How to Make Scales Less Boring
Scales are an important part of music practice but not very interesting. Get some tips on how to make practicing them fun with lots of musical variety!
Solfa and the Score: Music Transcription
Work through these exercises to be able to transcribe short melodies using the notes of the pentatonic scale and solfa syllables you have internalised.
Solfa and the Score: Pentatonic Improvisation
Explore how to use the pentatonic scale and solfa as the basis for your sung improvisation. This exercise will help you internalise the solfa syllables.
How to Improvise on Guitar: 3 simple steps
Getting started with guitar improvisation doesn’t need to be complicated. Here’s a simple 3-step process that anyone can follow to learn to solo on guitar.
What's the point of scale ear training?
Scales are a highly unpopular topic with most instrument learners, and this tends to have a knock-on impact on ear training, so that scale ear training is neglected. This is highly unfortunate, as scale degree ear training is one of the best ways to develop your...What is a scale?
A scale is a collection of notes which are commonly used together, in order of pitch. https://www.musical-u.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/FAQ-Major-Scale.mp3Listen to a major scale (C major scale ascending)...
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part two)
Here’s part two of Brad’s article on playing melodies and improvising by ear using the notes of a song’s chords. It’s part of our series on learning to play by ear. You should start with part one if you haven’t already read it! Welcome...
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part one)
This week in our playing-by-ear series guitar teacher Brad Mavin shares a process he uses for learning to play songs by ear on guitar. A fun exercise that I like to do with students is to play along with a popular four chord song. Identify the key and make music using...
Get familiar with the minor pentatonic scale
The minor pentatonic scale is a staple of rock and blues guitar, also quite common in metal, punk, and other genres. Learn to recognise its distinctive sound.
