Reply #9: Sorry

[ProfessorGAC]

I reread my post and unless i was actually showing you, it would be very confusing.

Let's say you want to play in E.

So go to the E on the 5th string, 7t fret. Play 7, 8, 10, then drop to the 4th string and play the same frets, then work back, without repeating the 10th fret on the 4th string.

So, you'd play 5:7, 5:8, 5:10, 4:7, 4:8, 4:10, 4:8, 4:7, 5:10, 5;8, 5:7.

Now you drop to 4:7 and repeat that pattern into the 3rd string and so on. Doing this on pairs 5/4, 4/3, 3/2, and 2/1 gives you an ascending run, with internal descensions, that covers 44 notes. It also introduces some interesting flatted elements like the flatted 2nd and flatted 6th.

Now, if you make the 2 fret jump as your second note, (skipping from 5:7 to 5:9) you now have a standard second and sixth. What i find useful is to do both of those so you mix and match these two moves after a while and you'll find that there are 4 different modes being played without even moving the hand.

Now, if you get comfortable with that run, you apply the same approach but now starting at 3:9, which is also an E. This allows you to extend the range of the run to two full octaves without moving your hand more than 2 inches.

You can get interesting and non-reptitive solos that aren't locked into the standard blues box and not have to move your hand move than an inch and a half.

The other thing you might want to learn to do (lots of the great do this) is play through the changes. Don't feed like every phrase has to end at the chord change and start over. Think sax. Hardly any truly great sax players worried about starting a new phrase on the change. And sax players are among the best linear and modal players we're likely to hear. (I guess trumpeters too.) That's pretty easy. Listen to the song and your own playing. If you already play a phrase past the chord change, you already do it. If not, you just have to work on NOT doing something like cutting off your line just because the E is about to change to an A.

THe reason i bring these both up, is that i've seen a lot of new learners feel they have to move to the chord or totally think in the key of the chord when it's changed.

The idea i first proposed will allow you to play nice lines with interesting substituted notes here and there that, because of the 11 note sequence almost forces you to think of the line and not of the chord coming up. Don't know if you will like this or not, but it really works for me and a couple of the students i had that really worked at it and stayed with guitar over the years tell me it works for them too.
GAC