Chords for Chill, J.J. Cale style lead using just 3 fretted notes- Focus on dynamics instead of scales! - ML075

Okay, so if you've been watching my videos, you know what a huge fan I am of limiting
your parameters when it comes to learning how to play and how to improvise.
I'm a big fan of taking things off the table as opposed to putting things on the table.
It's kind of almost counter to the way you might think about it.
And so a lot of times when we're trying to learn something, we want to learn everything
we can about it.
And so we want to learn, like, how do you play arpeggios?
How do you play scales?
How do you play the chord changes?
How do we mix it all?
And it becomes too much.
And then you don't really know what to do with all that information.
So what we're going to do in this video is something I've talked about quite a bit.
And we're just going to limit our notes down to three notes.
These are three basic notes.
Anybody can do this.
It doesn't matter where you are as a player.
Hopefully you've got an electric guitar because we're going to be bending one of the notes.
But although you don't have to, that's just, that's a suggestion.
But we're going to limit it down to three notes.
And I'm going to play over a very chill kind of laid back backing track.
It's kind of got the J.J.
Kale vibe or maybe Tony Joe White.
It's got that kind of vibe.
So if you like that style, you're going to appreciate this.
But I'm going to play an entire lead out of these three notes.
And if you're a premium member, I will tab that out.
And I'll make that available to those of you that are interested in that.
Maybe you just use it as a guideline.
I'll also make the MP3 jam track available so that you can start practicing everything
we're going to talk about.
So you can get that by going to ActiveMelody.com slash micro and do a search for ML 075.
_ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [D] Okay, _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ so that [C] jam track was played in the key of A minor.
And everything that I was playing was really just A minor pentatonic scale.
But the chords for the jam track, if you're not a premium member and you just want to
play the chords yourself, the [D] chords are two chords.
It's a D7 chord [Am] and an A minor chord.
Just those [D] two chords back and forth.
And so you could record yourself playing those and you can practice with that if you'd rather
do it that way.
But what I did in terms [A] of notes that I played is I'm up here on the seventh fret, fourth string.
And then we go to the third string [C] and play the fifth fret [D] and the seventh fret.
Those are the [Am] three notes. _
You can grab your guitar and play that along with me.
That's it.
If you can play that, you can do [N] everything that I played there.
Now the one caveat, I guess, is the fact that on the seventh fret, third string, I did do
a bend there.
And so it's three fretted notes.
I realized in actual fact that it would be four notes.
But that's all I had in terms of [G] parameter. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So that's the first thing I want to mention.
The hammer-on.
Now, most of you probably know that and you probably have been doing them.
But are you doing them effectively?
Are you working them into your playing?
In something as simple as this, you've really got only one place you can do it.
But that's a great way to practice it.
So put on the jam track and just _ _ _ _ _ _ [Cm]
do that kind of thing.
Just change up the timing.
[A] Try and create your own little song with something as simple as that.
Just one little hammer-on.
But it's these little techniques and nuances that will give you your unique sound.
The way that you play a hammer-on is going to sound different than I do or the next person.
So that's one thing.
The other one _ [E] _ _ is that full bend that I'm doing on the seventh fret, third string.
Now, you can see when I was doing that, [E] I'm letting it fade out.
That's okay.
It's just like [F] the way you would do it if you were singing it.
You don't have to hit it every time.
You could do that.
That's another effect.
But [D] it's these little things.
I just want you to start thinking about this stuff differently.
So letting the note ring out as you bend [B] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Cm] _
[D] sounds a little more organic to me.
It sounds like a singer.
It sounds like a singer that's running out of breath.
And another thing that happens when you run out of breath is your voice starts to shake
a little to try and hold the note.
And so you [E] get vibrato.
That's another technique that's just being thrown in there.
So now there's different ways you can do vibrato.
And actually I'll link to a [Bb] micro lesson that I did on [N] my vibrato technique.
Everyone's got a different one.
I've always been sort of hesitant to try and say this is how you do it because it's all
if you watch BB King, he does it one way versus Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Everybody's different.
But anyway, you can check that out if you want.
But the way that you approach vibrato is going to be unique to you.
[G] And you want to think about it like a singer.
How you want that singer to sound.
Everybody's got different singers that they look up to.
But you _ may hold the note for a while and then apply the vibrato.
That's very natural the way that some people would sing. _
Or you may go [Dm] right into it.
You know, sort of Albert King.
_ [G] _
_ [B] That kind of thing.
It really depends on the sound that you've got in your head.
Another technique that I use quite a bit _ [N] is a pre-bend.
So it's called a pre-bend release.
So you're pre-bending the note and then [D] you're hitting it as you release it.
So you pluck it or [Am] you pick it.
However you strike the note.
[N] Now when I do that, I like to use my finger because you get a different tone with your
finger than you do with your pick.
It sounds different with the pick.
It sounds [Em] brighter.
_ Versus with the finger, you get more of a [G] mellow. _ _
_ So those little things like do you use your finger to hit the note or do you use a pick?
Another technique that's common that I don't really use but I hear players use is where
you use your pick and your thumb to create harmonics.
So you're picking with the pick but you're letting this side of your thumb kind of hit
the string and then come off the string to get a harmonic sound like.
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [N]
That kind of sound.
Now I'm not very good at that.
I think of Robbie Robertson when I think of that sound.
But that's another little nuance you can add to your playing that makes you sound like you.
I'm just throwing out some of these things that are out there.
So [G] the notes, [Ab] those three notes, those almost take a backseat.
Now we're focusing on do we bend the note?
Do we hammer [G] onto the note?
_ Do we do pull-offs?
Do we add vibrato?
If we do add vibrato, is it heavy?
Is it light?
There's all these other things that are out there that can give you your sound.
So [N] take a jam track like this and like I said if you're a premium member you have access to it.
You can download it and just start playing along using these parameters here.
And if you're not a premium member, remember you can just record a D7 and an A minor back
and forth and you can start improvising.
And these notes by the way, these are in the minor [C] pentatonic scale.
_ Pattern one of your minor pentatonic scale for A minor.
[A] But we're just looking at those three notes.
Now here's a little added bonus.
If you start getting into this and really liking what you can do with these three notes,
you got the same three notes in the same like little shape up here.
See look, it's the same thing but it's just an octave higher.
So you come up to the tenth fret second string.
So now you can kind of go back and forth between the two.
_ Whatever lick you do there, _ you can do down here.
It's the same like you know the same position, same shape.
So that gives you two different spots in the fretboard that are an octave apart.
And the other thing I just want to mention is we're playing this over a jam track that's
in A minor and this note, [D] if we're looking at those three notes, it would be that bottom note.
That's an [Am] A note.
So A minor, key [A] of A minor, A note.
So hopefully you can connect the two.
So if you wanted to use this technique in [Gm] something that was in G or G minor, right?
[G] You find your G note on that fourth string.
So anyway, hopefully that's just given you some [D] ideas.
I realize this is a very simple lesson but that was the whole point.
I just wanted to keep something very simple, not a lot of parameters, not a lot to really
talk about in terms of you know notes or theory.
This is really more about expressing yourself with a very limited set of parameters.
Can you play an entire solo with three notes? You can.
Alright, we'll see you in the next [N] video.