Kim Richardson - Guitar

Today we began to look at Funk! Last week we were given a song called Cissy Strut by The Meters to look at which included two riffs and used the 12 bar blues that we have previously been looking at. We noted that Funk is largely made up of semi quaver beats and lots of upstroke strumming on beats 2 and 4. This is what makes a song sound 'funky' but the fast tempo and horn sections differentiate it from Jazz or Reggae. So for the first part of the lesson we practised the two riffs of Cissy Strut; it was in C minor so from learning about blues I know that the first chord is Cm, the second is Fm and the third is Gm. I could also use a C minor pentatonic to improvise over the solo. The second funk song we looked at today was Papa's Got A Brand New Bag by James Brown. This song uses 9th chords which I have seen a lot of before in funk music but they are awkward chords to play if you haven't played them. I figured out that by keeping the end of my third finger flat on t...

Today we filmed our blues videos and I think it went okay. Beforehand we practised the G pentatonic and learned the relative E minor scale so that we had more to experiment with in our solos. We also recapped on the G7 chords and the shuffle riff. I am comfortable with the riff now as it is easier to use my first. second and fourth fingers to play it. This is because you can stretch your first and second fingers than your third and fourth. We filmed our videos in pairs and I was with Kyle. We ran through the 12 bars a few times, taking turns to play the solo and the riff or chords and then filmed it. I think it went okay, I was just nervous.

Next week we have another video assessment so today's lesson was about preparing for it. We will have to show what we've learned about blues over the last half term so today we recapped over everything we've done so far. We began with scales in G minor. I confidently know the first position of G minor off by heart but I am unsure of the other positions on the neck so we spent the first 10 mins of the lesson figuring it out. I used a previous method we had learn to work it out - playing the fist five notes of the scale and then moving up two frets. I am familiar with other patterns that scales take so by using that (and also some trial and error) I was able to figure out another two positions of G minor! I will now be able to discuss this in my video assessment next week. Position 1 was the one I already knew and I learned 2 and 3 in the lesson. I can run up and all 3 positions confidently now. Positions 4 and 5 are what I will work on over the next week so that I can ...

Today we refreshed looking at keys and we discussed why you wouldn't have A# instead of Bb and now I understand the idea more clearly. I'm going to practise writing scales out at home and maybe even memorise them. Doing this will also help me learn the notes on the fretboard. For the bulk of the lesson we looked at arpeggios and practised playing some. I've never really been familiar with arpeggios but I learned that they are very common in most types of modern music. I was given some G7 arpeggios to practise and I found them quite confusing because 7ths sounds neither major or minor so I didn't feel like I was playing the right thing as they never sound resolved. They were also difficult because unlike pentatonic scales, there was no pattern or symmetry to them. For the last part of the lesson we went back and played a G major arpeggio over a blues in G however this time it was different because every time we play G7 we would solo in the arpeggio and then on the C7...

Today we continued with our exploration of blues music. We began the lesson with theory and wrote down 12 bar blues structures for several different keys. I found this easy because I have learned that for blues songs, you commonly use the first, fourth and fifth chord in the key. Secondly we practised playing these structures in different ways; for example with power chords, open chords and barre chords. We even went as far to explore the chords in the CAGED system, which I am beginning to understand a bit more. As always, we practised soloing over these chords progression but today we kept everything the the key of G. To spice up our solos we alternated between the G minor pentatonic and the G blues scales; the only difference between them being the blues scale has extra notes. We were given a sheet with several different blues licks for us to try out and potentially use in our own solos. My favourite on was this: E ---6p3-------------- B ---------3----------- G ------------5^--...

 In today's lesson we went over the blues stuff again but instead we did everything in the key of G. This meant that the chords were G, C and D. We revised the structure of 12 bar blues which follows the pattern: We practised finding the 7th chords in different positions on the neck using the CAGED system again which I am beginning to get the hang of. We successfully played 2 inversions of the 7th chords and then we practised playing them in the 12 bar structure. Then we learned a blues shuffle riff which was difficult because you have to stretch over 5 frets to play it but I managed it in the end; we also played that in the blues structure. I found that easier than the 7th chords because the changes are smaller. Finally we put it all together and took turns soloing over the chords using the G minor pentatonic. We practised a famous blues lick and incorporated that in to our solos to make them sound really bluesy and authentic. The lick looks like this...

Today's lesson focused on blues music. We studied the 12 bar blues, pentatonic scales and 7th chords. I learned about the CAGED system which will help me learn the notes on the fretboard. First we decided that we would play a 12 bar blues in the key of E. I learned that in blues you use notes 1, 4 and 5 as the chords so our chords were E, A and B but we made them in to 7th chords. Blues is a genre that uses both major and minor tonalities in the same songs so using 7th chords adds to that because they are ambiguous. Dominant 7th chords are made up of major triads with a minor seventh on top. We practised playing E7, A7 and B7 using the CAGED system which was confusing but once I get the hang of it I think it will help me learn the fretboard better and make me more confident with improvising blues. We took turns improvising over a 12 bar blues with an F# minor scale and an A blues scale. They're the same pentatonic but by adding in the F# changed the feel of the solo which...