Guitar Lesson 6

Lesson 6

In this lesson we will look at the tie, building a D major scale and the key of D. Plus we will discuss sus4 chords and learn how to play Tom Petty's Free Falling and we will review our open chord with the verse of Greenday's Blvd. of Broken Dreams.

Review Lesson 5

Reading Lesson 6

The Tie

The tie is used to connect two notes of the same pitch indicating they are to be played as one.

The quarter note A tied across the bar line to another A would be treated like a half note. Do not pick the second A. Let it ring.

The tie can also be used to connect two notes in the same measure.

Scales - D Major

To build a D major scale we start on D and follow the formula:

W W H W W W H

Build on the D string

By building the scale we learn the key of D major has 2 sharps (F# and C#). From what we learned in lesson 5, could you figure out what D majors relative minor would be? The answer is below.

The key signature comes after the clef sign and before the time signature. The key signature below means all the F and C's in the music will be played as F# and C#. There is no accidental needed in front of the notes like the D major scale above.

D Major in 2nd Position

To build a D major scale in 2nd position we would need to put our fingers in 2nd position. 1st finger on the 2nd fret, 2nd finger on the 3rd fret and so on. Next we need to find a D, which would be the 5th fret of your A string (5th string). So we will start the scale on D with our 4th (little) finger.

The scale form above and to the right should look familiar to you. If you moved the form back one whole step it would be C major scale in 1st (also known as open position) that we learned in lesson 2.

To the right is a D major scale up and back down with quarter notes and eighth notes. You should try to pick it down down up. You can think about it as long short short. It is the same as the strum pattern from lesson 5.

The first track on the player is an ascending D major scale played as quarter notes at 60 bpm (beats per minute). You should practice it descending also.

Track two is the above exercise played at 60 bpm.

Listen midi file for slower connections or use with midi sequencer. Right click to save as or open in new window.

B Minor Scale

Let's figure out D majors relative minor. Either go down 3 half steps from D or go to the 6th degree of the D major scale and both will give you B. So B minor would be the relative minor of D major. In other words, play your D scale from B to B and you are playing B minor.

D major scale

D E F# G A B C# D

B minor scale

B C# D E F# G A B

And like the scales the key of D major and B minor both have the same two sharps (F# and C#)

B Minor
2nd Position

Diatonic Triads in the key of D major

And just like the scales and keys, the chords in the key of D major and B minor are the same. However, Bm would be called the i chord and C#dim the iidim and D the III and so on. We will explore this in more detail in a later lesson.

	Arpeggio An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. It can be played so all notes ring together or the notes can be seperated. Arpeggios should be a daily part of your practice routine. They help with technique, learning the fretboard and getting familiar with what notes belong to what chord. Most importantly they train your ear to hear chord tones. Below we will look at a D major arpeggio. First we have to build a D chord by finding the 1st, 3rd and 5th degrees (notes) from the D major scale above. That gives us D, F# and A
		2nd position 1st finger (index) looks after the 2nd fret 2nd finger (middle) looks after the 3rd fret 3rd finger (ring) looks after the 4th fret 4th finger (little) looks after the 5th fret
	Start by putting your little finger on the D (5th fret of A string). Down pick and as you drop your 3rd finger on the F# (4th fret of D string), remove your little finger. Down pick. Continue with your 1st finger playing the A and then 2nd finger on D and then F# with your 1st. So far each note should be down picked. You will now turn the pick and hit the high A (5th fret of E string) with an up. Then pull off back to your 1st finger on F#. Next up pick each note back down.

1. Quarter notes:
2. Eighth notes: 3. Eighth note triplets: 4. Sixteenth notes:
5. Sixteenth note triplets:

D Chord

We will build a D chord by stacking the 1st , 3rd and 5th note of the D major scale giving us D, F# and A.

To play the chord in root position (as shown above) we would have to play the D on the 5th fret of our A string and F# on the 4th fret of our D string and then A on the 2nd fret of our G string.

But just as long as we hear a D, F# and A, it is a D major chord. The notes can be in any order and we can have more than one of any. Below is a popular open D chord:

Do not play the 5th or 6th string. Even though the 5th string is an A and the 5th of a D chord, we want the root (in this case D) to be the lowest tone.

If we play A in the bass it should be written as D/A

Meaning it is a D chord, with A in the bass. More on slash chords in lesson 10.

Dsus4

Sus4 chords are chords where we replace the 3rd with the 4th. We build the sus4 chord by taking the 1st, 4th and 5th notes from a major scale. So above we took the 1st, 3rd and 5th from a D scale and that gave us D, F# and A, making a D major chord. For a Dsus4 we will take the 1st, 4th and 5th from the D major scale and get D, G and A.

We will leave our 2nd finger on the F# when we play the G with our little finger. The F# will not sound.

A Chord

You should know the A major chord from lesson 1.

We can build an A major chord from the 5th note of the D scale or we can build it with the 1st, 3rd and 5th from an A major scale.

Either way you will end up with A C# E

Asus4

So to make our A chord an Asus4, we raise the 3rd (C#) one half step higher (D).

Sometimes we will use our little finger to play the D and leave our 3rd finger on the C# but for the Tom Petty song we are about to learn we will use this form with our 3rd finger playing the D.

Tom Petty - Free Falling

This is a fun and easy tune to play and solo over. It uses the D, Dsus4 and Asus4 chord.

The link below will take you back to the free section for the breakdown and also a little more on sus4 chords.

Get Started Here

Improvising

The Tom Petty tune above is really fun to solo over. Try using your D major scale and take out the 4th and 7th to make it D major pentatonic.

Like in lesson 3 you should try and play just one note at a time and let your ears hear the different scale tones over the different chords.

Another fun thing to play over this tune is the D major arpeggio from earlier in this lesson.

Blvd. of Broken Dreams - verse

The progression below is another popular chord progression and is the one Greenday uses for the verse of Blvd. of Broken Dreams. Even though it starts on an E minor chord, it is not in the key of E minor. The A chord is the giveaway. If we remember from lesson 5, the key of E minor (or it's relative major G) doesn't have an A major chord. It was A minor. However if we look at the chords from the key of D major/B minor we find all 4 chords below belong. So the verse of Blvd. of Broken Dreams is in the key of D major.

On the recording it is a half step higher in the key of Eb and a capo is used on the 1st fret making the first chord F minor. We will not worry about the capo right now.

Practice

Fingergymnastics
Scales - C in open and 2nd, G major and Eminor in 1st (2 octave) , D major in 2nd. Pentatonic versions too.
Arpeggios - D major in 2nd
Chords - Em, G, A, Am, C, D, Dsus4, Asus4
Songs - My Girl, Brainstew, Free Falling, verse from Blvd of Broken Dreams
Reading - At this point you should read at least one exercise a day from reading lesson 4, 5 and 6
Improvising - You should be spending a few minutes a day playing along with jam tracks.

Review lesson 5

Move on to lesson 7