Chord Progression and Lead Part

[John Clark]

Johnny, Your instructional material is great. I like how you teach theory and integrated it immediately into playing. Great method to help retain the theory. I’m very fortunate to have come across your videos on youtube.

I have three suggestions. The first would be to include the chord progression in numeric form over each measure for all of the sheet music that you use, and two would be the ability to download the backup and the lead part as well as the backup track.

A third would be to mix the mp3s with the lead on one channel and the backup on the other so the student can listen to your lead demonstration while playing and then begin to fade you into the background using the balance control as the his skill improves. This gives the student the ability to hear all lead, all backup, or any combination in between.

If you have the time, a lesson on how to read a score and determine where the chord changes occur and their numeric degree would be appreciated, especially if this can be done without having the bass line.

It’s refreshing to see you teaching theory with numbers instead of letters. I play upright bass too and have learned the numeric chord progressions for the bluegrass music our group performs. Playing a song in any key has never been a problem since I switched over to using numbers. It was first introduced to me as The Nashville Numbering System…..

See you on the circle…bring along a fifth..

[john]

ha ha, some Good suggestions here… Let me see what I can do!
thanks
Johnny

[John Clark]

Thanks man. Learning music doesn’t get any better/easier than this….

Would also love to see you put together some lessons on playing by ear if you think that is even possible to teach or at least help get a student’s mind and way of thinking about music going in the right direction.

Sometime I think I should have learned by ear before learning to read. I’m trying to escape from the slavery of sheet music dependency.

[Dan Solem]

Was just about to ask the same thing…Also I love Jump/Swing stuff as well with apparently a 2/5 progression as well as the 5/4. My question is which way is the minor scale usually constructed? Melodic? Natural? I’ve been taking transcripts of songs I like and writing down there scale degree for each note as it relates to the respective chord to see patterns. Thanks for all of the help man it’s much appreciated!

Southside

[Dan Solem]

Specifically the minor chord in a 2/5 progression…How is that usually constructed? Also I found an article online that was really useful for me as a beginner concerning how to approach chord changes using the smallest step between chord tones specifically the 3rd and b7th (related to the major scale – as long as it is a Dom chord progression…Sorry if I’m rambling – learning a lot right now – I hope!

[John Clark]

Quote:

Quote from Southside on May 26, 2013, 18:40
Specifically the minor chord in a 2/5 progression…How is that usually constructed? Also I found an article online that was really useful for me as a beginner concerning how to approach chord changes using the smallest step between chord tones specifically the 3rd and b7th (related to the major scale – as long as it is a Dom chord progression…Sorry if I’m rambling – learning a lot right now – I hope!

Please post the URL to the online article you referenced above or send it in a message. Thanks…

[Dan Solem]

http://www.saxontheweb.net/Rock_n_Roll/RockSax06.html

[john]

Regarding playing by ear as opposed to reading sheet music…
In a perfect world one would be able to do both.
But even if you can’t figure out entire chord progressions you can pick a sax solo you like and learn it by picking up the notes one by one. Start with an easy solo so this process is do-able. If you know the key and the subsequent chord this makes the process easier because you already know which notes the solo will have…it’s just a matter of figuring out the order!
This is the point with the book/course I wrote called How To Play Killer Blues Sax solos… by learning these few very basic blues scales we can solo over any rock-blues-based music and sound good.

Playing by ear is important and helpful but by understanding at least some basic theory will go a long way in helping you being able to learn by ear.

[john]

Improvising can be as simple as using a 5 note pentatonic scale over the entire 12 bar blues progression or it can involve multiple key centers as some jazz tunes have.

Obviously here we talk about the basics. As I read the questions here I wonder if you guys have checked my basic bliues improve video lessons…I think there are at least a couple of them showing how you can improvise over an entire 12 bar blues progression using only 3 notes then 4 then 5. This is as basic as I can get to show how to go about doing it. Check that out in the lessons under “Improvisation”

Take this pentatonic scale (penta is greek for 5) and play it over and over for hour and hours over this 12 bar blues. You only need one scale to sound good over a 12 bar blues… that’s only 5 notes guys.

That is step one.

Of course you can and will expand this to more scales… in blues this will mean the 4 and the 5. But start by only using the 1 for a while.

This is why I wrote the book/course How To Play Killer Blues and Rockin’ Sax Solos With 7 Notes Or Less. I could have called it with 5 notes or less! Seriously, it just involves learning a few very simple and basic scales, and if you’re wondering what these are, start with the lessons I mention above….baby steps.

[john]

The article you mentioned is well laid out and informative but you don’t need to get confused with mixolydian modes just yet.
Think about and do this:
Write out the C major scale.
Write out the F major scale.
Write out the G major scale.
Write out the C pentatonic major scale. (CDEFG) You can figure this out in any key by using the numbers 1,2,3,4,5.

You will now notice that the notes of the C pentatonic scale are also included in all three of the other scales. This means that technically you can use these 5 notes over all three of these scales or chords because they are related to all three and no matter which notes you use, none will sound bad. This is the concept behind the basic improve videos I did so start there.

I will do a song/video in the next week or 2 which will be a real basic blues tune and will include this type of solo and I will explain the basic theory behind it as well as the scale(s) used and write out the entire solo so you can see the notes and how they relatye etc.

rock on guys
Johnny

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