Lounge Solo

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: This lesson is a latin feeling improvisation that utilizes notes from two easy sources: the G Major scale, and the D minor pentatonic scale. You will notice that it is in the key of G Major. The entire tab is included below to allow easy reading once all the parts are learned separately. Ultimately this is an exercise in improvising. Once you get the feel o...

Media Length: 0:47

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: The chords contained in the backing are:  G7M, C#sus4, C, C7M   Notice that the G note in the bass is held for most of the progression. Movement is minimal despite the tonal changes. Economy of movement is important in guitar playing. The less you have to move around the fretboard, the more likely it is that you will execute the changes cleanly a...

Media Length: 0:38

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: In this example, be careful of bar 2 where there is a short burst of three notes. They are intentionally fast, passing notes to set up the G note on the first beat of bar 3. Remember also that ties carry note values across the bar lines, extending their duration.

Media Length: 1:03

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: If you have a tremolo bar on your guitar, now is the time to put it to work! This example uses it quite sparingly, but you can experiment with greater degrees of bending for a more 'outside' effect. If you aren't able to use a tremolo bar, you can achieve a similar effect using left hand vibrato.   This section of the solo allows you to get the most ou...

Media Length: 0:48

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: Important note:  the last 7 bars use the fingers of the right hand in place of the pick. Bar 2 can be a tricky transition, so practice transferring your pick to a comfortable place in your hand while you use your fingers. In this section, we have a repeated motif which uses both minor and major 6th intervals.   The last bar of the piece feat...

Media Length: 1:35

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Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Latin

Excerpt: This backing is in the key of G Major and is set to 120 BPM. Have fun improvising!

Media Length: 1:52