@ Brian
Serious response time (no Oompa Loompas in sight).
It is great to read your story of the session, the chat, the focus on song-writing (a direction you seem compelled to follow), on progressing to barre chords etc. On the last of those, can I make a suggestion? Get a vibe going with the 4-chord progression. You know the famous one. The I - V - vi - IV progression. Try playing it in G which uses only open chords:
G - D - E minor - C
Then try in C which uses one barre chord (you could use a mini-barre F Major chord or alternate between F barre and F Maj7 so you can keep the progression going without fatiguing your barring finger too soon):
C - G - A minor - F
Then to extend and focus more on practicing your barre chords, try it in other keys.
Key of D
D - A - B minor - G
… play all as barre chords with roots on 5th & 6th strings or just the last two as barre chords to ease finger fatigue.
Key of A
A - D - F# minor - E
.. again mix & match barre chords with open shapes.
In technical terms these are all called I - V - vi - IV progressions. (If you don't know what that is you may want to research it a little).
Other variations using the same chords are:
A minor - F - C - G
E minor - C - G - D
B minor - G - D - A
F# minor - E - A - D
In technical terms these are called vi - IV - I - V progressions.
And another variation:
C - A minor - F - G
G - E minor - C - D
D - B minor - G - A
A - F# minor - D - E
In technical terms these are called I - vi - IV - V progressions.
Again, vary your playing so sometimes you play open chords, sometimes 5th string or 6th string barre chords for majors and minors.
@ Bala
Re:
Soloing with the approach of targeting chord tones.
First, you need to know the notes (triads will work) of the chords in the progression. These will become your target notes, comfortable landing places when the chords are changing. So for your chosen chord progression / backing track, chart the chords as triads on the top three strings. Visualise the five moveable CAGED barre shapes and just mark the notes on the G, B & E strings. If you know your intervals, mark the root and the 3rd and 5th too. Definitely the root. Have these neck diagrams in sight when playing.
The sort of backing track that will work best with this will have only three or four chords, be fairly slow and hold each chord for at least two bars.
To begin, play just one note per bar of the progression. Start with the root note of each chord as it comes around. Just the root.
Then repeat but with either the 3rd or the 5th.
Then repeat but play any two notes per bar over the chords, root & 3rd, root & 5th, 3rd & 5th.
Then repeat and extend the idea. Make up a little run of notes that either start and / or end on the root note of each chord per bar. Because the chords last for at least two bars you could progress to runs, licks & phrases that start in one bar and end in the other. For now, still limit your choice to notes that are only from the triads – the root, 3rd or 5th.
Note – for minor chords, the 3rd is a b3rd.
Try this for a few weeks over a variety of backing tracks in different keys.
Topic: The 1-to-1 Sessions ... (Read 49055 times)
