CYCLE OF 4THS ON THE GUITAR FINGERBOARD

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

Below: Cycle of 4ths using triplets in one position on the guitar fingerboard.

Ascending: Cycle of 4ths

cycle of 4ths for guitar triplet lesson exercise

Descending: Cycle [as Cycle of 5ths]

cycle of 4ths triplet guitar descending lesson

To create strength and consistency to our playing it is best to employ “Tetrachords”

But, what is a Tetrachord?

A tetrachord is a 4 note grouping.

"TETRACHORD" 4 NOTE GROUPING FOR IMPROVISATION TECHNIQUE
“TETRACHORD” 4 NOTE GROUPING FOR IMPROVISATION TECHNIQUE

When you play through the exercise you will be aware of the employment of Pentatonic’s, Major/Minor arpeggios and plain arpeggios. This in turn gives us easy fingering and fluidity in the picking hand and the fretting hand.

cycle of 5ths pentatonic's guitar lesson

cycle of 5ths pentatonic's guitar lesson

cycle of 5ths pentatonic's guitar lesson

NOTICE THE REPEATED PATTERN AND GUITAR FINGERING.

cycle of 5ths arpeggios jazz improvisation guitar lesson

cycle of 5ths arpeggios jazz improvisation guitar lesson

 

DIAGRAM EXPLANATION BELOW:

 THE CYCLE OF 4THS [and 5ths]

cycle of 4tha and cycle of 5ths diagram

Thanks for reading! If this Blog was of interest to you then please subscribe to our youtube channel below,

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Alternate Picking Guitar Acoustic Fusion

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

This little alternate picking guitar exercise is taken from John Mclaughlin’s acoustic jazz fusion C.D “Belo Herozonte”.

Although this is a simple and short exercise it displays the way to open up and extend long fluid alternate picking improvised jazz fusion guitar lines.

You can either employ orthodox fingering or the fingering that I use.

John Mclaughlin Alternate Picking “Belo Herozonte’ Guitar lick/Exercise:

alternate picking jazz fusion john mclaughlin guitar lesson

Thanks for viewing this post, I hope it was interesting and useful. Please subscribe to us on youtube!

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Alternate Picking guitar technnique PT 1

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

GUITAR TRIO “Friday night in San Francisco” ALTERNATE PICKING guitar exercises and ideas.

The Guitar trio consisted of John Mclaughlin, Al di Meola and Paco de Lucia.

They  performed and released the classic acoustic album/cd called “Friday night in San Franscisco.

As well as being a great album we are lucky that some bright spark took it upon himself to write a book of transcriptions of the classic concert!

Guitar Trio Paco de lucia John Mclaughlin Al di Meola alternate picking guitar lesson with tab, video and music notation
“Friday night in San Francisco” John Mclaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia

Guitar Trio alternate picking musical exercises.

Below are some examples from the guitar trio from their concert and C.D called “Friday night in San Francisco.

Line 1-“16ths” Alternate Picking guitar exercise starting on a “Down” stroke

John Mclaughlin Al di Meola Paco de lucia alternate picking

Line 2- Extended version of the above exercise

Guitar Trio alternate picking lesson

Line 3-Groups of “4” with strict Alternate Picking but this time starting with an “Upstroke” creating a “Rolling” effect as the plectrum glides across the strings.

Guitar Trio Paco de lucia John Mclaughlin Al di Meola alternate picking guitar lesson

 

In part 2 we will take a closer look at the use of “Sextuplets” [or groups of 6’s]

Thank you for reading this blog if you liked it then please subscribe to us on youtube. CLICK THE LINK BELOW!

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

For a closer look there is a complete transcription of “Friday Night in San Franscisco” Book available AMAZON

Guitar Trio Paco de lucia John Mclaughlin Al di Meola alternate picking guitar lesson with tab, video and music notation

Alternate Picking “Off beat” Jazz Fusion Guitar Lesson

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

The key to alternate picking with the guitar pick when dealing with jazz improvisation and jazz fusion improvisation is to be aware of the off -beat. In these two little examples we simply miss the 1st beat.

Remember that the 2nd note of a group of 16ths will be an “Off-beat” and an “Upstroke”. But, if you start on the “Off-beat” with a down stroke then the patterns will be opposite to what they would be starting on the beat. This may sound confusing but is “paradoxically” natural and an easy way to create and control ‘syncopation”, literally cutting off the first note.

You can do this anywhere in the bar, but to begin with it is best explained through the two short example alternate picking exercises.

This phrase below is a little “Off-beat” phrase found in the John Mclaughlin album/CD called “Belo Herozonte.

off beat alternate picking john Mclaughlin guitar exercise
Silent “Off-Beat” alternate picking guitar exercise

 

Below we use sextuplets and miss out the first beat. [Count the silent beat but pluck the string starting on the 2nd off beat].

Sextuplets alternate picking guitar exercise "Off-Beat"
Sextuplets off-beat alternate picking guitar exercise

 

Thanks for viewing this post, I hope it was interesting and useful. Please subscribe to us on youtube!

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

You can also find us now on Instagram

Mastering Coltrane changes in all 12 keys

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

If you look at the diagram below you will see the reharmonisation of the basic 2 5 1 cadence resulting in the “Coltrane changes”.

changes

We will now take the first 4 bars of John Coltrane’s Composition “Countdown” and play it in all 12 keys moving in 4ths. Below are two examples of what to play using 4 note groupings [Tetrachords}

Coltrane’s countdown first 4 bars idea starting with D minor 7th

Coltrane countdown guitar changes

Coltranes’s Countdown up a 4th starting with G minor 7th

Mastering Coltrane countdown chord changes

Coltrane’s “Countdown” changes chart

Play through all 12 keys for fluid jazz improvisation development in the John Coltrane style.

Countdown coltrane changes jazz improvisation sheet

Mastering Coltrane changes chord chart

Thanks for reading! If this Blog was of interest to you then please subscribe to our youtube channel below,

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Diminished scale for jazz Improvisation licks and application

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

The most common concept for the diminished scale is to sequence or repeat a motif by a minor 3rd. Below is an example of this.

Below we see and hear “Tetrachords” repeated or sequenced descending with the minor 3rd interval creating a beautiful flowing jazz double timed improvised line.

the diminished scale descending in minor 3rds jazz improvisation

Guitar Tablature and notation of the above diminished scale motif descending in minor 3rds.

Guitar diminished scale descending in minor 3rds in jazz improv

diminished lick number 2

Below is another set of four note “Tetrachord” groupings descending in minor 3rds from the diminished scale.

diminished scale jazz improvisation lick descending in minor 3rds

Guitar Tablature for the above diminished scale jazz lick

Guitar diminished scale jazz improvisation lick

DIMINISHED CLICHES FOR JAZZ IMPROVISATION

The next lick is a bit of a diminished cliche but it always works and is very useful when improvising in a jazz context.

Again, notice the descending minor 3rds and 4 note tetrachord groupings which is very common in jazz improvisation when doubling the time from 8ths into 16ths.

diminished scale jazz cliche lick in minor 3rds

Guitar tab and notation for the above diminished cliche jazz improvisation lick

Guitar diminished scale jazz lick descending in minor 3rds

ascending minor 3rds diminished jazz lick

Lastly, we have a diminished scale idea/lick “Ascending” in minor 3rds. Again, a bit of a cliche but very useful for jazz improvisation.

diminished scale ascending in minor 3rds

Guitar tablature and notion of the above diminished scale jazz lick

Guitar diminished scale ascending in minor 3rds

Thanks for reading! If this Blog was of interest to you then please subscribe to our youtube channel below,

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

John Mclaughlin Jazz/Fusion Improvisation Guitar Line

Posted on by Jazz fusion guitar Improvisation lessons and modern music theory

A short line from jazz fusion pioneer and guitar great john mclaughlin

John Mclaughlin Jazz fusion guitar improvisation tab and music notation

John Mclaughlin Improvisation guitar lick
John Mclaughlin Alt Dom jazz fusion guitar lick/line

Thanks for reading! If this Blog was of interest to you then please subscribe to our youtube channel below,

yt_logo_rgb_light CLICK SUBSCRIBE!