Scales and Arpeggios practice
Hello everyone .
As part of my guitar daily routine I start with a time dedicated to the scales and arpeggios. Scales: Cromatic , major modes , melodic minor modes , harmonic minor modes, blues scale. Scales in thirds , in fourth, etc, etc....Arpeggios: Major, minor, dominant , diminished, etcs. I try to cover everything but I find it very complex. How do you approach this large and complex area in you daily routine?
Greetings to all from Chile.
P.D .: Sweet nothing is a gem! Thanks Jim and thanks to Honeyfingers .
P.D.2: Any errors in this post is the responsibility of the translator of my computer. JA!
As part of my guitar daily routine I start with a time dedicated to the scales and arpeggios. Scales: Cromatic , major modes , melodic minor modes , harmonic minor modes, blues scale. Scales in thirds , in fourth, etc, etc....Arpeggios: Major, minor, dominant , diminished, etcs. I try to cover everything but I find it very complex. How do you approach this large and complex area in you daily routine?
Greetings to all from Chile.
P.D .: Sweet nothing is a gem! Thanks Jim and thanks to Honeyfingers .
P.D.2: Any errors in this post is the responsibility of the translator of my computer. JA!
Comments
For technique choose a few different ones every day and work on them with a metronome, building up speed while playing cleanly.
For improvisation, record a chord progression (on a looper, computer, or old fashioned tape recorder) and improvise over it using certain scales and arpeggios. Even better, if you have a friend, jam with him or her.
The amount of time given to each category depends on strengths and weaknesses. This can be done over 2 hours or 8 hours.
1.) "Breakfast"...Warm up with arpeggios and scales. Apply the arpeggios to a song ( "All The Things You Are" "Tennessee Waltz" " How High The Moon" " Sleepwalk" etc.) Tempo and meter aren't crucial. The song progression will prohibit you from playing what you all ready know. It will "test" you. Apply scales to the song ( Major, natural minor, melodic minor, and harmonic minor). Try playing the appropriate scale ascending and descending, then play scales in thirds. Always strive for small intervallic jumps, while practicing the scales, arpeggios and chords.
2.) "Lunch"...... Learn a song and memorize the chord progression and melody ( otherwise you don't know the song!). Transpose it.
3.)"Dinner".....Make a tape of the song progression on a boom box or a simple recording setup. Do not get caught up in production. Play the melody and solo over the changes. Sometimes, I try a different approach over every chorus. Octaves,chord melody, steel guitar, "James Burton plays Jazz" etc etc. When you memorize the song , put it on a list of songs you know. Run through that list every few days, so you don't forget them.
4.) Now for "Dessert"......Play and improvise. Try and write something. Experiment with your tone. Play Blues in E. Whatever. Sometimes I learn solo's instead of songs, but I try to keep my practice sessions song oriented. This is for two reasons. 1.) A musician should know a lot of songs! 2.) Songs give me a musical frame work to apply scales, arpeggio's and chord voicings. This works for me and I hope it helps you. Have fun!
gracias amigos!
JIG