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This is my first post so i would like to start by saying hi to everyone.
Also I would like to thank Kirk for all the free lessons he has posted, its also great to see so many posts from him on this forum.
It's clear he loves playing guitar and its great he want to share his system.
I have been reading the Planetalk FAQ for a day or two, people seem to love this product. I think its a must buy and for the price its worth a go.
I totally agree that playing the chords is the way to go if you want to sound pro, but what happens if you don't know the chords just the key.
What I mean is Lets say I buy a Guitarist Magazine, you normally get some kind of free backing tracks but you don't get chord charts, ok you could sit there and work them out................ but sometimes you just want to go for it.
Lets say I get my backing track and its in A minor, at the moment I Know I could go for the Minor Pentatonic Scale ( All Chord Tones) Natural Minor Scale (Aeolian Mode).
I also know I could use all the arpeggios from the key of Am. All this would fit. It may sound like scales or a bunch of licks but it would all fit, but i would not be tracking the chords.
It gets easier and easier to simply hear the chords of a piece of music as time passes, but knowing the progression really is essential, whether you're going to play rhythm, lead or both. You'll find more often than not that the chords are indicated somehow in tab or sheet music, or a band member tells you what they are. I'm surprised that Guitarist Magazine doesn't make it very clear what the chord progressions are for their CDs.
Yes, you can certainly get away with playing a scale over a simple chord progression that stays in key, but many tunes don't. Outside chords come into play and all of a sudden the scale stops working. That's why years ago I started looking for a better way to approach it. I hated that feeling of being OK one minute and completely lost the next when slightly more complex tunes came up. If you follow the chords, no piece of music will ever stump you, they all become the same.
The PT mindset is always the same: follow the chords. When you mention a piece in Am, I immediately think of Am, Dm, F and E7 as the most likely chords. Follow them, or whatever the actual progression is.
Have a look at the movie below. It's basically those chords I just mentioned, but in this case it keeps changing key. I'm playing slide, but I'm in standard tuning, so the mindset is PlaneTalk. Not once did I think 'minor pentatonic" or "Aeolian" or "Dorian" ... I just followed the chords and thought "melody", knowing that melody loves chord tones.
By the way, it starts in the key of Bm, then goes to Cm, C#m, Dm then repeats the whole thing.
That truly works, Its hard too see what you are doing using the slide but I CAN hear that it works beautifully well.
I wonder if you would take a listen to this improv over a B Minor Blues i did today. I was thinking of chord tones but playing the Pentatonic Scale the Blues Scale and the Natural Minor scale. I kept it simple so i could think ahead,there are a couple of fast lines in there to keep me on my toes.
It would be great to hear what you would do over this B Minor blues Kirk using your Planetalk system. I have posted the backing track a long with my attempt if you want to have a bash.
Nice playing, John, nice tone too. Yes, the scale is doing a fine job for this track and you could spend a whole lifetime refining it and putting your own stamp on it as many greats have done, like Carlos and Eric and Stevie Ray. You've kept it nice and simple and my only comment is that each pass was much like the the previous and next. When you think 'boxes' (I'm saying you do) and cluster patterns, it gets hard to break out. The other thing, of course, is that when you get into other kinds of music, with more complex chord progressions, you really do need to think along other lines, either switching back and forth between modes or just thinking chords. It's the same thing really.
This movie is an example of that:
I'll try and have a stab at your backing track as soon as I can.
Kirk,
Beautiful,
Johnboy, Very nice as well. I have Plane Talk, Six other people I personally know also have it. A wealth of great info especially for players like yourself who already have a great start.
Nothin sweeter than the sound of music comin out of a 6 string box - EZ me Music / ASCAP
Thanx for taking the time to listen to my track,and thanx for the great comment. I think you are right i was thinking so much about what note to land on (which was the root mainly) it does sound the same.
Now you have heard where i am at the moment with my playing do you think Planetalk would do me some good? I do like the Idea of being free around the fretboard and i do want to get away from thinking boxes. My goal is to get to play the blues like you do on Red Strat Blues. I really like the notes available using your system.
John,
You will not see anything like this anywhere. Even some of my friends who are already good players are enlightened by its presentation.
I know Kirk wrote it, and I know he is a pro player, but I also know he could sit down with any of us and anticipate the next note or tone in any of our tunes in a heart beat. Thats how powerful this is when you begin to understand whats going on.
Nothin sweeter than the sound of music comin out of a 6 string box - EZ me Music / ASCAP
Thanx for taking the time to listen to my track,and thanx for the great comment. I think you are right i was thinking so much about what note to land on (which was the root mainly) it does sound the same.
Now you have heard where i am at the moment with my playing do you think Planetalk would do me some good? I do like the Idea of being free around the fretboard and i do want to get away from thinking boxes. My goal is to get to play the blues like you do on Red Strat Blues. I really like the notes available using your system.
Hope you get chance to jam over my backing track. Once i see what can be done to a track i like to play over i will be sold
John
Yes, John, I'm positive you'll read it once and say to yourself "Of course, why didn't I see that?" and all of a sudden have your whole fretboard opened up for you. You'll need to readjust your thinking, but the beauty of it is that once you do, the mindset will apply to all music, all genres, forever more.
The DVD goes over the basic theory required to understand why it's so powerful (which I'm sure you already know) and then takes it one step at a time demonstrating how to apply it all to different chod flavors, then progressions in key, then progressions with outside chords. I used real footage of me playing coupled with a graphical fretboard with the 'trick' superimposed. It really does reveal all.
The Chord Tone Blues CD lesson that comes with the package uses the same progression as Red Strat Blues and shows you how to approach a 12 bar in the PT mindset rather than the scale mindset. I use the same real/virtual fretboard format in that too.
Download the PDF of the 'Guitar Chord Slide Rule', print it out, fold it together and you'll have at your disposal a very neat tool that will not only show you all the positions for the main flavors of chords, but will also teach you a very important lesson about how the guitar works... It consists of a folded sleeve and six double sided inserts, instructions for cutting it out and folding it together are included with the PDF ... it's very simple to do, and if you botch it, you can simply print it out again!
