A student once asked me if there was a foolproof way not to get lost when soloing on guitar and as I didn’t really have a magic bullet answer, I thought I’d get into it in this article. There are…
Category: Intervals
Practicing Without Patterns
As you may have already gathered, any chord, arpeggio or scale can be written out as a sequence of intervals. This information is often lost on guitarists in favor of using a movable pattern, but the problem here is that…
How to Avoid Cliché Pentatonic Licks
While the pentatonic scale is an incredibly useful tool for guitar players of the rock and blues variety, the standard method of learning the scale in five box shapes doesn’t do a lot to distinguish you from the next guy….
The Key to Breaking Out of Scale Boxes
You’ll find a lot of stuff on the internet about breaking out of scale boxes; some players suggest learning the modes (more boxes?) or throwing other intervals into the mix (still a box), playing horizontally up and down one string…
How to Solo Over Chord Changes (Part 7)
You might be feeling somewhat overwhelmed at this point, so it would be a good idea to take a breather and take stock of what we’ve learned so far about soloing over chord changes. 3 Things to Realize The first…
Soloing by Numbers: Improve Your Phrasing and Your Alternate Picking
I can’t remember where I saw this but it’s a great exercise for improving your phrasing, as well as getting out of scale ruts and so forth. It’s similar to the idea we looked at in the How to Create…
How to Play What You Hear in Your Head (Part 3)
If you’ve been following this series, you’re probably beginning to see how useful a knowledge of intervals coupled with a good ear is, and how much easier it makes navigating the fretboard. If you search online for a guitar lesson…
How to Play What You Hear in Your Head (Part 2)
One thing I noticed when I began to purposely concentrate on learning to play what I heard in my head using intervals, rather than rely on shapes and patterns, was that I was doing a lot of ear training (based…