Hey folks, sorry I missed last month’s column! I was on the road and missed my deadline. Anyway, thanks for tuning in this month. I’ve received some emails from a few readers who want to know what else I practice besides the Ionian and Aeolian modes in a cycle of fourths.
As I’ve stated before, guitar playing is (to my knowledge) composed of only three different means of playing: scalar, intervallic, and chordal. Practicing scales in a cycle of fourths is a great way to get scalar playing happening but we should be able to play in intervals as well. This way your playing doesn’t become boring and predictable. A few great players utilizing this concept are Carl Verheyen, Eric Johnson, Al Di Meola and Joe Diorio, to name but a few.
Playing in intervals can mean several different things – for example, finger tapping, arpeggios (sweeping and picking them), and fingerpicking. When the term fingerpicking is used, a lot of people get visions of players from Leo Kottke and Chet Atkins to Andrés Segovia and the late great Michael Hedges. I suggest checking out “hybrid” players like Brett Garsed, who actually combines fingerpicking in the middle of a picked run or line. Very cool stuff!
This month however I want to take a look at picked interval exercises, as I find these to be the most challenging to execute. I’m going to include two exercises I received when I took a private lesson from the great Steve Morse back in 1991. Steve was kind enough to sit down with me in the basement of the Iron Horse, a bar in Massachusetts, after just playing a gig with the Steve Morse Band. At the time he said he’d never given a guitar lesson before, so I was particularly appreciative and honored. Steve has since become a good friend and continues to inspire my playing and compositions. Thanks, Steve!
The first exercise is based around the Mixolydian mode and utilizes only four strings. I highly recommend not only executing this in the Mixolydian mode (which is how it’s written) but also the remaining six diatonic modes as well: the Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Locrian and Aeolian. Both exercises should be practiced with a metronome. This particular exercise can be practiced in 3/4 or 4/4. You should not only start both of these exercises with a downstroke but an upstroke too. I feel it’s extremely important to be able to execute any pattern, lick, line or exercise from either a downstroke or an upstroke.
The second exercise is based around the diminished scale. This one covers all six strings and is one that I’ve actually used as a lick in my song, “Custer’s Last Groove” from my CD Full On!. This exercise should be practiced in either 3/4 or 6/8. I did these exercises in a comfortable position on the fretboard but I recommend moving them down to the first and second fret positions to really give your fretting hand a stretch and a workout. Consider it more bang for your buck!
These exercises should definitely get your intervallic playing going. Remember, if you have anything in mind that you’d like me to cover or explore deeper, you can reach me at Toshi@ ToshiIseda.com,
intseguitr@aol.com or for those on MySpace,
myspace.com/toshiiseda. Thanks for tuning in, and until next month, “Who dares wins!”
Toshi IsedaToshi Iseda is an Alumnus of the prestigeous Berklee College of Music and the American Conservatory of Music. He has been featured in Guitar Player, Guitar World and Guitar/Guitar One Magazines, and is a former instructor at the National Guitar Workshop and former instructor at the American Institute of Guitar.
toshi@toshiiseda.com intseguitr@aol.comwww.TOSHIISEDA.com myspace.com/toshiiseda