Meet Your Instructor

Frank Axtell

With over two decades in the music industry, Frank Axtell is a renowned guitarist and composer who is a major contributor to the South Florida jazz/fusion/rock/blues scene. He performs with his own jazz ensemble, The Frank Axtell Quartet/Trio.
He was chosen as a featured soloist at the Berks Jazz festival in Reading, PA. Frank toured extensively in the 80's and recorded at The Record Plant in the San Francisco Bay area. Frank attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has always taken his continuing course of musical evolution seriously, learning from prominent guitarists Vincent Bredice, Joseph Iodone, Joe Diorio, Scott Henderson, and Jack Wilkins. Frank has served on the faculty of Miami Dade Community College and The Academy of Fine Arts in West Palm Beach, Fl.
Frank Axtell
Frank's comprehensive body of recorded material includes original compositions in the jazz, rock, R&B, classical, world beat and smooth jazz veins. He is a sought after session guitarist because of his versatility and talent for producing and arranging.

Guitar Tips

The Lydian Dominant Scale

The lydian dominant scale is great scale to learn as it brings out a very characteristic color or sound.

This scale is built as followes:

In the key of C... C D E F# G A Bb or root ,2nd, 3rd, #4th, perfect 5th, 6th and b7

It is primarily used over C7b5 chord C E Gb Bb or root, 3rd, b5th, b7th (D7b5, second chord in Duke Ellington's "Take the "A" Train).

Notice that it has the same notes as the G jazz melodic minor scale:

G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F# or root, 2nd, b3, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, 6th and 7th So you could say that the C lydian dominat scale is a mode of G melodic minor built off it's 4th degree (they are interchangeable or relative).

It also works well over C7aug11... C, E, G, Bb, D, F# or root , 3rd, 5th, b7th ,9th and #11

Keep practicing!

Dorian Mode

The dorian mode is the mode built from the 2nd degree of the major scale
  • Ex. C major C D E F G A B C. from that we get D dorian D E F G A B C D
  • We can then say, that these two scales are relative to each other. They have the same key signature . No sharps or flats.
  • Ex. Eb major Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb. From that we get the F dorian scale (F is the second degree of Eb)
  • F G Ab Bb C D Eb F
  • Again we say that these to scale are relative to each other. They have the same key signature . 3 flats ... Bb Eb Ab. This what we call relative thinking.
  • Another way of constructing the dorian mode would be to convert a major scale to dorian by altering specific scale tones in a parallel way. Ex. C major is converted to C dorian by lower the 3rd and 7th of the C major scale.
  • C D E F G A B C, C major now becomes C D Eb F G A Bb C or C dorian. We have lowered the 3rd and 7th degree.

Parallel then means: same starting letter(C) but different key signature. 2 flats Bb and Eb or the Bb major scale. The dorian mode is used to improvise over minor 7th or minor 6th chords. Typical progression would be Cm7 to Dm7 use C dorian.

Minor Pentatonic Scale

  • The minor pentatonic scale is commonly known for it's uses in rock, funk, R&B and blues genres.
  • It is a five note scale consisting of R, b3, 4, 5, b7. In the key of C it is spelled C ,Eb, F, G, Bb in the key of A: A, C, D, E, G.
  • It works great over C5, Cm7 ,C7 or C7sus4.
  • Most blues players use it over I7 IV7 V7 and Im7 IVm7 bVI7 V7 12 bar blues progressions.

Riot Distortion Pedal

A great new distortion pedal out on the market that I recently discovered is the John Suhr "Riot Distortion".

Watch on YouTube

Suhr Pedals

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