Ask Brendan is a monthly column where Guitar Educator, Brendan Burns, answers questions about music and the pursuit of Understanding and Mastering the guitar.

Associating Information

February 04

Q: I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with the information I’m learning. I’m learning a lot of good tools for the guitar and theory in general, but I don’t see any change in my playing. I sound like I always have. I have the intellect, and know that I could be playing better, but I’m having trouble incorporating the new topics into my playing.

B: One of the things that I can suggest is to use an association strategy where new information is linked to knowledge that is already understood. It is a simple and common exercise that helps build information together. The benefit is that it helps with grounding new information; when related, new concepts have a reference system. Associating knowledge can bridge concepts together and provide cohesion to your understanding and your playing of the instrument, and can prevent a disjointed, or fragmented understanding of the guitar.

Description: Let’s use an example from improvising. When we are playing through chord changes, we don’t want to look at scales, modes, chord shapes, arpeggios, and available tensions as separate, unrelated pieces of information. Instead, we want to combine them. We want to see how modes and chord shapes are related to each other. We want to link them so that when thinking about a chord shape, the mode related to it, associated tensions, arpeggios, and other inversions are all available to us. It is the difference between having all the information and playing them separately, to integrating all of your knowledge and producing a seamless interaction.

I’ve illustrated this idea of associating knowledge in a Flash Interactive Feature: click here. The components listed in each category are the ideas I use when I organize my own practice time. Feel free to add or subtract from this list. This can help bring focus to your studies on Total Understanding.

Application: When you are presented with a new piece of information, try examining it from several different perspectives.

For example, if you are working on a new scale, try looking at it as shape. Does this shape resemble any other scale shapes? Is this scale related to another scale? Maybe this scale is just an alteration of another scale, or maybe it has the same notes as another scale, but a different root.

See how this scale functions with different chords. Are there any chord shapes that fit inside this scale shape? By thinking of a chord shape, can you visualize the scale shape around it?

See what it looks like intervalacly (whole steps and half steps). How does relate to any other scales you know?

Building a network of musical information can help with feeling overwhelmed. As you build this network, those new concepts you’re learning will have an appropriate and accessible place in what you already understand. Your playing will no longer sound the same. New information will be integrated with your previous understanding.

Brendan