take all day, going over each chart several times in a row, until you can play it perfectly from short-term memory, probably spending 30-60 minutes per chart. This, however, is no guarantee that you will remember it on the gig. You'd probably just remember the last few songs you worked on Saturday morning.

With interleaving, you play each song once per session, letting your brain know what its eventual target is. Take about five minutes for each song. You allow yourself to make mistakes, because you have to move on. Do that with all 30 songs, then sleep on it, and do it again. Force yourself to remember, and relearn what you forgot. It's more effective.

http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research.html

A Flat-Picking solo for "Whiskey Before Breakfast"

Help! I can't reach all the notes in the G shape?

Hey Barrett

I am confused about how to finger the five patterns of major chords in the CAGED system. Especially Pattern 3. It's impossible for my hand to play all these notes cleanly.

David 

Hi David,

(For those reading, here is tablature for Pattern 3: the "G" shape. I am using it to outline a C major chord at the 5th fret.)

-8-
-5-
-5-
-5-
-7-
-8-


Don't worry about playing it all at once using all 6 strings. You will rarely (if ever) need to play the whole shape at once.

Each of the five major chord shapes in the CAGED system is essentially a multiple-use tool that you need to recognize as a single entity.

Think about a more familiar multi-use tool. For example,  a claw hammer is good for driving nails, and it also has a claw for pulling nails. It is good for both the hammer head and the claw to be available on the same handle, but you'd only rarely need to use both sides at once. Of course, you still identify the entire thing as one tool.


The chord shape works the same way. Depending on the song, you might use the bottom two notes only:


----
----
----
----
-7--
-8--

or the top three notes only:

-8--
-5--
-5--
----
----
----

or any other combination; for example, strings 5, 4, and 3:

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

All of these are identified as part of the overall Pattern 3 shape, which spells C major when played at the fret numbers shown.

For more information and practice, see the Guitar Fretboard Workbook.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011

Thanks!

Numbering Fretboard Patterns

 Hi Brett,

I have been working through your "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" for almost a year now.  I really enjoy your method and have learned so much.  I have seen other books where the authors use 5 patterns or root shapes to map out the fretboard as you do in this book.  For example, "(title)" from (author), has this on page 4 of his book.  However, when I saw this I became confused because his "pattern 3" is your "pattern 1" and his pattern 5 is your pattern 2, etc.  He states that he defines his patterns based on the Key of C (6th string root note of C).  I would be happy to email you a copy of this page if you would like to comment.  I simply want to learn the correct way, if there is only one correct way that is.

Thank you,
Keith


Hi Keith,

Thanks for getting this book and working with it. I'm glad it's helping you.

The numbering system it uses can in some ways be considered arbitrary, as you correctly imply. However the system as it is in GFW is more common and increasing in popularity with most teachers over time.

The numbers correlate to CAGED, the open position chords that each successive shape resembles as you move C roots up the neck starting from open position.

C = 1
A = 2
etc

If you play a pattern 2 C chord (barre chord at the 3rd fret, root on string 5) you will see it corresponds to an open-position A chord.

I'm sure you understand this and just want to make sure that this method of numbering is more useful. In fact either way could conceivably work just as well in the abstract. But if you consider that more guitars players you converse with in the future will use this method than most others, it's the way to go.

Just as if 100,000 years ago we all had started using the word "blue" to refer to what we know now as "red," we'd all be in agreement and the result would be the same: clear thought and communication.

For guitar players, that historical neanderthal moment is now!

Thanks again,
Barrett

Jacob strikes again. re Interval Studies - why?

Hey Barrett,

why from a soloing/lead guitar or chord based perspective would intervals actually be beneficial to someone's playing or their guitar sound? Everyone mentions them and I've looked through the exercises on Fretboard Workbook and Chord Tone Soloing and I'm still confused on how they can help things like expression and sound? Thanks a lot!

 Hi Jacob, 

Often players get stuck in a rut where they only play the next note in a scale. For example, you just played C. If your next note is always B or D then you have a problem that can be fixed by practicing interval studies. Here is my book on the subject. 

http://www.amazon.com/Interval-Studies-Lead-Guitar-Technique/dp/0980235340/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379105980&sr=1-6

step 1 to soloing over chord changes: find root shapes

Jacob writes:

Hi Barrett,

I was running through Fretboard Workbook as a review now that I'm on Chord Tone Soloing and I was wondering, with the 5 root shapes aspect, should I have simply learned the 5 shapes themselves or learned them to the point where I could play them at ears glance. As in, if someone said, play the root shapes in F sharp, I'd be able to play them in it immediately with any of the 5 patterns? Or is that a too advanced requirement for the first book of a series? Thanks again Barrett!

Hi Jacob,
Thanks for getting these books and working with them. Sounds like you are working pretty hard! It'll pay off.

In order to best apply the concepts in Chord Tone Soloing, yes, it is a great idea to know your fretboard patterns as deeply as possible. Finding root shapes for the chords in the closest available position will allow you to solo melodically without jumping up and down the neck, so there's less chance of getting lost.

Say for example you are soloing, with your hand at the 5th fret, over these chords:

|A C#7| F#7 | Bm F#7| Bm |

Nearby shapes are:
A pattern 4

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


C#7 pattern 2
---
---
-6-
--
-4-
---


F#7 pattern 5
--
-7-
---
-4
---
---

Bm pattern 3

-7-
---
-3-
--
---
-7-

That progression is the first four measures of "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," by the way. It is a slow 8-bar blues. Here are the remaining four bars.

D D#dim7 |A F#7 |B7 | E7 |

Barrett