34 Easy Ways to Make Your Guitar Solos and Improvisations More Interesting by Shawn Persinger

On first glance this list of “34 Easy Ways to Make Your Guitar Solos and Improvisations More Interesting: For All Levels, Styles and Situations” should seem obvious to many intermediate and advanced players. But a closer look will indicate that you a actually meant focus your attention on any one of these techniques/approaches for an entire solo. For example I am suggesting soloing with only one finger for two to three minutes. Then try a different finger. Then try two to three minutes of only doing slides. Or try restricting yourself to using only three different notes. It is the idea of serious limits that we want to have work within. This demands we as players do at least two things.

1. It makes us become as creative as possible. Just how many different ways can you use grace notes? How many different vibratos can you employ? Can you play an entire melody by bending only one initial note and then coaxing all the other pitches out of that one starting point?

2. It really centers our attention on one seemingly simple idea and you start to realize there is a lot more to any given technique than you thought. After two to three minutes of only performing slides you learn that there is a lot more to a slide then just moving from one fret to another. How many frets should you slide? How fast should you slide? How slow can you slide? How long can you sustain one attack, sliding from note to note to note? How often do you slide with your pinky? Etc. The possibilities of each of these techniques is limitless but only with sustained concentration.

PRACTICE ROUTINE

1.     Record short chord vamp your choice (or just try Am to D), for two to three minute.

2.     Play corresponding scale(s). Ascending and descending. Play the scale a few times with rhythmic variations. If you go with my vamp suggestion Am – D then play the G Major Scale, this will give you a Dorian sound a la Carlos Santana.

3.     Solo focusing on only one of the techniques listed below. Take a break after two to three minutes. Try it again with a different technique.

TECHNIQUES

1.     Rest!

2.     Play with a small number of notes: 3, 4, or 5.

3.     Vibrato.

4.     Staccato: Short notes and phrases

5.     Legato: Long phrases and ideas. Let notes ring.

6.     Slides (slurs)

7.     Hammer-ons & Pull-offs (slurs).

8.     Grace and ghost notes (from above and below).

9.     Call and response / Question and answer.

10.  Motives/Motif

11.  Bends.

12.  Tremolo

13.  Sequences: Intervallic, 3rds, 4ths, etc. Groups of 3, etc.

14.  Play on one string.

15.  Play with only one finger.

16.  Large interval leaps.

17.  Play only in one position: Think Miles Davis.

18.  Play in only one position but two octaves: up 12 frets.

19.  Repetition licks, ideas and phrases.

20.  Unisons.

21.  Approach from a half step below. Half step above.

22.  Octaves and triple stop octaves.

23.  Double-stops.

24.  Speed

25.  Don’t play on the “1”. Rest on it, or sustain a note through it.

26.  Chords.

27.  Changing rhythmic phrases measure to measure i.e.: From quarter notes to quarter note triplets to eighth notes to eighth note triplets, etc.

28.  Changing dynamics from measure to measure i.e.: soft to loud and as many levels as possible in between.

29.  Use only your fingers to attack the strings.

30.  Trills.

31.  Chromatic movement.

32.  Playing with a swing feel over a straight groove or vise versa.

33.  Playing poly-rhythms: Playing a 3 or 5 note phrase (steady quarter or eight notes) over a 4/4 beat or playing a 4 or 8 note phrase (steady quarter or eight notes) over a 3/4 beat.

34.  Think in shapes:

1. Jagged lines or Flowing lines
2. Broken lines
3. Curving waves
4. Circles, Squares, Triangles, etc. 

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For more on Shawn Persinger is Prester John please visit: 

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All the Guitar Harmonies You'll Ever Need by Shawn Persinger

So are the following six pages really all the harmonies you’ll ever need? Maybe…but not really. Anyway there are still more than most people will ever use, unless you are Leonard Bernstein or Aaron Copeland. 

I am presenting these harmonies, which range from easy and ordinary to complex and "outside" (the last one reminds me of the sort of thing Allan Holdsworth might play), in the context of Yankee Doodle. As silly as that sounds it is much easier to understand harmonies if you put them into practical context. Learning them by rote with scales is uninteresting and provides very little applicable knowledge.

I wish the theory behind this was self-explanatory but unless you have some knowledge of intervals and scales it is not. But we'll leave the theory for another lesson. For now just realize they are very fun to play and that is what I want you to do. Just start playing. The intervals you are playing are noted at the beginning of each example. These are all diatonic (in one key). Enjoy and I’ll see you next week. 

Note: To download the sheet music simply: 1. Click on the image, 2. Right click the image once it becomes bigger, 3. Click "Save image as..." That's it!

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The Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing". Harmonies Lines for One Guitar by Shawn Persinger

Last week’s “Allman Brother’s Harmonies for One Guitar” was so popular that I thought I would do another song, from a different band, with two guitar parts arranged for one.

I read that as a teenager Joe Walsh made a name for himself in his hometown by being the guy who could play The Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing” intro (originally a duet played by Paul McCartney and George Harrison) on one guitar. So I thought I’d try it myself. 

 
Example 1 gives the basic note order (although not the rhythm) for guitar one of “And Your Bird Can Sing”.

Example 2 is guitar two.

Just like last week’s harmonies for The Allman’s “Jessica”, “And Your Bird Can Sing” is made up of a combination of harmonized 3rds and 4ths and there is even a minor 6th in there too.

Example 3 gives both parts arranged for one guitar.

There are several fingering options available to us as guitarists for this composite. Besides being what feels most comfortable to me, the fingering shown in Example 3 is, more or less, arbitrary. I suggest giving my arrangement a shot then you should try out a few different fingering and position options of your own. 

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Analyzing The Allman Brothers' harmonies for “Jessica”.

This week’s blog is a quick lesson on guitar harmonies using Dicky Betts' classic tune "Jessica". I've given the basic theme as arranged for two guitars and then a second arrangement for one guitar using dyads (two notes at a time) and a third arrangement utilizing triads (three notes at a time).  

Example 1 gives the basic note order (although not the rhythm) for The Allman Brothers Band song, “Jessica”.

Example 2 is the harmony guitar. This harmony is a combination of diatonic (all in one key) thirds and fourths.

Example 3 gives both parts arranged for one guitar. Lots of fun.

Example 4 shows you what the harmony part would be if it were played only in thirds.

Example 5 shows you what the harmony part would be if it were played only in fourths.

Hopefully can hear that strictly thirds or fourths is not nearly as interesting or compelling as a combination of both.

Finally, Example 6 adds the keyboard’s additional harmony note to give you the melody in triads. Harmonically speaking this is quite simple, to play it up to tempo is not so easy.

For more on playing double and triple stops I highly recommend Scotty Anderson’s DVD "Red Hot Guitar".  

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The End.

See you next week. 

For more on Shawn Persinger is Prester John please visit: 

www.PersingerMusic.com