whole    half    whole  whole   half   whole   whole

whole    half    whole  whole   half   whole   whole

Lesson 11

Hans Christian Andersen:
Where words fail, music speaks.

Fret Wraps

A fret wrap is a device that wraps around the neck of a guitar just behind the frets, to dampen or mute the strings slightly. It's typically a band or strap made of fabric or elastic material with a soft cushion that presses onto the strings. It helps dampen sympathetic
tones that interfere with playing.

The A natural minor scale

The minor scale is a series of notes with a sad, somber character. The minor scale is built with the following pattern of half steps and whole steps, starting on A it looks like this:

This pattern of steps correspond with the C Major scale if you were to start on the 6th degree of C Major, which happen to its relative minor - A minor.

A minor scale on guitar

whole     half      whole    whole    half     whole    whole

whole     half     whole   whole     half     whole    whole

C Major scale on guitar

That's right, C Major and A minor are the same scale, only the focal point changes.

This time we stay in the same key of C, but change the notes to fit the whole half step pattern from Major to minor, we flat the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes to meet the required step pattern. Notice the change in Key signature from Major to minor.

C natural minor scale on guitar

2 New Chord Diagrams

These chords are in what's called 1st position because the note on the low E string and the name of the chord are the same.

The Andalusian cadence

The Andalusian Cadence is a very popular and common minor chord progression using only 4 chords. It’s often categorized as a flamenco guitar chord progression but it’s used in many musical genres. The minor scale is used to play over the chord progression.

 

The first chord in the progression is a minor chord and names the minor scale played for the song, the second chord is a whole step down and is a Major chord, the 3rd chord is a whole step down from the second chord and is a Major chord, and the last chord is a half step down from the third chord and is also a Major chord. For example, in the key of A minor:
Am (whole step) G (whole step) F (half step) E.

Here is a hit song by the Ventures that is using The Andalusian Cadence