Named after the blue fish in Finding Nemo, the Dorian Minor Scale is a way to instantly sound cool, and clever…

You say to someone you play the normal minor scale, they’ll be like, “meh”.

You say to someone you play the Dorian minor scale, they’ll be like, “Shiver me timbers!” and then faint or something.

So today I’ll be going over how to play, connect and use all 5 B Dorian Minor Scale guitar shapes so that you can sound like a soloing pro, in no time.

Los geht’s!

B Dorian – Shape 1

Ooh, fun(ish) fact before I show you the first shape… The Dorian minor scale is actually really similar to the normal minor scale.

Natural minor: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Dorian minor: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

The only difference is that the 6th note of the scale is a major 6th instead of a minor 6th. This gives that groovy Dorian sound. *Mind blown.

So, here’s the first shape:

Woah there! What do all those colours mean?!

Aha! How sweet of you to ask…

Red = Tonic/Root note (B, in this case). Blue = The other notes of a B minor chord.

You’ll want to spend some time really noticing these notes as you go through practising. Just like how you know the exact isle, shelf and column of your favourite chocolate bar in the local supermarket.

Green = The note that sounds super Dorian.

This is that major 6th that differs in a Dorian scale compared to a normal minor scale. So hit this, and you’ll get some proper colour out of this thing.

I like to call these kinds of coloured notes, Bingo notes.

That’s because these are the notes that you’ll be aiming for when you start soloing with this scale in the future. Why? Because hitting the Bingo notes makes your solos instantly more melodic.

And to make sure that you can hit these notes in your soloing, I recommend pausing on each one as you go up and down the scale:

This way, you’ll get used to knowing where these notes are so that you can hit them on the fly.

One of my favourite guitarists, Kiko Loureiro, has a great video on this. And I’m not gonna lie, I completely nicked this way of practising scales from him.

Would he care that I nicked his idea? Yeah, probably. But if he wants to take me on, then tell him to meet me down the park in 5 minutes for a man’s game of Uno. That’ll show him…

B Dorian – Shape 2

Now that that’s settled, let’s get on the 2nd B Dorian guitar scale shape.

Notice how the top half of this shape is the exact same as the bottom half of Shape 1? So if we connected shapes 1 and 2 next to each other to make 1 large shape, then we’d get this:

It’s this way of thinking that’ll enable us to connect all the scale shapes and slide between them like a giraffe on ice.

And there’s a few things that we can do to make life easier for ourselves along the way.

*How to Connect Scale Shapes Properly

We want to learn the scale shapes like Buddhas, and make them all feel in harmony together as one…

And learning all 5 B Dorian guitar scale shapes at once will have a very unharmonious effect, that will probably upset a lot of Buddhas.

So to make sure we achieve scale shape fluency, I recommend using The Glue Method:

Man, that name still kicks ass!

1. Step one is to choose 2 shapes (in this case, shapes 1 & 2), and practice them separately for a bit. Just get comfortable with how to play both the shapes, ready for the next step.

2. Now ascend through Shape 1 to the highest note, then slide up to the highest note of Shape 2, and descend through Shape 2.

And you can even invert this by ascending through Shape 2, sliding down to Shape 1 when you reach the top, and descending through Shape 1.

3. This time, ascend through Shape 1 as normal, but slide up to the extra Shape 2 notes on each string.

And again, you can invert this by descending through Shape 2 and sliding down to the lower notes in Shape 1 on each string too.

This is the stuff that’ll really help to connect those two shapes.

4. Have a go improvising between the shapes you’ve just connected. Slide about and try to form some kind of musicalness, just playing whatever comes naturally.

It doesn’t have to sound great, just get that improvisation ball rolling. If you still feel a bit hesitant when sliding between them, just repeat step 3 until they’re nicely conjoined.

And then once you’ve done that, congrats! You’ve successfully glued the two B Dorian guitar shapes together like a professional glue artist.

Yes, that is actually a thing…

And when you learn any extra shapes, just use the Glue Method again to connect them to a shape you already know.

B Dorian – Shape 5

If you’ve ever read any of my other blog posts on learning scales like a boss, you’ll know that I like teaching Shape 5 after Shape 2.

Why do I do that? I do that because it aggravates people and enriches my inbox with abusive emails :).

I actually do it because it connects nicely to the top half of Shape 1. This means that we can form a nice 5-1-2 megashape with our home Shape 1 cosy in the middle.

It also means that we unlock a whole new direction that we can go when improvising, and we don’t get stuck only ascending from Shape 1 because we just learnt the shapes upwards.

BAM! Audience speechless.

So here it is in all its glory:

Like with before, you’ll want to use the glue method to connect this bad boy to Shape 1.

Then you’ll be ready for more shapes!!!!!!!

And even more exclamation marks!!!!!!

B Dorian – Shape 3

Okay, Shape 3. I don’t really have anything interesting to say about Shape 3.

*Nothing interesting*

B Dorian – Shape 4

Whoop whoop! You’ve made it to the last shape. Everybody dance!

Oh, and here’s a link to download a free PDF of all 5 B Dorian Scale shapes in this post. Aren’t I awesome?

But when learning this shape, you have to promise me one thing…

You double glue it! This is the shape that completes the chain, so you’ll have to connect one end to Shape 3 and the other to Shape 5.

And once you’ve done that… then yeah, you’re done practising scale shapes.

Practice the Scale Vertically Too

Hahaha! You thought you were done practising scale shapes…

And to be fair, you mostly are. But before we get into actually using this scale, you should not neglect playing it on a single string too.

This’ll give you the power to make exciting phrasing, bend to higher notes in the scale, and even slide past entire shapes like they’re a broken down car on the side of the motorway. “So longgggg, hahaha!”.

So make sure you have a go at that. All the pros do it, so you should too.

Get the Dorian Flavour

Alright, let’s start having some fun.

When you’ve learnt a new scale, I think it’s really important that you get a feel for the colour of it. And for that, I recommend finding a drone pedal, and improvising over the top.

It’s my favourite thing to do in the entire world apart from going up staircases two steps at a time, and it just gives you a natural instinct for the different notes in the scale.

You’ll find the tense ones, the colourful Dorian ones, the homey ones, and the ones that are as boring as a pencil sharpener. And that’ll give you wayyyy more control over the notes you play in your improv.

Plus, as you learn more scales and modes in the future, you’ll be able to associate each with different colours and feels.

So just play about. Land on different notes and get to know the scale.

Tips to Improvise with Dorian Like a Pro

So we all know by now that just learning a scale ain’t gonna make you sound good.

And when I was learning, everyone online said the only way to make melody was just to practice with the scale and see what works.

Thanks!

And because that’s the most useless advice ever, here are some actually helpful tips to help you improve your improvisation…

Actually Helpful Tip 1: Hit the Bingo Notes

I briefly mentioned this earlier, but hitting those “home” notes at the end of runs, phrases and bends is where it is at.

It’ll stop you sounding like you’re just playing a scale, and will help to form some actual melody. So shimmy about, take two steps to the right, jump up and down and then BAM! Cap it on a Bingo note.

Actually Helpful Tip 2: Don’t use every note, please…

Oh my. If there’s one way to sound like a guitar playing robot instantly, it’s to play every note in the scale, all the time.

And that’s because as soon as you start playing so many different notes, they all lose their colour.

What do you get when you mix blue and yellow? Green. Yay!

What do you get when you mix blue, red and yellow? Browny green. Yuck!

*No offense to the 0.001% reading this who like actually browny green*

So skip notes & strings freely and ignore some like they’re an annoying sibling. Everything will start to sound better, trust me.

Actually Helpful Tip 3: Hit the notes of each chord

Ever wonder how some guitarists just make every note sound right? They’ll play a melody, and finish it on a note that makes you just go Ooooooooh.

That’s because they’ve probably just hit the Bingo note of a new chord.

This is a more advanced step btw, so if you’re new to improv, you might want to come back to this idea at a later stage.

Earlier, we learnt about using the B Dorian guitar scale as a route to hit the B minor Bingo notes. And this will 100% make you sound more melodic.

But when the E minor comes around, there are still notes that will sound better over Em than Bm. And these’ll be the notes of the E minor chord, aka, the E minor Bingo notes.

So as the Em chord comes around, you can still use the B Dorian guitar scale as passing notes, but just make an effort to land on Em chord notes instead. Then as the D chord comes, aim to hit the notes of a D chord.

To achieve this, you can either learn the major and minor arpeggio shapes, then aim to hit the notes of each chord’s arpeggio as it comes around. (My preferred method).

Or you can learn all the notes on the fretboard. Then hit the chord notes as they come if you know them.

Nope this ain’t easy, but oh boy will you sound like a pro.

Actually Helpful Tip 4: Use suspended notes

Finally got your head around that? Great! Because Joe Satriani aims to do the complete opposite.

He’ll try to hit the suspended 2nd, 4th and 6th notes of a chord first, then resolve to the cosy Bingo note, after.

This is just extra stuff at this point, but is cool to know about. Here’s his explanation on that if it sounds cool to you:

Awesome B Dorian Guitar Licks

Alright, let’s get this cuisine under way. My finest B Dorian minor inspired guitar licks, coming right up!

The Beverage – Lick 1:

Just a bit of Dorian flavour there to whet your appetite.

This is a great example of how to combine the Minor Pentatonic scale with that expressive Dorian 6th to create some epic sounds.

The Cheese Platter – Lick 2:

The tab maker I use doesn’t let me do this – Dammit! – but after each 12th fret bend, you’ll want to pull off to the 10th fret instead of picking it. Oh, and that’s also meant to be a slide from the 12th to the 14th fret at the end of the 1st bar.

Tab issues aside, MAN this is a sweet sounding lick. Some small, bluesy bends, one or two pull offs, and a couple of slides… What’s not to like?

The Appetizer – Lick 3:

You wanted groove, you got groove! And that’s what Dorian is all about, ladies and gentlemen.

So enjoy having a bash at that before we get into the meaty bit…

The Main Course – Lick 4

Mmmm hmmm, that double stop bend at the end just kicks ass.

To us shredders, that’s the guitar equivalent of a stuffed crust pizza.

The Gourmet Dessert – Lick 5

This lick is so good that it even needs an intro:

Intro over, here’s the lick.

Thank you, thank you, oh you’re making me blush…

Now if that ain’t gonna win me a Michelin Star, I don’t know what will.

It’s just awesome! Not to brag, of course…

Anyway, all of these licks will work in B Dorian. Particularly over chord progressions using the B Dorian scale!

The Chords in the Dorian Scale

How’s that for a smooth transition? In case you weren’t aware, each scale has a set of chords that you can use with it.

We make these chords using the notes of that very scale.

So here’s a quick method to find them all out:

1. Draw a 7 x 5 grid

Hmmm, curious…

2. In the second row from the bottom, write out the notes of the scale you want to find the chords for. In this case, I’ll write out the notes of the B Dorian guitar scale.

If you don’t know the notes in the scale you want to write with, then just go onto Google Images and type in, “Notes in the (insert your scale here) scale”.

Uhhh… okay?

3. Fill in the notes of the tonic chord vertically.

We are in B minor here, so I’ll write out a B minor chord. (Again, Google will tell you the notes in the tonic chord if you don’t know them)

Mmmmhmmm…

4. Write out the scale twice more, starting from each new B minor chord note.

Ahhhh…

BOOYAKASHA! These are the notes in each chord in the B Dorian scale. And it wasn’t that hard, was it?

But at the moment, this just looks like a big bundle of notes. So let’s figure out whether each chord is major or minor.

5. Figure out each chord type

The best way to do this is to either make a chord out of these notes on your guitar and see whether the chord sounds major (yay), minor (sad) or diminished (death!).

Or if you know music theory, then you’ll be able to figure out the chord type by looking at the notes.

Either way, once you’ve figured out what type it is, just write it in that bottom row underneath the corresponding chord. A capital numeral for major (IV), lower case for minor (iv), and a lower case with a degree sign for diminished (iv°).

By the way, this Roman numeral sequence will be the same for EVERY Dorian key. E.g. the 4th chord in the C Dorian scale will also be major, and the 5th chord, minor etc.

EL BONÚS STEP: Add the 7th notes of each chord.

To achieve another level of spice, write the 7th note (A) of the B Dorian guitar scale in the top column. Then fill in the rest of the scale from there again.

And voilà. Then you can figure out what type of 7th you can add to jazz up a chord prog.

Speaking of chord progs…

Writing Some B Dorian Chord Progressions

Nailed it! MAN are my transitions on fire today…

Aaanyway, you might be wondering… Oh! Sam of Beast Mode Guitar, how do I write my own chord progressions?

Well, it’s as simple as chucking a few chords together and seeing what sounds good.

But to know what chords you can chuck together, you’ll need your chord grid handy to help.

Here’s a few that sounded nice to me:

• i – IV (Bm – E)

Oi, just because I only used two chords in a chord progression doesn’t make me lazy. It makes me a “minimalist”.

Anyway, this 2 chord progression perfectly encapsulates the Dorian sound.

Particularly when you add in a 7th to the chords.

i (m7) – IV (7) (Bm7 – E7)

Groovy, right?

• i – III – v – IV (Bm – D – F#m – E)

Then toss in a 7th or two.

i (m7) – III – v (m7)- IV (Bm7 – D – F#m7 – E)

Then throw in all the 7ths, ahhhhhhhh!

i (m7) – III (maj7) – v (m7)- IV (7) (Bm7 – Dmaj7 – F#m7 – E7)

• i – VII – IV – IV(7) (Bm – A – E – E7)

And why not add some more 7ths again. I mean, they’re free, right?

i (m7) – VII (maj7) – IV – IV(7) (Bm7 – Amaj7 – E- E7)

Boom!

So knock yourself out with those home-grown Dorian progs.

Improvise over them, draw inspiration from them, or just flat-out steal them, play them off as your own and become a world-famous musician. Doesn’t bother me.

But if you have a deep and vengeful hatred for all of those progressions, then feel free to use the chord grid and make your own.

Wrapping it Up

Dorian… Dorian… Wherefore art thou Dori-

Whoops, didn’t see you there… #awkward.

Anyway, the B Dorian guitar scale is an awesome scale with a unique flavour. And it works great with the Minor Pentatonic scale for all you blues guys out there.

Just make sure you glue the shapes properly as you go along. Then you can start learning to use the scale like a pro… like me.

And on that arrogant note, I’ve been Sam Olverson,

Enjoy Dorian!

P.S. If you want to learn the notes on the fretboard so that you can follow chord changes with more precision, click here to view my post on that.

The post How to Play the B Dorian Minor Scale on Guitar appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

Wanna know a scale that people just as much, if not more than the major scale? That’s right, it’s a fish scale! Oh, wait… uhhh… I mean the natural minor scale!

So today I’ll be going over how one can play the natural minor scale on guitar, solo with it and write chord progressions with it, using the key of E minor as our example.

Let’s do this.

Natural Minor – Shape 1

In case you weren’t aware, the natural minor scale uses all the same scale shapes as the major scale. So if you learn these shapes, you’ve actually just learnt two different scales at the same time.

That’s theory for later, but hopefully that’s good to know.

Anyway, let’s get going with the first shape:

When learning this, pay particular attention to those coloured notes in the scale diagram.

Red = root note. Blue = the other notes in an E minor chord.

Whip out your monocle, your glass eye, your bird-watching binoculars, whatever it takes… just notice those notes.

I like to call them Bingo notes.

Not because they remind me of a bunch of old ladies sat in a hall ferociously crossing out numbers on their multi-coloured tickets, but because these are notes that you’ll want to land on during your solos.

So a good way to learn where these Bingo notes are as you practice, is to pause on each one as you go up the scale:

That way, you’ll be training yourself to instinctively hit the good sounding notes when soloing. As a result, you’ll sound wayyy more melodic down the line.

I first saw this way of practising scales from one of my favourite guitarists, Kiko Loureiro, which I totally accidentally stole from him. So if you want to see his take on it, click here to view that.

Natural Minor – Shape 2

Alright guys, it’s time for shape number dos. Let’s get you opening up more of that fretboard, shall we?

And because we’re getting pretty high up the neck, I also recommend practising this one an octave lower on the 2nd fret:

Wait a minute… Is that? No, it can’t be. Yes, it is! That’s the same as the 1st major scale shape… MAN, aren’t scales just confusing and awesome at the same time?

Anyway, you may have also noticed that the lower end of Shape 2 is the same as the top end of Shape 1. So if you stuck them side by side, you’d get this:

And that’s the ultimate goal of learning the scale shapes. We want to chain them up to become one massive shape over the entire fretboard.

So to do that, we’ll want to practice sticking each shape together.

*How to Properly Connect the Scale Shapes

If you don’t connect the scale shapes as you go along, then you put yourself in extreme danger…

Extreme danger of falling into the I’m-stuck-in-one-position-all-the-time-and-I-can’t-get-out-help-me-plz trap. A trap that’s swallowed more guitarists than I can count on my left hand…

So to avoid all that, you’ll want to use what I call The Glue Method:

1. Practice Shape 1 and 2 separately until they both feel comfortable

2. Play up Shape 1, and when you get to the top, slide up to the highest note of Shape 2. Then descend through Shape 2.

You can invert this on the way back by ascending through Shape 2, sliding down to Shape 1, and descending through Shape 1.

3. Now ascend through Shape 1, but slide up to the higher notes in Shape 2 on each string as you go.

Again, you can do a quick switcheroo. Descend through Shape 2 and slide down on each string to the lower notes in Shape 1.

4. Improvise sliding between the two shapes to put it all together.

It doesn’t have to be melodic yet, just play about and make an effort to slide back and forth between the two shapes.

And as soon as you’ve done that, BAM! You have now officially connected Shapes 1 & 2 like a pro.

*Permission granted to move onto the next shape.

Natural Minor – Shape 5

Yuppidy yup, your eyes don’t deceive you. That’s because I always like to teach Shape 5 straight after Shape 2.

If we learn Shape 5, then we can go up or down the fretboard from our home of Shape 1. This unlocks a new direction, and makes sure we don’t just get too used to just going up. Makes sense, right?

So here it is in all it’s glory:

See, isn’t it nice? The way it fits onto the bottom of Shape 1 and all…

Just remember to use the glue method here again to connect it. And before you know it, you’ll have 5, 1 and 2 combined into one mega-mahoosive shape!

Natural Minor – Shape 3

OK, time to make people happy again by going in the right order.

Ladies and gentlemen, shape number drei:

And of course, you’ll also be practising this an octave lower:

You know what to do here, people! It begins with Glue and ends with Method.

That’s right… the Method Glue! Wait no, the Glue Method!

Natural Minor – Shape 4

You’ve made it to the last E natural minor guitar scale shape, so the end is nigh…

But you’ll most often be using this shape down here:

Just please promise me that you double glue Shape 4. It’s the connector between Shape 3 and Shape 5, and so needs to be glued on both sides to complete the loop.

And then once you’ve done that, congratulations! You officially know the E natural minor scale across the entire guitar neck.

But make sure you also practice it at some point in other keys apart from E! Otherwise, you’ll end up as versatile as a static caravan with no wheels on it… And no one wants that.

Play the Minor Scale Vertically As Well

This is one thing that people forget about all the time, but is sooo helpful it’s unreal.

If you learn to play the E natural minor guitar scale up a string vertically, then switching between scale positions will feel way easier and more natural.

Plus, you’ll be able to come up with some super melodic phrasing that isn’t possible when simply ascending and descending through boxes.

Plus plus, you’ll know where the notes are that you can bend to, and make big slides across large portions of the neck at once.

See? It’s a no-frickin-brainer! All the pros do it, so you should definitely do it too.

Get the Flavour of The Natural Minor Scale

Pedal. Pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal. Hmmm, and did I mention pedal?

That’s because improvising over a pedal tone is the best way to get the flavour of any scale. You’ll be able to find the tense notes, the resolving “home” notes and the notes that sound as bland and pointless as a stale brussels sprout.

And particularly as you learn other scales like The Harmonic Minor and the Modes in the future, you’ll be able to build up a repertoire of each scale/mode’s colour is.

Man… if I could marry pedal tones, I probably would…

Phew! Kinda emotional in here right now. Let’s move on before I start crying.

Tips for Improvising With the Natural Minor

We don’t just learn scales for the sake of it! We learn them because we want to do stuff! And some of that stuff may be improvising.

So here’s some freshly brewed improvisation tips for y’all, coming right up:

Freshly Brewed Tip 1: Don’t use every note!

Yes, you have 7 notes to play with. Yes, you spent a lot of time learning them. And yes, scale shapes may have traumatized you beyond repair at this point…

But that doesn’t mean that you should try to use every note just because you’ve learnt them. That’ll just sound robotic. So skip notes liberally to make stuff sound less like a scale and more like a melody.

Freshly Brewed Tip 2: Hit the Bingo notes

Landing on those sweet sweet red and blue notes will make your soloing sound 534x more melodic. So try to make those the notes you linger on.

Obviously it’s fine to land on a tense note for effect, and then resolve it to a chord note after. But if you’re landing on yuck notes all the time because you don’t really know what you’re doing, it just ain’t gonna work.

Freshly Brewed Tip 3: Hit the notes of each chord

If you really want to reach the pro level of improvisation, then you’ll want to practice hitting the notes of each chord as they arrive.

You might start improvising over an E minor chord, using the natural minor scale as a path towards the Bingo notes you want to linger on.

But then as the A minor chord comes around, you’ll try and hit the chord notes of A minor (A C E). Again, you can use the natural minor scale as passing notes to navigate to these new Bingo notes to make stuff sound melodic.

Then as the G chord comes round, you’ll try to hit the notes of G major, etc…

It ain’t easy, but MAN you sound good. It’s mostly just about paying attention to the backing track, and learning where the notes are on the fretboard, so you can target them.

Freshly Brewed Tip 4: Use suspended notes

A completely different way to look at following the chords, is to purposely hit non-chord notes like 2nds and 4ths.

I first heard about this from a video that Joe Satriani did for Guitar World. He does this to prolong the listener’s attention and keep them on the edge of their seat.

Now, this is not stuff for the faint-hearted or guitarists with music theory phobia… But when done right, you’ll sound seriously dynamic.

E Natural Minor Guitar Licks

Oooh baby, it’s time to light this place up with some fiery lickeroos! You wanna impress your mates with some out of tune, slow and downright terrible licks?

Then you’re in the right place! Because I’ll be showing you some actually good ones.

So here’s the first one:

Some slides, some bends, some pull-offs, this lick has it all! And the best part is, the pull-offs at the start make this lick way easier than it sounds.

Anyway, here’s lick number two:

Woooo… spooky! This lick is all about exploiting the most tense notes of the natural minor scale – the major 2nd and the minor 6th – to creating a sighing, sad kinda sound.

Here’s lick numero three, coming your way:

To make those string skipping pick jumps at the end of bar one easier, I use a technique called “Hybrid Picking”.

Basically, I’ll pluck the higher string with my ring finger and the lower string with my pick. This saves me having to make massive pick leaps. Plus, it sounds pretty epic, am I right?

Lick number four, freshly out the oven:

Here I’ve combined a typically pentatonic lick with the natural minor scale, and MAN it sounds good… Plus, it’s a great example of how to skip notes like a skipping rope and stop stuff sounding like a standard scale.

And finally, lick number fünf:

Okay, that one may take a bit of practice. And to be honest, I just did it to show off. But still, it’s a super cool lick and one for all the shredders to get their teeth stuck into.

The Chords in the Natural Minor Scale

If scales aren’t something that you’ve ever delved deep into before, you may be unaware that you can make chords using the notes in a scale.

And with these chords, you can write chord progressions and even entire songs out of the natural minor scale. Now that’s pretty epic, am I right?

So to figure out what chords we can play, we need to make a chord grid. Here’s how you do it:

1. Draw a 7 x 5 grid

2. In the second row from the bottom, write the notes of the scale you want to write with.

In this case, it’s the notes of the E natural minor guitar scale.

3. Write vertically the other notes of the tonic chord.

You can find the tonic chord by selecting the 3rd and 5th note of the scale you just wrote out.

4. Write the same scale out again in the 2nd and 3rd rows, but this time starting from the two new chord notes you just added in.

And would you look at that… There are the notes of each chord in E minor. Easy, right? You just find a note, look at the two notes above it, and you know what to play.

But to make life easier for ourselves, we’ll use the bottom row of the column to display whether each chord is major (V), minor (v), diminished (v°) or augmented (V+).

That way, we don’t have to figure out what the chord’s tonality is every time.

5. Write down each chord’s tonality

This was pretty easy for me because I know the chord notes off by heart. But if you don’t, then try to build and play each chord on your guitar, and it’ll be pretty obvious whether it’s minor or not.

Either way, the Roman numerals for every natural minor key will be the same. E.g. The 3rd chord will always be major, and the 4th chord always minor etc… So you don’t really need to go about learning all the chord notes if you don’t want to.

BONUS STEP: Add the 7th notes of each chord

Just write the 7th note of the E natural minor guitar scale in the top left box, and fill in the rest of the scale again.

From there you can see what kind of 7th you can add to your chords to jazz them up a little.

And at that point, my friend, you are ready to write to some slippery, snazzy chord progressions!

Writing Chord Progressions With E Natural Minor

Now that you’ve put buckets of blood, sweat and tears into sitting still and watching me make the chord grid for you, the next part is easy.

It’s literally just trying random chords together and seeing what sounds good. In fact, its made even easier by the fact that I’ve already made some for you…

Am I being too nice? I think I’m being too nice.

Anyway, here’s a few that I’ve come up with to hopefully inspire you a little:

• i – v – VI – iv (Em – Bm – C – Am)

But I think this progression sounds especially good with a couple of 7ths inside.

i – v (m7) – VI (maj7) – iv

Hell! Even add 7ths to all the chords! I mean, why not?

i (m7) – v (m7) – VI (maj7) – iv (m7)

Mix and match with the 7ths, and just customize stuff to your will.

• i – III – VI – VII (Em – G – C – D)

Again, with a couple of 7ths:

i – III (maj7) – VI – VII (7)

Wow! Thanks, chord grid!

• i – VI – VII – v (Em – C – D – Bm)

And let’s go a bit bonkers again to finish with a bang!

i (m7) – VI (maj7) – VII (7) – v (m7)

(For those groovy slides, all you need to do is start the chord 1 fret below where it should be, play it, then slide it up a half step to hit the chord you’re aiming for)

And I’ve literally come up with all of those in the last 10 mins, just by looking at the chord grid. So always use one! It’ll become your best friend for writing music.

Wrapping It Up

Shabam! Pow! Hit! Ouch! You’ve just nailed the E natural minor guitar scale like an absolute beast. High five!

As you’ve seen, learning the scale shapes is just the first part. And all the fun comes later with the improvisation and the writing stuff.

So …er… yeah… knock yourself out with all that. And before you know it, you’ll be blasting out so many good tunes that the police will get called on you for being so illegally good.

Anyway, I’ve been Sam Olverson.

Chow!

P.S. If you want to learn the notes on the fretboard quickly so that you can improve your soloing and play any chord, click here to view my post on that.

The post How to Play the E Natural Minor Scale on Guitar appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

So today I’ll be going over how to correctly bend strings and notes on electric guitar, get them in tune, and even add some vibrato for some scrumptious wibble wobble.

Oh yeah, if you’re lucky I’ll even give you some practice drills and a mini solo at the end to put everything together too 🙂

Let’s rock.

Why do we bend, and how does it work?

When you press down a string at a certain fret, you’re applying tension to the string, right? This stretches the string a little, producing a specific note. If you play a note on a lower fret, there is less tension and the string produces a lower note.

Bending basically stretches the string more, increasing the tension to that of higher frets.

But the reason why bending is cool is that it provides way more emotion and feel than just playing a note normally. And that brings us onto the main point…

When we bend, we are ALWAYS aiming to hit a specific note. These notes are normally 1, 2 and sometimes 3 frets higher than the fret we are bending from.

For example, there’s an E on the 9th fret of the G string. If we bend this note up a little higher and play the string again, we’ll get an F. If we bend this string up even further we’ll get an F#. And if you have superhuman, iron crusted, I’m-as-hard-as-nails fingertips, you could even attempt to bend the string so far that you get a G note.

But at that point you’ll start screaming, running round in circles and throwing your shoes at people because your fingertips hurt so much. So I don’t really recommend that one for beginners.

The Perfect Bending Technique

Alright, here’s the part you actually came here for.

Step 1: You’ll want to start by placing your hand around the neck in a bluesy kinda grip. This should feel natural, with your thumb over the top and almost touching the fretboard.

Step 2: Play the 10th fret of the A string with your 3rd finger, and layer up your 1st and 2nd fingers behind it on the same string. This’ll provide the strength needed for bending.

*You’ll also have to bend at some point with your 4th, 2nd or even your 1st finger on its own. Although you can’t layer anything up behind your 1st finger, you should still layer up all the fingers you can behind any other finger you are bending with.

Step 3: Rotate your wrist anticlockwise, like you would if you were turning a doorknob to enter a room full of mummified Stratocasters from the Egyptian era.

As a result, this will drive your fingers up the fretboard, pulling the string with them. This is key… Make the motion with your wrist and NOT your fingers. Your fingers are just there to hold the string as your wrist drives them up.

Step 4: Keep bending the string upwards – still by rotating with your wrist – until you hit the note exactly 1 fret above the fret you’re bending from.

It’s a good idea to play the 11th fret of the A string on its own as a reference point first. Then bend up from the 10th fret until you match that pitch. You’ll probably have to flick back and forth a few times to get it right, and this is the part that takes practice.

BONUS Step: Once you’ve hit the pitch you’re going for, gently bring the note below and back up to pitch in an oscillating way to give yourself some vibrato. If you don’t know how to do vibrato, then don’t worry, I’ll get into how to do that properly later.

And BAM! Easy as that, you can officially now bend notes on electric guitar.

But obviously that’s gonna take some practice so… er… how about some practice tips!

Quick Tips for Practising Bending

Before we get into some fiery practice drills, I’ve got a couple of epic tips to help you out when practising this phenomenon called “bending”.

Epic Tip No1. – Use a tuner!

Tuners are frickin’ awesome because they literally show you whether you’re in tune or not. That means when you bend up to a note, you can see whether you need to bend further or less further to perfectly hit that note. Plug-in/chromatic tuners tend to work the best for this, so if you’ve got one, use it!

Epic Tip No.2 – Practice all over the neck, and on different strings

Different strings are easier to bend than others, and changing frets will change how far you need to bend the string to hit a higher note. So practising all over your guitar neck will get you used to bending in tune in different places.

That way, when you’re mid-solo and want to slam a bend that melts faces, you can do it and actually melt people’s faces!

*Note: it’s unlikely that people’s faces will melt

Epic Tip No.3 – Take breaks when it hurts

Funnily enough, humans aren’t built for bending. Even I didn’t come shooting out of the womb with rock hard fingertips! So just take it easy, your fingers are gonna hate you for it at first, but gradually they’ll toughen up and co-operate.

Bending Practice Drills

You now know what to do, so let’s get you doing it.

The first drill is kinda similar to what you may have done whilst learning the technique, except it’s been extended a bit:

You’ll now have to differentiate between 1/2 step and full step bends too, muhaha… A step or tone is basically two frets. So when people say “a 1/2 step bend”, they mean a bend hitting the note 1 fret above where you’re bending from. And then a full step bend is obviously aiming two frets higher.

And one that all feels good, we’ll up the ante a bit:

This one’s all about getting you bending in different parts of the neck. Different strings and different frets will need different amounts of bendage to hit the notes you want, so it’s important you spend some time getting these properly in tune.

And finally ladies and gentlemen, the last exercise to get you on the path to becoming a bending prodigy:

Switching between notes mid-bend like this will greatly test your control, strength and ability not to scream in fingertip-pain. And for that reason, it’s gotta be one of my favourites.

How to Add Vibrato to Bends

Yes. Yes! YES! It’s vibrato time.

I’m not gonna lie, bending without vibrato sounds a bit naff… But bending WITH vibrato is as good as a mint choc-chip ice cream in Rome on a really hot day in the middle of June sat on the Spanish Steps which you didn’t even have to pay for because you nicked it from someone and ran away, leaving them in tears crumpled on the floor.

So Step 1 to getting some sweet, sweet vibrato, is to bend up to the note that you want to add vibrato to and hold it:

Step 2: Lower the bend a little, just so it dips the bend slightly out of tune.

Step 3: Raise the bend up to pitch again, back to where it was before.

Step 4: Repeat this up and down wobbling motion to add vibrato to the note.

Play around with the speed and extent to which you want this vibrato to be present. Guitarists like Marty Friedman and Zakk Wylde enjoy some aggressive, wide wibble wobble, whereas BB King tends to enjoy a smaller, faster wibble wobble.

Have a play around and see what you like. Just don’t go too fast with it, otherwise it’ll sound rushed and tense. The point is that when you bend notes on electric guitar, the bends should sound better with vibrato, not worse!

Vibrato Practice Drills

It’s my favourite time, it’s your favourite time, it’s practice time! Actually, that’s probably nobody’s favourite time…

But anyway, to help you get your vibrato chops up and running, I’ve got a couple of drills and mini licks for you to have a go at.

So here’s the first one:

A nice mix of everything we’ve learnt so far there. And remember to make sure every bend stays in tune!

Also be wary not to let the bends dip too far when adding vibrato. A lot of people let the bend gradually slip as they wobble, which sinks the bend out of tune like the Titanic. Just don’t be one of those people…

So here’s for our next mini lick to practice your vibrato and bending skills:

Here we’re using simpler notes, but making everything more exciting by playing with the vibrato in a style inspired by Marty Friedman. Having said that, the tab for this lick is about as useful as a shuttlecock against a grizzly bear…

So listen to the audio and try to replicate the same kind of expression with each bend using your ear to guide you.

It’s this kind of control over vibrato that can make you sound like a seriously good guitar player, without even doing anything flashy.

And that brings us onto our final lick, with some different finger bends:

For the first bend, use your 3rd finger like we’ve practised… But for the next bend, use your 2nd finger and layer up your 1st finger behind it. And for the final bend, use your 4th finger and layer up all your remaining fingers behind it.

They’ll feel a bit weird initially, and even to this day I still hate having to bend notes on electric guitar with my pinkie. But do you know what? I’m an absolute beast, so I don’t complain, I just do it!

Wow, I kinda inspired myself a bit there…

Ways to Make Bending More Interesting

Great, you can do the technique, you can bend in tune, you can add vibrato, but still… Something feels like it’s missing… Is it control, emotion, or your wallet that I just ran off with whilst you were distracted?

All three are possible, so here’s a list of some great techniques to help you bend notes better on electric guitar:

The Bluesy Bend

Short, snappy, and easy as anything, the bluesy bend features a slight tug and a choke.

You don’t even have to bend all the way, just start the bend and choke it early on. They key is that you don’t want to hear this type of bend descend again, which is why we choke it on the way up.

Unison Bends

You ask a driving instructor what their favourite kind of bend is, they’ll say a roundabout. You ask a guitarist what their favourite kind of bend is, they’ll say a unison bend. That’s because they sound just sooo cool.

Ever since Led Zeppelin came out with these in the 60s, guitarists have been known to worship these bends like a deity. Used at the right moment with some aggressive vibrato, these bends can add some real cut and crunch to a solo.

But it’s important that you don’t subconsciously bend the higher string upwards too, otherwise everything will sound out of tune = bad.

Crunchy Bends

Sometimes you just want a bend to cut through hearts and slice through the subsconscious of your audience… And that’s where crunchy bends come in.

You’ll want to start by muting with your palm a few strings lower than the one you want to bend. Then as you go to play the bend, rake through these muted strings on the pick swipe through.

Bend-Slide-Bend Again

I’m not gonna lie, I entirely and unashamedly robbed this one from Guthrie Govan. He’s one of my favourite guitarists, and it just sounds so goddamn sweet… so who can blame me?

Yup, you see it now… The trick is to bend up, pull the bend back down quickly and slide up to the higher fret to bend again. Plus, you’re not allowed to play the string more than once whilst you’re at it.

It’s tough getting those slides right, but MAN it’s worth it!

Tapped Bends

I have an entire post dedicated to teaching you how to tap like a pro on guitar, but the basic essence is this… You bend, hammer-on with a picking hand finger at a higher fret and then pull off with the same finger.

Delicious. I tend to use my middle finger for tapping because my index finger is busy holding the pick, but you should experiment and find what’s easiest for you.

Tapped Harmonic Bends

As if tapped bends weren’t good enough, you can turn them into harmonics too!

To play harmonics on the open strings, you lightly rest a finger above the 5th, 7th or 12th fret and pick it, right?

So if you bend up and then gently touch the string 5, 7 or 12 frets above where you’re bending from, you’ll create a harmonic.

And that’s not even the best bit… You can add vibrato to these harmonics too, like you would with a normal bend! Pff, bet you can’t do that with open strings

Marty Bends

Ahhhhh I love Marty Friedman! He’s well known in the guitar world for his expressive-AF vibrato, and the flicks he adds on to his bends.

You’ll want to give the string a quick tug first before releasing the full bend. It sounds great, and if there’s any guitarist to learn bending and vibrato from, it’s this guy.

He also did a video for Guitar World entirely based on how he makes his vibrato sound unique, so be sure to check down below if you’re interested in that.

A Mini Solo to Put it All Together

Because I’m super awesome, I’ve made you a solo to practice…

I just knocked it together quickly to try and combine as many ways to bend notes on electric guitar as I could. So hopefully you enjoy having a go at it:

Oh, and here’s the link to the tab on Songsterr too in case you’d prefer to view it a bit larger.

And when you can play that, you can safely call yourself a bending pro.

Wrapping it Up

Congratulations! You can now correctly bend notes on electric guitar like a beast, so give yourself a friendly pat on the back for that.

Bending is just one of those things that either makes you seem amazing if you get right, or like a legless person running a 100m sprint if you get it wrong…

So it’ll be well worth the time and fingertip pain it takes to get good at it. Get used to the technique first, then get fancy later.

Anyway, I’ve been Sam Olverson,

Have fun bending!

P.S. If you want to learn the 5 pentatonic scale positions on guitar and how to use them to improvise + write your own solos, then click here to view my post on that, and take the next step towards lead guitar mastery!

The post How to Bend Notes on Electric Guitar Like a Pro appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

Wooo… It’s spooky time. Why? Because the Harmonic Minor scale is used at least once in every horror film ever.

Its pure essence just screams AHHHH!!! And it’s been used by many greats over the years such as J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Gordon Ramsey due to its super minor and “pass-the-lamb-sauce” kinda feel.

So today I’ll be going over how to play the Harmonic Minor scale on guitar in the key of D minor, along with tips on how to use it, the chords it features and some licks at the end too.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, we’ll be in D minor for this post, but you should also practice this in other keys once the initial shapes feel cosy. There’s no use only being good in 1 key.

That being said, let’s get started.

Harmonic Minor – Shape 1

So as I already mentioned, the harmonic minor is a pretty dark scale. This is because the 7th note in the scale is raised to create a major 7th note, which clashes with the other minor notes in the scale.

In other words, it’s like mixing gravy with custard. (I sincerely hope none of you actually do that…)

A “normal” natural minor scale would consist of the notes 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Whereas the harmonic minor scale consists of the notes 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

That means if you already know all the standard major scale positions, then these shapes will be very similar. So without further ado, here’s the first shape:

Nope, those two adjacent 4th finger notes on the high E string are not accidental.

And excuse me, how rude of you to even question that. I never make mistacks mistakes.

But basically, if there’s two adjacent notes played with the same finger in a shape, it’s because I want you to slide that finger between them. This is normally when it just isn’t practical to use a different finger for the job.

Also, pay attention to those coloured notes as you practice the scale… The red notes are the root (D) notes, and the blue notes are the other notes in a D minor chord (F & A).

You’ll want to think of these notes as the Bingo notes to hit and linger on in your solos. This’ll help your solos sound way more melodic down the line.

That’s why it’s always good practice to go up and down the scale pausing on each of these notes. Kinda like this…

Kiko Loureiro also has a great video explaining this concept if you’re interested.

Harmonic Minor – Shape 2

Hopefully you’re starting to get the hang of the first shape by now.

But you came here to learn more than that. You came here to triumph above all! To crush everyone else! To learn more harmonic minor shapes!

So I’ll restrain you no longer, here’s shape number 2:

Scrumptious.

Just remember to note the Bingo notes in this shape too.

Fun(ish) Fact: the bottom of this shape is the exact same as the top of shape 1. So if you combined the two shapes into a mega-shape, you’d get something that looks like this:

But to enable us to really think of the shapes as one this way, we’ll have to stick ’em together properly first…

*How to Connect Shapes 1 & 2 for Fast Progress

Great, you now know two scale shapes. But they are practically useless… left as two single positions!

You’ll find yourself with “Stuck in a 3 fret box syndrome”, which’ll just make me Tut at you in a really mocking, condescending and unloving way.

So to avoid that, you’ll want to use The Glue Method:

1. Play both shapes individually up and down a few times, just to get the hang of where the notes are.

2. Ascend through shape 1 and when you reach the final note, slide up to the final note of shape 2 and descend through shape 2.

You can even invert this by ascending through shape 2, sliding down to shape 1 when you reach the top, and descending from there.

3. Now ascend up through shape 1 as normal, but with a twist… Slide up on each string to the extra notes in shape 2. This’ll leave you with 4 notes on each string.

And you can invert this by starting at the top of shape 2 and sliding down to the notes in shape 1 on each string too.

4. Finally, have a play around improvising between the two shapes. Make an effort to slide up and down between them, keeping things fluid and playing what ever you feel like.

It doesn’t have to sound melodic at this point, just play random stuff!

And BAM! Just like that, you’ll forget they were ever two separate shapes in the first place.

Harmonic Minor – Shape 5

Yup, I just skipped to shape 5. Deal with it.

Any of you who have seen my posts on the 5 pentatonic positions or the major scale shapes will know that I like to teach shape number 5 early on.

Why is this? Because it makes sense to glue on the two shapes either side of the 1st shape – which we know the best – first, right? That way we can go both upwards and downwards from where we feel most comfortable.

So here it is, shape number 5:

Yeah, you’re probably beginning to notice that these D harmonic minor guitar scale shapes are a tad more annoying than normal minor shapes…

But alas! Such is the life of a guitar player. Remember to use the glue method in the same way as before to connect this one with shape 1.

And after that, you’ll be ready to start tackling the other fun and exciting shapes.

Harmonic Minor – Shape 3

Alright, alright, we’ll get back into the order now…

You know the drill. I show you the shape, you learn it and glue-method-ify it. Hmmm, I like that word…

Everybody, shape number 3:

And now we’ve gone so high up that we can even play this shape back at the start again. So make sure you have a go at this shape an octave lower too:

And once you’ve got that one down, you’ll be ready for shape number 4…

Harmonic Minor – Shape 4

Woooooo! You’ve made it to the last one! Well, technically shape 5 is the last one, but anyway…

Shape number 4, coming your way:

But you’re more likely to use this shape an octave lower, so make sure you practice it there too:

Remember you’ll have to double-glue this shape because you’re sticking it onto the end of shape 3, and to the top of shape 5 too.

So promise me you’ll glue this shape on both ends, or else…

And after that, give yourself a pat on the back because you’re done learning the shapes.

Remember, you can view a PDF of all 5 scale shapes mentioned in this post by clicking here. Or go to Fretastic.com and view them for free there as well.

Play Harmonic Minor Vertically Too

Hahaha, not so fast… In the second half of this post we’ll be getting stuck into how to actually use the D harmonic minor guitar scale to do cool stuff.

But first you should practice playing the D harmonic minor guitar scale on a single string.

That way you can play vertically as well as horizontally, and unlock a whole new world of delicious melodic phrasing.

You’ll be able to bend like a boss, slide like a beast, and slur like a drunkard in no time.

Get the Flavour of the Harmonic Minor

When learning a new scale/mode, I always think that getting the taste of what it sounds like is super important.

Ready salted, sweet chilli or – god forbid – cheese and onion, finding the scale’s flavour will stop it seeming just like a series of notes.

So to do that, I recommend playing a pedal note/chord in the background, and having a play around on top.

Just improvise in the D harmonic minor scale on your guitar, trying to build some melody and see what happens.

You’ll begin to discover instinctively where the tension and resolution notes are, along with an overall feel of the scale.

Plus, as you do this with more scales and modes in the future, you’ll be able to associate each one with a certain sound.

Then you’ll be able to recognize what scales and notes people are soloing with on the radio too. And MAN that’s a cool feeling.

Harmonic Minor Guitar Licks

Ohhhh boy I’m getting excited already. You know why? Because it’s lick time!

And that’s my second favourite time after lunch time.

So watch out because I’ve got some melodic licks, some fast licks, and some licks that are so good you’ll lose all your friends because you just want to stay at home and play them, coming your way.

Let’s begin with lick number 1:

Oooh baby! That one just sounds sooo classical. And it’s all because of that 17th note pedal in between the melody notes. I recommend learning those melody notes first, and then slicing them up with those 17th fret notes later.

So here’s lick number 2:

With the beginning bend – pretend to bend up to the 11th fret note before you play it. From there, play the string and slowly reverse the bend downwards.

It creates a kind of cool sighing sound when done right.

Also, the Xs indicate muted strings. When playing those first two notes, aim to mute a couple of strings below those notes with your palm. Try to hit these dead strings on the pick swipe through for some crunch.

This’ll help supercharge the bend with an aggressive sound!

You want some groove now? I’ll give you some groove:

This is a great example of mixing minor pentatonic and harmonic minor scales together.

We start by using the minor 7th from the pentatonic scale, but then opt for a major 7th instead later for that harmonic minor sound.

Time for a fast one:

It’s basically just a repeating pattern up the Harmonic minor scale, so learn the first 4 notes, and you’ll be good to go.

And finally, the ultimate descending harmonic minor lick:

Yes, that took a while to get that fast. Yes, that took me more than one attempt. And yes, I’m currently writing this upside down in a headstand position.

You may have noticed that I’m using the neck pickup for these licks. There’s just something about the neck pickup that makes it a match made in heaven with harmonic minor shred.

How to Improvise in Harmonic Minor

Okey-dokey. I’m assuming you’re here because you either want to solo in harmonic minor, write music with it, or both. So let’s start with the first one, improvising.

Epic Tip No.1 – You don’t have to use all the notes!

Just because you have 7 scale notes to play around with, doesn’t mean you have to play them all. If you end soloing in a strict, play-every-note manner, everything is just gonna sound robotic.

If it was robotic like the Terminator, then it’d be cool. But it’d probably be robotic like a toothpaste dispenser, which ain’t so cool.

So skip and miss notes freely depending on what feels right.

Epic Tip No.2 is to hit the chord notes.

Getting used to landing on the Bingo notes when soloing will make everything sound wayyy more melodic.

But don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly fine to hit a tense note on purpose and resolve it for effect.

The problem comes when you land on a non-chord note, and you don’t really know what you’re doing. Nothing will really have a direction or point to it – it’ll just sound meh.

Epic Tip No.3 is to follow the chord progression.

Hitting the chord notes is one thing, but if you can hit the notes of the other chords as you solo over them too, MAN it’ll sound good. This is by far the trickiest step, but definitely the mark of an improvising pro.

So let’s imagine you had a chord progression of Dm, Gm7, Bb and A7.

You’ll want to use the notes of the D harmonic minor guitar scale as passing notes to hit the Bingo notes of Dm to begin with.

Then as the chord changes to Gm7, you’ll want to use the D harmonic minor scale as passing notes to hit the notes of a Gm7 chord instead.

And then when the Bb comes, you’ll aim to hit the notes of a Bb major chord, etc.

That way, you stay connected to the backing track loadsss better, and don’t even have to change scale.

Learning the arpeggio shapes will help with this, so click here to view my post on that, and improve your improvisation skills.

Epic Tip No.4 – Use Suspended Notes

Joe Satriani – being the rebel he is – has an alternative way of looking at following the chords. He’ll aim to hit suspended notes (e.g. 2nd and 4th notes) for each chord instead.

He does this to prolong the listener’s attention and make them wait for the resolution which comes later.

He actually did a whole video for Guitar World on this concept, so have a look here if you’re interested:

The Chords in Harmonic Minor

Knowing which chords you can play using a particular scale will allow you to write sick-ass chord progressions using the scale you’ve learnt.

That way, a scale becomes more than just a set of notes for soloing, but a tool to write entire songs with.

So for example, D harmonic minor has the notes D E F G A Bb C# in it. Each of these notes has a chord associated with it, which we make using the other notes in the scale.

And the best way to see this in action is by making a chord notes chart:

1. Draw a 7 column by 5 row table.

2. In the 2nd row up write the notes of the scale that you are using. (In this case D E F G A Bb C#)

3. Add the other notes of the tonic chord vertically from there. (In this case D minor)

4. Write out the scale again, starting with the two new notes you’ve just entered.

Boom! You’ve officially found all the notes in each chord. Now all you need to do is figure out whether each chord is major (IV) , minor (iv), augmented (IV+) or diminished (iv°).

If you know music theory or what these guitar chords look like already, then try and figure it out. If not, then that’s alright because I’ll show you anyway.

Just like that, you now know that if you want to play a G chord in the key of D harmonic minor, it should be a G minor chord.

And you know that if you write a chord progression using these chords, it’s probably going to work.

You can even take this up a level by finding the 7th that goes with each chord too. To do that, just add the 7th note of the scale on top and write out the scale again.

Voila! There’s your D harmonic minor guitar chords chart guys.

*The reason for the D/C# in ii° is because people tend to use the C# instead of the D when extending the ii° chord, making it a full diminished chord rather than just being half diminished.

You can use this when writing music in any key, with any scale too. Just write out scale notes and the tonic chord first and fill in the blanks from there.

Example Harmonic Minor Chord Progressions

Hopefully by now you understand the logic to how we get our Harmonic Minor chords. So let’s go through a couple of example progressions together…

Typically, the i, iv, V and VI chords the easiest to write progressions with in Harmonic Minor.

So you may make a progression like i – iv – VI – V

Or i – V – VI – iv

It doesn’t really matter. But it’s an unwritten rule that having an iv or V chord at the end of the progression typically sounds the best.

Fun(ish) Mini-game: Using the improvising concept from earlier, find a note or two from each of these chords, and make it a target note to hit each time the chord comes around.

But if you want to get fancy and start adding in some diminished chords, then ii° – V and V – vii° also work great at the end of progressions.

So you may have i – VI – ii° – V

Or even a i – iv – V – vii°

*If you have eyes, you may have noticed some obscure red vegetables lying about. And that’s because I like to think of cadences like chillis.

Each cadence has a different level of power, pull and spiciness. So pick and choose how strong you want a cadence to be for each scenario.

And if you still want to see more chord progression writing with the Harmonic Minor guitar scale, then Signals Music Studio did an awesome video on that too.

Wrapping It Up

BAM! That’s everything I know about the D harmonic minor guitar scale on a single, very long page.

Hopefully the thing to take away from this is there’s way more to scales than just learning the notes.

I mean, you can solo with them, write music with them, and even agitate your neighbours with them if you try hard enough.

Although, the last time that happened they threatened to unfollow me on Instagram, so I haven’t taken the risk ever since…

Anyway, I’ve been Sam Olverson

Have fun scaling!

P.S. If you want to learn how to play the arpeggio shapes on guitar so that you can play better solos, click here to view my post on that.

The post How to Play the D Harmonic Minor Scale on Guitar appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

I’m guessing you’re here because you’ve been stuck in one place on the fretboard for so long that you want to expand.

And what the heck? No, I don’t mean that literally.

But anyway, that feeling that a whole wild fretboard is out there, and you just don’t know how to use it ain’t a nice one.

So today I’ll be curing you of your fretboard phobia by showing you the 5 major scale shapes, patterns, positions, whatever they’re called on guitar and how you can actually use them to solo and riff.

Because that’s why you want to learn them in the first place, right?

So let’s roll.

Why Are Scale Shapes a Thing, and How Do They Work?

Alright, before you start mindlessly going up and down these shapes trying to learn them…

It’s important to realize what the notes mean that you are actually playing. That way you’ll eventually be able to use them for stuff.

The key thing to remember is that each major scale shape contains the exact same notes.

And these notes are scattered all over the fretboard.

So for example, the C major scale is made up of the notes C D E F G A B.

And using my Nobel-Prize-Winning Mathematics skills, I’ve counted C notes on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th frets of my guitar.

Assuming each of these Cs has a D E F G A B following it, we end up creating a bunch of different ways we can play a C major scale, all over the place.

So to find these notes, that’s where learning shapes comes in…

The Major Scale Shape No.1

Many of you may know this shape already, but I don’t care, I’m gonna teach you it anyway. I’m so evil, muhaha…

We’re gonna be tackling the 5 guitar major scale shapes in the key of C today, just because why not. I mean, C is a nice key.

So without further ado, here’s the root position shape:

The red notes indicate the root “C” notes in these shapes, and the blue notes indicate the other notes of the C major chord (the major 3rd and the 5th).

It’s important to take a note of these coloured notes as you learn the 5 major scale guitar shapes.

That’s because these are the notes that you’ll typically want to linger on in your solos/improvisation. All the other notes are just filler notes to help you get there.

Landing on these notes will make your solos sound way more melodic. So think of them as the Bingo notes, if you will.

Kiko Loureiro also has a great video explaining this concept, in case you want to see this in practice.

So play that shape up and down a few times to embed it into your muscle memory.

After that, you’ll be ready for the next one…

The Major Scale Shape No.2

This is where the fun begins. If you’ve never learnt a second scale shape before, then when you’ve learnt this one MAN it’s gonna feel good.

So I’ll hold it from you no longer.

Or will I…

…

Haha, so evil... Anyway, here it is, position numero dos:

Notice how we aren’t starting the shape with a “C” root note anymore.

We’re actually starting the shape using the 2nd note of the C major scale (D).

And because we’re starting using a different note, we get a different pattern as a result.

But the coolest part of all of this is…

That the top half of shape 2 is the EXACT same as the bottom half of shape 1.

So if you stacked the shapes on top of each other, you’d get something that looked like this:

Pretty epic, right?

Knowing this will help you stop looking at these guitar major scale shapes as 5 individual patterns…

But as one, massive shape that you can freely move around in.

So before we move on to learn the others, we need to get to that stage where the two shapes feel combined…

*How to Practice and Connect Scale Shapes for Fast Progress

Great! You now know two scale shapes. But unfortunately, they’re still just two separate shapes.

So to glue these two shapes together properly, you should use something I like to call, The Glue Method.

Genius, right?

So The Glue Method is as follows:

1. Go up and down the two shapes individually until they both feel comfortable

2. Then practice going up the first shape and sliding up to the highest note of the second shape when you reach the top. From there, descend through the second shape instead.

You can even invert this so that you ascend through the second shape, slide down to the first shape and descend through the first shape too.

3. After that, practice going up shape 1, and sliding up on each string to the extra notes in shape two.

As always, you can invert this by descending through shape 2 and sliding down on each string to the lower notes in shape 1.

4. To finish it all off, have a bit of a groove and improvise sliding between the two shapes and playing whatever notes you feel like. It doesn’t have to sound melodic at this point, we’re just trying to get used to the shapes.

Before you know it, you’ll forget that they were once two separate shapes.

The Glue Method is just so awesome that it will soon take over as Man’s best friend.

So make sure you are at the forefront of this revolution.

The Major Scale Shape – No.5

Wait. What the heck? Shape No.5? Sam, have you …err… accidentally missed a few?

Nope. I did it on purpose.

Ummm, why?

Because by this point, you’ll know the first shape really well. And at the end of the day, you’re gonna be spending a lot of time there because it feels easy.

And it makes sense to glue on the two shapes either side of the shape we know the best, first. That way, we have the option to go both up and down the fretboard when soloing.

So here it is:

You’ll notice that the two root “C” notes on both of the E strings are the same ones from our first shape.

If you don’t know the names of the guitar strings, then click here to view my post on that and learn to communicate with other guitarists.

And if you use The Glue Method to connect this with the original shape, you’ll find the fretboard really begins to open up.

The Major Scale Shape – No.3

Alright, alright. We’ll return to the order now.

I apologize if I triggered the OCD part of you a bit there.

But hey, it’ll be worth it.

Anyway, here’s the third shape:

You know how these things work by now.

Go up and down it a few times, and then glue it to the end of the second shape with – you guessed it – The Glue Method.

Ooh, and remember to practice these connected scale shapes in a bunch of different keys.

The patterns will be the same, just shifted up or down the fretboard according to where the root note is.

There’s no good being a master in C major when someone starts jamming with you in G.

After that, you’ll be ready for the last one…

The Major Scale Shape – No.4

Just one more… One more scale shape to go. You can do it! I believe!!!

So here’s the last shape:

Boom! That’s all of them.

But please promise me this…

You practice this shape an octave lower on the 3rd fret too.

Shape No.4 needs gluing to the bottom of the 3rd shape, as well as to the top of the 5th shape. Practising it an octave lower too will help with that 5th shape gluage.

Plus, for all you acoustic strummer fellows out there, playing this high up the fretboard will be massively uncomfortable unless you play it an octave lower anyway.

Pff… guitar action…

Playing the Major Scale Vertically

Oh yeah, before we move on to how you should actually use the 5 guitar major scale shapes, you should practice playing the major scale vertically too.

That way, you’ll feel as comfortable going vertically up the fretboard as you will going across it.

And this’ll help you also learn where all the notes are that you can slide or bend up to, which results in more pizazz and flourish.

And we all love a bit of pizazz and flourish.

How to Use the Major Scale Shapes to Solo

You didn’t just learn these shapes for nothing! You learnt them because you wanna do stuff with them.

And the number one rule to remember is that just going up and down scale shapes won’t sound melodic, even with nice phrasing.

And that’s why learning the Bingo notes in each shape is so important. You land on these, you sound way more melodic.

As well as this, getting used to landing on chord notes is especially useful when soloing over chord progressions.

That’s because the ultimate end goal is to be able to hit the notes of each new chord as it comes in a progression, using your chosen scale as passing notes to get there.

For example, if you’re soloing in the key of C major, and an F chord comes your way, you can use the C major scale as passing notes to get to the chord/arpeggio notes of F.

Then as a G chord comes around, you’ll use the C major scale as passing notes to get to the G chord notes!

That way, you can stay connected with the backing track underneath.

It’s tough, but the mark of a true pro.

Learning your guitar arpeggio shapes will help with this concept. You can view my post on that to improve your soloing by clicking here.

However, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani looks at this an alternative way.

He purposely avoids the chord tones and tries to land on notes like the suspended 2nd and the 4th so that the melody doesn’t resolve. It keeps the listener on edge for what comes next.

Some of these concepts are pretty advanced, but they can be good as long-term goals!

Oh, and finally… just because there are all those scale notes doesn’t mean you have to use all of them.

Otherwise, it’s gonna sound like you’re trying to use all of them. And that ain’t what you want.

So be liberal in skipping notes and even strings at any time.

Wrapping It Up

Congratulations! You are now a major scale pro.

Soon enough the entire fretboard will be wide open for you, and you’ll be ripping the fretboard up like a paper shredder.

Just remember to learn each shape one at a time, and spend the time gluing each new one onto the end of the last one.

And because I’m so awesome, you can view the free PDF that I created of all 5 scale shapes mentioned in this post by clicking here.

Alternatively, there’s a great free website called Fretastic which can lay out all 5 guitar major scale shapes in any key for you with an epic UI. It’s way better than any other website of the sort and has a bunch of other scales and chords on there too.

I’ve been Sam Olverson,

Have fun learning the shapes!

P.S. If you want to learn how to play the top 5 arpeggio shapes on guitar so that you can solo more melodically with your scale shapes, then click here to view my post on that.

The post 5 Major Scale Shapes on Guitar & How to Use Them appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

Wait, really?

But Steve Vai practised about 9 hours per day.

Nah, no way.

But I think Slash practised roughly 27 hours per day.

WHAT!? Oh man, I’m never gonna get good… *Crying sounds*

We’ve all heard the tales of how these great guitarists practised all day, every day once upon a time.

But for most of us, practising that much just seems as impossible as getting a good night’s sleep.

So to help you with that, in this post I’ll be going over how many hours you should practice guitar each day to get good.

I’ll also tell you my experience with practising 9+ hours a day, whether it’s worth it, and how you could do it too.

Let’s roll the tape.

What’s the Optimum Amount You Should Practice Per Day?

The answer to this question is kinda dependent on the genre you play. Pop music will have fewer areas to master than metal, for example.

But as an overarching estimate for most genres, I’d say you should practice 3-5 hours a day of guitar if you want to get good reasonably quickly.

If you want to do more, then that’s awesome, but it won’t be easy. (I’ll tell you how to achieve upwards of 6 hours a day practice later)

Less is also fine, we all have busy lives. Just bear in mind that things may take a little longer, and ensure that your practice time is super productive and focussed.

The key thing to remember is that you shouldn’t just practice longer for the sake of it. Do stuff in each of those hours to make them productive.

If you’re just practising 12 hours of songs a day, then A – there’s not really much point to that, B – you’re not gonna get good any time soon, C – you’re gonna be soooooo bored.

The main point of practising more hours is that you can cover more bases and areas of guitar at the same time.

You could practice: legato, picking, sweep picking, tapping, scales, improvising, learning a solo, playing a challenging song, studying other genres and writing music all in the same day.

It would take 7-12 hours or so, but each hour has a point to it.

But if you were only practising 1 hour a day, you can still get good. You’d just have to be focussed on getting good at one or two things at a time.

What Can You Expect From Practising More?

Alright, so you’ve seen my opinion of a good amount of practice time per day to get good quickly.

But if you began to practice guitar 3-5 hours a day, or even 6-12 hours a day, what can you realistically expect?

Well, I’m sorry to break it to you kids, but just because you’ve practised for 12 hours doesn’t mean you suddenly turn into the next Eddie Van Halen.

But MAN! I so wish it did.

Like I said earlier, you aren’t gonna practice speed picking for 12 hours and become a pro speed picker by the end of the day.

You’ll be packing in lots of stuff to keep things interesting. So it may still take a few weeks to a month before you start seeing some serious results.

But when you do, you’ll realize that everything begins to fit together at the same time.

For example, if you learn speed picking, legato and all the scale positions simultaneously, things might feel quite slow in the beginning.

But you’ll actually be making progress 3x faster than anyone practising just one of those three.

Within a month of consistent practice, you’ll be able to combine these newfound skills to play rapid picking and legato licks using these scales.

BAM!

And if you were to practice even more hours, you could learn other solos, practice improvisation and even having a go at writing your own solos too whilst you’re at it.

That way, you’re learning how to use these licks in a practical application too. And MAN that’s when it really starts getting fun.

How to Practise for Hours and Hours and Hours and…

Whoop! Whoop! This is the fun part that you’ve all been waiting for.

Because let me tell you this…

You ALL have the capability to practice guitar 9 hours a day.

How do I know that? Because I never thought I could, and I somehow managed.

The problem is most people – including myself nowadays – don’t have that much free time in the day.

I mean, I spend 9 hours a day writing sick as frick, ultra-amazing, out of this world content for all you lovely people out there, so practice has gotta wait sometimes.

But if everyone had 9 hours free, then you all could do it. That’s because there’s a secret strategy to practising 9+ hours of guitar a day which makes it not easy, but certainly doable:

1. Make a list with stuff to practice, and allot an amount of time for each thing.

If you’ve got a list of things you want to do, you’re never sat around bored thinking about what to do next.

It also gives you a drive to get to the end and complete the list each day.

And each bit of allotted time could be from 5 minutes to 15 to 30 and even 60 minutes if you wanted.

For an example, one of my practice lists consisted of:

• Learning notes (5 mins)
• Spider exercise (20 mins)
• Arpeggios (30 mins)
• Learning a solo (35 mins)
• Vibrato + Bending (15 mins)
• Looking at myself in the mirror (4hrs 30 mins)
• Classical guitar (30 mins)
• Scales (35 mins)
• Speed picking (20 mins)
• Learning difficult songs (30 mins)

And then I’d do it all again to total 7hrs and 20 mins. If I had any spare time, I’d just practice anything else I felt like.

Should it look like this for you? Nope. Would it look like this for me now? Assuming I can now bend, hopefully not. So get creative and make it based off what you want to practice.

2. Start small and build up.

If you start at 9 hours per day, it’s gonna be way too difficult, and you’re gonna give up.

Fact.

So start by making a list for one ultra-productive hour. Then slowly shift it up to 2 hours, then 3, then 4, then 5, then 6… and all the way up to 999.99 hours of practice per day.

And once you get into the swing of things, you’ll find yourself hooked and wanting to practice more rather than having to force yourself.

3. Get rid of the phone!

Phones are always a distraction and suck away at your attention span like a ghostbuster sucks a ghost.

Just put your phone in another room or hide it somewhere from sight, and you’ll find it much easier to focus.

My Experience of Practising 10 Hours a Day – Do I Recommend It?

Did someone order a priceless first-hand account from someone who practised 10 hours a day?

Uhhh, no...

Fantastic! You’ve got one coming right up.

School had just finished for summer, and I thought, If I practice 10 hours per day for 6 weeks, then by the end of the holidays, I’m just bound to be able to shred.

So for 6 weeks I tried to avoid as much interaction with friends and family as possible, and turned into a Beast Mode Hermit.

Anything below 49 hours per week got a lethal red box. *Gasp*

But despite all these hours of guitar practice each day, it didn’t really work until a week before the end.

My downfall was that I spent so much time practising in front of the metronome like a robot, playing the same old licks again and again.

As a result, my playing never really improved because all the amazing technical skill I had developed stayed in the confines of the metronome.

In short, I was too focussed on how much I was practising, and how fast I could go, rather than actually developing my playing and soloing ability.

But it was still an awesome experience, I’d feel so proud at the end of each day.

Plus, now I’ve got bragging rights that I once practised 11hrs 30 mins in a single day.

And that makes me feel cool.

Closing Tips for Practising Guitar More

If you are practising just for the sake of doing more hours, then there’s no point to practising more.

So it’s important to have a specific end goal to strive towards. E.g. Learning an epic solo that you think sounds awesome, or being able to spin off killer picking licks in your improv easily.

Maybe your goal is even to see how many people you can annoy in one day by playing Stairway to Heaven, and set a new world record or something.

Not to blow my own trumpet, but that’s a really epic idea. Someone should definitely do that.

My second ultra-amazing tip is to get a balance between practising and playing.

Believe it or not, practising 10 hours a day can still be fun…

Ha! Yeah, right!

Shush, I’m trying to persuade them to practise more here…

Wooo! 10 hours a day, yeah!

But Kiko Loureiro always preaches the practising vs. playing thing, and I think it’s a cool idea.

You have practising – which is the time spent perfecting technique, analysing your playing and gaining speed with a metronome.

And you have playing – which is time spent using the skills you’ve just practised, in a song or improvisation.

If you only practice, it’s gonna get robotic and boring.

But if you only play, then you’re never gonna improve.

That’s why you should always practice with the end goal being to play.

Wrapping It Up

There we have it. We’ve established that you should to practice at least 24 hours a day and have hair like Slash to get good at guitar.

But you can also get good at any area of guitar you want with just 1 hour of practice a day.

Just the more you practice, the more well-rounded and capable a guitarist you will be.

You’ll also have the time to start piecing stuff together, and be able to call upon your insane shredding skills at any given moment.

And who doesn’t want that?

I’ve been Sam Olverson,

Have fun practising!

P.S. If you want to learn how to shred on guitar for beginners so that you can start playing like a pro, then click here to view my post on that.

The post How Many Hours Should You Practice Guitar a Day? appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

But then you realized that they don’t exist and had to find something else.

So you found guitar!

And you realized if you learnt to shred, you could melt peoples faces and have all the girls (or boys) in town queueing up at your doorstep in love with you.

Now THAT, sounds like my kind of superpower.

So today I’ll be going over the steps that beginners should take to start learning to shred on the electric guitar.

Vamos!

What Does It Take To Shred?

You see all these people playing fast stuff in utter awe, so you say…

OMG! I need to learn to shred!

Then you go pick up your guitar, try to play fast and realize it just ain’t gonna happen.

So what are the actual steps that you need to take to get from where you are, to tearing up the fretboard like it’s that Big Mac you had for lunch?

Well, there are three main areas that you need to train up to start to shred on electric guitar like a pro:

1. Finger strength & dexterity

2. Picking speed & intelligence

3. Playing licks & writing your own

And keeping everything squeaky clean whilst you’re at it.

I’ll be tackling each area with you in this post, so you can tick all those boxes so many times, you couldn’t even tell that there was a box there in the first place.

Oh yeah, I’ll also throw in a bunch of epic licks for you whilst I’m at it.

How to Build Finger Strength and Dexterity

Believe it or not, all you beginners can shred on electric guitar with just your fretting hand.

Sam, mate. You’re chatting absolute wack. You need two hands to play guitar, dumbass…

Errr that was rude. And by the way, I’m about to prove you wrong…

Yup, thought so.

Well, technically I did use my picking hand once or twice but let’s not dwell on it…

Even at this point, having strong finger strength and dexterity can get you smoking some hot licks.

My favourite way to start building up this kind of strength, is to practice trills (continuous hammer-on and pull-offs) between each of your different fingers.

I nabbed this from a video Steve Vai did for Guitar World, and it’s as simple as doing this:

Do that for as long as you can physically go.

Pay attention to each note and make sure it sounds out as clearly as possible without tensing your fingers.

They’re gonna start to burn like a well-timed insult in no time. Then once you can’t go any further, start trilling with your index and ring finger.

Then when that burns, shift to index and pinkie.

After that, start trilling with your middle and ring finger, etc.

The trick is to practice with every combination of fingers possible and make each trill sound just as strong between different fingers, all over the neck.

The best thing about this is that once you have some strong sounding trills, it’s really easy to practice and requires no concentration at all.

When you’re next binge-watching High School Musical, you can be doing this exercise and building up finger strength as easy as pie.

Then once you’ve done some trills for a while, you’ll be ready to start getting used to some common 3-note patterns:

You will see those all the time in legato licks.

And of course, you know what to do. Play ’em till they burn!

Get all those notes to sound clear and even, and make you’ve practised them on lower strings and frets as well as higher ones.

Then you’ll be ready to fry some bigger fish, like this bad boy I flashed earlier:

This lick is an A minor scale ascending legato run, using sextuplets.

That means 6 notes per metronome beat. Try saying Trip-e-let Trip-e-let – emphasizing each vowel – between each metronome beat, and you’ll get the sextuplet feel.

Three note per string sextuplets are every shredders’ favourite thing, so it’s important you get nice and cosy with licks like that one.

Sit down with a metronome at a slow speed and build it up.

Even just by practising it 10-15 minutes a day, by the end of the week you’re gonna be laughing back on your old, slow, feeble, weak former self.

How to Build Picking Speed

Great! By now you can hopefully play your first shred lick on electric guitar, no longer beginners now, ‘ey?

So let’s look into scrubbing up our picking skills.

My No.1 tip for giving yourself the capability to pick ultra-fast, is to make the picking motion from your elbow.

Trust me, you’ll be able to pick longer, faster, harder. All the pros do it: Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield, Mick Thomson – it’s the done thing.

So do it now! (That was a pretty good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, am I right?)

This is probably new to you and feels weird as stale jelly, so slow down and make sure no tension creeps in.

Or even place your wrist on the bridge or pinkie on the guitar body as an anchor point for stability.

But it’s no fun practising to a metronome to build up speed without a goal.

So find a song you like with some rapid rhythm picking and work your way up to playing it.

If you like Metallica, then Spit Out the Bone, Damage Inc. or Fight Fire with Fire are all songs with fast but reachable picking speeds.

And if you don’t like Metallica, then you could always challenge yourself with All Out Life by Slipknot or practically any Slayer song – although they would take much longer to play.

It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as you are activating your picking speed which we can apply to electric guitar shred licks later.

Faster licks = more face melt.

Becoming Picking Intelligent

Guitar is extremely bothersome…

All that speed you’ve built up can only be used on one string!

Because as soon as you change string in a fast lick, you have to hop over the string you’ve just played to the one you want to play.

And that slows you down like a tortoise without legs.

Ugh! How frickin’ annoying!

Unless…

You slant your pick downwards to a 45°-ish angle, and finish each string on an upstroke.

Normally, alternate picking is a side to side motion.

And string changing is an up and down movement – this contrast in direction prevents you from going as fast as you otherwise could do.

But if you angle your pick to 45° downwards, you go side to side and up and down at the same time, so string changes stop being a problem.

And the reason this only works on an upstroke is that once you do an upstroke with your pick slanting downwards, your pick is then hovering free in the air.

This makes change to the next string easy as you don’t have to hop over anything.

Try it!

But if you finish each string on a downstroke, you get stuck in the ditch between two strings – which you then have to spend time hopping out of.

So one of the ways to make sure that you leave every string on an upstroke instead, is to ensure that you pick an even amount of notes on each string.

E.g. 2 notes per string – downstroke, upstroke. 4 notes – down, up, down, up. 6 notes – down, up, down, up, down, up.

But 5 notes – down, up, down, up, down = stuck in the string ditch.

It’s quite a complex mechanic, but is essential to rapid shred on electric guitar.

I have completely nicked this idea from Troy Grady, who basically discovered this was a thing and is now hailed by every single shredder ever as God’s gift to this earth.

I recommend watching that video if I’ve managed to confuse you beyond repair.

All you need to remember is to tilt your pick downwards and leave each string on an upstroke. After that, you’ll be the fastest picker in town.

So here’s a killer lick you can use to practice some epic downward pick slanting runs:

Yup, that’s the same lick Troy plays in the video above. Why? Because I’m unoriginal looking out for you guys and think it’s an awesome lick.

It’ll take some time to build up speed, but MAN will it sound good.

Combining Picking and Legato Together

Boom! Now you’ve all got the chops to shred on electric guitar like you never even were a beginner.

So let’s start putting all that to more use.

One of my favourite things to do is to combine picking and legato into the same lick.

The mix between legato and picking gives a fantastic sound AND makes fast stuff much easier to play.

This means it doesn’t take much effort to fling a lick or two into your improvisation and get some ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd.

So here are a couple of my favourite licks that combine the techniques:

Just sounds so darn liquid and smooth!

Have a go, and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is compared to the previous licks.

But this next lick has got to be one of my favourites of all time:

This lick got such a cool cascading effect to do it, and those little pull-offs allow you to hit much higher speeds.

And starting the lick on the major 2nd instead of the minor 3rd gives a much fresher feel than a full pentatonic lick.

And here’s my third and final monster scale lick before we get into some snazzy arpeggio stuff:

Mm mmmm, me loves a bit of string skipping.

Use Arpeggios To Get Cool Sounds

I love scales as much as I love custard, and that’s saying something.

But I love arpeggios even more.

Fewer shredders use them, and you can create some seriously epic sounds.

Just check this bad boy out:

Those slides will take some practice but BOY it’s cool.

And that lick is so flexible. Try it descending, on different strings, in major, with suspended 2nd or 4ths, that lick can do it all.

I’ll give you one more epic Em9 arpeggio lick to pay around with, and then I’ll get into showing you how to write your own.

So ladies and gentlemen…

Here it is:

Kind of like an inverse of the pentatonic lick from earlier with an extra slide on top and a cool, jazzy sound.

Boom!

They are just a few licks that I’ve come up with, but what if you passionately despise all of my licks and want to write some of your own?

Look no further…

Writing Your Own Licks

If you want to start writing your own killer licks, then fundamentally you need to know the minor scale shapes and/or arpeggio shapes.

Within these scales, we tend to use 3 note per string patterns in groups of 6 or 4, as you have seen in the licks above.

So it’s as simple as creating a short 6 or 4 note pattern and then repeating this all the way down or up the scale legato, picking or both. Whichever you prefer.

But when that starts to become a bit boring, you can even begin to add extra slides or variations to the pattern to stop everything sounding quite so robotic.

So here’s an example of a legato + picking lick from earlier that I customized to sound a wee bit more interesting:

I’ve added some slides, some hybrid picking and finished on a different part of the fretboard.

This allows for some cool phrasing that if played with a pick would be too difficult to achieve. It’s just a nifty way to alter the pattern a bit.

Hybrid picking is basically fingerpicking notes with the other fingers on your picking hand whilst playing with a pick at the same time.

E.g. In the 3rd sextuplet group, I’ll play the 14th fret on the D string with my pick, and pluck the notes on the g string with my middle finger.

You could even try writing licks in odd groupings like 5s, 7s or 9s.

When you’re counting these to a metronome click you’ll want to break them up into 2s, 3s and 4s…

E.g. I’d count fives like – *Click 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, *Click. Sevens like – *Click 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3 *Click. Nines like – *Click 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 *Click.

But as long as you know the notes you can play, you can create pretty much anything.

So feel free to use, abuse and customize these licks as much as you like.

“Shredding is just playing fast at the end of the day, so it doesn’t matter how you do it” – Sam Olverson, Literally Just Now

Wrapping It Up

There have it. Boys and girls… that is how you learn to shred.

Now make use of this new superpower and go change the world…

Or just play some hot licks in your bedroom for personal satisfaction.

The latter is more my cup of tea. Not that I like tea, but whatever…

Make sure you use this shredding power wisely in your solos, and that you don’t overuse it.

Otherwise, it has the adverse affect and peoples’ faces will be melted so much that they just stop melting due to boredom.

Think of shredding like cinnamon… Cinnamon can make pastries absolutely delicious. But too much cinnamon makes them dry and lifeless.

I’ll leave you to ponder on that deep intellectual thought…

I’ve been Sam Olverson,

Enjoy shredding!

P.S. If you want to learn how to sweep pick cleanly on guitar so that you can reach insane speeds, then click here to view my post on that.

The post How to Shred on Electric Guitar for Beginners appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

Except this form of sweeping is 50x cooler and makes you look like a pro.

But anyway, I’m guessing most of you are here because you either want to make the jump from intermediate to advanced or your sweep picking just sounds like dog faeces at the moment.

Whichever boat you’re in, I’ll gladly be your tour guide today and by the end, all you beginners will be sweep picking cleanly like a boss.

So let’s get cracking.

The Perfect Sweep Picking Technique

When you’re sweep picking, everything has got to feel as smooth as a drive-in movie. But at the same time, you gotta keep everything squeaky clean.

And if you have a hand, you can do this!

So these are the four main parts to a perfect sweep picking technique:

1. Angling the pick

2. Making the sweep motion

3. Muting the other strings.

4. Stopping the notes from overlapping

Get those down, and you’ll be a beast-mode sweep picker in no time.

So let’s start with how to angle the pick correctly…

Angling & Holding the Pick Correctly

Please don’t do what everyone else does at this part.

They try to angle the pick downwards on the way down and upwards on the way up.

And I hereby ban you from ever doing that.

Unless you want your sweep picking to sound like sandpaper in a washing machine.

TIP 1: Have your pick at a 45° angle, with your thumb pointing towards the higher strings.

That allows you to easily cut through the strings on the way up and on the way down without having to move.

You just get the right balance between ease and sound quality.

TIP 2: Make sure that you hold the pick really loosely.

As loosely as you can manage without it falling out of your fingers.

That way, you aren’t making the pick too rigid, which will just negate the whole reason you angled it in the first place.

TIP 3: Only use the very tip of the pick.

That way you’re making everything feel 10x easier for yourself and letting the pick easily cut through the strings.

This will stop everything being stiff whilst also not sounding too brushy.

*NOTE: Sweep picking is easier with sharper picks. I personally use Jim Dunlop Max Grip Jazz III’s, and they work a treat. I recommend looking into the Jazz III range or at least trying to find a sharper, thicker pick. Trust me, it’ll help.

How to Make The Sweeping Motion

Pick up your guitar and strum some chords for me.

Uhh, alright…

Now look down at how you’re strumming these chords.

Mmm hmmm….

How are you making the strumming movement?

Err… with my knees?

What the heck?! You’re making the movement from your elbow.

And we want to use this exact same motion when sweep picking.

So angle the pick to 45°, hold it loosely, just use the very tip and mute all the strings with your fretting hand, it’s practice time.

Slowly play each muted string individually, letting your pick bounce from one string to the next, moving it downwards by rotating your elbow. (Almost like a really slow strum)

Go slowly up and down and start getting used to this movement – it’ll feel as awkward as heck to begin with.

My No.1 trick for beginners wanting to do sweep picking cleanly is to act like the strings aren’t there and let your elbow pivot smoothly up and down without making an attempt to pluck each one.

You want it to feel like one large, fluid movement.

If you have the correct pick angle and hold down, then the pick shouldn’t get stuck on the strings and everything should flow nicely.

Sometimes, you may even see the odd guitarist making the sweep movement from the wrist instead.

Although that’s a pretty idea, I first tried it that way, and it doesn’t work anywhere near as well.

And I don’t like stuff that doesn’t work well.

Muting With Your Picking Hand

No, you may not skip this step, it’s possibly the most important one.

Because guitar is a really annoying, frustrating, infuriating, devilish, irritating, troublesome, bothersome, irksome, vexing, vexatious, galling instrument…

(Thanks Oxford Thesaurus)

Strings tend to ring out when you’ve just lifted your finger off them, or even when you aren’t actually playing them.

And if we aren’t dampening that excess noise, we’re gonna sound as messy as a night in the Red-Light District.

So to do this, we want to mute all the strings lower in pitch than the one we are currently playing, using the palm of our hand.

You want to make sure that as you make this sweeping motion from the elbow, you gently slide your picking palm across the strings as you go.

E.g. You want to play an ascending sweep picking lick, starting on the A string.

Play the first note with your palm muting the low E string, the next note with your palm muting the E string AND the A string, the next note with your palm muting the E, A and D string etc…

By the time you get to the high E string, you have the EADGB strings above it all muted.

This prevents shedloads of excess noise.

And just in case you aren’t yet convinced, here’s a sweeped arpgeggio without palm muting:

And here’s one with muting:

Yeah, you’re gonna want to get used to muting.

The Best Fretting Hand Technique

That muting you’ve just spent ages practising was all a waste of time…

…

If you don’t get the fretting hand right.

Haha, I had you for a second there.

The major problem that most beginners have when learning to do sweep picking cleanly, is that the notes they play overlap with each other.

And under high gain, that leads to complete world destruction.

In the words of Ben Eller, “You want the notes to be stuck together like butter” – not overlapping, not spiky, but in line right next to each other.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what will either make you a sweep picking beast or sweep picking non-beast.

So what’s the best way to practice this?

Well, it’s just getting it right at a low speed and then working your way up.

Ugh, how tedious…

I knew you weren’t gonna like it.

But the good news is that you can use this low speed to focus on the other aspects of your technique at the same time and form the good habits early, rather than rushing it.

And you can use one of the exercises I’ve left down below to practice this.

Go slow, get rid of the overlap, and build up. Within a week or two you’ll be shredding cleanly like a boss.

Trust me, if there’s any part you want to get right, it’s this bit.

Tips For Practising Cleaner and Faster Sweep Picking

Nice one! By now you’ve got the basic technique down and are almost ready to go.

However, one of the problems you’ll run into when sweep picking is running into multiple notes on different strings using the same fret.

If you want to play these fast then you’ll want to bar/barre them down.

If you don’t know what barring is then you can view my post on how to play bar chords by clicking here.

And it can be particularly tricky to stop these kinds of notes from overlapping with each other.

A good way to cope with this is to use the “finger roll”.

Practice playing one string with your fingertip and rolling onto the next string and with the pad of your finger.

E.g. Try rolling with your index finger from the 5th fret of the B string onto the 5th fret of the high E string without making the notes overlap.

Play the B string with your fingertip and flatten your index finger down to hit the E string with the pad of your finger. As you do this, release pressure off the B string to stop it overlapping.

It ain’t easy, but hey, whoever said sweep picking was a walk in the park?

If you wanna look cool, you gotta put in the effort.

My second piece of advice is to use a really punishing tone when practising sweep picking.

That means: bridge pickup selected, some crunchy gain and no extra effects like reverb or delay.

This’ll mean that you can hear every bit of note overlap or excess string clanging as clear as day, so you can sort it out fast.

Anyway, enough chit-chat about technique, let’s get you rippin’.

Sweep Picking Practise Exercises

You know what you gotta do, so let’s get you doing it.

Most sweep picking licks are based on arpeggios, so its important you get used to these movements.

If you don’t know how to play arpeggios, then you can view my post on how to learn and solo with them by clicking here:

These exercises will help all you beginners learning to do sweep picking cleanly out there put everything into action.

The first one is based off an A minor arpeggio:

Use that as your practice lick.

Focus on getting your technique right and go as slow as you physically need to do that.

When I was practising sweep picking, oh boy, I went slower than a disabled tortoise.

But hey! Look at where I am today.

Once you’re comfortable with that you can have a go at this extended variation of the first one:

If you wanna really get the most out of sweep picking, then getting familiar with those slippery slides and pull-offs is a must.

This next lick uses smaller and faster sweeps, which break up the monotony of the same movements & sounds over and over again:

Watch out for those pesky barred notes on the 17th fret…

Get ’em right early on to save yourself crippling headaches in the future.

And finally…

Will you please welcome…

The ultimate sweep picking lick of all time:

It’s so difficult, I can’t even play it myself!

But I admire you for trying hehehe…

Slides, pull-offs, barred notes, this lick has it all, with a half step bend at the end to finish.

If you can play that, it’s fair to say you could probably play anything…

Except Smoke on the Water, ooh that’s a tough one.

Wrapping it Up

If all you beginners follow these steps for sweep picking cleanly, then you ain’t gonna be a sweep picking beginner for much longer.

Just remember: pick at 45°, move with the elbow, mute with the palm and stop the notes overlapping.

After that, you’re good to go.

Sweep picking is never gonna be easy, and you’ll probably have moments of punching, kicking and caressing your guitar in rage…

But the hardest techniques are the coolest ones, so exhausting your reserves of patience will be well worth it!

I’ve been Sam Olverson…

See you in the next one!

P.S. If you want to learn how to play arpeggios on guitar and use them to solo, then click here to view my post on that and take your lead playing to a new level.

The post How to Do Sweep Picking Cleanly For Beginners appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

A bit of controlled wibble-wobble here and there can make your melodies sound as lush as daisies or as aggressive as Gordon Ramsey after losing the lamb sauce.

It’s the trademark of a guitarist who knows what they are doing, so if you get it right, the whole world is gonna love ya.

And hey, that’s why I’m here!

Today I’ll be going over how the pros do vibrato on guitar along some tips at the end on how to make it sound epic.

What is Vibrato?

Vibrato is basically the oscillation/wobbling of a note, because it adds colour to the music and possesses more emotion than a flat, single note.

You may have even seen it’s guitar tab symbol before:

And…errr… that’s literally it.

So let’s get in to how to actually do it.

How to do Vibrato Using The Wrist

Wow, that sounded worse out loud than it did in my head.

Anyway, applying vibrato from the wrist is the No.1 best way to do vibrato on guitar, so here’s how you do it:

1. Place your hand in a bluesy grip and find an easy and comfortable note to play, like the A on the 10th fret on the B string

2. Play it and rotate your wrist downward/clockwise, like you would it you were opening a door nob. Keep your finger pressed on the string so that you pull the string with you a bit.

3. Rotate back up to the starting point and repeat this motion smoothly.

And that’s literally it.

Have a go with different fingers to get used to it too.

You’ll want to make sure that you layer up all the fingers behind the fret you’re playing when you do this to add more strength.

E.g. When playing the note with your ring finger, keep a hold of the string with your index and middle fingers. 3x fingers = 3x strength.

This will especially help whilst bending, which I’ll touch on later.

But then what do I do on the high E string where there’s no space to pull the note downwards?

Do I just snip that string off and never use it again?

Aha! Great question… sort of…

You’re just gonna have to rotate upwards instead, pushing the string towards the middle of the fretboard and releasing back down again.

Anyway, this isn’t the only way to do vibrato on guitar, there are two more useful ways you should know about…

How to Do Vibrato Using Your Fingers

All the lads who play classical guitar love to add vibrato this way because it’s very efficient and fits in with how they play.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the same comfortable note you used earlier, but instead of using the blues grip, place your thumb on the underside of the neck, laying out your four fingers parallel to the frets.

2. Play the note and pull the string downwards with your finger

3. Release and do the same again. Just imagine your finger is a wiggly worm and you’ll get there.

The whole reason people use this style is – surprisingly – not actually because people want to become wiggly worms.

But because it fits the classical guitarist “fast” hand position nicely, where you can’t really rotate your wrist.

So it’s always a good one to have in the toolbox after those quicker runs.

How to Do Jazzy Vibrato

Another totally different way to add vibrato for a new and unique sound is to do it like the jazz folks.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Take the same comfortable note and bluesy hand position you did from earlier.

2. Play it again, but instead of sliding up and down to make the wobble sound, you’re gonna want to pull the string towards the nut.

3. Then release tension and pull again.

It should sound a wee bit like this:

You’re basically tugging the string towards the nut from the bridge to stretch it rather than pulling it up and downwards.

Kinda cool, right?

Use that one to stand out from the crowd a bit.

Making Vibrato Sound Nice

So you learned how to add vibrato, you picked up your guitar, you played a note and… Yuck!

It sounds frantic and agitated and better without vibrato than with.

So how do you actually go about adding that luscious, creamy vibrato on guitar like the pros?

The first thing you can do is slow down.

Unless you want your vibrato to sound super fast like a buzzing beehive, you’ll be better off at a slow or mid speed.

The second thing you can do is work on getting it even.

Consistent speed upwards and downwards with roughly the same amount of string pull each time is where you wanna be to make it sound smooth.

You can even play your vibrato in time to the song to practice this.

And that’s actually a cool technique in itself:

And the third thing is to keep control of vibrato whilst bending.

This is where most people – including myself once upon a time – fall down because they let the bend slip a bit.

You’ve got to dip the bend a little below the note you’re bending to then back up to exactly where it was.

Loads of people hit the right note with the bend, then add vibrato by wiggling it a bit and end up forgetting that you’re still supposed to be hitting a note.

It doesn’t sound nice and I do not like not nice stuff.

Just keep the bend in tune for me, alright?

Finding Your Own Vibrato

Here’s for the fun bit. Finding your own style!

A few great examples of guitarists who have distinct vibrato styles are BB King, Marty Friedman and Zakk Wylde.

BB King opts for slightly smaller, faster vibrato wibbles, whilst Zakk Wylde and Marty Friedman opt for wider, slightly slower wobbles.

Have an experiment and see whether you prefer expressive vibrato or subtler vibrato and incorporate that into your playing.

Another cool thing Marty Friedman tends to do is to play a note, hold off on the vibrato for a second or two, and then add vibrato.

It creates expectation and tension whilst the note is sustaining as you wait for the vibrato to hit.

Subtle but epic.

He’s actually got an entire video on it here which you may find useful.

Wrapping it up

There we go folks, get used to rotating your wrist, keeping those bends in tune and making expressive guitar faces and your playing will soon sound as creamy as an ice cream parlour.

Remember, as you practice this you’ll be shredding up your fingers and cursing your guitar like never before so enjoy the fun whilst it lasts

Have fun wobbling!

P.S. If you want to learn the Top 5 Arpeggio Shapes and how you can use them in your soloing, then click here to view my post on that.

The post How To Do Vibrato on Guitar – The No.1 Way appeared first on Beast Mode Guitar.

Arpeggios. Those things that we have all heard of at one point in our life, but we still don’t know what they are.

You may even have even had a conversation with someone who passionately loves arpeggios, and felt a little threatened by their aggressiveness.

But they really are the way forward when it comes to soloing.

Arpeggios will make your solos sound 50x better if you learn and apply them correctly.

Today, I’ll go over all the different kinds of guitar arpeggio shapes, how you should learn them, and how to use them in your improvisation.

Major Arpeggio Shapes

An arpeggio is basically a chord, but in note form.

For example, an A major chord is built from the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of its scale. You strum these three notes at once and you get an A major chord, right?

Well, to play an A major arpeggio, you still take the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the scale. You just play the notes individually all over the neck, meaning you can slide between them and do some funky melodies and bends and stuff.

So with that in mind, here is the first of the A major guitar arpeggio shapes:

Yeah, not the nicest. But it’s vital that you get used to these awkward fingerings and barring notes on the fly with arpeggios.

And when we look at adding notes to them later, they’ll get easier.

But for now, spend some time getting used to these standard major shapes and then we can customize them a bit.

Let’s roll on to the second one:

This time you start from the major 3rd of the arpeggio on the 9th fret. I’ll give you some advice on how to connect this one with the first position a wee bit later.

Are all guitar arpeggio shapes annoyingly fiddly, Sam?

Yup, and there’s nothing you can do about it muhaha…

Here’s the fourth shape for ya:

How the frick am I supposed to play two notes on the same string with the same finger??

My answer to that is to slide, ladies and gentlemen, slide…

Arpeggio notes are often quite far apart, so you’ll find yourself often sliding between them to keep transitions smooth.

It’ll make getting stuck in one position harder, playing shapes easier and your playing more slipperyer.

Finally, here’s a shape that allows you to connect the last shape and the first shape nicely:

Again, you’re gonna wanna get that slide going on the B string, and make sure you practice this one an octave lower too with the root note on the 5th fret.

Oh yeah, you can also choose to barre those top three notes with your first finger.

I just find it’s easier to stop them overlapping each other by playing each one individually, which is particularly important with high gain tones.

Your choice though dude.

*How To Practice Arpeggio Shapes For Fast Progress

Before you go and try to learn the rest of the arpeggios in this post straight away and forget the ones I’ve just shown you, this is how you can really embed these into your muscle memory…

I call it The Glue Method:

1. First, start by going up and down the first two shapes separately until you feel like you know them.

2. Then practice going up Position 1, sliding up a note to the highest note of Position 2 on the high E string and coming back down Position 2.

You can then flip this by going up Position 2, sliding down to Position 1 and then descending again.

3. Then practice going up Position 1 and sliding up on each string to the other note in Position 2.

You can then repeat this by descending down Position 2 and sliding down each time to the lower note in position 1.

4. Finally, combine everything and have a bash improvising whilst bouncing between the two positions. It doesn’t have to sound good – just play something and slide up, then back down again.

5. Do the same again, this time gluing Position 3 onto the end of Position 2.

Then you can carry on until you’ve glued all the shapes together and have one massive chain of notes hardwired into your brain.

And bish bash bosh, just like that you’re a major arpeggio pro.

You can thank me later

Minor Arpeggio Charts

Alrighty, it’s time for the Ying to the major arpeggio Yang.

These shapes will be very similar to the major shapes, except with a minor 3rd instead.

So here’s numero uno:

A hell of a lot of barring going on there so it’ll be difficult to keep this one clean.

But hey, as soon as we add a minor 7th in later it’ll be as easy as stubbing a toe.

Anyway, here’s the next one:

Nice and straight forward, use The Glue Method with some Pritt Stick and this will connect nicely with the first position.

Here’s numero tres:

Ouch.

Numero cuatro:

Nice and easy… sort of.

And finally, numero fünf:

And voila! That’s minor done.

(There’s no need to feel daunted by my foreign linguistic proficiency)

Remember to practice both the major and minor variants in a bunch of different keys first before you move on so you’re ready to solo at any time.

And to use The Glue Method for minor too!

Then after that you’ll have the power to make these guitar arpeggio shapes as colourful and interesting as you like.

Funnily enough, that’s exactly what we’re going to look at next…

Colouring Arpeggios – Dominant 7th

You’ve done the boring and hard bit…

So here’s an even boringer and harder bit! Whoop, whoop!

Just joking, this is the easy part where you get to make these things sound good.

Adding notes like 2nds, 4ths, 6ths and 7ths to arpeggios is like colouring a blank canvas; you can begin to make them sound interesting.

Plus, they’re easier to play which is nice.

To create an A7 arpeggio, all we have to do is take our regular A major guitar arpeggio shapes, and add the note two frets behind the root note.

Like this:

And now we can start getting some cool sounds.

You don’t even really have to learn any more shapes, if you know where the A root note is, you know where the 7th is.

(If you need help learning the notes on the fretboard quickly – which will help a lot when soloing, then click here to view my post on that)

Either way, I’ve left all the other positions down below for you:

You already know the standard major shapes well so all you’ve gotta do is memorise where those 7th notes are.

Now when an A7 comes up in a chord progression, you know exactly what to play.

Major 7th Arpeggios

What’s the dominant 7th’s younger brother?

The major seve-

That’s right! The non-dominant 7th!

Uhhh what? Is that even a thing?

Maybe, somewhere in the world…

I’ll take that as a no.

Moving on, to turn an A major arpeggio into an Amaj7 arpeggio, all you gotta do is add the the note one fret behind the root note:

And boom! There’s your friendly-neighbourhood A major 7 arpeggio.

And just because y’all asked for it, here are the rest of the shapes:

So they’re the major ones for today.

I’ve just got the minor 7th guitar arpeggio shapes left to show you and then I’ll give you some tips on how to actually use these things in your playing.

Minor 7th Arpeggios

It’s minor time!

We add the minor 7th in the same way that we add the dominant 7th, just throw in the note two frets behind the root note and there you have it.

Bon appétit:

Wow! That looks remarkably like the minor pentatonic!

Well, it’s because it is, just without the 4th note of the scale added. These should be easy enough if you know all your pentatonic shapes already.

(You can view my post on how to learn and solo with the pentatonic shapes by clicking here)

As always, practice all these different types of arpeggio with the glue method for a bit, just so you can get a grip of where those extra notes are.

What’s the Point of Learning Arpeggios?

Now, why the heck would you want to learn all those guitar arpeggio shapes when you have scales instead?

Well, it’s because it lets you connect to chords as you solo over them like the pros do.

Picture this… You’re having a groovy time with your band at a gig, and your guitarist buddy is playing a simple chord progression to allow you to have some fun improvising.

You start using a scale because that’s what you’ve been told you’re “supposed to do”. And after a bit off a dilly dally, you then pull out a hot and spicy lick and everyone loves you for a few seconds.

But, oh no… what’s this on the horizon… is that the V chord? Watch out, watch out, watch out, NOOOO!

Just as the V chord hits, you finish the epic lick on the 6th note of the scale, creating a disgustingly dissonant V add b9 duuudun Jaws chord.

Everyone starts screaming and running in circles in a mad frenzy because it sounds so bad and people pour beer all over your equipment because they don’t want another sound to come out of you again.

And – worst of all – you drop your pick and can’t figure out where it’s gone.

However, if you were playing arpeggios, you would’ve paid attention to the chords as they came, finished the spicy lick on a note that makes everyone drool as a pose to throw up, and most importantly, not lost your pick.

Capiche?

How to Actually Use Arpeggios in Your Soloing

Now’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

The entire reason you learnt all those guitar arpeggio shapes in the first place.

Well, the most fundamental way to use them would be to play the arpeggio notes of the chords you’re soloing over.

E.g. If E7, A7, B7 was your chord progression, you would choose to play the dominant 7th arpeggio of each chord as it comes.

And whilst this works fine and you are nicely linking to what’s being played behind you, it doesn’t really add much.

All the notes you’re playing are already there in the chords.

So there’s a couple of different ways you can approach this which can make your playing sound both connected and stylish…

1. Add Marty Friedman-style half step bends

Let’s face it, bending with arpeggios is normally kinda hard because all the notes are so far apart.

But if you add a small, half a step bend up to an arpeggio note now and again, you add a new dimension to your playing.

It also captures the audience’s attention as you’re playing a wrong note for a millisecond before bringing it back.

In this example, I play an E major arpeggio, but I bend up to the major 3rd from the minor 3rd, which shouldn’t work but sounds really cool:

And you can do that up to any arpeggio note, such as from the b5th/blues note up to the 5th:

And it doesn’t have to be a bend, you could even make it a slide up/down to that note by a half step too.

Like in this example where I slide up and down to the E note by a half step.

I don’t normally use quotes but I really like this one by Picasso:

“Learn the rules like a pro, and then break them like an artist.”

Just break the rules a bit, add in non-arpeggio notes as passing notes here and there to shake things up…

2. Using Scales With Arpeggios

Building on from that last point, another great way to add flare yet stay connected with the band is to use the notes of a specific scale as passing notes towards each of the chord arpeggios.

Using the same E7, A7, B7 example from earlier, we could choose to use the E Mixolydian scale. (Basically the major scale with a dominant 7th instead of a major 7th)

And navigate towards the notes of the E7, A7 and B7 chords as they come using this scale. (Steven Stine has a really great video on using arpeggio notes with scales)

This is a great one if you happen to know all the scale shapes already.

We can use arpeggio notes we already know as targets in those shapes as these are fundamentally the notes we want to linger on.

Or are they…

3. Using Suspended Arpeggios to Avoid Normal Chord Notes

I first got this idea in from a video Joe Satriani did for Guitar World. He basically argues that if you land on chord tones too early, you are finishing the story too soon.

Whereas, if you choose to finish your phrase on a suspended 4th, 2nd or 6th note, the listener is kept hanging as to where the phrase can go next.

It prolongs interest in what you are playing, and stops things becoming monotonous.

You could play a melody in Am with your minor 7th arpeggio, maybe add a quick passing note somewhere and then finish the phrase on the suspended 2nd note – for instance.

This would create an Am9 arpeggio, which sounds awesome and leaves everyone hanging on for the next phrase.

Here’s one I made earlier:

Have a play around and see which notes you like the sound of the most and practice finishing phrases on them.

For me, 2nds and 4ths are my favourite for minor, and 2nds and 6ths my favourite for major.

Implement this with guitar arpeggio shapes and you’ll find your improvising becomes as smooth as The Rock’s cleanly-shaven head.

And that’s pretty darn smooth!

Wrapping It Up

Phew! That one took a while. Props to you for making it all the way to the end.

Arpeggios are well worth the time and effort because your soloing is gonna sound 32x more melodic from now on, and the guy next door is gonna in tears because he doesn’t know why you sound so much better than him.

#Arpeggios > Scales

It’ll take a wee bit of time getting used to switching between different chord arpeggios mid-solo, but soon enough your crush will be asking you out on a date because you sound so darn good.

Worked for me, anyway.

Have fun soloing!

P.S. If you haven’t already downloaded the PDF with all these shapes in, you can do so by clicking here.

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