Welcome to the Guitar Challenges. Each ‘challenge’ is basically an open invitation to anyone and everyone to play a song, an improvisation, a study-piece etc and post a recording – just for the fun of it.
So, whether you are a relative beginner learning the basic chords and strumming pattern of a song, a more experienced player adding a little fancy fretwork, if you want to do a little finger-picking, or you want to sing and play at the same time … you can join in with these challenges.
Important:
The challenge is to yourself.
These are not competition threads.
There are no prizes for making the ‘best’ recordings.
There is no shame for being at the beginner stages.
This is for FUN!
If you do want some constructive advice and feedback on your playing then that is cool. Just ask. Otherwise this is all about positivity, encouragement and having a go.
This challenge is all about playing some improvisation over Justin’s G Major Acoustic Pop backing track. It is track 1 on the Jam Major Vol.1 here: Jam Major Vol. I: Guitar – JustinGuitar Jams
To help navigate the song and develop your improvisation, this may help.
This chord progression and song structure is:
Section A: G / / / Gmaj7 / / / C / / / D / / /
Section B: Em / / / Bm / / / D / / / Am / / /
Section C: C / / / C/B / / / C6/A / / / C/G / / /
Time Section
00:00 two-beat drum intro
00:02 A x2 intro (single strums)
00:25 A x4
01:06 B x4
01:51 A x4
02:33 B x4
03:17 C x4
03:58 B x4
04:43 B x1 outro
For soloing, you can simply concentrate on playing from the G major scale throughout. Note – watch for the occasional ‘sour’ note. For the more adventurous, these are some additional choices:
Section A - G Major (or G Maj Pentatonic)
Section B - E Aeolian (or E Min Pentatonic)
Section C - C Lydian (or C Maj Pentatonic) - emphasise notes C, D, E, G
These first posts are collected from the original Forum and were posted between April 2011 to November 2018.
Today I’ve been tinkering with the USB gain setting on my combo amp as advised in another thread, then I found this guitar challenge. Here’s what I came up with:
Listening to it now, I think I should have played more sparingly, but I had some fun ideas towards the end. I’ll definitely make more attempts at it.
You are doing well Jozsef, some good tones and little runs going on here. Had to smile as soon as the first few bars of the BT opened, memories of early mashed up impros when I started the IM a good few years back. Thanks for sharing.
Nicely played, Jozsef. It’s great fun to start playing along with backing tracks. I’m still at the ‘starting to’ stage, but I really enjoyed yours. It was melodically interesting, with some repetition as well. Great to hear you playing.
Very sweet Mal - I could see that you were letting your ears guide you through it. A very good skill to have!
It’s not a straightforward backing track as it has those modal swithches in it, but it sounds like a useful practice tool. I might have a go at the weekend.
Thanks Phil, yes this is a really good track for some improv. The rest of the RUPAT collection are also good and contain more modal tracks for more experimentation, worth a listen.
Thanks Stefan, yes, using a pick and playing like this is not something I often attempt, or have not so much in the past. Though, after the challenge Rogier set and since the OM when we played the Eagles song, it is something I find myself doing more and more. Having always considered myself more a rhythm player, licks and riffs have not really been attempted. More to come.
Good stuff Mal.
Always love seeing what others are up to with with improv/ soloing.
Some good little melodic runs there.
Not the easiest progression to start out with, but, if something grabs ya, go for it.
If you’re looking to develop your improv, 1 and 2 chord vamps are a great exercise for working on chord tone targetting and phrasing. Surprising how melodic you can be over 1 or 2 chords.
Hi David thank you for the links, some interesting stuff here. I have been checking them out and will do the challenge when I have become more familiar with the concept.
Perfect for a Sunday morning chill out before practice. Nicely played Mal, sure picked a sweet tone, very complimentary to the BT. I wasn’t one to do the Challenges on the old forum and have tended to take part when someone resurrects them or adds a new one. BT reminds me very much of one I have used from Elevated Jamtracks or JamHQ, so your post has piqued my interest for a future noodle.
at the weekend.
