For anyone wanting the logic behind this, it's actually as simple as: When not playing a root note, especially when playing notes next to root notes, the general mood is an unfinished-wanting-to-go-back-to-the-root-note... sound. This creates more "movement" and "tension" in the melody overall. (movement and tensions used pretty loosely). but yeah. knowledge.

In short, avoiding the root notes builds tension, landing on a root resolves the tension.

I'd say if you don't use root you are building a melodic tension to your playing wich sounds fresh and interesting but if you don't release the tension sometimes to the root it just sounds like the melody didn't have a goal.

really interesting approach, it sounds a bit more "exotic" or "creative" when you trying to avoid the root note.

Poor ass college student who spent the rest of his cash for your lessons cause they are so HELPFUL! Thank you for making learning Easy!!

I think it was Paul Gilbert who also talked about this think called "breath dynamics" I saw some guys commenting about it and the gist is that a guitar is supposed to emulate a singers voice. Many players play way too much lead, and no singer will sing continually. The idea is that you only play on the exhale, stop playing on the inhale. That way you keep it more interesting and do not have to fill an entire four bars with notes. Rob Chapman also has mentioned this topic. Try it. Combined with something like this (avoiding the root) and your soloing should be much different. Liked and subbed

Try this. Play the root half of the time. It sounds fantastic.

Man I just came across your channel today, you deserve way more subscribers and you are a great teacher! Keep it up bro you're awesome

Problem is most guitarist who need to know this can't find the root notes. Lol

I'm totally in love with that guitar

I love the way you show stuff, easy without blunt of useless information.

When you stopped playing roots and fifths it went into buckethead mode lol

I think this is the most important thing with all melody writing. Great vid.

Nice way of adding chilli to your playing, which costs you nothing and does not require any change in skill level at all! Thank you from Australia :)

I'm not a fan of PRS Guitars. But yours is just beautiful.

That's probably one of those tips on which many fret adventurers came across throughout the years. Interesting thing. I will definitely try it out.

In Jazz improvisation, I am told that they encourage you to land on one of the triadic tones of the chord, particularly on the downbeats, to resolve tensions rapidly. I imagine it would be hard to use this exercise in that genre, as well. Perhaps that is because it takes so much from the blues.

What a great exercise! I didn't realize how badly I needed this until I tried it. It got me out of my comfort zone and resulted in a totally different sound. It was painful at first but after a few minutes things started to click. I can't wait to try more variations of this exercise. Thanks for the lesson!

Listen to B B King, always lands on the root note. I think it is strongly dependent on music genre and intention behind a piece. I personally don't like the idea of restricting one's musical intuition, as it may end up crippling the one and only thing that matters: music and it's enjoyment. Nice playing though.

Avoiding the root sounded way more interesting. I guess it makes sense because the chord vamping already has the roots covered. Great video!

Sounds more exotic because your showing the melodic and tonal difference. Like playing modes, if your drone the open low E and then play the modes, you can really start hearing the difference.

I like the floating-over-the top feel when you avoided the root and fifth. Give the rhythm and bass players some room. Thanks. I'd never thought about this before.

I really liked both solos. I didn't think either were bland.

This is really great advice to add dramatic texture. Avoiding the root and 5th really takes the music theory in a more melodic flavor well done!

THAT SOUNDED INCREDIBLE.

What a great technique. And your teaching is clean and approachable. Thanks

first off, i suck at guitar. i'm a self taught bass player who has self-taught myself some basics on guitar so i can strum some tunes. and i really appreciate you posting these tips and stuff in these videos. while i'm not at a place where learning music theory interests me, your approach really helps me to expand on what i do know and work in new things as i learn them. thanks so much!

Whoa thats a killer tip!! Sounded way more interesting and unique without the root. Thnx!

the root is the first note (the one that sounds like a little version of the chord) and a fifth is essentially a power chord, the kind you use while playing green day of metallica.

Your channel is helping me a lot to improve my techniques on guitar, I never been into theory when I was younger because I learned by myself. Now with different goals for music and open mind I found really necessary to get a good material to study, and your channel offers that. Thank you! Oops, I almost forgot: Greetings from Brazil!

i am gROOOOOOOT

very cool way to think about it. cool advice.i personally like to mix it up but mostly just landing on chord tones when finishing a phrase. another helpful tip is super imposing arpeggios which a cool way of extending chords.

I saw an interview with Guthrie where he said he uses the root to give the listener a break or rest because it's pleasant to the ear. I believe he uses both the root and 5th at the end of his phrases to please the ears before he does more complicated and melodic mastery that us normal humans can't understand

WOW. This really shocked me, i'm serious. That's the way I wanted to sound sometimes for some experimental stuff that i'm recording alone, and I didn't know how i could achieve this sound. Much more easier than I thought, but still hard to think when improvising. A good excercise for both theory and practice. For jazz, for example, i was taught, as an excercise, to play the notes of the current chord (for example, if there's an Amaj79, i would play A, C#, E, G#, B) to make it sound "jazzy". Now, if I can avoid I and V grades, i can get this soulful sound. Thank you very much for the videos, I really like what you're doing.

Works! Yay! Thanks! Subbed :) I usually play what I would like to sing - but then, your observation about the blues is a relief.

I definitely love Tyler's guitar tone now more, this one is too much.

awoiding the root feels like it's going somewhere something gonna happen after that part ...i sit on minor 6st all the time it's kind of my style :) i liked the channel by the way , red button for you man

2:58 I loved that you did a video on that. I almost always use that bend slide.

9s and 7s boiiii the 5th is sick though

isolating the notes around the root is a great technique. instead of landing on the root land on the 2nd or 7th and it will add tasty chord extensions. and avoid the 4th unless it's a #11!

I couldn't differentiate between the two at all 😂

its beauty nice solo your guitars neck is perfect

I really loved this video. I really enjoyed both solos, but I COMPLETELY understand the difference in the end product that you are trying to convey here. You are so accomplished my young friend, and we are very fortunate to have you and your passion to share your "win" with us.

wow that's the exact opposite I was told, but sounds so much better. I was taught to stay around the 1st 3rd and 5th

That was a really tasty impro, the kind I wish I was able to create, i'll watch more of your videos I liked the non-avoiding part as much as the avoiding part, am I deaf ?

The solo without the root was better and this is how I write my stuff as well. I usually switch it up on the bass after my guitar is recorded and it makes for a different drum beat following the bass instead of the guitar. I don't like following the guitar at all, there is no creativity there BUT... when I incorporate keys they usually follow the guitar. Great video and I am glad someone else thinks like I do. We are indeed the 1℅. I cannot play solos or leads to save my life but I give it that good old college drop out try. lol!

That solo was pretty cool. Nice melodies. 👍

Great tip! And that's one sexy guitar, man!

Thank you for this valuable lesson.

Damn, that guitar is beautiful!

Love it man! They are right! You're a good teacher! God bless!

the second solo sounded interesting but it seemed a little lost and meandering with no direction. Made me realize why I might not have vibed with some solos that seemed very impressive and melodic, but just seemed to go on and on. vice versa, as said in the video, some solos just seem too grounded and boring too with the overused root notes. but this info is still really useful to keep in mind when to think about when to actually return to the root. that's interesting!

Your videos are always awesome

Love this technique. It never even occurred to me before! The second solo had way more tension (which makes sense as you weren't going back to the root to resolve your phrases) and was infinitely more melodic. So freakin' cool! Tyler, were you playing in a particular mode here? This had such a killer sound.

both of the solos sounded tight!

You're amazing. Subscribed after the first vid I watched👌🏼

I was literally riding down the road the other day thinking about something Jack Pearson said when he was talking about jazz. He said that people often say to never play the root in jazz and that it was really stupid to think that way. Then I was thinking about how Charlie Christian realllly emphasized the root in a lot of his playing. Then I hear this video and hear Paul Gilbert's take on it and it just funny how where there's two guitar players there always seems to be three opinions. LOL! Not saying that anyone is "right" or "wrong"but just that it's funny how many different approaches there are to playing solos. I liked the video for sure and found it really interesting.

This was amazing! It really forces you to get out of the confort zone and sound more interesting

Those are a nice leaks. like the feeling you put on you playin. Wish you more subscribers

root notes are good for ending a melody..it brings soothing resolution...well, I guess you could say that they're good for establishing the key early on in a melody also. thirds are very emotional to me..and the sixths.

Edit: (To be fair, as I finished the end of this video you do sort of mention that this is more for melodic-rock melodies) Hmm. Honestly, I can't say that I entirely agree in the broad scheme of things when it comes to root-note lead playing. I guess if you are going for a sort of fusion-rock/modern-jazz sound this mentality functions well. But one of the number one issues with new players is that they will often not follow the root chord tones at all even though the song moves from chord-to-chord as it progresses. Many amateur (new, that isn't an insult) players stick to a single scale and don't even consider trying to emphasize the root of chord tones as the song progresses, and this causes their playing to often sound sloppy and many of their phrases end up being left unresolved. But again, I do think this could be useful for niche playing. It definitely adds a certain tone (again, very fusion).

I liked it. Nice tone too.

So would an idea to build a solo would be too start off slow with pauses avoiding the root, pickup medium speed and more notes less pauses still avoiding root. Then when the big climax is coming up hit notes from lower part of fret board to higher part and when you get past the 12th fret finally do a bend into the root note after building all the tension for the big climax and then just kinda do whatever but with more root notes and faster till then end of solo. I think this is what I saw Isaiah Sharkey do last week when he did his solo part during the John Mayer show. It was amazing.

Awesome playing dude great lesson

mind fucking blow dude. your practice schedule video has really helped me nail down on my bads habits and i will certainly give this a try might take a bit of thinking though

This is really interesting concept! I'm gonna try it out soon!

youre my favourite youtuber now :)

Great video and an awesome looking guitar! I like those birds very much! :)

Dude I'd KILL for your Tone !!!!!!!!! Frik'n awesome !!!!!

I think it would be best to fluctuate between. Both ways were good but had different sounds. It would be nice to emphasize both in different measures. Thanks for this tip never thought it of it that way. I would always just do the roots.

I'm actually making a tune at the moment that needs this thinking implemented on it. Every thing iv solod so far sounds bland and this is because iv used too many roots. Great lesson also going to watch the one with Gilbert tomorrow. Love your lessons thanks dude

I'm still learning guitar, but I'll use this for my keyboard. Really good stuff.

This was a mind boggling and useful lesson. Thank you

Great one. Thanks.

That groovy riff sounds like something out of the old Dream Theater factory! :D

Funny thing is John Mayer says it’s good to suggest the cord progression through your solo.. Landing on the roots over the chord changes.. Guess it just depends what you want to suggest

great idea, lots of jazz players tend to do this

Great idea can't wait to giver

Holy fucking butt fuck! I learned something today. Subbed.

the riff sounds like an intervals song, especially the tone and solo

Interesting idea. Makes sense, too as the bass usually sticks to the root and fifth for the most part. Why should you repeat them?

They both sound nice. That may also be because every dam thing you play is nice!

Hey man, I realized the same thing a while ago. I have come to the conclusion that avoiding the root, in Minor Scales (Bm lets say) Makes you play more the D-F# notes of the chord, and in the end you're playing D major scale, without hitting the 6th a lot, which is actually B (your root) ;) I hope you can see my point, and read this comment. I'd love a feedback on my thoughts

love them 9ths

now that one sounded real good

I loved both! I just started guitar 6 months ago, I'm so glad I discovered your channel. It's amazing!!!

Interesting, you made rethink some solo ideas I've been working on... Thanks man really helpful. Got to subscribe to this channel.

man that groove and solo was so kickass awesome man! Wow crazy notes, reminded me of David Gilbert sylte of playing, great stuff

So where should i land instead? Saying avoid sounds easy. But where to land? Thirds and fifth? Or?

Cool idea thanks for sharing, just subbed!

Good excercise to cause yourself to try new things and colour in your licks more, BUT i dont think it sounds any better or worse with or without the roots. Both ideas have melody but it might be cool to do some with the roots and then without jsut for movement (you did this accidentaly if u combine the two parts)

great lesson

wow! im gonna do this!

avoiding the root notes sounds so magnetic

couldn't agree more

awesome tip, big difference

my mind is completely blown

that's a beautiful prs

I know this is an older video, but it that PRS an S2? (I noticed what looks like a bevel carve, but it's hard to see on my phone). If so, how do you like it? It sounded really good.

You sir, have earned yourself a subscriber ;)