I’m of course talking pentatonics, rather than the ‘league’ in which my guitar playing belongs
Last week I shared a noodle recorded over a looper backing. @CT suggested that rather than using the minor pentatonic I should have a crack with the major pentatonic.
So here it is.
I shall not spoil your ‘fun’ by self-critiquing this time out. Feel free to share your thoughts, the good and the bad (but not the ugly as I now say … no cause for ugly behaviour here, we can leave that to the trolls out there)
All that remains is to (again ) apologise for the length. Time just whizzes by when playing over a loop rather than a BT of a set length and I guess I just stumbled over too many ideas to explore when ‘rehearsing’. I promise I was wanting to keep it to a socially acceptable length … of course how much you subject yourself to is entirely in your hands … the saving grace of watching on YT
Alternatively I shall just say I am channeling my inner Neil, which I know puts me on shakey ground, given his propensity for extended solos that some may consider to be undesirable noodling, either on stage or in a recording studio.
You’ve got some nice licks there, David. I quite like the Major pentatonic sound, it’s got me listening to Southern Rock lately (although Gregg Allman says that Southern is a redundant word, like calling it ‘rock rock’). It’s got a great sound anyway, and some cool guitar. You’ve done nicely on this. And some of the YouTube Backing tracks are an hour long , 4:12 is a decent compromise!
I commented on your channel and will comment here as well.
A lot to like here, especially the single string runs. Sometimes that’s the best/easiest way to traverse the fretboard (aside from the pentatonic highway). Well done!
David that was good. My only comment would be to see if you can double pick more often. Instead of picking all down strokes try more down/ ups. You did it sometimes but it is a great skill to get proficient at. By the way…I am not yet there with it…
Cheers
Ron
@TheMadman_tobyjenner thanks Toby. I think I am barely cumfy in the minor P, let alone the major (even though the patterns are the same. I think exploring different keys will also be interesting. At present I am using G, which goes from pattern 1 to 5 up the neck. It’ll be good to use other keys where the lowest tone pattern is not pattern 1. All of this with the ultimate goal being to know and use these patterns with the same degree of unconscious play as I have for the basic 8 open chords. A long way to go As fort the BT…that BT is infinite since it is a 4 bar loop that I played and recorded into my looper
@Mari63 Thanks Mari. I did notice a difference in some of the lines and on balance would say it sounded better to my ears than the minor pentatonic noodle. Appreciate the patience for my recorded length but must still do better to share shorter noodles to respect folks time.
@CT Thanks Clint. Appreciate the nudge. As I said to Mari, I think use of major pentatonic produced a more pleasing result. And as you said, not too hard to apply in G.
@RonG Thanks Ron. You are on the money with double picking or as I would say alternate picking. I began with a specific intent to do more and did do more than the previous week but could have done much more. Ever onwards.
Hi David,
It’s good to hear (and see) that more and more good runs are coming in … progress can be heard and that’s great , and I don’t want to encourage you for longer parts but I think this length is fine
And good luck with your power supply, it’s even on the news here
Greetings,Rogier
@roger_holland Thanks Rogier. Affirmation of progress is always what I value the most, as long as I continue to progress as is well in my musical world.
I think you are all cutting me much slack on the length of these noodles, due to my enforced absence from the Community. As normal service is resumed I do think targeting 2-3minutes is the way to go.
As for power, that could elicit illicit responses from me. Let me just restrain myself to a positive spin … courtesy of our national power provider I am presented with daily opportunities to progress and improve my stoic/zen mindset. Maintaining such mindset under the latest provocations is the equivalent of mastering all the major scale modes and modern fingerstyle ala Tommy E
Definitely making real good progress, David. What I liked most about it was that you were feeling what you were playing.
I agree with Rogier I think the length was fine. As Toby says just enough time to explore and move around the neck dusting off that fretboard and developing some tasty licks.
I’d say an interesting perhaps unexpected side effect of trying hard to allow more space between licks and lines was that I experienced a sense of having a little more time to listen and feel more … or at least to ‘fake it till you make it’ feeling it more. I must put that to the test with a loop that is out and out minor in feel and perhaps a slower tempo.
Again am appreciative that people indulge me for as long as 4 minutes on a noodle.
Nice little jam David, I watched the whole thing through! Was really enjoyable!! I really need to jam more with backing tracks as it helps your skills a ton!!! Keep on keepin on! Thanks man!
Some good stuff there David, there was one period where I thought that you went astray a bit but in context it worked.
Keep going forward with this, try to develop your own voice, I think that you need to start feeling it more, like adding vibrato and bends hammer ons and slides a bit more. The other thing is look more to increase the distance between notes so that you’re not just climbing up or down the scale, it all adds to the piece.
A question, have you got to the stage where you know what the sort of music you want to play most? Or do you not want to specialise and be as diverse as possible? An interesting question, but it has its purpose; this will really make you think and help you go forward.
@Bytron08 Thanks Bytron. Glad you enjoyed it. You do such a great job with your looper pedal when playing songs plus playing leads like you did on your latest share. I’m sure you’d have loads of fun laying down a layer looping chord progression with some percussion and then jamming away over it. Go for it!
@DarrellW Thanks Darrell. Got catch on the bit that went astray (assuming we have the same bit in mind) I got a bit lost in where I was playing and played a little with notes that were out of scale and sounded bad.
Without being defensive, I was stretching into more of the vibrato etc on my electric and find those techniques harder on the acoustic. But I am not able to play my electric at the moment … it’s a heavy beast and picking it up is against doctors orders. Otherwise, I totally agree and aspire to stretch myself more. Part of that was trying to learn the Need Your Love So Bad solo, which I will return to when I can play the electric again.
When you say ‘distance between the notes’, given what followed, I assume you mean intervals between notes? So skipping strings or rolling from a note in one fret to the note in the same fret of an adjacent string? Or are you talking about moving more from playing in say position 2 to playing in position 4 directly rather than by playing a sequence of notes that play from 2 through 3 to 4?
An interesting question indeed. In time I’d like to play blues as well as rock that would be influenced by blues, rock n roll, country. Answered another way, if I could play like one person and only one, then it would be Neil Young. I’d be quite happy playing electric like Neil Young with Crazy Horse, those long solos such as you might hear on Cortez the Killer or songs from Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. Broaden the horizons … Keith Richards, Gary Moore, Peter Green, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen.
But for now, it is about laying the foundations. In time I want to have the basic techniques of lead play, the pentatonics and major scale as well mastered as I have the basic open chords and my still fairly basic strumming and finger-picking that allows me to play and sing simple songs OK at open mics. Note ‘mastered’ is used in the most relative sense here.
Sounds great David! If you want to add a bit of embellishment you could try sprinkling in the rapid hammer-on pull-off thing. For example if you were going to play the two notes 1/12 2/15, you’d instead play
1/12-hammer->1/15-pull->1/12 2/15
where the hammer on and pull off would be very quick - sounding like “diddley”
OK that’s a bad example because it’s probably quite hard to play that high up on an acoustic, but hopefully you get the idea. Once you start doing that, you can’t stop - I think I do it a bit too much!
cheers,
@twistor59 Thanks Phil. Glad you enjoyed it. You are spot on with the suggestion. I have dabbled a little with hammers and pulls when playing my electric. Definitely something to work on but after a couple of tries in rehearsal, I opted not to even try when playing the acoustic. Similarly for slides. Look forward to working on this over time, I’m just getting started
All of those really, it’s just a way to make what you’re playing less predictable, less predictable generates interest which improves your musical abilities a lot, it’s well worth experimenting with. Take this for example, the intervals set the mood, as it happens this is my favourite example for explaining what I mean!
You look and listen to the intervals you use and see what the order and actual interval alters the feel; I think that you will soon see what I mean.
David, Good to see you going at it. I would echo a lot of what Darrell said, advice that hits home with me, too. Have you tried to transcribe any slow blues? I’ve found that transcribing rather than noodling (not that there’s anything wrong with noodling) has helped my overall play tremendously. Just a thought.
I can relate to bends, etc. on an acoustic. My son was here from NYC and had his Taylor with 12s on it. My gosh, that’s a different beast altogether. Hope you’re able to get to the 'lectric soon.
You’ve got a lot of good things going on here, so keep at it.
Agreed, it’s definitely got a lot going for it!
The other thing worth considering is to take some time watching and listening to Dadystovepipe, especially for acoustic blues - he is the man!
) apologise for the length. Time just whizzes by when playing over a loop rather than a BT of a set length and I guess I just stumbled over too many ideas to explore when ‘rehearsing’. I promise I was wanting to keep it to a socially acceptable length … of course how much you subject yourself to is entirely in your hands … the saving grace of watching on YT 
, and I don’t want to encourage you for longer parts but I think this length is fine 
Was really enjoyable!! I really need to jam more with backing tracks as it helps your skills a ton!!! Keep on keepin on! Thanks man!