# Marty Friedman Melodic Control - my thoughts on Marty's thoughts...



## Max Dread (Oct 18, 2011)

Hi all

I've been looking at this recently:

Marty Friedman Melodic Control 

After working on it for a while I added some comments on youtube and so far people there have disagreed with me. But youtube seems hardly the place for that type of discussion and so I thought I'd throw it up here for discussion. 

Here's what I wrote on youtube: 

"after analsying it a little further I realised that:

- it does not use the E maj but rather the E Mixolydian scale (D instead of D#).
- D maj has the same notes as E Mixolydian aside from a G instead of G#. But the G note is never played throughout the pieces.
- A maj has exactly the same notes as E&#65279; Mixolydian....

So the idea of playing the notes from the chords I don't think is hugely demonstrated. To&#65279; me he's doing more or less the same as you do when blues jamming.... IE - bringing out the changes in the rhythm change from root to IV and V. And this is mainly achieved by hitting the right note when the change happens. Of course, Marty emphasises this by often sticking to the arpeggio of the relevant chard. But he does play notes beyond the arpeggio. And it's worth remembering he is NOT using different notes when th chords change. He's always playing the same seven notes regardless of what chord is behind."

Would you guys agree or disagree with me on this? Any other thoughts or general comments about Marty's lesson?

Cheers

Max


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## Adari (Oct 19, 2011)

Max Dread said:


> Hi all
> 
> I've been looking at this recently:
> 
> ...



I think you're analysing this way too much. Marty never said "only use the notes of the major scale or minor scale of the chord". He was just advising a deliberate shift in tonality to emphasise and follow chord changes. He clearly states that he isn't considering modes or exact note choice.


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## Aspiringmaestro (Oct 20, 2011)

Well, you're right about it being a mixolydian progression. But about the rest, I'm not sure what you're point is. Marty is basing most of what he plays for each chord on their respective major arpeggios (the reference he makes to E major is not to the scale, but to the arpeggio) so he most definitely outlines the changes.


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## Keith (Nov 8, 2012)

Hey Max -- This is a great question. I think you're asking what else is going on in Marty's mind, other than food, and other than the little he narrates is going on in his head. I always wondered this, myself, as this was probably the most influential vid tutorial for me as I was a teenager in the 90s trying to get a hang of lead guitar.

From what I've gathered, there seem to be three approaches that guitarist can take when they solo over a chord progression:

(1) The guitarist's solo changes key with each chord change in the progression;

(2) The guitarist's solo remains in a single key during the chord progression, but the guitarist is conscious of the chord changes making his solo accentuate them; and

(3) The guitarist's solo remains in a single key without any special attention given to chord changes.

(Here's a YouTube vid I found that talks about the different ways to approach soloing: )

Marty specifically advocates against (3) in the video, and even gives an example of how much more dull it is when you do (3) rather than what he does. But that begs the question: Is he doing (1) or (2). What you've astutely observed is that he seems to be doing (2) -- He's staying within a single key -- in this case A major (Ionian) -- and accentuating the chord changes.

I think what's confusing is that he kind of talks in the video as though he's advocating (1) -- Not really paying close attention to any key at all, and just soloing over the chords. But then if so, it's a really, really big coincidence he happens to just stay in the same key with his note choice.

(If he weren't paying attention to key, for instance, we would expect to hear notes falling outside the key of A major when he's soloing over E and D. For instance, if he's playing over E major with an E major (Ionian) his note choice would eventually have to include accidentals F#, C#, G# and D#. Instead, we do not hear a D# -- only a D natural. Then when he switches to D maj (Ionian) the accidentals would only be F# and C#, and his note choice would be to include G natural and D natural when soloing over the D chord.)

I think maybe what Marty may be inarticulately trying to say is that it doesn't really matter which way you go -- change keys or not -- over each chord, just trust your ear. Neither is wrong. I know the thing in the back of my mind was always the consideration that it takes a whole lot more work to change keys over each chord than it does to have a "background" key you're relying on. But I always thought that a great guitarist should have the ability to do it either way, and the musical circumstances should drive which approach he ultimately decides to take.


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## m3l-mrq3z (Nov 8, 2012)

Damn, he looks and sounds so high on that video.

It's awesome.


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