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Jeff's Lesson Notes

"HOT for TUTOR"
(Website version)

 

Hot for Tutor is a fun little track to play.  Its main riffing is similar in vibe to HFT however, there are a few additional notes to it and it's a great practice riff for beginners or anyone who has trouble getting their brain to change direction.  The main riff alternates in direction as it chugs along and sometimes that gives people trouble. 

The tapping intro utilizes similar pull off hammer on techniques as HFT's intro does however, I'm using a totally different chord pattern (all tap sequences like this have some sort of root chord pattern) and I'm not doing straight up arpeggios.  In fact I'm doing scales that incorporate both 1 string and 2 string sequences.  This will be great practice for a lot of you who are only used to doing simple triplet taps on one string.  A great deal of left hand strength will be needed to do this tap sequence or VH's HFT's tap sequence for that matter so take it slow.  The tap intro scale wise utilizes properties from the Locrian mode, Dorian mode and also the Harmonic minor.  They all sort of blend together into this other worldly sounding tap sequence.

We'll talk about a lot of this on the video.  I need to create a lesson here and not just show you the song, so I want you to understand how it works and what you're playing but most of that you can do by viewing the chords I have written over the leads or tapping etc.  To be honest I didn't think about any of that when I put this track together.  I simply played what I thought sounded cool over the beat I programmed.  And that's really how this style of music should be approached anyway, but I'm going to try to where ever possible give you a foundation for what exactly it is you're playing.  Again though, please don't over complicate this stuff in your own head.  This music is just supposed to be fun. 

Enjoy the track.

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Lesson

Scales in play for this track

A Dorian mode:  minor scale with a major 6th.

A, B, C, D, E, F#, G.

E_______________________0_2_3_5_____________________
B_________________0_1_3_____________________________
G_____________0_2___________________________________
D_______0_2_4_______________________________________
A_0_2_3_____________________________________________
E___________________________________________________

A Locrian mode:  minor scale with a Flat 2nd, and Flat 5th.

A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G.

E_______________________________5__________________
B_________________________5_6_8____________________
G___________________5_7_8__________________________
D_____________5_7_8________________________________
A_______5_6_8______________________________________
E_5_6_8____________________________________________

A Harmonic minor:  minor scale with a Major 7th.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G#.

E_______________________________5__________________
B_________________________5_6_9____________________
G___________________5_7_9__________________________
D_____________6_7_9________________________________
A_______5_7_8______________________________________
E_5_7_8____________________________________________

"A Major" scale (Ionian mode) or its relative minor the F# minor scale:  Used during the solo which changes key to the relative minor of A.  It's a good idea to get in the habit with this style of music of mixing major and minor scales.  There really are no rules here but I have to purposely structure something for a lesson. 

Technically though for this track I'm soloing in F#m which is the relative minor to A.  So technically I'm not really doing the A major scale below but rather the F#m scale.  This the soloing technique used in HFT as well as countless other VH tracks.  The relative minor is always the 6th of the Major.  So in other words the relative minor of A is F#m because F# is the 6th of the A.  The relative minor of E would be C#m as C# is the 6th of the E, etc. etc. etc. so on and so forth.  Granted this track is in the key of Am, but as with most VH style stuff the true major or minor situation really isn't paid attention to all that much.  In the main riff for example, both the 3rd and minor 3rd are used the track has properties of both A and A minor so an argument for what key its in could be expressed in either direction.  Either way you slice it going from Am to A Major or A Major to F# minor will give the same effect to your listening audience.

A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#.

Given as F# minor below

E______________________________2____________
B________________________2_3_5______________
G__________________1_2_4____________________
D______________2_4__________________________
A________2_4_5______________________________
E__2_4_5____________________________________

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