Ken Settle is a Detroit area photographer who
specializes in music photography. Ken began
his career while barely in his teens,
photographing rock’n’roll legend Bob Seger
during his days playing in Detroit hockey rinks
and clubs, and still keeps a full schedule
shooting live photos and portraits of today’s
top artists.
Great music tells a story. It builds on a plot and holds the listener’s attention as the story unfolds. We are especially moved by soloists who bare their souls and who keep us riveted with every twist and turn from their narrative. Pentatonics are the backbone of modern guitar vocabulary. Partially because they just sound good, but also because they lay so easily on guitar. There are several ingredients that make a guitarist sound brilliant, but one of the most important is chromaticism. Could there a be a way we could combine these two? Let’s find out.
This term chromaticism comes from the Greek word chroma, which means “color.” Using chromaticism means having the freedom to use all 12 notes over a given chord. Imagine the possibilities and freedom to play any note over a chord in composition or improvising! The quickest way to start adding color notes to the minor pentatonic scale is to add the 2nd and the 6th, which then gives you a Dorian mode. I’ve outlined it below using the A minor pentatonic scale.
A Minor pentatonic: A–C–D–E–G
A Dorian: A–B–C–D–E–F#–G
In general, there are chromatic notes that are outside the chord/scale, and notes that are outside the key. The latter carries a lot of tension against a chord and needs movement or resolution. From my days of playing jazz gigs in Toledo, OH, I recall what legendary trumpeter Jimmy Cook once told me regarding playing outside: “You can go up to the attic, but you have to come back down.” In other words, you can play outside tonally, but you must resolve at some point in order for your music to sound coherent.
Let’s get started on this journey of chromaticism together.
Before we go hog wild and add random notes, let’s begin by taking an A minor pentatonic scale and fill in the chromatic notes between the already existing box pattern. It’s almost arbitrary, but it will enable you to hear different colors added within the scale (Ex. 1).
Chromatic Burst of Energy. In beat 1 of Ex. 2, we start with an A Dorian fragment followed by an extended chromatic line. The line in beat two starts on the b7 (G), highlighting the b5 (Eb) on beat 3, descending chromatically all the way down to B, and ending with A major pentatonic.
Bounce Around! We start on the b5 (Eb) followed by a typical chromatic rotation where we bounce around the b5. This idea lays quite well in the familiar pentatonic box. It’s easy and will add spice to your shredding (Ex. 3).
Side Stepping. A common approach to playing “outside” is side stepping. In other words, take the scale you’d normally use and displace it by a half-step above or below. By doing this, you’ll have instant access to notes that are harmonically outside the key—don’t think of them as wrong notes, just coloring notes. In Ex. 4 we take a pentatonic pattern from E minor pentatonic and sequence it in F minor pentatonic. As the notes can be analyzed over the E5 chord, it’s more important to view them as passing notes. Remember, the power of the sequence overrides the harmony!
Extend the Side Step. Ex. 5 uses the same concept of side stepping above but adds a note (D) to the displaced pattern. By doing so, this breaks the predictability of the phrase and places subsequent notes in new places.
Changing Tones.Ex. 6 is a fun lick to learn that starts with a strong, repeated three-note polyrhythmic figure (A#–B–D). The chromatic part occurs on beat 4 and utilizes changing tones, which is a type of non-harmonic tone.
Don’t Start On 1. The line starts on the 2nd (B), goes up a whole-step to C# followed by a double chromatic approach to Bb, down a whole-step to (G#), and finally resolving to the root (A). Once the A note is reached, there’s a cascading flurry of four-note groups settling in A minor pentatonic (Ex. 7).
Scrambles. This example (Ex. 8) was inspired by the legendary New York guitarist, Mark Hitt. Mark was a unique player, combining a rock sensibility with a jazz quotient. He developed an arsenal of twisting lines using chromaticism that he referred to as “scrambles.”
The pattern alternates between 1–3–4 and 1–2–4 fingerings, a typical fingering of the diminished scale. It can be analyzed where notes of the pentatonic are being targeted, but it’s all about the texture and excitement that is created. Make sure to play the line with slurs to get a fluid, legato sound.
Half-Step Approach. In this instance, we take the Im triad (Am) from the pentatonic scale and approach each chord tone from a half-step below (Ex. 9). This is more of a concept and exercise rather than a lick. This idea can be used with just about any improvising application.
One String Wonder. Ex. 10 highlights a series of chromatically descending half-steps. It’s an easy technique to get down and one I often use. It provides melodic interest, but also serves as an easy way to connect one position to the next. Here, we start on a high F that walks down a fourth to C in half-steps, followed by a C minor blues phrase.
Practice Tip
These chromatic lines sound best when played fast and with conviction. As always, approach new material slowly and accurately. Ignore your inner voice that may tell you that the “outside” notes are wrong. Once you’re able to play the lines up to speed, you’ll be amazed by how impressive it sounds. These ideas that will add motion, color, and excitement to your playing and enhance your musical expression when soloing.
In my experience, constructing lines has always been about texture and structure. Developing ideas for soloing and writing melodies takes a keen sense of harmonic and rhythmic context. It’s about seducing the listener and delivering a ride that’s hard to forget—a ride that caters to the listener. Of course, it’s important to write for yourself and from the heart, but also remember that if your heart’s intent is to inspire others, then you’re on the right track for the long haul. And this is where melody comes in.
Melody deserves a certain level of priority in relation to harmony and rhythm. In this lesson, I’m going to show you a quick way to start improving your lines. The good news is music knows no bounds and music doesn’t care what level you’re at. Harmony and rhythm need to help each other tell your story.
In Ex. 1 we’ll be playing the Em7 arpeggio (E–G–B–D) in two positions. Don’t worry, we won’t get into too much theory, just remember these shapes can be transposed into any key. The top one starts in 10th position and shifts up the neck, while the bottom one starts in 5th position. Getting these under your fingers will help map out quite a bit of the fretboard. I try to only visualize one octave at a time, and then take that shape and move it wherever I need to chase the melodic and rhythmic ideas that inspire me.
Ex. 2 follows the same idea, but this time using a Gmaj7 arpeggio (G–B–D–F#). I’ve chosen E minor and G major because they are closely related key centers. When learning these arpeggios, focus on the string pairs that occur in each octave. In the extended arpeggio that ascends from the 2nd fret, notice how the patterns recur in each octave. That’s not always the case, as you’ll see in the second arpeggio that ascends from the 9th fret.
Next, we’re going to use the first Gmaj7 arpeggio—the one with the recurring pattern—to practice running through a sequence. Think of Ex. 3 in groups of five. When practicing such lines, I like to use drum grooves instead of a metronome. Now here’s the twist: To progressively challenge my technique, I keep changing the subdivision of the meter I’m using. For example, we’re in 4/4 time here. As I develop the sequence, I’ll increase the subdivision from quarter-notes, to quarter-note triplets, to eighth-notes, to eighth-note triplets, then 16th-notes, and finally 16th-note triplets. That not only increases my speed but it also forces me to be rhythmically aware, thus giving me both speed and accuracy. It gives me full control. Take your time with this example because we’ll apply the same shifting-subdivision concept to the next one.
We revisit the Em7 arpeggio pattern at the 12th fret for Ex. 4. Let’s take a moment to talk about picking. Please use whatever technique you feel most comfortable with, but if you must know, in the corresponding audio clip I’m using as much legato technique as I can. For those not familiar with this term, it means I’m using hammer-ons and pull-offs to sound many of the notes, as indicated in the notation and tab. But there’s no need to get hung up in the picking technique. If you want to pick every note using alternate or economy picking, then do so with style. If you want to hybrid pick, go for it. The point is to increase your rhythmic knowledge and execute some creative ideas.
Now it’s time to step up the subdivisions. In Ex. 5 and Ex. 6, we’re using the same arpeggios we mapped out earlier, only this time we’re playing 16th-notes. If this is something you haven’t done before, don’t be alarmed. Just think of it as a slight increase in speed. Learning to shift subdivisions with seamless control is a great way to expand your ability to develop lines.
Enough with the exercises—let’s make some music. Ex. 7 starts out by traversing the Em7 arpeggio with 16th-notes, then transitions into the next octave using 16th-note triplets. Then for variety, we mix in some pentatonic lyricism. That brings me to a side note: Always step away for a moment from using only arpeggios by mixing in some pentatonic or scalar lyricism to your lines. A line composed of only arpeggios can sound stiff and redundant. One way to avoid this is to sprinkle some scale tones into the phrase.
In Ex. 8, we’re using Em7 arpeggios again, but the position conveniently gives us a full three octaves to work with. Instead of sticking exclusively to the basic shape, I also included some pentatonic moves. Notice how mixing 16th-notes and 16th-note triplets add color to the line. The key to sounding like a professional player is to make sure your playing offers the listener variety in rhythm and note choice.
We head back to the Gmaj7 shape for Ex. 9. It starts out in the lowest octave, which is at the 2nd fret, and once again mixes in that good ol’ E minor pentatonic (E–G–A–B–D) tonality. We repeat the same thing an octave higher, but because we run out of real estate, we need to slide up before finishing off the line in a G major tonality.
In our final example (Ex. 10), we return to the Gmaj7 arpeggio in its higher position, though we’re treating it a bit more lyrically this time around. No sequences, just playing bits and pieces of the arpeggio.
Hybrid picking is a technique used by many players that combines regular flatpicking with fingerpicking. It’s not all arpeggio and patterns though. Caitlin Caggiano guides us through a lesson using this picking technique for chords, melodic lines, and lead lines, and she shows us how the Beatles, Heart, and others have applied hybrid picking to create classic parts. In this video, you’ll learn what hybrid picking is, why we use it, how to implement good technique, and how to practice and apply the technique in your playing.
Guitar is an unusual instrument, yet somehow we human beings invented it and refined it, both technologically and artistically. There are some days when everything flows, while other days it feels like we’re complete beginners again. This is totally normal. If we really considered how much information our bodies are processing just to be alive in our version of the world, perhaps we’d be a bit kinder to ourselves about our off days and humbler about our good days! I want to share a few perspectives on the core technical aspects of playing that can be helpful to work on and remind ourselves of regularly. Let’s dive in!
Muting
The guitar can be a sensitive instrument. The slightest movements can cause sounds that are both wanted and unwanted to come out. Some of these sounds are natural and part of the character of guitar. However, even though we can’t be perfect we can aim to be as clean as possible in our playing with a few simple maneuvers.
Ensuring the picking hand is covering the strings without bearing down on them too hard keeps the lower strings in check. Depending on your picking-hand style, you can also use the 3rd and 4th fingers to lightly mute the upper three strings.
The fretting hand’s index finger takes control over a lot as well. The fingertip can fret a note on the 5th string and tuck under the 6th string at the same time. The flat side of the index finger from the knuckle area towards the hand can also mute higher strings.
It’s important to consider the type of sound we’re using as well. The more gain or compression we use, the more unwanted noise can come flying out of the guitar. Even with the muting techniques above, if we’re too “hard” with them they can start to create noise themselves. So, keep this in mind.
Less gain gives a more dynamic tone, which is harder to play with, but much easier to control dynamically and keep clean. This isn’t to say it’s better or worse, it’s a stylistic choice. But it’s worth considering how much gain we really do need. Noise gates can help, but they can’t fix or hide poor muting and out of sync hands. (More on keeping sync later in this column.
Keep these muting considerations in mind as we go over the areas of technique to address.
Confidence and Subdivisions
Our fretting hand does a lot of work. Picking synchronization is very important. We’ll look at this next. However, I’ve got some working considerations for the fretting hand.
There are many exercises we can do, but ensuring that you’re not pressing down too hard on the fretboard is the first step. We don’t have to press hard unless we have unreasonably high action. If your action is high and it’s slowing you down, I’d suggest going up a string gauge and lowering the action if you want to keep the “resistance” feel. When we lighten up our touch with the fretting hand, we find that our fingers generally stay closer to the fretboard, which helps with economy of movement.
The next thing to consider is timing. Timing is everything no matter what technique you’re using. If the pistons in the engine aren’t firing at the right time, they’ll go out of sync, all fire at once, and boom, there’s an explosion. I don’t know anything about cars, but it’s an analogy that might make sense. Being aware of the subdivisions you’re playing and where the downbeat is ensures that both hands are confidently making those maneuvers.
Here's an experiment you can try: Take a simple two-octave scale pattern of your choosing. In Ex. 1 I picked a simple D minor scale. The idea is to change subdivisions in each measure. Here, I started with a measure of eighth-notes then went to triplets, back to eighth-notes, 16th-notes, eighth-notes again, and then I wrapped with quarter-notes. No matter where the “1” of the next measure starts within the scale position, we keep the hands synced up. We can make this more complicated by using a sequence of thirds or triads and doing a similar thing. The goal here isn’t to master every position, sequence, and sub-division. It’s to keep testing different areas out, iron out the errors, and keep it fresh. It’s a great warm up when done slow and bound to get you in sync.
Picking Sequences
We also need to do similar things for the picking hand. The same idea we discussed above about subdivisions applies to picking as well. The extra thing to consider of course is pick direction and string skipping.
It’s worth practicing alternate picking here, keeping the confidence and control in place even if purely for technical reasons, to ensure the technique is as even as possible. Take a melody pattern like Ex. 2, where I repeat the same two-measure melody, but I change fingerings in the second half. This changes the amount of picked notes on each string, which changes different aspects of how this melody can feel both technically and from an articulation point of view. A simple way of getting more out of this exercise is to start with an upstroke. With practice, it can be quite an effective picking workout.
String Crossing and Skipping
A lot of guitar playing uses one-note-per-string ideas which can sometimes trip us up. In Ex. 3, I wrote an easy chord progression and created a picking patter that I could alternate pick without losing momentum. It’s a practice that can never get old. Just get creative.
In Ex. 4 we take a minor pentatonic shape (here we are using B minor and F# minor) and move through the pattern with string skipping. A super-simple idea, but worth spending time on. Simple skipping patterns like these keep your playing fresh and focused.
You’re training an impersonal organic system, respect it!
When we’re practicing, we can get quite contracted and tense. There can be a pushiness and anxiety about the process, forcing ourselves through the practice session. We have a lot of internal commentary about how it’s all going, often quite unfair.
“This lick should be fast by now!”
“I don’t have the technique or natural ability to do this.”
“Steve Vai practiced for 10 hours a day, so should I.”
“I’ll never make it as a guitarist.”
All of these thoughts are abstractions as they are not based in reality. What is happening in the moment is practice. Our attention gets divided between these thought patterns and our feeling of anxiety. Very little attention gets spent on really listening and feeling what we’re practicing with no internal commentary. Because of this we become aversive to practice, we feel that practice doesn’t work or that we don’t have a natural ability or talent.
Therefore, wise practice sessions that are simplified and put into short time frames are most effective. It can be helpful to calm ourselves down before practicing so that our practice is effective.
Why do we practice? We practice because it helps us achieve results. We want to play a riff, we listen carefully, we learn the riff, and then we then practice the riff. Generally, that gets results. However, we are impatient. Humans believe that our thoughts can speed up our bodies and brains. This is a misplaced belief. We can set the conditions to get results, but we can’t control the speed at which our body learns. Practicing trains our bodies, our nervous system, our consciousness.
Our bodies are not separate from the world around us; we are what we eat and breathe. Our thoughts are the thoughts we are exposed to, our feelings are consciously and unconsciously triggered by the world around us. We are no different from nature, we are no different from a tree. We don’t will our fingernails to grow, we don’t will our heart and lungs to keeping going. We have no control over our senses, we can’t choose not to hear sounds around us, we can’t choose not to see when we open our eyes. And in the same way, we can’t force our body to speed up.
We must be grateful for the fact we’re alive before we practice, that there’s a body and mind to practice with. Rather than fighting our fingers and our thoughts, we must approach them with compassion. As you’re practicing, your body is busy programming all this information. Just like growing a plant or vegetable, you can set the right conditions, get the soil right, and water it. But you can’t force it to grow immediately, you must treat it with compassion and trust that you’re doing the right process. You can’t plant the seed then as soon as you see any sprouting, start pulling on the sprouts, that will stop growth all together.
In summary: Appreciate your body, your mind, the fact your conscious to even play guitar. Make sure you set reasonable goals in your practice, make your sessions simple and effective. Then, let the practice happen, trust that you’re programming the right information.
For well over 50 years, Bob Weir has been mystifying and delighting fans around the globe with seemingly endless musical ideas, helping to define the sound of the Grateful Dead. Weir has always taken a truly individual approach to rhythm guitar, centered around his affinity for melodic accompaniment. More than just strumming rhythmic patterns, he creates melodies that surround a given chord, adding texture and harmonic depth to the music. The following are examples of the way Weir adds color and rhythmic variety in harmonic patterns and illustrate his artistry as an improviser.
Ex. 1
Ex. 1 shows a contrast in rhythmic activity, where the first two measures are much busier compared to measures three and four. Harmonically, notice the suspended 4th that resolves and leads to the next chord in measure two. Measure two highlights a wide interval of a major 6th and also the 9th, adding color to the triad. Also, in harmonic contrast to the first two measures, measure three and four end the phrase with 3rd-less triads. This is a good example of a compositional quality in Weir’s playing.
Ex. 2
Triadic playing is certainly a component of Weir’s improvisational playing. In Ex. 2, you can see how he breaks up triads by articulating single notes and double-stops with the chord shape. You can see the three D chord shapes in measures one and two starting with a power chord and then sliding into the 3rd (F#) and the next chord shape, grabbing the 1st inversion D triad followed by a root position version of the same chord. Also notable, the use of long and short rhythms adds very musical syncopation. In measure five, note the F#m played completely, then breaking it up with the root followed by double-stop 3rd and 5th of the chord. The next chord, G, is arpeggiated, again in short and long rhythm. That rhythmic idea continues in the last two measures.
Ex. 3
Ex. 3 is another example of breaking up triads, but at a faster tempo. Notice the open E string doubling the 5th of the chord. That’s a nice touch and can be used on other chords as well, adding or doubling any chord tone. In measure three, the A/E chord held for two-and-a-half beats helps to break up the two-beat feel, as does the D/F# in measure four.
Ex. 4
The Dm sequence in Ex. 4 illustrates a Weir-like approach to melodic accompaniment and also a reference to the relative major, F. Beat 3 of measure one and beat 1 of measure two can be seen as using the relative F major, outlined in the diagram in parentheses. Notice the Dm and D5 played in a broken fashion followed by color notes on beat 3 of measure three, sliding double-stops down from D and F to C and E, the 7th and 9th of the Dm chord. The phrase resolves with descending Dm groupings, and a double-stop on the upbeat of 2 that could be thought of as C5, C/D or the 7th and 11th of Dm. Either way, you’re adding color and dimension to static harmony.
Ex. 5
Bending a string within a double-stop is pretty common in Weir’s playing, and you see this in Ex. 5 on beat 4 of measure one. The D# is pre-bent up a half-step to E and released in time down to D#, then pulled off to C#, all while holding on to the G# on the 3rd string. Rhythmic and melodic themes are apparent in Weir’s playing. In measures three and four, you can see variations of a rhythmic idea from measures two. All three measures have a version of a dotted quarter and eighth note rhythm, but end in a slightly different way.