Pat Martino Intervallic Studies: Un-Published Book Lesson

Pat Martino Intervallic Studies: Un-Published Book Lesson

Hi Guys!

Guitarist Mark Koch one of Pat’s students kindly sent me a copy of Pat’s un-published book on “Intervallic studies“.

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-umpinlished-book

It’s a fascinating look at the imaginative thought process and creative concepts that Pat was investigating for the development of the improvising guitarist.

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

In this first example we will look at the “Whole Tone Scale” Study:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

From a music theory perspective if we take away the intervallic approach and place the notes in order we will get a whole tone scale ascending followed by a whole tone scale descending:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

Now, we will put them back into the “Disguised” form with the clever approach of the intervallic design:

pat-martino-intervallic-guitar-studies

The key to playing these studies on the guitar is to decide on a methodical fingering and stick to it. [Below=Pat’s Fingering]

pat-martino's-unpublished-book-intervallic-guitar-studies

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

I am employing strict alternate picking for this study starting on an upstroke:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

Same Study: From Pat’s book with fingering examples:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book-whole-tone-scale

Now we will look at how Pat breathes life into the pentatonic scale:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

As before we will take this from a music theory perspective and remove the intervallic approach:

pat-martino-pentatonic-scale-guitar-lesson

Now, let’s disguise this with the use of intervallic exploitation and alternate picking starting on a “Downstroke”:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

Same Study from Pat’s unpublished book:

pat-martino-intervallic-studies-unpublished-book

Finally, we will employ these intervallic concepts through a iim7b5 V7 i cadence.

Once again, we see the intervallic set up:

pat-martino-intervallic-improvisation-example

Now, let’s employ our music theory and place the intervallic notes in order. Here we find that we have the exploitation of the chromatic scale.

pat-martinochromatic-scale-guitar-lesson

This clever approach is really effective because in the second bar beats 2 and 3 we have a literal chromatic scale that then anticipates the coming minor tonic chord of Em with an Em arpeggio.

pat-martino-intervallic-improvisation-example

Full Example:

pat-martino-intervallic-improvisation-example

This was just a quick look at the creative thought process and unique approach of Pat Martino, resulting in the application of this material into a minor iim7b5 V7 i improvised line to hear how they work and sound.

This approach to scales and improvising [and composing] with them is highly original and extremely useful when there is a need to bust out of cliches and seek colour and creativity in our playing.

String Skipping/Intervallic Guitar Part 3-HARMONY

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String Skipping/Intervallic Guitar Part 2-HARMONY

PLEASE WATCH VIDEO ABOVE FOR DETAILED ANALYSIS:

Hi Guys,

Today, one last look at “Intervallic string skipping” for a contrapuntal-esque picking style.

The first thing to do is take one position on the guitar fingerboard and find the “Harmony” embedded within that position.

I have taken the A Major position [F#m Relative]

al-di-meola-cycle-of-4ths

Now, let’s make an A Major basic arpeggio from the 1st string and the 6th string.

al-di-meola-string-skipping

Straight away, you will notice that the notes on the 1st string and the notes on 6th string are the same but in different octaves. This gives us an easy and excellent way to exploit the High to Low or Low to High counterpoint effect.

Now let’s do the same with a piece of scale: [Starting on an “Upstroke”]

al-di-meola-string-skipping-scales

Again, the octave makes this flow and connect easily from the low to high.

The next point is to take a chord sequence and use this “String skipping/intervallic” effect: Here we have Vi ii V7 I

al-di-meola-string-skipping

HARMONY

Th next essential point is to acknowledge the harmony in this position:

We will do this by exploiting the Cycle of 4ths in this simple 5 fret position.

al-di-meola-cycle-of-4ths

Here you can see that we have a huge amount of harmony available to us right under our fingertips. These chords don’t have to be Major, they can be minor, diminished, augmented etc. This gives us even more material to work with.

If we move down a fret [Semitone] then we have another set of harmony in 4ths awaiting us.

al-di-meola-cycle-of-4ths

Along, with this we have chord inversions and all of the inversions of A Major:

So, as you can see there is a huge amount of harmony right in front of us even in this one position that we can exploit and create lots of music from.

Lastly, let’s create another “String skipping intervallic” example:

I’m going to create a phrase outlining a D Maj#11 chord.

al-di-meola-string-skipping

To make this sequence quite quick I am going to add some scale from high to low:

al-di-meola-string-skipping-scales

Now we will add a V -I cadence

Now, let’s view the whole line:

al-di-meola-string-skipping

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ERIC JOHNSON GUITAR LESSON: HOW HE USES PENTATONICS [MINOR]

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Eric Johnson-Guitar-Modern-Pentatonics-lesson
Eric Johnson Modern Pentatonics part 2. The Minor Pentatonic scale. The Subject of this Blog

HOW ERIC JOHNSON MAKES CREATIVE USE OF THE MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE

In this 2nd part we will look at 2 examples that display how Eric Johnson takes the “Minor Pentatonic” from a worn out cliche and turns it into a unique musical tour de force of originality.

This 1st example is quite demanding to play but it demonstrates the power of manipulating the intervals to create a unique sound and style. [Notice that the interval of the 7th crops up a lot along with 6ths and 3rds].

Eric-Johnson-Minor-Pentatonic-Scale-guitar-Lesson
Eric Johnson Modern Pentatonics for guitar part 2. The Minor Pentatonic scale. An intervallic approach!

The 2nd example is a bit more straight forward, but, because Eric Johnson manipulates the interval of a perfect 4th he creates a fresh modern sound. Also notice that there are arpeggios. These arpeggios create melodic content to the example and draw the listeners ear into the music.

Eric-Johnson-Minor-Pentatonic-Scale-Lesson-example
Eric Johnson Modern Pentatonics guitar part 2. The Minor Pentatonic scale. 4ths and 7ths intervals concept

Although this is only a short lesson there is plenty to take from these two examples because they contain the key to unlocking an original approach to the most basic and most used thing in guitar the minor pentatonic scale. The way that Eric Johnson exploits the intervals in this scale is a real eye opener, oh, and a real ear opener!

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