guitar – Page 11 – Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

Right Hand: Alternate Picking Guitar Technique

Posted on December 20, 2024December 21, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

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Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at the “Right Hand” aspect of alternate picking guitar technique:

This is not cast in stone, but, to serve as a useful reference/guide to anyone that might be having problems.

THE WRIST/FOREARM:

alternate-picking-right[hand-guitar-technique-diagram

Picking works best for the jazz/fusion [McLaughlin] style when picking from the wrist. Having said this, there is relative movement from the elbow to the wrist as the forearm follows through.

This becomes one motion that connects the music/phrase [we are playing] together as we alternate strictly down/up or up/down aligned with the strings we wish to pluck.

The differences of the 3 great alternate pickers.

The Fripp style is more for “Pre-learnt” playing 100-152 Bpm [Yes, there will be some improvisation] But, the McLaughlin style is really geared towards “In the moment” improvisation around the 130-200 bpm. With Al di Meola being a combination of both [Think “Hotel Splendido” to “Cielo et Terra”.

This in turn means that each are approached in a slightly different manner, but this would be a whole blog in itself. So, for the sake of time I am addressing the all round basic concepts for the Right Hand in this post.

Crossing the 6 Guitar Strings: PART#1

When crossing strings I like to follow a straight line as is taught in Ivor Mairants brilliant book “Perfect Pick Technique”.

Below, is the diagram that demonstrates this.

This is extremely useful as it means that we are aligned with the string we wish to pluck at the moment we wish to pluck it and the forearm wrist and pick are in line and ready to pluck.

Feeling, and knowing this gives us confidence for ascending and descending naturally without any interrupting from unnecessary nervous or tense movements.

1st string aligned: “Down” stroke:

2nd string aligned/Plucked through on the “Up” stroke:

3rd string aligned:“Down” stroke

4th string aligned: About to be plucked through [on the “Up” stroke]

5th string aligned: “Down” stroke

6th string aligned: Plucked through on the “Up” stroke

As you can see from the 6 diagram alignments above, the wrist and forearm follow naturally as they cross the six guitar strings.

FLOATING OR PIVOTING?

Floating, is literally as it sounds and means floating with the right hand above and not resting whilst plucking the strings.

Pivoting, on the other hand means resting on [generally] the bridge of the guitar and plucking.

I like to be in a floating position and then pivot on either the first note and then float or……float and pivot on the “Down” strokes:

[Please not that the floating is overly emphasised in the photo’s as it is the only way I found to show it].

From Above:

CROSSING STRINGS: PART #2

Always, remember with Alternate Picking we are either picking:

“Up” skip over pluck down.

Or:

“Down” skip over pluck up.

Simple as this is it’s essential to take into account so that you don’t get confused or do two of the same stroke.

IN CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, this was just a brief examination of good solid alternate picking right hand technique. Much of it depends on what you wish to play. Many just wish to play guitar fast, which, ironically defeats the task.

To play at fast tempos one needs to be able to articulate phrases slowly, and, for the prog or jazz fusion improviser this means 8th note to 16th note to 32nd note. Forms of double timing. Because, from that the musical phrasing emerges and so does the speed.

In summation I would say that alternate picking technique is really a simple technique to play complex music and not a complex technique to play simple music.

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Simplify Guitar Chromatics with Easy Fingering:

Posted on December 8, 2024December 8, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

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Hi Guys,

Today, we will employ chromatics [Target Tones]to a simple guitar fingering/scale that everybody knows.

Yes, this is our old mate the A minor Pentatonic scale.

TARGET TONES/CHROMATICS- GUITAR FINGERING:

Before we start: Both fingerings are essential and very useful, but, in different instances.

Okay, let’s compare fingering.

Below, is the more “Traditional” fingering:

mclaughlin-jazz-guitar-chromatics-lesson-explained-example

Now, let’s simplify this with a more intuitive John McLaughlin style guitar fingering. [2 fingers to 2 fingers with a slide].

We will now now apply this to the simple A minor Pentatonic scale guitar shape.

Here, we will employ a “Side Step” with chromatic target tones for more interest and chromatic colour.

This time we will extend the line with an upbeat of 4 chromatic descending notes starting on the note D as the tonic:

Lastly, let’s try this over a ii V7 I [Dm7 G7 CMaj7]

IN CONCLUSION:

This simple minor pentatonic guitar scale/shape allows us an easy way to employ chromatics and chromaticism by exploiting it with what we are already very familiar with.

This familiarity means that it is not only easier to learn, but, also, easy to remember. Hence, we can apply it to any strings of the guitar and create some colourful and interesting sounding lines.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD

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John McLaughlin Rhythm Guitar Techniques: Pedal Notes Revisited.

Posted on December 5, 2024December 5, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

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Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at how JohnMcLaughlin creates interesting time signatures with his rhythm guitar playing by employing the open E string as a pedal note.

This unique approach to rhythm guitar makes it easy to play in odd time signatures and create alternate time signatures.

Okay, so what is this E Pedal Note?

This is the open E string that is plucked as the time keeper.

mclaughlin-pedal-note-rhythm-guitar-technique-lesson

[It can also play rhythms and add rhythmic drive of its own as we will see later on].

Let’s begin with simple quarter notes: Here, will will add chords on beats 2 and 4.

Now, we will do the same thing but with 8th notes as the pedal bass:

Let’s take this further with 16th notes creating that rhythmic drive:

To create another useful effect we will play the chords on the off-beat:

Now, let’s mix it all together by applying all of the 1/4 1/8th and 16th notes in the E pedal bass!

MANIPULATING THE 16 BEAT CYCLE:

This is really useful because we can play odd/ uncommon time signatures and also alternate time signatures.

Let’s start by exploiting Indian “‘Teen Taal” or a 16 beat cycle and then alter it.

Above, we can see the 16 beat cycle with the accented red numbers/Beats 1 5 9 13

Now, we will count this and accent the numbers/beats 1 5 9 13 and repeat the cycle until it is effortless to do.

Next, we will break this cycle up, and only count to 11. From here, we will create a loop with our E pedal note holding time in quarter notes. So we have, 1 5 9 [11] REPEAT.

This in turn gives us an 11/4 time signature:

john-mclaughlin-pedal-note-rhythm-guitar-technique-lesson

From this point on we can see how easy it is to create interesting odd time signatures and rhythmic patterns with the E pedal as our base and time keeper.

Our understanding of beats 5 and 9 tells us where we are in the bar or beat cycle and hence what might sound complex in theory is actually pretty easy to do and exploit.

ALTERNATE TIME SIGNATURES:

These, are the combing of two or more different time signatures.

Here we employ a bar of 5/4 and a bar of 7/4. We will highlight the E pedal bass note with some quarter and eighth notes for good measure.

CONCLUSION:

This was just a brief look at this concept, but, exploiting just one of these techniques can lead to lots of interesting and useful guitar rhythms and time signature manipulations.

The E Pedal note as the time keeper is so useful because it means that we are in control of the timing/signatures and can accent chords off of it.

Lastly, these techniques are incredible for composition/songwriting. We hear this a lot with John McLaughlin’s Shakti, especially the great albums from the 1970’s where the rhythm of the acoustic guitar is prominent.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

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