Posts Tagged ‘No Doubt’

Join me as I take a look into some practical tips and advice about mastering blues guitar. We’ll be analysing what the fundamentals of blues are as well as the importance of improvisation, and the benefits of rehearsing with guitar backing tracks.

Blues guitar is one of the most artistically expressive forms of guitar that exists today. Not many guitarists know this but the blues is the foundation for a variety of different genres that are extremely popular today, including rock, hard rock, metal, and even some hip hop music. There is a lot involved in completely masting blues guitar playing, and it takes a lot of time and dedication to be able to pull it off.

In order to be able to master blues guitar you have to be very familiar with the basic principle of blues music itself. Blues music is one of the only styles of music to actually have a scale named after it. Learning and dominating the blues scale is one of the first key steps to completely mastering blues guitar playing. The blues scale is used in more than blues music. There is a lot of rock music that uses this scale too. So whether you plan on being a blues guitarist or not, this scale is definitely very beneficial to learn and master.

So What Is The 12 Bar Blues?

The 12-bar blues progression is the main foundation and cornerstone of the vast majority of blues tunes out there. As such, to start playing blues, you will need to understand what a 12-bar blues progression is.

The underlying concept of the 12-bar blues is the I-IV-V progression, where I, IV and V represent the chords or notes that you will be using. To this, you will no doubt have two questions that spring to mind immediately, “what is I-IV-V,” and how do I use it?”

Let me explain what I-IV-V is all about When you play a blues progression, you will only be required to use 3 chords. The main principle of I-IV-V let you know what are the chords to use, as follows: a slightly oversimplified approach, which happens to work for the keys of A,C,D,E and G, which is enough for right now, is to simply count out the letters of the alphabet starting with the key you’re playing in. The first, fourth and fifth letter you count represent the chords that you will be using in your blues progression.

For the key of A we count: A-b-c-D-E-f-g

Thus, for the key of A, we will be using A-D-E as our I-IV-V progression. Similarly if you count out starting with E, you will find that for the key of E we will use E-A-B as our I-IV-V.

Music theory students refer to the I as the “tonic”, the IV as the “subdominant”, and the V as the “dominant”. I will not use these terms in this lesson, but knowing that may help you understand what other people are talking about sometimes.

Chords and Progressions

Another key element to blues is to learn the chords and chord progressions that are commonly used in blues guitar. Learning these will help you to create your own blues progressions and melodies. It’s important to remember that not all blues music is played at fast speeds. Some blues music is played slowly and soulfully. It’s as if you can see inside of the guitarist’s soul as he tells a story with his music. Accuracy is the foundation of playing solid, soul-bearing blues music, and not just raw speed.

An integral part of playing and mastering blues guitar is learning how to improvise. After you master the scales and chords, it’s time to put them into practice. Improvising is where your creativity and knowledge come together to create passionate blues music. There are a variety of different improvisation techniques that you should practice along with learning your chords and scales.

One of the best ways to fully master blues music is to practice with guitar backing tracks. These backing tracks can improve the productivity of your practice time immensely. It’s like practicing with an entire blues band, which will help you develop your improvisation as you put to use your knowledge and solo over the backing tracks. These will produce good, solid structure and timing as you learn to play along with other musicians, and learn to play over key changes. Guitar backing tracks are the secret to success in mastering blues guitar.

Reading piano notes is far easier than many beginning pianists think it is. Ultimately, piano note reading is simply a matter of memorization and repetition. In other words, once you learn the basics, all you have to do is put them into practice, and to do so as many times as it takes to completely internalize your note reading skills.

No doubt, you’ve seen what’s known as the staff — the system of five lines and four spaces upon which musical notes are organized. In music notation, at the far left of a staff you will always see a clef, which is basically a symbol that indicates how the notes on the staff should be read.

There are many different types of clefs, but fortunately for beginning pianists, the vast majority of piano music deals only with two clefs, the treble clef and the bass clef. The treble clef is usually used to notate the first few octaves to the right of Middle C, while the bass clef is usually used to notate the few octaves to the left of Middle C.

In all staffs, no matter what the clef is, successive lines and spaces represent ascending notes of the scale. For example, in the treble clef, the lowest line represents E. Thus, the space just above the lowest line represents F, the line just above that represents G, the space above that is A, and so on.

In the treble clef, which looks sort of like a backwards “S” with a few extra curly-cues thrown in, and centered on the second line up, the notes are as follows: The five lines, from bottom to top, stand for E G B D and F, while the four spaces stand for F A C and E. All beginning pianists must memorize these very early in the learning process. FACE is an easy acronym to remember, while EGBDF lends itself to a variety of mnemonic phrases, which you can make up yourself. For example, when I took my lessons, I was forced to memorize, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.”

Often, when reading music, you will see additional “lines” added above or below the staff. These are merely extensions of the staff, and follow the same succession as notes within the staff. For example, the invisible line one space below the treble clef staff — a note that you will see very, very often — stands for middle C as it is one space and one line below the E represented by the first line.

The bass clef, which looks like a backwards “C” with two dots around the second line from the top, has this configuration: The five lines stand for G B D F and A, while the four spaces stand for A C E and G. Again, there are many mnemonic devices to remember these, but it’s always best to make up your own.

With many piano songs, especially those for beginners, the left hand plays the notes in the bass clef, while the right hand plays the notes in the treble clef. The two areas meet up at middle C, which is two notes below the lowest line in the treble clef staff, and two notes above the highest line in the bass clef staff.

Beyond this basic memorization of notes represented by lines and spaces, piano note reading also involves some knowledge of what is meant by various symbols. Most commonly you will see the symbols for sharp and flat. The symbol for sharp, which closely resembles the number symbol (#), indicates that the note which it accompanies should be raised one half step. Meanwhile, the flat symbol looks like a lower case “b,” and indicates that the accompanying note should be played one half step lower. Also, once you start to learn more keys and scales, you will need to know the natural symbol, which cancels a sharp or flat is dictated by the key. Also, it’s important to remember that when you see a sharp, flat, or natural symbol, that symbol remains in effect throughout the measure.

From this point on, things become more complicated. But don’t sweat it. Learning how to read piano notes is a baby-step process. Try not to learn everything at once. Instead, focus on one thing at a time, and practice until it comes as easily as breathing. As always, this is the key to learning piano.

Ask anybody who the greatest guitar players in the history of rock music are, and you’ll likely get the standard answers. The big three, Clapton, Beck and Page; certainly Eddie Van Halen; maybe Stevie Ray Vaughn. The metal-heads will cite Randy Rhodes and George Lynch. These are all valid answers, but if you would put forth names like Elliot Easton and Andy Summers, you might be likely to get a blank stare in return. Too often great guitarists are overlooked simply because they lack the flash of a star like Eddie Van Halen or because they are part of a group that simply has an overabundance of talent and they tend to be moved to the background. Take Andy Summers, guitarist for the Police. Everybody knows who Sting is, and there is no doubt that he is tremendously talented, as is drummer Stewart Copeland. As part of that unit, however, Summers was often overlooked. What is so amazing about Andy Summers is not only his command of the instrument, but his overwhelming versatility. From ska to punk to reggae to straight ahead rock and roll, nothing is outside of his ability. His style has been described as minimalist, but that minimalism is a plus, and he is to be credited for not falling prey to his critics and trying to overplay to compensate for a lack of complex layers of sound. Below, in no particular order, I’ve listed some of my favorite underappreciated players, and the reasons why I consider them to be great.

Elliot Easton (The Cars): Elliot Easton is probably the greatest reason for the success of The Cars. Without Easton’s accessible rock guitar cutting through the synth driven Cars sound, they never would have found the mainstream acceptance that they did. Imagine the spacey pair of Ric Ocasik and Greg Hawkes playing over an equally new-wave influenced guitarist and you have a style of music that would not appeal to people on a large scale. Easton’s Buddy Hollyesque sound, however, served to make The Cars commercially viable. “My Best Friend’s Girl” from their debut album is an excellent example of how Easton’s contribution was essential in creating hit records for The Cars.

Warren DiMartini (Ratt): What impresses me most about DiMartini is that fact that despite being known as a speed demon who is content to throw a startling flurry of notes at the listener, is that he knows the value of a rest. Too many metal artists try to play as fast as possible, and DiMartini can keep up with the best of them, but I’m more taken with the fact that on songs like “Lay it Down”, “Wanted Man” and “Round and Round”, it’s DiMartini’s artful use of pauses and mutings to lend depth and character to what would otherwise be just another ripping metal tune.

Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s/solo): The Go-Go’s will never be known for stunning musicianship, but Kathy Valentine’s reputation suffered from being thrown together with a group of girls who were far less proficient in their playing. Not to say that the Go-Go’s were not any good. Their style of music was based on catchy beats and fun lyrics, so being technically perfect was not a requirement. Unfortunately, the fact that this was an easily exploitable fault that the critics could grab a hold of, the band was unfairly criticized for being “a bunch of girls who could barely play their instruments.” If they had bothered to check, they would have found the Valentine was actually an experienced and talented guitarist, making the switch to bass to fill the spot with the Go-Go’s. Actually, a casual listen will show that Valentine’s bass playing stands out more that Charlotte Caffey’s or Jane Wiedlin’s guitar work. At times it’s almost melodic. Since the Go-Go’s Valentine has gone solo, along with a side project called the Delpines. I would strongly urge you to check out Valentine’s appealing mix of rock and punk on her “Light Years” album.

Slash (Guns ‘N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver): Guns ‘N’ Roses now Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan once claimed that Slash had “the fastest right hand I’ve ever seen.” While it may be argued that the left (fretting) hand is more important for a guitarist, after hearing Slash play, there can be no discounting the value of a fast right hand. “Sweet Child of Mine”, “Paradise City” and “Welcome to the Jungle” received more radio play, but to hear one of the best examples of Slash’s work, check out “Mr. Brownstone” on “Appetite for Destruction”.

Steve “Steamin” Clark (Def Leppard): It seems that all great artists have their demons and Steve Clark was no exception. Before alcohol claimed his life at too young an age, Steve Clark had built up a legacy of fine work that will live on. Steve’s gift was an ability to build spatial separation into his phrasing. It was almost as if he was playing in a huge empty amphitheater in which each note rang out perfectly and separately and yet, along with the complimentary work of bandmate Phil Colin, fit tightly together like pieces in a puzzle. The song “Love Bites” from the “Hysteria” album perfectly illustrates this point. Unlike previous member Pete Willis, Colin provided a perfect foil for Clark to play off of. Unfortunately, Def Leppard seemed to be associated more with the fact that drummer Rick Allen played with one arm, the result of a 1984 auto accident, taking some of the attention away from the fact that Clark’s playing made Def Leppard one of the finest pop metal bands of the 80′s.

Howard Leese (Heart): Fated to share the stage with two of the most beautiful and talented women of the rock era, Howard Leese continued to lend his creative talents to Heart long after its other founding members had departed. It was Nancy with her beautiful blond tresses that stole the spotlight, but it was Howard’s guitar that powered the group. Secure in the knowledge that he was a key component in Heart’s driving guitar based sound, he was never bitter about the fact that his name was only recognizable amongst true fans of the group. Listen to “Barracuda” or “Magic Man” or “Even it Up” and you are instantly struck by the inherent “coolness” of the opening riffs, and his mastery of harmonic overtones is second to none.

Mick Mars (Motley Cr