Bb7 Lines

Classes at Berklee have started again so I'm busy again! But here are some lines that I wrote last week. It's all over a Bb7 chord. Enjoy! =)

Till later, play on!

II-V arpreggio fingerings

Here are two fingerings for playing 7th chord arpreggios. The first example contains practical two octave root postion fingerings. The second example is kind of a short exercise using all the available arpreggio notes within the first five frets of the guitar neck. I've crammed the notes using a combination of 8th notes and triplets.

The next step after trying these examples out is to write some lines using these fingerings. There are obviously a lot of other fingering possibilities but these are two that you can try out. Enjoy! =)

Till later,play on!

Soloing Using Chord Tones

Here is a solo I wrote using mostly chord tones over the first 16 bars of a well known standard tune.

Enjoy!

Three II-V lines for a Friday

Here are three minor II-V lines that resolve into a Major 7 chord. They contain triad arpregio ideas as well as some bop-type inflections.

An F7 Line

This is a jazzy line that I wrote over an F7 chord. It contains some bebop type ideas as well as some position changes.

Will blog a longer post with more examples in a future post.

Till later, play on!

The Smart Box

This is a miniature that I wrote last week as a single note arpreggio study. It's kind of neo-classical but sounds really happy with it being in C Major and all. The title is a reference to it reminding me of music I used to hear when I watched Malaysia's local educational TV channel (TV Pendidikan) when I was a kid.

Right Hand Thumb Exercise

Here's a little walking bass line and chords etude I wrote to practice using the right hand thumb. It's over a 12 bar blues progression.

Single String Major Scales

Here is an alternative way of learning major scales that I learned from Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist book. Instead of practicing major scales in position, why not learn them on one string? He called this the unitar concept (one-stringed guitar). Mick suggests us to learn the scale on every string but here, I offer one way to start getting into this idea. I have written down all the twelve scales accompanied with the tab for the scales. There are no fingerings written so you can make your own or play the scale with one finger (as I learned from watching a Bill Frisell instructional video a while back. There are many benefits to doing this which include breaking out of position playing as well as discovering phrasing option s that one might not think of when playing in position. You might find other benefits too! Do let me know if you have any insights from trying this out.

And most importantly have fun and enjoy! =)

Till later, play on!

Theme of the day: Dmin7

I thought about what to write yesterday and I came up with four lines over Dmin7. Then, I thought why not write a little piece using just Dmin7 inversions to complement that. Here they are! Enjoy. =)

Till later, play on!

07 Etude #1

This is a little piece that I just wrote as an etude for the right hand. The right hand pattern is: P i m a m i thoughout the piece. I'm looking forward to write more short pieces like this and will post it on the blog when I get them done.

Till later, play on!