About Dustin Martin Expertise Music Theory Related questions. Harmonizing scales, Chord progressions, Chord formulas, Modes. What scale patterns you should/could play over certain chords. etc... I should be able to answer almost any theory related question and if I don't know off hand I will try to find out.
Please Do not ask me any questions about how much your guitar is worth, I am only interested in helping students and those interested in furthering their musical comprehension.
Experience I have a had 5 years of private lessons with an experienced teacher who has done studio work, worked live, He has taught several students who are now professional musicians, including Madonna's Guitarist. Personally, I have taught classes of students from age 12 to age 50. I have also had 2 years of training at the collegiate level. I've played jazz, rock, classical, country, and plenty of other things That i don't recall at the moment. I've worked as Live Sound engineer, Drum Technician, live guitarist, and some studio work.
Currently I am working at Dark Horse Recording in Franklin, Tn.
Question Hi Mr. Martin, I've been playing for just over 2 years, but being an "insane, unemployable Bipolar" I am able to practice all day, every day, so this is a "beefy" 2 years.
I absolutely love guitar-driven Rock music, and want to form a band some day.
Anyhow, I have an amazing teacher, but a few theory questions keep nagging at me. As much as ear-training has made the guitar come alive to me, I still want to have a comprehensive theoretical understanding before I throw myself entirely into songwriting.
Okay, so my questions are:
1) Which scales are most crucial to have memorized, "at-a-glance", over the whole neck, in every Key to write effective Rock/Punk/Metal? Kurt Cobain awakened me to the utter dominance of the Minor Pentatonic, but aside from that and the Major/Relative Natural Minor I am unsure as to what else to focus on. Also, what is the best WAY to memorize all of these scales? (I have all of the 4-5 fret "box" patterns memorized, but connecting them all together, and changing Keys is proving to be much more difficult)
2) Do "Drop 2's" effectively just "re-arrange/invert" the notes of the chords in which they're used, by dropping the second voice one octave to make the chord playable on guitar?
3) What percentage of ALL guitar chords are "Drop 2's"?
4) What is the "significance" of the so-called "CAGED system" other than just alerting you to the fact that certain barre-chords are based off the Open-chords C, A, G, E, and D? Does this "system" have any further, more "advanced" application? (I'm wary of dropping $80 on computer disks that are advertised as using this "system")
5) When looking at a song's riffs, leads, and solos how can you determine which scale they are built off (taking into account chromatic notes)? What percentage of the notes have to actually "fit" in the scale for you to be able to confidently say that the riff is based off that particular scale?
Thanks very much.
Answer 1) Although, I recommend learning how to move all your major scales up and down the neck to different keys. You can get by knowing the third scale pattern in the key of C (starting on the 6 string 5th fret. The notes are A B C D E F G A) By knowing this one pattern and understanding how to move it to different keys you can play a large amount of solos in songs.
2) I have never heard the term drop 2 until you mentioned it here. It is important to understand how to make any voicing in any position on the guitar. However, for rock music you will most likely use bar chords 85% of the time.
3) This would really depend on the player, but as far as I'm aware I have never heard anyone think of inversions on the guitar this way.
Inversions are important to understand but there is no right or wrong in artistic expression. You just have to find out what works for you and what you like.
4) The CAGED system is important to understand because it allows you to quickly discover different ways to voice chords on the guitar. It is a really simple system that you should take the time to learn. If you study the following link long enough, or research more through searching online there is no need to pay for an education in the CAGED system. http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/
5) Your best bet is to pick the key that the song has the most notes in common with. Also, its important where the chromatic notes are inserted rhythmically because if the note is not on a place of rhythmic important nearly any note can be played and it will sound okay.
I tried to keep this short. If you have any questions please email me, but it may take a little while for me to answer. I have been working 80 hours a week lately, and over the last 2 days I worked 40 hours. But I will try my best to help.
