Neo Soul Guitar For Beginners

1. Introduction: How is the going? I'm David Lovejoy and welcome to my class on Neo Soul Guitar for Beginners. As the name states, this class is for beginner players and I'd say also it would be very helpful for early intermediate players as well. I'm going to show you how to play neo soul and create your own riffs and licks in the neo soul genre in as quick of a time as possible and with as minimal music theory jargon as possible. Unfortunately, music theory is unavoidable but I'm going to keep it as simple as possible. By the end of this class, you're going to be able to come up with cool ideas that sound like this. Let's jump straight into it, enjoy. 2. Chords In A Key: In this first lesson, I'm going to be showing you the cords that are available to us in a key. To explain what a key is, a key is just a set of notes and a set of chords that all work together very nicely. In a key, we've got seven chords and I'm going to show you the seven chords that we can use in the key of A. What you're probably used to is seeing major and minor chords but major and minor chords don't really cut it in neo soul. They're very simple chords and neo soul is inspired heavily by jazz and jazz uses lots of complex chords, so what we're going to be using is what we call seventh chords. There's three types of seventh chords, we've got major seventh chord, we've got minor seventh chords and we've got dominant seventh chords that we're going to be using. In the key of A, let's take a look at the seven chords that are available to us and we'll be writing the progressions and riffs. The first chord is called A major seven, and what we're going to be doing is placing our middle finger on the fifth fret of the low E string, our index finger on the fourth fret of the A string, and our little finger on the sixth fret of the D string. That's our first chord and I'll refer to this chord as chord number 1. Then we'll refer to the next chord as chord number 2, and this chord is called B minor seven. We're playing seven on the low E string with our ring finger, five on the A string with our index finger, and seven on the D string with our little finger. That's chord number 2, B minus seven. Then we're gonna move to chord number 3, the same shape, but just two frets higher. This is chord three is called C-sharp minor seven. We're going to play fret number nine on the low E string, fret number seven on the A string, and fret number nine on the D string. Then we're going to move to chord number 4. Chord number four is called D major seven. It's the same shape as the first chord that we played, just the string higher, so we're going to play middle finger on fret five of the A string, index finger on fret four of the D string, and little finger on fret six of the G string. Then we move to chord five and chord five is called E dominant seven. Sometimes dominant seventh chords are just referred to as seventh chord. This chord could be abbreviated to just E7, and we're playing middle finger on the seventh fret of the A string, index finger on the sixth fret of the D string, and ring finger on the seventh fret of the G string. Then we're moving to chord number 6, chord number 6 is fret number nine on the A string, fret seven on the D string, and fret nine on the G string. It's that minor seven shape that you're used to from chord two and three. This is called F sharp minor. Chord six is the number. Then we're going to bring this shape up two frets for chord number 7, so we're playing 11, 9, and 11, and this is a G sharp minor 7. Those are the seven chords in the key of A. We've got A major seven, we've got B minor 7, we've got C sharp minor 7, we've got D major 7, we've got E7 or the full name being E dominant seven, then we've got F sharp seventh, and then we've got G-sharp seventh. If we wanted to change the key that we're playing in, all the shapes and the chords remain the same. We just shift everything up a certain amount of frets. Say we wanted to play in the key of G, which is two frets lower, we play all the same chord shapes, but just two frets lower. [MUSIC] There's no new shapes you have to learn when we change keys, you just move the shapes up and down a certain amount on the fret board, but we're not going to be changing keys in this class, we're just going to be sticking to the key of A and using the chords that we've learned in today's lesson. Let's take a look at some example chord progressions that you could play. In neo soul, a lot of chord progressions like to start on chord four or chord six. Let's play example one starting on chord number 4. What I'm doing is I'm going to chord number 4 and chord number 5, then chord number 6. Simple enough, for the next chord progression, I'm going to start in chord number 6, and I'm going to play 6, 3, 5, 4, so I'm going to be playing 6, 3, 5, 4. With a neo soul style rhythm, it would sound a bit like this. For our final example, we are starting on chord number 4 and just descending down. We're going to play chord four, then chord three, then chord two, and then chord one. Let's take a listen. Now a very cool thing you can do on chord one and four, your major seven chords, is you can hammer on the top note. What I mean by that is we're playing five, then four, then six on the top three strings. What we're going to do is we're going to take our index finger and bar the fourth fret of the A and the D strings so that you can play them both at the same time with the same finger. Then what we're going to do is we're going to hammer on our little finger on the sixth fret. Altogether. It's like we're playing 5, 4, 4 on the three strings and then hammering on the sixth fret. Very common you'll see this in neo soul. Try doing that for yourself. At the end of every single lesson, I'm going to give you an action step, and I want you to take this action before you move on to the next video. It's really essential so that knowledge you gain actually stays in your brain and you retain it. The action step for this lesson is, remember all seven chords in the key of A that I've shown you today, and then I want you to create three different chord progressions using the chords. The only rule that I want you to follow is that you have to use only these seven chords. You're going to be the judge of if the chord progression sounds good. Now, as I said in neo soul, you'd either want to maybe start the chord progression on chord four or chord six. You don't necessarily have to, but that always seems to work for me. Memorize these seven chords and create three chord progressions and then you can move on to the next video. 3. Major Pentatonic Scale: Now that we know the chords in the key, and we can create some core progressions for these chords. It'd be a good idea to add some melodies to our playing. To add melody. It's probably best to use notes from a scale. We're going to be learning what is called the A major pentatonic scale. Let me break down the name of that scale for you. A major is the key that we're playing in, and pentatonic, penta means five, tonic means notes. It's a five note scale. What we do with the scale, it's once the five notes have been played, we just repeat them again, but higher up. Let's take a look at how to play this, a major pentatonic scale. Now, it's really important that you use the correct fingerings here when playing the scale. When you're using the scale to create licks and riffs, you don't necessarily have to follow this fingering. But when you're practicing the scale is very important that you do follow this fingering, otherwise, you can over-complicate things a little bit. Let's take a look at how to play it. We're going to play five and seven on the low E string, and you get to use your middle finger and your little finger. Then we're going to play four and seven on the A string. You're going to use your index finger and little finger. Same thing on the D string, four, seven and the same fingers, index finger, little finger. The next string is four, six. The G string, and you're playing index finger, ring finger. The next string, the B string, is flat five and then seven. We're going to use middle finger, little finger. The final string, the E string, is five, seven as well. You can use the same thing as middle finger, little finger. Altogether, the scale sounds like this. What we need to do is memorize this scale, that's your action step. Memorize the scale before moving on to the next video. The best way I found to memorize scales is to start with one string. Add a string, and play both strings. Then add another string, so we've got three strings now, and then play all three strings. Then just do that again. Add another string, player all four strings, add another string, play all five strings, add another string, and then you've got the whole scale. Something a bit like this. That's a really useful way of learning scales. Okay, memorize the scale, and then you can jump into the next video. 4. Creating Riffs: In this lesson, we're going to be taking the core progressions we learned in Lesson 1 and then combining the pentatonic scale we learned in the last lesson to create riffs. What I want you to do is keep things really, really simple here. Yes, simple is a lot of the time the best thing to do. You don't over-complicate things. Neo-Soul is one of those smooth genres. You can't make it sound too complex to listen to. Obviously, the theory behind it sometimes can be quite complex but still, it's very easy to listen to, okay? So we don't want to over-complicate what we're playing. What we're going to do is we're going to take a core progression. So I'm going to play the core progression 4, 5, 6, for example, and then after I've played the first chord, I'm going to play a few notes in the pentatonic scale then I'm going to move to the next chord and play a few notes in the pentatonic scale then I'm going to move to the next chord and play a few notes in the pentatonic scale again. That's how we create a riff. Let's try this on the spot. I am completely writing this on the spot right now. I'm going to play chord 4, which is D major 7, and then I'm going to play a few notes. There we go. So we've got. I'm using all notes from the pentatonic scale from my lick in-between the chords. I'm going to move to chord 5 then I'm going to play a few notes from the pentatonic scale again. That works. So we've got, then I'm going to move to chord 6 and then I'm going to play. Okay. That works. So let's try all together. It's as simple as that. Let's take a look at some core progression. It's as simple as that. Let's take a look at some riffs that I created before the video so you can hear what the riffs would sound like with a little bit of experimentation rather than me just coming up with something on the spot. So here is example number one, and here is example number two. So main thing, keep it simple. Play a chord and play some pentatonic scale, play a chord and play some pentatonic scale, play a chord, and then place a pentatonic scale, and that's how you create a riff. So your action step, I want you to do this before moving on to the next video. I want you to create three different riffs. First of all, come up with the core progression, and then of course, add your pentatonic licks in-between, and I want you to do that three times until you've got three riffs that you're happy with, and then you can move on to the next video. 5. Major Pentatonic Shape 2: We have currently learned the pentatonic scale for our licks. At the moment, we are quite limited because we can only play in this area of the fretboard. There were five shapes of the pentatonic scale that we can learn, and these five shapes allow us to play the pentatonic scale all over the fretboard. In this video, we're going to learn shape number 2 of the A major pentatonic scale. This is how you play. I'm starting with the middle finger and we're playing seven and nine on the low E string. The ninth fret is going to be played with our little finger, and we're going to do that for the next two strings as well. The first three strings, you're playing the same thing for all of them. Then the next string you're going to play fret number 6 and fret number 9. Fret number 6, you're going to play with your index finger, and fret number 9, you're going to play with your little finger. Then what we're going to do is we're going to shift our hand up the fret like that and then we're going to play fret number 7 and fret number 10 on the B string. Fret number 7 is going to be played with your index finger, and fret number 10 is going to be played with your little finger. Then for the final string, we're going to play fret number 7 and fret number 9, and that's index finger, ring finger. Altogether, the scale looks and sounds like this. Action step before moving onto the next video, and we need to memorize this scale shape. Now, it's really important with the pentatonic scale that you do spend time to really lock these into your memory. This can take days, maybe. Please take your time with this. Don't rush them. Make sure you fully memorized the shape before you move on to the next video. 6. Major Pentatonic Shape 3: Shape three of the A major pentatonic scale, let's take a look. We're going to be playing 9, 12 on the low E string. [MUSIC] That's index finger, little finger. [MUSIC] Same thing on the next string. [MUSIC] Same fingers, same frets, 9, 12, index finger, little finger. Then we're going to play 9, 11 on the D string. [MUSIC] That's index finger, ring finger. [MUSIC] Then the same thing on the G string again, 9, 11, index finger, ring finger. [MUSIC] Then we're moving to the B string. We're playing 10 and 12, and that's going to be with a middle finger and little finger. [MUSIC] Then the top string is going to be 9, 12 with a index finger and little finger. [MUSIC] Altogether, the scale looks and sounds like this. [MUSIC] The action step for this video, just like the last video, memorize the shape, commit it to memory before moving on to the next video. 7. Major Pentatonic Shape 4: A major pentatonic shape number 4. We're going to start on the 12th fret here with our middle finger. [MUSIC] With our little finger we're going to play 14. [MUSIC] There we go. Then the same thing on the next string, 12, 14, middle finger, little finger. [MUSIC] Then we're going to move to the D string. We're going to play 11, 14, 11 with our index finger, [MUSIC] 14 with our little finger. [MUSIC] Then we're going to play the same thing again on the G string, 11, 14. [MUSIC] Same fingers, index finger, little finger. Then for the final two strings we're playing the same thing. For both of these. We're playing 12, 14 and 12, 14 on the last two strings. So 12, 14 on the B string, [MUSIC] and then 12, 14 on the high E string. [MUSIC] That's middle finger, little finger for both strings. Let me show you how the scale sounds and how it looks like. [MUSIC] That is shape number 4 of the major pentatonic scale action step. Just like the previous three videos, commit this to memory before moving onto the next video. 8. Major Pentatonic Shape 5: Now we're on to the fifth and final shape of the A major pentatonic scale. Let's take a look at how to play that. We could start on fret number 14. But we're not going to do that. We're going to bring this down 12 frets, to the second fret. [BACKGROUND] When we bring something down, 12 frets were actually playing the exact same node, just an octave lower. An octave is just the same node but at a different pitch. Playing shape Number 5 here at the second fret, but be aware that you can play it at the 14th fret. I'll play the exact same shape, and it's going to be the exact same notes just higher up in a higher pitch. Shape Number 5 of the major pentatonic scale, two, five [MUSIC] on the low E string that's index finger, little finger. [MUSIC] two, four on the A string. That's index finger, ring finger. Same thing again on the D string. [MUSIC] two, four, index ring. Same thing on the G string two, four [MUSIC] index, ring finger. Then we're playing two, five on the B string and that's index [MUSIC] finger, little finger. Then the same thing again on the high E string, that's two, [MUSIC] five [MUSIC] on the high E string, index finger, little finger [MUSIC]. Altogether, it looks and sounds like this. [MUSIC] Memorize this shape before moving on to the next video, that's your action step. Then hopefully you've memorized all five shapes of the A major pentatonic scale. Then you'll be able to play your pentatonic scale all over the place. [MUSIC] 9. Combining Chords With Pentatonic Shapes: Now you know all five shapes of the major pentatonic scale, we can create links in the exact same way we did when we only knew one shape. We play a chord progression and we play notes from the pentatonic scale in-between these chords. Let's take a look at a couple of examples that I've created, so you can see the thing that we're going for. Here is example number 1. [MUSIC] What I was doing was playing [MUSIC] chord 4, then shape 1 playing chord 5, then shape 2, and then playing chord 6 and then playing shape 3 [MUSIC]. Pretty simple. Now let's take a look at example number 2. [MUSIC] The main chord progression was 5-4. Then I'd play a pentatonic lick moving from shape 5, shape 1, then I play the chord progression again [MUSIC] 5, 4, then I'm playing shape 2 [MUSIC] and then shape 3 there [MUSIC] There you go you can mix shapes together in your licks as well so you don't have to just stay in one particular shape and then move to another shape. You can actually transition between the shapes, middle-lick, give it a go. Your action step now is to create three different riffs using different shapes of the major pentatonic scale. Now in the course of these three riffs, all five shapes of the pentatonic scale have to be used, whether that's only with one note or two notes. You have to use all five pentatonic shapes at least once. That means you're going to have to use for at least two of these riffs, multiple shapes. Give it a go and once you've done that, we can move on to the next video where things start spicing up a little bit. 10. Non Diatonic Chords: This lesson is all about non-diatonic chords. Non-diatonic chords, are basically chords that are outside of a key. All the chords we've learned so far are diatonic chords, because they are in our key. But then whenever we play a chord that's not in our key, we call it a non-diatonic chord. Neo soul guitarists, love to use non-diatonic chords to spice core progressions up and add a little emotional spike. Because you're not expecting to hear a non-diatonic chord. You're expecting when you're listening to a song, to hear all diatonic stuff. Then they throw in this non-diatonic chord which technically shouldn't work, but it just sounds really cool. There are some that work better than others. Let me show you some of the ones that I like to use personally. These are the ones that I found in my own playing work the best. In the key of A, which is the key we're obviously working in, here are the ones that I like to use. My absolute favorite would be this one here [MUSIC]. This F major seven. We're playing eight on the A string, seven on the D string and nine on the G string. Yeah. [MUSIC] Another one I like to use is, the D minor seven. We're not playing a D major seven now, we playing D minor seven. This is how you play it, five on the A string, three on the D string, five on the G string. [MUSIC] The next chord I like to use is B seven. Seven on the low E, six on the A and seven on the D. Then a C sharp seven, which is [MUSIC] the same shape, just two frets higher, nine, eight and nine. Those are some that I like to use. Let me show you some example chord progressions where I use non- diatonic chords. The really important thing to take into account when you're using non-diatonic chords is you want to use some diatonic chords first, let people know the actual key that you're playing in so that when you throw something into the mix that's out of the key, they know it's out of the key. Rather than starting on the chord that's out of the key. They'll think you're playing in a completely different key when you stop. Take look at example Number 1. [MUSIC] All right. I'm playing chord four. I'm playing the F major seven, I really like to use. Then playing chord six, which is F sharp minor seven. Then playing this here, which is a C sharp seven, which you could also play here. I'm playing four, three, four. Let's take look at another example. [MUSIC] Cool. What I'm doing using chord six. Playing a C sharp seven. That's a non-diatonic cord, leading into chord two B, minor seven. Then I'm playing chord one, chord four and then I'm turning chord four into the minor seven chord , D minor 7. Sound very very spicy there. I've got an action step for you. I want you to find at least one chord that's not in the seven chords that we talked about, but using the same shapes, those major seven, minor seven and dominant seven shapes, I want you to find a chord that's non-diatonic that you like, that works with the other chords in your opinion. Then what we need to do is, come up with three core progressions that use non-diatonic chords. You can use the ones that I've provided you with or you can use ones that you found for yourself, but you've got to create three different chord progressions. Do that before moving onto the next video. 11. Introduction To Techniques: In the final videos of this class, I'm going to be showing you a few little details you can add to your playing that is just going to take it to that extra next level. These techniques and little ideas are going to be the icing on top of the cake, that is your Neo Soul guitaring. This is not going to be a complete comprehensive list of exercises, but as I said at the beginning of this class, this is all about getting you writing music quickly. These are techniques and ideas you can implement really quickly without having to spend hours practicing, trying to get the technique perfect. Let's jump into them. 12. Double Stops: This video is all about double stops. Double stops are where we play two notes at the same time and it can really improve your licks and you're soloing. We're going to be using the pentatonic scale like we have been for all of our licks to create our double stops. So let me show you how it's done. Basically, with each shape of the pentatonic scale, we play two notes per string. Okay? What we're going to be doing is we are going to be playing the first note of one string, and the first note of the next string as well. We'll be playing those two notes together, and you can also do it with the second note of one string, and the second node or the next string. Let's take a look at shape Number 1 of our pentatonic scale, and have a look at all of the double stops that are available to us. We've got five and four of the E and A strings. We've got flat seven and seven of the E and A strings. We've got four and four of the A and D strings. We've got flat seven and seven of the A and D strings. We've got four and four of the D and G strings. We've got seven and six of the D and G strings. We've got four and five of the G and B strings. We've got six and seven of the G and B strings as well. We've got five and five of the B and E strings, and we've got seven and seven of the high E string and the B string as well. We can add double stops into our licks as well as just playing single notes. This creates a little bit more of an interesting sound and just makes your playing sound a bit more sophisticated. For example, if I improvise something now, sounds really cool. If I combine those single notes with the double stops, you can also do cool things like sliding would be adopted stops. Okay? You can also do that. Also, a palm muting sounds really cool. If you're familiar with a palm muting, you can add that in. Then you can create some really cool sounds with palm muting. Let's take a look at a couple of examples, that I've made using double stops. That's example one, I'm starting on chord four you can add that little hammer on the top that we talked about before. I'm sliding. Then ascending. Let's see, double stops. That's all in shape Number 1. Then, I moved to our Chord 6, F sharp Minor 7, and move to Shape 2 here. Let's take a look at one more example. What I'm doing there is I'm playing Chord 6, Chord 5, and Chord 4. Then I'm doing that. I'm playing a double stop. Then, on the lowest string of the double stops or the B string here, I'm hammering on and pulling off the next note. Then, the same thing with this double stop. There are lots of different things you could do with double stops. Then, I'm just playing these double stops moving from Shape 1 to Shape 2 to Shape 3. Your action step for this video is to learn the double stops that I've showed you in Shape 1. Now an optional step will be to work out the double stops for all the other shapes. Another action step that I want you to complete is to create three different riffs using obviously a co-progression, and somewhere in all of these riffs using double stops. Before you move on to the next video. That's where the action step. 13. Grace Notes: Now let's move on to grace notes. Grace notes are just a very, very simple way of just making your playing sound a bit more pro, a bit more sophisticated. Grace notes are basically where we intend on playing a particular note. Let's say we're intending on playing the seventh fret of the B string. [MUSIC] You could just play it like that. [MUSIC] Or you could play this as well. [MUSIC] As you can see, we're sliding in from the fifth fret. [MUSIC] That fifth fret, you barely hear it [MUSIC] but it's just enough to just make it sound a little bit more exciting. I was just playing that fifth fret and sliding strike into the seventh fret. You can also do this with a hammer on. [MUSIC] Maybe you can even do both. You can do a hammer on then a slide. [MUSIC] You can do this wherever you want really. [MUSIC] Let's take look at an example. [MUSIC] All right. What I'm doing here is starting on chord 6 [MUSIC] moving up the pentatonic scale. Then I'm doing a hammer-on grace note onto the ninth fret here. [MUSIC] Then a slide grace note [MUSIC]. Two grace notes in a row [MUSIC] descending again. Then I move to chord 4 [MUSIC] and I just do it with shape 1. [MUSIC] Again, the hammer on [MUSIC], grace note in the slide grace note as well [MUSIC], and descending. It's just a very simple little trick you can add to your playing but definitely adds a lot more excitement to your playing. I know adding grace notes to my playing was one of the biggest shifts I noticed in my playing when I was listening back to my playing notes. Those grace notes just made everything sound a little bit more pro. If you can add these into your playing now, that's going to be really great. It's a very simple technique to include into your playing as well. Your action step for this video is to come up with three riffs and you have to include grace notes in all of them whether that's the slide, whether that's a hammer-on, or whether that's both. If you're up for the challenge, maybe you can add grace notes with double stops [MUSIC]. All right, so give it a go, and then we'll move on to the final lesson. 14. The Chord Quake: The final technique we'll be talking about in this class is the chord quake. Now, the chord quake is really, really great technique. Let's jump straight into it. This is a technique that we use when we're playing chords. [MUSIC] Let's take our four chord of D major 7, five on the A, four on the D, six on G. What we do is we play the notes one at a time. We're going to play the first note, [MUSIC] we're going to slide it down a fret and slide it back up the fret again. Let's slide down to the fourth fret and then back up to the fifth fret. [MUSIC] Then we do that with the next note. [MUSIC] Then we do the next note. [MUSIC] Slide down a fret and back up a fret to where it originally was. The real key here is to make sure the previous notes remain ringing out. Let's try it. [MUSIC] Now some keys is to make sure that you use the tips of your fingers, make sure you're not blocking any notes from being rung out and you're not muting any of the notes with your fingers, so it's very, very important. It can be a little bit of a tricky technique to get down, but with these three note chords, it should be attainable pretty quickly. Keep practicing it, it's definitely a great technique to have in your repertoire. Let's take a look at a example, chord progression that I came up with using the chord quake. [MUSIC] All I was doing is applying the chord quake to four different chords here. [MUSIC] The D major 7 chord, [MUSIC] the C sharp dominant 7 chord, [MUSIC] the F sharp minor 7 chord, and then [MUSIC] the F major 7 chord. That's the chord quake. That's how you can use it. Now your final action step is to create a riff using the chord quake. Then I want you to create a riff using as many techniques outlined in this video as possible. Once you've done that, you can take a look at an example song that I've written using all of the techniques I've talked about so you can see what is possible using just what I've spoken about in this course. 15. Example Song: [MUSIC] 16. Outro: Thank you so much for participating in this class on neo soul guitar for beginners, I hope you learned a lot and I hope this class has inspired you to write some really awesome sounding neo soul guitar riffs. If you have managed to come up with some really cool neo soul guitar riffs, post some videos on Instagram and tag me @David_Lovejoy. I'd love to see your ideas. That'll be really cool. Now if you want to take your learning further in the near social now check out my other classes I've got here on SkillShare, if you want to take your chord progressions to the next level, grab a copy of my book called Charisma 2.0. We briefly touched on chord progressions in this class, but not to the extreme detail that I go into in my book called Charisma. That's really going to blow your mind with the possibilities that are available for chord progressions in the neo soul genre. Once again, thank you very much for taking part in this course, check out my YouTube channel if you're not a subscriber, and hopefully I'll see you in another class. Have a good one.