 Guitar and Excel. C major, A minor scale fret number seven, focusing on the E note. Get ready and some coffee and remember, as with friends, you can pick your guitar and you can pick your nose. But you can't pick your guitar's nose, mainly because it doesn't have one. You know, your guitar has a sound hole. It's totally different because we don't generally think of noses as the primary sound holes of the human body. You know, the human body has two primary sound holes, neither of which is the nose. You've got the sound hole that most people use for communication, and then you've got the sound hole used by politicians to corrupt, distort, and manipulate communication. Oh, that's funny, Phil. No, I am not a politician, Phil. Here we are in Excel. If you don't have access to this workbook, that's okay. You could just follow along. If you do have access, it's a great tool to run scenarios with. Quick recap of our project, noting that you don't have to have watched all prior presentations to follow along with this one. However, a general overview of the overall project can help to orientate us. So let's go to that first tab to look at that overview. We started out thinking about the C major scale. We also think of the relative modes as well. Thinking about the open positions to start with, which we defined as frets 0 through 3. Noting that this E represents the low or heavy string, the one closest to the ceiling. Funnest way to map out the notes in open position is to construct the chords from the notes in the scale. So we started with the one chord, the C major chord, mapped it out in open position, discussed it in detail. We then went to the four chord because it also has a major chord construction, mapped it out, discussed it in detail. Same with the five chord, then back to the two chord, which is a minor chord construction. The three chord, the six chord, and then to that diminished chord. Once we mapped all of those out, if we put them all on the screen at the same time, all those notes, we will have basically mapped out the C major scale in related modes in that open position. And it would look something like this in the open position. We then wanted to move up to the middle of the guitar fret 5 this time, not thinking about constructing it first with chord constructions, but rather using the scales, the pentatonic, and then the major scale and linking them to the open positions that we looked at last time. So that's what we did going forward, and then we focused on each of the notes that we can link in between the open position in fret 5, and now we're moving to fret 7, same kind of project. So now we're on the next position here, and we've talked about it in general, and now we're going to be focusing mainly on the E note within this position and the related chord constructed from it, which is going to be an E minor chord. And so in essence, we'll be kind of talking about us being in an E Phrygian type of mode, but we'll talk more formally about modes in a future presentation. So let's give a quick recap of the colors that we have here. Remember that this E represents the low or heavy string, the one closest to the ceiling. The colors, what we did is we laid down on the bottom, you can think of the bottom layer of colors as all the notes in the C major scale or related mode, in this case like the E Phrygian mode, which is all of these notes. Then we laid on top of that the pentatonic notes, which are going to be these notes, which are generally related to the major and the related minor in essence. And then we laid on top of that our point of focus, the E note and the relative chord positions of the E note if it's constructed from the notes in the C major scale, which is going to construct an E minor chord. So that means that our major focal point over here are going to be the light greens and that's going to be our major note and then the third of that E minor chord, which is a G and then the yellow is going to be the fifth. Those are our major points that we're focusing in on. All other notes that are not white are good notes that we can play and then the white notes are kind of like the lava, we're trying not to step on the lava. Except maybe sometimes like if you're really cold, then you might like hover your toe over the lava button and most of the time we're going to avoid the white ones. Okay, so then we have these brackets. So we have the red brackets and the yellow brackets. The red bracket represents the prior shape that we were working on, which I would call shape one. You could also call it a G shape because if you look at the C major scale that we're building everything from, you could see that this would create basically a G shape within this area. So you can name it a G shape C major if you would like to. But I'm going to call it position one as well and then we're on position two, which again that's our focus this time, which you could call an E shape because if we looked at the C major and created the notes from that, we would get something that looks like an E. So here, here, here and so on. So that would be, but I'm going to call it the position number two. We have some interplay between the two. That's what I would call kind of the position or the pivot points between the positions. And so if I looked at position number one on this top string, then we've got boom, boom, boom. And then here we've got boom, boom, boom. These two notes being kind of in between the two positions. So that's the general outline. So now we want to be looking at this yellow position. So I'm going to move the red so I have a little bit more space to play with. The next thing we're going to do is just get familiar with this position two or E shape position by playing through it, but instead of just starting at the top of the position, which would be starting at that B, because that will make it sound like it's in basically a Locrian. We're going to start at the E. When I start at the E, if I start and stop on the E because we constructed it from a C major scale and are focusing in on the three, it's going to sound like a Phrygian. That's basically what we're doing, playing an E Phrygian. The Phrygian is simply just taking all the same notes and chord constructions but making the third the first. We'll talk more formally about the modes later though. Right now we're just going to say I'm just going to focus and hover around the third note of the C major and make that the tonic by playing around it starting and stopping on it. As we go through that scale, we might also want to play the chord constructions whenever we hit that E. This is going to be our big shape. I always want to say major shape, but it's a minor shape. It's the most often used shape in essence, or the bar chord shape when we're looking at minors. We have the E there, and then we've got the B, the E, the G, the B. You'll recognize that possibly as an A minor in open position. If I had my A minor there, if I borrowed it off, it would look like this. Then if I move that up to here, it's going to look like that. That's going to be the shape, and we can deconstruct that shape and then say, well, I could just play this part of that shape. That could be quite useful sometimes when you're noodling around. I only need those three notes, so I could say those three. Then I could deconstruct it to just these three if I wanted to. I could play it down here if I'm in this position down here like that, or it's pretty easy to also, if I'm playing down here, grab that B again. I pick the fifth up, which is quite common. Now I'm down here, and I'm going to grab that B. Notice I'm kind of muting the string above it, so I don't have to be as accurate with my pick. You can see that's the same construction as if I reach up here, and I grab the whole thing. I can do this, I can do just those three, I can play it like that, or like that, or I could do just these three, or basically these back to the bar up top. So those are going to be all shapes that you can kind of play that are constructed from the big bar chord for the A minor bar chord. Now you also have this note over here that you could add, so it's a little bit more unusual of a shape. So here's my bar chord. I can see that I have these two right here, and I could reach up to that one. So that's a pretty nice way to play that, or if I'm grabbing it this way. Whoops, hold on a second. If I'm grabbing this like this, then I can reach my pinky up. It's a little bit uncomfortable to grab that way, but if you grab like these three, that's another fairly comfortable way to grab it, where you can see it's inverted. The E is on the bottom, but you have everything you need to build the E minor from there, so that's another construction that we can have. Alright, so let's kind of walk through this, and I'm going to number as I go from E, and then every time I hit an E, I'm going to play the E minor. So we'll start on this E minor, and then that's going to be my three, because I'm starting on the three. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or one, two, three. So all I did there was start here, that's the three, four, all the colored ones, five, six, seven, eight, or one, going back around the horn, two, three. And then when I get to there, I might play a different shape, this one, which is the A minor fingering, that's going to be this B, this E, and then this G, and then I'll keep on going up. So now I'm on, once again, the three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or one, two. And then I could reach out of my shape to my three up there, right here, and I have actually a shape right there, but that's outside of our shape. But in case we're going to go back now, so then I'm going to go three, two, one, or eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and then I could play maybe these three. So now I've gotten back to this E, I'm playing this shape now, so I'm getting to know my shapes as I hit them, and then I'm going to go from this one and say, this is going to be three, two, one, or eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and then we can play the shape once again, and then you could go back from here, back this way, and say this is three, two, one, or eight, seven, and then back up seven, eight, or one, two, three, right? So that's a good practice just to get your mind in playing the same notes. If you know this shape, you'll be able to recognize the shape, but then you can emphasize the thing that you're focused on, playing around the three by playing the chord whenever you hit that one. All right, so then the next thing we can do is practice playing within the shape because we should be able to play whatever we want within the shape, or we can practice going back and forth between the prior shape and the current shape. We can also practice playing in open position because we're probably more familiar with the chords in open position and then jump to this shape, or we can practice playing in open position and seeing if we can find lines to smoothly move from open position into this position starting on fret seven and back. So those are going to be the general ideas. So let's first, as we do that, kind of think about what we can play around each of these notes. So if I'm going to noodle around this E, what can I play around this E? Now the nice thing about this E when we're playing in like this Phrygian mode or playing around the third is you have this open E here up top and you've got the open E down here. So those are bass notes which gives you that kind of heavy sound kind of rocking with the heavy sound on that one. So that's great. And then so if I played our normal E shape, our bar chord shape like this, and I left and I don't mute this one like I normally do if I don't mute it, then I'm laying another E on top. So E, E, E, E and another E down here. So that's three E's and you've got another E. Well, the three E's, boom. So you get a pretty heavy sound on that which is nice. If I just put my pointer here, it's like, okay, what can I reach? Well, this is a minor mode, so I'm making a minor chord from it. So if I go to my pinky, I have a nice beautifully reachable third right there. So that's what's great about the minors. That's nice and easy. And then I've got, this one is a little bit different than kind of what you would normally have in like a minor. It's right next to it with the F. That gives it kind of that distinctive feel actually as kind of like a Phrygian. So it's kind of an interesting sound. You've also got the C above it. So I've got this C that I can play kind of above it right there. And then I can also reach this D out here. So I've got this whole box that I could basically play. You can think of it as the double stops. If I bring the box back to here, you've got the double stops from here to here to here. But I'm pivoting around this E and I can also have that open string. And it's kind of interesting here because you've got this B and that F. It's going to give you that tensiony sound, which you can kind of resolve to our shape. So then what's below it? I've got below it. If I keep my finger on that E, then I've got this below it. So it's moving from this shape up top. You can see kind of like the symmetry between these two where you have these two together. This box and then the space. And then these two are the opposite, right? So now you've got the space on this side. So if I'm going below it, then it's kind of like the opposite. And then below it, I've got... So if I... I know my fifth is right here. So that's always useful to note. I've got my fifth right there. So that's good. So I can always... If I don't want to play the full bar chord, I can always get back to at least that power chord. And then I can add the third. Which kind of gives me the flavor of the full minor chord because I can alternate between this third and that fifth while holding on onto that E. I also have the double stop between the E and the B, which is, again, quite nice. I can even pull in the D if I want to. So we have that. I can move down to this... So if I move down to this shape, I can then start to focus on possibly this E and say, okay, what do I have? So note the octave. If I'm on this E, I can go down two strings and up two frets. There's the other E. If I'm on this ring finger right here, the most important notes around it are going to be like this G because it's the third and then the fifth. Now note that that third, usually the third is back here in shape. It would be right there. But because of the kink in the tuning, it's up one. It looks like similar to the shape of a major third because of the kink in the tuning. So you have that to play with and then we have this B down here, which is nice and reachable. So we've got that. We can lean back then to the D. We can go up to the F, which I could slide or use my pinky. Now if I use my pointer here, so now I put my pointer here and I'm kind of pointing forward, then I have the in front there and F. We've got this whole shape right here. And then I'm probably going to move back to this shape because this shape up top gives me my full chord, even though the E is kind of like on the bottom, this shape right here. So I could play up here and kind of lean forward to something like that. So we can kind of noodle around within there. So the next thing is, well, we can say we could play in this position and try to play basically the chords and then noodle around possibly in between the chords. So before we do that here, let's think about the open positions, which we might be more familiar with to see how we might do that. So we could first think, well, I'm going to play in the key of C and then throw an E in there and possibly noodle around the E when I get there or something like that. So how would we do that? We'd start and stop on a C, right? Something like an A and an F and then throw on that E and then back to a C, right? Or something like that. But if we want to focus on that E, then we can start and stop on the E, basically meaning we're playing kind of like in Phrygian, but I'm just thinking of making that third the tonic. So I could start in an E, play like a C to a G and then go back to that E or something like that. Now, the Phrygian making the third the tonic is not as difficult typically as some other modes and you can kind of cheat. You've got that heavier sound sometimes. Right, or something like that. The Phrygian sometimes has that heavier, especially when you're playing on a guitar in the minor. But sometimes you might still say, well, I'm having trouble making it resolve home. So we can use that same trick. We can say, well, what's the fifth of the E? So the E is that B. And so I could, and now if I constructed that from here, the B chord construction is a diminished. Which doesn't really, it's not really what we want for the resolving to the E. Right, that would resolve nice to the C part. So what we want to do here is we want to say, I could convert that to an A. So I'm just making, I'm sorry, I could convert that to an A-shaped B major chord. So this is a B major, which has an A shape to it basically. And that kind of resolves. Now when we do that, we're picking up some notes that aren't in the C major chord or the E Phrygian, the same notes. So we're kind of cheating the rules, but that's one way you can get kind of resolution. So you might move around F. And then if I want to get back home, maybe I throw in that cheater B, which sounds kind of funny until you resolve. And then the ears like, oh yeah, I see why that happened. So you can kind of throw that in there even though it's outside and it'll sound okay generally. So if you make that same concept basically up here, we can go up to our notes here. Here is our B, by the way. So when it's like our B is here. So you could make a major chord construction like that. That would resolve into this one, which is going to be the E minor. So if you wanted to kind of throw that in there. Now the notes, the chords that we learned in here, I'll just go over them briefly. So if you're playing within here again, you might want to start with that E. Try to make it at the center. We learned the notes so far within here. We have an F. So this is an E. I'm sorry. This is an E shaped C major chord. And then we also went to all of the majors. So we went from the C to the F. So we went down here. This is an A shaped F major. And then we go to the G shape. I mean the G. So you could move this up this way, but that's outside of our shape. Inside of our shape we had this, which is a C shaped G major. And then we also went to the D. So this was a D. So that's kind of the ones that we've looked at thus far that you can kind of noodle around with. And as you're playing with them, you can kind of noodle around in between the chords if you want to pick any of those chords and mess around with them. So we've got our E to the F. And then maybe I try to throw in that B to kind of get back to that E. So that's one way you can kind of noodle around within this position. But maybe you're not comfortable with all the chords in this position and we're really only mapping out like this one that we're focused on. So sometimes it might be easier to do the jumping strategy where we're going to, I know all the chords in open position pretty clearly. And so maybe I'll focus on those chords in open position and then jump over here so that I can kind of noodle around the E and learn the E in this particular position. So if I focus on this E, what do I have next to it? I've got... and I've got that open. So I can play my E back here. Or I can play it like this. But I've got that E. And then I can jump up here and say, Okay. Throwing something else like a C. I'm not going to move up here to noodle in the C because I'm focused on the E. Maybe I noodle around. And then back to the E. And then I'm going to jump up. C. Right, so I'm just kind of trying to noodle back and forth. Then we could do the same thing over here. I could say, okay, what if I jump up to this one? I could say, okay, I'm going from here to here. So once I get there, I've got to mess that up. I'm going to be like, okay. I can even lead into that one. On it to that F. So making this shape, the G, the B, and the E. So it's inverting. You can kind of noodle around. And so you can kind of practice with that one. And then we can try to say, okay, what if I wanted to move from this middle shape to this shape? Kind of blending these two together. So this shape, most people think of it as like an A minor shape. But we're playing in the key of E. So same shape, but we're like in the Phrygian. So within this shape, and if we're looking at the E, it's like, okay, here's my pivot point, that E. I can build it this way. And that's kind of like a C. That's actually a C shaped E minor, right? It's a C minor shaped E minor. And why is that? Well, if you have the C shape up here, you can see that C shape. If I move that up here, this would be like the major. And then I move the third back. So the third back has to go to here, which means I have to shift my fingers to get here. So the one, three, five. So that's like a C minor shaped E minor up here. Now, this also is connected to it. You can't really reach it, but you can also think of this little shape, which is these three. As your E minor shape, it's inverted. The E's on the bottom, but you can nicely convert from this and then reach up to here. So it's not the most comfortable shape within here, but there it is. And you've got this nice pivot point. You can also play just these two, which is the E and the G, which gives you the flavor. And then pivot to this. Once I get to that one, I can pivot to here. And then so that's going to be, so then we might think, okay, well, if I'm playing something like in this shape, then I want to get up to basically this note and then I can practice my walking kind of thing. So I can say, okay, the easiest thing is I've got my pointer finger on that B right there. So I could just move into this shape, which is like an A minor. And then there I am on my E shape, which I can then pivot in this way. And so there I am here. So I can say something like, and so if you just walked it up, the easiest way is to just walk it up without any double stops. And then when you want to get more creative is like, how can I walk up there but do a little dancing, do a little, I could do some double stops or something, some hammer-ons. Just doing the same walk, but I'm just putting a little groove into my step and then walk it back, pivoting on here. And then I could walk and say, okay, how can I get to this note up here? And so we could get to this note and then pivot down to here, and I could say, okay, what if I started here and then pivot to here. So now I'm getting to this shape. When I see that E, I usually think of this shape, this, this, and this. So I could go to the bottom. I could start here and say, okay, I could go down to this area, which, and then in. So I could say, okay, I could start on this finger and say, and so now I'm here. And once I'm here, I like to basically hit, bending that A for some reason, sounds good to me. And then back up to my E minor shape right there. So we might do something like that. We can go. So then we can start all the way, we can think of the same kind of thing and say, well, how can I walk all the way from this shape to my E minor shape up top and then go into my other position. So if I'm on this shape, then I have these two notes that I'm playing here. So that's one thing I can use for my walking. So if I'm gonna say, I'll just move those up then. I'll just move those up. So I could move them up to this little box. And then once I'm in that little box, then I can pretty easily move it up to here somehow, right? So I can be like, well, I was like, I've got these two, which is kind of nice to do. And also I can play this open E the whole time if I wanted to. And then I could think about how we could basically get from this top one down, down to like the E down here possibly to try to walk up this way a little bit. So I might start here. I could play it this way instead. So now I've got my pointer finger up top. So yeah, I also kind of like the shuffle pattern up top here. So we have the same with the minor chords. We often have that open E that we can kind of play with. So I can kind of noodle between that open E and the G, which gives me the one five and the one three, which kind of completes the whole chord. So I can play something like which is kind of a heavier type of sound. And then you can get, you can say, what else can I fit into that little shuffle pattern? Well, I've got that C right here that I can go to and I can reach up to that D and I can also take my finger off to go to the A. I can also go back to that note, even though it's white, because that's like the blues if it wasn't. That's like the blue note. Even though I'm playing kind of in mix and Phrygian, so it's not exactly the same, but I still think it sounds good. So then I can move that up and say, well, what if I just move this finger up, playing the alternating the E and then playing the notes like this note, that note with my open finger until I get basically to here. So I can say, all right, well, I can play and then move this finger up and then when I'm on this C I can reach this D and this A and then I can move up here and now I can reach basically this E and this B and then I go up here and then I'm home reaching up to the third and then back so I can do something like that. Fun to do. Over here, it's kind of interesting, we also have this E, this E and G right there, so if I play it like this E just the octave and if I'm here I also have my third here, I can reach up to my third here it's out of my position but it's kind of interesting to play this you get two E's I'm kind of muting this D and so I get two E's if I'm kind of reaching from here to here so I get so I keep on thinking there's something I should be able to do with that but that's going to be the general the general strategies that you can do there and that's how I'd kind of kind of tinker with it so let's just see also if we took a look at the E minor just for comparison's sake and we go down here do do do do and then hide all of this I put it down here so we could check it out so then you could see here that now we're in the G this is a G major which has the relative minor of the 6 which is an E so this is kind of like the shape of if we were playing an E minor as opposed to playing in the third of the C which is basically playing in Phrygian they both have the minor chord the E minor chord shape as you can see here here and here that fits in both so you can practice those in both if you know the C major stuff you can practice playing the E minor shape but the notes around it are playing in Phrygian up here and the notes around it down here you'd be playing in the you can think of it as an E minor which is basically the AOLN mode of its related major which is the G so again I think that's really where most people get kind of mixed up when they get the practice they don't know what things they can put together and therefore we can't really practice our finger in what you're kind of playing in so that's why we're doing the deep dive on the C and related modes and then later we'll do maybe the same thing in some of the more common guitar scales like the G major for example is probably the next one up