Unit 4: Slow Jam

Slow Jam

Let's kick off by taking the main groove of the A section. We're starting in the key of B Dorian, which looks something like this:

The B Dorian scale is essentially the A major scale, we're just rooted around the B minor chord rather than the A. The chord progression for this initial section is simply a 1 5 4 in B Dorian. This looks like this:

The really cool thing about this first part is that we're quite free with the chord shapes. We're working with a sort of Hendrix-esque approach, where the chords give us access to the licks underneath them. We have the Bm chord in the E shape, which gives us our minor pentatonic box 1 and the E and D major in the G shape, giving us the major pentatonic box 1. The scale shapes in the Fretboard Diagrams should clear that up!

PS. If this is blowing your mind, please make sure to take our Major & Minor CAGED courses first! All the secrets are in there!

key Change

As we move into section B of the track, we take a big jump to the key of G Rock! Not sure what we mean by "G Rock"? Check out Unit 1 again to brush up on it! Essentially, it's where we work with pentatonic scales over powerchords! This is the key we're moving into to prepare ourselves for the soloing section, so we first need to get a good handle on the chords. Here's the chord chart:

As you can see, these are all powerchords, and that gives us the freedom to be vaguer about the specific key it's in. G major or E minor pentatonic works perfectly as all of the notes within that scale match the notes of the chords:

As for where to play these chords, they are all using open shapes, ensuring that we get a rich, full-bodied tone (no, we're not talking about coffee here!!).

The Melody

At this point, we have the option to continue jamming out the chord track, or now start to move to the melody part. A melody part like this in a rock track is often used in between vocals as a break, or potentially leading up to an epic solo (which is very true of this track!). The important thing to learn here is how to put together a catchy melody that repeats and pulls you into the track even more. First up, let's take a look at the Fretboard Diagrams and remember that we are now using the G major pentatonic box 1.

The other really cool thing is that we're using an extra note, pulled from the G major scale. This does bring us into the realms of a more major sound but still works well over all of the powerchords, as this F# note doesn't clash with any of those powerchord notes.

With any form of rock melody part like this, you need to be able to tap your foot to it! It's there to build your momentum and excitement, establish a key melody, and work towards the next part of the track!

Slow Jam

We'll now dive into the final solo of the track, and it's a tad epic, so we'll break it into two lessons! in this lesson, we'll do the first two bars of the solo, which is all about epic rock bending! We're pushing you to the limit here, especially with that 20th fret bend!

So, just to ground us for a second, we're once again working in the key of G major and using the pentatonic boxes working up the neck. The scale shapes can be found in the Fretboard Diagrams, just in case you need them for reference.

Don't forget that a massive focus within the track is aggression! You need to rake through the bends and add some pretty epic vibrato to them! Claire walks you through all of this, but these extra elements make all the difference when it comes to your rock vibe!

The Solo Part 2

Let's finish this solo off, and then look to put the whole solo and track together. This last section it's all about getting some very speedy licks together, based on the rotating licks we worked on in the previous section. Please note that there is a certain amount of freedom with the timing of this last section, so please do make it your own as you put it together!

In terms of scale shapes, we're now firmly grounded in our box 1 pentatonic shape, and we're thinking G major still. However, you could easily think E minor as this is somewhere in between the two! Those Rock keys are a little ambiguous!

And there we have it! It's now up to you to put the whole track together! It's a super exciting track to play as you're moving from rhythm, to lead and building towards the epic solo at the end! As with every track in this course, it's so important to gradually work on all the tracks as they will take time to get up to speed!

Good luck guys, and a massive congrats for working your way through the whole course!