That 6th Trick

Hear, hear!

I’ve got the exercise down pretty well now and have started trying to improvise with 6ths (as Justin suggests at the end of the lesson). @Richard_close2u 's diagrams have been very useful.

Thanks!

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When Justin moves to the improvisation at the end of this lesson, he abandons (possibly subconsciously) just playing the bass on the beat and sometimes incudes the bass on the “and” beat. It also becomes random where sometime he doesn’t play the bass beat at all. Now I can easily play that kind of the bass part but struggle to keep the regular bass going just on the beat throughout. Is that correct? Am I more advanced or are Justin and I both wrong?

I could spend hours trying to re-programme myself only to find that what I am doing is acceptable and actually a better technique.

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Hey @rorystrat , a great question (in the sense that I was wondering the same thing :slight_smile:

I’ve tried a little bit of improvisation with this piece and have noticed the same thing you did: Justin doesn’t keep the steady bass going through his improvised bit. To me, it sounds intentional, but of course, there’s no way to know (unless @JustinGuitar wants to chime in here).

I believe that the goal is full thumb independence, i.e. to be able to keep the steady bass going while improvising. And then to deviate from that steady bass if you think it sounds better that way. I have noticed when listening to Lightnin’ Hopkins or Big Bill Broonzy (or other acoustic blues guys), that they will also abandon the bass groove during some stretches of more melodic lines.

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re consistent bass.

sometimes it works to keep it going; sometimes it’s better abandoned. I just watched the end of the vid (was a while ago!) and I probably could have figured out keeping the bass going but it would have taken some extra practice - and I think it works fine without the bass in that bit.

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Me, too!

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Thanks for these posts! I’m going to try to memorise it. In the images with the arrows I can see a MmmMmD pattern, the diagnonals being Major, but I can’t see it back in the image with the notes when starting on E. Am I trying to find a pattern that isn’t there?:sweat_smile:

Edit: with the root note on top the diagonals are major, and the “straight stacked” ones minor. But thirds, if i’m correct

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Enjoyed this lesson. I broke the bass away and spend time moving the shapes and returned to the bass.

Just realised why 6 chords sound so great…they are very close to minor chords(to my ears at least) and if moving down the top three strings(apart from a different root ) are minor triads.

So i’ve been focused on lead, but all good guitar players need to learn both. I’ve been flying though the lead lessons in both 4 and 5, which has built up alot of confidence. But boom, this little lesson in 4 got me good.

Issue: I cant for the life of me hit that top note consistently with the lead 6ths. I’ve realized in the past I have either skipped the bass entirely or played the bass note in conjunction with the lead. (instead of quarter notes it becomes a weird combo of 8 and 16ths lol)

Advice?: Any advice on how to navigate getting this rhythm down? Its like patting my head and rubbing my tummy… Just when I think I got it, it leaves me entirely. So impressed by how folks can do this so fluidly. If you got a trick on how you got it down, I’d love to learn it so I can learn that little diddy Mr. Justin played so masterfully.

Hi
There is no trick to learn it, the trick is only in the lesson its name…or the trick should just be…start slow , listen to it very often and play it barr by barr very slowly…if you make mistakes then you play too fast practice again and again…it has me it takes quite a lot of time and in the beginning it sounds very bad for a long time… practice more and increase the tempo very slowly… but practice it slowly and without mistakes but it will sound no good in the wrong tempo but still… just 1 barr at a time … that’s what brought me success and now I play it as a warm-up :sunglasses:
Greetings,Rogier

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Thanks for the advice! I will definitely take that to heart! I gotta play it really slow for now. Heres to hoping my brain will register it soon!

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