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The use of spread triads in composition and an example with Heartfell from Allen Hinds
Saturday, 24 June 2023
The spread triads are a technique much used by Eric Johnson and Allen Hinds (allenhinds.com). The principle is simple: the 3rd note of the triad is shifted upwards by an octave. This gives a more airy impression of the triad compared to when it is heard in its normal form. The MI initial sequence by
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I humbly admit that I go on TikTok to change my mind and...lose some time. But the truth is you can even find interesting things there sometimes! Yes, yes, I assure you. I also regularly post guitar stuff, here is my account: tiktok.com/@lachaineguitare This morning I came across the following gem from the musician Richard
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How to navigate on your guitar fretboard: the Tom Bukovac method
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
One of the great things that came out of this pandemic is that the fabulous musician that is Tom Bukovac started to make videos on his YouTube channel. Don't worry if you don't know him yet, I personally discovered him on this occasion. All these videos are really interesting. He often starts with an improvisation
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John Mayer Gravity analysis by Desi Serna from Guitar Music Theory
Wednesday, 02 December 2020
After discovering Desi Serna's podcast called Guitar Music Theory (guitarmusictheory.com), I went back to the corresponding video on his YouTube channel, which I link below. It's a study on John Mayer Gravity superb song called. John Mayer Gravity analysis by Desi Serna on Guitar Music Theory Gravity chord chart on iReal Pro Curiously in iReal
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When I rediscovered “That Day Came” by Andy Timmons thanks to Jean Fontanille
Thursday, 19 November 2020
While passing on one of Jean Fontanille's Facebook live where he was presenting three of his Super Strat type guitars, I hear him playing a superb melody and ask him what it is. It was this fabulous song by Andy Timmons called That Day Came from the album Theme From a Perfect World. A few
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Paul Gilbert masterclass – How to play around the neck – Guitar Summit 2019
Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Paul Gilbert was one of the headliners of Guitar Summit 2019, he gave a great concert and hosted two masterclasses like the one you can see below. You can see him expose a simple and great idea to move a shape around the neck of the guitar. The principle Take a pattern of 2 or
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On June 23rd 2018, The Guitar Channel / La Chaîne Guitare organized in Paris a masterclass about Joe Satriani music and guitar playing with on of the great Satch specialist in France, the one and only Pascal Vigné (www.pascalv.com) who was accompanied by Saturax (www.saturax.fr) another young musician into Joe's playing. Several songs were played, here are
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Instagram gem – Horace Bray jazzy groove transcribed by Kevin Davis
Sunday, 27 May 2018
Instagram is a social network full of exceptional musicians. Horace Bray (@horacebray.music) is one of those. This Instagram gem particularly attracted my ear when I watched it because Horace uses an unusual chord progression (at least for me!): Em7 / EbM7 / Dm7 / DbM7. This chromatic descent is fascinating, especially when you see what
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Master the 5 positions of the pentatonic scale in a 5 fret zone
Thursday, 22 March 2018
In this lesson the exercise (or the torture, especially at the beginning) that Simon Ghnassia proposes to do has the goal to help you assimilate thoroughly the 5 positions of the pentatonic scales. The goal is to play all the pentatonic scale positions (in minor in this case) by changing position at each chord with
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Down to the Waterline – Dire Straits – Chord chart for the solo
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Huge Dire Straits fan and admirer of his guitarist singer Mark Knopfler, the first albums of the band particularly marked me, especially the first and Communiqué, the second. Sultans of Swing is probably one of the songs I've worked on most (and it's still the case today!) But also Down to the Waterline whose solo
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Tomo Fujita is an active musician on Instagram. I highly recommend to follow him on his account @tomojustfunky because he often posts very cool clips with a high pedagogical value. Here's an example below where he talks about the Mixolydian mode with an example easy to implement.
It's a 2 chord vamp: F/G (F chord with G on bass) and Ab/Bb (Ab chord with a Bb on bass)
To play Mixolydian on the first chord, you play the C major scale. On the second, you play Eb major scale.
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Improvising with Quarter Notes Only by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Monday, 20 June 2016
We are continuing our series on “Blues For Alice” with a little improvisation exercise. Yes, we are finally going to improvise freely! However, the one and only restriction is that we are going to use quarter notes only... The challenge is to generate a flowing, uninterrupted, sequence of quarter notes-- while still outlining the changes.
Now, before you start wondering why anyone would want to do that, let me explain that it is just an exercise.
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We are continuing our series on “Blues For Alice” with an arpeggio study. All of the arpeggios played here are ascending. Note that we are not playing all of the arpeggios in this particular study: since there are so many ii-Vs in sequences, I chose to only play the 3rd of most Dominant 7 chords.
Blues for Alice (Part 5/6) - An arpeggio study
I wrote some diagrams above the music notation to indicate optional fingerings for some of the lines.
This study should give you some ideas for creating your own lines while improvising.
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“Blues for Alice” by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert : 4-note groupings
Monday, 06 June 2016
We are continuing our series on “Blues For Alice” with the 4-note groupings. What we call 4-note groupings are simple patterns that are used to outline a chord progression.
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We are continuing our study of “Blues For Alice” with 2 simple comping studies.
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“Blues For Alice” is a great Charlie Parker tune. It is a 12-bar Blues, but it moves through a lot of ii-V sequences. That modified version of the Blues is usually referred to as “Bird Blues” changes.
Blues for Alice (Part 1/6)
The lead sheet shows the fingerings I use. Keep in mind that those are only suggestions.
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All 7 Diatonic Arpeggios in Major Key by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Monday, 18 April 2016
This exercise will have us play through all of the arpeggios of a same tonality.
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Playing in and out of position (part 2/2) by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Here's the second part on the Playing In and Out of Position theme (part 1 is here).
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Playing in and out of position (part 1/2) by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Monday, 04 April 2016
Here's the first video of a two part series on the Playing In and Out of Position theme. When we first learn our Major scales, we are generally told to practice them in position. We visualize certain shapes all over the fingerboard and that helps us play more efficiently, more smoothly.
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Comping Study for Jazz Blues in F by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Comping means “to accompany”. In our case, it implies that those chords can be used when accompanying a soloist who is improvising over a Jazz Blues chord progression.
Comping Study for Jazz Blues in F
Each diagram represents a full measure, except when slashes are written above the chord—in which case those slashes represent the number of beats for that particular chord. The circled dots are optional replacement bass notes.
All of the chords have the root in the bass, except for the diminished 7th chord used as a substitution for the D7 chord.
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How can we make our playing more colorful, more jazz-sounding? Let’s use some guitar Chromaticism!
Using Chromaticisms simply means adding extra notes to our melodies, our arpeggios, or our scales.
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In coordination with David Wallimann who created Guitar Playback, I am happy to announce that we are starting a collaboration with The Guitar Channel by offering a free backing track pack to all the Backstage Pass subscribers. I had the pleasure to do an audio interview 2 years ago with David to talk about his book about mode. You can listen to the full interview here.
Content of the pack
[caption id="attachment_7467" align="aligncenter" width="676"]
- 5 backing tracks in different styles
- Beck is Back
- Aelian Thoughts
- Blues in G
- Fusion Funky Vamp In G Dorian
- Fields Of Joy
- 5 PDF with details on what to play on each backing track
Screenshots of the PDF with chords, scales and tips[/caption] [s2If current_user_is(s2member_level1) OR current_user_is(administrator)]
Click here to download the 28MB Zip file
Thanks for checking out this sampler Guitar Playback backing track pack! These five jam tracks are meant to provide you with excellent quality musical beds to develop new musical ideas in various genres. Check out the included PDFs for scale diagrams and improvisation tips.Use promo code BACKSTAGE to get a 30% discount on all the products purchased on Guitar Playback
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]The download link is available for the Backstage Pass subscribers
Use promo code TGC to get a 20% discount on all the products purchased on Guitar Playback
[/s2If] I hope you enjoy these tracks and find them useful. Please check out www.guitarplayback.com for more! Stay tuned for more good stuff with David. Pierre. [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]
You want to download the free pack? Get the Backstage Pass to watch all the exclusive videos and more! Click here for more info on the Backstage Pass[/s2If]Get a free Guitar Playback pack with your Backstage Pass!
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Here's part 3 of the Zane Carney masterclass given in Paris on May 25th 2015.
What to expect in the masterclass
In-depth talk about music theory
What to play on the V chord
Several full pieces of music played
His approach to composition
How he practice with and without the guitar
His theory about relative pitch
The story about his upcoming Jazzica signature model with Hofner
A full demo of his travel pedal board
Zane travel pedal board
Until the next masterclass, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre.
You enjoyed this extract?
Get the Backstage Pass to watch the
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Here's part 2 of the Zane Carney masterclass given in Paris on May 25th 2015.
What to expect in the masterclass
In-depth talk about music theory
What to play on the V chord
Several full pieces of music played
His approach to composition
How he practice with and without the guitar
His theory about relative pitch
The story about his upcoming Jazzica signature model with Hofner
A full demo of his travel pedal board
Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre.
You enjoyed this extract?
Get the Backstage Pass to watch the full video and
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Zane Carney was in Paris as part of his 1st solo european tour. Unfortunately he had no date for a concert in France (hopefully next time!) but he was super enthusiastic to give another masterclass at Guitars Addicts like last year.
Watch the full 2.5 hour of the masterclass with a Backstage Pass
The masterclass was recorded in video with 2 HD cameras and high quality sound and is available for the Backstage Pass owners.
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Here's part 1 of the Zane Carney masterclass given in Paris on May 25th 2015.
What to expect in the full 2.5 hour masterclass
In-depth talk about music theory
What to play on the V chord
Several full pieces of music played
His approach to composition
How he practice with and without the guitar
His theory about relative pitch
The story about his upcoming Jazzica signature model with Hofner
A full demo of his travel pedal board
Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre.
You enjoyed this extract?
Get the Backstage Pass to watch the full
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Zane Carney is back in Paris to host a second masterclass during his 2015 european tour. Last year edition was a huge success so we decided to do it again this year.
Zane Carney Masterclass Monday May 25th from 7pm to 10pm
At Guitars Addicts (98 Rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris) - 30€
By the way you can watch the full 2 hour recording in HD of last year masterclass with the Backstage Pass.
Zane is a guitarist who has been with John Mayer for a while and also pursuing his own solo career.
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Right before the Freak Kitchen concert in Paris, Mattias Eklundh was at Metal Guitar for a showcase/masterclass. The full recording is available below in 3 videos.
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First Skype Guitar Lesson with Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert: I Loved It!
Sunday, 05 October 2014
We see more and more offers of guitar lessons via Skype, I admit I was one of the skeptics until I tried it with Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert. Bruno is a pro Jazz guitar player based in San Francisco. He is French but is fully bilingual. In fact he teaches in a music university.
My goal for this Skype guitar lesson
My personal taste is definitely Rock so my goal in taking a lesson with Bruno was not to make me a Jazz musician but to expand my musical vocabulary through Jazz.
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