Today Andy and Thomas will be talking about jamming! We all love the idea of meeting up with friends, or band members, picking up the guitar and jamming away for hours... But how do you actually do it? The boys have some great tips in this episode.
Before tackling this lesson we would highly recommend studying and learning diatonic chords. This is the knowledge of what chords will be in a key. We have a fantastic, in depth course on this, which you can find here: Scale Harmonisation Theory Course. It is also worth remembering that we actually want to copy ideas from songs that you like, certainly at the beginning. That is important to remember, as you don't want to try and reinvent the wheel from the start!
The first jam the guys look at is in the key of D major and based around a soul style. Below you will find the 7 diatonic chords that Andy was picking from in the key of D major (shown on the fretboard). The actual chords Andy uses are D major, Em and G.
Thomas then improvises a cool lead line over the top and you can find the main lick tabbed below as well as the pentatonic shapes he is using.
The second jam the guys look at is in the key of G# and based around a funk style. In funk we are often borrowing from the 12 bar blues idea, taking dominant chords rather than major and minor, and playing the 1, 4 and 5 chords. In the case of G#, the chords will be G#7, C#7 and D#7. The chords and rhythm Thomas uses are shown below (remember that 9th chords are very much based on dominant 7th chords, with the extra addition of the 9th).
Andy goes straight for a rhythmical, low end lead line, which we've tabbed out the main riff below (he varied it a lot in the jam, of course, but that was the main idea, which is super cool). He is very much using the G# minor pentatonic, with the occasional major third thrown in. When Andy and Thomas break into some lead over the top, they both start to blend the G# major and G# minor pentatonic scales, in a blues fashion. We've written out the G# minor and G# minor scale shapes across the neck for reference below.
The last jam is in the key of Bb major and in a pop style. Andy draws upon the 7 diatonic chords in that key, which we've written out below. He actually ends up using the 1st, 6th, 4th and 5th, which are the Bb, Gm, Eb and F chords. All of which are demonstrated below.
Thomas then improvises a cool lead line over the top, which very much turns into a hook (the very memorable part of the song). To find that hook, you simply need one scale, which is shown below.
Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...
In this episode Andy and Thomas answer all of your questions from a recent Instagram post on Andy's channel. We talk theory, sight reading, bass guitar and much more!