Improvising & Technique

[Onyx Z]

I have been learning the Mixolydian scale over the past few weeks, but am having a bit of trouble improvising over it. I find myself only using my index and middle finger on the fretting hand. Is there any exercises yall know of that could help me break this habit?

Any tips to help enhance my playing and make it actually sound like music, and not like a 5 yr. old playing?

Also, when I crank my amp, my fingers moving around on the strings sticks out like a sore thumb. Yet when I hear pretty much anyone decent play with a cranked amp, all I hear are notes. No sqeuakage, etc. I figure it all has to do with technique. What gives? How do I improve? Sorry I'm totally lost.

BTW, I play mostly country music.

[klasaine]

That's a lot to cover in one post.
I'll start with just the two fingers thing.

How are you fingering the mixo scale?
You should be using all 4 fingers if you're playing it in one position.
That's the best place to start. Force yourself to use your other fingers.

An exercise to get you to start using all 4 fingers would be to:
Play 4 frets in a row on one string, one finger per fret. Do the same thing on all 6 strings, up and back. If you really want to work that out do that starting with the 1st fret and ascend all the up to the 15th or 17th fret, and then back down to the 1st. Don't go any faster than you can play it cleanly and evenly. Use a metronome. This is all pretty boring and not too musical but if you do it every day (really every day, not every other day or three days in a row and then blow it off - EVERY DAY) in two weeks you'll never even remember that you used to only use two fingers ... and you'll gain some speed and accuracy as a bonus - which will help in reducing all that string sqealing that's bothering you.

[Tim Bowen]

Great questions, some of which I fear could inspire documents that would rival "War and Peace" in length.

Remember that "mixolydian" is simply a mode, a scale, a tool. If you treat it as such, it'll sound like exactly that. Before you get too hung up up on it, find the major thirds and flat sevenths that relate to the basic I-IV-V chords of classic tunes that you know. The more keys and the more tunes, the better. So much of cool improvisation is about 3rds and 7ths, tritones and such. Get hip to the double stop tritones, and always relate them visually to the chord shapes that you know.

The way I "practice" and the way I "play" are often two separate beasts. For practicing, if a scale covers a span of four frets, I assign one finger per fret, and if it covers five or six frets, there's some shifts involved, and every player approaches it slightly differently. If you're favoring certain fingers, a surefire fix is to start doing bends (half step, whole step, step and a half, whatnot) with the less favored fingers (in your case, ring and pinky). That should open some previously unavailable doors.

As for your "tone" dilemma, it's tough to say without actually hearing you. Could be technique, gear, or some combination of the two. If, for instance, you're employing a significant amount of gain and your rig is set for a high amount of presence, then whatever shortcomings there are within your technique will be magnified 100X. This is why players often utilize compression and/or learn to roll off the tone knobs at their guitars, even the very best of players. This is not a crutch or a compromise, it's a tool, and a trick of the trade. That said, being able to execute your lines and ideas with a pristine, squeaky clean tone, is one of the best technique fixes that I know of. When you hear a player that is totally comfortable playing 'clean', you can rest assured that they've arrived within their zone. It's a process, no magic bullets are available.

As for players to listen to for the mixolydian thing... gad, there's been a slew for me, but among electric guitar players, I guess I'd cite Jeff Beck as the most consistently inventive and interesting influence for myself. There's scores of cool tritone substitutions amongst jazz players of various instruments, but I cut my teeth on Jeff's spin on these sounds. Don't sweat his "rock" legacy, he can find his way around most harmonic vehicles. I play some country music as well.

[Leon Grizzard]

I remember you posting about mixolydian a few months back; good to see you're still at it.

I absolutely agree with Klasaine - Do that exercise, not just on one fret position, but take it up the neck and back. It adds a little pitch variety and is good practice for moving up and down. That very exercise, four frets across and back across the strings, is cited by Cliff Strong, former Merle Haggard lead player, and great jazzer, as the way he developed speed, slumped on the couch watching TV. At some point, start grouping the notes, meaning stressing the first note, in groups of three, four, six, and eight notes to help your phrasing.

In terms of making dominant/mixolydian sound musical, if you can play blues with the blues scale, trying playing blues with the dominant/mixolydian scale, in A blues, A mixo over A7 chord, D mixo over D7 and E mixo over the E7. Dominant/mixolydian is a blusey sounding scale and it works great for blues playing. Add flat 3ds anywhere you want, too.

It is, of course, just the major scale with a blusey flat 7th scale degree and so another thing you can do is learn to play the melodies to songs, and flat the 7th scale degree from time to see how is sounds, or play a little mixo fill matched to the chord of the moment, in between melody phrases.

That is another thing that Cliff Strong, and many great players say: learn to play the melody to the songs you do (and many say learn the words, too). Mistakes stand out, and it is great practice, and a great way to play solos, too. Almost all Country song melodies will be major scale, basically.

If you are learning Country, you will be playing dominant/mixolydian licks all the time. When you are playing over an A chord, and you play a lick with the 3d fret on the E string, or the open G string, that is the dominant/mixolydian sound.

[Cyrithicus]

I resisted for a long time before realizing that I would need to use my pinky!

Do it now, you'll get used to it before you know.

[Mickey]

Just an observation from another learner. That mixolydian seems to be everywhere. First time I heard it was as a kid descending in a Johnny Cash song, though I had no idea what it was called at the time, but the sound definitely stuck.

Then I posted I think my first theory question here, about what to use over a II chord in what I thought was a weird progression, I II V, for stuff like "Sweet Dreams," and also a bunch of Haggard tunes, Chris S wrote back to try a Mixolydian over that II chord, that got me started good.

Since then I'm seeing the thing pops up everywhere, In situations I've heard it over all of these chords of a progression: I II III IV V VI. There are some "rules" about this, but I wouldn't sweat that, you sort of get to "hear" the rules after a while.

The most basic thing I noticed, and I had a big "jump" when I recognized this, is that a flat 7th is already part of the ii, the iii, and the vi chords, and then going and flatting the 7th of the I, the IV, and the V usually just makes it sound bluesy or a little "outside" the major scale. And that covers most all the chords, so it's very often worth a try to flat the 7th and see if it works.

Really, when practicing try it everywhere, it's almost a "when in doubt" scale, the most likely thing to work at any given point if you're truly lost. And for me that happens a lot.

Geez, I'm paranoid that I'm typing jibberish. I guess I'm saying: keep at it, I think it pays off!

[Onyx Z]

Thanks for the advice! But, when I practice the scales (up and down across 4 frets), I am using all four fingers, but when I go to improvise, I catch myself using just two fingers, which irritates the crap out of me. I've been trying to break myself of it, but I can't seem to find anything that works. I'll try all the advice mentioned and see what happens. Thanks everyone!

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by Onyx Z

but when I go to improvise, I catch myself using just two fingers

Human nature, there. No secret cure, just keep plugging away and things will turn around.

[Cyrithicus]

Try just using your index, ring and pinky fingers on a practice scale, like :

e---------------------------------5-6-7
b---------------------------5-6-7
g---------------------5-6-7
d---------------5-6-7
a---------5-6-7
e---5-6-7-

Musically, its not much of a scale, but you want to work on dexterity for this.

Pick, hammer-on, or pull-off the notes as you go, I guarantee it will help, dexterity, endurance, and getting use to using your fingers!

Good luck!!

[RCinMempho]

Originally Posted by Onyx Z

Thanks for the advice! But, when I practice the scales (up and down across 4 frets), I am using all four fingers, but when I go to improvise, I catch myself using just two fingers, which irritates the crap out of me. I've been trying to break myself of it, but I can't seem to find anything that works. I'll try all the advice mentioned and see what happens. Thanks everyone!

Larry F is right! Just practice the stuff correctly and slowly. It will creep into your playing slowly as well. I used to think that I would NEVER really use hybrid picking when I improvised. Now I have to mentally work NOT to use it. It will come. Just get that muscle memory going and it will fall into place.

[JaneSeekingCountry]

I found that this excercise really stopped my pinky having its own agenda - : lay all 4 left hand fingers on the low e string at frets 9,10,11,12 and keep those fingers on those frets. Then play
9.11.12.11
10.11.12.11
11, 11,12,11
etc thru all the strings. keeping at this end of the fretboard just means its not such a stretch. 5-10 minutes twice per day and you will be amazed after a couple of weeks. Push thru pain whenever possible.
Hope this is not too naive for you and that it helps you as much as it helped me.

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by RCinMempho

Just practice the stuff correctly and slowly. It will creep into your playing slowly as well. I used to think that I would NEVER really use hybrid picking when I improvised. Now I have to mentally work NOT to use it. It will come. Just get that muscle memory going and it will fall into place. (Emphasis added)

+1

I agree 100%. The secret is to SLOW DOWN until you can do it perfectly. Trying to go faster before you have it down cold is simply learning to play faster mistakes. And I've never heard anyone "rave" about another player by saying things like, "Wow! That guy's wrong notes are REALLY fast!" -LOL- ;-)

In my experience, speed and fluidity will come with time; but you have to learn to do it RIGHT first. There was a popular saying when I was in school, "You need to learn to walk before you can run – and crawl before you can walk." All IMO, as always. Keep at it, you'll get it. Best of luck, CS :-)

[boneyguy]

Push thru pain whenever possible.

YIKES!!!

I agree with all the advice given so far but to advise someone to play through physical pain is just not good advice.
Maybe to push through the 'pain' of feeling like your not improving but you should never ignore physical pain. Ever. Pain is a signal that you need to either rest and or adjust your technique so that you are using your body in a more appropriate way. This is not just my opinion but the educated advice of any person trained in physical education and the advice of many musicians who teach for a living. Especially when we're talking about small muscles like those in the fingers and wrist.

[ericmichel]

as for country soloing, i think that a very musical way of practicing is to learn to play around chord shapes;if you view a simple major chord in all its positions on the entire neck you'll have all the important notes of the major scale(or the mixolydian mode if you take a 7th chord).My humble advice would be to pick up a chord form and find the scale around or the "interesting notes" as B. Mason states it in his video.

[Telenator]

It would seem that although you're making the effort to practice new scales, you're not making the effort to apply them. When the practice stops and the music starts, you're going back to what you've grown used to doing and not applying the new tones. It's difficult to break out of old habits but of course, it's the only way to change.

Some folks here have given excellent advice in that you slow down and get used to the new tones. From what you've described about only using two fingers, it sounds like you're firmly entrenched in the pentatonic minor rut. Bad place to be especially for country.

Ericmichel's comment, "My humble advice would be to pick up a chord form and find the scale around or the "interesting notes" is excellent advice!

This is the cool thing about learning. Once you slow down a bit and start to hear those sweet major melodies, you once again become enchanted by the process of discovery. Just step out of your own way and let it happen. It's a beautiful thing!

[kludge]

Originally Posted by Telenator

It would seem that although you're making the effort to practice new scales, you're not making the effort to apply them. When the practice stops and the music starts, you're going back to what you've grown used to doing and not applying the new tones. It's difficult to break out of old habits but of course, it's the only way to change.

Some folks here have given excellent advice in that you slow down and get used to the new tones. From what you've described about only using two fingers, it sounds like you're firmly entrenched in the pentatonic minor rut. Bad place to be especially for country.

Ericmichel's comment, "My humble advice would be to pick up a chord form and find the scale around or the "interesting notes" is excellent advice!

This is the cool thing about learning. Once you slow down a bit and start to hear those sweet major melodies, you once again become enchanted by the process of discovery. Just step out of your own way and let it happen. It's a beautiful thing!

+1 to all of this. I'd also add that it's EXCELLENT practice to work on playing straight, unadorned melodies to songs you know well. Melodies are rarely scalar in nature... they have arpeggios and connecting tones and big jumps in them. Just for kicks, try playing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" for a while. Better yet, do it with a little chord-melody to capture the underlying harmony. It's an exquisite melody, and almost anti-scalar. I don't think you can capture that sense of longing without the big jumps.

I think more to the point, a scale shows you what notes to play in a situation, but our practice routines tend to emphasize the ORDER in which they are played. You practice a G mixolydian scale, and you find yourself practicing exactly G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G, from the low to high E strings. Why not practice G-B-D-A-C-E-B-D-F-C-E-G-D-F-A-E-G-B-F-A-C-G instead? That brings out the triads inside the scale. Or try B-G-D-E-C-G-A-F-C... triads in a different inversion, circle of fifths. It's MUCH more melodic than G-A-B-C...

But anyway, I think playing existing melodies that use the scales you want is the best practice. That also brings in rhythmic variations and the little disruptions in pattern that make music interesting. A straight ascending sequence of notes played in square time is, frankly, dull. It's okay to connect a couple of INTERESTING things, but it's not much by itself. The best music is angular, daring, and full of surprises.