Uncategorised

One of my readers recently wrote:

Hey Sam,

Thanks for the message! I’ve had a skim read so far - looks like some great
advice in there!

I wondered what your opinion is on guitarists learning to read conventional
notation - particularly the note pitches rather than just rhythms alongside
a TAB? Classical and jazz guitarists will tell you it’s a necessity,
whereas rock, pop and other genres might say it’s optional… To me it
seems that the reinforcement of note pitch to neck location that happens
when reading conventional music might benefit all guitarists (particularly
those that struggle with “learning the fretboard”) - would you agree?

Recently, a reader messaged me about how he can get his son to practice guitar more. He wrote:

“hoping to encourage my son who is 12 to practise more. I don’t think he is that excited by his music lessons, but would like to improve”

---

Here was my response:

Getting kids to practice is a tricky one. They’re usually at a level where they can’t do anything too exciting (although if his teacher got him playing to a simple backing track, that would probably be exciting).

The music theory behind neoclassical guitar is the theory of what is known as “The Common Practice Period”, often abbreviated to CPP, of music. 

The CPP spans roughly from 1650 - 1900.

In terms of music theory, this is what we know as “tonal music”.

CPP gave us:

• a framework for the order in which chords can be played and exceptions for those rules, known as functional harmony
• guidance on how each note within a chord should move to the next chord (this is known as voice leading)
• structures for composing music, from the sentence / period, up to the sonata
• musicians pushing the limits of virtuosity

Practices such as counterpoint, 4 part voice leading, complex forms such as sonata form and multi movement forms such as concertos were well developed in this period.

What is Lead Guitar?

Lead guitar is when a guitarist plays a melody, usually in a higher pitch range. 

In most rock, pop and metal music, the main melody of the song is performed by the vocalist. 

You can think of lead guitar as replacing the vocalist, for supplying the main melodic material of the song, at that point in time. 

You often hear lead guitar playing at guitar solos, intros and outros, and sometimes as breaks between sections in a song. 

When it comes to learning the minor pentatonic scale on guitar, a lot of guitar players seem to make similar mistakes.

If you have ever found yourself feeling bored or frustrated when learning the scale, you are probably making one (or more!) of these mistakes.

If you have every found yourself wondering “What’s the point in learning this?” when practising the minor pentatonic scale, then hopefully this article will give you some ideas on how you can have fun learning the minor pentatonic scale and do something musical with it.