Truefire - Guitar Lab Riff Generator - Brad Carlton

Brad Carlton is back with another Guitar Lab intensive and this one will completely and unalterably change the way you see, hear and play riffs, licks and lines of any kind. In fact, his Riff Generator approach for single line construction may very well be your Helen Keller moment on guitar and we don't make that reference lightly or without extreme respect. In the same way Brad "cracked" the CAGED and EDGAD chord system for we students of the six-string, he likewise unravels the creative formula for single line construction in an entirely illuminating and profoundly accessible way. You will learn how to think, feel and see the entire fretboard in scale degrees. Yup, scale degrees. And once you've got those under your belt – and that will come very easily – he'll equip you with a series of formulas for ideation and motivic development. Right and left-brained finger stuff that pull you out of the proverbial rut so fast and so far that your head will spin with new musical ideas.

In the first section of the course Carlton shows you how to see and work with a minor pentatonic scale in terms of scale degrees and its intervals along the string axis. The first five lessons present slur exercises to develop your speed, articulation and endurance. Lessons six through ten focus on targeting tones; a fundamental skill leading to mastery over the tonal gravity of your melodies. The last two lessons get you started building riffs by utilizing formulas as the framework for your melodies.

"This concept of viewing riffs and melodies following a scale degree formula approach has many advantages. You'll learn to hear melodic lines and know where they are on the fingerboard no matter what key you're in. This first section of the course is the foundation upon which we will build more advanced melodies in different harmonic environments in the subsequent sections."

In the second section of Riff Generator, you'll explore a variety of formulas drawn from the blues composite scale. These formulas constitute the standard frameworks for lines that can be applied over dominant and blues-based harmonies. You'll work with the blues composite scale, which can be viewed as the sum of the major pentatonic scale and the blues scale. In this section, you'll learn how to "hear" the full range of tonal colors and learn where to find these sounds all over the fingerboard.

In the final and third section of Riff Generator, you'll continue adding more formulas to your kit and focus on the principle of pitch direction, which allows for variations within a given formula. Each formula will be diagrammed over the entire fingerboard thus allowing various layouts for those specific notes and degrees. Get a grip on this section's examples and series of formulas and you're well on your way to mastering how to apply pitch direction, layout and phrasing to generate an endless range of fresh, melodic and innovative single note lines.
Moves & Formulas Covered in Riff Generator:

• Targeting Root
• Targeting 5th
• Targeting b7
• Targeting b3
• Targeting 4th
• b7 1 Move & Formula
• b3 1 Move & Formula
• b3 2 1 Move & Formula
• 1 2 b3 3 Move & Formula
• 3 4 #4 5 Move & Formula
• 6 5 Move & Formula
• b7 6 5 Move & Formula
• b5 4 b3 Move & Formula
• b3 3 5 6 1 Move & Formula
• b3 3 1 Move & Formula
• b3 3 b7 Move & Formula
• b3 3 5 Move & Formula
• b3 3 6 Move & Formula
• 1 b3 3 4 #4 5 Move & Formula
• 1 b3 3 5 6 b7 Move & Formula
• 1 6 b7 Move & Formula
• 4 b3 3 1 Move & Formula
• 5 1 Move & Formula
• 4 1 Move & Formula
• b7 b3 1 Move & Formula
• b3 b7 1 Move & Formula
• b7 5 1 Move & Formula
• 5 b7 1 Move & Formula
• 5 b3 1 Move & Formula
• b3 5 1 Move & Formula
• 4 b3 1 Move & Formula
• b3 4 1 Move & Formula
• 4 5 1 Move & Formula
• 5 4 1 Move & Formula
• Targeting Minor Chord Tones
• Targeting Major Chord Tones

True-to-form with most Brad Carlton courses, there's enough grey matter and solid guidance in Riff Generator to draw from for the rest of your guitar playing days, yet it will take less than five minutes to absorb enough to put these principles to good work in your own solos and improvisations. Open your eyes and get to work!

Table of Contents:
42 Total Video Lessons

Riff Generator
A Minor Pentatonic
A Minor Pentatonic
A Minor Pentatonic
A Minor Pentatonic
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Intermediate
Late Intermediate

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