How I do Alternate Picking Guitar technique: PART 1

Hi Guys,

Just a quick response blog/post to explain how I alternate pick.

What, I generally do is pivot on the down stroke and float on the up stroke. Especially, when crossing the strings.

From a practical perspective, here is a short [Call/Answer] exercise to demonstrate this.

I float when crossing the string because it’s “up skip over and then pluck down” and so I need to have free movement in the right hand to do this. I do not want to be stuck on the bridge.

This type of alternate picking is different from shred guitar et al.

This is because with a clean or acoustic guitar we are playing,

. Rhythmic Phrases

. Syncopation/Anticipation

. The improvised line

. Counting Time

. Melodic rhythmic development

So there are times when pivoting will work as the hand is placed/resting securely on the guitar bridge.

For example when there are lots of notes on one string. This is really useful…..

BUT…

Crossing the strings [especially when there are string skips/wide intervals] is a different story altogether. This is where most players lose the fluidity, rhythm and dynamics of the phrase.

So, floating on the upstroke is essential in order to have the freedom to move/cross from any string to any other string regardless of the distance.

There are no set rules for this, But-Just doing a tremolo and hammering on with distortion won’t get you far in the style of Fripp, Mclaughlin, Meola, Mock etc where it is composition/music/improvised based.

In these styles the rhythmic element is all important.

Because, otherwise it’s back to being stuck on the bridge and playing with force which is not musical or helpful for anyones musical health, tendons and joints. Pivoting, can help and be securing for parts of the line but in order to cross and play freely floating is also essential.

To finish with, it’s a good idea to try picking the main 16th groupings with the pick/right hand and create your own little exercises.

Josef Matthias Hauer: Compositional Tropes Techniques: Zwölftonspiel

Hi Guys,

Today, a look this great but lesser known Austrian composer:

Many people associate the abandonment of traditional tonality, wether 12 tone/serialism or some other form with the second Viennese school of composers, especially that of Arnold Schoenberg.

But, there was another thinker, composing at the same period of time [some say before] creating in his own unique atonal form…..

His name was Josef Matthias Hauer.

Hauer took a different approach by exploiting atonality and employing “Tropes”.

These consist of an “unordered pair” of complementing “Hexatonic” six note sets/groupings that employ all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. [The key being to play the first 6 notes before moving onto the next 6 notes].

EXAMPLE 1:

image showing Hauer tropes in 2 hexatonic sets

Guitar Version:[Sextuplets]

Image demonstrating an example of Joseph Mattius Hauer tropes for music composition.

EXAMPLE 2: [Exploiting Both Whole Tone Scales]

Although, they are hexachords these tropes can also work well divided into three 4 note groupings of “Tetrachords”

HAUER’S 44 TROPES: [479 million permutations into 44]

Example of Hauer’s personal writing’s:

We, will take this as our “Trope”

image depicting Hauer's trope sets

Now, let’s extend this to two octaves:

Image showing an example of Josef Mattias Hauer tropes for music composition.

From here, we will play the same trope in an intervallic manner: [Strict-each note in order ]

Image showing Josef Mattias Hauer tropes in intervallic form for music composition and improvisation

This time, let’s play each trope with the notes in a different order: [Not strict]

Josef Mattias Hauer's intervallic music tropes fro composition and improvisation

Here, we have “Trope”-in an Arpeggio Form;

Example.1

image of Josef Mattias Hauer arpeggio tropes for music composition

Example. 2

demonstration that shows JJosef Mattias Hauer tropes as arpeggios for music composition technique.

Example. 3

Demonstration image of Josef Mattias Hauer tropes as arpeggios for music composition technique.

Finally, the trope as a lick:

image for Josef Mattias Hauer improvised line
Josef Matthias Hauer Guitar Examples of Trope manipulation

From, our tropes we can create chords.

These can be,

Dyads–2note chords,

Tri-chords–3 note chords,

Quartal–4 note chords,

Penta–5 note chords

Hexatonic–6 note chords.

For this short blog we will exploit 2 note voicing’s.

Here, is an example of our two hexatonic’s as “Dyads”

image demonstrating an example of Josef Mattias Hauer dyad ic2 note chordal tropes for music composition. Music theory lesson guitar tablature and music notation.

We could also superimpose the retrograde of our trope on top of our trope:

image example of Joseph Mattius Hauer superimposing music tropes

From this, we can exploit some more harmony with dyads:

image demonstrating an example of Josef Mattias Hauer superimposition dyads

Here, is an example displaying some harmonic movement and chordal development that I quickly manipulated form our trope. [See-Chords in video chapter above]

image of Josef Mattias Hauer musical tri -chords
Hauer Compositon Tropes Example

This was just a very brief look at Hauer’s tropes. It’s an amazing concept because original harmonic content and original ideas develop naturally as the material reveals itself.

These simple tropes give birth to a wealth of creative content that can lead one into directions that may not have ever been taken or otherwise thought of or even considered.

“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” Guitar Chords & FREE Lead Sheet PDF

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat: Chords

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” Fake-book lead sheet.

From Book:

Melody/Guitar Chords:

Image displaying Goodbye Porkpie Hat: Guitar Chords: Melody lead sheet

Here, are the chords for a quick chord melody version that I did in the video above.

These, are quite simple and easy to play guitar voicing’s.

Here, are the chords for the first part that come to rest on a B7b5:

Next, we have the following chord voicing’s:

Notice the “Barring” with the 9th on top and then the wide finger stretch for the 11th:

Goodbye Porkpie Hat: Guitar Chords:

From here, we carry on with more melodic chords outlining the compositions melody.

Goodbye Porkpie Hat: Guitar Chords:

To vary this a bit, and add some power I added octaves just here,

This, follows through with some more simple chord to melody note approach:

Finally, we finish on our Fm9 chord.

To conclude, this was just a quick guitar harmonisation for this classic tune. There are a million ways to do this, but, it is always best to keep to a simple harmonisation, that way it is easier to remember as well as play.

On another note: For accompanying a singer, it can work well with big/rich fully barred chords in the chord melody [or melodic implication] style. But, for a band setting is is best to cut all of the chords down to a 2 or 3 note voiced setting.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD: