Category Archives: The Player’s Room

Now we come to the end of my series on modes of the major scale, and this is a tough one. The Locrian mode is the least used, and probably the most misunderstood out of all of the modes of the major scale. This one isn’t tough to play, though. It is just a C…

Ah, it’s an argument guitarists have been having since we started strumming our first G chord: should we learn and continue to play songs we like for fun and money, or should we forge our own path just like our heroes did? Certainly we can debate this in a civil manner, right? Right? Game on!

Once upon a time guitarists had to contend with clumsy drum machines if they wanted to make a demo. Either that or, y’know, learn to play the drums. But sequencers and home studio software have changed all this. Now you can craft passably life-like drums on your laptop while sitting on your butt in your PJs on the couch.

Simply put, the thumb in slap bass is the bass drum of the drummers kit. It provides that punch, it gives the rhythmic pulse that everything else is laid upon. It can be as simple or as complex as needed (please remember that comment, and repeat it to yourself a couple more times to let it sink in), but it needs to be solid to keep the beat moving. Anything else and you stand to lose the feel of the groove, which is priority number one as a bassist.

Welcome to the next installment of my series on the modes of the major scale. This is probably the most popular mode, and the one most associated with music we have learned on guitar. The reason being is that the Aeolian mode goes by another, more common name: the minor scale.

In the last Breaking Down the Barriers article, I discussed the Lydian, or 4th mode, of the major scale. The Mixolydian mode is a very popular one, so you are bound to hear it more. It sounds great with many styles of music too, so you may easily find a use for it.  You can…

As 2013 begins its inexorable stretch toward the warmer days of Spring, it feels right to talk of new things; of rebirth; of bare-limbed trees emerging with new growth, brown fields awakening with the green hues of renewal, and old guitars finding new purpose in the hands of eager players with open minds and eyes…

It has been said that the electric guitar is a young instrument that’s still evolving. I have to agree with that it is evolving, but being young isn’t necessarily true. There are more instruments that are relatively young; the piano didn’t get it’s current design in the early 20th century, the saxophone was developed in…

The Lydian mode is one of the most expressive modes of the major scale, and through this article, I hope to explain its exotic, yet familiar sound, and how we can use it in our modern compositions. We’ll talk about F Lydian, which is based on the C major scale.

Recently, I wrote a piece about the Ionian and Dorian modes, the first 2 modes of the major scale. Please check out that article as the theory in this article builds on what was explained there. Let’s dive right in by explaining the next mode: the exotic–sounding Phrygian. Remember, modes are the same scale, just…