24th Jan

24th Jan – Today in music we used a chord chart to learn a 12 bar blues in A. The chords for a 12 bar blues are the 1st, 4th and 5th degree chords of the major scale. These are called primary chords. These chords are A, D and E. At first we played around this progression together without solos so that we could all get familiar with the chord pattern. We then tried jamming over it, taking turns using the major and minor pentatonic scales to improvise (12 bars each). I focused on using lots of different licks from the a minor pentatonic scale including different receptive patterns and runs across all six strings.

Here is an example of a run I practised over the chords as it makes use of the notes of the A minor pentatonic scale  and has a very bluesy sound to it. I also added in the flat 5th interval, d# (the blues note) when playing different licks over the chords. I set myself the challenge of learning as many different blues phrases and licks as I could over the next week so when we practised the 12 bar blues next week I would have a lot more different patterns to use and blend together with over patterns from the A major scale. I will do this by listening to lots of different blues guitarists and learning what they do and learn the licks they often use through out a 12 bar blues.

17th Jan

17th Jan – Today in our music lesson we jammed purple rain again for first hour. We recapped on what we had done the week before and we done this by running through the purple rain chords and each taking a turn at soloing over the chords using the first 5 notes of the A major scale.  Each of us had practised at home so when we came back into lesson this week we had a strong idea of what we wanted to play over the chords today. My weeks worth of practise had helped as I had came up with different patterns to play over the chord. An example of this was repeating this pattern on the g string : 2nd fret, 4th and then 5th, Repeating this pattern using hammer ons and pull offs allowed me to create a smooth legato sounding phrase that was melodically pleasing.

We then practised the A major and minor pentatonic scales over the chords which allowed us to add more notes that we could use to improvise with. This was good as it gave us more of a variety of melodies we could come up with. I used many common blues licks over this chord progression as the notes kitten well. An example of this was being the 7th fret on the g string up a tone then hitting the double stop of the 5th fret b and e strings then repeating this pattern over and over to achieve a fast
sounding pattern over the chords.
-e--------------7
b---------------7
g----5(b) -----------

Being a guitarist I already know the major and minor and pentatonic scale so I focus on playing this scales together over the chords and also playing the A major scale but with notes from the minor pentatonic Scale added such as adding in minor thirds and minor sevenths.  The other musicians then went away and individual practice on these scales was done for rest of 2nd hour of the lesson. Using the same idea as from last weeks lesson i set my self the challenge of creating melodic phrases that fit well over the chords using notes from the a major and a minor pentatonic scale. My plan is to come up with some melodic sounding phrases that utilise both scales and I won't to use a less is more approach to make up very musical and pleasing patterns. I will give myself a week to do this and I will practise this by playing over a loop of the chords.

10th Jan

10th Jan – Today in our music performance we spoke about the concept of improvising and what it means. We decided to chose our song with 4 simple chords that would be a good basis for improvising over. The song chosen was 'Purple Rain' by the late great Price. We learnt the descending 4 chord pattern from ‘Purple Rain’. The chord progression is A sus2, Asus2/F#, E and D. We were only allowed to use 5 notes to improvise with. This decision was made as some members of the class had little improvisation experience. We felt limiting ourself to only 5 notes would be a good introduction to improving and trying to come up with different melodic phrases with a limited amount of notes. The 5 notes were in the key of A major, they were A, B, C#, D and E. (first 5 notes of the A Major scale.)
I experimented with the note choices and different phrasing to come up with different melodic ideas that fitted well over the chords. I found that sliding and bending into to the notes also gave my improvised ideas a different feel.
I set myself the goal of practising for the next week at home using the 5 notes to come up with different melodic phrases. I will do this by recording a loop of the chord progression and improvise over the chords.  One week will give me enough time to come up with some phrases to use in my next lesson.