I’ve said it before, I try my hardest to not promote bands I like, I want to keep my focus on how to learn guitar, not telling the world about new music.

A few months back I just had to go against this philosophy and tell you about Salt Ashes song Gold, a Brighton solo artist who are making waves with her electronic music in the U.K.

Today I have a debut single and video from a Brighton duo called ‘Cells’ to share with you, why?

Because it’s bloody brilliant, that’s why!

The lyrics of A Time And A Place brilliantly capture the time we live in, enjoy and be sure to see Cells live, catch up with them on their website cellsband or why not buy the song on bandcamp?

A video named Young Girl Kills The Guitar has started to circulate on Facebook.

Is it real or fake? Is this the next big guitar viral?

Who is this girl?

Join the conversation on facebook to find out more. I know I will!

It’s not every Saturday I’m gig less, so when House of Hats played the Brunswick last night under their themed night the Harvest Sessions, I had to go and see what these guys where up to.

The Harvest Sessions now run every 3 months; if you are about in Brighton and Hove do check it out.

The band also travel about so do follow House Of Hats on twitter to find out if and when they come to your area.

About House Of Hats

All three singers are great friends of mine who have all sung for Spytunes, for example: Dream A Little Dream Of Me, Tears In Heaven and Red.

House Of Hats are: Alex Gigante, Noddy Nod Nod (Miss Al Brown) James Kuszewski and Rob Gigante. Find them all on Facebook.com/houseofhats.

In the video you find the end of last Saturday’s gig. Enjoy!

One of the most pleasant musical surprises of 2012 was that Bruno Mars is actually really good. Maybe even cool.

In hindsight, if Mars planned his career, released all those first singles in order to “get the kids” and then planned to release ‘Locked Out Of Heaven‘ to cross over, then he is a genius.

I actually believe he is that clever, I reckon he planned it. After all, he did write ‘Forget You’ and gave it to Cee Lo Green. We all know that worked out pretty well…

At the 2013 Grammy Awards Bruno Mars team up with Sting, Rihanna and Ziggy Marley to pay tribute to one of the greatest artists ever lived; the legendary Bob Marley.

In the video you can hear them first perform Locked Out Of Heaven, as Sting join we soon move in to ‘Walking On The Moon‘, followed by ‘Could You Be Loved’ with Rihanna and Ziggy Marley taking center stage – Enjoy!

Bob Marley help parents calm kids down

Not only artists that attend the Grammy Awards and internet guitar guru’s like me are huge Bob Marley fans, turns out kids love him too!

In this Facebook video we see how parents use Bob Marley’s music to calm a toddler down.

Bob Marley; you clearly rule!

“It’s like a restaurant, if there’s lots of people there – it’s gonna be good food” says Clapton when explaining why he would always go for a worn out neck on a Fender Stratocaster.

Finding several of them, changing necks and probably pickups around, he would essentially build his perfect Strat himself.

Brownie is that early 70s era which has my favorite Eric Clapton album dated at 1974, the outrageously groovy 461 Ocean Boulevard.

Clapton goes on to explain how seeing Buddy Guy and Jimi Hendrix playing a Strat, this is what made him swap.

Brownie sold at a 1999 auction for $497,000 (the replica is $15,000 – bargain!)

Eric Clapton Martin Guitars

In this video Clapton plays his Martin Signature Guitars. “They’re perfect!” he exclaims.

Bright round and louder and the more basic the better he reflects as he looks at how these guitars are almost too good.

Clapton’s acoustic range seem to be one for the living room, rather than in the back of van, living in a soft case. The problem being, will you ever leave your living room?

“It was always Martin” he remembers as if this was the holy grail of acoustic guitars, when he first saw a D28 it actually seemed to be as if he discovered the grail, “it almost glowed”, he says.

This experience never seem to have left him when it comes to Martin Guitars. A proper players guitar, according to Clapton.

Eric Clapton and Gibson

In the 60′s, before Eric discovered Hendrix, Buddy Guy and the Stratocaster he was a Gibson Les Paul man.

In this video we hear the replica guitar Eric played in the 60s on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, this guitar relates to Eric’s time being obsessed with Freddie King.

Eric also played this on the Beano Album, paired with a Marshall Bluesbraker. Eric played this guitar so much that it “became a part of me”.

As he plays it, it sounds like Eric has started to turn the treble up a bit since then, might be that love affair with Fender Stratocasters that has played a part in this…

I was thinking I should arrange an acoustic version of Gangnam Style as it is one of those songs that took over the world for a while.

However, my lack of Korean singing friends didn’t make this easy but lo and behold, these girls beat me to it!

I think you agree that this is gonna be hard to top!

They even keep the guitar in the shoot all the way through, job done – Enjoy!

This is a first for me, I don’t really promote my friends this heavily, I usually am just very encouraging and say – Yes that great, and it is, but this, this is actually amazing.

Salt Ashes have just posted this song called Gold on soundcloud and I just have to tell everyone to listen to it.

Find out more about Salt Ashes here:

Soundcloud
Facebook
Tumblr
Record Of The Day
Twitter

So without me rambling on, here it is; Gold by Salt Ashes, no guitar in here!

I sincerely hope you like this as much as I do, and if you do, please share it with the world, she deserves it!

-Dan

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How To Play Guitar video series part 4!

In this final part of the How To Play Guitar video series I take a super simple I – VI – II – V progression and apply the modes accordingly.

The I chord would have Ionian, the VI chord Aeolian, the II chord Dorian and the V chord the Mixolydian mode.

Before you start straying off in to jazz it is extremely important that you learn how to play inside the box like this.

After all how can you go outside a box you don’t know properly?

Playing over changes

All the work you have done so far with the chord shape, the pentatonic and the modes will finally pay off as you start playing over changes.

In the video I stay within the key as I play I – VI – II – V, but this could be applied to anything. Key changes, chord II as a IIx, whatever. As long as you can switch scale as the chord changes you can play over changes.

The key is to stop thinking blanket scale and start thinking that you change with the chord.

Knowing the basics

Around 1:30 in the video I speak about how to draw on the shape, the pentatonic, the mode and the chords number.

If you practice according to the self eliminating practice routine, this will not be difficult.

The note stays the same, the chord changes

Around the 2 minute mark I speak about how a note is only in relation to a chord. The same note mean different things as the chord passes.

The example I use is the note E, over a C chord this is a third, over an Am it’s a 5th, over a Dm it’s a 2nd or 9th, over a G it’s a 6th.

So when you hit that E, you will create a sound in relation to the chord played. This is the secret of the modes.

When you get good at this you don’t even think E anymore, you only think the interval.

Think Rhythmically instead!

At 3:20 we have completed our harmonic journey and start to think about music instead of note choices.

Being able to play over changes is all well and good, the question is really, how do you phrase it?

Use rhythm for this, respond to what the singer does, or another band member.

All these chords, scales arpeggios and modes is your vocabulary, once you learned the words it’s time to speak!

Reach this goal with the eBooks The Spy Tunes Method offer, step by step you really can learn how to play guitar.

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How To Play Guitar video series, part 3!

In this part of the How To Play Guitar series I talk about how to turn pentatonic shapes into modal shapes.

This means that those open position chords you all ready know turned into barre chords, which turned into pentatonic shapes and now modes.

You have built upon previous knowledge here, nothing has been wasted.

If you want to learn how to play guitar this approach is essential.

Major Pentatonic Modes

When I first came up with this concept I realized that this was it, my key contribution to learning the guitar; the pentatonic modes.

It makes sense since you build on what you all ready know.

This approach means that you start to connect the ear with intervals. By adding a maj7 (Ionian and Lydian) you start to feel in a certain way.

If you instead add a b7 (Mixolydian) you’ll feel different. The deeper the connection is between the ear, the theory and the patterns, the greater your chance of letting all this go is.

The reason I keep it this simple is so you eventually can let go of this and just play naturally. The fewer rules and guidelines, the more likely this is to happen.

Should you at any point doubt the pentatonic shape as you are adding your modal notes then you are not ready yet. If this happens, go back to intermediate guitar and practice the shapes you didn’t get down properly.

Minor Pentatonic Modes

As of 4:48 into the video I talk about the minor pentatonic modes, these work just in the same way as the major modes, you add certain intervals to the minor pentatonic to create any of the minor modes.

The easier you find playing the minor pentatonic shapes, the easier you will take to the minor modes.

Conclusion

To create the different modes you need to remember the key notes that change for each mode, here they are:

Ionian

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Lydian

1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

Mixolydian

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

Aeolian

1 2 m3 4 5 b6 b7

Dorian

1 2 m3 4 5 6 b7

Phrygian

1 b2 m3 4 5 b6 b7

There are exercises for all these concepts in Advanced Guitar. Combine this with the eBooks in The Spy Tunes Method and you will learn how to play guitar.

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How To Play Guitar video series, part 2!

In this video I first talk about the open position chords becoming barre chords.

As you learn how to do this using the cycle of 4ths exercise you will also learn the names of all the notes on the fret board.

Simply call out the name of the chord as you play the exercise.

Play all barred chords, all over the neck!

When you have moved all shapes around the neck using the cycle of 4ths and called out the name of the chord you will know all the notes on the fret board.

In intermediate guitar lesson 2 I take this even further by playing small shapes of each barre chord. You should do the same.

Minor Pentatonic

Around all minor barre chord shapes you can fit a minor pentatonic.

It is very important that you take the time to understand the connection here between the chord shape and the minor pentatonic scale shape.

Simply practice as the minor pentatonic exercises suggest, always start by playing the chord shape, followed by the scale, followed by the chord shape.

This approach will manifest the chord shape with the scale shape. Since you are still moving around the cycle of 4ths as you practice this you will still hammer home the notes on the fretboard.

Major Pentatonic

The Major Pentatonic is what separates the content bedroom guitarist with the guitarist who wants to go to the next level.

Many players get away with playing all their solos using the minor pentatonic “box shapes” as a blanket scale, don’t limit yourself, learn all major pentatonic shapes as well and take the step to understanding music, on the guitar!

All major barre chord shapes can be paired with a major pentatonic shape.

Once you completed the cycle of 4ths exercise in all keys, calling out the names of the notes you will now know:

1. All minor chord shapes
2. All major chord shapes
3. All minor pentatonic shapes
4. All major pentatonic shapes

Play like Jimi Hendrix!

Should you pair the minor and major pentatonic with each chord of a progression you will be able to play like Jimi Hendrix.

At 2:30 and on into the video I demonstrate this by playing over the chord progression from Little Wing.

The reason Hendrix played in such an obvious way might well have been down to the three piece format his band was in.

As the only chord and solo instrument in the band Hendrix combined chords with pentatonic licks in a call and response manner with his vocal.

This filled out the sound of the band nicely and have become the benchmark of what most guitar players want to sound like.

You can play just like this as long as you get all your pentatonic and barre chord shapes down, it really is a s simple as that.

Follow the chords

In the final part of the video I talk about how it’s easier to play notes close to the chord or pentatonic scale than it is to just guess.

I relate this to a singer who would do this naturally. As long as you start thinking in shapes along with chord shapes and progressions you will become like the singer and have your safe notes.

From here on it’s about adding to the vocabulary.

Blues scale

The first note you add is the b5, the blues note. This gives you the Blues Scale, a very popular scale, often used as a blanket scale for blues and rock solos.

A blanket scale is a scale you play over a progression, so for example; E Blues Scale over a blues in E where the chords go E7 – A7 – E7 – B7 – A7 – E7 – B7.

Even though this is a perfectly fine way of soloing, try swapping scale for each chord instead, just like I do over the Jimi Hendrix progression I demonstrate in the video.

You could use a new blues scale over each minor chord.

Combining Pentatonic Scales

Ultimately you want to be able to draw on either a minor pentatonic, a major pentatonic or a blues scale, no matter where you are on the fret board.

The Intermediate Guitar section supply the video material from the eBooks to achieve this.

Start this journey of how to play guitar with the Guitar Conspiracy, the Work Book, the Blues Jam Tracks and the 2 Chord Loops, all available in The Spy Tunes Method.