This is Cameron with a cool guitar lesson…

Today he will teach you another cool tapping lick in the style of Eddie Van Halen !

Hope you enjoy it!

Lead Guitar Lesson – Tapping Guitar Lick in the Style of Eddie Van Halen – Part 2

Hey, everybody. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

So guys, today I’d like to talk about tapping again. Like I said
in a previous video, Eddie Van Halen is the man to study if you
want to get into tapping because he more or less invented it and
he really popularized it for the guitar. You can’t go wrong with
studying Eddie either way, because he’s a boss.

Today I’d like to show you my own lick that I came up with for
tapping that implies a chord progression that is a common cord
progression in pop songs and what not that you will definitely
recognize. I did this because I feel like a lot of guitar players
use tapping very sparsely or under use it by only doing one or two
notes and adding it to another lick. Kind of like this… Though
that might be cool, it is a way to get suck in playing the same
kind of tapping licks over and over again. Because if you’re going
to be improvising, and that’s all you’re going to add for tapping,
that might get a little bit dry. So today I’m going to show you a
tapped chord progression that I came up with.

The lick I’m going to show you right now has a lot of stretching
in your left hand as well, which is a good thing to practice. So
here’s the lick. Here’s the lick again. And here’s the lick slow.

So with the lick I showed you today, I think it’s a much more tasty
use of tapping to tap a chord progression or an arpeggio than it is
to just sparsely use it in a solo or in a lick. Some guitar players
very frequently use it. It’s a very cool way to tap an arpeggio and
impress people that way. So it’s a good technique to have.

Please click the link in the video description if you’d like to see
the tab for what I showed you today and I’ll see you next time.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson…

Today he will teach you a cool bebop lick!

Hope you enjoy it!

Jazz Guitar Lesson – Learn How to Play a Cool Bebop Guitar Lick – Part 3

Hello. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

Hello, guys. Today I’d like to talk about bebop again.
In previous videos we’ve used only one chord at a time
to build a line for our bee bop-sounding lines. The
reason we did that is because it’s an easier approach
to build-up your bee bop line technique.

Today we’re going to be using an actual chord progression,
something you’d actually encounter in a bee bop sense and
we’re going to build a line going around the moving chord
tones and using chromatic approaches that way to get the
sound of all of the chords as opposed to just one.

With the one-chord approach you’re just thinking of the one
chord, static, and just sitting there and not moving. That
makes it easy because you only have to think of those chord
tones and then all you do is add chromatic approaches around
the chord tones that aren’t moving. But in this case it’s
a little bit harder.

So we’re going to be using a II-V in the key of C and we’re
going to be adding chromatic approaches and accenting the
chord tones in all of the different chords to get all of their
different sounds. And that’s going to sound like this. Here’s
the lick. Here it is again. Here it is a little bit slower.
Here it is slow one more time.

So, guys, in the line I just showed you, each chord gets
four beats. Now, you can hear the chord change every four
beats because I’m landing and accenting a chord tone on
that new chord. So any chord that I start with, I’m outlining
that chord with arpeggios, then adding chromatic approaches
around that chord and then chromatic approaches that lead
to the next chord. And that’s essentially all bee bop is.

You’re going through lots of fast chord changes at an
extremely fast tempo and you’re always outlining the
chords and chromatic approaches to the next chord after
it and then just keeps going. That’s essentially
what bee bop is.

So please click the link in the video description if
you’d like to see the tab for what I showed you today
and I’ll see you next time.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson

about the melodic minor modes applied to the guitar!

Hope you enjoy it!

Lead Guitar Lesson – Learn the Melodic Minor Guitar Modes – Guitar Theory

Hello. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

Hi, guys. Today we’re going to be talking about non diatonic modes again.

Now, as I’ve discussed in earlier videos, a mode is a scale that sits
within another scale when you rearrange tones and semitones and you
start and end on a different note than you began with originally,
but still using all the same notes of the original scale.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson…

Today he will teach you a cool bebop lick!

Hope you enjoy it!

Jazz Guitar Lesson – Learn How to Play a Cool Bebop Guitar Lick – Part 2

Hello, everybody. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

Today we’re going to be talking about bebop again. Bebop is
a sub genre of jazz that involves playing melodies and solos
with lots of chromatic approaches at very fast tempos with
quickly-moving chord changes behind you while you’re playing.
It’s the fact that it’s so fast that gives so many people a lot of
trouble and then how fast the chord changes move, as well,
gives lots of people trouble. It’s even a hard genre for
professional, experienced players to play sometimes,
just depending on the changes and so on.

What I’d like to talk about today is a specific technique you
can use for building-up your soloing over such bebop tunes
and whatnot. Instead of starting with all those changes, moving
so fast, we’re going to use just one chord and we’re going to
build a line off of it.

To build a line off of one chord your goal is to get the
sound of the chord you’re using in your line. You do this
by accenting chord tones on the strong beats of a measure,
like the one, two, three or four. You add all your chromatic
approaches on the upbeats, like the and of one, two, three or
four. You can add other chromatic approaches as long as you
land on a chord tone on a strong beat. It will solidify the
sound of the chord that you’re trying to imply.

The lick I’ve made up for you today is a D minor 7 bebop lick
with lots of chromatic approaches around those chord tones.
I’ll show you that now. Here it is again. And here it is slow.

All right, guys, so in the bebop lick I showed you today,
you can hear the chord that I’m implying and that is from
accenting the chord tones on the strong beats. All those
chromatic notes board on the weak beats in between and
their embellishment is on the chord tones.

All right, everybody, please click the link in the video
description if you’d like to see the tab for the lick I
showed you today and I’ll see you next time.

This is part II about guitar modes from Cameron…

about the greek modes applied to the guitar!

Hope you enjoy it!

Lead Guitar Lesson – How to Play the Modes on Guitar –
Part II – Guitar Theory
This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

So today we’re going to be talking about modes again,
part II. This is because years ago when I was learning
the modes for myself I had to look at them in so many
different ways until I actually understood what they
were and how to use them. Now, that’s why I want to do
this video today and we’re going to be looking at them
from different perspectives.

Now the first mode we’re looking at today is G major
or G ionian and the numbers for it are arranged as such:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1. Simple. The tones and semitones
are arranged like this: tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone,
semitone. So that’s the template for the order of tones
and semitones that we’re going to be using and changing
around for every other mode that we look at today.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson

about the harmonic minor modes applied to the guitar!

Hope you enjoy it!

Lead Guitar Lesson – Learn the Harmonic Minor Guitar Modes – Guitar Theory

Hello. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

So, guys, today we’re going to be talking about non-diatonic
modes. Now, as we’ve discussed in earlier videos, a mode
is a scale that’s within another scale when you rearrange
the order of tones and semi tones and start and end on a
different note than the one that you began with.

The modes that we’ve covered so far in previous videos were
diatonic modes; modes that come from the major scale. Today
we’re going to be covering modes that are not diatonic, such
as modes that come from the harmonic minor scale.

We’re going to be using the key of A flat minor for
these examples and we’re going to be starting with
the first mode, harmonic minor in A flat.

The second mode is locrian natural 6, and it goes like this.

The third mode is ionian sharp 5, and that sounds like this.

The fourth mode is called dorian sharp 4 and it sounds like this.

The fifth mode is called phrygian dominant and it is
the most commonly used mode of harmonic minor.

The sixth mode is called lydian sharp 2 and that one goes like this.

The last mode from the 7th is sometimes referred to as the
diminished scale. But it’s not in the traditional sense
like a whole-half or half-whole diminished scale.
It sounds like this.

So out of all the scales and modes I showed you today
there are two that you should definitely have under your
belt. The first one is the harmonic minor scale from the
root. It’s very widely used through lots of kind of metal,
like shred metal and neo classical metal, because it gives
you that more classical baroque sounding side of metal.

If I had a groove like this in A flat, I could just use
the scale however I wanted, implying that natural 7 on
the groove, like this. I was just randomly choosing
little licks in harmonic minor and it fits.

So the second scale that you should know, as I said before,
is the phrygian dominant scale. It’s very widely used in metal
as well as jazz, and this is because when you take the arpeggio
that’s built from it using the root, 3rd, 5th and flat 7th of this,
you get a dominant 7th chord. In this case you would get E7. If
you use the rest of the notes from the scale you get flat 9 and
flat 13 from this scale. These are nice tensions to add on a dominant
7th chord when you’re using it and you’re improvising. If I just had
some kind of groove on E7… And that was all using phrygian dominant.

All right, guys, this has been a quick lesson in non
diatonic modes in harmonic minor. These are good
modes to use because they give you new flavors and
sounds when you’re improvising and even composing
your own stuff that isn’t as widely heard by people.
If you learn them they won’t let you down.

Please click the link in the video description
if you’d like to see the tab for the examples I
showed you today and I’ll see you next time.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson…

Today he will teach you how to apply the modes into blues soloing!

Hope you enjoy it!

Blues Guitar Lesson – How to Apply the Guitar Modes to a Blues Solo

Hello, everybody. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

What I’d like to talk about today are different tools you can
use to improvise over a blues, because it’s so common. As guitar
players, you might know that if you’re playing over a blues you
might get stuck in the minor pentatonic shape for your playing
and it might get boring because you’re just playing one shape.

So if we’re playing a G blues you might tend to play something
like this. And then you might just get stuck in that shape and
you’re not able to move anywhere else. But that’s what I’d like
to talk about today, is breaking out of that shape using modes
and other scales that will fit over a blues that you’re playing.

If you’re not too familiar with your modes you might want to
brush-up on those before we go any further because that’s
what we’re going to be using as the main tool for this
lick I’m going to show you to use over a blues.

Now the reason that guitar players like to use the minor
pentatonic so much and it works so well is because you’re
adding a sharp 9 on the 7th chord. So if we’re in G7, in
the chord we have a B natural, but you’re actually adding
a B flat, which is the sharp 9 on that G7 chord. That’s a
nice tasty tension to add on a blues and that’s why it sounds
so good. But we’re going to get rid of that and we’re just
going to use plain mixolydian, which is G7’s parent mode.

Now, when we do this and use G mixolydian, now you can use
all the other modes that are related to that lick: A aeolian,
B locrian, C ionian, D dorian, E phrygian and so on. Use all
those modes and you can move to all those shapes so you’re
no longer stuck in the root position with the minor
pentatonic scale.

I’m going to show you this one lick that you can apply to
all three chords in whatever blues you’re playing. This
lick I’m going to show you starts in the G mixolydian
shape and moves to the A aeolian shape, but it’s still
in G mixolydian because we resolve to the flat 7 of G.

This lick, you have to think that G is the V chord of C.
That’s where mixolydian comes from, if you know your modes.
So we’re thinking of technically C is the I chord and G is
the V chord. That’s where all these other modes come from.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson…

Today he will teach you a cool bebop lick!

Hope you enjoy it!

Jazz Guitar Lesson – Learn How to Play a Cool Bebop Guitar Lick – Part 1

Hello. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.

Hey, everybody. Today we’re going to be talking about bebop.
Now, bebop is a sub genre of jazz music and it is a very hard
genre of jazz music. It involves playing a very fast solo line
or melody line with lots of chromatic approaches that resolve
to chord tones over very fast moving chord changes that are
just flying by at a very fast tempo.

It’s because of the speed and everything going on that makes
it a hard genre to play. It’s a hard genre even for experienced
professionals to play sometimes, depending on what the changes
are and depending on what kind of key it’s in and there are so
many different factors that come into it.

This first approach I’m going to be showing you today for bebop
soloing is using only one chord, not all of the fast-moving chord
changes that you’d usually find in a bebop tune. On this one
chord we’re going to add lots of chromatic approaches, but to
solidify the sound of the chord you need to land on a chord
tone on the strong beats of a bar, like the one, two, three
or four. And the chromatic approaches should land on the
upbeats, like the and of one, two, three or four.

As long as you come back and land on a strong beat with
a chord tone, even if you haven’t come back to it every
strong beat using lots of chromatic approaches before
then, as long as it resolves on a strong beat with a
chord tone you’ll still get the sound of the chord with
cool chromatic approaches in your line.

Today I’m going to be showing you a lick in E mixolydian that
I made up using chromatic approaches and this approach
to doing a bebop solo. So here we go. All right, guys,
here’s the lick slow. So that was the lick of the day.

You could hear in the line I was playing, the chord I was
trying to imply because of how I was using the chord tones.
The chord tones were always landing on strong beats and
all the chromatic approaches just fit around that on upbeats
and they always resolve to a chord tone on a strong beat.
That is the goal in any bebop solo. You want to be able to
hear the chord that you’re playing over in your solo without
somebody playing it behind you or playing it yourself.

All right, everybody, please click the link in the video
description if you’d like to see the tab for what I’ve
shown you today and I’ll see you next time.

This is Cameron with another cool guitar lesson!

This one is about the greek modes applied to the guitar!

Hope you enjoy it!

Lead Guitar Lesson – How to Play the Modes on Guitar – Part I

Hey, guys. This is Cameron Rasmussen for guitarcontrol.com.
Today, guys, I would like to talk to you about modes. Modes
are a very, very important part of all music and understanding
them is a great way to breakthrough in your improvising when
you’re soloing on anything. It opens so many doors and it opens-up
the way you see the fretboard in such a great way. That’s what
I’d like to look at today.

What a mode is, is a scale that sits inside another scale.
You pick whatever scale you want to use and then if you pick
a different note inside that scale, play all the same notes,
start an end on it an octave up, you’ve played a mode of that
scale. That’s what a mode is in a nutshell.

We’re going to be looking at the modes inside G major today.
G major is a mode in itself. It’s also known as ionian. Ionian
is the first mode we’re going to be looking at. Major and ionian
are interchangeable terms. So this is G ionian. Here it goes.

The next mode, dorian, goes like this. The next one after that
is phrygian from the 3rd. It goes like this. The fourth mode,
from the 4th, is lydian and that goes like this. The fifth mode,
from the 5th, is mixolydian and that goes like this. The sixth
mode is known as aeolian, which is also an interchangeable term
for relative minor. They’re both the same thing. That one goes
like this. The last mode from the 7th, locrian, goes like this,
down here on the 2nd fret.

There are seven modes that I just showed you, and they all have
a lot of applications when you get into higher levels. But two
of them that I’m going to show you now, mixolydian and dorian,
have two very essential applications whether you’re playing jazz
or blues or rock. You can use it in lots of different places,
but they’re very important to know.

The names of the modes, again, like I said before, going through
them are ionian, the major scale; dorian; phrygian; lydian;
mixolydian; aeolian, relative minor; locrian and back to ionian.

Certain chords, sometimes specific on context, but certain chords
always get matched-up with certain modes. One example of this would
be any 7th chord. So if we had an E7th chord, we would have —
mixolydian would go with that because it has a natural 3rd and a
flat 7, just like in an E7 chord. So it’s like a major scale with
a flat 7. You’d actually look at that as your root if you were
soloing on just that one chord.

Now, in jazz, on any minor 7th chord, let’s say D minor 7,
you almost always use dorian on that chord. It gives you
the natural 6th instead of a flat 6 from aeolian. That gives
you a much more jazzy sound and depending on if you’re
playing in moving-chord context or a modal context, you
can use that natural 6th a little bit more. But for minor
7th chords, it’s generally dorian that you use.

So, guys, you can play around with the modes I just showed
you inside G major and make sure you use the root of that
mode very specifically and like make it strong. Play around
with the sound of it and you’ll notice it has a very unique
sound, even though you’re still inside G major.

All right, guys, please click the link in the video description
if you’d like to see the tab and I’ll see you next time.