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Fiddle Lessons: Diatonic Arpeggios
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Fiddle with Darol Anger
Multi-styled master fiddler Darol Anger (David Grisman Quintet alum) teaches fiddle lessons in every style (bluegrass, folk, world, jazz) and for every level of player. Basic through intermediate skills, advanced fiddle lessons and many fiddle tunes. Unlimited access, backing tracks included.
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[MUSIC]
Diatonically occurring arpeggios,
are a great thing to practice.
This idea's been around for along time.
It was sort of introduced to me in its, this form, by Matt Glazier, who is a great
fiddle player and head of the string department at Berklee College of Music.
The whole idea of being able to really quickly get around in any diatonic key,
and we're talking diatonic keys are the, the keys that we all know and
love, major and minor.
[MUSIC] That's diatonic,
it doesn't have chromatic weird notes or anything in it.
The, the kind of keys that we use, all the time for bluegrass and, you know,
regular folk music, and most kinds of music.
These arpeggios that are build on successive thirds,
and any scale, are so useful.
They're, they're very good at just giving you a very,
solid grounding, solid feeling of being in a key, and
not actually ever having to worry about playing a wrong note a lot of insecurity,
and especially with this kind, with this, with these instruments happens when,
we're just learning about, gee okay, am I gonna play a wrong note?
I'm improvising, i'm trying all this, this stuff.
I just don't wanna play a wrong note.
One of the nice things about playing these arpeggios,
is almost the same as playing scales, except more interesting.
But the idea that because we're breaking the scales up, instead of playing.
[MUSIC] We're breaking them up.
[MUSIC] But
we're still, we're just building off each note and scale, right?
[MUSIC] Each note and scale gets
it's own arpeggio, and each note in that arpeggio, is also part of the same scale.
We get this great ability to just, be very secure,
you know, in what what key we're in.
It's like, if we're good at these, if we, if we run these to where we're really
relaxed [INAUDIBLE] where, just the same way as you can play a G major scale.
[MUSIC] Without thinking about it.
If you can play these arpeggios.
[MUSIC]
If we can play, these notes without thinking about it.
Then, it's like literally, we can't play around with them.
Its, increases your confidences level by 2,000%.
And so, these are just a really great way of practicing scales, getting in tune, and
just getting comfortable with whatever key we're in.
And I just did all that stuff in G, but
we could be doing it in just about any key, we do it in A major.
[MUSIC] So, they're all thirds,
what's also nice about it is you can see, that I'm going like.
[MUSIC] Right?
So, it's just because the way that the instrument is laid out, it's fre,
it's almost automatic, it's really nice.
All we have to worry about is whether or not.
[MUSIC] Things like that,
you know, where we have the G sharp.
[MUSIC] And then the D natural.
So, it's that, this little displacement between.
[MUSIC] Between
the second finger, usually second finger, third finger,
we're displacing a little bit sometimes, you know?
In G.
[MUSIC] That second finger.
Things like that.
Just getting used to that, is going to really give you a lot of confidence,
and just facility, you know, in whatever key you're likely to be in.
So, I am recommending that you all get very comfortable
with these diatonic arpeggio, in just about every key, and
its not that big a deal to run these a few keys a day,
just to get comfortable with them.
And you can start with like three, groups of three notes.
[MUSIC] Right?
[MUSIC] And just run them in,
first position, and go up to the top of your range.
[MUSIC] And then just come back down.
[MUSIC] Do
the same thing in, in just whatever key you want.
[MUSIC] Now, if you really wanna be ambitious,
you can use your fourth finger a lot, and not use open strings.
That's always good, because then, you're kind of preparing yourself for
being up here.
[MUSIC]
Right?
Those kinda things, where we're using all four fingers.
But, the idea is that we are just just getting comfortable with you know?
Because we're breaking up the scale, like that.
We're sort of coming at it, coming at each note from a lot of different directions.
And that's really good, because we're just getting used to coming at whatever note,
from a lot of different directions.
And of course, that's the essence of being able to improvise, is being comfortable,
in whatever key you're in.
So, I'm going to say,
that start with the G, the A, and
the B major three-note diatonic arpeggios,
get those together, and get them, fast.
This might take a while, maybe go one key at a time,
until you can get it fast, you know?
We're talking about, you know, I mean, I don't want.
[MUSIC] That's fine,
you know, you have to do that before you get to the fast up, but,
in order to really make use of this, you have to get to where you're
not thinking about it, and that means, make it a little faster.
[MUSIC] About that tempo, it's not that,
that's not super fast, that's not as fast as a lot of bluegrass tunes.
But it's a good tempo, and if you can get through that,
without making a little mistake, or without going.
[MUSIC] Yeah, okay.
[MUSIC] You don't want any
of those little glitches.
You just wanna be able to smoothly run up and down these three-note arpeggios,
just the same way, as you'd be able to play them.
[MUSIC] That was a sca a major scale.
So, start with G, get G together,
then get A, get A together, and then get B.
[MUSIC]
Right?
[MUSIC] B's a little tough,
you know, cuz we're stretching.
We're making these stretches.
So, that will be an interesting challenge right there, at the end of that cycle.
So yeah, that's my challenge the diatonic arpeggio, challenge to you all.
Go for it.
[MUSIC]
mmm.
All right.
Diatonic arpeggios, part two.
And this is part two of a huge subject.
And, I don't want you to work on this part yet,
until you've really gotten comfortable with those three-note arpeggios and
maybe even taken them into some closed keys.
But it's always good to think about this stuff and, and
think about it in context even though you may not be physically working on it yet.
So if you're thinking about like really following through on this stuff,
go back to that first diatonic arpeggio part and really get kind comfortable
with those three note arpeggios going up and down and open and close keys.
And then come back and we'll talk more, which we are talking more right now.
So, let's look at four note arpeggios, again,
starting with our most simple area here G.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
Now we are really spelling out as arpeggios,
arpeggios are just exploded chords.
Right?
So what's really interesting about these,
the way these arpeggios work is that they do spell out a chord and
the fact that, each arpeggios starts ona different note of the major scale.
These are all notes that are found on the major scale.
Why dont all these cords describe a major scale.
They dont they describe all kinds of scales.
The first scale of course is some kind of a major cord.
Its like a major seven cord.
[MUSIC].
Right it's- [MUSIC],
it's like major seventh,
like a G majr seventh, the second one is some kind of minor scale.
Something like [MUSIC].
And then the third one, [MUSIC]
another kind of minor scale.
[MUSIC].
And then what's the fourth one?
[MUSIC].
Oh, that's interesting, it's like a-
[MUSIC].
It's like a minor, a major seven.
It's got that nice major seven.
[MUSIC].
Woo, that's interesting.
Starting on the fifth degree we have a major but with that.
[MUSIC].
Right. We got that nice we got the blues,
we got the mix of Lydian.
[MUSIC].
That kind of thing so, very interesting, one and then-
[MUSIC].
Another kind of a minor scale.
Minor, minor, minor chord.
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC].
Ooh, that's interesting.
[MUSIC].
Ooh, it sounds a little bit like.
Or or somebody like that.
What is that, exactly?
It's, like, it's minor [MUSIC]
and then we've got a flat five, right?
[MUSIC].
Minor seven flat five chord in the middle of a major scale.
Well, it's not in the middle, it's at the very end of the major scale.
It's, like, the last thing, before you get to the major scale, so in a major scale,
you have all this, these other different kinds of chords that get generated just by
playing the notes in a certain sequence through and, a very systematic way,
through the major scale and that's where things really, start to get interesting.
Because what we're doing, is we're spelling out pretty much
the basis of, of Western music, and how Western music works.
All the stuff actually hangs together in a really beautiful and amazing way,
which, will be gone into in future iteration's of this stuff.
This is we're kind of on the edge of jazz, and of course,
as the great fiddle player Benny Martin said, bluegrass
fiddle is kind of on a line between bluegrass, and jazz, which is great,
because anything that's on a line between
itself is something else is, is a, is a great, you know, beyond logic thing.
And jazz is hard to pick.
And Benny was right about that.
You know, definitely you know, one of the things about jazz,
is that it is hard, you know?
But bluegrass is hard.
And you know the fiddle is hard.
So you come this far so why stop right.
Anyway so what I'm saying is that as we build these little arpeggios, we actually
moving through not only these different chords,
but we're actually spelling out, the modes.
And these when I use to talk about the modes,
I mean the the seven Church Modes, which are also the Greek Modes,
invented by the Greeks which mean there's, there's,
there's seven of these modes, and which are really scales.
Modes are scales, but this, this idea was sort of,
apparently codified by the Greeks, the first one is the major-
[MUSIC].
Right.
It's the Ionian.
[MUSIC].
Apparently, the Greeks, somebody, some Greeks said well this is the scale that
the Ionians played when they went to the folks that lived in Ionia.
[MUSIC].
You always play that scale, you Ionians.
And then the next one of course is the Dorian mode it's like a minor.
It's [MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
And that's really common, you hear that a lot in folk music, and
in not just Indoria, you hear it in all kinds of it's like Pretty Polly,
and all those kinds of things.
So you have the doiy mode-
[MUSIC].
And your next one is...
What is the next one?
[MUSIC].
This is.
[MUSIC].
also a minor scale.
[MUSIC].
But with a Flat 2.
[MUSIC].
So it kind of has this little feeling of like, Spanish kind of a-
[MUSIC].
Out on the Spanish Steps somewhere.
[LAUGH] Or in a Spanish desert.
Or in Mexico, some place like that.
You got the you know, you can get to like.
Think about Clint Eastwood.
Except Clint Eastwood was in Italy when he made those westerns.
So, what was that about?
I don't know.
I don't know what I'm talking about.
But I do know what I'm talking about, when I talk about the Phrygian,
which is what that is, and those folks up in Phrygia,
which was probably pretty far away, the Provence of Greece.
And so they said Oh well those guys up there they live so far away they don't
even know what they're talking about they have to put that weird note in.
[MUSIC].
And then of course you have the fourth degree the thing that
starts at the fourth degree of the scale.
[MUSIC].
What is that?
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC].
Oh, and we have, what do we have, we have a sharp 4, right?
So, we're starting on C note.
[MUSIC].
That's Lydian, right?
[MUSIC].
That's not an unfamiliar sound to Bluegrass people.
[MUSIC].
Right?
[MUSIC].
RIght? It's it's Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
It's that raised four.
[MUSIC].
And that is of course the Lydian Mode from Lydia.
Lydia.
Look up Lydia on the web, you'll find a great song about Lydia the Tattooed Lady
by Groucho Marx, aas nothing to do with the Lydian Mode at all.
[MUSIC]
[MUSICv Okay, what's the next one.
[MUSIC] Well is that, oh that was that.
[MUSIC] It's
our bluesy,scale which often refered to as model, right.
This is the one that everybody says oh it's model.
[MUSIC].
So it's like a major scale with that flat seven
[MUSIC].
So that's the rock and roll scale, it's the blues scale.
It's the Mixolydian.
Where the heck Mixolydian was, Mixolydia, I have no idea.
But I'm sure that Mixolydians were perfectly aware of where they were and
their place in the world, and I'm sure they were very proud of their scale
because it has taken the western world by storm and we love this scale.
[MUSIC] Right, so
that's our Mixolydian mode, so if you wanna, you know, if you're on
stage at the coffee house, and, and you wanna go to that, that, that mode.
[MUSIC] I've heard some Irish musicians,
call it the minor.
You know? Do you ever go into minor?
[LAUGH] Because it's, it's got the minor seventh.
It's probably, better for everyone if you call it by its direct name,
which is the Mixo Lady or sometimes she was called Mixo.
Mixo!
Mixo!
[MUSIC] And
that'll you know, hopefully give you the the result that you'd like.
Okay we've got a couple more.
We've got the sixth degree.
What is that?
The sixth starting on the E, right?
[MUSIC]
That is in minor, minor scale, minor mode.
[MUSIC] It's actually what we call
the natural minor.
It's just a regular minor scale.
It's like, if you say, okay.
Play a minor scale.
[MUSIC] Right?
It's just.
It's got that flat six.
[MUSIC] And that is,
of course, the aeolian mode, oh, to which the Aeolian
the Greek Ancient Aeolian harps were tuned to that mode apparently.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
And maybe those Aeolian harps,
which were actually wind harps, Aeolian has also an association with wind and
they'd build these giant harps that the wind would blow through,
and it would make these ghostly minor,
the sound of the sound of Charlie Daniels playing The Devil Went Down to Georgia,
which I don't know, maybe there's an aioli in Georgia or something, or
maybe they make a certain kinda mayonnaise down or something like that, aioli.
But, that's pure speculation and
has no place in a serious, instructional video.
Okay, how much we got left, we've got the seventh degree one more mode left and
this is definitely the most interesting and the thorniest one.
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC]
Right and so it's like a, it's a minor.
[MUSIC] And
then, but it's got like this weird flat, flat five.
[MUSIC] So it's got that in there.
[MUSIC] And it's, it's got a flat seven.
[MUSIC] And that flat five.
So, weirdly enough, it's called a minor seven flat five.
And it spells out,
those minor, seven five, five, chords, which we're teetering on the edge of jazz.
We're getting very close to jazz here.
So, we're just gonna back off a little bit.
And that's, that's a subject for
a whole nother series of, videos which will happen.
And i'm excited about them, but, right now, we're talking about bluegrass.
But we have to continue all the way up the modes, because, they're there.
And that is of course, the Locrian mode, played by the Locrian's,
who were really the farthest out dudes, I mean they were just completely,
they were probably you know, smoking some sage brush or something.
I don't know what they were doing up there in Locrian, but
they were definitely having a great scale.
They [LAUGH].
Do you think they, I don't know, it, it's kind of a question whether you know,
they were all drawing straws to get their scale, you know?
And did they draw the first straw or the last straw?
That's what I wanna know.
Because if they drew the first straw and they chose Locrian,
they must have been some really hip dudes [MUSIC].
And, then, that it's, actually, there's only seven.
[MUSIC].
So, when we do those four notes.
Platonic arpeggios, we are playing through all the modes,
and, all those different kinds of scales, [MUSIC]
no matter what key we're in.
[MUSIC]
We are, iterating through the basis of Western harmony.
We are working out our Western harmonic chops.
So that's pretty cool.
So I would recommend that, now that you have mastered,
I'm hoping, those three-note diatonic arpeggios,
that you will now go to the four and out diatonic arpeggio's and master those.
Get very comfortable with those.
And this is going to branch us out into a whole new area of Greece.
And that's, that's pending, that's coming up.
I'm at this point I am just, finishing up bluegrass.
And we are gonna, like, continue to explore bluegrass, but this is just
such an important part of music, that I just wanted to share it with you, now.
So, please spend a little time with these four note arpeggios.
Because they are gonna really do you a lot of good.
[MUSIC]