{"id":10490,"date":"2011-10-12T16:51:57","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T20:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikeveny.com\/?p=10490"},"modified":"2015-12-28T13:35:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T17:35:23","slug":"guitar-a-lifetime-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lifetime Study of Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, I find myself teaching different aspects of theory to guitar students. I decided to list them in a blog entry. By no means do I know every single aspect cold. However to keep improving, I recommend that students check this list out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1.) Play all major, minor, augmented and diminished triads in inversion on all string groups as well as close together and spread apart. Ex: close = <strong>| c, e, g | e, g, c | g, c, e |<\/strong> spread = <strong>| c, g, e | e, c, g | g, e, c |<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2.) Play all different types of seventh chords in inversion on all string groups and in different voicings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>3.) Play all different types of hybrid chords (triad with one foreign bass note) in inversion on all string groups and in different voicings. <strong>Ex: G\/C (voiced C, G, B, D)<\/strong>. These chords yield interesting sounds. Guitarist and pedagogue Mick Goodrick covers this in an informative book entitled, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0881885894\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=nickgrinlsmus-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0881885894\" target=\"_blank\">The Advancing Guitarist<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>4.) Know how to harmonize scales diatonically using quartal harmony as well as other combinations of clusters and triads. Know how to harmonize scales non-diatonically too, i.e: parallel movement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>5.) Play all known chords with alternate fingerings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>6.) Voicelead chords through common progressions in all 12 keys.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>7.) Practice smooth voiceleading with few jumps between voices. Keep in mind parallel, similar, contrary, and oblique motions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>8.) Use chords in multiple contexts. A <strong>CMaj7<\/strong> voiced <strong>g, c, e, b<\/strong> can also work as an <strong>Amin7<\/strong> voicing without the root.\u00a0To find out more about this concept, visit my\u00a0<a title=\"Voicing Applications\" href=\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/voicing-applications\/\" target=\"_blank\">Voicing Applications article<\/a>\u00a0for supplemental information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>9.) Know multiple ways to play the same melody. Know how to play the same melody in different ranges. Know how to voice chords under the melody (chord melody).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>10.) Know all major and minor scales in 12 keys, plus their derivative modes. Also don&#8217;t forget pentatonic, diminished, whole-tone, and other scales. Know how to play these scales multiple ways.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>11.) Know how scales and chords work together. If\u00a0a <strong>C Major<\/strong> scale is harmonized in triads diatonically, it yields: <strong>C, Dmin, Emin, F, G, Amin, Bdim, C<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>12.) Try different sequences when practicing scales. <strong>Ex: Group of 3 in C Major:<\/strong> <strong>C, D, E, D, E, F, E, F, G,<\/strong> etc. Groups of 4, 5, 6, and more are possible too. Practice leaps as well (<strong>C, A, D, B,<\/strong> etc).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>13.) Develop a musical vocabulary.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>14.) Don&#8217;t forget about harmonics, bending, sliding, vibrato, legato playing (hammer-on, pull-of) and strumming in different parts of the guitar for different articulations and timbres.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>15.) Study both guitar picking and fingerstyle.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>16.) Barre with all four fingers. Play half barres. Play collapsed barres. Do not apply un-needed pressure.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>17.) Play through exercises varying the rhythm. Also, vary playing dead center, behind or ahead of the metronome.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>18.) Be able to sight-read in the open position and in other positions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>19.) Know each note on the guitar cold.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>20.) Practice away from the guitar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>21.) Develop your ear. Hear what you play in your head. Work on developing relative to perfect pitch.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>22.) Tone &#8211; it isn&#8217;t just your amp setting. Roughly, 95% comes from the fingers and 5% will come from the amplifier. Ever notice the best guitar players can make a $5 guitar sound like a $5,000 guitar?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>23.) Don&#8217;t forget to play and study repertoire.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>24.) When playing, forget about all of this and play the music that you imagine inside your head.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Any other thoughts?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I listed these items in macro, but studying each one turns into micro. In order to keep your sanity, just remember studying music is a lifelong process. Furthermore, take what you need at the time and revisit these items\u00a0when you feel ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, I find myself teaching different aspects of theory to guitar students. I decided to list them in a blog entry. By no means do I know every single aspect cold. However to keep improving, I recommend that students check this list out. &nbsp; 1.) Play all major, minor, augmented and diminished triads in inversion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[116,244],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Lifetime Study of Guitar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A list of guitar topics to explore when practicing and playing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Lifetime Study of Guitar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A list of guitar topics to explore when practicing and playing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nick Grinlinton&#039;s Musings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/nickgrinlintonmusic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nickgrinlintonmusic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-12T20:51:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-28T17:35:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Grinlinton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/nickgrinlinton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nickgrinlinton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Grinlinton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/\",\"name\":\"A Lifetime Study of Guitar\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-12T20:51:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-28T17:35:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a72af98514ed722b39ded7929938a6dc\"},\"description\":\"A list of guitar topics to explore when practicing and playing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/guitar-a-lifetime-study\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Lifetime Study of Guitar\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Nick Grinlinton&#039;s Musings\",\"description\":\"Thoughts from a guitarist, composer and runner.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a72af98514ed722b39ded7929938a6dc\",\"name\":\"Nick Grinlinton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nickgrinlinton.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/52d92a50025d5f94373b40549460a969?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/52d92a50025d5f94373b40549460a969?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nick Grinlinton\"},\"description\":\"Nick Grinlinton is a guitarist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. 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