Kitshare: mind your p's and q's

We were playing a beer festival on Friday with a local band, and there was handbag action when it came to sharing kit. Here are my top tips for a happy, calm kitshare at a gig.

1. You don't have to share. If you don't want to don't.  Just say "I'd rather not". Definitely don't agree begrudgingly and then be a pain.

2. People don't have to share their kit with you.  It's expensive and you are a stranger. You wouldn't expect them to loan you their car. If someone declines that's ok. Be an adult. You don't know what crappy experiences they've had in the past.

3. Ask how things work.  Don't screw around with the eq without checking.  Equally, it's only eq (see what I did there?) so setting it back the way it was, is no issue.  If it is, then just decline politely.

4. Be polite. Someone is loaning you something valuable, you don't have to buy them dinner, but a name and a handshake goes a long way. And in my experience drunk strangers don't get favours.

5. Don't turn up without everything you need to play your gig. There is NO EXCUSE.  Kitshare is about making things easier, not making up for your poor preparation/attitude.

Finally, once you've played clear down the stage quickly, leave it tidy and say 'Thank you'.

How songs work - the obvious stuff

Surely trying to explain how songs work is like analysing a joke - if you explain it, you destroy the magic? Well, yes and no. 

There is a spark of inspiration that distinguishes a great song but equally, for the learner (like me), there is a whole set of building blocks that are common to almost every song. (Prog fans look away now).

Understanding these building blocks will help you to:

• work out songs by ear more quickly because you know what chords might come next
• recognise similar song structures so you can expand your repertoire more quickly 
• write from a position of knowing what works rather than just trial and error
• improvise more fluently over common chord changes in any key.

What's not to like? Here we go.

1. KEY

A song is a melody sung or played over a bunch of chords that sound good together. So what makes it sound good? The melody and the chords work well together because they are built from a family of notes called a key.  Key is another name for a scale - a series of notes connected in a specific pattern. When you ask "What key is this song in?" you are asking "What scale (series of notes) has been used to write the melody and build the chords?" So Key = Scale.

Knowing the key of a song is the first step in understanding how it is played.

2. SCALES

Musical notes are arranged into scales (families?) that produce a specific sound or feeling.  The notes in a scale are separated by specific gaps (called intervals or steps).  On a guitar these steps are made by the frets on the neck: two frets between notes makes a whole step (W) and one fret makes a half-step.  It is the pattern of intervals that gives a scale its unique sound or feeling.

Let's start with the major scale. The major scale is the root of all western music, from rock and roll to pop, folk to classical, blues, jazz, etc.

You'll be familiar with the major scale if you've ever seen The Sound Of Music and sung along with the song "Do-Ray-Mi".  The steps in the major scale are:

W - W - H - W - W - W - H   or  2 frets - 2 frets - 1 fret - 2 frets - 2 frets - 2 frets - 1 fret. Play this pattern up any string to hear this. Start with an open string, then play the second fret, then fourth etc.

So scales are notes played in a particular pattern. Melodies are made by playing notes from a scale one at a time (not in order).

3. CHORDS

Chords are notes from a scale played/strummed/picked at the same time. Songs use melodies and chords built from the same scale. So how do we make chords from a scale? It is really easy.

For simple chords, take 3 notes each separated by two steps in the scale.

The C Major Scale - C D E F G A B C

Take C E G and you have a C major chord, take D F A and you have Dm.  Keep writing this out starting on each note of the scale and you'll get the chords of the C major scale:

C major   D minor   E minor   F major   G major  A minor   B7b5   C major
I              ii             iii            IV           V           vi             viib5         I

This applies to any scale in any key. The pattern of chords in a major scale is ALWAYS:  major-minor-minor-major-major-minor-diminished-major. Remember this it is useful.

Once you've got this in your head, your good to go in any major key.

So if you have a melody in C major, all of these chords can be used to accompany it. Equally if you have a song or piece that uses this series of chords, you can use C major to create a melody (or solo) over it.  The viib5 chord is not used very much.

The roman numerals are a shorthand for writing out chord progressions in any key. So if you see something like this written down:

Key - C  Verse | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | IV / / / | V / / / |

It means play 4 bars of C major followed by 1 bar of F and 1 bar of G.

4. HOW SONGS WORK

We know how to build chords from scales so that we can put melodies with chords that work. The final part of the 'how do songs work?' puzzle is which chords to use.  Certain combinations (progressions) of chords produce well known sounds and feel, and these get repeated in thousands of songs. This means learning or writing songs is easier if you can recognise common structures.

For example, almost every blues song ever written (and consequently lots of rock and pop) use the progression:

| I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | IV / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / |V / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / |  In A the chords are
 A       A       A        A       D          D          A        A       E        D          A       A

This is the 12 bar blues. In pop the number of bars may be different but I - IV - V is incredibly common.
Lots of pop songs also use I - ii - IV - iii - V. In the key of D, this progession is Valerie by The Zutons/Amy Winehouse.

What to do next?

1. Complete this simple song grid using what we've covered.  Then you can use it to help find out the next chord to use when writing or learning songs.

Major Scale Song Grid
Chord	I	ii	iii	IV	V	vi	viib5	I
	Major	Minor	Minor	Major	Major	Minor	Flat5	Major
Key	C	Dm	Em	F	G	Am	B7b5	C
	D	Em	F#m	G	A	Bm	C#	D
	E

2. Listen to songs and use the grid to help you work out which chords come next.
3. Listen to how some songs have different verse/chorus/bridge patterns and some have a single progression that repeats over and over throughout the song.

NOTE:  Many songwriters 'borrow' notes and chords from outside the scale to create a specific effect. This is a topic for another time.

Guitar Gods - James Dean Bradfield

The first time I saw James Dean Bradfield was on Top Of The Pops on BBC1 a gazillion years ago. The Manic Street Preachers were playing Roses In The Hospital, and he must have had an fx pedal called RAGE. It was one of those red or blue pill moments for me - tune in or miss out. Since then I have heard plenty more rage, but also achingly delicate acoustic.

He seems to have a brain that allows his voice and his fingers to work entirely independently of each other on even the most complicated rhythmns.

My favourite tracks 

From Despair To Where (from Gold Against The Soul)

This Is Yesterday (from The Holy Bible)

She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible)

Raindrops (from the Warchild album)

More

http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/uk/james-dean-bradfield

@MANICS

Why play?......#1

Sweet Child O' Mine came on the radio while I was playing guitar at the breakfast table.  I started playing along with the riff and a flash of something, maybe not "Wow!" but definitely not "Daa-ad you're embarrassing me", flashed across my eight year old boy's face. For a split second it was there. It felt awesome.

And THAT is why I play guitar.  It used to be for girls and kicks, but now it is for that thing. That look. However fleeting.

Thank you Slash. Thank you BBC Radio 2.

Guitar Gods - Adam Rafferty

Guitarist, composer, teacher and all-round guru - I came across Adam on YouTube about 6 years ago, playing an awesome acoustic groove of Stevie Wonder's Superstition .  And he has done track after track of amazing covers and original tunes, all with three voices soaring from his Maton.

Live, he can keep an audience captivated (enraptured?) all night and it is a rare solo performer that can do that. He's played with Tommy Emmanuel, Clive Carroll and loads more, and his arrangements have been covered by loads of people including Sungha Jung.  He is known for producing the definitive fingerstyle arrangements of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson tunes.

I stalked, pestered and nagged him for a while online and ended up booking him some gigs in the UK and putting together a small tour a few years ago.  People travelled hundreds of miles to see him play and at Oxford Jazz they had to lay on extra gigs for him to play.

My fee was guitar lessons while he was staying with me, and years later I'm still learning from what he showed me. And as a special treat he showed me how to play his arrangement of Billie Jean - well he let me video a personal lesson of it (all except the moonwalk).

So if you're one of the hundreds of people who ask him for tabs, I have it all on tape.....

Watching Adam and Clive warm up Minor Rag backstage at The Stables in Milton Keynes, is one of the highlights of my guitar-life.

Go see this man.

My Favourite Tracks

Superstition 

Chameleon

Rolling With The Ashes
(This was inspired by being stranded in the UK when the Icelandic volcano erupted, and the mad overnight dash by ferry and train to get from my house to Berlin for a gig the following evening).

More

http://www.adamrafferty.com/

Guitar Gods - Richard Thompson

Some of my best festival moments have happened while watching Richard Thompson at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival. I have gaped open-mouthed in wonder as he simultaneously teases bass, melody and harmony out of a single guitar using only five fingers on each hand.

His fingers move, at times, with the speed and precision of some kind of sci-fi android (think of the film AI) and yet they produce a music that caresses both ears and soul. And he sings while doing it.

There is no other explanation - this man must be cheating.

My favourite tracks

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Feels So Good (I'm Gonna Break Somebody's Heart Tonight)

More

http://richardthompson-music.com/

The 11,426 mile recording session - Day 3

You may be asking what happened to Day 2. Well, Day 2 was lost in a cloud of procrastination.

I was struggling to remember anything about the 20 year old song I've agreed to record with a man on a different continent, so in true guitarist style I blogged.....And listened to old demos of other tunes and posted them on soundcloud. Very useful.

Beyond that, I found an old lyric sheet and had a private cringe at them. So we have a title "As Good As Ordinary Gets", some lyrics (partly questionable) and a promise to get my arse in gear.

Speaking of gear I did dig out my Boss BR-600 and some Rode microphones so I can rough out a guide track. I'll get on with that as soon as I'm back from Cropredy Festival this weekend.

I'm sure it's got Em in it......

Guitar Gods - Paul Rose

Paul Rose takes blues-rock playing to new levels. He plays with jaw-dropping vibrato, tapping and that violin volume-swell technique you can do on strat.  But the thing that sets him apart is his FEEL. Check out the link to Summertime below to see what I mean.

He plays LsL Strats through a Hughes & Kettner amp and cabinet with NO effects, and creates a vast array of tones by using the volume, tone and pickup selector on the guitar.

Rory Gallagher described Paul as "a hot player with a hot future", and Seymour Duncan (yes THAT one) rates Paul in his top 5 players (between Jeff Beck #1 and Roy Buchanan #3).

I saw him a couple of days ago in a tiny venue with his 3-piece band (Kenny Huchison - bass, Ted McKenna - drums). It was spectacular. I was grinning all night. And I still am.

My favourite tracks

Summertime (click for youtube)

Get Carter (from the album Note To Self)

All Along The Watchtower. (The first time I heard this I was listening on headphones walking to pick the kids up from school. The second solo made me find a bench to sit down to listen again and again).

Home (from the album Note To Self)

More

www.paulrose.co.uk 

www.youtube.com/user/stratfanatic

The 11,426 mile recording session - Day 1.

How do two people separated by 11,426 miles and 20 years, record a song that was never written down?

Twenty years ago I was in band called 'PretendFriends'. We were an indie-pop band based in Oxford, and riding on the boom in the Oxford music scene.  It was an extraordinary time. Lots of bands were successful locally, with the likes of Radiohead and Supergrass going on to international success.

We recorded two demo EPs - you can find some of our tunes here.

(Demos used to look like this).







Our claim to fame was that the local music mag 'Nightshift' included one of our songs in their Christmas Top 20 of 1995 alongside Radiohead's 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'!


Ego, beer and delusional behaviour (mostly mine) put paid to PretendFriends, but I stayed in contact with Ed the bass player.   After a Facebook chat the other night, we have decided to record one of our old, vaguely remembered tunes.

Now it's the cold light of day and we're wondering where to start. Oh and Ed now lives 11,426 miles away in New Zealand. Hmmm. Ed suggests we both do acoustic demos of how we think the song goes.


11,426 miles away, Ed smirks at the thought of me trying to remember 20 year old guitar parts.

Learning scales: the two pattern approach vs CAGED

Learning scales is a key building block for any aspiring guitarist. It is the equivalent of a child learning to talk.

The trick is to spend the MINIMUM amount of time memorising scales, and the MAXIMUM amount of time learning to make music with them.  So choosing an approach to start learning scales, for you or your student, is really important.

People often talk about using C-A-G-E-D (see Mastering The Major Scale by www.justinguitar.com) or the two pattern approach.

But actually these are essentially the same. Here's how C-A-G-E-D and the two-pattern approach relate to each other.

Here are the two-patterns of the major scale.

 

If you play pattern 1 and then pattern 2 across the neck you get this.

This is the two octave E-shape major scale from C-A-G-E-D. It is built by stacking Pattern 1 (root note on the 6th (E) string) and Pattern 2 in the same position (fret) across the neck.

If you stack Pattern 2 (root note on the 6th (E) string) and the Pattern 1 across the neck, you will get the two-octave G-shape major scale from C-A-G-E-D.



These are the only full two-octave patterns in C-A-G-E-D. All the others have one full octave and fragments of other octaves.

C is Pattern 2 with the root note on the 5th (A) string followed by part of Pattern 1 on the other strings.
A is Pattern 1 with the root note on the 5th (A) string followed by part of Pattern 2.
D is Pattern 1 with the root note on the 4th (D) string followed by part of Pattern 2.

Which approach should you use?

My preference is for the two-pattern approach. I think it is simpler and more complete. For instance, there is no part of the C-A-G-E-D system with a root note on the 3rd (G) string.

Here's a cheat sheet for six of the most important scales for guitarists

However, many self-taught guitarists start by learning chords so C-A-G-E-D makes a quick introduction to scales and how they relate to chords.

So, pick the approach which feels best and remember - memorising scales is only 10% of the job!