AST Rock Guitar Made Easy PITCH AXIS ONTHECD| This month Jamie Humphries shows you how to effortlessly shift into different major keys... PITCH AXIS | GP RATING progression that used al of the ees MODERATEIHARD diatonic chords found in the ee | key of A major. This month we're going to look at our solo in a Will improve your: scale and theory slightly different way, You're probably sinning to think about sons that ienowtedge Ihave now-diatonie chords; where they improvising over come from, how they function, and ey changes how to include this into your own Legato eechniques writing, A technique that’s sed for boot jumpin fom one bey to another i i pitch axis. The idea is that you choose a note or chord asa pivot into 2 new key. A great example ofthis isthe sping section atthe end of Joe Satriani Satch Boogie; Joe uses the A note as a way to manoeuere through diferent scales. This technique ean also be applied to chords. Lets take the chord of B minor. In the key of A major we treat that chord as chord I, built from the second degree of the sale. We ean also built sninior chor frotn the Hand VI degrees ofthe scale. If we look atthe ey of G major, the third degree isthe note of B.Ifwe build a chord from this “The idea is not wav at Bor cor, tat that you tino. Now let's look at the key of D choose a note | uot The sith noteis the note of B Once agi, ire bid ached ren or chord as a | this note we gt B minor, but this time 7 | iv functioning as the V1 minor chord. pivot into a Bodo in EXAMPLE I you can see new key.” Fst ofthe chords that ean be fad all three keys: unpredictable. The possibilities are endless, Once you ‘get into the idea, instead of using a whole chord as a pivot, sou could use one oF two notes from any chor, allowing these notes to act as common or shared tones (Gee pro tips), to enter new keys 1:G major, I A minor, Il: B minor, 1: C major, ‘The next piece of the puzzle is being able to negotiate VD major, VI: E minor, VIl: F¥ diminished through the key changes when soloing. Being able to ‘© D major: D,E, Pt, G, A,B, C#,D play through a series of changes is often seen as the Holy Daten IZ E minoe IEF annoy, V:G major, SF! to many players, and takes yeas of dedication and practise. A common Jazz’ approach is to attack each So roe none meine enh a marry chord with an arpeagio, but if you've learnt your modes @ Amajor: A,B, CH, D, E, Fa, Gi, A I: A major, I: B minor, II: C# minor, 1V:D major, YOUR GITUTOR mnicrureraies See 99 for more ino onalltheGrevtors You can see from the list the position ofthe B minor well enough you willbe able to map your way through chord as either chord Il I, or VI You will also notice _progression with these three-nates-per-string patterns. ‘uite afew similarities with other chords that feature in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the keys of A major, G allthree keys. For example, the D major chord. Other __major and D major respectively. You should by now have chords have changed slightly, A major is chord I of A, key of A major pretty much down, so now try moving and chord V of D, yet due to the natural in the key of on to the new keys. When you start to practise over the G major it has become the chord of A minor. You can see key changes on this month’-backing track, I would how targeting a chord that appears in more than one key suggest choosing one pattern from each key, within the ‘wll enable you to introduce other chords into a ‘same area of the neck. When playing across key changes progression, making them more interesting and ‘you want the change to be seamless, and not stick out. A Ne ae ei 3(QRECOMMENDED LISTENING _ | COOL ROCKTHAT SHIFTS BETWEEN KEYS ‘TRY THESE as a good starting ‘pine Surfing With The Aen or yng nA Blue Dream - Joe ‘Satriani, Passion And Warfare - ‘Steve Val Wicked Sensation - Lynch Mob, lnner Galactic Fusion Experience - Richie Kotzen, Five - Greg Howe. seasoned improviser will anticipate the change ty including the notes from the new Key slightly before the ‘change occurs. This will give the ilusion of the band following the soloist! EXAMPLE I (previous page) includes the chord chart for this month's progression. Ihave used a very common approach when writing, changing kev to Introduce a new seetion — for example a chorus or middie 8. The fist section is based around the Key of A major and has its feet firmly planted in the B Doria, ‘mode. The second section at bat 18 shifts to the key of D major, allowing us to use the Eni chord. Inthe previo section we had used E: major. This new section is based around B Aeolian, This seetion concludes at BAR 29, and Ive ineluded the D/C chord. Ths is a Lydian chord, and originates from G major, (C Lydian), So once again we change key. The final ection is introduced at BAR 30, and is based around the key of A major, although [ B Dorian (A major) B Aeolian (O major) re) slipped in the Csus2 chord for a C Lydian mony the semitone shift back to B adds a B Phayiian sl conclude the track. [fall of this is litte too rach, 1 have written the keys that everything originates froma ‘ver the top of the progression, This progression is only the tip ofthe iceberg; you ean explore this in alot more detail once vou've got throng this track EXAMPLE 2 incluses this month's solo, inspired by ock guitarists George Lynch and Satch, which es some slippery legato phrasing, namely at BARS BAR 29. BARS 10-15 inclu sore cool 1W0: string amegaio sequences. Neti hove Ive inelided other diatonic notes around the arpeggios to spice things ‘up. These arpeggios shift diatonically up the neck on the Band E strings. There's something for everyone inthis solo, s if you have found some ofthe solos a little too «easy, Ive included some ssteep-pleked arpeios at BARS 16-17, 24.25, 28-29, plus cool casas idea at BARS 34-35. "These wil definitely give you something to do during these hot summer evenings. Thave also Included a George Lynch signature slide lick at BAR 21 ‘This is quite hard to achieve at our 130-bpm tempo, 50 slow it dovin to start with, Even though ve included a few technical sections, there’s plenty of melody ant string bending to get into, Stuy the CD closely, as often attack the strings with the fingers of my picking hand to achieve different tones, Well thats pretty much it for this month. Fa like to sive Mr Govan and myself litte plug as we have just released a four-track EP that includes tracks from our forthcoming allums. 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