Minimal Movement

This cleverly named track is the epitome of modal practice, giving you extended periods of
exploration moving between two incredible similar modes.

Although you could look at the underlying chord progression, Jack very definitely plays over this
track as two modes. For example, the A section is a riff around an Em, A and D chord, but rather
than outlining each chord, Jack treats the entire section as E dorian (E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D).

The B section shifts from the E dorian feel to the E mixolydian tonality, and while there's an
obvious difference in the sense that dorian is minor (m7) and mixolydian is major (dom7) only one
note has actually changed, the G in E dorian, becomes a G#

Dorian – R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7 – E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

Mixolydian – R, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7 – E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D

Despite the change being minimal, because the entire chord quality has changed, its important that
you highlight that in your playing in order to have something that sounds musical. Your goal is to
play with a band, not over one.

A nice way to show this level of understanding is to state the new chords when you land on it. In
both cases here, when getting to the Emaj chord, you'll notice Jack sounds it in with the G#. This
may seem like an obvious thing to do, but actually putting ideas like that into practice is a whole
different thing.

When looking at Jack's playing on this track, it's anything but minimal, as displayed in his opening
phrase which starts with aggressive minor pentatonic phrasing, before shifting down the neck for
some Quayle/Garsed style modern legato (bar 3-4) where Jack's filling in the gaps around an Em
arpeggio (C shape of the CAGED system).

The other thing thing this track highlights is how Jack likes to move between areas on he neck, he
shows a lot of favour for 6ths (bar 2), but also uses some sliding 2nds in bar 5. The idea is that you
can take any interval and use it to move up a scale in a more horizontal fashion, this will actually
give your lines a feeling of logic, something that a listener can grab onto.

If the theory involved in this backing is on the easy side, the technique used by Jack certainly
balances it out, and there are a whole host of licks you're going to want to break down into smaller
chunks and build up to speed over time, it's very unlikely you'll be playing these at tempo from the
get go!

As an example, in bar 25 Jack starts by playing an octave, then moves down a D major arpeggio,
slides down in 3rds to a lower inversion D major arpeggio, then Jack employs some 6ths to shift
down the neck before moving up a G major7 arpeggio which transitions briefly to an Abm7b5
arpeggio. That's a lot of ideas (the sort of thing you'd see in the playing of fusion shredders like
Greg Howe) but that’s only half the battle as this is played at terrifying speeds. To get this one
down, try learning it half a bar at a time, building them up in speed and when it's all committed to
memory, play it as a whole.