Well I'm in the middle of studying and applying music theory to my guitar playing. I've got a decent speed and dexterity for the amount of time i have been playing (a year). What i would like to know from you guys (the leading authorities) is:

1.How do you sequence or "connect" different arpeggios?

2. How do you apply the modes to soloing?

3. When your playing at super sonic speeds (768 mph +) what are you really playing? Is it just going up and down scales/ modes really fast or...?

4. Which sounds better for Neo-classical shreding Overdrive or Distorion? (i'm going for a Jason Becker type sound like from perpetual burn)

5.And what pedal should i use to achieve said sound?

6. Is it really legal for a 16 year old to purchase alcoholic substances in europe? :blink:

I hope that's not to many. To kinda give you an idea of where I am, I im pretty good at playing at moderatly fast speeds, I can do 5-6 string sweeps quite clean. (If there is something i can't get right ill get my handy dandy metronome out and get busy). And I'm pretty sure i've got basic theory down. For everything else there is google :P .
Thanks in advance for the tips ;)

I apologise for not having the time to answer all of your questions right now, but to answer the sixth one: no.

I'll try to help you out with the other ones later.

Hey, thanks i'm looking foward to it.

By "different arpeggios" do you mean different shapes of the same chord or different arpeggios altogether? Either way, it really just comes down to knowing them, then being able to find them anywhere, then knowing how to play them all, and needless to say, by that time you will most likely figure out how to connect them, whether it's a long flowing single arpeggio played in different positions at superspeeds, or a little cluster of different ones. If you need exercises, I could show you, but let me know what you're talking about specifically.

Thanks for responding, by different arpeggios i mean that i know just about all the standard shapes for Minor and Major arpeggios. I can find them all over the board (with some time) and i do try to connect the different versions of the same note arpeggio.

Like going from the D minor arpeggio that starts on the 17th fret on the high e-string (A i believe) and moving it to the 22 fret on the high e and playing that version of the D minor there.

I've been looking far and wide for stuff to practice And most of what I see are lessons on the basic 3-string shapes I can play with just my left hand with out much effort invovled. I'm trying to figure out how to connect arpeggios of different notes but staying in the same key. I think that is involved in music theory somewhere but i can't find decent lessons on music theory either. NeoShredders lesson got me started but it isn't really helping me apply book knowlege to actual playing skill. I'm looking for something to make everything kind of "click" so to speak.

If you or anyone else has exercises or places where i can pick up some theory knowledge i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance :D

1. Regarding connecting arpeggios, the simplest way of connecting arpeggios in different postions is probabley just to slide between them . e.g. Amin arp starting on the 5th string 12th fret, play all notes up to e note 12th fret 1st string. Then slide the pinky up from the 12th fret up to the A on the 15th and descend on the Amin shape based around the 12th position.

However, playing just Amin arps over an Amin chord can sound rather boring in my opinion. Maybe consider adding extra notes to the arp to make it more interesting like the 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th - whatever your ear likes the sound of.

Also try substituting arpeggios - like play a G Major arpeggio over an Emin chord which will give you a min7th sound. Bmin over the Emin will give you a min 7/9 sound. This will inevitabley start to sound a bit more jazzy which may not be the sound you are after.

You can also connect arps with fragments of scales or chromatic passages. Or sequence the notes of each arp shape - go up the shape three notes then down one up three etc. Also try using odd note groupings like 5 notes from one arp then shift to the next arp and play another 5 from that shape.

To be honest I think making arps sound musical comes down to using your ear and your imagination linked with a solid knowledge of music theory.


2. Modal Soloing. This is a huge topic - I think you probabley need a good book on this subject rather than any half assed answer I could give you. I'd say just learn all you can about the modes and learn all the modes all over the finger board. Obviously if you know your major scales then you already have the basis of the modes under your fingers but its the understanding of what the modes are that is key.

3. If you are a shredder it is probabley scales, scales sequences or sweep/ skipping/tapped arpeggios. If you are Allan Holdsworth it is whatever he can imagine and you can't. ;)

4. & 5. I think Becker used a Boss Super Overdrive pedal through a Marshall amp for P.B.
But again I think only your ears will tell you what sounds good. Also try an Ibanez TubeScreamer through a cranked up tube amp.

6. It is not legal, but it happens a lot!

Hope some of this helps.

Hey thanks man I appreciate the advice, I think your right i do need a good theory book, Lol @ #3. I will certantly try that out! If anyone has a good website for music theory or exercises can you post it or a good book that ill be able to finda at a local guitar center or music store? (Man i was hoping that #6 was true). If anyone else has any information to add I'm All Ears.

I found that reading theory on the internet proved to be extremely difficult for me, for reasons unkown. It wasn't until I got a crapload of books that I finally got the basics down.

Books might not be for everyone; you might learn from the internet just as well. But if you're eager to try some book, I highly recommend the Contemporary Music Theory series by Mark Harrison - the books I recommend to everyone seeking to learn theory.

And for #6, everyone does whether it be legal or not.

I generally find learning anything by reading pages on the internet to be tough to pick much up and for some reason boring. When I pick up a book it stays a bit better for me.

Hey thanks for the advice guys I'm going try to get to a music shop soon. @IanJ if you have time please post the links to those arpeggios. (NOT @IanJ) Also unfortunately I'm most likely not gonna be on the forums much this week since I am being forced to go on vacation. I'm headed to S.Carolina and will be away from guitar or semi-decent music for a while. Before I go i have another question.

7. (this is more like an addage to #'s 4&5) I'm in-between getting a Boss SD-1 And a Metal Muff with top boost. I Currently have a practice amp but I'm not satisfied completely with the sound (big suprise).

I have a Peavy Vypyr 15 and I want to get the aforementioned tone (or something close). Anyone have any thoughts on which is better I'm thinking the SD-1 but im not sure.

Also anyone know of a decent tube amp below $300 used. I don't have the money for it now but I want to scour CL for deals.

As always thanks before hand for the tips.

Try this:

e|-----------------13-17s22p17-------------------
b|-------------15-----------------18----------------
g|---------14------------------------19s14--------
d|-----15------------------------------------15-----
a|-17--------------------------------------------17-
e|---------------------------------------------------

You can just loop that over and over. The last slide from that 19 to 14 is a little tricky and you gotta kinda switch fingers half way through to pull it off. You'll figure it out. Try that one for now and let me know when you're golden.

I'd say your best bet is to upgrade your amp before looking for pedals. Tweaking the sound on some "better" amp might come in cheaper in the long run.

Thank's for the advice acou, and IanJ. I'm still looking around for a better amp i'm checking pwn shops and stuff. Thanks for that arpeggio I ca play it well but not yet at the speed i want. Also I'm trying to get the intro arpeggios down from steve vai's crosswords duel.

8.Do you guys know any songs (that are not from Jason Becker) that involve lots of arpeggios or position shitfs? Or songs similar to "Passage to the Reaper" -COB (thier cover of Vivaldi's Summer Presto).

I love the classical feel in metal, it just sounds like everything is right in the world.
Thanks again ahead of time.

Miles of machines by Jeff Loomis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nY-XDF_Ask

and

The Gush by Theodore Ziras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JxT4tTRN58

Thanks Orz, I knew about Miles of Machines, but i never heard the Gush before. When i first started learning sweep picking I used a lot of Ziras's lessons. I'm to lazy to down tune my guitar for Loomis's song so i'll just have to play it in standard tuning.

Also I know I'm not gonna be able to play any of the songs up to speed perfectly at my current level. I'm just going to practice them at slower speeds with a metronome to get them as clean as possible. I would appreciate you guys sharing any songs that you guys know or that have helped you out while you were learning regardless of the difficulty, or impossibility of me being able to play it like the guy who made it.

Thanks again guys!

Concerto or Speed Metal Symphony by cacophony

Good luck lol :P

Seriously though, lots of sweeps in those and plenty where you have to bar across and use the rolling technique if I remember correctly. So they should help you a fair bit.

To be honest i haven't heard the ultimate duo's speed metal symphony. I love Concerto i just couldnt find good tabs for it. Right now I'm downloading a program called TuxGuitar. It should allow me to read theose GuitarPro files that have been peaking my intrest for so long. Thanks for the tip

There are places to download Guitar Pro for free.

CoughIsohuntCough

I got TuxGuitar to work. When i tried to download Guitar Pro the fonts were always missing no matter where i got it. Thanks for the tip anyway.

Pretty sure there's some good Concerto and Speed Metal Symphony guitar pro or powertab files on ultimateguitar.com too

Another question, (practice is going smooth btw) does anyone have a good guide on diminished arpeggios? and on creating Those werid but awesome sounding Maj 7 and Maj 9 and any other arpeggios of that type? I'm interested in the theory behind them. Also exercises on these would be wonderful thanks ahead of time.

P.s. there are probably many errors in speech on this post, typing with left hand struming with right. =D

Have a tinker around this site. Click on the 'Fret' icons for various different arpeggio positions.

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/arpeggio.php

The book I suggest to everyone asking these same questions on theory is Contemporary Music Theory - or rather the whole series - by Mark Harrison. It is the most easily understandable, clear and well-progressing theory I've read anywhere.

Arpeggios ==> In theory an arpeggio = a chord so you connect arpeggios as chords in term of progression.
e.g.: I-IV-V
-The simpliest way to connect arpeggios: not connect them. If you respect a tonal progression as I-IV-V you do not need any connection to sound great. It can improve your musicality as you seperate arpeggios, phrases, accentuations,...
-You play a common note for the two arpeggios but you must accentuate it so you can can play a slide or you tap it if you play on your last fret, it makes people aware of the fact that you change but there is a fluent link.
-You play an alternative note
e.g.: -----10-7-------7-10----9-7---------7-9------9-5--------5-9------------------------------------------9---9---------------9----9---------------7----7------------------------------------------------7--------------------7--------------------6--------------------------------

This "diagram" represent the last strings GBE, you start with a diminished arppegio then you change D (10th fret) into D flat (9th fret) and you play a minor arppeggio.


Send me your e-mail I'll send you a guitar pro tab or a pdf with a part of my composition Strings Theory in which I sweep a lot.

==> Ultra speed solo : in music you must accentuate as you speak. There is notes which are more important than others and you must feel it and share this feeling. When you play fast you connect notes with others notes which belong to the same scale (or not). The faster you play the more "connection notes" you play.
You must tkae a breat and separate your licks into phrases. So you must use advanced techniques as legato or alternate picking.

==> For a neoclassical playing you do not need a high gain sound. In fact you must put a smooth distortion to play properly. And to be more expressive you play with your neck pickup but you can play with your bridge pick for a very high note (24th frets??) or for rythm part. But this is feeling.

==> Pedals : I think that Pedals are your identity in music especially in neoclassical as you must express your feeling very clearly. Basically you need a delay, a reverb, an overdrive emulating a tube amp. The delay can make your sound fatter, the reverb create a very specific atmosphere that you can find in classical songs (very important/ A lot of reverb in malmsteen's songs), the overdrive makes your identity. You have a unique sound, more sustain, you have more musicality as you dont put your amp gain at 10/10 but 4,5/10. Then I commonly use this configuration.
Guitar == Overdrive == Delay == Reverb == Amp == Speakers The overdrive respect your musicality but with this effect you can put forward your reverb or delay by increasing output level.

==> And no you can't drink if you're 16 in Europe except in Austria where you can drink as you want. ;)

I hope that my English is not too bad as I'm Frenck :blink: and that you can find tips.

BUT REMEMBERTHE GOOD MUSIC HAS NO RULES, THE GOOD MUSIC CREATES RULES. B)

Thanks guys for the help! that site is wonderful ID, and Holy Sh- TAG The guitar work was amazing in that. I think the backing track was off a little but the guitar work itself was phenomenal. How long have you been playing? I will PM you my email very very soon. Acou, I'm gonna look up that book i might be able to afford it soon.

P.S. Your English is better than 70% of Americans. I can't deny that America is in the pooper.

Hey, Another set of question I have been itching to ask.

What modes do you generally use when soloing or just playing in general? I normally play in D minor (all 3 types) and I'm trying to move away from just playing in that key or scale. I've played in several different keys/modes but i'm looking for more "exotic" or "far out" sounding stuff, like the stuff cacophony uses often.

How to you connect modes or know which scales/modes sound good together? (theory-wise)

and ianJ, I'm a Wedding ring as far as that arpeggio goes.

Personally I prefere to think in terms of the chord I am playing over when I am soloing, because in theory you can use any of the twelve notes used in western music over any chord depending on how you use the notes. So on the strong beats of the bar it usually sounds good to use the chord tones (or chord extensions) of the chord you are soloing over. But the notes inbetween can be almost any other notes that you like depending on what tonality you want to create.

In general however you will want to think in terms of whether the chord you are soloing over is major or minor and if it is a 7th chord, then whether major or minor 7th. Then use modes or scales that contain those notes. Eg. over a Bmin chord you could use B Aolian mode, Dorian mode, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, Phrygian mode, Minor pentatonic etc etc because they all contain the notes B,D and F#. Whether it sounds good or not depends on note selection and phrasing and the context of the music - i.e. the preceeding and following chords and phrases.

Hope this helps!

Wow thanks dude, that last paragraph just mind fucked me. Like something finally clicked and feel stupid for not realizing it sooner.

I went to both music stores in my area and could not find a single decent book on music theory.... The best book they had was on modes and it mostly contained licks from famous rock songs and stuff like that.

I found one lesson/lick on the utube that contained a minor 7th arpeggio. He didn't explain what it was but the lick sure is cool.
An Arpeggio is the 1st, 3rd, 5th, notes in a scale right?
so a minor 7th would be a minor arpeggios with the added 7th from the scale right?
so it would be 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7TH ?

For the other weird ones that have 13th's and whatnot in them wouldn't it just be starting the scale back over since the 8th is the octave?

Imitationshred thank you ^^. I've been playing guitar for 2 years now and by myself.
Then you ask how to connect modes, ...
SO, :o
First you must know that in music in general there are in fact two types of music ==> The Tonal Music and the modal music.
The tonal music is based on a chord progression. THese chords belonging to the same scale. So when you say that you play in the key of Dm you play a tonal progression. So in fact you can't play a modes if you follow a tonal music. But the truth is that tonal music is very used in classical music and in general and when you use modes it's a modulation.
SO what is modal music and how to create a modal atmosphere??
When you play in the key of Dm you play F# (Major) aeolian mode. So you can't use modes if you keep playing with the same pattern.
When you play modes you put forward a very certain note (I don't know if it's really clear...). If you play neoclassical the most used modes are phrygian, aeolian and ionian. How to find them.
You take your major scale. For example F# Major.
F G A B C D E
I D P L M ? A

I=Ionian D=Dorian P=Phrygian L=Lydian M=Myxolidian and A=Aeolian the other one is the diminished one (very rare).
So you can find modes thanks to this "schema"
F+2=A A is the tonic of the A phrygian mode
F-2=D D is the tonic of the D aeolian mode
F+0=F F is the tonic of the F ionian mode

Easy :D ;)

So, when you say I play the Dm scale you see that it's the aeolian mode which is the part of an other major scale. In fact The term Minor scale is the common term to speak about the aeolian mode. It's the same. :huh:

But in fact Phrygian and Aeolian are two minor modes because the intervall between the Tonic and the third Degree is 1,5 tone. So when you know more about modes if you say I play a minor scale it means nothing :lol: And for the Major scale it's the same but it's globally acknowledge it's the ionian mode.

Now if you want to play the D aeolian mode or Dm you must play the scale of F (it's F# but I do not write the alterations) but you must accentuate and put forward the Dm chord.

E.G. : Dm|B|C|Dm|Dm in this progression (I haven't tried it) the central chord is the Dm chord so you put forward the D of the F scale it means you play the D aeolian mode. You can use any chord but you must put forward this particular chord (Dm).

: F#|B|C|Dm|F# it's the same progression but you play F# Major so it's the ionian mode.

You can notice that you use the same chords and it's not very exciting. In fact if you play these two different modes in the same song you won't hear the specific color of the modes as you use the same chords and it becomes a tonal music.

To connect modes you must use connections. Dm is the tonic of the D aeolian mode but it can be the tonic of the phrygian mode. (Because they are two minor modes). So the Dm chord can musically connect these two modes.


Soloing and modes
In classical music, and so in neoclassical music you DO NOT use a chord progression and then you add notes to play a mode.

You must think the solo part and the solo part as two different things.
To create a very original solo you can start from a modal chord progression which creates the atmosphere (A dark tone, a minor tone, a neoclassical tone,...) and then you start your solo with this rythm part as source of inspiration. In my case I love to play arpeggios to connect these two parts (rythm and solo). In my mind arpeggios are really important to conncet part in song: you can shred with arpeggios and then play very cool licks with a mode.

To accentuate the phrygian and aeolian modes you can use the harmonic and melodic scales. If you play D aeolian you play Dm Harmonic or melodic scale. By using exotic scales and thanks to experience you can hear what scale you should use,... When I've learned music theory I've leaned that the harmonic scale was the the relative major scale of a major scale. That's to say that in classical music (and also in neoclassical music) the harmonic minor scale is THE minor scale.

Then you can create tensions but using a different note. I like to use the harmonic scale and change one note to sound different. Example with the E harmonic minor scale
high E string--12--11--8--(7(----------------------------
This part of the harmonic minor scale becomes
--12--11--9--(7)------------------------------ and ti sounds as a major scale as it now a part of the E major scale. B)

By this example I wanted to tell you that you must not use a single scale and mode you must try and try and try.

How do I compose a modal solo.
First I don't think about scale and modes
2- I think about an idea (a phrase, a lick,...)I've created or I hear a song I like in the instant and i focus on this particular small phrase which can be 4 notes or in my future song 2 notes. :blink:

And then I extend this phrase into a bigger one. IT TAKES TIME. and you can copy a part of an other song to have inspiration. (It doesn't mean you copy the ideo of the artist you loke.) But I like to change a small thing as rythm and 2 or 3 notes to make this phrase totally mine (if I use a small part of an other song as a source of inspiration)
.
3- I make a break :angry:
4- I create a sweeping lick with arpeggios ==> It's cool and the more technic you add in your composition the more original you are. It's played with other scale. In fact There is only one note in common with this lick and the revious part.
5- I repeat this step
6- Again...and again until I'm satisfied
7- I write each part with guitar pro
8- Break :rolleyes:
9- I reorganize licks and I make choices (repetitions, accentuation) to make each part more musical.
10- I play it again and again to feel this work as achieved. If it's not I keep creating new licks.
11- I think about modes :o
12- I write with guitar pro a rythm part with the chords I like being played with each mesure. Then I change chords to play another one to put forward a certain note and create an atmosphere. Now I can say I'm playing a solo in a certain mode.
13- I write the Bass line as I want. It must feel musical so I don't play the tonic of each chord.
14- I add rythm to Bass and rythm guitar. I've tried some chords progressions with some phrases and hramonics to make it more musical and lively.
15- I write the drums part
16- I export and I work with Samplitude and I change something if I think it's not so cool.

Think about music before anything else I could be my unique piece of advice (Malmsteen says the same) to create a cool solo and song.

A 7th arpeggio or chord creates a tension.
-17-12-----------------------------
---------12----------------------
-------------14------------------
The construction for a chord is
example with G7
G B D +F#
I II III VII
In fact you add the 7th degree to your chord. It must hear unstable.

And then back to a common major chord
-16--12----------------------------
-----------12--------------------
----------------13---------------
This is a colored chord to create tensions in a chord progression.
Then I practise to hear when I should use it

Wow that was a beautiful explanation! Thank you so much! I'm printing it out. This post either needs to be sticky-ed or placed by itself in this forum board. incredible explanation. There are too any good points so I'm taking this with me to my guitar.

@ imitation shredder
I'm glad some of what I said made sense - it doesn't happen too often! :rolleyes:

Thank you all! I most likely will have more questions soon.

Glad it helps you a little bit ;)