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Pentatonic scale passing tones have been a mystery to me. Actually, make that any kind of passing tones on the guitar. Like I have written before, so much of this music theory stuff goes right over my head. In any case, I have been working on some of the pentatonic scales for a long time. I think it is fun, and it is really pretty easy to pick up the guitar and work on these scales whenever I have a few minutes.

In any case, I figured these passing tones would remain another guitar mystery for me for a long time… hoping that one day it would all be clear. Well, I suppose that’s what happened… because in my guitar lesson last week I was screwing around playing some pentatonic leads while my instructor played rythm… and I screwed up and played a bad note. Or I thought I did… but my instructor Tom told me it was a passing tone. I guess I played one without even realizing what it was.

So this is the deal with passing tones (and this works for the pentatonic scale - but I bet it works for other scales as well.) If you play other notes that are in between the notes of the scale… but you play them quickly and don’t stop or dwell on them, then you are basically OK. I think there are specific notes that are good passing tones, and a bunch of these make up the “blues scale"… but Tom is pretty relaxed (if it sounds good, then it is good!)… and he said that you could probably throw in just about any note and it would be OK as a passing tone.

Another part of this is playing swing rythm… but that is all for another day.

File under: pentatonic scale, lead guitar, passing tone

After a year of learning, I figured it was time to revisit my Jamorama review. This is the deal… I started playing guitar a couple of Decembers ago when I bought myself a guitar for Christmas. I am 40 something and I have never played a guitar before… and any other musical instrument. So I figured that I am a pretty tough case study for any guitar training or learn guitar type of system. So I figured it was a good idea to do some type of a Jamorama review.

So let me begin this review of Jamorama with a description of what you get…

In Jamorama Book one there is these headings - beginners - intro to strumming - intro to chords - reading tabs - first string notes - easy chords - healthy learning - various dominant chords. This is a killer introduction, and the 52 included audio clips let you hear what the lessons are supposed to sound like. This is great stuff for a true beginner.

In Jamorama Book two there is a bunch more - this is more intermediate level material, including sight reading - bass note runs - major seventh chords - various strum patterns and chord progressions. You also get an intro to scales and lots of different chords. Pluse you get 61 audio clips… these help you figure out what you are supposed to sound like.

In Jamorama Book three you get more advanced - the advanced level stuff includes minor scales - barre chords - power chords - ninth chords - diminished chords - and augmented chords. This book also has 31 audio clips to go along with it. The audio clips are downloadable MP3 clips that you can play on your computer or anywhere else you can play an MP3.

One of the coolest things about Jamorama is that it is all downloadable, so you can get it quickly… actually immediately. I hate ordering a guitar book and having to wait to get it delivered. Of course, this means that you need to be sure to remember where you put it on your hard drive. What I like to do is print out the PDF file, and then I have a hard copy of the course.

File under: Jamorama, jamorama review, guitar