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Guitar Intervals To Widen Your Improvisation
Guitar Intervals - Guitar Licks With Wide Sounds
It is difficult to play large interval jumps on the guitar. Guitar intervals often tend to be played as small, scale intervals as many guitarists love to shred speedy patterns up and down the fretboard.
It is much more difficult to improvise using intervals larger than 4ths. 4th intervals are especially difficult to play clearly as it involves a lot of string crossing, with notes played at the same fret. Rolling fingers across strings is a technique that takes a good deal of practice so that a musical result is achieved.
Harmonic Minor Scale Ideas
I hope you enjoyed last week's Tico Tico video and that the three licks extracted from the improvised guitar solo gave you inspiration for your own ideas.
The first section of Tico Tico is excellent for experimenting with the harmonic minor scale. Two more harmonic minor scale ideas have been uploaded this week, so be sure to change the key and play them over the Tico Tico chord progression.
Mixing traditional fast, scale licks with more intervallic ideas helps to give solos more melodic interest. The big jumps will take a bit of work to master and you will undoubtedly hit the wrong string many times, but stick with it. The results can sound great.
Each week, I send out a free newsletter containing an analysis of the guitar licks uploaded that week. It is a great resource to not only be informed that new licks to learn are available, but the analysis will greatly help you to understand how the licks were created and will help you to create licks of your own.
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Arpeggios - Harmonic Minor Scale
Diminished arpeggios are probably the most common type of arpeggio played when using the harmonic minor scale over dominant 7th chords.
This lick takes the dim7 arpeggio slightly further by adding extra notes that create large interval jumps. This lick sounds cool, although it is tricky to play with a pick.
As always, be sure to play this lick in various keys.
Harmonic Minor Scale 7th Chord Lick
More large interval jumps with this guitar lick.
If you found the previous example challenging to play with a pick, this lick will almost certainly have your plectrum hitting the wrong strings for a while.
I love playing these types of licks on an acoustic guitar. So many classic acoustic guitar songs are in the key of A minor and feature an E7 chord moving to an Am chord. This is the perfect opportunity to get out those harmonic minor scale licks and plug them in.
Guitar Lick Using 4ths
4th intervals create a modern sound that can be used over many types of chords. I have found that playing ideas using 4th intervals allows much freedom when playing outside lines. This lick is not necessarily meant as an outside idea, but once mastered, try shifting in and out of the key on a funk song and pushing the harmonic barriers.
Pay careful attention to the length of each note when playing this lick. Notes should not overlap or be too short. This is the most difficult part of playing ideas using 4th intervals.
Free Ear Training Course
Not only are larger intervals difficult to play on the guitar, but you also need to recognise the sound of these intervals. My free ear training mini-course focuses on learning the sound of all the intervals you need and it is easy to use.
Click on the button below and start training your ears today. It's totally free, so you have no excuses for not having great pitch recognition skills.
Signing up for my weekly newsletter at the top of the page also gives you access to my free guitar study packs. These are great little free guitar lessons!
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