I’m enjoying creating our brand new Music Theory for Guitar program. One of several musical ideas in the program is known as a Deceptive Cadence. Worship musicians make use of the deceptive cadence frequently in order to lengthen a worship song.

It is common for any worship song to finish using a chord referred to as the V, or the V₇, to the chord known as the I. There is not enough space here to speak regarding the numerous chord constructions and keys but the I chord is the actual root chord of the key. For instance, within the key of ‘G’ the I is a ‘G’ chord. The V within the key of ‘G’ will be the chord ‘D.’

The ‘D’ or ‘D₇‘ chord resolves beautifully into the chord ‘G.’ A deceptive cadence is whenever you switch to your VI chord at the conclusion of the tune rather than the I.

An example could be the song “Lord I Lift Your Name On High.” I am aware that a lot of you may have the Worship Guitar Class program and this particular song is inside the very first volume. The chords tend to be mainly ‘G C D C.’ The song finishes using the chords ‘D,’ ‘D_sus,’ G…..

The deceptive cadence for that key of ‘G’ is the VI chord and that is the chord ‘E_m.’ As an alternative to using ‘D,’ D_sus,’ ‘G’ you could play ‘D,’ ‘D_sus,’ E_m.’ This ‘E_m‘ is on the final word ‘high.’ Play for the full measure and then ½ measure with ‘A_m‘ as well as ‘D’ ‘D_sus‘ for that 2nd half of the measure and then finish on the pattern ‘G C D C and G’. This particular ending is below…

| E_m | A_m D_sus D           | G C | D C | G
… high. Lord I lift your name on high.

We usually perform the deceptive cadence two or three times prior to ultimately concluding on G.

If you have ever desired to learn how to read music as well as to fully grasp music theory, you should become a member of the music theory course.

Creative use of guitar effects can be a great way to enhance your music. The trick is to make sure your musical ideas are strong before you start reaching for an sound effect to save the day. The most common phrase heard around the recording studio by newbie band members is, “It’s okay. We’ll fix it in the mix.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.

If something is out of time or out of tune it can’t be fixed in the mix. In fact, the better the recording facilities the more obvious the musical problem will become.

That said, choosing the best sound effect to suit your musical situation is an important decision. Everyday an endless parade of “new” effect units pass before the prospective buyer’s eyes and ears — each promising to be just the thing to blast them off to musical success.

The truth is, despite all kinds of fancy packaging, there are only a handful of useful guitar effects. It is quite common for a guitarist to be seduced into buying an effect unit with 1001 sounds only to find the player struggling to find two or three decent usable sounds.

The in-store demo will sound fantastic but how will it work on the gig? How often do you need the “earthquake” or “underwater” sound? It might be fun to play to your friends but you’re wise to save your money for the “bread and butter” sounds.

Here is an overview of the seven most basic and useful effects that all professional guitarists carry with them.

Guitar sound effect 1: Reverb.

Every recording of a guitar has this effect as an essential part of the guitar sound. How much of the effect used will depend on the style of music. For example, jazz players generally prefer to use only the slightest amount of reverb whereas a “surf” style guitar group such as the Shadows or Ventures will use lots of reverb to create their sound.

The effect is designed to simulate playing your guitar in various size rooms with different room dimensions and floor/wall/ceiling textures.

Reverb became an essential part of the recording engineer’s sonic toolbox when the studios started to get serious about soundproofing. The recording booth was carpeted  – the walls, floors and ceilings. All the sounds were recording “dry” or “flat” without any natural acoustics and reverb was added later to give more natural sound and simulate a particular venue.

Guitar sound effect 2: Distortion / Overdrive.

This effect is the basic sound of rock, metal and country rock music and can also
be heard in jazz fusion music.

Some guitar effect companies market their product as an “overdrive” effect while others sell their units as “distortion”. The term overdrive is possibly the best way to get your head around what this effect does.

In the early days of rock and roll as the venues became bigger the small guitar amps could not handle the required volumes. As guitarists ran their amps higher and higher “into the red” their amps when into overdrive creating a distorted guitar sound just before the amp stopped working. This is where the more experienced groups had a roadie run on stage with a new amp.

Long story short, the distorted sound became very popular and so the guitar effects people developed ways of overdriving the guitar sound without blowing up the amp.

Guitar sound effect 3: Chorus.

This is a great effect for a clean guitar sound where you want to create a full, rich, twelve string type of sound. Chorus is a neat effect for both electric and acoustic guitar. This effect also sounds good used in conjunction with distortion. Just place the chorus after the distortion in your effects chain.

Guitar sound effect 4: Wah-Wah.

If you are a Jimi Hendrix fan you will know this sound. Jimi made this effect popular and guitarists all over the world have been discovering and rediscovering this sound year in and year out.  Listen to ‘Shaft’ by Isaac Hayes for some fine wah-wah playing!

Guitar sound effect 5: Echo.

Rockabilly guitar players need this effect to get their sound. The echo effect is similar to reverb in that it simulates certain size acoustic situations. The difference is that you can set the exact amount of delay time a note is played back in milliseconds  from a single ‘slap back’ echo to multiple delayed echoes. Listen to recordings by guitarist Les Paul to hear the echo effect.

Guitar sound effect 6: Tremolo.

Although it is not an essential effect, tremolo is important for certain 70′s type guitar sounds and comes standard on certain guitar amps such as Fender’s “Twin Reverb” amp. The effect creates a variable modulating sound that works well in songs like “Born On The Bayou” and “Run Through The Jungle” by CCR.

Guitar sound effect 7: Compression.

The idea behind compression is to “contain” the dynamics of a performance. Compression allows the guitarist or recording engineer to set a cut-off point where no matter how hard or soft the player picks a note or chord the compression will not allow the musical performance to go beyond the defined settings.  Compression is used extensively in all pop and rock music and to a much lesser degree in jazz and classical music.

Guitar sound effect 8: Noise Reduction.

I thought I’d also include this neat effect. It will give you the professional’s edge to you sound. Use it last in your guitar effect chain to clean up unwanted noise from all your units. Hush is the brand name of an excellent noise reduction unit.

Well, these are the basic effects. I recommend testing all different combinations and brands of guitar effects to help you find your unique sound on guitar.

Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course

Here are some tips to keeping your guitar protected and cared for.

1. Get a guitar case and leave your guitar in the case. I used to suggest leaving your guitar on a guitar stand because it’s easier to remember to play it when it’s in view. Accidents, including earthquakes, can happen and your guitar is more protected in a guitar case.

2. Do not leave it in a hot car. Excess heat can warp and ruin the wood.

3. In dry climates, use a humidifier. You can purchase one specifically made for guitars or make one yourself. To make one, get a small plastic container that can fit inside your guitar case. A traveling container for a bar of soap is the perfect size. Place a wet sponge in the plastic container and make some small holes in the container.

4. Keep a cotton cloth in your case, like a baby’s diaper. This is good for wiping down the instrument. Some people wipe down the guitar strings after playing. This can help to make them last longer.

5. Speaking of strings, change them when they sound dead. Your guitar will sound better. Professional players may change them every few weeks, but you’ll probably want to change them at least every 6 months or so.

6. Wash your hands before you play your guitar. Dirt from your hands can on the strings.

7. Clean the fretboard with very fine steel wool. You can clean away any dirt or grime. When the strings are all off, clean each fret.

8. Periodically polish the wood with a good guitar polish. The guitar gets clean and a well taken care of guitar is less likely to have problems.

Do you want to learn guitar and popular worship songs in a simple step-by-step approach? Take a look at PlayWorshipGuitar.com

Tired of playing the same dreary old chords on the guitar? Well, you are not on your own. Just about every home in the world has a guitar — or at least it seems that way. Some homes have two or more guitars to make up for the homes that don’t have any. With that many guitars buzzing away the all too familiar sound of the basic three chord song in the key of ‘G’ hardly grabs the listener’s ear these days.

But what if there was an easy way to create an endless array of crisp, clear professional-sounding chords on the guitar that would enhance your songwriting or group? The good news is there are many ways to add variety to tied old chords. Here is just one way you could approach modern rhythm guitar chord voicing.

Our diatonic music system is based on fifths. It’s the type of sound we have become conditioned to because it’s the natural progression we expect to hear in music. So why not incorporate fifths in our chords to create silky smooth chord progressions
that intrigue, tantalize and surprise the listener’s ear!

I’m not talking about the usual two note power chord which contains the root note and fifth. That sound can be heard everywhere. In fact that’s exactly the type of common sound we are intending to avoid.

Let’s start with a standard set of chords derived from the E major scale.

Quick review

The basic set of chords heard in popular music are created by stacking the notes of the diatonic scale in thirds on top of each other in layer cake fashion.

The key of E major produces the following set of three note chords (triads)…

E – F#m – G#m – A – B – C#m – D#dim – E

Most guitarists would probably play many of these chords using a bar chord formation and in many applications. While that would work fine our project today is to move away from these ‘correct’ but often heard and overplayed chord sounds.

Let’s take a closer look at the key of ‘E’ with the view of discovering the all important fifth interval.

The E major scale contains the notes:

E – F# – G# – A – B – C# – D# – E

Using the root note of E an interval of a fifth is created by measuring the musical distance between the other notes of the scale.

As you can see the note that is a fifth above the root note or keynote of E is the note ‘B’ (marked as [ ]).

[E] – F# – G# – A – [B] – C# – D# – E

Applying this concept to the guitar to develop interesting, original sounding chords is easy. Basically we want to have the two notes ‘E’ and ‘B’ present in each chord. As many players will already know, most chords produced from the diatonic E major scale will not naturally contain the notes E an B. The idea is to create new, fresh chord sounds by incorporating the interval of a fifth, thereby producing different types of chords e.g., sus 2, sus 4, minor seventh variations of the basic diatonic triads.

Sounds complicated? It isn’t.

Here’s one easy great sounding solution:

The first string open is an ‘E”, the second string open is a ‘B’ That’s our fifth interval covered already. Now all we have to do is convert or adapt the standard bar chord shapes to include these two open strings and the job is done.

We already have the two notes ‘E’ and ‘B’ present with the standard E shape chord so no changes here.

E
–0—-
–0—-
–1—-
–2—-
–2—-
–0—-

F#m (new version)

–0—-
–0—-
–2—-
–4—-
–4—-
–x—-

Notice how this chord has an different quality than the standard F#m bar chord. It’s not better, just different. Actually, the new F#m has a different name to help musicians identify its sound.

The new version of F#m is called F#m7add4.

F#m7add4
–0—-
–0—-
–2—-
–4—-
–4—-
–x—-

For the moment we’re not going to concern ourselves with all the technical names. Just think about the chord as a basic chord with added color or flavor in the same way as you could add milk, cream or sugar to a cup of coffee.

Here’s one more example for you to try:

G#m (new version)

–0—-
–0—-
–4—-
–6—-
–6—-
–x—-

If you have been playing guitar for a while and your guitar’s neck is quite narrow you may want to play a bass note with your thumb on the six string like this:

thumb indicated as [T]

F#m7add4
–0—-
–0—-
–2—-
–4—-
–4—-
-[T]—

G#m (new version)

–0—-
–0—-
–4—-
–6—-
–6—-
-[T]—

Including the bass note will result in a fuller sounding chord and is particularly useful when playing solo guitar.

Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course.

Learning chords on the guitar can be a daunting project. There always seem to be more and more chords to learn. The trick is to understand how chords can be duplicated all over the fretboard.

By understanding how harmony works on the fretboard we take the first steps to unlocking the fingerboard. Let’s get started.

Chord Duplication Concept: By dividing the six strings of the guitar into string grids– each grid containing three strings–we have a system of finding chords with the exact same notes on a different position on the fingerboard.

The string grid system:

first, second and third string = grid 1

second, third and fourth string = grid 2

third, fourth and fifth string = grid = 3

fourth, fifth and sixth string = grid 4

Let’s take a look at a D major chord on grid 1

D
–2—
–3—
–2—
–0—
–x—
–x—

The keynote for this D chord shape is on the second string, third fret, marked [ ].

D
–2—
-[3]–
–2—
–0—
–x—
–x—

This same chord can be duplicated on string grid 2 on the seventh fret.

D
–x—
–7—
-[7]—
–7—
–x—
–x—

Notice how the keynote for this chord shape is on the third string.

Let’s move this D chord to the next string grid 3.

D
–x—
–x—
–11–
-[12]-
–12–
–x—

Although it’s not practical on most guitars I’ll move the D chord over to the last string grid 4.

D
–x—
–x—
–x—
–16–
-[17]-
–17–

This particular D chord does not sound that great because when we are playing very high up the fretboard on the thick strings the notes tend to sound tubby.

Before we go any further, pick up your guitar and try these shapes out, paying particular attention to the tone of each chord.

By now you can probably understand why guitarists have so much trouble applying theory on the fretboard.

Think of this for a moment. Imagine I was in a soundproof room. You could see my fingers but you could not hear the sound of my guitar. If you saw me play ‘D’ chord played on string grid one you would not think by looking at my fingers when I move to the ‘D’ chord on string grid two that I was playing the same chord, would you?

Our eyes just see the chord shapes. It’s our mind that intellectually has to grasp the combination of notes under our fingers.

I invite you to try this chord duplication concept next time you are practicing the guitar.

Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course

Sooner or later you and your guitar are going to end up at a musical jam session where someone will call out, “Let’s play a blues.” Now one thing you can be sure of is that it will be either in the ‘G’ or ‘E’ key. Knowing the basic blues chord progressions and how to solo in the keys of G and E is essential stuff the advancing guitarist must know. Today’s project will focus on the key of G and specifically the G minor pentatonic scale. 

The G minor pentatonic has a great earthy quality that makes it ideal for blues, rock and jazz music. In fact, just about everyone will love this scale. The notes in the G minor pentatonic scale are:

G – Bb – C – D – F – (G)

If you play these notes anywhere on the guitar fingerboard you will be playing the G minor pentatonic scale. Here’s the most common fingering pattern for the scale:

G – using your first finger behind the third fret, sixth string

Bb – played with the fourth finger, sixth fret, sixth string

C – first finger, third fret, fifth string

D – played with your third finger behind the fifth fret, fifth string

F – first finger, third fret, fourth string
G Minor pentatonic scale pattern

—————————
—————————
—————————
——————-3—[5]-
———–3—5———–
-[3]—6——————-

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Here is the same scale one octave higher:

———————-[3]-
————–3—6——-
——3—5—————
-[5]———————-
————————–
————————–

Now for another popular way to play the G minor pentatonic scale:

———————————
———————————
———————————
————————-3–[5]-
————-1—3—5———
—1—[3]———————-

Notice how in this instance the first note is not the keynote. Remember it’s vitally important to identify where the keynote is situated in the scale as it will help you transpose the scale into different keys.

Our next project is to pre-record a background to practice the G minor pentatonic scale over. Many rock and pop songs use chord progressions derived directly from the notes in the pentatonic scale.

Typical chord progression(s) would be:

G /// | Bb /// | C /// | D /// ||

or

G /// | C /// |D /// | C /// ||

One of the key ingredients to creating your own individual style is learning the names of the notes in each scale rather than just learning a fingering pattern.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course

It’s easy to get tangled up in the guitar scales department. There are literally thousands of scales to learn. Do you have to know all these scales to play guitar? Fortunately the answer is a resounding NO! 

So the question is: which scales should we learn and which scales can we drop of at the nearest bus stop?

High on your priority list should be the minor pentatonic scale. This is the scale most guitar players learn first. The problem is they tend to get it confused with the blues scale which is similar but not the same.

Minor Pentatonic scale system – F minor pentatonic.

The notes in the F minor pentatonic scale are:

F – Ab – Bb – C – Eb – (F)

If you played these notes anywhere on the guitar fingerboard you would be playing the F minor pentatonic scale.

Here’s the most common fingering pattern for the scale:

F – using your first finger behind the first fret, sixth string

Ab – played with the fourth finger, fourth fret, sixth string

Bb – first finger, first fret, fifth string

C – played with your third finger behind the third fret, fifth string

Eb – first finger, first fret, fourth string

F Minor pentatonic scale pattern

————————-

————————-

————————-

—————–1—[3]-

———1—3———–

-[1]—4—————–

Keynotes indicated as [ ]

Keynotes are important as they identify the key of the scale pattern when it’s moved around the fingerboard.

Pentatonic scales are five note scales, notice how both the first and last notes of the scale are exactly the same letter name.

Play the scale slowly listening closely to the ‘sound’ of each note. when you are ready to move on try playing the next pattern, it’s exactly the same notes only an octave higher.

F minor pentatonic played one octave higher:

———————-[1]-

————–1—4——-

——1—3—————

-[3]———————-

————————–

————————–

Once the octave fingering and the sound of the notes become familiar try playing the original scale, stop for four beats, play the octave version, wait four more beats and then go back to the original version.

Continue practicing like this until everything works on autopilot.

Creating a backing track.

Our next project is to record a backing track that we can practice our scale over.

A good idea is to use power chords derived from the names of the notes in the scale. Therefore any of the following notes will work as keynotes for power chords:

F – Ab – Bb – C – Eb

Typical chord progression(s) would be:

F /// | Ab /// | Bb /// | C /// ||

or

F /// | Bb /// |C /// | Bb /// ||

Make up your own progressions and record them for 5 – 10 minutes. That way you will have plenty of backing track to solo over. If the backing track is too short you will be just starting to develop your ideas and the background will stop.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course, by clicking here

Hands up those who have looked at a guitar chord book and then dropped the book and ran for the nearest exit. To be honest I don’t blame you!My earliest experience with chord books was with my first guitar teacher. The idea was to learn one new chord shape per lesson out of this massive chord book entitled 1001 chords. 

It all started out fine for the first two weeks but on my third lesson disaster struck. I had forgotten one of the chords from the previous lessons. This started me thinking, “How will I ever remember all these chords?”

You probably have had similar experiences. But what if there was an easier way to learn and remember chords? The good news is there are heaps of ways to learn chords. Here is just one of them. It’s called the Keynote Chord System:

Concept: Each chord has a keynote, also referred to as the root note. Essentially this is the note the chord takes its name from. Hence the name “keynote”.

Let’s take a look at a D major chord

D

–2—

–3—

–2—

–0—

–x—

–x—

The keynote for this D chord shape is on the second string, third fret, marked [ ].

D

–2—

-[3]–

–2—

–0—

–x—

–x—

By applying a chromatic scale to our keynote chord system concept we can play many chords without changing chord shape. It works like this:

Chromatic scale: A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A

I know it looks complicated but you can create your own chromatic scale by selecting any note. In this instance I began on the note ‘A’ open, fifth string and proceeded to play every note on that string (playing along the string – linear fashion) until I reached the next note ‘A’ on the twelfth fret, fifth string.

Think of the chromatic scale as an endless loop whereby you can start at any point,  and play all the notes in succession until you reach the note with the same letter name you began on. There you have the chromatic scale.

Some samples:

The ‘A’ chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘A’

A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A

The ‘D’ Chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘D’

D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D

The ‘F’ chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘F’

F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F

Notice how each scale contains the same notes, only starting from different points in the scale.

Back to the D chord shape, since we are using the chord of D we will use the D chromatic scale as a reference.

The ‘D’ Chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘D’

D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D

Application: Since the keynote for a ‘D’ chord would be the note ‘D’ and we already know it is on the second string, third fret, if we moved the D shape up one fret higher the keynote would be D# or Eb (the second note in the D chromatic scale).

Therefore we would name the chord D# or Eb

D# / Eb

–3—

-[4]–

–3—

–x—

–x—

–x—

Notice how I’m only playing three notes not the usual four, this is because the open string is not moving therefore it would not be correct.

More examples:

Keynote E – second string, fifth fret

E

–4—

-[5]–

–4—

–x—

–x—

–x—

Keynote F – second string, sixth fret

F

–5—

-[6]–

–5—

–x—

–x—

–x—

Keynote F# / Gb – second string, seventh fret

F# / Gb

–6—

-[7]–

–6—

–x—

–x—

–x—

Keynote G – second string, eight fret

G

–7—

-[8]–

–7—

–x—

–x—

–x—

All I’m doing is moving consecutively through the D chromatic scale and using the same easy chord shape to create heaps of chords effortlessly.

I invite you to try these simple shapes next time you are playing your guitar.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course

More Guitar Resources

There is a whole new generation of guitar players discovering Johnny Cash’s music. People who would normally be listening to rock or heavy metal are tuning in to this country music legend.  Cash’s songs are easy to play, well constructed and full of surprises plus they sound great with just one guitar. I thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at some of the keyingredients to Johnny’s style.

Johnny Cash style chord progressions:

Most of Johnny’s songs are three chord tunes. Notice I didn’t say simple three chord tunes. Cash regularly turns three chord progressions into storytelling masterpieces, Here’s how.

I’ll use “I Walk The Line” for our project.  Let’s play it in the key of A.

A three chord song in the key of A usually refers to the chords of A, D & E(7). These chords are the 1st, 4th & 5th chords in that key.

Key of A

Chord 1 = A
Chord 4 = D
Chord 5 = E(7)

A

—0—–

—2—–

—2—–

—2—–

—0—–

—x—–

D

—2—–

—3—–

—2—–

—0—–

—x—–

—x—–

E7

—0—–

—0—–

—1—–

—0—–

—2—–

—0—–

Most experienced guitar players would feel pretty confident playing three chord songs. After all they are fairly basic so there shouldn’t be too many surprises here! That’s where Johnny catches a lot of players nappin’!

Usually a three chord song begins and ends on the “1″ chord. One of Johnny’s songwriting tricks is to begin on the “5″ chord and then proceed to the “1″ chord, which is quite the opposite to standard three-chord songwriting. Then again, there’s nothing “standard” about Cash’s songs.

Take a close look at “I Walk the Line” and you will see what I mean.

“I Walk the Line” – Key Of “A”

E7/// | E7/// | A/// | A///| E7/// | E7/// | A/// | A///|

D/// | D/// | A/// | A///| E7/// | E7/// | A/// | A///||

How to learn this song quickly:

Tip 1: the first four bars are the same as the second four bars.

Tip 2: the first four bars are used again to form the last four bars.

Summary although “I Walk The Line” is a sixteen bar song there are only two four bar chord sequences to learn.

Chord sequence 1: E7/// | E7/// | A/// | A///|

Chord sequence 2: D/// | D/// | A/// | A///|

Then there’s Cash’s trademark alternating bass:

No Johnny Cash song would be complete without the alternating bass part. Once you have memorized the chord progression try adding the bass.

Alternating bass for “A” chord would be…

Beat one: fifth sting open

Beat two: strum the A chord from the fourth string to the first string

Beat three: play the sixth string open

Beat four: strum the A chord from the fifth string.

Remember to leave your fingers in the A chord formation while you play your bass notes.

Alternating bass for “E7″ chord would be…

Beat one: sixth string open

Beat two: strum the E7 chord from the fifth string to the first string

Beat three: play the fifth string

Beat four: strum the E7 chord from the fourth string.

Remember to leave your fingers in the E7 chord formation while you play your bass notes.

Alternating bass for “D” chord would be…

Beat one: fourth string open

Beat two: strum the D chord from the third string to the first string

Beat three: play the fifth string open

Beat four: strum the D chord from the fourth string.

Remember to leave your fingers in the D chord formation while you play your bass notes.

I invite you to add some Johnny Cash’s songs to your guitar playing repertoire they will work nicely in just about any jam session or performance.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course.

Guitar players are often called upon to create introductions and endings on the spot. The problem is, very few guitarists know how to practice this aspect of their guitar playing. 

An effective introduction leads seamlessly into the song leaving no question in the singers mind as to when they should begin singing. Unfortunately, many times the guitarist uses this opportunity to show off his or her latest bag of hot licks and tricks–predictably with disastrous results.  Here’s a simple yet effective way to create interesting and exciting introductions without distracting the audience from the main theme, which is the story the singer is telling.

Remember music is about storytelling; not hot licks!

Step 1.

Let’s say we have a song in the key of C major. The first step is to select a chord that leads naturally into the C chord. Notice I said a chord that leads “into” C. If we begin on a C chord our introduction will be “as dull as dishwater”.

The obvious chord to introduce the C chord would be the fifth chord in the key of C major: G7.

Check this out for yourself. Play a G7 chord. Let it ring for four beats and then play a C chord. Listen to how the two chords flow naturally together.

Step 2.

Select the scale that accurately defines the musical mood of the G7. In this instance the scale would be G Mixo-Lydian mode.

G Mixo-Lydian contains the following notes: G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G. As you can see the notes of the G Mixo-Lydian mode are the same notes as the notes that naturally occur in the C major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C) only arranged in a different sequence.

Step 3.

Use the unique open string qualities of the guitar to create a ‘harp like’ effect that will intrigue the listeners and lead them gently into the song. Since it’s more common to hear a scale being playing ascending, let’s start by playing our Mixo-Lydian scale descending.

G Mixo-Lydian descending: G-F-E-D-C-B-A-G

Oksy.  That’s more interesting than ascending but we’ll need more mystery to captivate our listener’s ear. Changing the texture of certain notes in the scale by using open strings will do the trick nicely.

Try the following to create a descending G Mixo-Lydian mode using the cascading scale approach:

Play the note ‘G” on the second string 8th fret. Pull off to the note ‘F’, second string 6th fret. Now play the note ‘E’ first string open.

Over to the third string seventh fret for the note ‘D’, pull off to the ‘C’ third string, fifth fret and then play the note ‘B’ second string open.

Finally, play the ‘A’ note on the fourth string, seventh fret and finish on the ‘G’ open third string.

This is how it would look on the guitar fretboard:

G Mixo-Lydian mode descending:

———–0—————————

–8—6—————-0—————

—————7—5———–0——-

—————————7———–

—————————————

—————————————

G    F    E    D    C   B   A   G

Compare that cascading sound to the standard way of playing …

Standard G Mixo-Lydian mode (descending version):

—————————————

–8—6—-5—————————

—————7—5—4—————

—————————7—5——-

—————————————

—————————————

G    F    E    D    C   B   A   G

For best results with the cascading scale leave your finger on the ‘F’ note while playing the ‘E’ open note; then, when you get to the ‘C’ note leave your finger on the ‘C’ while playing the ‘B’ note and finally leave your finger on the ‘A’ note while playing the ‘G’.

The idea is to create tension be causing a bittersweet dissonance between the last fretted note and the next open string note.

Finally here is your introduction:

Play one strum on ‘G7′, followed by your cascading version of the G Mixo-Lydian mode; then the first chord of your song ‘C’ chord and you are on your way!

By re-thinking basic musical raw materials you will discover countless ways to play creative guitar.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is a guitar teacher, author, performing musician and session guitarist with over 30 years of professional experience. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular FREE e-course.

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