DAY 4 - Instant Harmonic Minor!

SFS Fretboard Secrets

Course Progress:

DAY1 - DAY2 - DAY3 - DAY4 - DAY5 - DAY6 - DAY7

Most people think that learning to play a new scale all over the fretboard is a huge task. And if you were to learn a bunch of scale shapes, and theory, in order to achieve this, then this idea would be correct šŸ˜Ÿ.

But today you will learn how to play a new and unusual scale, everywhere on the guitar fretboard, within minutes šŸ˜€šŸŽø.

šŸŽ¬ Watch the video lesson:

šŸŽ Get the new version of this course:

šŸ’Ž String Partner Subscription:

šŸ“– Video Transcript:

    Hey guys, welcome to part 3 of SFS Fretboard Secrets. If you missed lessons 1 & 2 it might be a good idea to use the navigation to catch up. This lesson is going to be a bit different from what weā€™ve been doing up to now.


    Actually, itā€™s going to be different from what I was planning to teach here, because a few weeks ago I did a survey among EMP viewers, about what kinds of lessons you would like to see from me. And the results were definitely not as I expected! I got many responses, and it took me a while to go through them all and compile the results, but I was thrilled to see some unexpected suggestions.


    So Iā€™m excited because we will deal with a scale that is not as conventional as the blues scale, or the Dorian Mode that we covered in the first two lessons. This is a more exotic sound, that I think you will enjoy. And it fits well with what we are learning because todayā€™s lesson will demonstrate how you can learn in minutes, things that you probably never thought you ever would get to.


    A few years ago it seemed that I would never have the luxury to delve into more exotic sounds because the basics were taking so much of my practice time. But thankfully, with SFS, that has changed. And my students are grateful for that as well because when you do have the freedom to experiment, and learn new things in minutes instead of weeks, practicing becomes so much more enjoyable!


    But before I show you the string fragments, I want to take a step back for a minute, and teach you something that I think will help you more than any concept, or any scale, or any tip. Some of you are stuck in a rut because you are not aware of what Iā€™ll talk to you about right now, especially if you donā€™t have a lot of time available for practice:


    Practice what you ENJOY practicing at any given time: stop asking questions like ā€œshould I learn chords", or "should I play jazzā€, or ā€œMust I learn to read notation?ā€, or I donā€™t know ā€œWhat are the 10 most essential licks I need to learn?ā€ When you ask these questions, youā€™re inviting everyone to give YOU THEIR OPINION, and this is very confusing because they all think that they are right.


    Listen, music is just too big to try to put it in a small box. There are so many options. There is no absolute recipe for learning. In the String Partner Subscription, for example, we have no specific order that we study the courses. I just list them by difficulty level, but even that is not absolute. Everyone practices what they like. You should become confident enough, and informed enough, to decide what you want to learn, and stop caring what everyone else does.


    For example, I was planning to do a lesson in here on connecting fingerings horizontally. I was going to use what we learned in lesson 2, and show you how to use SFS to move between adjacent positions, build diagonal fingerings, and so on. But the survey I did showed that right now, more people are interested in the Melodic and the Harmonic Minor scales than in Horizontal Connections for Modes.


    So these days EMP viewers are into exotic sounds. Thatā€™s cool, itā€™s all good. It kind of messed up my marketing, because I wanted to try to pitch my new Horizontal Connections course during this event, but thatā€™s alright. Those of you that did vote for connecting adjacent positions, check out SFS Modes 2 - Horizontal Connections, or the String Partner Subscription because itā€™s included in that as well.


    But anyway, ALLOW YOURSELF TO CHOOSE the type of practice you like at any given period of time. Thatā€™s probably the most important effective practice principle: Are you in the mood to go into fresh melodic material, or work on phrasing, technique, or ear training? (Btw, many people voted for playing by ear, and Iā€™ll get to that in the not so distant future).


    Choose what you enjoy. My experience as a player and a teacher shows that thatā€™s when you make the most progress and have the most discipline. When you are having fun! Which brings me to a second point:


    In order to apply this, you need to have many practice options, and many ongoing long term projects, so that when you get bored, you can switch to something else. Thatā€™s why I have so much free stuff on the website, and thatā€™s why Iā€™ll be making even more. I want you to have different, fun, and effective choices. And of course, those of you that already have the String Partner Subscription, you have access to all the premium courses as well. Even the ones that are still in development. Thatā€™s the philosophy! I want to turn EMP (now String Systems) into something like NETFLIX, but for guitar:


    Not a step by step method, but many choices, of step by step methods on various subjects, so that you can pick and choose, and do as much, or as little as you want on each one, and then return to it later. This way you take advantage of every time you have some time and energy, and youā€™re always enjoying your learning.


    So letā€™s see this in action. Letā€™s have fun with an unconventional scale. To my surprise, the Harmonic Minor Scale got a heap of votes in the survey. Actually, it was an exact draw with the Melodic Minor, but since I already have some other material on that, I went with the Harmonic Minor for this lesson.


    Last year almost no one voted for these scales. So Iā€™m going to show you a quick way to play the Harmonic Minor using SFS. If you followed the previous lessons, then this will be fast and easy. Instead of going step by step, Iā€™ll show you the 3 string fragments straight away, and then, if you want to work on this in a more organized way, you can check your PDF notes in the SFS Fretboard Secrets package for step by step application.


    You will find the A Harmonic Minor mp3 backing track in there as well. Potentially you can learn 7 string fragments to cover every conceivable possibility, but 3 are enough to get you moving around the fretboard. So here is the 3 - string SFS for Harmonic Minor. Letā€™s apply it on every string [EXAMPLE IN VIDEO]. Hopefully, by now you know that we need to shift everything on the 2 top strings 1 fret up. Thatā€™s why in these 2 examples the system is adjusted [EXAMPLE IN VIDEO]. 


    Now, WHERE do we use this scale? In this lesson, I will play it over the BT that you have in your package, which gives you the pure, original HM sound. All the chords in this BT help to establish the pure Harmonic Minor sound, so itā€™s like a song written specifically in a harmonic minor. But in the next lesson, I will show you how to mix this scale into OTHER musical situations, so that you can have this as an extra option to spice up more... regular songs.


But hereā€™s a quick example solo, and weā€™ll talk more about the next lesson after you watch this [EXAMPLE IN VIDEO]


Ok, I hope you liked the sound of this scale. In my upcoming SFS Harmonic Minor Modes course, we will explore all 7 modes of this scale, and each one of them has a unique and exciting sound. Those of you that have the String Partner Subscription will see the first lessons very soon.


    Talking about the subscription, in the next lesson I will have a big gift for you concerning it, and also a special offer for those who are thinking about subscribing. And we will learn how to combine multiple scales to create interest and variety in your soloing, which is a very cool ability to have. 


    But until then, be sure to like and share this lesson, and leave your comments below.

Have fun practicing the Harmonic Minor, and I will see you soon in lesson 4.

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