month 4 practice guide · advanced intermediate month 4 introduction last month's goals •...

Advanced IntermediateMonth 4 Practice Guide tomlinharmonicalessons.com

ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE - MONTH 4 �1

Advanced Intermediate Month 4 Introduction

Last month's goals

• playing the blues scale in 3rd position across 2 octaves• improvising around a minor blues bassline like Green Onions• playing in 2nd and 3rd position on the same backing track

This month’s learning outcomes

• Major scale in 1st position across 2 octaves• Understanding how major scale is built• Understanding how chords are built• Improvising melodically using chord arpeggios


Theory: What is the major scale?

Before we get started with the practical side of things I want to give you a theory lesson about the major scale and why it is useful to know it.

Knowing the major scale will not only help you to understand why certain notes sound good over certain chords but it will also enable you to learn music more easily.

C major scale

Lets start with the C major scale which is the easiest scale to work with as it does not have any weird notes in it.

The notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C which you can play in 1st position on a C harmonica.

You might have learnt this in school as “do re mi fa sol la si do”


Lower octave

As an Advanced Intermediate player it will be more interesting for you to play it in the lower octave where there are some great bends;

It is essential that you make sure that the bends in the lower octave major scale are in tune. You can do this by comparing the lower octave with the middle octave (starting on 4 blow).

Western music

This scale is the basis of the majority of familiar melodies that you know.

Songs like 'Happy Birthday' are built using notes from the major scale. This means that when you try to work out a melody by ear you will be using this scale as a starting point.

Exercise

Memorise the major scale in 1st position across lower and middle octaves.


Technique: Warm-Up

Metronome 60 bpm

While you are playing through the major scale I want you to really think about what notes you are playing and what holes they are on.

In the lower octave, you need to concentrate on getting the pitch just right on the bends.

Lower Octave


Middle Octave


Theory: The relationship between notes in the major scale

What makes it a major scale?

A major scale is called a major scale because of the relationship between each of the notes within it.

To study this we will use the C major scale.

Major scale formula

Lets look at the distance between each note in the C major scale -

C (Tone) D (Tone) E (Semitone) F (Tone) G (Tone) A (Tone) B (Semitone) C

Remember this formula T - T - S - T - T - T - S. This is the same formula for all major scales.

So, what is a "Tone" versus a "Semitone"?

The easiest way to start thinking of this is that a Tone is the distance between C and D whereas a Semitone is the distance between C and C#/Db.

So why is the distance between E and F only a Semitone? The answer is that there is nothing in-between those two notes, E#/Fb do not exist. The same is true between B and C.

One tone up from E is F#One tone up from B is C#


Still with me?

G major scale

Lets try this out with a different key. For example the key of G.

G (T) A (T) B (S) C (T) D (T) E (T) F# (S) G

This key has one sharp note in it - the F#

12 major scales

There are 12 notes in western music (A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab) which means that there are 12 major scales. However, for this month we are going to concentrate on C because it doesn’t have any sharps or flats.


Theory: Understanding how chords are built and what triads are

Number the major scale

A basic chord is built using three notes called a triad but before I show you how to work them out we need to number the notes in a C major scale.

You have probably noticed that musicians talk in numbers a lot more than they talk about notes e.g. the I, IV and V chords. These numbers come from the major scale.

We assign a number from 1-7 to each of the notes in the major scale. This means C, D, E, F, G, A, B become 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

The Triad

A basic chord starts with a ‘triad’ which is just notes 1, 3 and 5 from the major scale associated with that chord. So, if we want to know what notes are in a C major chord, we tae the C major scale and use notes 1, 3 and 5.

C major chord = 1 3 5 = C E G

This is how all major chords are built.

G major chord

Lets try this with a G major chord. So, we take the G major scale;

G, A, B, C, D, E, F#


We grab notes 1, 3 and 5 which gives us;

G major chord = 1 3 5 = G B D

Minor chords

Minor chords are very similar to major chords except that the 3rd note in the scale is lowered a semitone. This gives us a minor chord formula;

1 b3 5

The C major chord (C E G) becomes a C minor chord (C Eb G). I simply took the E note and lowered it by a semitone to become Eb

The G major chord (G B D) becomes a G minor chord (G Bb D).

Recap

Major chord formula - 1 3 5Minor chord formula - 1 b3 5


Theory: Understanding chords in a keyKey

Playing in the key of C major means we are playing using the notes from the C major scale. This also means that we have 7 different chords at our disposal in this key.

The chords come from each of the notes in the C major scale; we have a C chord, D chord, E chord etc

These are not all major chords! I will explain why in a future month.

What are the chords in a major scale?

To work out what the notes are in each chord in the major scale we just apply the 1 3 5 formula and move it up starting on each note of the scale i.e.

1 3 5 = C E G = C major2 4 6 = D F A = D minor3 4 7 = E G B = E minor4 6 1 = F A C = F major5 7 2 = G B D = G major6 1 4 = A C E = A minor7 2 5 = B D F = B diminished

Don’t worry about the B diminished means for now.


Chord arpeggios on the harmonica

On the harmonica we can’t play all of the notes for each chord simultaneously because it would involve breathing in and out at the same time!

Instead we use arpeggios which are just all the notes from a chord played individually in sequence.


Chord numbers

Lets go back to the numbers we used to label each note in a major scale, if we play the chords associated starting on note numbers 1, 4 and 5 we get the I, IV and V chords that we use all the time in blues music!

This means we can now make chord progressions using any sequence from the major scale, not just 1, 4 and 5â€¦

Exercise

Memorise your chord arpeggios in C major.


Theory: Creating simple melodies over a I, IV, V progression but not necessarily a blues

Now it is time to see how we can apply chord knowledge practically to improvisation.

Play arpeggio notes over corresponding chords

Because we know what notes are in the I chord, IV chord and V chord we can choose to play notes that sound good over each chord just by using the notes from the corresponding chord arpeggio.

• over the I chord we can play C E G• over the IV chord we can play F A C• over the V chord we can play G B D

Simple melody

I’ve put together a simple melody using this strategy over an 8 bar chord progression:

I- V - IV - I - V - V - IV - I


Exercises

Ex. 1 Study the tab for the simple melody and see what notes I am playing over each chord.

Ex. 2 Create your own melody using over the chord progression using arpeggio notes (I’ve included a blank chord chart for you to write your melody on to on the next page).



I Cho

rd (C

maj

or -

C E

G)

V C

hord

(G m

ajor

- G

B D

)IV

cho

rd (F

maj

or -

F A

C)

I Cho

rd (C

maj

or -

C E

G)

V C

hord

(G m

ajor

- G

B D

)V

Cho

rd (G

maj

or -

G B

D)

IV c

hord

(F m

ajor

- F

A C

)I C

hord

(C m

ajor

- C

E G

)

Sim

ple

I - IV

- V

Cho

rd P

rogr

essi

on

Technique: Bending accuracy for I, IV and V chord

There are some pretty serious bends in the arpeggios from the C major scale in 1st position and it is really important for them to be in tune. The best way to make sure that you are bending those notes from the arpeggios properly is to play them over the corresponding guitar chord.

Hearing the notes of the arpeggio over the chord will tell you whether you are bending in tune.

Exercise

Practice the C major arpeggios over the guitar chords backing track.


Music: Different chord progressions e.g. I, VI V, IV

Lets try creating a melody over a chord progression which isn’t just I, IV and V.

We are going to add chord 6 or VI which is an ‘A minor’ chord.

The chord progression is I - VI - V - IV and if you are a Prince fan you will probably recognise it!

Exercise

Create your own melody using over the I, VI, V, IV chord progression using arpeggio notes (I’ve included a blank chord chart for you to write your melody on to on the next page).



I Cho

rd (C

maj

or -

C E

G)

VI C

hord

(A m

inor

- A

C E

)V

Cho

rd (G

maj

or -

G B

D)

IV c

hord

(F m

ajor

- F

A C

)

I Cho

rd (C

maj

or -

C E

G)

VI C

hord

(A m

inor

- A

C E

)V

Cho

rd (G

maj

or -

G B

D)

IV c

hord

(F m

ajor

- F

A C

)

Fusc

hia

Driz

zle

Cho

rd P

rogr

essi

on

Advanced Intermediate Month 4 Conclusion

Goals

• Know major scale in 1st position across 2 octaves• Understanding how major scale is built• Understanding how chords are built• Improvising melodically using chord arpeggios

*****CHALLENGE*****

Your challenge this month is to post a recording/video of your own melody over either of the chord progressions from this month.

Exercises to work on this month

• Warm Up

Metronome 60bpm

Ex.1 Major scale in 1st position lower octave (1/4 notes)

Ex. 3 Major scale in 1st position middle octave (1/4 notes)

• C major scale arpeggios

Practice your C major scale arpeggios over the guitar chord backing track

• Simple Melody

Write your own melody using arpeggio notes over the 8 bar I - IV - V chord progression


• I - VI - V - IV

Write your own melody using arpeggio notes over the ‘Fuschia Drizzle’ backing track

Recommended Lessons

Ear training- this lesson will give you some tunes to work out using the C major scale

Questions

If you are having problems with anything, please post your questions in the Facebook group and I will help out. You can also get live answers at the weekly Q and A session Wednesday at 6pm (GMT) and I will answer it then.

Feedback

Please post audio or video clips of you playing over in the Facebook group so that I can give you feedback and you can track your progress.

Good luck!


http://www.tomlinharmonicalessons.com/learn-tunes-harmonica-ear/

month 4 practice guide · advanced intermediate month 4 introduction last month's goals •...

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