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Lesson written - April 15th, 2006.
Aural Theory has got to be the biggest pain in the arse for most of the music majors I know! It is our least favourite class yet after going through Aural lessons 1, 2, and 3, the skill you will acquire is night and day. There is a weird thing about it, you won't notice when it happens.
Aural Theory, or let's say pitch recognition, is so important but hobbyist guitar players never get to this facet of study partially because they are never told or shown how or why it is necessary.
I asked myself the same question "Why?" when I started Aural 1. The reality is once you have acquired this skill it becomes:
IF YOU CAN HEAR IT IN YOUR HEAD, YOU CAN PLAY IT!
So here is a quick, down and dirty way of "getting there" without the college course:
Lets assume you hear a melody in your head. How do you go about playing it? Hunt and peck method (yeah I thought so). That gets old real quick or we resort to Tab (ugh)...we feel as if we are forever trapped playing restrictive Tabs never being able to go outside and create your own feel.
Melodies/solos from a technical standpoint are articulations of the 8-12 notes in a scale in a given key. IN A GIVEN KEY....that is the secret. Many beginners get too caught up with learning scales but never seem to bridge the gap between scales and playing. When they try to solo, they have a sense of being lost and notes aren't played with any confidence for fear of hitting the wrong note (that sound familiar?) Remember that as long as you play a note that belongs in the key, no matter what note that is, it will sound "right".
Inside of the 8 notes of a scale, there are 5 notes that are stronger then the others and it is the pentatonic scale. It has a very bluesy sound to it and frankly, it is the core of 99% of rock and roll, R&B, latin, reggae, country, bluegrass...etc.
You will hear it most in vocal melodies which use the pentatonic notes especially in the blues or rock/classic rock or R&B (I don't mean the Rhythm & Blues R&B either).
I feel that the pentatonics are the most important scales to learn and sing. It is easier because it has fewer notes than a full major scale.
So here are my steps that I think will get you "there" the easiest. This will require you to sing. At first you will feel stupid, but this is a critical part of acquiring this skill.
1. Learn the CAGED system and all the CAGED boxes (pentatonic boxes/scale)
2. Learn a major scale pattern (there are many patterns but start with one that runs from low E string to high E string. 2 octaves to start)
3. Learn a minor scale pattern (harmonic minor preferably)
4. Learn all the arpeggios in augmented, major, minor, diminished (just one octave arpeggios)
Here comes the hard part:
5. As you play each note, try to match the pitch with your voice. Do not HUM.
Use DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO or LA LA LA LA LA LA.
Whatever the case, it must be sung with your mouth open and singing a vowel. You have to accurately hit your pitch. You will be surprised at how flat you are!
6. Get really intimate with the scales and HOW THEY SOUND...the progression of notes. You need to be able to sing a major scale, a minor scale, arpeggios and the pentatonic scale when given just the first note. This whole process will take a while (like 1 year or more) so there is no need to rush and frustrate yourself.
You need to RECOGNIZE the scale or part of the scale when you hear it.
The magic happens once you acquire these skills!
You will have learned your scales by playing them to match your voice so your fingers will now know where to go depending on the pitch you need. It is like singing through your fingers!
I want to relate how I "realized" I have these skills.
For years (15+) I played along with CD's of Eric Clapton, BB King, Carlos Santana, etc. At first it was just strumming chords to their tunes, then I learned the pentatonic boxes. I quickly realized once I know the key of a song, I can play any note in the boxes and sound right but my solos had a scalar sound to it. I still didn't hear it in my head and playing my solos by keeping track of the boxes on the fretboard. Meanwhile there was a song by Stevie Wonder called “As", that I just loved but never thought I would be able to play it (this was 1985). Well about 3 years ago, I was sitting looking at my MP3's I was reminded of the song "As". I figured it was a good time as any to start learning this song. I've only avoided it for 20 years! I found the chords to the song and chunked the chord along with the CD to get the feel of it as well as recording it into my looper. After I recorded into the looper, I proceed to attempt to figure out the melody. I played the tune again to hear the melody, then once I had it in my head, I started my looper and out of the blue, I was playing the melody as I was hearing it in my head. It wasn't 100% exact but it kind of caught me by surprise. By the time I was playing the 3rd verse, I had the melody pretty much nailed.
Hmm. I was so curious, I started setting up different loops of chords of songs I knew and tried to get a melody/solo going. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I could hear the scale inside the melodies which clued me in to what I should/could be doing on the fretboard.
Nowadays, I just listen to a song I like, get the chords for it, figure out what key it is in then grab the melodies out of my head.
You should try it out yourself, you may be surprised!
Lan Tran, "Ninjato"
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