How to play “Shuggie,” part 2 Andy Timmons continues his look at the track “Shuggie,” which is his ode to late Sixties/ early Seventies guitar master Shuggie Otis that’s included on Andy's album, Electric Truth. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Otis, he’s a brilliant guitarist whose two seminal albums, Freedom Flight and Inspiration Information, were released in the early Seventies. Freedom Flight included “Strawberry Letter #23,” which was a hit for the Brothers Johnson in 1977. #AndyTimmons #ElectricTruth
00:00Hey everybody, welcome back. It's Andy Timmons. Thanks for checking out my Melodic Muse course
00:22with Guitar World. And we're going to carry on talking about the tune Shuggie. We discussed
00:27last episode with the guitar harmony bits and the harmonies that go with that, which is what I
00:34solo over at the end. So we're going to look at how to navigate. We've got a G major seven chord.
00:40We've got a B flat major seven chord. So all of a sudden a significant key shift to an F major seven
00:46over A to A flat. And these types of chord progressions are the ones I really love the most
00:53because when you're in one key center, it can be great. There's plenty of things to do. But I love
00:59when there's a chord progression that really inspires some melodic direction. You really can
01:07be some real beautiful lines to weave through some of these changes. So this particular chord
01:12progression is perfect for that. So I'm going to play a bit and then we're going to talk about some
01:16of the strategies. So let me kind of walk you through some of the elements of
01:45certainly what I like to hear when I'm playing. I can intellectualize these things well enough to
01:50tell you what it is, but it does have to do with a lot with voice leading and just kind of melodic
01:55direction and what I've grown to want to hear as I've played all these years. And the beautiful thing
02:02is that when you've got chords that have just kind of subtle changes. So I'm going from the G major seven
02:07to a B flat major seven, which is a, it's a key change of a minor third, but I was looking for
02:15common tones. And here you've got that D. It's the fifth of the G major seven, but it's also the third
02:24of that B flat major seven. And then you change to like an F major seven and a similar thing. Now
02:33you've got this A flat major seven. There's another, uh, another common tone in the between,
02:39in between those keys, even though you're going from, well, I'm just, I'm just kind of recognizing
02:45how this is structured. So it's basically two major sevens. I've never even realized it before now.
02:53So essentially, if you've got some things that sound good over this first chord change,
02:58the G major seven, so you might think of just the arpeggio.
03:08So
03:08so let's analyze maybe some note choice, um, and, and, and scale selection. If we want to think
03:22about that, I'm, I'm more in general going to be concerned with, or I can find some common tones.
03:28Maybe as we talked about from that, there's that D that connects the, the G major seven and the B flat
03:35major seven. And if we're thinking eight F major seven, there's that C that can connect
03:41those two F major seven, a flat major seven. Um, even, even major scales.
03:56But because of the way these keys sound together, B flat major, B flat major scale
04:02wouldn't be incorrect, but for whatever reason, I want to hear
04:07the E. So that's, that's more of a B flat Lydian sound, right?
04:21So let's just look at these two chords again. So G major seven, we might be able to use G major
04:26pentatona, but I really like the sound of the G, uh, the D major pentatona, because it has
04:41some much more interesting color tones. You've got the nine, you've got the major seven, the 13.
04:48Okay. So even if we just use that D major seven, I mean, I deep D major pentatona.
04:56If we move that up a minor third to F major pentatona,
05:01then we're back over that F major
05:07to B flat major pentatona.
05:16But within all that, um, I, that I have these places I know I can go, but I'm really
05:22going to let the ear hopefully guide me as much as the brain. And I call that kind of the melodic
05:27used. And I'm also looking for any subtle note change. I might look for a common tone or in that last case over the F, that A is the third of the F major seven, but the next chord is a flat. So that's a nice, it's going to be a nice moment.
05:55Um, I'm going to want to feature that and kind of, so it really gives the listener that, that flavor of that, of that tonality change.
06:05Um, and that's another really nice place because you've got the F major seven, that major seven, that E needs to change to E flat for that, the A flat major seven. So I know in that, in my recorded solo on the record, it's going to be a nice,
06:35you'll hear that kind of movement featured a lot just because that's the type of melody that really kind of gets to me. It gets, it gets into my heart and my soul a little bit. Okay.
06:44And then from the A flat to the, to the G, uh, some more half step resolutions that are really, um, some really potential beauty.
07:08So, get the G to the F sharp there or the, or the E, right? Or, because this is a half step chord movement, all, all the scalar things are going to also sound beautiful.
07:27Just resolving down a half step. So, uh, you know, record these changes for yourself, you know, either on your, your phone or you've got a multitrack situation, lay those down and just experiment with, uh, weaving some melodies to those plenty of scale choices,
07:41but use your ear to just maybe try to forget some of the, some of the intellectual properties and let your ear kind of guide you go on a single string.
07:49You'll certainly recognize a recurring theme through all these lessons in that. I'm as, as aware as I am of all the scalar,
08:17be it pentatonics or regular scales, I'm aware of those choices, but really the, the underlying, um, guideposts, so to speak, are, are really knowing where those chord tones are and then anticipating where a nice subtle, uh, voice leading change might occur.
08:34So it may seem like a bit of work, but it's, it's not so much theory. It's just some basic knowledge of, you know, really kind of getting into your, under your fingers, some of the basic chord shapes and realizing.
08:47What those chord tones are, it's handy if you can name them, even if it's just visual, that's okay too, because eventually it's just all going to be about your ear.
08:55The more you do this, but knowing G major seven, you've got G B D F sharp and being able to, to kind of get to those in different places on the neck is invaluable.
09:05Even if it's just a few sections at first, if you know where that B flat is, because as we, you know, as we all, you know, may be guilty of, we, we learn scales and we learn all the different positions, but when it gets down to making music, you know, those notes aren't always going to sound great.
09:26You know, if you're on that G major seven and you're just, well, it's right.
09:32It's in the scale, but you know, unless you, unless you know where to go with that, but it's all, that all relates to where those chord tones are.
09:39Cause it's about tension and resolution.
09:41But without that intention, it can just sound like you're just meandering and without direction.
09:49So these, these, the chord tone awareness is just kind of paramount to really sounding musical and having, you know, direction and intent in your lines.
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