October Music Blog

Improvising over a two five chord progression.

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. Now on to our discussion on improvising over a two five chord progression. (ii V)

Today I will be discussing different sounds that you can improvise over a minor two chord followed by a major or dominant five chord from the same key. These to chords are related and from the same key which keeps our options fairly limited, but still with great effectiveness. To keep things simple here we will take a D minor chord for a measure and followed by a G7 chord for a measure. (/dmin/G7/) At first glance we can see that These two chords are from the same key of C major. Real quick here is the way your chords appear diatonic to a major key. (I ii iii IV V vi vii’) So this chord progression is said to be a two five in the key of C major. 

Now you want to record yourself playing a simple rhythm with our two chords D minor and G7 in a two bar phrase. First try playing your C major scale as this is the tonic of these two chords. The sound is nice and also my be called a D dorian sound. This is saying the same thing two different ways. C Major is equal to D dorian. If you’r not familiar with the modes and Dorian mode please see my 2019 March music blog, as it’s dedicated to the Dorian mode. After you have a feel for the C Major scale let’s try playing a D minor pentatonic scale including the b5! Very cool rockin roll sound working the fret board now.  This scale works for a few reasons. First our foundation is a D minor chord.

This sets up the D minor pentatonic scale nicely and the G7 chord compliments the sound. If we do the math behind the sound  you’ll see that the notes from a D minor pentatonic scale are D, F, G, A, C. The notes from the key of C major are C, D, E, F, G, A, B,. IF you compare the two scales all the notes are common or found in both scales. There are no conflicting notes. When running the D minor pentatonic scale in it natural order creates this great sound to jam on!

Well after reading this you should have a few different sound options when it’s time to improvise over ii V7 chords. Please feel free to contact us and come in for a music lesson to learn all about improvising and anything else pertaining to music from one of our great instructor at the Colorado School of Music in Golden Colorado. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments. 

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading

Dean Cutinelli

Performing as a Professional Musician

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons,Violin lessons, vocal lessons as well as orchestral instruments. Now on to our discussion on performing as a professional musician.

There are many different aspects that go into live performances as a professional musician.

First is knowing the material you will be playing inside and out. The more comfortable you are with the music you are performing, the more you can focus on your stage presence and interacting with the other musicians on the stage. Depending on how much time you’ll have to the learn the material can dictate how you might prepare for different gigs. If you know your going to have a few months and a handful of rehearsals for said gig I would recommend memorizing as much of the material as possible. Making sure any of the parts that you have had trouble with are rehearsed over and over. If you think you have the trouble parts down try playing them with a metronome. Some times counting a part is the best way to get it down. If your working on something technical don’t be afraid to slow it down and slowly work it back up to speed with the metronome. If you have accepted a gig and you are going to have limited time to learn the material I recommend charting out the material. You can get as detailed as you think you need. Make sure you make any specific notes on the charts that will help you perform the material. Make sure you include time signatures and keys signatures. Make sure you’re ready to take a solo if asked. If mistakes happen and they do to the best of us just keep playing and don’t dwell on it. Try not to make a funny face or look around to see if anyone noticed. There is a saying if you make a mistake make it sound and look like you ment it. Stay in the moment!

Now you have the material ready to go you have to consider your gear and anything that needs to have a backup available. If you perform with a string instrument always have replacement strings available. Bring extra cables if your set up requires them. Second you should also have a backup instrument. Yes bring a second guitar or keyboard or what ever your instrument maybe. Drummers make sure you have backup heads and an extra snare drum. If possible I would recommend drummers bring a backup bass drum pedal as well. If you’r using any kind of tube amplifier definitely bring a backup solid state amp. Tube amplifiers can be very finicky. Anything else that you use for your performance and is a necessity bring a backup. Availability is paramount!

Speaking of availability, having reliable transportation is also of the utmost importance. Keeping a can of fix a flat in your car is a good idea along with having a spare tire. Make sure you give yourself a time buffer just in case you get lost or have some kind of car trouble. Also make sure you have extra time to set up your gear. You never know when you might have to trouble shoot your rig.

Last is dress for success. Remember we are entertainers and performers. We should look and sound the part. The more you enjoy yourself on stage the more audience will enjoy the performance and there experience. Ok now let’s go break a leg!

Thank for reading.

Dean Cutinelli

Improvising over the dominant chord

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. We have student come from Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Denver and Golden to take lessons with us. Now on to our discussion on improvising over dominant 7th chords.

The dominant 7th chord is one of the most unique chords you will find. The dominant chord appears on the fifth scale degree of the major scale. The chord is defined as a root, major 3rd, perfect 5th and minor 7th intervals. Yes it has a major 3rd and a minor 7th interval. This make the dominant 7th chord a lot of fun to improvise over. Another thing to remember is when you are trying to analyze the key of a certain progression, is that the dominant chord is always the five chord of some key. This works great when you have a chord progression or song that stays diatonic to a key. If we have a chord progression that goes from the two chord to the five chord and then the one, this example would be great to try your Cmajor scale. (Dmin G7 C maj7). The fact that each of these chords are made up from the same c major scale enables you to play your c major scale over the whole progression. Of course your relative minor scale will work just fine as well. Remember they are relative keys because C major and A minor have the same notes in there scale as well as the same chords. You just have a different starting point for each scale or key.

Now I would like to break down the different scales or I like to refer to them as sounds. We will use a G7 chord for our example today. As I talked about earlier the C major scale is a great place to start your improvising. Another way of saying your going to play the notes from the C major scale is playing G mixolydian. All a G mixolydian scale is are the notes from C major just starting on G. This scale would play  G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. When starting on G and working up the notes listed you are now playing G mixolydian. If you compare G mixolydain to G major you will see the mixolydian scale has a minor 7th interval in it and not a major 7th interval. The mixolydian mode fits the dominant chord like a glove. Now try playing your major and minor pentatonic scale starting on the chord root. Now try those two pentatonic scales with the b5. The pentatonic scale will give you that classic blues sound. Next try playing a G dorian scale over the dominant chord. This scale could also be called F major scale starting on G. The dorian scale will defiantly give you a different sound. This dorian sound compliments the minor pentatonic scale nicely. Now let’s get out there a little bit! Try playing a  C harmonic minor over your G7 chord. The little rule on that is you can play the harmonic minor scale up a forth from what ever dominant chord your looking to improvise over.

Well after reading this you should have many different sound options when it’s time to improvise over your dominant 7th chords. Please feel free to contact us and come in for a music lesson to learn all about improvising and anything else pertaining to music from one of our great instructor at the Colorado School of Music in Golden CO. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments. 

Thanks for reading!

Dean Cutinelli

The Fender Stratocaster

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. Now on to our discussion about the stratocaster guitar.

The Fender American stratocaster is one of the most classic guitar sound you will hear. Such guitar gods like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton have made the Strat part of their signature sound. 

The Stratocaster was the first Fender guitar to feature three pickups and a spring tension vibrato system, as well as being the first Fender with a contoured body. The Stratocaster’s sleek, contoured body shape (officially referred to by Fender as the “Comfort Contour Body”) differed from the flat, squared edge design of the Telecaster. The Stratocaster’s double cutaways allowed players easier access to higher positions on the neck. The classic pickup set up on a strat is 3 single coil pickups and a 5 way pickup selector. Each position on the selector gives you a very different sound. You are given the option to use one pickup at a time or use two pickups at the same time. The strat is also equipped with a volume knob and two tone knobs. The volume is a master volume and controls all three pickups. Each of the tone knobs control the bridge, middle and neck pickup. The classic pickup settings on the strat are the in between spots on the pickup selector. Meaning you are using two pickups at the same time. 

There have been many variations on the strat over the years. You can get different pickup formations. For example you could have two hum bucker picks installed. A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of electric guitar pickup that uses two coils to “buck the hum” (or cancel out the interference) picked up by coil pickups caused by electromagnetic interference, particularly mains hum.

Another common variation is to have a different bridge put on the guitar. Some players like a fixed bridge well others might want a Floyd Rose locking bridge installed on there strat. Regardless of the variations this guitar has established it self as one the most classic guitar sound on the planet.

I hope after reading this you have a little better understanding of the stratocaster guitar. Please feel free to contact us and come in for a music lesson from one of our great instructor at the Colorado School of Music in Golden CO. We offer guitar lessons, ukulele lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments. 

Thanks for reading!

Dean Cutinelli