• RT6a4 • Minor i-iv

Demonstration

TODO

Procedure

Either record your own strumming or use an app like iRealPro to create a simple backing track with just two chords. Use a nice, slow, simple 4/4 tempo.

1. Two bars of Am7
2. Two bars of Dm7

A simple one-strum-per-beat recording suffices, but you can use any rhythm or style you like. If you know more than one voicing for either chord, use any or all of them. Different voicings are fine, but only record one chord in each bar.

There is no need to make the backing track too exciting, but it’s good to make it at least somewhate musical. Remember you play what you practice.

Playing over the changes

Use the connected pan shapes shapes to solo over this backing track with the Am pentatonic scale:

1. Play the root note of the underlying chord on the downbeat of 1 in each measure. Play the note A over Am, and D over Dm.

• First just play just the root by itself, with different rhythms and dynamics, but be sure to hit the right root on the downbeat of 1. Be sure to anticipate the changes!
• Next, play each of the other notes in the frying pan, coming back to the root each time, again hitting the root on each change.
• Try different rhythms and articulation. Really listen to how the root sounds, and how it feels like home each time you come back to it.
• Try bending from the ♭7 to the root (or releasing from a pre-bent root down to the ♭7) instead of just fretting the notes.

2. Next, continue returning to the appropriate root periodically, but start emphasizing each of the other notes in turn a bit more.

• Stay on them longer.
• Play with dynamics: softer/louder/slapped/plucked/muted.
• Try a bit of vibrato.
• Play with articulations: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and bends bends from other notes in the the frying pan shape.
• Try articulations from a fret below or a fret above.
• Start playing with multi-note phrases. Develop your own licks.

Playing the changes

Repeat the exercises above, playing the changes:

1. Repeat the exercise using Am pentatonic over Am, and Dm pentatonic over Dm.

2. Repeat the exercise by staying on Am pentatonic, but “extending the handle” over Dm by playing F. (Note that F can be found in other locations, too!)

Pass criteria

You can never really “master” this exercise. Try to stick with it for at least an hour or more, but come back to it periodically as you gain more experience.