Thinking Outside The Box

What's the difference between music and music theory? You'd think that there wouldn't be that much, would you? The more one learns about music, though, the more one realises that music theory is merely a framework for understanding the big picture, not the big picture itself.

Learning about music is, in many ways, like seeking enlightenment. Music theory shows you the first steps in your journey. It shows you the footsteps of those who have gone before you and says "follow the path".

To begin with you have guidance from people who 'know' about music. As you progress, though, the beautifully paved path gives way to an unsurfaced road, which in time becomes so indistinct that you have the choice of not only going forward, but also sideways. Eventually the land beneath your feet starts falling away and you approach a cliff. To truly embrace the intricacies of music you have no choice but to leap into the void.

Heavy. Very heavy!

Where music is ultimately analogue, theory, for the most part, is digital. You're taught keys, scales, chords, box positions. These are the building blocks of the path. Music theory teaches you reasons why a certain scale works over a certain chord or chord progression. It's a nice, clean jigsaw where all the pieces fit together.

But you've learned the scales, and you've learned the chord progressions. You've moved past the rudimentary I-IV-V, incorporating a ii-V change. You're starting to see the road widen. You're feeling the gravel between your toes (should have worn shoes, shouldn't you?)

All this time you're aware that in the distance you can see the great players. They don't appear to be on the path anymore. They float above it, hovering 6 feet off the ground...

How did they get there? The musical geniuses followed the path for as long as they could stand its constraints, glimpsed the void and dove in.

The other day I came across a video lesson on "how to play like B.B. King". I was struck by a comment the demonstrator made. He basically said that you should start with a minor pentatonic, but then add 'colour notes'. Looking at the enhanced minor pentatonic he furrowed his brow and confessed that he had no clue how to describe the scale or why the passing notes worked in the blues context!

Now, being something of a geek, I immediately (well, not immediately, an Excel spreadsheet was involved) realised that B.B.'s scale could be described as a minor blues scale (a minor pentatonic with the additional flat 5 blue note) combined with a common or garden major pentatonic. I say "could be" as it's just one of many ways to describe the hybrid scale.

Here's the blues scale in G with the enhanced scale shown underneath. As explained, the enhanced scale is comprised of the G minor pentatonic scale (white notes) with blue notes (coloured blue) and the G major pentatonic (green notes):



So, we have B.B. King's style sorted, right? Hear a blues? Play the minor blues scale and add in the occasional note from the major pentatonic. Easy!

Erm, that's not exactly the way it works! Try soloing using the enhanced scale and you'll soon realise that while there's a flavour of Mr King's mojo in there, it's not really capturing the whole thing.

So, you've thought outside your pentatonic box to get an enhanced scale which has some major tonality to it and some blue notes. To actually play like B.B. you have to jump back into the box... the B.B. box!

Take a look at the next picture, which shows 3 positions for the B.B. box.



Notice the horseshoe of primary notes (black/red) present in each picture? That's home base, the B.B. box. The faded notes are now your colour notes. Wail on the primary notes and add in the others as and when it feels right. Throw in full bends, half-step bends, slides and Mr K's trademark vibrato and pretty soon you'll find yourself ridin' with the King!

So have we just thrown away one musical theory and replaced it with another? In some ways, yes! Pretty soon you realise, though, that for every theoretical door you kick open, two more are waiting behind.

Mary..?

I managed to get out of bed early on Saturday morning and headed over to the Westminster Adult Education Service centre in Pimlico. I was expecting the journey to be a shag, but in fact it only took me 40 minutes door to door, including a necessary detour to fill up on coffee. I was the first person there, so I took Blackie (the Ovation 1861 Balladeer) out, perched on her case and set to practicing. Since getting Red, I’ve really been focussing on playing electric, so I expected it to take a while to get the feel for the acoustic back. It didn’t. That’s the neat thing about Ovation guitars: their necks are nice and narrow so the transition from electric to acoustic and back again is relatively painless.

After about 10 minutes of jamming, the teacher, Gerald, arrived. Had a chat with him about the course, what I wanted to achieve and so on. He really put me at ease and said that I really was good enough to play in a band already. He said that I might actually be a bit too advanced already for the ‘intermediate’ course. I told him that really any structured learning would be a good thing for me right now. I need focus. I kind of see the course as being a driving force to keep my momentum going. There’s a fixed schedule which means I can’t afford to fall behind. I’m already hoping that there’ll be a follow on course in the summer...

The other four people on the course were pretty diverse, both in terms of personality and skill level. None of them were the cookie-cutter shredders from the course at Morley. Not that there’s anything wrong with shredding, but if you’re in a class that’s trying to do a scale exercise, what’re you doing trading metal licks with the guy next to you? Gee, when did I become a conformist? I’m going to have to work on being obnoxious if I’m going to make it as a Rock God.

We started off the lesson with a finger-picked version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb". Now, I know what you’re thinking! I’m better than that, right? And yes, maybe I am, but even so, sometimes going back to basics is a good thing. Hey, I’m still going to be practicing it, in case I’m asked to perform it live in front of the class.

The next two hours were actually pretty packed. We covered a couple of different pentatonic boxes and the extended pentatonic run up the neck across positions 1 and 2 (starting on a single note from box 5 on the low E). Pretty basic stuff, huh? BUT, one thing I’ve always done when moving up the neck using a pentatonic scale is to fret with my index and third finger then slide up using the third. I often get in trouble as I tend to overshoot on the slides. Gerald suggested that a better, more 'correct' thing to do is to fret with the index finger, then move position and use index and third. When you come to use one pick per string, that equates to playing the first note, sliding then hammering on. Likewise, when you descend you pull off then slide down using the index finger. I have to tell you, realising that it was possible to slide with the index finger was a real "D’Oh" moment for me. Just goes to show that however much you think you know...

We also covered 16th note strumming patterns with muting, such as the intro riff from George Michael's "Faith" (and pretty much everything by Jack Johnson).

Add into that another "D’Oh" moment when Gerald pointed out that strumming full chords on the first beat of a bar then partial chords at other times was one way to accent the rhythm, rather than just trying to play the first strum louder. I mean, I do that a lot of the time, but I never actually thought about focussing on that technique.

I guess the main other thing we did was to take a look at improvising with the pentatonic, sticking to the 3 highest strings moving from Box 5 to 1 to 2. Limiting the number of notes to 6 in each position really helped me to lock onto a position and express myself within that framework as opposed to trying to get a huge range of different notes in. If it’s good enough for B.B. King, it’s good enough for me, right? Sometimes I try to keep myself open to all the possibilities of running up and down the neck and across the fingerboard and I end up not seeing the wood for the trees.

The last main thing from the lesson was that Gerald has asked each person to pick a song they’ve never tried playing before and to try and learn it by the end of the term. He’s suggested that I have a go at "Little Wing"! presumably the version by Hendrix. Eek! Stretched target alert! Since I’m already 2 classes behind and about to miss the 4th as we’ll be in Amsterdam next weekend I’d best get down to learning it! I may actually back out of "Little Wing" and shoot for something else. I always wanted to learn "Come & Go Blues" by Gregg Allman, but the alternate tuning he uses scares the bejesus out of me.

Oh, and the first DVD from the "Classic Albums" series arrived over the weekend: "Who's Next" by The Who. I'll let you know what I think about it when I watch it sometime this week.

A Decent Start

I made a good start on getting back into playing.

First off, I restrung my Ovation acoustic with new D'Addario EXP Phosphor Bronze strings. The tone went from dull and boring to crisp and bright. It's amazing the difference new strings make on that puppy. It's now a joy to play and hence much more rewarding.

Secondly, I pulled out Red Dog (the Les Paul), amped up, and started practicing again. I was surprised to find that despite almost a month of not playing, my finger memory was intact. In no time I was back up to speed on scales, modes etc.

I made a conscious effort to use scales as a warm up but then progress to jamming over backing tracks and playing along to Neil Young & Crazy Horse's "Ragged Glory" album. I actually love Neil's approach to recording in that the performance doesn't need to be perfect... It just needs to be "real", which means that the totally basic chord progressions are simple but extremely gratifying to play along to. My favourite jam-along track has to be "Over and Over". Once you've nailed the intro lick, you're there in the land of grunge-rock.

I also scanned through a freebie Blues Lesson DVD that had been gathering dust in bottom of my TV cabinet, more as a distraction than anything else. The DVD briefly looks at the soloing styles of a number of blues/blues-rock greats: the three Kings (B.B., Albert and Freddie), Clapton, SRV, Hendrix etc. Most of the lessons were still beyond my reach as a player, but what I did take away from it was the idea that at times adding major tonality to the minor pentatonic is a great way to break add colour to licks.

What does that mean in practice? The easiest way to add the major feel is to either hammer-on or bend the second note in the pentatonic scale up a semitone (one fret). To my ear you get a kind of delta blues vibe. It doesn't work well over every chord in the standard I-IV-V, but certainly adds interest when turning around.

I guess if you look at the relationship between the major and minor pentatonic box 1 shapes then you could also add interest by half-step sliding into the 2nd, 3rd or fifth notes in the scale. I'll have to try that...

Gee, do I sould like I know what I'm talking about? Music theory is something I was never interested in until I actually learned some. It's fascinating to me that you can construct a detailed framework for understanding and appreciating music, only to realise that most great music is made when you throw the rules away. You have to take a leap of faith and let the music come from your heart instead of your head.

What else did I learn this weekend? Red Dog plays best with a heavy pick. I'm using a Jim Dunlop 1mm (blue) Tortex one now. Back when I was exclusively playing the acoustic, a floppy 0.5mm one felt better as strumming was a major part of what I was doing. On the electric, control and precision are more important to me.

Finally, I discovered that I need to lose weight. Either that or shorten my guitar strap! The way the Les Paul sits on my belly right now means that it faces down towards the floor which ain't good! Maybe I should add 'lose the flab' to Step 1, too.