guitar lesson – Page 6 – Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

Robert Fripp Guitar Picking Exercise for Unique Phrases and Patterns

Posted on August 5, 2024August 14, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Robert Fripp Guitar Picking Lesson and Exercises

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a Robert Fripp style Guitar Picking exercise that incorporates various Fripp/King Crimson guitar picking patterns.

These are angular, string skipping and awkward intervals that can be picked with either strict alternate picking or “Down Down up”. I employ alternate picking mostly, but, there are parts where I exploit the “Down Down Up” pattern purely because some string skipping intervals are too wide and awkward for alternate picking alone.

PART 1

The first bar is quite awkward and so I “Float” with my right picking hand. This way I am not stuck in any one position and I can freely pluck the passage without any intrusions.

king-crimson-fripp-guitar-picking-lesson-example

At this part of the bar you will notice the awkward string skipping part between the C and C# down to the E note. You will need to pivot with the fretting hand for this. [Please see video above for detailed info].

fripp-guitar-picking-lesson-example-intervallic

The next bar is starting on an “Upstroke” with strict alternate picking:

PART 2

The next Phrase is reminiscent of “Larks Tongues in Aspic III” by Fripp. Notice the C note to the open E string to the C# note. This connects the phrase nicely by breaking the chromaticism up and at the same time making it fluid.

robert-fripp-guitar-picking-lesson-example

In the next part we can see how phrases might be counted or felt as groups of 5 or 3. [See video above]

crimson-fripp-guitar-picking-lesson-example

PART 3

To round the phrase off I employ a descending Eb Dominant pentatonic scale: This employs alternate picking starting on an upstroke. [I finished on the note F# purely becasue I like the sound].

FINAL PART:

The final part employs a 5/8 chordal picking vamp:

The picking pattern I use is : “Down down down up up” and “Down down up down up” with the plectrum.

IN CONCLUSION:

This was just an exercise/example by taking some King Crimson, Robert Fripp signature licks, patterns and phrases and making a little etude from them. This in turn creates some familiarity with the right hand picking in order to create patterns of our own.

Making your own patterns and coming up with your own original and unique phrases is the key rather than to just copy.

There are so many variations to exploit, which gives any player a mountain of material to work with. So, anyone can make some really original, colourful and interesting music from this.

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Fripp-Guitar-Lesson Download

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Pat Martino’s Melodic Minor Scale: Jazz Guitar Improvisation: minor conversion

Posted on June 24, 2024July 3, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Pat Martino Melodic Minor Guitar Improvisation | Jazzimproviser.com

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at Pat Martino’s use of the melodic minor scale. We will employ the same jazz tools as the previous video.

The Melodic Minor Scale

As, you can see below the melodic minor scale is the same as the major scale but with a flattened third.

pat-martino-melodic-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar-improvisation

This scale works well, when played over altered Dominant chords.

In this case we have an Ab7 chord that is then altered. To play over this we employ the melodic minor scale by playing it a half step up.

So, for Ab altered we can exploit the A melodic minor scale as it is a half step up.

Below, the Ab altered chord:

Jazz chromatic Tools:

To begin with, let’s use our old friends the “Target tones”.

Once again [as in last lesson] we will start with an upbeat. This sets the rhythmic flow of the chromaticism and the jazz phrasing. From here we will employ some simple chromatic scale tones.

We will now exploit the phrase by bringing in an arpeggio for melodic effect. [Also, notice, the flattened 6th and the major 3rd interval with chromatic descending movement].

Rhythmically, we start on the off beat once again.

In the next bar we will employ some basic melodic minor scale before adding our colourful chromaticism.

Now, we will bring in our chromatic set up which is a mixture of target tones and chromatic scale. [Notice, we end the phrase on the leading note of A melodic minor scale the G#].

VARIATION:

We could also fit in our classic jazz melody/motif from our previous lesson.

On a last note, we can also ascend with our target tones and chromatic set ups:

EXAMPLE:

FULL EXAMPLE:

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

melodic minor pat martino Download

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Pat Martino’s Guitar Improvisation Techniques | Free PDF Download

Posted on June 11, 2024June 17, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Pat Martino’s Guitar Improvisation Techniques | Free PDF Download

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guy’s,

Today, a look at how jazz guitar legend Pat Martino approaches jazz improvisation.

This unique insight is strictly for guitar players, [although, players of other instruments may well find some of this extremely interesting and probably useful].

Pat’s approach to guitar improvisation is also a brilliant method for any guitarists that find playing through complex chord changes difficult or confusing

EXAMPLE 1: “Coltrane Changes”

Okay, let’s say we are given this set of chord changes to improvise over.

pat-martino-jazz-guitar-improvisation-technique

Well, this is a lot of chords in different keys and with harmonic shifts to get through. This is 3 Chords per bar!!!

At a fast tempo this is a lot of different scales and arpeggios to connect together quickly!!!

So, what do we do???

Here’s where Pat’s unique approach comes into play.

Pat would approach this by employing the minor.

So, if we take a closer look at our sequence we will notice three sets of ii V7 I’s.

Now that we have this, let’s exploit Pat’s minor topic/minorisation improvisational technique:

To do this we will employ the dominant chord and make it minor:

So for Bbm7 we will use Fm,

for F#m7 we will use C#m

and for Dm7 we will use Am.

In the example below we can visually see it all set up.

EXAMPLE: “minor” shapes to build from:

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar-improvisation-technique

This allows us to play freely and easily without worrying about messing up harmonically or rhythmically when connecting/playing through the changes.

EXAMPLE 2–Modal slash chord application:

Let’s now exploit this with 7sus4 chordal movement and slash chords.

As before w will make the dominants minor:

F#7sus7 = C#minor

Ab7sus4 = Ebminor

B7sus4 = F#minor

[DbMaj7 = Fminor or Bbm7]

VISUAL CHART: with dominant minor application below.

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar

BASIC minor shape examples to build from:

EXAMPLE 3:

Minor ii V7 Application:

Finally, let’s add a chain of minor ii V7’s

Here we will employ biii as our minor-isation for easy improvisation:

For example with F#m7b5 the biii will be Am. [F# to A is a flattened 3rd or minor 3rd]

To make this really authentic we will add the 6th to the minor arpeggio:

So,

F#m7b5 = Am6

Em7b5 = Gm6

Dm7b5 = Fm6

Example: Classic Jazz Seq Lick:

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar-ii-V7-1

With this in mind we can either sequence our way through the chain of chords or play freely by exploiting minor biii

IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion this was a brief look at Pat Martino’s brilliant approach to jazz improvisation through any chord changes on the guitar.

The guitar unlike the piano cannot play the same shape through countless octaves, so, when improvising on the guitar we need to be selective [in what actually works] so that ironically we have the freedom to let go and just play.

The minor topic [minorisation] technique allows us to achieve the guitar improvisers aim in a short period of time. For any student frustrated or seeing no end in sight, Pat’s methodology is a shining light. This method can save you 20 years of practice and frustration.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD;

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