my ukulele progress

Well, that didn't go so well. I think the problem is that the Dorian and the pentatonic shape are imbricated, whereas the Phrygian mode was nearby but below the pentatonic shape. I get all confused when playing and I cannot remember which notes belong to the Dorian. I think I need to practice the Dorian a lot more consciously. Once I put my index finger down, then I can whiz right through the Dorian shape. However, I don't really know it. I cannot just pick it up in the middle of its course.
 
I am making remedial progress by keeping my hand rooted in the Dorian shape and just getting some pentatonic notes by stretching one of the fingers. It is a start.
 
I think the scales you are training are a good complement to the chords. The basis of ukulele play must have to be the chords, playing more than one string at the time of course happens most of the time. But training scales helps you to be able to hit just that one string at a time, playing a melody. Add that the different scales sound interesting. You can, just by choosing a scale, get different feelings.
 
I haven't done much in a programmatic way--merely wanking around. I've been on a 5-day water fast and been sleeping a lot. I think the most notable think I did was try to re-introduce myself to minor 6 chords after being reminded of them in a post by uncle Rod. I have a problem with the 6 chord. Conventional wisdom says that you can use them to replace I chords in a progression. However, they are so jazzy. It is very off-putting to start a progression with a jazzy 6 chord and then revert to a more vanilla IV or V chord. It seems that once you commit to a 6 chord then you need to pursue that vibe with other jazzy chords. I also played around with the re-creating the old Fleetwood Mac song "Something inside of me" using my tonic pentatonic shape. I got the kernel of it but I need to develop it more. And since we're talking about blues conventions, I also figured out how to construct a descending walk-down into any note. That's all for now.
 
I have been re-exploring modal progressions which are more major-sounding. I feel that nothing is more central to the American sound than the minor and I have accordingly a noteworthy predilection toward that sound. However I feel that maybe subconsciously I am using that as a crutch because, at least in the key of E which has four sharps, they are easier. Take for example the Phrygian harmonization; it flats the second, third and sixth--thereby leaving only the seventh as a non-natural note. And F, G, and C are easier to play than F#, G# and C#. By contrast, the more majorish Lydian only flats the g# to a G. So I need to embrace the ionian, lydian, and mixolydian and their more difficult chords. That's the only way to get over them.
 
I practiced a rhumba strum (I think it is in 9/8) over a progression I just made up. Although it is basically in C my emphasis wasn't so much staying in key as it was walking down the A string.

It went:

C (3rd fret on the A string)
E (2nd fret)
F (0 fret)
C sus4

The strum itself is very touchy. You have to make sure there is an ictus on the 1, 4, and 7 beat or it just sounds like a bunch of strums. And you have to be consistent or it bombs as well. I also improvised a bit with the F# Dorian combined with the E minor pentatonic.

I played my Kamaka and I must admit is it the most resonant uke I have...or have ever heard. I can't really compare it and my Yorkie because they don't have the same tension (tuned a half-step apart) and they have different strings (Kamaka has concert strings whereas the Yorkie has tenor).
 
I was playing my favorite mindless progression--and mindless is a good thing like meditation or losing oneself in it. It of course is in E. I was struck by how, when you're always trying to be different, the normal thing is the different thing. In this case the normal thing which isn't normal is the F major triad. The progression goes E minor to the dominant chord the B7 (a common enough jump but switching chord qualities from minor to major), then it goes to A minor (again, the most obvious jump to the subdominant, made a little more interesting by again switching chord qualities), then it goes to D#° (the leading tone which obviously will lead back to...) then it goes back to E minor. In this pass it goes from E minor to G+ (I know G is out of the scale but I like this movement because there is only one note difference between E minor and G+. So it is a little micro-movement that adds something eerie) then it goes to the A minor, the iv chord (very obvious)...now for the new ending, the idea is to go from tension to less tension to resolution. So from A minor I go to to F major. I know F major sounds rather vanilla but it actually sounds striking because in the context of these minor chords and augmented chords and diminished chords, it is very unique in its un-uniqueness. Anyway I go to F because it is the dominant of the dominant (well, actually F# would fulfill that role, but the F just sounded better). From F I go to B7 again. Moving from the dominant of the dominant to the dominant relieves some tension. Then I go from the B7 to the E minor to attain resolution.


Secondly, I stumbled upon a slip of paper stuck in my music book which had what appeared to be jazz turnarounds. I gravitated toward the sequence:

I7 vi7 bVI9 V9 I9

I often play a jazzy blues progression that features an I7 in the fourth measure and a IV7 in the fifth. I worked this little sequence into that space, making it a little walk-down that introduces the IV7


But the big news is that I have overwhelmed myself with a brand new system of shapes. They are the major pentatonic shapes. I have known that some of the masters of the pentatonic frequently mix the major and minor pentatonic, but hitherto I had conveniently ignored the major variety. So I decided to make amends for that omission.

Whew!!! It doubled my shapes.

The good news is that there is nothing new to learn. Major pentatonics have the same intervals as minor pentatonics; they just have different roots. In other words, you play the same shapes you've always played, but you start on a different note. For example, the dominant shape in linear tuning of the major pentatonic is the same shape as the minor pentatonic leading tone shape, except that instead of starting on the fifth degree of the scale, D, you start on the fourth, the B.

The bad news is that none of this amount to anything musically speaking. I can have all the trivia and fun facts in the world pertaining to these shapes, but it isn't until I can mindlessly access them that it matters in terms of improv, which is my ultimate goal. So, despite all the connections between the shapes in both tunings, I have to continue to just practice so that I can invoke these shapes in and of themselves. Once that happens I shall be an adept.

Obviously, the first step is to take a first step. And I think I shall start with the mediant shape. The mediant shape is much on my mind whereas it used to pass by almost unnoticed. Here's the reason: since I had to rewrite my music book to incorporate these new major shapes I did some editing. I re-arranged the order of the shapes to coincide with how guitar-players think of the shapes. They order them: mediant, subdominant, dominant, leading tone, and tonic. I, on the other hand, started with the tonic because the tonic is the most important. Regardless, now that I have adopted the guitarists' ordering, the mediant is at the literal top of my list.

I am going to focus on using the major shapes alongside the minor shapes in the mediant.

How shall I do this? Two obvious paths seem open to me.

The first is the borrowed notes. If you look at the minor pentatonic (EGABD) and the major pentatonic (EF#G#BC#), you can see that the two most important degrees of any scale, the tonic and the dominant (In this case, the E and the B) occur in both the major and the minor. So one form of legerdemain centers on these notes. Here's what I do:

1. Play the minor shape as usual, when you get to the dominant note, the B, play it and then
2. instantaneously erase the minor shape that you have mentally erected around that B and replace it with the major shape
3. go on playing with that new major shape

The other technique isn't so smooth, but that is its charm. It is a bit dissonant, but what is more bluesy than dissonance? Here's the idea: just move from the minor to the major and own the dissonance. You know the old adage: play it once and it is a mistake; repeat it and it is jazz.

Anyway, just move into the major. For example, if we're talking about the re-entrant tuned dominant shape, it is assumed that you will go from the 4th degree to the fifth degree on the C string; that's just how it is supposed to be. However if you go from the 4th degree and then go to the flatted fifth degree...then--presto!-- you're in the major pentatonic. Obviously, there is going to be some dissonance and the ears will rebel. However, the musician's job is to sell this moment and tell the ears "I chose this sound, it is part of my vision, I'm going with it, and it is going to be my way or the highway." So if you just plow through the brief dissonance with some sort of aplomb, then it will all work out.


Lastly, I have been really enjoying improvising in the Dorian mode. I am very much shocked by this, because I used to (and still do) dislike the Dorian mode as a scale. There's something about that half-step interval between the sixth and seventh degrees that have always turned me off. However, if I don't play it as a scale, but rather use it as a basis for my music...then it seems that music just flows better than in any other context. Making up patterns based on the Dorian note positions just seems to bountifully reward the player. As I said, I am shocked but happy.
 
I did something that I absolutely know I should do, but am usually too lazy to follow through with: playing while standing. It is a principle I believe in and that I am totally set up for. My Yorkie always has its strap on. All I have to do is sling it on and start playing. I recently received a catalog from a vender--I think it was sweetwater--and it had an article written by Nita Strauss emphasizing the importance of playing while standing for muscle memory. I agree so I played while walking around. The hallway has such good acoustics! Plus it is nice to move with the music; it seems natural. And some of my muscle memory is lacking. For example, my diminished chords don't work while standing. I misfret the bottom end of the shape. And walking also helps with some of the phrasing. Lastly, in most performance contexts, you'll be standing so it is a good crossover.

And I do like my Yorkie's voice. The London plane tree is a unique sound. Like many famous singers, its voice is more unique than correct. That's good. Many singers' voices are raspy or whatever and that's more important than being consistently melodious.

Anyway, I was just walking and swaying with the emphases while playing mostly my mediant pentatonic shapes, both major and minor. The walking thing, once again, seems to help because it becomes more of an all-body experience. I am moving between the major and minor fairly well in this shape as well as sliding down to the tonic and leading tone shapes, or up to the subdominant and dominant shapes. I am mostly moving between the major and minor pentatonic on the common notes: the tonic and dominant (E and B, respectively). I also like to transition at the end of the scale, where instead of ending with E and G (in the minor), I go E and F#, or sometimes E,G,EF#. The one thing I am noticing is that I am very much making this a binary switch: either I am playing major or minor. I think once I get better I can stay in minor and just hit a major note or two, instead of conceptually switching completely.
 
I made some discoveries. I wanted to augment my pentatonic knowledge by adding the major pentatonic to my arsenal. Accordingly, I assiduously mapped out the five shapes of the major. Immediately I could see that the intervals were the same as the minor pentatonic, the only differences being they started on different notes and that they of course occurred in different places.

After a while I could see that the E major pentatonic was nothing more than the C# minor pentatonic and I thought I was so clever. But then I realized that C# is the relative major of E minor which is an elementary concept that everyone knows. So my self-love deflated appreciably. However the fact still remains and I am happy to now see a slightly bigger picture of music. It makes the music a bit easier to improv. Once I hit that B or E note and transition to the "E major pentatonic" then I can just play the minor pentatonics I already know and love. I can just play those C# minor pentatonic shapes 'til I hit an E and thereupon I can resolve the phrase altogether, or I can then move back to the E minor pentatonic. The big obstacle I now face is the eternal question of turning a flowing wall of notes into musical phrases. I believe that will come with time. I am still a novice playing with a new toy. Once I get over that stage, discretion will follow and instead of playing everything, I will become more selective. I ran across this problem with the harmonica. Once I could overblow and bend notes, then that's almost all I did. I was a one-trick pony. But musicians mature and gain wisdom. Right now I am an annoying teenager--musically speaking--but I will mature.

I am also experimenting with string tensions. I am very much a player of Americana music. The backbone of Americana is the blues. A notable element of the blues is string bending. So I tune my ukulele so that bending is very easy. I had tuned my Yorkie to DGBE, five half-steps below where it should be. The strings were bendy, but strumming was a bit muddy and the strings a bit buzzy. I am cool with that because that seems to lend itself to the earthiness and the rough-hewn sound I am going for. However, I wondered if there might not be a happier common ground. So I tightened the strings up to a EAC#F# tuning, only three half-steps below the standard tuning. My initial reaction was that the bends were more difficult and the chords a little tighter. I'll play around with it and see if I like it. I think I would like it a lot more if I were using concert strings versus tenor strings. However, I am a bit parsimonious and I am not going to re-string for such a reason. When my tenor strings wear out I will try the concert strings with their lessened tension. Until then I will just abide.

With a little help from my friends on this forum I have been trying to rectify the one thing I don't like about my Yorkie. It is not so easy to affect glissandi on it. Firstly, I acknowledge that glissandi are a bit kitschy. I associate it with cheesy music like the piano stylings of Liberace or Jerry Lee Lewis--not exactly my role models of choice. But I do love that long slide. I use it to transition between octaves, for example the E on the 7th fret sliding up to the 19th fret. With Kamaka or my baritone, the glissandi were effortless. With my Yorkie they were very curtailed if not non-existent. After receiving some advice and after some trial-and-error, I have found that with my current setup the Yorkie just requires a lot more care. I have found that the descending glissando in particular is a matter of timing and it is very touchy. It is similar to harmonics: you have to get it just right. With the Yorkie you have to slide precisely as you pluck or the glissando doesn't work. That's the fun of it, after all. All these instruments are different and part of the joy of growing old with an instrument is learning its peculiarities and learning how to deal with it.
 
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Recently it has been a real good time for me musically speaking (if you overlook that I am ignoring my goal of developing some fingerstyle chops). All the practice is actually amounting to something for a change. It is a bit ironic but all my planning has finally allowed me to make unplanned improvised music.

Just one example: I started off in the key of E by playing the F# Dorian, but not the entire scale (I am learning some discretion); just some notes to make a little riff. Then, in the blink of an eye, I superimposed the shapes of the F# minor pentatonic on the fret board. At that point, I can move down to the leading tone shape or even the dominant shape and pull out a few notes before returning to the F# for some resolution to the phrase. I also moved up to the mediant and subdominant shapes for those higher notes that seem to betoken some sort of crescendo before moving back down to the root.

And I find if I refrain from bending my notes, the tune is a doleful, soulful sad song. My wife calls it a dirge. But that's my sound. That's where my fingers go when they are left to their own devices. I have to admit that I derive a perverse pleasure in making lugubrious music with the instrument of Tiny Tim. In my hands the ukulele isn't the jumping flea, the instrument that turns everything into Reggae elevator music. No, it is more of a earthworm than a flea. I like that and I suppose I have to credit my scales as the source of all that. Even though I don't play the blues, I do use the tools of the blues and that makes the music mournful although a bit different from traditional blues.
 
Great thread will need to sit down and read it all. Thank you!

That sounds a bit crazy, at least quite an undertaking. Be warned: I haven't provided content in the modern sense of the word where I have purposely made it with an eye of being consumed by someone. There's no pictures or graphics or sound files. I looked into doing that kind of thing and I found that it would take more time and money than the actual playing of the ukulele. So these are just a bunch of journal entries--more or less.
 
Yes I understand, the goal is to understand your approach and experiments more than replicate you.

For the record, I would be totally down with replicating. It sounds like something one would find in a Philip K. Dick novel.

Anyway, here's my plan for the weekend. I want to firm up some 4th string skills. While I was waiting for my Yorkie to arrive, I had been playing exclusively with my re-entrant Kamaka. So I am a little more sure of my scales and shapes that are restricted to the 1st 3 strings. Lately I have been reluctantly backing into the fourth string to extend the playing I am doing, but I am not using the 4th string in and of itself.

This will essentially entail two things:

1. playing my pentatonic shapes from the G string until the shape ends on the A string (for a total of 4 strings). I know I could pursue the scale up the A string, but I arbitrarily decide to stop with the shape--or the box, as I've heard it called.
2. playing my modes from the G to the E strings, as opposed to from the C to the A. Again, this is somewhat arbitrary, but I like going from tonic note to tonic note (an octave higher); I could go further, extending the scale into the A string and ending with the 11th degree of the scale...but I don't. I just go an octave.

The reason for doing this is that I am to some extent guessing where I should go on the G string. A lot of times that works. Sometimes it doesn't. So I just want to take some of the guesswork out of the equation.

By way of a plan of sorts let me outline for myself what this will mean for my standard 19 fret instrument.

for the pentatonic shapes that will mean that the lowest shape I can conjure is the subdominant shape starting with the A note on the 2nd fret of the G string. The Highest shape will be the dominant starting on that B on the 16th fret. That's enough of a plan to start. The rest will follow with practice. For example, with re-entrant shapes I know from experience whither to slide to get inside the mediant shape of the leading tone shape. I will construct similar knowledge with the four string pentatonic shapes.

For my modes, let me see...

We will be starting with the G# Phrygian on the 1st fret and working up to the B Lydian starting on the 16th.

There we go. All I need to know is where to start and then everything else will follow.

There are going to be several slightly nettling problems with playing on the G string. The difference with playing modes on the G versus the C string is a matter of sliding down a half-tone for the notes on the C string. That is very, very slight alteration, but because it is so slight it is so mind-blowing. In many ways it is easier to learn a completely new concept than to minutely alter an existing concept. We'll see.
 
I achieved a lot of my weekend goals, but I didn't plumb them to their depths. I suppose the reason is that I know more now and am easily distracted. In the past I could maintain a singleness of purpose.

Anyway, it was easy in the beginning. In under a minute I was able to internalize the difference between the modes starting on the G string versus the C string. But I wasn't able to exploit the modes. For me the modes aren't so important musically. The modal progressions are important. They allow such diversity. They allow you to go from the all-too-familiar I IV V progression of the ionian to something like the I IV bVII of the mixolydian. However, in terms of finger picking they aren't so useful because they are, after all, the same seven notes over and over again.

To me, that's their importance. I use the modes to learn the fretboard. I of course know my dotted frets and therefrom I can deduce the other notes if given the opportunity and time. However, that's not good enough. Music happens a little faster than that. So I like to play my modes and watch my fingers and learn where each note is located. It is a fairly easy process with three steps.

1. know the notes of your key. In my case, I'm using E whose notes are E F# G# A B C# D#
2. know your modal shapes
3. you know your notes; you know your shape. So just play the mode and notice where the finger lands and count off the notes. For example, in the G# Phrygian you just play the shape and watch G# A B C# D# E F# G# come. Then you play your Lydian shape and watch the A B C# D# E F# G# A come out. By this method, you learn where all the notes of this key occur on the keyboard.

In the past, this would have been a straightforward endeavor. I would play my modes and even improvise with the shapes, and say the notes out loud as I played them. But nowadays I know a little too much for my own good. I can see that the minor pentatonic shares the natural notes with the modes (i.e., the E, A, and B) and the major pentatonic shares the sharps F# G# and C#, as well as the E and B. So I was greatly distracted by trying to transition between the modes and the pentatonics. I'll have to continue this goal into the week and try to learn my fretboard by heart and withstand the allurement of putting the shapes together.
 
I forgot to mention one compositional block that I came up with. The Phrygian is rather difficult to use because its sound is so idiosyncratic with that half step occurring up front. What I found that works is to avoid that half step when improvising. Also the C string is a good tool. In the Phrygian, you play the G string notes and then the C string notes. However the second string of the Phrygian shape is also the first string of the C# aiolian. So once you get to that point you can move to the aiolian which is a much more ubiquitous sound. At the end of the aiolian is the B and D#, which are in common with the major pentatonic. So that's a nice little progression of shapes.
 
I was starting to develop some nice stuff with the Phrygian, but I abandoned it because I was using it as an excuse not to embrace my challenges. Those challenges are the lydian and mixolydian modes. What's tough about them for me is that shift you have to make on the C string. And I can't really avoid them because the occupy some prime real estate on the fret board. The Lydian spans the frets 2-5 and the Mixolydian frets 4-7. I focused on the lydian.

First off, I am having some trouble playing it because I am undergoing some revamping of my muscle memory. I had been sitting down and practicing. When you play on your feet, the angle is a bit different and my fingers miss the mark when fretting. So I have been practicing just playing the mode. I can't go any farther 'til I get that squared away.

I am also having some problem in locating the lydian when I need it. I didn't have that problem with the Phrygian. I believe it is because the Phrygian abuts the nut, so it is easy to find. Since the Lydian is floating on its own, it is more difficult. To overcome this, I memorized the notes of the Lydian so that I could at least see where the mode was.

I'm going to bed, but I'll expand on this stuff later.
 
Today’s goal is to get hyped about the lydian. It is a challenge since the lydian is probably my least favorite mode since it is so vanilla. Because of that I want to focus on it so that my weakness becomes a strength. The way to do that (for me) is study. Once I get into anything, I find it interesting.

First, there are three practical sites for the A lydian: at the A on the second fret of the G string, on the fourteenth fret of the G, and the ninth fret of the C string. I could conceivably play it on the E or A strings, but that would require clumsily going up those strings.

Since those are the sites of the A lydian it makes sense to plan which scales to use in conjunction with it. I wonder if real musicians would consider it cheating to plan out my improvisation. Of course, when I use the shapes, I will spontaneously choose which notes to play, but the general outline won’t be so off the cuff.

Anyway, the logical choice to complement the A lydian is the E major pentatonic because it is comprised of the 1,2,3,5, &6 degrees of E major—all of which are contained in the A lydian. I could, in theory, jump off the lydian at any point and start on the major pentatonic.

The minor pentatonic, on the other hand, is made from 1, b3, 4, 5, b7 degrees. Obviously the 1, 4, and 5 are common to the lydian, but the flat 3 and 7 are a bit grating since they are off by a half-step. I will have to experiment because, sometimes, that dissonance works. However the major pentatonic is more of a slam dunk.

Excuse the excursus but a thought has just come to me. The A lydian has a weird quality (to my ear). Since the A lydian starts and ends on the A, I assume that the A is for all intents and purposes the de facto root of the mode. However, there never seems to be a sense of resolution or closure when I return to the A. I am not much of a musical theorist, so maybe this is self-evident to anyone with any knowledge. Maybe the root is still E, the key of the A lydian. Maybe I should try ending a run on the E and see if that sounds good. If memory serves me, I seem to remember that ending on the B sounds better than the A. Maybe that’s because the B is the dominant of the E and while it offers no resolution, it at least promise of an E to come. That’s how it is used in traditional blues turnarounds. Maybe it is just a matter of training the ear. I am by natural inclination drawn more to the “minor” modes and the more “major” ones sound off-putting to me.

Anyway...let’s get back to major pentatonics and which ones will imbriate with the A lydian. I will be focusing on the A lydian starting on the second fret of the G string because nowadays I am focusing on the linear tuning.

The A lydian ends on the E string with the notes F# G# and A. Let’s think about what that means for the major pentatonic with the nut of the fret board being so close below and cutting off certain options.

The F# and G# are the ones to watch here. They are, respectively, the second and third degrees of the major pentatonic. They are on the second and fourth frets. Where does that lead? The linear subdominant shape fits the bill since it also has a F# and G# on the E string. My tendency would be to descend in pitch to the lower notes of the G string. The G string possesses the G# and the B.

[Oh! That xplains my rant above. The reason why the A sounds less than satisfying as the terminus for a run is that it is outside of my scale since I am descending in the major pentatonic that does not have an A. However, if I stop the pentatonic on the E of the C string, that is in the major pentatonic. It is also in the A lydian so that if, at the E, I change back to the A lydian, then I could descend back down the A lydian: E D# C# B A.]

So the subdominant shape works. I think the dominant shape works as well. It works because of the G#. With the subdominant shape the G# was the high note and I had to work back toward the nut, whereas in the dominant shape the G# is the low note and I have to work upward. The same methodology applies to this linear dominant shape. In the dominant shape, the B and he C# pop up on the G string. From the B we could slide down to the A but as we noted above, the A would be outside of the shape since our ears anticipate an A and not a G#. The turning point, once again, is the E. The E is the low note of the C string in the dominant shape. But it is also the high note of the A lydian on the C string. So here’s the basic run-down. In the dominant shape you descend E (at an octave higher) C# B G# F# E, but at the E you switch to the A lydian shape where the E is the high note of the C string and then finish: E D# C# B A.

That’s it for the linear major pentatonic shapes. Obviously I could slide up to the leading tone shape or even the tonic shape, improvise, and then slide back down to the A lydian, but I’m trying to keep this simple...despite how long this post is stretching.

Okay, now let’s think about the minor pentatonic. The A lydian’s notes on the E string are F# G# A. The A is the only connection between the lydian and the pentatonic. The A is the third degree of the minor pentatonic. Coincidentally or not, the subdominant and dominant shapes are the linear shapes that have that A on the E string.

Things are spinning out of control here. I know that the A Lydian has an A on the E string, as does the linear minor pentatonic shapes, but that’s where I am going to leave it. There are so many variables involved here that I cannot think about it. I am going to just bow out and say I will experiment and see what works and what doesn’t.

Maybe it is the beer. I am at the local pub where on Fridays I visit to see the local tradesmen and other regulars. I’ve had four beers. I usually only have three but I’m crazy like that.

I was going to look at re-entrant forms of the pentatonic, but the re-entrant forms are the same as the linear ones, except they don’t extend to the G string. So there’s nothing new to talk about with them.

Another angle of the lydian to think about is the chord harmonization of this mode. If you work this all out, here’s the schema:

I II biii IV° V vi vii

The essential chords are the I II V

Just to be clear the actual chords would be:

E F# G minor A diminished B C# minor D# minor

The E F# B progression isn’t much to write home about. It very much like a standard I IV V progression ezcept that the F# creates a bit of a different sound, being closer to the B than the A. The F# poses an interesting question as to how to form it. I can either form it by making the G chord and then moving it down to the first fret. That’s easy enough but then the B chord would be a totally different shape. Conversely I could form the F# by using the F-shaped barre chord, something I never do. That would be hard, but then the B chord is just one finger’s difference.

Aside from that I have only experimented with the progression briefly. I find that I don’t have much use for the G minor or D# minor. That’s nothing new really. The third and seventh intervals are rarely used by most people. I even tried different chord qualities, e.g. the G m7, but it still seemed unessential. So far, here’s the groove I like to get in to:

E C#m F# B A° E

What isn’t so evident in this progression is the stacking of fingers. I picked this progression because of the fingerings more than the sound...although it sounds good, too:

1. The E is just the E, the good old tonic
2. The C#m is very common; the I to vi interval is ubiquitous in pop music. However, I picked it because it barres the first fret (I use the 1444 shape)
3. Since the first fret is already barred, all I have to do is form the F major chord with my middle and ring fingers to get the F#

4. B. If I move the F# up a fret and move the middle finger to the C string, I have an B major chord.

5. The diminished A is a cloying call for resolution. But I also use it because my ring finger is on the A string for this chord. Then all I have to do to return to the E is slide that finger down a fret.
 
I saw a video from some wunderkind with a guitar whose advice was to f#ck scale shapes and just play the notes wherever. I guess that's true but this savant isn't quite grasping that in order to know wherever the notes are, we need to practice our scales and then un-remember them.

Coincidentally, or not, I was playing around and erasing some of the boundaries that I have relied upon. I was playing the 1st five frets using the G# phrygian and A lydian (from the G string) and the C# aiolian (from the C string). Of course the D# Lokrian is also in the vicinity, but it is, after all, the Lokrian and good for nothing. I was able to improvise quite a bit with those shapes and I moved betwixt them so much that they were blending into one another.

Then I was noodling around and almost had an instrumental version of "Sunshine of your love."
 
Yesterday I was frustrated with "Sunshine of Your Love" because I couldn't get a certain sequence of the song. It seemed like I was trying a bunch of things, but today I realized it was just misplaced ingenuity. The notes I were searching for were all in the minor pentatonic scale. All I had to do was descend the scale.

I was playing around with a basic A Lydian progression. I changed one chord quality and it changed the progression. I was playing

E major, C# minor, F# major, B9, A diminished, E

The cool stuff was the last 3 elements. By using the 9 chord it pulled away from the butter chords. What's also cool is that once I pull away from the butter chords, the final three create a walk-down because I played the B9 as 2324. Then the A diminished is 2323, moving the A string, the melody string down a fret, then the E major is centered around the 2nd fret, again a fret lower. It is nice.
 
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