Isolated Shredding
Upson County has become even more isolated from Atlanta recently. The Atlanta Journal / Constitution has quit delivering itself to this community, presumably because of the high transportation costs, created by the high gasoline prices in this country. My mother learned to read by looking at this newspaper in the 1920s. In recent years, she has found the obituaries of school friends in this paper. The AJC published practical local Atlanta news such as which highways and bridges were going to be closed for repair, creating an even more intense traffic jam to be avoided in that neighborhood. Part of my evening routine has been to take a copy of this newspaper to a Thomaston restaurant and read it before and after my meal. You can’t even obtain a USA Today in this community. The small supply of Wall Street Journals cost $1.50 each, while they last.
My new strategy is to buy a magazine at the beginning of each week and read a little bit each night. I found a guitar magazine at Walmart. There is a DVD inside with a lesson on how to “Shred,” which is a slang term for playing a million notes a minute on the guitar, the way that modern metal guitarists do. Last year, I had to admit to a guitar student that I did not know how to do it. So, I watched the video…
The guitar teacher in the video instructs the viewer to do the following :
Pick out a guitar mode that involves a minimum of finger stretching, such as the Locrian mode. If the band is playing in A minor, play the Locrian mode, beginning on the note A. (these notes are not actually in the key of A minor) Play the first six notes of the Locrian shape up and down and then play the Locrian shape, beginning on the note B; then C, D, etc. Of course a majority of the notes are not in the proper key of the song, but if you play it at 130 beats per minute it sounds really cool. You simply play the shape up and down the neck and sustain on the notes that are actually in key with the rest of the band. Then you can graduate to a mode shape that is a little more challenging such as the Phrygian mode and move that pattern up and down the neck at high speed. The guitar teacher on the DVD then recommends playing the patterns in different time signatures. Then he does it with a Whole Tone scale and a Symetrical scale.
I have not actually tried this but I do think that I understand the concept. As long as you emphasize notes that are in key with the band and as long as you play really fast, the out of key notes sound like dissonant passing tones. You have to play fast to get away with this. I have gotten my Gibson out of the closet to experiment with this idea, beginning tomorrow.
Curiously,
I.C.