(playing "Triangles" guitar lick)
Hi how you doin'
Justin here
this lesson we're doing today
is called triangles
it's a pretty weird little lick, this one
it's a bit, kind of atonal
which means, it doesn't really have a key
only it does
I'm going to show it to you in the key of A
but the idea of it is atonal
and the reason it's called triangles
a funny kind of long story,
for a friend of mine who had taken far too much acid
and really cooked his brain
he really couldn't function properly
and it's pretty kind of sad really
it's not like, you know,
look at my cool friend whose taken too much acid,
you know he spends a lot of time in hospital
but we still get to jam now and then
and he did this lick once,
that really just blew me out we were just kinda jamming
I can't remember what exactly, think it was funk,
and he played this lick (plays guitar)
and I was like, "Man! what was that lick? that was really cool!"
and he said, "man, I'm just playing the triangles"
and I went, "what do you mean?"
and he showed me!
and it was, he made up
little triangle shapes on the guitar neck
and he was playing them
now, it shouldn't really work
cause it's not musical is it, playing triangles on your guitar neck
but, sometimes weird stuff like that does work
a lot of Van Halen stuff funny enough,
he's not doing the triangles thing right,
but a lot of times, what he plays are patterns
so it's not like, strictly sticking to the scale
he's just playing a particular, you know, lick or whatever
a group of frets that he likes the look of
that he can play quick and the playing it real fast
and it sounds cool! None of us go,
"Woah that 4th note there, that wasn't in the scale"
that doesn't happen, does it?
so, part of the reason I'm showing you
this lick is to get you used to that idea
that you don't always have to be using
the proper notes and the proper scale
it's just sometimes stuff sounds cool
and thats okay
you know it's cool if things sound good
and they don't stick to the rules sometimes, you know?
so, okay plenty enough talking from me
let's get to a close-up and have a look at some triangles
(playing "Triangles" guitar lick)
okay, here it is a bit slower
(guitar playing)
Now, the triangle (plays guitar) is here
it's made up if we kind of play dot to dot on the guitar
we have the 5th fret, on the thinnest string (e string)
the 7th fret on the thinnest string (e string)
and the 6th fret on the 2nd string (B string)
(playing the guitar note by note)
if we kind of joined up those dots
if you like, we'd have a little triangle (plays lick)
and that's exactly what you play in this lick, so (plays note)
5th fret, (plays note) 7th fret, (plays note)
6th fret on the next string over
(plays note) and then back to the note, you started on
(plays lick on the guitar)
that's it, that's the 16th notes one beat group
(plays lick on guitar)
(while still playing lick) down, up, down, up, picking
then you move exactly the same thing
towards the sky, one string
so we're starting now
with the 1st finger on the 5th fret of the 2nd string
(plays lick on the guitar)
then we move the whole shape up one fret
so now we're starting with the 1st finger in the 6th fret
of the 2nd string (plays lick on the guitar)
then we move it toward the sky one string
so now, 1st finger is in the 6th fret of the 3rd string
(plays guitar lick)
and we move it up one fret
(plays guitar lick)
towards the sky one (plays guitar lick)
and that's, were just finishing on there
we're starting and finishing on the A cause it kind of gives it some
sense of tonality, you know?
so it sounds like it's, you know,
based around the A
(plays "Triangles" guitar lick)
one more time
(plays "Triangles" guitar lick)
okay, now I'm gonna take it right out
(demonstrates "Triangles" guitar lick with backing music)
well, I'm pretty sure
you are gonna have a lot of fun exploring this little triangle idea
maybe you could try to make up circles or squares
and see where that gets you
it's kind of a big deal this, really
what I'm kind of touching on here
which is the idea of atonality
of not being restricted to a particular scale
or a particular sound or an arpeggio
or anything like that,
it's just what sounds good
and that's really important because
that's really what music boils down to
it's not about scales and arpeggios and stuff
it's about what sounds good because we listen to music
we don't look at it, we don't
well, we can analyze it
but we don't have to.
it's just really about what sounds good
so try, you know, and explore that a little bit
see if you can try, sometimes
notes that you think are the wrong notes
cause sometimes they might be a good note
big deal, big concept
something I'm gonna talk about
more in complete lessons
not really in a little lick lesson am I gonna try to explore that one
that would be a huge can of worms
to tip out all over this video
so, I'm not gonna go there anymore
then I have already
hope you enjoyed that, have fun with it
and I'll see you for another lick or lesson very soon
take care of yourselves
bye bye