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Lately, I've been using my drum and bass program to practice, because I really enjoy improvising over simple backing parts and working on scales and my knowledge of the fretboard.
I put together a bunch of really simple tracks to play over and I thought someone else might like using them too. They're not real exciting, but if you're familiar with the idea of modes, or never understood them at all (like me until like 3 years ago), they can be fun to play over and can give you a good idea of what different scales you can use and what "flavor" they have.
For the purpose of these practice files I kept them very simple so they would allow more options. If I started adding chords it would cut down on the number of scales you could use for each one.
I'm not going to give an in depth explanation of what modes are. If you google around you can find out a lot about the concept. I'm just going to start out with the files I made and what you can do with them.
For me and a lot of guitarists, E is a very important note, so I started out basing everything on the note E and revolving everything around that.
E Bass note beat
That file should just be played on loop mode. It's just a simple beat and a repeating E bass note. This is a nice way to explore what different scales sound like over the note E.
Handy Major Modes Chart
I got the above chart out of the Guitar Grimoire book, which is a great (and somewhat confusing at times) book about scales.
Using the chart you can find a number of scales to play over that droning E loop.
For example:
For years if I was playing over something like this (because I wanted to play rock and metal) I'd play in E minor or E pentatonic.
BUT there are some other nice flavors out there to try besides those two.
E Major of course
E Dorian (the notes of the D Major scale over E) - - I like to mix it around with E blues or E minor pentatonic). Has a minor sound to it.
E Phrygian (the notes of the C Major scale over E) - - sounds exotic. Has a minor sound.
E Lydian (the notes of the B Major scale over E) - - always reminds me of stuff Joe Satriani does. It's like E Major with an exotic twist. Has a major sound
E Mixolydian (the notes of the A Major scale over E) Has a major sound.
and E Locrian (the notes of the F Major scale over E) - a tough one to make something sound good - has a diminished sound.
Then there is the E major pentatonic scale.
Try playing each of these scales over the E backing loop and you'll get start to get an idea of the sound and flavor of each one. You'll probably like some better than others and find some easier to improvise with than other. I personally love the sound of Lydian, Mixolydian and Dorian the most, but I try to work with them all, just to be familiar with them and to work on my knowledge of the notes of the fretboard.
Post questions if you have any.
In a bit I'll start putting up two note vamps and talk a little about what scales you can use over each one.
I put together a bunch of really simple tracks to play over and I thought someone else might like using them too. They're not real exciting, but if you're familiar with the idea of modes, or never understood them at all (like me until like 3 years ago), they can be fun to play over and can give you a good idea of what different scales you can use and what "flavor" they have.
For the purpose of these practice files I kept them very simple so they would allow more options. If I started adding chords it would cut down on the number of scales you could use for each one.
I'm not going to give an in depth explanation of what modes are. If you google around you can find out a lot about the concept. I'm just going to start out with the files I made and what you can do with them.
For me and a lot of guitarists, E is a very important note, so I started out basing everything on the note E and revolving everything around that.
E Bass note beat
That file should just be played on loop mode. It's just a simple beat and a repeating E bass note. This is a nice way to explore what different scales sound like over the note E.
Handy Major Modes Chart
I got the above chart out of the Guitar Grimoire book, which is a great (and somewhat confusing at times) book about scales.
Using the chart you can find a number of scales to play over that droning E loop.
For example:
For years if I was playing over something like this (because I wanted to play rock and metal) I'd play in E minor or E pentatonic.
To use the chart to find E minor, find E on the left side and move across until you're under the "Aeolian (Minor)" collumn and you'll see that you're on the letter G. This means that E Aeolian (or E minor) contains the notes of the G major scale. E minor pentatonic also has the same notes as G major pentatonic.
E Major of course
E Dorian (the notes of the D Major scale over E) - - I like to mix it around with E blues or E minor pentatonic). Has a minor sound to it.
E Phrygian (the notes of the C Major scale over E) - - sounds exotic. Has a minor sound.
E Lydian (the notes of the B Major scale over E) - - always reminds me of stuff Joe Satriani does. It's like E Major with an exotic twist. Has a major sound
E Mixolydian (the notes of the A Major scale over E) Has a major sound.
and E Locrian (the notes of the F Major scale over E) - a tough one to make something sound good - has a diminished sound.
Then there is the E major pentatonic scale.
Try playing each of these scales over the E backing loop and you'll get start to get an idea of the sound and flavor of each one. You'll probably like some better than others and find some easier to improvise with than other. I personally love the sound of Lydian, Mixolydian and Dorian the most, but I try to work with them all, just to be familiar with them and to work on my knowledge of the notes of the fretboard.
Post questions if you have any.
In a bit I'll start putting up two note vamps and talk a little about what scales you can use over each one.
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