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My Junior year in high school, my family moved up to the States for a 1 year furlough. We went to visit a little town called Lordsburg New Mexico where my brother-in-law and sister lived. I was introduced to my late friend Damon Day, a guitar virtuoso and my all time favorite guitar player. He was the only person I knew who would play Black Sabbath on a Tuba during the high school football games. May you rest in peace my friend.
Anyway, all I could do at that time was play chords and maybe a little picking. I always wanted to play lead so Damon started me out with some basics that directed me to where I am now. So here I’ll try to explain what he quickly explained and what I worked on from there on.
When you bar an A chord, there is an imaginary line on the neck, 5th fret that you can use as a starting point in a Minor Pentatonic Scale. Check the photo at the top of the page and see the similarities. The scale will continue through 5 positions and the pattern will cycling until you run out of fret board. Damon also pointed out that I could drop down 3 steps (half steps) and play a Jimmy Page style of lead and if I wanted to get fancy I could mix the two scale patterns together. If you are playing in F, think about how you would bar the F chord, follow the lower chart and you are playing in a Minor Pentatonic Scale, then get fancy and drop 3 steps or mix the two patterns together.
I know there are a lot of virtuosos here on macjams who know a lot more about theory. This is my feeble way of getting across to you the way I start to figure a lead. A lot comes into play, to me it’s finding a feel, a melody to adapt to the lead and most of the time I end up layering guitars.
I must apologize, the first 5 songs that were uploaded on macjams I downloaded and played on. I had hoped to do all of them but summer vacation fell upon us and the kids are now out of school. I’m reluctant to hide in front of my computer ignoring the children.
5 submissions are included on one track. Some great backing music that has left me with a lot to play with. As I cheat along, 2 are layered guitar parts, 3 of them I added another drum track to get me to play more aggressively and at least three of the songs have only one lead track. No better way to butcher a song than with your ax.
This is the order they fell in WaveBurner.
Beat SoloMe-O peacepiano
Cass Corridor Skunkwrx
Gluten-free Guitar Warren Smith
Solo-mon’s gruv-or apb
SoloMe-o Part 1 SmokeyVW
Anyway, all I could do at that time was play chords and maybe a little picking. I always wanted to play lead so Damon started me out with some basics that directed me to where I am now. So here I’ll try to explain what he quickly explained and what I worked on from there on.
When you bar an A chord, there is an imaginary line on the neck, 5th fret that you can use as a starting point in a Minor Pentatonic Scale. Check the photo at the top of the page and see the similarities. The scale will continue through 5 positions and the pattern will cycling until you run out of fret board. Damon also pointed out that I could drop down 3 steps (half steps) and play a Jimmy Page style of lead and if I wanted to get fancy I could mix the two scale patterns together. If you are playing in F, think about how you would bar the F chord, follow the lower chart and you are playing in a Minor Pentatonic Scale, then get fancy and drop 3 steps or mix the two patterns together.
I know there are a lot of virtuosos here on macjams who know a lot more about theory. This is my feeble way of getting across to you the way I start to figure a lead. A lot comes into play, to me it’s finding a feel, a melody to adapt to the lead and most of the time I end up layering guitars.
I must apologize, the first 5 songs that were uploaded on macjams I downloaded and played on. I had hoped to do all of them but summer vacation fell upon us and the kids are now out of school. I’m reluctant to hide in front of my computer ignoring the children.
5 submissions are included on one track. Some great backing music that has left me with a lot to play with. As I cheat along, 2 are layered guitar parts, 3 of them I added another drum track to get me to play more aggressively and at least three of the songs have only one lead track. No better way to butcher a song than with your ax.
This is the order they fell in WaveBurner.
Beat SoloMe-O peacepiano
Cass Corridor Skunkwrx
Gluten-free Guitar Warren Smith
Solo-mon’s gruv-or apb
SoloMe-o Part 1 SmokeyVW
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alackbass
Wow! That was fun! Great variety. Love your guitar tones. It flows well too. Like a multi-movement prog-rock piece.