Concepts for Comping: Lesson 34
November 2026 Newsletter
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 34
Alterations: Full-Diminished (4-Voice)
I'm going to take this point in the series to get into more detail on suspensions. We touched on Minor Suspensions briefly in Lesson 19 with the tune, “My Funny Valentine.”
Minor and Dominant Suspensions are first covered in (Unit 4: 7 th Chords). This lesson is on Dominant Suspensions.
A Dominant Suspension occurs by sharping the 3rd of a Dominant 7 chord:
This lesson includes explanatory text, 20 fretboard diagrams including the four given above, V-I drills, and a video:
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Video Lesson:
The Ionian/Lydian Distinction
The basic concept of the "Modal Distinctives" series is that you can get to the distinctive sound of a mode without learning the whole mode, or getting all confused by modal theory. You can do this by adding, or altering, a single note of the most commonly-known scale among guitarists; the Minor Pentatonic.
Who uses the Lydian sound? Just off the top of my head:
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Frank Zappa
Allan Holdsworth
John Petrucci
Matteo Mancuso
Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)
The Foo Fighters
…and many others. So yeah, lots!
This video is from my “Modal Distinctive” series of lessons.
This video is free, and requires no further obligation or commitment.
The entire Modal Distinctives lesson series from which the above video is taken is available as a PDF containing 36 pages, 6 lessons, 65 fretboard diagrams and other graphics, 6 video links, 28 links to additional lessons, song examples, and more! The PDF download page can be accessed via the button below. Site Membership is not required.
How About 5 Lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions. It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
Almost every lesson I teach presupposes these 5 lessons.
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Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
Eric Johnson Says Learn the Notes! “Sometimes I do these classes, and one of the first things that I say is [that it’s] really paramount to just sit down and to learn where, without thinking, you can look at any fret on your string and know what note it is.” -Eric Johnson.
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 33: Concepts for Comping, Video Lesson: Diminished Scale, arpeggios & inversions, Blog Links and much more…
Tune of the Month
Crossroads
I'm lifting this video from my blog, Back Down to the Crossroads.
That blog tells the story of how and why Cream's live version of Robert Johnson's Crossroads (1968) was so influential and important to my development as a guitarist and musician. It is the single most significant influence in my early formative stages.
There are many versions of the song by many different performers. Eric Clapton has continued doing the song for his whole career but he has never surpassed, or equaled in my opinion, the way he did the song with Cream.
I do Crossroads sometimes when playing solo acoustic gigs. I use a looper and track the rhythm guitar while I sing. I use the same rhythmic feel as Cream's version although I add a couple of extra chords and I don't play the solos verbatim - I improvise my own - that's what Cream would do!
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