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Post by JohnH on Dec 25, 2020 19:30:34 GMT -5
I've been trying to get my engineers head around some music theory recently, and taking lessons to learn basic things that I should have learnt 40 years ago. So I made this spreadsheet tool to try to visualise various scales to help with soloing on the fretboard: www.jocidapark.com.au/circuits/GN2/Scale-o-matic-ver1.xlsmIts a spreadsheet that looks like this: (EDIT 31/12/2020 - a lot more added in version 2 - see below, now called the 'Fretboard Toolbox') It shows a two-octave fretboard with minor pentatonic, blues and major pentatonic scales marked out with all the notes, and with the root notes in red. Then, press the 'up' and 'down' buttons to cycle the whole pattern along the fretboard to get all the versions in different keys. It needs macros enabled , editing enabled if asked, and a recent excel version. Things I know so far: 1. Figure out what scale you are in and then stick to those notes to avoid sucking big-time 2. Minor pentatonic is the best safe haven for low risk, once you pick the right key 3. When bending, pick notes that are two semitones below the next in the scale, so bending can be in tune 3. Everything my teacher has shown me so far from the Allman Brothers is in a major scale 4. A Minor and C Major scales are the same notes! Please let me know any comments, particularly if you see problems with it or something stands out that could be better.
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Post by frets on Dec 25, 2020 20:39:48 GMT -5
Merry Christmas John, Thank you for our Xmas present!
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Post by thetragichero on Dec 26, 2020 0:39:48 GMT -5
non-scale notes can be okay, just jazz it up a bit (being someone who learned to play by ear i often have to look up what chord the notes I'm playing are from... there are some sites that you plug in what you're playing and it tells you what it could be) this is great for basic idea for scales those though. just remember everything can be broken, and if you make a mistake twice you meant it to be that way
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Post by ashcatlt on Dec 26, 2020 13:33:44 GMT -5
So of course pentatonic is only 5 of the 7 notes available in any given key. I think it’s an important next step maybe to fill in those two missing notes so that you at least know where they are from your pentatonic box. One trick that I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out is that all of the notes in the pentatonic scales based off the IV and V of the key (iv v in a minor key) are actually in the original root key, and one of those notes in each is one of our “missing notes”. In A minor, the pentatonic scale is missing B and F. Well, the iv is D minor, and it’s pentatonic has our F, and the v is E minor, which is where we find the B.
For that kind of thing, I think the CAGED system can really help. I know that if I’m playing the “G shape” of A minor (the basic) at the 5th fret, I can also grab notes from the C shape of D minor which happens to be at the 5th fret also, and I can play the D shape of E minor which is also right there.
And that leads to actually recognizing our chord shapes within the scales first so that you can target chord tones in your playing when you want to, but also going back the other way so that when you’re playing a chord, you can find color tones that are in key easily. Then I go off on this thing where there actually is only one chord shape, and all of the others are just translations of that one. But I guess maybe there’s two, but since they sort of overlap, it’s almost just a matter of perspective. Simply put, if you take G chord shape, move it over one string, compensate for “the B weirdness”, you end up with a C chord. If you were playing the version of the G chord where you fret the 2nd string 3rd fret fifth of the chord, and you shift it the other direction, bring the string you’re missing back the other side, compensate for B weirdness, and you end up a D chord. Take that C chord, but make sure you’re playing the one where you fret the 3rd fret of the 6th string. Shift that over one string, and in this case “compensate for B weirdness” means barre the 1st fret and now you’re playing F. Slide that down a half step and you’ve got A basic E chord. Shift that one more string and you have A major. Shift that and it becomes D. Shift that...back to G in that direction. But back up a second. The three strings we’re fretting in the A chord are the same notes we’d play in a G shaped A “barre chord” rooted on the 5th fret of the low E. Though actually when we shifted down, we changed keys and it should kind of just crawl up one fret every time you come back around. It should really go around the circle of fifths in one direction or another, as long as you compensate that B weirdness.
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Post by JohnH on Dec 26, 2020 14:46:39 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments. This could be a Pandora's box or a can of worms! Now I'm exploring what it could do with chords rather than scales. Here is set up to display 7th chords, set at D 7th: This chord has 4 notes, shown across the bottom, each with a colour, then highlighted on the fretboard wherever they occur. It doesn't point out the fingering patterns directly, but you can see the usual open D 7th fretting in the fret 1 and 2 positions. I also indicate likely barre positions (using non-coloured boxes), based on open E and A shapes, in this case with barre at frets 5 or 10 (or 17 or 22). 'Up' and 'Down' shift and rotate the pattern to show all the 7th chord options, and other tabs can do other chord styles. I plan to add a few more. Its interesting to see where chords can be played on higher frets, maybe with some open strings too.
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Post by thetragichero on Dec 26, 2020 15:55:12 GMT -5
one of the cool things I've found playing electric with capo (which is different than acoustic with capo, ie acoustic player only knowing first position chords) is the cool arpeggiated lines with "open" strings. the past year I've gotten a lot better with the fretboard and chord shapes (playing electric at church and bass vi at home will do that). one thing I'm trying to overcome is associated with the b string 'weirdness' and the majority of my time on 4 string bass over the past several years: playing eadgbe as a whole instead of testing eadg and be as two separate things.... I've gotten pretty good at gbe just need more work putting it all together
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Post by JohnH on Dec 30, 2020 18:37:47 GMT -5
Ive been picking away at this for a few more days, and have added quite a few more features to deal with chords and scales. Im now calling it the 'Fretboard Toolbox' www.jocidapark.com.au/circuits/GN2/FretboardToolboxV202.xlsmSo its now set up to plot out full and pentatonic major and minor scales, plus blues minor, in any key, plus major, minor, 7th, major 7th , Minor 7th, 6th and Sus 4th chords. Notes are labeled and you can also switch between standard and a few alternate tunings including Drop D, Double drop D, Open G and E and DADGAD. On the Chord pages I put in a link button to an online chord analyser for resolving arguments with keyboard players and other folk who reckon they know this stuff. Basicly it covers everything I've ever played more than twice. I've learnt quite a lot by making it, which was my main purpose, but maybe it will be of some use to others too. Interesting to see how major and minor scales can use the same notes, but with different roots. Also, how DADGAD tuning sorts out the pentatonic patterns quite nicely. Happ(ier) New Year!
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Post by JohnH on Jan 1, 2021 16:42:13 GMT -5
A few bugs fixed, and so version 2.02 is linked in the post above.
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Post by JohnH on Jan 10, 2021 2:21:19 GMT -5
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