Archive for February, 2010

Paper Crumbling To Build Strength As A Guitar Player

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Train Your Guitar-Playing Muscles To Work For You

As you may have already figured out, playing the guitar requires synchronous movement/coordination between you finger, palm, wrist, forearm and shoulder muscles. My beginning students have described finger/wrist muscle movements as being unnatural or awkward when they are trying to make chords or notes. I assure you that motions that may seem awkward at first can become almost natural if rehearsed enough.

So lets learn an exercise that demonstrates your ability to build muscle coordination today. It will seem pretty awkward when you first start it but as you go the movements will become almost natural.

OK everybody put down your guitar and get ready to realize your ability to build muscle coordination in just a manner of minutes.

1.  Put two pieces of newspaper (the whole page) on the floor directly in front of you, one to the left one to the right, kneel in front of them.

2.  With outstretched fingers grasp the middle of a paper in each hand.

3.  Lift the papers to about shoulder level.

4.  Take the paper you have grasped and use it as leverage to grasp and bring in more paper toward your palm, use you fingers to crush the paper as if you wanted to created a ball of it in your hand.

5.  Continue drawing more paper in and crushing it until you have only a baseball sized result in each hand.

Did you do it the first time out? As you went along did it get easier? This is what practice is all about taking a muscle movement that would in any other contest be awkward and repeating it until it gradually becomes comfortable. Apply what you just discovered about yourself to building muscle coordination on the guitar. Happy paper crumbling!

-Bob

You can learn more about Bob Prong by visiting his website at: http://prongamaniarunswild.tripod.com/

This article was written by Bob Prong

Minor Pentatonic Mania

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Pentatonic Minor Mania

This article covers the following topics:

  • How and Why a minor Pentatonic minor works.
  • Where to play a Pentatonic minor.
  • Who uses a Pentatonic minor?

What is a pentatonic?

The pentatonic minor is actually a DERIVATIVE of the minor scale, but can be considered as being related to the major scale if that is all you have as a reference.

For the purpose of demonstration I will present it in two ways: as related to the major scale and the minor, as I understand that some of you may only have knowledge of the major scale at this point.  So here’s the example as it relates to the major scale first:

For example: the major scale in the key of C is:  C D E F G A B C   (7 tones)

To derive the minor we flat the 3rd  , 6th and 7th scale degrees. Therefore C minor scale is C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Five tones making up the pentatonic, C, Eb F G Bb are a subset of the minor scale

Why these five tones?

The tones are chosen using  the 1st 3rd an 5th intervals, making up the C min triad and adding in the 4th  and 7th .

Another way to choose the 5 tones if you have a knowledge of relative minor keys:

First, start with the major scale and stack perfect 5th intervals above the tonic, C.

Notes:    C         G              D    A            E

Intervals:  5 tones    5 tones   5 tones      5 tones

Arrange them into one scale and you get:  C D E G A

Arrange them to the relative minor (Am) and you get A C D E G, the Am pentatonic scale, which is 3 frets lower on the guitar ( a minor 3rd) than C pentatonic.

Why does the pentatonic scale work over I-IV-V (rock) so well?

The tones found in a pentatonic scale are COMMON to each scale.

Lets take a look at the I_IV V progression:

I – C: C D E F G A B C

IV – F:  F G A Bb C D E F

V – G: G A B C D E F# G

Thus, The 5 tones in the pentatonic: A C D E G are common to each scale.

Tones that will sound dissonant have been eliminated.

Play these common tones right over a power chord or blues progression and it will give you a “bluesy” or “heavy” sound.

Where can I find good examples of pentatonic minor playing?

A good heavy example is like Black Sabbath.  A good blues example is Stevie Ray Vaughn.  But there are many others that play the same style that can provide great examples of songs that you can play the pentatonic major scale along with.

You can learn more about Bob Prong at his website: http://prongamaniarunswild.tripod.com/

This article was written by Bob Prong

Major Pentatonic Mania

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Pentatonic Major Mania by Bob Prong

This article covers the following topics:

How a Pentatonic works, Why a Pentatonic works, Where to play a Pentatonic, and Who uses a Pentatonic.

What is a pentatonic scale?

Pentatonic scales should not be a mystery. A pentatonic scale is not something somebody came up with one day and said, “Here everybody is the pentatonic scale!” and therefore it was. The pentatonic is actually a DERIVATIVE of the major scale. For example: the major scale in the key of C is: C D E F G A B C (7 tones). The pentatonic major in the key of C is a subset: C D E G A (5 tones). Therefore C major pentatonic is a SUBSET of C major.

Why these five tones?

The tones are chosen using 5th intervals in the key of c, just follow the musical alphabet…

Notes: C G D A E

Intervals: 5 tones 5 tones 5 tones 5 tones

Arrange them into one scale and you get: C D E G A

Why does the pentatonic scale work over I-IV-V progressions so well?

(a I – IV – V progression is the most common progression found in rock.)

The tones found in a pentatonic scale are COMMON to each scale. For example lets take the 3 scales in the key of c that make up the I-IV-V progression:

C: C D E F G A B C

F: F G A Bb C D E F

G: G A B C D E F# G

Thus, The 5 tones in the pentatonic: C D E G A are common to each scale. Tones that my “clash” or cause dissonance (sound out of tune) are eliminated. These are F# and Bb. The five tones that are left will sound good “no matter what”. So just go ahead and play them as much as you want and you will never hit a bad note.

Where can I find good examples of pentatonic major playing?

Artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Pure Prairie League, Crosby Stills and Nash, Phish, and The Grateful Dead (just to name a few) can provide great examples and songs that you can play the pentatonic major scale along with.

You can find out more about Bob Prong at his website: http://prongamaniarunswild.tripod.com/

This article was written by Bob Prong