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In this video, Scott gives you ideas about practicing the major scale in different ways, so that you begin to learn not just the scale in sequence, but the different notes in the scale, where and what they are, and how they are related to the chords in the key. You get exercises that show you how to practice the scale from chord tone to chord tone, chord tone to scale tone, in short musical phrases known as patterns or sequences, and more.
| Welcome to Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos |
| Welcome to Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos |
In this course, you’ll learn the difference between scalar melodies that sound good played against the chords of the song you’re playing and lines that just don’t cut it. You’ll learn how and when to use “color” notes in your lines to create different sounds. You’ll learn to use “blue notes” with the major scale to give your playing a vocal quality. You’ll learn to use pentatonic scales in a way that sounds great combined with a chord progression, not like aimless noodling. You’ll learn about thematic soloing and improvising, how to create lines with a sense of forward motion, how to combine the melody of a song with fills, melodic variations, arpeggios, and more. The course is taught by Grammy-winning guitarist Scott Nygaard, who is one of the most inventive and original flatpicking guitarists in the bluegrass/acoustic music scene, and has recorded, toured, and gigged with Tim O’Brien, Joan Baez, Jerry Douglas, Chris Thile, Darol Anger, John Reischman, Brittany Haas, and many others.
Here is Scott’s statement about what you’ll learn in Creating Bluegrass and Roots Music Solos:
"Have you learned a few scales and arpeggios, but can’t figure out how to turn them into music? Have you gone further and learned major scales and arpeggios all over the neck of your instrument, but are thinking there must be something else you need to learn, because they still don’t sound like music? Do you wonder how the musicians you love ever turned these things that sound like boring exercises into exciting music?
"In this course, we’ll look at how to turn scales and arpeggios into solos that sound great, whether you’re improvising or playing a composed solo. And you’ll learn that it’s not how many scales and arpeggios and scale positions you know, but how to use the major scale to your advantage. Because that lowly major scale contains 98% of the information you need to know to play bluegrass and roots music. You just need to know how to manipulate the major scale to do what you want it to do.
"Since I am a guitarist, this course will naturally appeal to and be geared to some degree to guitarists, but I think mandolinists, fiddlers, and progressive banjo players can get a lot out of it as well. You don’t have to be a budding virtuoso to benefit from this course. If you want to play simple, melodious solos on your favorite songs, you can benefit as well."
—Scott Nygaard
