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Beck To Basics

For this jam Tom has composed a simple chord progression which tackles the jazz sensibility of
playing over the changes but in its most basic form. In essence we deal with 3 chords in this
piece, and those chords come from two different key centres.
The jam centres around a funky rock Em7 vamp for 16 bars before moving between an A7 and F#7
4 times to create a simple B section.
This could be considered more difficult than playing a straight up rock tune in that the note choice
for the Em7 won't work over the F#7 chord, so we have to change out scale choice to deal with this
modulation (key change).
As you may know, our choice of scale for the Em7 chord would be our E dorian scale (mode two of
the D major scale)
E F# G A B C# D E R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7, R

In the diagrams above you have been given the Dorian scale in CAGED position 1 (root on the 12th
fret) and position 4 (root on the 7th fret). These are, of course, not your only options as your ultimate
goal is to be able to play the scale anywhere; so knowing these in CAGED, three note per string, or
Tom's own fragment voicings is absolutely fine.
You could also choose to play around with various other note pools, but as a starting point, why not
look into:
E Blues
E G A Bb B D E R, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, R
E Melodic Minor
E F# G A B C# D# E R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7, R
Both of the above scales contain interesting tension notes and are great for use when playing over
one chord for a long time. Experiment with the position 1 diagrams below and try to familiarise
yourself with the sound of each of these scales.

It should be mentioned that when looking at scales in this manner, it's not a case of either/or, you
can add the blues note to the dorian scale, you can add the notes of the melodic minor scale to the
blues scale, all notes are good when used right.
After 16 bars of sitting on this groove the chord changes to an A7, which is chord five in the key of
D. This means that the notes of E dorian will still work here as both chords are in the same key; but
although this approach will work, it's best that you change your perception of the notes you're
playing. We now need to see the A note as our root, so E is now the 5th, G is now the b7 etc. When
we map these new intervals out we're left with the A mixolydian scale (mode five of D major).
A B C# D E F# G A R, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7, R

In the diagrams above you can see the A mixolydian scale in position 4 (root a the 12th fret) and
position 1 (root at the 5th fret). It's very important that you have this change in perception because,
although the noes of the D major scale will still work, the E blues scale won't as the b5 is now the
b2 of A. Likewise, the E melodic minor scale won't work in the same manner as the 7 is now the
#11.
You could take this a little further by adding some more scale options for this chord, like the
country pentatonic (R, 2, b3, 3, 5, 6) or the lydian dominant (R, 2, 3, #4, 5, 6, b7). These should be
considered further study and when you reach an advanced level you should feel relatively
comfortable looking at the intervalic pattern for a scale and then playing that sound. As an example,

the country pentatonic scale is nothing more than the major scale with an added b3, just as when
you add the b5 to the minor pentatonic to make the blues scale (rather than thinking of it as a
completely new shape) you can add the b3 to the major pentatonic to achieve this new sound.
The hardest part about this jam is nailing the transition to the F#7 chord, although you have the
option to just move your shape down three frets, this tends to sound a little clumsy (although it can
work well) Tom is more of a fan of changing from one shape to the next but in the same place on
the neck. If you look at the two diagrams below you'll see that as A mixolydian and F# mixolydian
occupy the same space on the fretboard.

Practising the visualisation of two shapes is one of the most time consuming elements of playing
over chord changes, but don't short change yourself because you'll need to be able to see these
patterns light up without thinking in order to move between them musically especially when you
only get a bar on each chord as Tom does in this piece!
That's really they key to this backing track, looking at Tom's solo and how he changes scales, when
you move from one chord to another you don't want any dark areas, you need to shift to the new
tonal centre and instantly have all of your new options and sounds light up to you. As an exercise
take some of Tom's licks and line and when it comes to a chord change, play the note Tom lands on
and then from that note, just run up and down the scale in that position, this will solidify your
fretboard knowledge and very quickly make you find any holes in your board visualisation.

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