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Al Di Meola Arpeggio Inversions on Guitar: Techniques and Variations

Posted on July 11, 2024July 11, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Al Di Meola Arpeggio inversions: Right hand guitar technique lesson

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at picking arpeggio inversions on the guitar. This is in the more recent style of Al Di Meola’s nylon string guitar playing/composing.

Okay, Let’s get started!

The main guitar picking pattern is “Down Down Up” and the variations of this naturally occur form the music itself.

Here is the basic pattern:

This simple “Down Down Up” patten means that the final upstroke makes it easy to pluck the next downstroke on the lower strings.

Arpeggio inversions:

To begin with lets play a simple F Major arpeggio in the root, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion:

As you can see and hear the “Down Down Up” works smoothly with the basic F major arpeggio inversions.

CHORD SEQUENCE

Now, let’s pick a chord sequence and vary the picking set up and pattern:

Basic Down Down Up: F root, E7 1st inversion, Am root:

Now, we will add an open E string for a syncopated rhythmic off beat set up,

You will also notice the two upstrokes on the high B and C notes. This makes it easy to descend with the pick/pattern whilst anticipating the next chord:

This time we will employ the 1st open E string and do the same thing:

EXTENDING THE HARMONIC CHORD SEQUENCE

We will now extend this chord sequence with more arpeggio inversions to outline the chord sequence.

So, G7 1st inversion, C Major root, A7 1st inversion to D minor root:

Let’s extend this some more.

C7 1st inversion, F Major root, D13 1st inversion:

We now have

Here is the Full Sequence:

With Open Strings added:

A couple of variations:

This example makes use of triple upstroke picked to create beautiful melodic movement:

Finally, we will exploit A augmented 1st inversion going to D minor root: Also, notice the single note melodic rise of the high notes.

IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion, these are just a few examples of the beauty and fluidity of following arpeggio inversions for melodic composing and performing at the guitar.

This way of playing smoothly through the inversions works really well with the guitar pick, and as you can see in the examples the inversions can be manipulated rhythmically with anticipation/syncopation.

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arpeggio inversions 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.

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Exploring Messiaen’s Mode 1: Musical Concepts and Colorful Creations

Posted on May 25, 2024June 11, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Unlocking Messiaen’s Mode 1: Guitar Explorations

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today a look at Messiaen’s first mode of limited transposition:

MODE 1

This is the Whole tone scale and has two transpositions and one mode. It is a “Hexatonic” scale that has a dreamy, enigmatic air to it due to lack of resolution as all of the tones are the same distance apart.

Creating an Etude from Messiaen’s Mode 1

The goal of this blog post is to create something interesting out of this scale.

So, here is my little Etude: I am basing this on the style of Robert Fripp [Plectrum guitar technique] and Olivier Messiaen’s compositional approach.

Here is the first bar: This employs a Fripp-esque repetitive picking “Riff”

exploring-messiaen-mode-one-Fripp-guitar-style

From here, let’s make a smooth transition with an ascending whole tone scale:

Now, let’s employ some 20c Classical Messiaen style “Intervallic” movement to complete the phrase:

exploring-messiaen-mode-one-intervallic-guitar

From here, we will descend with the whole tone scale and connect it to the augmented arpeggio:

Let’s now return to and exploit our intervallic movement as we ascend the guitar fingerboard:

Finally, let’s finish with some string skipping whole tone scale and a couple of plucks up high:

exploring-messiaen-mode-one-string-skipping-guitar

IN CONCLUSION

This was just an example of playing around with musical concepts and creating something colourful and interesting from Messiaen’s Mode 1.

Although, this is only a six note scale it has plenty to offer due to it’s non resolving/non diatonic nature. It works really well for riffs, motifs and hooks and really draws the listeners ear in. Even when used sparingly it can really add colour and texture to a composition [or part of] .

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

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For more Blogs on Messiaen’s modes CLICK below: