System Twelve

Introduction To System Twelve

In the Guitar Daily Workout, the first 4 Systems provided the FOUNDATIONS that most guitarists need to be professional-level musicians: the scales, arpeggios, and techniques that form the core of a guitarist’s understanding and vocabulary. We mastered the CAGED system for arpeggios, pentatonics, and major scales, learned all of the three-on-a string modes, all arpeggios in one position.

Systems 5-8 developed INTERMEDIATE skills with more sophisticated scales, arpeggios, and approaches; moving the student from solid foundational techniques to a true mastery over the guitar neck. We learned all 7th arpeggios-major 7 arpeggios, dominant 7 arpeggios, minor 7 arpeggios, m7b5 arpeggios and diminished arpeggios. We also learned all of the major hexatonic and minor hexatonic scales, and learned the dominant pentatonic scales. And we learned how to play all of the arpeggios on three string sets, and learned the major scale and pentatonic scales on both three and two string sets.

In Systems 9-12, we will explore ADVANCED concepts-less commonly used scales and patterns–ones often found in jazz, fusion, and more complex musical styles.

Most guitarists could have a great career just by having mastery of the concepts in the first 8 systems. Many guitarists have been very successful not even knowing all of that information.

With Systems 9-12, however, you will develop skills that will allow you to understand and play more harmonically complicated music.

We will cover Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, and their Harmonized Arpeggios for harmonic and melodic minor scales, as well as the Diminished scale, Whole Tone scale, the Coltrane Pentatonic, and Barry Harris’ 6th Diminished scale. We will also delve into single-string playing and Wes Montgomery-style octave playing.

Keep at it and work hard and you should find a whole new world of musical vocabulary opening up to you.

As with all of these systems, application is key. However, these exercises should give you muscle memory, dexterity, ears, and understanding of the scales and arpeggios that will allow you to access music with very sophisticated musical vocabularies.

Finger Gymnastics Legato

Legato playing is simply sounding notes without picking them. There are several ways of doing this. The most common is hammering on or pulling off from another note. So, for instance, one way that many legato players approach a 3-on-a-string scale is by picking the first note and hammering on or pulling off the next two notes; or picking the first 2 notes, and either hammering on or pulling off the 3rd note.

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Arpeggios

In System 12, we will play through all of the arpeggios of the harmonized Melodic Minor scale. The Melodic Minor scale consists of the tones R, M2, m3, P4, P5, M6 and M7. You can think of the melodic minor as a major scale with a lowered third, though most players prefer to see it as a natural minor scale with a raised 6th and 7th. The chord qualities of melodic minor harmonized scale are minor/Major 7, minor 7, Major 7#5, dominant 7, dominant 7, minor 7b5, and minor7b5. Each week we will go through all of the arpeggios of the melodic minor scale in a different key.

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6th Diminished Scale

Barry Harris is a widely known proponent of this scale and its usage. It is also known as the major bebop scale.

The 6th Diminished scale is a crucial tool in the arsenal of any jazz musician. The 6th diminished is a variation of the traditional major scale, with the addition of an extra chromatic passing tone. This added note typically falls between the 5th and 6th degrees of the scale, creating an eight-note sequence that seamlessly connects the chord tones.

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Whole Tone Scale

The Whole Tone scale is a 6-note scale formed by ascending in Major 2nds. There are, thus, only 2 whole-tone scales, C and C#. The harmonized scale consists of all Augmented chords and all of the notes of the scale are contained in the first 2 triads.

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