House Of Mirrors - Allan Holdsworth Guitar Cover

Scuttle Tappin'

#TUNEICEF 2017

Betcha thought I'd forgotten this!

As regular readers of his blog will know, for the last few years I've run a project each year involving my students along with local musicians and artists with the intent of producing an album's worth of original material to be released digitally at Christmas, with all the proceeds going to charity - specifically, UNICEF, as I figured as a well established charity they're a safe bet.. they'll know what they're doing and we won't accidentally end up funding ISIS or anything like that.

Being as this is the fifth year in a row I've done this, you'd think I'd be getting the hang of it now - and to be fair, the writing/ recording aspects of it have all gone fairly smoothly (shout out to Matt Chubb for help once again with vocals and lyrics where inspiration had otherwise failed us) and there's a wealth of good stuff on there. The album can be viewed here - https://tuneicef.bandcamp.com/releases - and is available for pre-order, and will be live on Friday 23rd. There's at least one more track to add, with the possibility of another coming in hot from some old friends of mine in Scotland, but here'a s rough guide:

1) Phil Matthews - The Secret Garden.

A charming slice of Kinks-esque folk-pop, this singer/ songwriter/ guitarist has been a stalwart collaborator over the last few years. Check him out here: http://artistecard.com/theVillage

2) Tom Matthews - Stupid Boy

90's grunge agro-pop from one of students! Very proud of him, he's done everything himself - music, lyrics, drums, vocals, keyboard, bass as well as the guitars and pitched in with the mixing, learning as we've gone through the journey. Some serious talent there.

3) The Ladykillers - What You Wish For

An old one of mine, spruced up and brought into the 21st century! Will get around to finishing them all off eventually...

4) Jonezy feat. Matt Chubb

Hi energy rap and hip hop from the inimitable Jonezy featuring our own Matt Chubb on vocals - if you've not seen Jonezy, you owe it to yourself to, he's a phenomenal live performer with a mastery of the ultra catchy hook! Check out the website here: http://jonezyuk.co.uk/

5) The Formidable Ale Society - A Star Is Born

We've all got the useless drunk halfwit friend somewhere in our background - in my case, he can write some tidy songs too! Put this EP together for him, some cracking guitar pop there. https://m.facebook.com/FormidableAleSociety/

6) David Cross - Wiggle Man

One of my students and now guitarist with Moar Beef, David came up with possibly the catchiest riff of the last decade and put together a hauntingly melodic slice of electronica around it.

7) Jess Hegg feat. Matt Chubb - Slide

Another student track, Jess wanted to do something with a cowboy feel, and the dirty detuned slide, delicate arpeggios and stinging pentatonics certainly created a cinematic backdrop for MAtt's typically epic vocals!

8) Craig Thomas - Divided Lines

Another student who seems to have the unconscious knack of creating instantly accessible hooks! Craig took care of all the music save the drums, as well as doing the lyrics, creating a haunting and catchy number around it.

9)  Dave The Rock Band - One Day Go Moon

Never ask a student to do something you won't do yourself! This is my track, more than a little inspired by the Cinderella's "Gypsy Road" for something BIG... and ROCK! http://www.thedave.co.uk/

10) One S0ul - Dark Embrace

Lewis Sawyer of the excellent Loughborough metal outfit The Relinquished with a superbly put together chunk of proper 'eavy metal!

11) Jacob Felton - Dust

A student track, blending acoustic guitar and hip hop drums to great effect.

12) Beth Hartshorne - Sails (Dublin, 1848)

Another student track -  an excellent player and singer/ songwriter in her own right, Beth brings a beautiful produced, atmospheric Celtic-inspired folk song. Check her work out here: https://soundcloud.com/beth-hartshorne

Thanks to all who came down to #TUNEICEF LIVE on Sunday, thanks to Sharon & Ian of The Beacon Inn in Loughborough for having us for the third year in succession - thanks also to Matt Chubb for providing the PA and stepping up to the mic to provide some classic Dave The Rock Band after my throat had pretty much given up hope!

Special thanks to all who performed - Beth, Various Artists (as you were for the day!), Lewis' new project Two People, the inimitable Jonezy and the Dave The Rock Band boys for a sterling performance.

So pop over to https://tuneicef.bandcamp.com/releases , order your copy, enjoy and we'll see you next year!

Chords - Another Way!

Again, not Holdsworth. But I do feel this one is somewhat Holdsworth-adjacent as recently, I've been covering advanced harmony with several different students - lots of big juicy extended chord voicings, deciphering the seemingly indecipherable jazz chords (Cmaj13#11b9, anyone?) and while fun and interesting in it's own right, this has led to some real finger-twisting chord shapes, along with the inevitable question -

"What's the point of these weird chords?"

Now, at this point I could go on a tirade about how knowledge and understanding is it's own reward, how a musician should constantly be striving to push his or her boundaries, how to express themselves with more subtle shades that evoke precisely the right emotion... and to be fair, that's my approach. But, it's not for everyone, and I can appreciate that - it's not my job to force my approach and way of thinking onto a student, it is my job to adapt my approach to theirs so that they can become a better version of themselves, not a clone of me. 

So, rant over, what does this mean in practice? Well, let's take the aforementioned Cmaj13#11b9. 

The major part tells us to expect R 3 5 7, the 13 to expect 9 11 and 13, the #11 to sharpen the 11 and the b5 to flatten the 5. This means we're dealing with R 3 5 7 b9 #11 13. 7 notes. With the best of intentions, there are (usually) only six strings on the guitar. So, we need to trim the fat.

Do we need the root? Yes (unless we have a handy bass player nearby)

Do we need the 3rd? Yes - it defines major or minor.

Do we need the 5? No, the 5 acts as a filler interval, the same through major, minor and dominant.

Do we need the 7? Yes - it defines major or dominant.

Do we need the b9? Yes, specified within the chord name. Normally we could omit this interval as the presence of higher extensions implies it.

Do we need the #11? Yes - again, specified within the chord name. Normally the presence of the 13 would imply it, however, allowing us to omit.

Do we need the 13? Yes, as the highest extension.

So that's trimmed us down to something that will at least fit on a guitar neck:

R 3  7 b9  #11 13

C E B Db F#  A

That said, it's still not exactly something you would consider wieldy. But who says you have to play all of the chord all of the time? Let's look inside this chord:

C E B - Cmaj7 (no 5)

E B Db - E6

B Db F# - Bsus2

Db F# A - F#m (2nd inversion)

F# A C - F# diminished

A C E - Am

Now these (admittedly some more than others) are all fairly usable triads, and played over a C bass (if you haven't got a bass player handy I suggest capo'ing at the third fret and letting the A string ring out  as a pedal tone) they will act together to imply this most monstrously lunatic of chords, and you may even find yourself stumbling across a useful riff or two in the process! 

(Disclaimer - JM Guitar Tuition is NOT responsible for the loss of whole evenings breaking down bizarre chords in search of your next killer hook...)

Happy Birthday!

So, really, this post is about a month late... I hope you can forgive me, internet.

2007 began for me on a cruise ship in the middle of the Carribean Sea, wearing an ill fitting tuxedo and playing a version of Celebration by Kool and The Gang that I could have sworn had lasted at least three lifetimes. At that point I was well into my fourth contract with pro showband Fifth Element and was getting a handle on the reality of what being a professional guitar player actually meant in the real world.

What it meant, largely, was disco. Lots and LOTS of disco.

Still, it beat working in a coal mine.

However, less than two months in our contract would end early due to a tragic loss on behalf of one of our members, and with no contracts waiting the band quickly disintegrated as everyone started grabbing whatever job they could in order to tide them over. In my case, I found myself back where I started - part time back at dear old Loughborough stalwart Just Music, and teaching lessons on the side as I had done since the late 90s. Meanwhile, I divided my time between hunting for a "real" job and trying to set up my own band to head back out to sea with.

Before too long, though, I found myself with a goodly number of guitar students, and courtesy of a good friend my first peripatetic teaching position.. and from there things spiralled. So I'd like to take a moment to think back over the last ten years, some of the good, the bad and the... improbable moments of this job.

The Good:

Finishing and publishing my Zero Point series of guitar, bass and keyboard books . This was a huge undertaking, over two years from start to finish, but seeing them in the hands of students and finally being able to hand on heart recommend a book which gives aspiring musicians everything they need and nothing they don't.

Bumping into some old students and discovering they've become a fantastic band - The Bench That Rocked!

Seeing one of my bass students get the highest Rockschool Grade 3 mark I've ever seen- 93%!

Watching a student grow from learning Smoke On The Water in 2009 to being able to play prog metal riffs I can't even comprehend in 2017!!

Songs for Syria 2013, which then morphed into the Winter Wonderland Charoty Album 2014, and subsequently  TUNEICEF from 2015 onwards.

A student in their 60's with wrist and finger issues, who's been told they'll never play chords... playing chords.

The Bad:

On a snowy day in late 2010, being unable to make into school on time because I couldn't get into my car through any other method than the boot.. which then closed on my legs and trapped me...

The student who couldn't, despite every method I could think of, distinguish a B from a C on the piano keyboard

The student who claimed they didn't really need lessons as they could play "Crazy Train" flawlessly and then proved over the course of the next painful 15 minutes that... no, they couldn't... worse was the fact that they couldn't accept this... I think they wound up as a contestant on X-Factor...

The Improbable:

An 11-year old student with Asperger's who's mum was late picking him up, decided that rather than wait he would try to walk home... Cue the police searching my house (and me missing dinner)!! Thankfully he was found 10 minutes afterward and showed up with an apologetic card next lesson...

But most importantly - Being able to make a living doing what I love, 24/7, for the last decade. Here's to many more, and I promise to keep trying to get better and better at it. 

East Wes - Eric Johnson Guitar Cover

In Deep With The Jazz Melodic Minor Scale

Still not Holdsworth. But consider this Holdsworth-adjacent, as it covers one of his favoured scales, the jazz melodic minor. This scale is a favourite of many jazz and fusion players, but as with so many things in music, it is fundamentally extremely simple. The jazz melodic minor is simply a major scale with a b3, as shown below:

R – tone – 2 – semitone – b3 – tone – 4 – tone – 5 – tone – 6 – tone – 7 – semitone – R

I've specified the jazz melodic minor as opposed to what is normally described as the melodic minor, as the classical definition of melodic minor specifies R 2 b3 4 5 6 7 when ascending, R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 when descending... now, when you've got your foot up on the monitor and you're going for it mid solo, that strikes me as the type of unnecessary complexity which in practice you can really do without.

As with every scale, the melodic minor has it's own modes. We'll use the key of A as our start point.

A jazz melodic minor:

A – B – C – D – E – F# - G#

R – 2 - b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 - 7

B Dorian b2 (aka Javanese or Phrygidorian)

B – C – D – E – F# - G# - A

R -b2- b3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - b7

C Lydian Augmented (aka Lydian #5)

C – D – E – F# - G# - A – B

R – 2 – 3 - #4 - #5 - 6 – 7

D Lydian Dominant

D - E – F# - G# - A – B – C

R – 2 – 3 - #4 - 5 – 6 – b7

E Mixolydian b6 (aka Hindu or Myxaeolian)

E – F# - G# - A – B – C – D

R – 2 - 3 – 4 - 5 – b6 – b7

F# Locrian nat 2 (aka half-diminished or Aeolocrian)

F# - G# - A – B – C – D - E

R - 2 - b3 – 4 – b5 – b6 – b7

G# Superlocrian

G# - A – B – C – D – E – F#

R – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – b7

When you harmonise this scale, there's a whole world of fun to be had. At triad level we get these:

i chord – Am (A C E)

ii chord – Bm (B D F#)

III chord – C augmented (C E G#)

IV chord – D (D F# A)

V chord – E (E G# B)

vi chord – F# diminished (F# A C )

vii chord – G# diminished (G# B D)

Extending out to the level of sevenths, things get even more interesting:

i chord – Ammaj7 (A C E G#)

ii chord – Bm7 (B D F# A)

III chord – C maj7#5 (C E G# B)

IV chord – D7 (D F# A C)

V chord – E7 (E G# B D)

vi chord – F#m7b5 (F# A C E )

vii chord – G#mmaj7b5 (G# B D F#)

So a 12 bar would look like this:

// Am / % / % / % / D / % / Am / % / E / D / Am / E //

A melodic minor Stand By Me (I vi IV V) would go:

// Am / % / F# dim / % / D / E / Am / % //

Our old friend, the I-V-vi-IV becomes this twisted creature:

// Am / E / F#dim / D //

And you jazzers out there (we'll dial in some sevenths for you guys), the ii-V-I is now:

// Bm7 / E7 / Ammaj7 / % // - and that's a VERY tense and spooky chord to try and resolve to!

As I mentioned with the harmonic minor a few moths ago, mapping these scales using the six note box/ transition note method across three octaves gives some fantastic and accessible patterns to try, and reworking conventional chord sequences or pentatonic licks to include some of the jazzy sophistication of the melodic minor is a great way to expand your playing and push you to a new level. So don't be put off by the jargon, dive in and give it a try!