Welcome to Strings of Rage™ essential training. This is a complete & ongoing series specifically about fretboard visualisation. We are going back to basics & looking at absolutely fundamental required knowledge. Too many players do not have a solid understanding of what they are doing on the neck. This series will change that.
We’re going to show you how to break out of restrictive freeboard visualisation systems such as CAGED and 3nps. We want to prevent auto-piloting through large shapes and promote a truly concrete understanding of the guitar neck. We’ll do this using a highly adaptive and limitless intervallic thinking method which is used by many of our inspirations such as Per Nillson, Jack Gardiner, Tom Quayle and LoG to name a few.
HEADS UP : This is a theory heavy lesson but grab your guitar because we’re going to be applying this knowledge on the guitar towards the end. This lesson will require patience, brutal self honesty and the desire to improve.
In this first episode we’re going to have a brutally honest look at our understanding of intervals for guitar. All music consists of intervals so a complete mastery of intervals is essential. We’ve looked at intervals and interval functions in-depth before in this lesson and we’d recommend checking that out after this lesson too. We’ll look at how to apply intervallic thinking over the neck in order to see the neck as a whole. Thus breaking away from limiting alternative systems. If you can truly master the intervals for guitar, you’ll be able to do anything. Let’s do this!
Invest Your Time: 37 minutes
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In this lesson we’re going to break down the ultimate fretboard visualisation method. The interval system, also known as Intervallic Functions. You commonly see this fretboard visualisation method used by Jazz and Fusion guitarists such as Frank Gamble, Tom Quayle, Jack Gardiner, Guthrie Govan & Allan Holdsworth to name a few. All who are massive inspirations to us.
The Intervallic Function System, allows for true fretboard mastery. This goes way beyond 3nps scales, pentatonic box shapes, root position arpeggios and aims to prevent general noodling and instil intelligent note choices.
THIS is the system that will, beyond any doubt, take your playing and fretboard visualisation into the stratosphere if you’re willing to put in the work. Learning the intervals for guitar, or rather the intervallic function system, is vital to becoming a truly grounded musician. The learning hurdle for this method is quite a challenge but the payoff is greater than the hurdle is hard. In this lesson we’ll take a proper look at what it is and how to really understand and get to grips with this system that will enable true fretboard mastery regardless of what style of music you play. Being able to properly understand the fretboard applies to any genre of music.
Just like every modern player we’re always on the quest to expand our horizons. And what better way to do that than try to tackle the most freeing fretboard visualisation system of them all. This guide will help those players who have come to a plateau and are feeling stuck in a rut with 3nps scales and modes, just as we once were.
This is a very in-depth look at some vital guitar and music theory so brace yourself. Let’s do this!
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In this lesson we’re going to look at how to use the Phrygian mode to create a metal rhythm part. We’ll look at how to play the mode on 6, 7 and 8 string guitars.
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In this lesson we’re going to look at some chord fingerings for seven string guitar in Drop A tuning. To keep things simple we’ll look at the shapes from the same root note – A. We’ll look at root position chords, inversions and finish with some two handed shapes.
All of these 7 string chords can be moved up the fretboard as Barre Chords so later we’ll look at an example of Dm. This will be the Am shape moved up from open position to the 5th fret. Some of these shapes will cover all 7 strings and some will not. However all the shapes will utilize the lowest string (A).
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Today we’re going to look at some ‘Tritone Substitutions’. So what is a Tritone and what is a Substitution?
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Understanding the differences between the scales and modes can feel like a daunting task. What makes a scale Major or Minor? Why do we get different chords from different scales? Understanding the intervals which make up each scale or mode can help. One way to do this is to learn the scales across a single string so that you can more easily see the distances between notes.
In this post we’re going to look at 11 different scales/modes, all starting from the root note A. We’ll play these single string scales on the A string to keep things simple. Moving these patterns to other strings will give you different key centers as will moving the patterns up the fretboard. We’ll start by looking at all twelve intervals in relation to the note A:
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Today we’re going to look at the ‘Circle of Fifths’. You may have come across the term before, or the ‘Circle of Fourths’, or just ‘The Circle’.
Check out the diagram below and then we’ll look at what it means and why its useful.
As you can see if we move clockwise in The Circle of Fifths we go up in fifths, e.g. C to G. If we move anti-clockwise we go up in fourths, e.g. C to F. The inner ring shows the relative minor key of each Major key. For example the relative minor to C Maj is Am. The relative minor of G Maj is Em etc.
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In this episode we’re going to take a detailed look at intervals, what they are and the sound quality of each interval type. An understanding of intervals is absolutely essential to avoid the guesswork when navigating the guitar neck not just with lead lines but creative chord voicings too.
Let’s understand the intervals for guitar. The most underestimated weapon in your arsenal of musical weaponry. Essentially intervals are simply the distance between notes, however with a little understanding you can harness the true power of intervals to achieve any sound you want. We’ll also learn about interval note quality and how this can help unlock songwriting creativity.
Welcome to part 2 of our exploration of seventh chords. In part 1 we looked at the more common types of sevenths, in this part we’re going to look at some which you won’t come across as often.
You can get some quite unusual sounds from some these chords because of their altered extensions. Remember these chords will be derived from a particular scale or mode and some of these chords are exclusive to their mode.
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Today we’re going to look at extending the basic chord triads by adding a 7th. This will give us a whole new set of ‘Seventh Chords’.
If you’re not sure how to form the basic triads check out our post on doing exactly that, here. You may also want to check out our post on intervals if you’re not sure of the difference between a minor 7 and a major 7, however the diagrams below should make things fairly clear.
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In this episode we’re going to learn how to harmonize the major scale to form diatonic chords. ‘Diatonic’ chords are chords which have been created using the notes from the major scale.
If we make a basic chord triad from each degree of the scale, we end up with seven chords. A chord triad is a group of three notes, usually a root, third and fifth. These are are all degrees of the major scale.
In music Roman Numerals are used to denote the scale degrees and which degree a chord is built from, for example the V chord is the chord built from the fifth note of they key (In C major this would be the note G).
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In this series of lessons we will look at the modes of the Major Scale. We’ll learn how the modes relate to the major scale and look at when and how to use them.
Modes seem to be a source of confusion for a lot of people, especially the ‘self-taught’ guitarists among us. You’ll also often see modes of the major scale listed in books for reference but with little or no explanation of how to use them.
So what are the modes of the major scale?
A mode is basically the major scale, shifted along so that the ‘root’ note is different, for example in C major the second note is D. The second mode of the major scale is ‘Dorian’ so in C major we get the D Dorian mode. The notes of D Dorian are the same as C major except they run from D to C instead of C to B.
Let’s start by looking at the Major Scale itself:
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Dorian is the second mode of the major scale so we get it by starting from the second note instead of the first. In the Key of C major the Dorian mode would be D Dorian, the notes would be D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D. The same notes as C major but starting from D instead of C.
The Dorian mode is normally used over a m7 chord, this is because the II chord in a major key is a m7. See our post on building chords from the major scale for more information. So if we have a chord progression which contains a II chord we can use the Dorian mode to solo or write a melody over it. We can also write chord progressions which resolve to Dorians I chord. For example dm7.
Phrygian is the third mode of the major scale and is considered to be a ‘minor’ scale due to the flat 3rd. the interval formula for phrygian is:
H-W-W-W-H-W-W
Since the III chord of the major scale is a m7 chord, phrygian will work well over this. For example in the key of C major the E phrygian mode would work well over Em7. To really bring out the sound of phrygian we need to make good use of the flat 2nd.
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Lydian is the 4th mode of the major scale. In the key of C major we get F Lydian. The notes of Lydian are the same as its related major scale, however the lydian mode has an augmented 4th, also referred to as a #11.
Despite the root chord of the mode being a major 7, the lydian mode also has a tense and mysterious quality due to the #11. Since there is a whole-tone between the 3rd and 4th notes we get a semitone between the 4th and 5th.
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Mixolydian is the 5th mode of the major scale. In C major we get G Mixolydian, the notes are: G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G. Mixolydian, like Ionian and Lydian is a major type of mode because it has a major 3rd. However it differs from Ionian and Lydian in that it has a minor 7 not a major 7.
This means that we get a Dominant chord, G7 from the mode (Rather than GMaj7), this is made up of a Root, major third, perfect fifth and a minor seventh. Despite being similar to the major scale the mixolydian mode has a lot of mileage for musical endeavours.
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The sixth mode of the major scale is the Aeolian mode. This is better known as the Natural Minor Scale. In the key of C major we get the A Aeolian mode (A minor).
The A minor scale is often referred to as the ‘relative’ minor to C major. Likewise C major is the ‘relative’ major to A minor. To help understand this mode let’s look at how to write an aeolian mode chord progression.
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The final mode of the major scale is the Locrian mode. Or as we here at Strings of Rage used to call it “The Dreaded Locrian Mode”.
This is because the Locrian mode tends to be quite dissonant and can be tricky to use. Some books, websites and instructional dvd’s that we’ve come across even omit Locrian entirely! Some have even mentioned it briefly and then moved on!
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