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Hi, How are you doing?
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Justin here again,
for part 3 of your Major Scale study.
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All of this information
can be found on my website,
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which is: www.justinguitar.com
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So you might want to go
and check that out
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and print out the PDF file
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because it might
make the lesson a little easier.
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Okay so what I am going to discuss with you now
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is how to break out
from your major scales,
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instead of them sounding really scalular,
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to make them sound
a bit more like music.
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You know the expression
"you are what you eat",
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it's the same with scales.
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If you practice scales a lot,
when it comes to improvising,
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you will tend to play scales a lot.
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It's really important that,
as soon as you can,
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you break out
of playing the scales up and down
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and put them into
some melodic patters,
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like what I am going to show you now.
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So, what I am going to show you is
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this little five-stage routine
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that I used to use a lot,
still use a bit
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for breaking out of scales.
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The first step is just being able
to play your scale up and down.
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Then you go to being able
to play the scale up and down,
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changing direction at random.
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Then you go to playing random notes
from within the scale,
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but being really, really careful
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that you only play notes
that are in the scale. OK?
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Then you go into doing a thing
called "playing thirds".
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Now, for those of you who know,
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chords are built up of an interval
called a third.
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It's kind of like playing:
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One, two, three.
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So, playing one note,
missing a note,
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and then playing another note.
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Then going back to the one you missed etc.
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This is called "playing thirds".
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It's a very melodic way of playing.
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This is a very good exercise,
get into playing your scales in thirds.
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Lastly, we are going to do
"four in a line",
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which is playing four notes of a scale.
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Then starting on
the second degree of the scale.
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And the third.
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Fourth.
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Etc.
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OK, so, now we are
going to go to a close-up
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of my left hand here, Chet.
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Hopefully, they will get to see
exactly what I'm doing,
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if they are not following the tab already.
But you are, aren't you?
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OK, here we go.
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We are going to now explore
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the five different techniques
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that you can use for playing your scales.
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So, the first one -
straight up and down.
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We are just using position one
for this whole little lesson.
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Of course, you should take this
through all five positions.
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Once you get to each position,
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remembering that you are not
going to go on to the next position
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until you have mastered the last.
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So, here we are in position one,
playing first of all
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straight up and down.
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Keep doing that for say, like a minute.
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Then you would move into part two,
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which is playing the scale up and down
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but changing direction at random.
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But you are not skipping notes yet,
you are still just playing the scale.
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Etc. There is no pattern to it,
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you are just really changing direction
when you feel like it.
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OK.
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The next step would be to play even,
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and try and do it
really consistently evenly,
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just playing random notes from the scale.
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So you might go...
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Etc.
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Don't do it too fast,
make sure that you can play it -
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just get to the notes.
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Make sure you don't hit any notes
that aren't part of the scale.
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OK.
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After you have got that,
you would move on to doing thirds.
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This is really important
that you check out the tab for this
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and make sure you do it right.
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Start on the first note,
which is the root note.
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You miss one note and play the next one.
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Then you go back to the one you missed.
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Miss a note, play the next.
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Back to the one you missed.
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Miss a note, play the next.
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Back to the one you missed.
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Etc.
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All the way up the scale.
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Watch that E because you have got to do
two with the same finger.
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It's a bit awkward.
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And back down, you just missed one.
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Get the next,
go back to the one you missed.
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It's not that hard.
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OK. Once you have got your thirds sorted,
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then you would move on to this one
called "four in a line".
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Start on the first note of the scale
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and play up four notes.
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Then start on the second note of the scale
and play up four notes.
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Then on the third note of the scale.
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Fourth note of the scale.
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Fifth.
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Sixth.
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Once you get to the top we go -
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down four to start
on the second highest note.
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Again, always starting and finishing
on the root note
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for those patterns of thirds and fourths.
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So, I would suggest you go through
all of those patterns.
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When you have got through all of those,
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you will probably find
that when you go to improvise,
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you will play a lot less scales
and a lot more nice melodic patterns.
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OK. See you!