Theory & Improvisation Introduction

Welcome to the Theory & Improvisation section of your ‘Coming Back To Life – David Gilmour Live At Pompeii’ course.

Here’s a rundown of what you get in this section of your course, and how to approach each element of study.

I will start with a disclaimer, I do not know exactly how David Gilmour thinks when he is soloing.
There are multiple ways to visualize and work your way around the guitar fretboard musically.
Some guitarists use scales and patterns, some guitarists use arpeggios and notes, whilst others may just let their ‘ears’ guide them.
When it comes to scales, there are multiple different paths to take in memorizing scale boxes, from three notes per string to the CAGED system.

I want to keep this element of the course basic for complete improvisation and theory beginners to enjoy, but also provide a challenge for those who have had a bit more time studying theory and improvisation previously.
So my analysis to start you off is a very basic approach, where does David start this section, and how does this compare to the scales.

In the first batch of lessons over the intro, solo 2, and solo 3, I have given you a few scale boxes to memorize.
If this is your first time learning scales, don’t take this lightly.
learn one box at a time and really get them under your fingers, then use the relevant ‘Coming Back To Life’ bars to ‘naturalize’ this shape.

Once you have spent some time looking through the bars and my interpretation of David’s choice of scale shapes, I deem it a good idea to learn all of the relevant scale boxes all over the fretboard.
This will help you to become more ‘complete’ over the fretboard so you can come up with your own unique solos, and creative endeavors.

Once your scales are good and in place, I then guide you through the CAGED system approach to chords and arpeggios to compliment all of the scales you have learned.
This section of the course will take years to master, so I will break this down for you to the minutiae so you can apply the same mindset and theoretical analysis to all future pieces you choose to learn and play.

Most important of all, take what you enjoy from this section and run with it.
Make music your way & create, it’s all for fun.