Article two of the multi skill focused exercise is a bit different than the other one but I think just as fun. These are the types of exercises you should focus on if you don’t have a lot of practice time. They work on several skills all at once which makes them an effective and efficient way to practice.
This particular exercise will work on Chord knowledge, music theory skills, visualization skills, rhythmic skills and songwriting skills. All you need to do is practice writing but with new tools.
Generally, when writing chord progressions or songs you want to stick with the tools you know well, but experimenting with new chord shapes tools and theory concepts is also a great way to learn new songwriting tools.
The process for this process is simple.
1) Give yourself a set of restrictions to work with.
A restriction is a concept that you are committing to use in your idea. If you ever watched those cooking shows where they make the cook use certain 4 specific ingredients or one special ingredient had to be in there recipe, this is a similar concept. The restriction will allow you more creativity because it can get you out of your comfort zone while still giving you parameters to work within it. Another way to look at it involves an old saying. Instead of playing inside the box, you’re taken out of the box and placed in a new box that’s a little bit shinier.
Here’s an example of a restriction that would work well for building chord progressions.
I’m going to use sus2 chords, secondary dominant chords, 6/8 time and keep myself limited to only eighth notes and quarter note rhythms.
This list of restrictions is perfect because it gives you some interesting territory to play with and involves all the steps were going to work on.
2) Write the chord progression:
This section is somewhat self explanatory. You’re going to write the chord progression. This will involve your music theory skills (circle of fifths, non-diatonic chords, harmonic progression) and will also allow you to explore theory terms you may be working with.
3) Write the rhythm:
Then you can write out the rhythm. Often times, I like to just write out the rhythm without playing the rhythm on the guitar so I can see if I like the rhythm first. You can also play the guitar to see what rhythm you like, just keep the restrictions you set for yourself in mind.
4) Create variations:
If you have a chord progression that sounds semi decent start making variations. There are so many possibilities, why limit yourself to just one? Change up the rhythm, change up the chords and change the restrictions. The idea is to be creative, while still working on all of these different skilled areas was well. It’s like a quick focus rotation exercise, every minute or so you’re playing something else and focusing elsewhere.
5) Listen to what you wrote:
Here comes the fun part, not only is this a great exercise for developing many skills, it’s also just a great songwriting exercise. Take this material and sift through it, take what you like, put it to the side and save it for later. You can expand this chord progression into a whole song, attach a riff to it and sing a little melody over it or simply just hold on to it for later. Practice and a song, how efficient is that.
About the author:
Chris Glyde is a guitar teacher and business owner. With a busy schedule and lots of people vying for his time he is always looking for a more efficient way to get things done. If you’re looking for the most efficient guitar lessons in Rochester NY, contact him