Jack here jbf music and guitar lessons, in
this quick guitar tricks we’re looking at
how to modern prog solo, a bit like
Steve Vai, John Petrucci, or maybe Opeth.
In under 5 minutes.
Right, I’ll explain a bit as to what I was
doing in the intro there. Frist up you want
to know the chords; we’ve got Bm and Bb
Major; each being played for 2 bars. The basic
idea I’m using is: switching scales, or
modes, over the chords. The chords are not
in the same key, so we have a few choices.
I’ve opted for B Phrygian [plays octave]
over the B minor and Bb Lydian [plays octave]
over the Bb Major. To keep things as simple
as possible I’ll just be using those 3 note
per string shapes in the tab; obviously as
you get more comfortable you can add in the
rest of the notes from the scales and move
around the fretboard, but one step at a time,
eh?
To begin with maybe just play straight 8th
notes, going up or down the scale, changing
with the chord. I’ve organised this in such
a way that you basically just go up and down
one scale then switch at the chord change
[plays solo guitar].
The next idea is you want to target a “chord
tone” that is a note from the chord on the
first beat of the bar, where the chord changes.
Thinking about barre chords or arpeggios is
probably the best way in to this. So it changes
to the Bm land on one of these notes or the
b3rd. When it goes to Bb, target one of the
notes [play] or the major 3rd.
Not the most thrilling exercise, but a good
building block. Next I’d suggest taking
a basic rhythm; I’m doing two half notes
in bar, then, quarter note triplets for the
next. This way we don’t have to think about
the rhythm too much and can concentrate on
switching scales and landing on the chord
tone.
So some of you may have noticed, there is
actually chord tone in common; D. it’s the
b3rd of B and the major 3rd of Bb. If you
use that when transitioning it will sound
smoother; if that’s the sound you want.
When you’re more comfortable with that,
trying changing the rhythm up, maybe adding
in some bends. Bonus tip for you there, you
can bend notes from one scale into the other,
there I bent a Bb up to a B when going from
the Bb Lydian to B Phrygian.
And as a last bonus tip, you can use this
with different scales over different progressions.
Here I’ve this picking pattern [play] and
I’m moving it up a semi tone [play]. I like
a C lydian over what is essentially a C add9,
but to make it a bit more exotic I’m going
for Lydian Augmented [plays guitar]. For the
next one , the notes I’m picking suggest
to me a C# minor. This time I’ll go with
C# Aeolian [plays guitar]. I’ll just have
a widdle here using the ideas we’ve already
outlined, which to recap: know the chords
you’re playing over, decide on the scales
or modes being used, target chord tones on
the change, look for common notes to smooth
this over, add in bend and slides to make
it a bit more vocal.
And as you get more comfortable try using
more than 2 chords in the progression, expanding
the scale, beyond just 3 strings, different
time signatures and all that sort of thing.
Cool, that was an introduction to progressive
metal soloing in X minutes. There are other
ways to approach this and
you can go much deeper in to your understanding,
but as a rough guide this should set you off
in the right direction.
Anyway, this has been quick guitar tricks;
that’s the playlist up there, check out
some other videos I’ve done, hit
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