How to be a Sixth Lord

Apologies for the Star Wars pun in the title. Couldn't help it after seeing the hype around the newest chapter to the Star Wars saga for the last year or so!

The page pictured below is an excerpt from a book I'm working on, which I hope to have ready in the coming months. But I wanted to give you a sneak peek now.


This is a melodic exercise I've written built around the diatonic Major Scale. Specifically, I took the intervals of a Major and minor 6th and put it through the Major Scale. There's nothing special or different about that, although it's a great technical exercise to work out. 

Instead of just leaving it at the Major Scale played in Sixths, as it is in the first line of the exercises below, I wanted to dig in deeper. So the next line is the Major Scale sequenced in a cycle of thirds. The third line is a sequence of fourths, the line after that a sequence of fifths, etc. 

I wanted to hear these lines played forward and backward so the first two measures of each line are the original melodic sequence. The last two are the sequence played in retrograde. I did also set up the parameter of not going higher than the B in the middle of the staff ascending a minor 6th to G. That way, a particular pattern (contained within an octave) emerges. 

There were a few reasons I started writing ideas like this. First, was to train my ears to hear specific sequences of notes. Second, these are also great technical exercises. It takes me awhile to really figure out effective fingerings for some of the patterns. So this becomes a really great way to learn my instrument. Third, reading through these exercises has greatly enhanced my ability to read. As you know, many guitarists are poor readers. I'm not the best reader in the world, but I'm getting better...mainly because I'm working at it with these exercises every day.

---

Again, this is just a very rough sampling of a much larger work. This is something that I've worked on in various forms for a long time. I've shared this with some of my private students to great effect. I hope you can gain something from this as well!


If you have other ideas about this concept, let me know about it! Connect with me below and share your ideas!
 
Happy practicing!!