Althea

[jester536]

I'm committed to learning something about playing leads. I tend to grab a pentatonic scale and just flail away. I'm wondering if I can get some help. Let's take Althea. If I play an E minor bluesy thing (I'm not even sure that's right) I think it sounds OK but it doesn't nail it. Throwing notes in from the Bmin sounds good but at the wrong time it's awful. Any thoughts..I just don't know how to build a lead...how do you increase that tension...what creates that release. Nothing is too basic here.

[JonnyBoy]

Mixolydian scales are a great introduction to Jerry's approach. He does what he feels, but a lot can be explained with this scale approach. Here is a good teacher that explains the concept.

[Tennessee Jedi]

my strategy on this one is to play the solo out of chord shapes.
Learn the chords up and down the neck.
Many times the right ones can found close to each other.
Chromatic notes are worth exploring; notes that arent in the ' scale' but still work. Think the intro of Althea ....
Find U tube vid and hope there is good shots of Jerrys hands ...
Hope this helps.

[strumminsix]

Use a full B minor scale. Use the notes out of that to compilment the chord changes. They are all there.

[DenverEd]

Doesn't B Aeolian have an eminor?

I play the over the chord shapes but am thinking A major the whole time.

[mijknahs]

I play according to the chords. I think Jerry approaches it this way too. Kinda like soloing to Crazy Fingers but just 3 chords. When it comes back to the E, I usually go for some E blues stuff.

[Tennessee Jedi]

Check out this guy
Its all about the chord shapes

[Jimaroe]

Anybody interested in learning to finger pick Althea ought to check out Seth Fleishman at GratefulGuitarLessons.Com. I picked up his finger picking Jerry Althea lesson 3 days ago, and can't stop messing with it. No affiliation with Seth or his website, I just previously harbored an unwillingness to even try finger picking until I bought his lesson, it really is fantastic.

[mijknahs]

I'm pretty much always thinking about the chords during the solo:

[Tennessee Jedi]

I'm pretty much always thinking about the chords during the solo:

Hey man - did you review that guitar somewhere and I missed it ?
Great vid , too !

[gr8fullfred]

E mixo pretty much nails it. Remember its Jerry, therefore, think Mixolydian mode.

[mijknahs]

Hey man - did you review that guitar somewhere and I missed it ?

No, I did not do a review. I did enjoy playing the guitar although the action was a bit low for me and the strings were 9s (I use 10s). It was very light weight (unlike Jerry's guitar and my Tiger copy). It got a pretty decent sound (as you can hear in the vid) even though there was no buffer or any active electrioncs or Super IIs. I'd say it was pretty harmonically "rich" sounding. I would definitley use that guitar as a backup instead of modifiying a Strat or some other stock guitar. Now if they could make the body out of a thick slab of rRosewood (same family as cocobolo), that would be sweet with a maple neck. All I would do is add a buffer and OBEL (neither were installed on the guitar I played).

[vwjodyme]

Jim,
I thought you did give a review when we were talking about those guitars, but maybe you just said you got to try one out.

Anyway, great playing as always! very helpful info too!

PS. is that your youtube channel? I am subscribed to your jgb one, but not this one.

[mijknahs]

Jim,
I thought you did give a review when we were talking about those guitars, but maybe you just said you got to try one out.

Anyway, great playing as always! very helpful info too!

PS. is that your youtube channel? I am subscribed to your jgb one, but not this one.

I really don't remember about the review. Maybe I did a very short one. No, that isn't my youtube channel. My youtube channel is "mijknahs". This one is Fred's from Phred Instruments.

Jim

[keirweir]

Jim,
I thought you did give a review when we were talking about those guitars, but maybe you just said you got to try one out.

Anyway, great playing as always! very helpful info too!

PS. is that your youtube channel? I am subscribed to your jgb one, but not this one.

I really don't remember about the review. Maybe I did a very short one. No, that isn't my youtube channel. My youtube channel is "mijknahs". This one is Fred's from Phred Instruments.

Jim

If I had $450 I would buy that Phred Tiger right now.