_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jeff's Lesson Notes

"XYZ - Progressive Rock - Lesson 1"

 

Progressive rock was always very far from main stream.  It's an acquired taste mostly because it consists of a lot of stops, a lot of syncopated rhythms and odd time or, even time with off beats, which is still hard to dance to.  Anything that's hard to dance to, or is very involved musically is usually not very "popular" with the main stream.  Most people that don't like it, just can't feel it.  Music is about feel and some sort of emotional response.  You like a song based on how it makes you feel.  For some people this type off music actually hurts when they listen to it.  lol 

This lesson is a very good example of this type of music.  It incorporates progressive rock feel with, Free time Jazz grooves.  This "XYZ" track however is NOT in free time, although it may seem that way to some of you.  It's a very structured track with a set of defined counts.  This makes reproduction of the track in a live setting very easy to do.  Granted, this track was improvised by Chris and myself while we were recording for the Vin Heuton 1 CD, it has defined parts and a set way that it should be counted out.  Any track I put together for the website has to be structured in some way, or it's difficult for me to find the lesson in it. 

I'll give you some tips on the video for counting out odd time, but the best advice I can give to you is to not psych yourself out with the term, "odd time".  People get all freaked out about odd time and counting it.  The truth is, don't count it as odd time, just count it and incorporated off beat accents.  So in other words the intro this "XYZ" track is a Measure of 4 and a measure of 5.  On the last measure I don't count 5 I just count 4 and an accent on 1 of the next fictitious measure. 

I think if you have trouble with odd time and off beat feels part of it is probably a psych out on your own part, and you're probably trying to count much more than you should worry about.  Don't over complicate things, always play off your strengths.  If you're a feel person and not a count person, then come up with a way to feel the rests or have your drummer simply give a stick hit cue.  Like in Zep's Black Dog, if you listen real close during the rest when Plant is singing, Bonham does 1 click of his drums sticks just before the band comes in.  Jimmy page isn't sitting there counting anything.

By contrast if you are a counting person, then you need to find the best way to count it for your own brain.  My brain breaks thing up into evens and odds.  Some people just try to count the odds and get totally lost.  It's far easier for me to count the intro to this track as 1 2 3 4  1 2 3 4 5  than it is for me to try to count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  etc. etc.  Like I always teach everything is a to each his own thing, but I as always I offer some help by showing you my way.  Which usually is the way a lot of players do it.  There are several schools of thought with music.  So by all means do what ever is best for you, if my way isn't workin' for ya.

This will be an excellent lesson and it's only 1 lesson out of what will be many on progressive style of Rock and Jazz.  I come from a Jazz background, so in later lessons we'll have even more fun with super loose and free flowing improvisational Jazz.  For now, let's start with this little ditty which is basically in the Locrian mode of G minor although many other notes are thrown in.  This piece is tough to categorize into a given key, or mode but I would write it in G minor if I were transcribing it into Standard notation.  Fortunately, I only work with tab here online for now, so I won't have to put in all the darn added flats and sharps I'd have to add.  lol

In the Lesson section above the transcription of the track we'll talk about the scales I'm using and the mechanics of this style of Rock.

______________________________________________________________________

Lesson

Main Scales in play with this track.

NOTE:  There are other scales used, and in a lot of cases modes are mixed and blended into giant mega scales.  I'm focusing on just the main theme modes in this lesson section.  I have to structure some sort of a lesson out of a track that really has very little scale structure per say.  lol

G Locrian mode:  minor scale with a flat 2nd and a flat 5th.

Pitches:  G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F.

E_________________________________6_7_8_11_13_15___
B_________________________4_6_8_9__________________
G___________________3_5_6__________________________
D______________3_5_________________________________
A________3_4_6_____________________________________
E__3_4_6___________________________________________

 

G Phrygian mode:  minor scale with a flat 2nd.

Pitches:  G, Ab, Bb, C, D, Eb, F.

E_________________________________6_7_8_10_13_15___
B_________________________4_6_8_9__________________
G___________________3_5_7__________________________
D______________3_5_________________________________
A________3_5_6_____________________________________
E__3_4_6___________________________________________

 

F Lydian mode:  Major scale with a Sharp 4th.

Pitches:  F, G, A, B, C, D, E .

E___________________________0_1__________________
B_____________________0_1_3______________________
G_________________0_2____________________________
D___________0_2_3________________________________
A_____0_2_3______________________________________
E_1_3____________________________________________
 

During the solo the Lydian mode and its many forms come into play quite a bit.  The scale up mid-solo is a great example of Lydian mode feel.  In the case of the solo a lot of times other notes are added in, or the Lydian mode is done as more of a Lydian minor.  However it's used its the properties of the Lydian mode that make things sound the way they do.  For those of you who own a copy of my "Soloing 101" CD ROM you know I put a great deal of importance on the mode properties and the feel and vibe that they present to the listening audience.  Lydian mode is a Sharpened 4th.  This is a very nice, dramatic feel if used properly. 

Now of course the truth be told, every note is actually in use in this song.  All 12 of em', it's about how you group them and the feel of the given sections.  I've grouped them into how I analyze my own track.  100 players would analyze this track 100 different ways.  The way I'm giving it to you hear is the most logical and I think the easiest way to look at the scales that were used, even though they were mixed on many occasions.  This track was approached in a very loose manor.  I didn't plan it out.  You can get away with a lot in a track like this and it's great practice for moving out of the Blues box and using some new notes on the fret board to both solo and riff with.

 

Counting

Below is a brief all be it simply lesson in counting something like this piece.  Below is a similar riff to the intro to this track and the opening to Rush's YYZ.  It's a good example for people new to odd time feel to get a handle on counting this stuff.
 

E____________________________________________________
B____________________________________________________
G____________________________________________________
D____________________________________________________
A__3____3_3_3____3_3_3_3______3___3_3_3____3_3_3_3___
E____2_________2__________2_2___2________2___________

_________________________________________________________________________