A Guide To Chords, Scales, & Arpeggios

Al Di Meola & Bob Aslanian

Bob Aslanian has been playing guitar professionally for thirty years. He has spent a good part of that time teaching the guitar, as well as playing in big bands, small combos, and presently in solo performance. He has recorded two record albums and has worked frequently as a studio musician. He is now living in New Jersey, playing and teaching the guitar

Al arrived as a powerful and influential force in music on his own terms, playing a brand of music that cannot be categorized. This blend includes elements of rock, jazz, classical, and Latin rhythms woven into beautiful melodies played on acoustic and electric instruments. His early training with jazz guitarist Bob Aslanian emphasized reading, picking technique, and technical profieciency, as well as the ability to appreciate and play many types of music. Since that time, Al has had a most successful career. Besides his continuing success as one of the world's greatest solo artists, Al has played with some of today's most talented musicians. From his early days with Barry Miles and Chick Corea's Return To Forever, to his most recent work with the Trio of John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and himself, Al is still growing as an artist. His recent work on solo acoustic guitar is proof of that. He owes much of his past and present success to his taking the time and effort to develop a good base of musical knowledge and theory. Al has said, "by not developing good musical and technical proficiency, a guitarst is not giving himself the chance to become the best that he or she can be. So it is my hope that people will use this book that Bob Aslanian and myself have developed as a tool that will give a person the chance to become a good musician. All one needs is to work hard."

Introduction

It is the intention of this book to help you learn some of the chords, scales, and arpeggios necessary in becoming a good musician and player. You can learn these step-by-step, one day at a time, through our unique Lesson Plan System. This System eliminates your having to work through a chord book, a scale book, and an arpeggio book. Instead, it brings all of these elements together in one system, presented in a relatively easy to understand approach.

The different chords, scales, arpeggios, reading tips, chord progresions, exercises, tunes, and supplementary material will give you a complete education, not only in guitar, but in music in general. So think of yourself as a young carpenter learning how to use his tools, This system will give you the tools and then show you how and when to use them in developing your own style and in developing yourself as a well-rounded musician and player.

Over the past twenty years of teaching guitar, the two most com-mon questions asked by new students are: why should I learn all these chords, scales, arpeggios, etc? And, just how is all this going to really help me? To answer both of these questions, we simply ask you to think of yourself as a carpenter's apprentice, learning how and when to use the tools of his trade. Once you have learned this, then you can apply this knowledge in creating, designing, and building whatever you desire.

Our System does the same thing by providing you with the necessary tools of your trade (chords, scales, arpeggios, etc.). Teaching you how, when, and where to use these tools will help you create and build better lead solos and eventually help you develop into a more rounded guitarist and musician.

Foreword

As you look through this book, you'll notice one very obvious and different element that you will not see in any other technique book on guitar. This book has been divided into individual sections;

Lesson Plans, Chord Section, Scale Section, Arpeggio Section, and Tune and Exercises Section. There is a very important reason for setting up this book in this fashion.

It is our belief that most guitar technique publications are very difficult to work with. They tend to become unclear and out of focus for the student. So we have structured this technique book to have the 10 Lesson Plan program right in the beginning of the book, clearly laying out exactly what to study, in simple outline fashion.

Our goal is that you can easily follow this program, all the white learning to play guitar with the most solid base of technique available today.

We have included in the back of this book a list of publications we believe will help enhance your technical ability because we believe that no one book, including this one, can cover the complete scope of guitar technique. We have devised a unique feature in this book by also listing some of these supplemental publications precisely at the right place and time inside of each Lesson Plan.

Warm-up and developing speed exercises

We feel that one of the best ways to warm up and develop speed is to practice using scale exercises. We suggest you start by using the Major Scale and using either the A or B fingering. Use the alternate picking technique (down-up stroke pattern) and begin with a slow tempo. Practice the scale, first in eighth notes, then in eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, and in broken thirds, ascending and descending in two octaves. Once you feel comfortable playing this scale at a slow tempo, then gradually pick up the tempo and repeat the entire exercise. After working with fingerings A and B, we suggest repeating the entire exercise using fingerings C, D, and E. These fingerings are great for stretching your fingers.

There are several things to remember. First, the warm up exercises should total no more than fifteen to twenty minutes at the beginning of each practice session. Train,don't strain. Second, always begin the exercise with a slow tempo and don't increase the tempo until you can play the scale smoothly.

Over the years, guitar players have used certain tricks to help strengthen their fingers and develop speed. As crazy as they may seem, they do work. The first trick is to practice all scale fingerings wearing a tight rubber glove on your left hand. Another trick is to use very heavy gauge strings and raise the action on your guitar a little higher than usual. When playing scales or arpeggios, remember to keep the fingers of your left hand as close to the strings as possible. This is not only proper technique, but a little trick in developing speed. The greater the distance your fingers have to travel to hold down a string, time will be wasted, thus losing speed.

Good practice habits

We feel that developing good practice habits is essential not only in helping you learn how to play properly, but in helping you quickly advance and reach your ultimate goal, becoming a master guitarist and musician.

The first thing we would like to discuss is how to hold the instrument. The proper way to hold the guitar when practicing, is to sit on a chair or stool with both feet flat on the floor, and have the body of the guitar rest on your right leg. In order to have a clear view of the entire fingerboard and be comfortable, it will be necessary to angle the body of the guitar just enough to allow you to lean slightly forward over the body.

It is perfectly all right to wear a guitar strap of your choice if it keeps your guitar from sliding around on your leg, however it is certainly not a requirement.

We strongly advise using a good music stand. We do not recommend placing your music on a bed, on the floor, or on a table because it not only makes reading music difficult, but could damage your eyes. In addition, it also makes it harder to hold your guitar properly as we described above.

Purchasing and using a good metronome when practicing your lessons will definitely be quite helpful in developing a strong feel for timing.

We also suggest learning how to keep time by tapping with your left foot.

In order to quickly advance, each power packed Lesson Plan in this system will require seriously practicing every day. Since each practice session will require total concentration, a quiet place to practice will be important.

How long should you practice each day? Initially, to begin with, we suggest practicing each section approximately twenty to forty-five minutes each day. As time goes on, it will be up to you to decide which section of each Lesson Plan will need more or less time. Try to increase your total practice time if you can, to as much as your own personal schedule permits.

When practicing the scales and arpeggios, it is very important not to overpractice and strain your arms and hands. Remember, just like weight lifting, train, don't strain. If you find yourself practicing an exercise over and over again and becoming frustrated with it, we recommend stopping, and either moving on to another exercise or putting the guitar down and walking out of the room. Sometimes giving yourself a couple of hours or even twenty-four hours away from practicing will help you forget your frustrations and help you clear your mind and begin with a fresh outlook on practicing.

We recommend developing good eating, sleeping, and physical exercise habits because the daily concentrated practice sessions will drain your energy both mentally and physically. It is important to remember, as a musician, you must play in smoke filled places and keep late hours. In order to per-form four or five hours each night at peak level, you must be in excellent mental and physical con-dition. Also, sometimes the reason you might find it hard to sit down and practice Is because you are not in good overall condition. Practicing takes a lot of everything you've got, so if you want to be suc-cessful at learning the guitar, try to develop good practice and overall habits in your life.

As we mentioned earlier, these Lesson Plans are a guide to helping you organize each of your dally practice sessions and develop good practice habits. Each individual Lesson Plan should take approximately two weeks with an average of two hours work per day. Your own practice habits and/or schedule may vary, and everyone should work at his own speed, so use this as a guide only in making your own personal schedule and time frame for completing each one of the Lesson Plans. Basically work at your own speed and know that you are doing great If you can complete each Lesson Plan in a two week period. The most important thing is to take your time; make sure you thoroughly understand each step before moving on. Good Luck...

Picking technique

One of the biggest problems students have is choosing a good picking technique. It is obvious that without developing the proper picking technique, the chances of ever developing speed and articulation would be almost impossible. Therefore, we've chosen three excellent techniques to highlight for you: picking from the elbow, from the wrist and rotating the forefinger and thumb.

Before discussing these techniques, the first thing we would like to cover is finding the right pick. This, we feel, is up to the individual's own taste. We recommend using a heavy gauge pick, but experimenting with all gauges (thin, medium, and heavy) would certainly be a good idea.

Holding the pick is the next important thing we would like to cover. This is simple because there is only one proper way to hold the pick, and that is between the forefinger and the thumb. Any other way is incorrect.

There are three basic picking techniques: picking from the elbow, picking from the wrist, and picking using the forefinger and thumb. It is very important to choose one or a combination of these techniques before attempting to practice the scale fingerings or arpeggio fingerings. Make sure to try each technique, and then choose the one which feels the most comfortable to you. Remember, developing a good picking technique is the key to developing speed and articulation when playing rhythm chords, chord/melody, scales, and arpeggios.

The first technique we would like to discuss is picking from the elbow. First, hold the pick between your forefinger and your thumb. Keep your wrist straight so your arm and wrist look like one straight line from your elbow to your fingers. We suggest that your arm and hand should not touch the guitar. Now, keeping the pick stiff, move your arm up and down pivoting from the elbow.
The second technique is picking from the wrist. Holding the pick firmly between your forefinger and thumb, move your hand up and down pivoting from the wrist. You may rest your elbow on the guitar.
The third technique is picking from the forefinger and thumb. Hold the pick firmly between your fore-finger and thumb. You may rest your hand or just a couple of fingers on the pickguard as a guide or support. Now, rotate the pick in almost a circular motion, just using your forefinger and thumb, keeping your arm and hand straight. Remember, all the picking motion will come from your forefinger and thumb.