Saturday, March 6, 2010

Sequences


Q: First of all I would like to congratulate you on your web site. I am currently practicing Sequences and Intervals which I found very helpful in order to become technically fluent. I was wondering if you can help me to obtain the tabs for the sequences and intervals of the other positions?

One last question if I may, I am becoming quite fluent on the interval patterns, is it good practice that I play them in all directions ex diagonally, vertically, horizontal and on 1 string on the whole fingerboard? The more I practice I find new patterns that sound right.

A: Thanks for your email and I'm glad you are finding the lessons of good use. Unfortunately I don't have any tabs for the other scale patterns. It is too much to assemble all of them. But if I have any advice, my experience tells me that figuring them out and transcribing them yourself will lead to a much better understanding. That is one reason why I only transcribed the one scale pattern (major scale pattern 4) in my book and on the site. I have also found that if the sequence becomes second nature with the one scale pattern, the other scale patterns become pretty natural as well as long as you are familiar with the individual patterns. 

The more ways you do things the better. The ultimate goal is not really to play sequences but to be able to play anything your imagination dictates. Sequences just force you to do things that wouldn't seem natural to you while improvising freely. I would definitely mix the time you practice sequences with time that you spend actually improvising solos. 

Another way you would want to practice the sequences is over a chord progression, making sure to start on a chord tone of each individual chord as they pass by. This will challenge your brain as well as your fingers.

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