Guerrilla Tactics for Guitar

Improvisation:
a Non-Jazz Approach

By David Villarreal

Masters in Contemporary Performance Candidate

Supervisor: Enric Alberich
Berklee Valencia
July 2015
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements iii

1. INTRODUCTION: The book I Would Have Loved to Have 1

2. SHAPES OF THINGS 5

2.1. Why Focus on Guitar? 6

2.2. A Non-Jazz Approach? 9
2.3. Julio Cortázar’s “Rayuela”: a Lesson in Organized Chaos 11
2.4. Defining the Rules 14

3. THE PROJECT’S CONTENT 16

3.1. The Basics 17

3.1.1. CAGED System 17
3.1.2. Warp Refraction Threshold 25
3.1.3. Connecting it All 29

3.2. Guerrilla Tactics 32

3.2.1. Melodic Tactics Example 33
3.2.2. Rhythmic Tactics Example 35
3.2.3. Harmonic Tactics Example 36
3.2.4. Pentatonic Tactics Example 37
3.2.5. Guitar-Specific Tactics Example 39
3.2.6. Mixing Between Tactics Example 40

3.3. Appendix 41

4. CONCLUSION 48

Bibliography 50

Webography 51

  ii  
 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the teachers I have had in my lifetime, part of who I

am is because of you. From Berklee Valencia I would like to give special thanks to

Israel Sandoval, my guitar guru here in Valencia and the best teacher I’ve EVER

had. I would like to thank Enric Alberich for his advice, Brian Cole for his patience,

Perico Sambeat, Polo Ortí and Víctor Mendoza for the inspiration.

I would like to thank also (in no particular order) all of those guitar teachers

who had the biggest impact in my life: David Fiuczynski, Jon Finn, Jon Damian,

Hittar Cuesta, Adolfo Montenegro, Julien Kasper, Diego Celi, Jim Kelly, Mauricio

Noboa, Greg Howe, Prashant Aswani, Tim Miller, Norman Zocher, Joe Stump, Tomo

Fujita and Ricardo Aguiar.

Thanks to Peter Eddins, Gonzalo Eyzaguirre, Ji Won, Peter Eddins, Shane

Del Robles, MT and David Acosta for helping me recording this project’s backing

tracks.

Finally thanks to God, my family and friends for their constant love and

support.

  iii  
1. INTRODUCTION: The Book I Would Have Loved to Have

Music has been a crucial part of my life ever since I can remember. At

age 11 what started out as a child’s game, playing the guitar, soon became

something much more serious, a middle point between an addiction and a

challenge to master. Soon enough I was hungry for hearing the masters play

and I can vividly remember the moment I first heard Steve Vai; it was a

shocking experience, I had only heard a few seconds of “Juice” and my world,

as I knew it had changed forever.

I decided to become a musician that day.

At first I had many objections from my family but eventually they would

be left behind and I counted with their full support. With their help I could

study Music as my career at Universidad San Francisco de Quito’s IMC and

those years were marked by a huge improvement of my musical skills… as

well as being stained by a huge internal crisis against all things related to jazz.

To this day I believe some of my teacher’s educational approach while

I studied there were utterly wrong. Instead of showing me all the wonders and

the beautiful music lurking in so many jazz records I was forced to embrace

jazz as “the thing to play” if I didn’t want to be mediocre as it seemed all those

musicians I admired were for them. My renegade personality hated jazz; my

immature thoughts couldn’t envision the knowledge I could acquire beyond

“resigning” to my supposedly true nature. I almost quit playing music

altogether.

  1  
 Luckily for me shortly after finishing my studies at IMC many

circumstances would lead by rebel attitude towards a deep curiosity.

Strangely enough a new turning point in my life came to me after seeing

Steve Vai live for the first time; his total command of the instrument

transcended technique prowess or harmonic clarity, I had never seen any

human being feel so free onstage.

I decided to become the best improviser I could be that day.

My learning process shifted 180 degrees, my practice routines shifted

more and more from developing a better technique to visualizing fretboard

patterns and playing melodies I liked in real time. Playing the changes was

the new challenge to master.

I realized my driving force was not a passion for the guitar but a deep

love for music as a whole. I wanted to become a more “musical” (in my

opinion) musician rather than a one-act virtuoso. I had to practice differently

too in order to drift my efforts that way.

I was a beginner again. I was learning how to be free by putting fences

around my skills and me; such was my journey to achieve freedom of musical

expression through improvisation.

Once I decided to make this shift I encountered a different kind of

difficulties to overcome, particularly playing through chord changes and

“visualizing” the guitar shapes associated with such skill.

After IMC I had the chance to study again in Berklee Boston. I had so

many great teachers there and their unique approaches gave me material to

study even to this day.

  2  
 There’s no substitute to experience. After finishing Berklee I worked for

a year and a half in Miami, playing in pretty much any gig I could find. My

improvisation skills were of utmost importance to help me pay my bills.

Although a new challenge, being versatile and proficient in many styles,

appeared, improv was always there to remind me how much more I needed to

study.

Now I am in Berklee Valencia and I have the luxury of having a teacher

like Israel. His fresh approach towards understanding complex things in the

simplest way has ignited my passion for exploring my instrument once more.

I set up two goals to accomplish as a student here in Valencia: to play

with as many people as I could and to increase my improvisation language,

focusing both goals in being as versatile as I can. To be able to play well in

any musical situation, using the correct phrasing and language associated

with different musical styles.

Thus, I decided to share this knowledge, this those tools and concepts

I’ve learned along the way (particularly while studying in Berklee Boston and

Quito’s USFQ) in a book aimed to guitar players who want to be better

improvisers but who don’t want to focus necessarily on playing jazz (I haven’t

seen such book yet).

My original proposal was to provide a sort of reference book, a

“dictionary” of “guerrilla tactics” for aspiring improvisers and experienced

guitarists alike. To create the book I would have loved to have when I started

out on my quest as an improviser.

  3  
 As this project took shape my advisor, Enric Alberich, envisioned it

could be better suited for a different media, maybe a web page or an app,

given its non-linear approach.

For now I’ve kept the project in a book format until all the information

will be properly organized and revised, prior to be released. I must admit I

don’t know (yet) how to design or create a web page or an app. Given the

time constraint and the different focus I had for my studies in Valencia,

acquiring such skills has been delayed for a future date; I also had a different

theme for my thesis during the first months of study.

This project is a compilation of the most relevant lessons I’ve been taught

concerning improvisation and knowledge of the guitar, along with some

strategies and tools I found out on my own. I hope it helps all of those

guitarists who are feeling like outcasts because they are not (or are not yet

like in my case) interested in jazz but at the same time they want to become

better improvisers.

My CE describes the processes that will lead me to make such project

a reality, the reasoning behind its main concepts, the pedagogical tools it will

use as well as samples of some of its content.

  4  
2. SHAPES OF THINGS

I think entropy is really important. Rather than discussing the wonders

of the second law of thermodynamics (which wouldn’t belong here at all in the

first place) I’d like to invite whoever is reading this to think for a moment about

the necessity for change and constant improvement in our lives.

“Shapes of Things” is a song originally recorded by the English Rock

band The Yardbirds. It is considered one of the band’s most influential songs

for Rock history, in fact it was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s

museum permanent exhibit of the “Songs That Shaped Rock N’ Roll”1. After

being released with The Yardbirds several different versions have been done,

most notably are those released by its ex members Jeff Beck and Jimmy

Page. Its not only a song that influenced many people like Paul McCartney

and Jimi Hendrix, it is also a clear example of how we can embrace change to

improve upon things, to give them shape both literally and figuratively.

In a way any research should be just like that: open to change and able

to embrace new things as it is revised and corrected.

My hypothesis, or main research question, is that music improvisation

on the guitar can be learned with much ease once a deep understanding of

the fretboard’s logic has been acquired; once this knowledge has been

mastered the path chosen to work upon improvisational skills can be

accommodated to each person’s needs, taste and goals. That’s the reason

                                                                                                               
1
“Experience the Music: One Hit Wonders and the Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”, Rock

  5  
I’ve decided to call “Guerrilla Tactics for Guitar Improvisation” to a collection of

suggestions and lessons to follow such path.

In order to create “Guerrilla Tactics for Guitar Improvisation” I have to

define clearly its scope and its objectives first. Doing so has led me to new

questions and potential new answers, this whole process will help me

organize my ideas better and create a coherent didactical work that will be

both easy to understand and deep in its contents.

But, just like the song “Shapes of Things”, this process must be

constantly inspected, revised and improved.

2.1. Why Focus on Guitar?

As a guitar player I can relate to the difficulties the instrument presents.

In order to give the potential readers of the project a collection of techniques

for improvisation, I had to go back in time, remembering where my starting

point was.

I found out in my experiences both as a student and as a teacher that a

deep comprehension of the guitar fretboard eases the learning process of all

musical material such as scales, chord voicings and arpeggios; unfortunately

this knowledge is not available (or known) for many people, thus a tedious

memorization routine of such material is enforced rather than understanding

the logic within.

The key concept for the first part project is visualizing the fretboard; this

means the ability to visually relate any scale, chord or arpeggio anywhere on

the neck to the tonal center in use.

  6  
 The guitar has two main problems. The first one lies in the way it is

tuned: all strings are tuned a perfect fourth apart (from lower to higher strings,

this means the 6th string is a low E, therefore the 5th string is an A, and so on)

except the 3rd and 2nd strings, which are tuned a major third apart (the 3rd

string is a G and the 2nd a B). This creates incoherent patterns to be played

on by the fingers as we cross the strings; this is called vertical movement in

guitar lingo.

The second difficulty of the instrument is that it has multiple octaves

that can be played on different parts of the neck and in different strings. This

means the same note can be located in 2,3,4 or even more places of the

neck; if you add to this the previous tuning-related problem you’ll encounter

that all the chords, scales and arpeggios look way differently on different parts

of the neck (unlike a piano for example) as you move along it; this is called

horizontal movement.

Because of this, as a whole, the guitar can be considered an “upside

down” instrument: if you want to go down in pitch you have to move “up” the

strings and vice versa, also if you want to play higher pitches you’ll have to

play “down” the fretboard; add to all of this the possibility to move diagonally

over the fretboard and the puzzle the guitar’s fretboard represents is evident.

Before understanding some abstract concepts such as pacing or

harmonic substitutions these issues have to addressed. Even if some

chapters of the project will not relate to them directly, knowing and

understanding the guitar fretboard will boost any guitar player’s skills

considerably.

  7  
 One of the most popular methods to explain the guitar’s logic is the

CAGED system. A device of unknown origin (although it is said to have been

developed by studio musicians in LA during the 50’s) that uses the basic triad

shapes C, A, G, E and D in sequence as a starting point to relate all scales to

a chord shape in the same fretboard position; it helps also to translate such

knowledge to any key, thus helping guitar players to perform in different

tonalities with ease. This is a really good method, but it only addresses the

fretboard’s horizontal logic.

I was fortunate enough to attend Jon Finn’s Modern Rock Guitar

Improvisation Lab while I was in Boston. In this class, Finn explains what he

calls “The Warp Refraction Threshold”, a method of his own that explains how

the guitar accommodates its tuning difference between the 3rd and 2nd strings

and then helps in visualizing the chord and scale shapes as a whole rather

than individual patterns that work on certain places of the neck. This method

addresses the guitar’s vertical logic majestically.

My contribution for the guitar community is to unify both systems to

create a better understanding of the fretboard thus giving my readers more

tools to adapt any chord, scale or arpeggio shape easily anywhere on the

fretboard and in any key.

Although it is planned to include these methods for fretboard

understanding on separate chapters of their own, a section of guitar-specific

improvisational techniques will be incorporated in the project; this is because

they are applied to certain guitar ways of playing the guitar (three note per

string scales for example).

  8  
2.2. A Non-Jazz Approach?

I love music. Period.

Unfortunately a lot of people tend to love labels rather than the artistic

and intrinsic aesthetical qualities of what they hear, sometimes obscuring their

objective critical thinking. I find this can be particularly dangerous (in my

opinion) when such people, because of tradition or because of a common

practice, associate certain musical styles as synonyms of an ethical or artistic

device; in other words, I don’t think that all people who enjoy Norwegian Black

Metal (for example) are Satanists that burn churches or that Improvisation

belongs exclusively in Jazz, in fact I strongly believe such affirmations are

harmful, to say the least.

Somehow along the way a sort of myth has been created, that music

improvisation cannot be learned and those musicians who are able to

improvise can only do so for playing Jazz. I say this out of my personal

experience; I have met many who think this way, even musicians who think

they cannot become good improvisers just because they don’t like Jazz at all.

The project attempts to make a contribution against this false dogma. It

wants to help guitarists in becoming better improvisers in whatever musical

medium they feel comfortable performing.

In my personal consideration improvisation is a part of music itself, in

any genre. Although its use is obviously more present in Jazz, its undeniable

for me that improvisation has been at the core of musical creation since

forever.

Probably because improvisation is a big part of the Jazz language,

most of the information available about improvising is related to Jazz. There

  9  
are many wonderful books available that have helped many musicians over

the years, classics such as Hal Crook’s “How to Improvise”, the Jamey

Aebersold series, the Jerry Bergonzi “Inside Improvisation” series; although a

good deal of their topics are directly linked to developing a jazz language,

they also contain a lot of universal knowledge and concepts that can be

applied to any musical style. The project shares some of those concepts with

a universal musical appeal, giving access to them to a broader

Also, I’ve been fortunate enough to have private lessons with many

great teachers; I’ve put many of their lessons into use in a variety of musical

contexts with a good degree of success. The project includes some of the

most important lessons learned from them.

As a teacher and an ongoing student myself, I have also encountered

some techniques or practice habits that have helped me, or my students,

immensely. Of course the project must include these techniques as well.

In sum, the project wants to include the best of both worlds: a

compilation of those private lessons that I found particularly helpful in my

development, a selection of passages from known books that can be applied

into any musical style; as well as some routines I have created for myself or

for some of my students.

I want to create a resource that appeals to those who feel unease in

many music schools (as I did) because they “don’t get Jazz”, or at least not

yet, as it was in my case… The principles and musical lessons “Guerrilla

Tactics” contains must have a wide reach into which they can be put into

practice.

  10  
2.3. Julio Cortázar’s “Rayuela”: a Lesson in Organized Chaos

Literature and Philosophy are among my favorite hobbies. In them I’ve

found a never-ending source of inspiration.

One of my favorite novels of all time is Cortázar’s masterpiece

“Rayuela” (or “Hopscotch” as it was translated to English), an award-winning

book that had a unique feature the time it was released: it could be read in a

normal order (following the chapters in sequential order) or it could be read in

another suggested random order, the book subtly encourages its readers to

come up with new and different ways of organizing its contents; in a way it’s a

book that contains a multitude of books within. Each lecture is unique and it

creates a special resonance with its reader-creator as it is developed.

I believe that educational tools, in some situations, could be used just

like that: instead of enforcing a preset path to be taken, a multitude of

didactical options (lessons) could be given to those interested in learning so

that they can apply them to their individual needs or limitations. Even though a

suggested, sequential order could be followed; I think sometimes we could

learn better by using a collection of paths (lessons) to be taken towards

achieving what we desire, in the order we chose.

Having Literature as inspiration couldn’t be enough for a serious

project. After careful research I found a strong pedagogical foundation in the

Constructivist philosophy of education.

Constructivism is, in simple terms, a theory of knowledge that believes

we generate knowledge and meaning through an interaction between our

experiences and ideas, or as Audrey Gray explains “Constructivism is based

on the belief that knowledge isn't a thing that can be simply given by the

  11  
teacher at the front of the room to students in their desks. Rather, knowledge

is constructed by learners through an active, mental process of development;

learners are the builders and creators of meaning and knowledge”2.

This school of teaching can embrace a non-linear approach for learning

materials; after all if we consider the way we have learned a lot of our daily

routines, we have been following a non-linear approach for a long time. For

example, when we learn how to eat we are not told “you can learn how to eat

meat only after you have learned how to chew properly your vegetables… and

only once you have mastered how to eat meat you can learn how to eat ice

cream. Also don’t forget you can learn how to use a fork only after you

mastered how to use a big spoon and then a little spoon”, although the

example might see silly it shows clearly how we don’t necessarily follow a

sequential structure to acquire new knowledge or skills. As McMahon put it:

“knowledge should not be divided into different subjects, it should be

discovered as an integrated whole” (McMahon, 1997).

I realized also that a project like this would require its users to be guitar

players of a medium level of skills (or higher) with a basic understanding of

harmonic concepts; mainly because a more advanced player understands

better what his/her goals are; after all let’s not forget another Constructivist

point of view: “The learners should be actively involved in their process to

better construct their understanding” (Von Glaserfeld, 1989).

Once this project is published, rather than claiming to be “the ultimate

guide” for improvisation on guitar (I don’t believe in products that make that

                                                                                                               
2
Audrey Gray, “Constructivist Teaching and Learning”, Saskatchewan School Boards
th
Association, Accessed July 4 , 2015,
http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/old/ResearchAndDevelopment/ResearchReports/Instruction/
97-07.htm#What is Constructivism?

  12  
kind of promises), my goal is that it can become a useful tool for aspiring

improvisers. Constructivism believes in the instructor and content of

instruction material as facilitators, thus “the emphasis turns away from the

instructor and the content and towards the learner” (Gamoran, Secada &

Marrett, 1998).

Of course a starting point must be taken before embracing on such

journey, just like in “Hopscotch”. In the project there will be a starting point

that will deal with fretboard logic (both horizontal and vertical) and being able

to visualize its patterns with ease by using the aforementioned methods. After

that a selection of practice routines, or tactics, will be given. These tactics

could be adapted, like being tailor-designed, to work on specific situations.

Thus, I decided to name this pedagogical strategy Guerrilla Tactics for

Guitar Improvisation.

Its important to state that the tactics that will be given do not contradict

between themselves, in fact a combination of different tactics (approaches)

can create complex musical ideas; one again there is a Constructivist

foundation to support this process: Robert Gagné’s learning prototype known

as chaining (a process where a learner connects individual associations in

sequence)3

All this path had cleared my mind, the project could now formulate a

hypothesis, or main research question: once a proper understanding of the

guitar’s fretboard (its vertical and horizontal logic) is achieved, a guitar player

can embark with greater ease on a journey of improvisational improvement by

                                                                                                               
3
“Robert Gagne’s Five Categories of Learning Outcomes and the Nine Events of Instruction”,
th
International Center for Educator’s Learning Styles, Accessed July 4 , 2015, http://www.icels-
educators-for-
learning.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=73#main

  13  
using different tactics, which could provide new practice routines or musical

points of view for their playing. These tactics could be followed in any

particular order, according to each guitarist’s goals and needs.

2.4. Defining the Rules

So far the general terms for my project were settled: to write, as for

now, an instructional book on improvisation specifically designed for guitar

players who are not interested solely in Jazz. To broaden its scope, and given

its non-linear structure, the project could be adapted to a different media

(namely a webpage or an app) but that decision is not to be made yet since

the project’s completion and release date are not defined yet in a short term

period.

This project must be easy to understand and its core contents - called

“Guerrilla Tactics” - could be read in any order after completing a section that

will be called “The Basics” - because it works as a starting point for the

project-.

The next logical step was to define how the work will be set up, the

procedures it will follow as well as the “common ground” which will give it

coherence as a whole.

Some of the ideas to be implemented are:

• The language used must be simple and direct, using first person

when possible, just like emulating a guitar lesson being taught

physically.

• All the examples should be easy to compare between them,

therefore throughout the book the tonalities of C Major, A minor (its

  14  
 relative minor key) and their dominants (G7 or E7) will be used

accordingly.

• Berklee’s notation system will be used throughout.

• The book will have three main sections: The Basics, Guerrilla

Tactics and an Appendix. The Guerrilla Tactics section will be

organized into subcategories (which will be explained later in this

document).

• The Appendix section will cover basic notions of harmony but it will

not represent by any means a detailed guide on the topic. Its

purpose is to be a reference guide solely.

• Guitarists tend to use minor pentatonic scales often. I will use this

resource to my advantage by creating a section solely on new ideas

for applications of pentatonic scales.

• As an additional resource, backing tracks will be provided to put the

tactics into practice.

• The backing tracks shouldn’t last more than three minutes, as Mick

Goodrick suggests in his book “The Advancing Guitarist”

• The backing track’s tempo would be 92 bpm as Hal Crook

suggests.4

• The backing tracks must include many different musical styles.

• Some of the tactics could be intertwined together to create more

complex ideas.
                                                                                                               
4  “These are primarily instructive play-along CDs which are intended to be used as
accompaniment for practice with specific topics and exercises (…) rather than an as
accompaniment for a potential set of tunes such as would be played on a gig; there area
already countless play-along CDs available for that” (Crook, 1999, p. 210). Also “When
testing the play-along material (…) I discovered that 92 bpm was the tempo at which the
majority of beginner and intermediate level students could improvise accurately using the
widest array of rhythm values” (Crook, 1999, p. 210).

  15  
3 – THE PROJECT’S CONTENT

Regardless of the final media in which this project will be published (as

a book, web page or an app), its structure will consist of three main parts:

1. The Basics: The starting point that will ensure a solid foundation

upon which everything else in the project can be explained. It will

focus exclusively on understanding the guitar’s fretboard and being

able to visualize chord and scale “shapes and patterns”. It will use

the CAGED system to explain the neck’s horizontal logic and Jon

Finn’s Warp Refraction Threshold system to explain its vertical logic.

I will add to this the connection both systems have between them. It

is strongly recommended to the project’s users to start from here

before checking the rest of the material.

2. Guerrilla Tactics: The main body of work. It consists of independent

lessons that focus on five key areas for guitar improvisation. The

lessons can be mixed between them to elaborate more complex

musical ideas. This section could be used in any order, according to

its user’s goals and particular interests.

3. Appendix: This section will have a quick reference of terms used

throughout as well as brief explanations of harmonic concepts used,

it is not meant to be used as a harmony supplement but rather a

quick reminder of things.. A collection of backing track recordings

was also done to provide supporting material for practicing the

material presented.

  16  
3.1. The Basics

As stated in the main hypothesis, this Culminating Experience Project

is based on a deep understanding of the guitar’s fretboard as a starting point

for studying improvisation.

This section will cover explanations of the guitar neck’s horizontal logic

(across its frets) as well as its vertical logic (across the strings) and then a

connection between them.

3.1.1. CAGED System

Although its exact origin is unknown (some people say it was

developed by studio musicians during Hollywood’s golden era in the

beginning of the XX century but it has been corroborated), guitarists have

used this system to understand the way the guitar works and the relationship

between chords and scales, this system also helps guitar players to transpose

their repertoire to different keys with ease.

The system gets its name from the triad shapes used as a reference

point to locate the notes on the fretboard5. These triads are:

                                                                                                               
5  IMPORTANT: The CAGED System works only in standard guitar tuning or if all strings are
raised or lowered by the same pitch (Eb tuning, down one step, etc.)
 

  17  
 The diagrams represent the guitar’s fretboard: the vertical lines

represent the strings (with the low E on the left), while the horizontal lines

represent the frets. The black dots indicate the finger’s position, the diamonds

indicate each triad or chord’s root, the white dots represent open strings to be

played and an X indicates not to play that string at all. Unless a thick black

line is put at the top of the horizontal lines (representing the guitar’s nut), the

starting fret position will be indicated.

The first step is to relate all those triads to the same key:

Notice how each shape overlaps with the previous one. It’s like the

diamonds (roots) connect and link together all the C triads across the

fretboard. After the last “D” shape the cycle starts again (C shape, A shape

etc.) only an octave higher.

Now let’s build more upon this knowledge. To do so, we will relate a

major scale to each shape. Remember the key is visualizing the notes on the

guitar:

C Shape:

C Shape Major Triad C Shape Major Scale

  18  
 To practice and understand how this system works, it is advised to

imagine and think in your head how the C Triad’s notes are contained within

the Major Scale while playing it. Once this is achieved another good exercise

is locating in the same way where the Root, major 3rd and perfect 5th of the

triad are within the scale. The key to truly understand the fretboard is this:

focused practice and concentration.

The same procedure should be repeated with the remaining shapes:

A Shape Major Triad A Shape Major Scale

G Shape Major Triad G Shape Major Scale

E Shape Major Triad E Shape Major Scale

D Shape Major Triad D Shape Major Scale

  19  
 Notice that some scale shapes begin one fret before their triad

counterpart, although you could play the scale beginning on the same fret by

adjusting a note or two from it, playing the scales this way will help you

memorize them quicker because they are following a logical pattern (which

we’ll uncover on the next section of this writing) as well as training your hand

in positional playing 6

So far we’ve located all the notes of C Major (or A minor) in any

location in the fretboard by relating them to a triad shape. The beauty of the

CAGED system is that it makes transitioning to any other key extremely easy

once you can visualize the notes related to each shape. The principle is as

simple as playing a barre chord: the same shape can be related to any key

once you locate its root position in the appropriate place on the neck.

Lets analyze deeper the following example in C major (already given):

C Major Triad (A shape) C Major Scale (A Shape)

C is located on the 5th string, 3rd fret and in the 3rd string, 5th fret,

therefore the A shape is the only one that can fit in this position.

                                                                                                               
6
Positional Playing is a way of playing the guitar avoiding excess movement from the left
hand as much as possible by “locking” the hand’s position over a certain fret, trying to move
your fingers only one fret above or below your four finger span if necessary. If your first finger
is on the third fret, you’ll be playing in third position, and so on.

  20  
 To change the scale and triad pattern of an A shape to a different key,

Eb Major for example, all we have to do is move our fingers so that the roots

of the shape match the new key (Eb is located in the 5th string, 6th fret and in

the 3rd string 8th fret):

Eb Major Triad (A shape) Eb Major Scale (A Shape)

Using this procedure you can play any major scale and chord

anywhere on the fretboard. From here you can take things to the next level by

adapting your chord and scale shapes to the musical needs of the song rather

than the other way around, which is common among guitar players with a very

limited chord and scale vocabulary.

You can use the CAGED system to locate other triads and scales in the

fretboard. Remember this system is used to visualize the notes on the

fretboard and to understand its logic, although all the given minor shapes

could be used, people seldom use some of them because the voicings are not

so comfortable to play. Nonetheless it is important to keep in mind the shapes

where all the information comes from.

Here are the minor shapes using the CAGED system, to make

comparison easier, all the examples would be in C too:

  21  
 C Shape:

C Minor Triad C Minor Scale

A Shape:

C Minor Triad C Minor Scale

G Shape:

C Minor Triad C Minor Scale

E Shape:

C Minor Triad C Minor Scale

  22  
 D Shape:

C Minor Triad C Minor Scale

Notice that the minor scale patterns are the same as some of the major

scale patterns we saw previously but with the root position in a different place.

This makes sense once you realize these scales are the relative minor of a

major scale located a minor third above (Eb in this case), in other words, C

minor and Eb Major have the exact same notes, just like A minor and C Major.

If we try to locate the A minor shapes within the previous C major shapes

shown, it is clear how everything is related. The fretboard will make much

more sense once this relationship is understood.

The CAGED system can be used to locate any chord you can think of.

Here are the shapes for the most common seventh chords (all in C again):

Major 7th (Maj 7), Minor 7th (-7), Dominant 7th (7) and Minor 7th flat five (-7b5):

C Shape:

C Maj7 C-7 C7 C-7(b5)

  23  
 A Shape:

C Maj7 C-7 C7 C-7(b5)

G Shape:

C Maj7 C-7 C7 C-7(b5)

E Shape:

C Maj7 C-7 C7 C-7(b5)

D Shape:

C Maj7 C-7 C7 C-7(b5)

  24  
 Of course this are not all the chord and scale patterns there are, as I

mentioned before, this system can be applied to any scale or chord; in other

words, the five “sectors” of the fretboard could become the platform upon

which any guitar player can unleash their chord and scale arsenal.

Knowledge of the fretboard will grow exponentially once you’ve

understand and have these shapes under your fingers, after this point

expanding your knowledge can be achieved by finding the relationship in

other scales and chords, another suggestion is to switch between positions

while improvising or comping, as well as visualizing chord progressions within

the same position (similar to the relationship between Major and its relative

minor previously described).

3.1.2. Warp Refraction Threshold

I have been lucky enough in my life to having had private lessons with

Jon Finn, one of Berklee College of Music’s most sought after teachers in the

Boston campus. He is one of the best pedagogues for rock guitar in the world

and his course on Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation is always packed with

eager students. In this class one of the staples taught are what he calls the

“Warp Refraction Threshold” (WRT).

While the CAGED system shows us how to understand the fretboard

horizontally (across its frets), this principle will show us how to understand the

fretboard’s vertical logic (across the strings).

The main idea behind the Warp Refraction Threshold (WRT) is that a

lot of the guitar’s inherent problems to understand its logic are caused the way

  25  
it is normally tuned7: all the string’s pitches are located a perfect fourth when

you move from your low E (6th string) to your high E (1st string) except when

you move from your G string (3rd) to your B string (2nd), the distance between

those two is a Major third instead.

Jon, who is a very humorous guy, refers to this as if two “alternate

universes” coexist within your guitar. Hence everything you play in those two

“parallel dimensions” will share the same logic and rules; luckily those two

dimensions work in the same way (the distance between the 2nd string and the

1st is also a perfect fourth). The borderline between those two universes is the

“Warp Refraction Threshold” (WRT), shown by the arrow:

With this difference in mind we can unlock the fretboard’s secrets if we

can adjust it to the same logic that works on the “two universes”, visualizing

and understanding the guitar as a whole using

the same thinking process.

Remember that refraction experiment

where you put a pencil into a glass of water? It

looks like it is twisted but it’s an optical illusion

created by the water’s density and how light

                                                                                                               
7  This principle works on standard tuning, please refer to footnote #5 for more information

  26  
goes through it.

The guitar’s fretboard it’s just like that: Just like the pencil does not

change when it is put into the water, the musical note’s order also do not

change at all; in both cases the object refracted (the pencil, the musical notes)

looks different from its original form because the medium where it is located

(the water, the guitar’s warp refraction threshold) made it look like that.

This is easier to understand by analyzing the following example:

All the shapes for an interval of a fifth across the strings are shown,

notice how all the shapes look identical except when you cross the WRT; this

is because in order to accommodate to the tuning difference of one half step

(or one fret) less when crossing the WRT, the fretboard “adds” one extra fret.

To maintain things under the same logic, we should compensate within

our heads the lack of a half step (or one fret) difference that occurs when we

cross the WRT by “sliding” the neck one fret further when we cross it, once

this has been understood the fretboard’s mystery becomes actually pretty

simple.

Let’s compare this graphic with the previous one:

  27  
 On this example the guitar neck’s diagram has been modified to show the

way things would look without the tuning compensation created by the WRT.

Notice how all of the shapes look exactly the same now.

The WRT system can be applied to scales as well. Just like in the

previous example, the half step tuning difference is accommodated by

“adding” one extra fret whenever the WRT is crossed.

Here is a 3 note per string fingering for a Mixolydian scale on the

guitar, as we know it. The shape of the fingerings looks slightly different on

the last two patterns:

If we compare that graphic with the following one, where the WRT is

not present, we can corroborate how all the fingerings have always been the

same:

Evidently, by understanding the WRT it can be deduced that the

guitar’s fretboard follows a uniform logical pattern all the time and that it

applies to intervals, scales and chords (to be explained on the next section).

Just like the CAGED system, Jon Finn’s WRT is a tool that helps guitar

players to visualize the fretboard in a more coherent way.

  28  
 One of its clear advantages is that it makes learning scales a lot easier

because only one fingering must be memorized and then it can be easily

adapted anywhere on the neck. This is also the reason why the scale

fingerings shown in the previous section (regarding CAGED system) were

chosen: if examined closely, all of them had two sets of equal fingerings in

two strings (124 and 134 respectively) that was followed on the next string

with only two fingers located a whole step apart. Its important to remember at

this point that, because the guitar’s 1st and 6th string are tuned to the same

pitch (E), the system repeats all over itself; therefore only a five string

fingering is needed to cover up all scale possibilities in the neck.

With practice, a correct understanding of Finn’s WRT will lead towards

understanding the guitar’s neck in a “circular” way. Every scale, chord,

arpeggio or interval shape will eventually overlap itself and connect like puzzle

pieces just like the CAGED shapes do across the frets.

3.1.3. Connecting it All

So far the guitar’s fretboard horizontal logic has been explained

through the CAGED system and its vertical logic by using Jon Finn’s WRT.

One of my contributions for the guitar community with this project is to unify

both systems. Although these are not, by any means, the only ways in which

the guitar’s logic could be explained; the scope and reach of using and

interweaving these systems is quite vast and will require a considerable effort

and dedicated time from anyone interested in doing so.

To make this connection we’ll have to apply the WRT’s knowledge into

the basic triadic shapes that form the foundation on the CAGED system. The

  29  
following example (shown only on four strings to make comparisons easier as

it crosses the WRT) starts with a G shape, with its root on the 6th string. When

playing that same shape, but starting on the 5th string, it will look different in

order to accommodate to the WRT, in fact it has been “transformed” into a C

shape to do so. If the same process is repeated on the next string, the shape

will be “transformed” into an E shape:

The following chart shows what the shapes would look like if the WRT

didn’t exist:

As it is evident, all the shapes are in fact the same!

Although it might seem logical at this point, I’ve found out from my

personal experience while learning and teaching that most guitarists don’t

know this information at all. This lack of knowledge has made it harder for all

of us to learn how to play the guitar because it seemed like the amount of

information to learn and memorize was a lot greater than it actually is.

The comparison between these two graphics also shows another

advantage of understanding the WRT: chord shapes can be “recycled”,

  30  
meaning only one fingering must be learned and then it can be adapted to

different positions on the neck with ease.

To continue exploring with the connection between CAGED and WRT

systems let’s apply to E, the other shape with its root on the 6th string:

In this example the E shape turns into an A shape when played on the

5th string and into a D shape when played on the 4th string. With this, all five

CAGED shapes have been shown on the fretboard.

Now let’s compare the last diagram with this one that indicates what

happened if the WRT wasn’t applied:

As expected, the same results have been obtained: the shapes didn’t

change at all.

At this point the connection between both systems should be evident,

but it can be much more so if is also taken into consideration that, since both

the 6th and 1st strings are tuned to E, in fact the second example is a

“continuation” of the logical pattern of repeating the shapes on the next

available set of strings. As mentioned before, practice and comprehension of

  31  
this information eventually leads towards understanding the guitar’s fretboard

as having a “circular” inherent set of rules and logic that applies to it.

3.2. Guerrilla Tactics

The main body of the project will consist of this section. In my personal

experience as a musician and a guitar player, our learning process with the

instrument usually relies a lot on repetition, imitation and observation. In the

same manner teaching improvisation is often approached with a “repeat this

licks on these keys, eventually you’ll come up with ideas of your own” or

simply by stating which scales (or a selection of so called correct notes from

them) sound better over certain chord qualities.

Both pedagogical approaches could be improved by incorporating

focalized activities into practice routines, giving the student beforehand a clear

conception of the points to be worked upon on a certain exercise.

The name “Guerrilla Tactics” came because, in general terms, they

dissect a musical problem into its core components so that the student can

work upon them in isolation before incorporating new material into his/her

musical language.

Although this section of the work could be worked upon in any order, it

needs to be organized thematically for ease of reference. The Guerrilla

Tactics will be divided into five sub-sections:

1. Melodic Tactics: A collection of resources to create melodies and

to enhance melodic playing.

2. Rhythmic Tactics: This section will focus on the use of rhythm as a

foundation to create strong musical ideas.

  32  
 3. Harmonic Tactics: Harmonic substitutions, use of triads and

arpeggios to imply a chord-scale relationship will be covered here.

4. Pentatonic Tactics: Different usage of minor pentatonic scales as

well as modifications on its fingering patterns to accommodate to

different chord qualities will be covered in tis section.

5. Guitar-Specific Tactics: This tactics will suggest new ways of

playing scales and arpeggios based on guitar specific resources,

knowledge of CAGED system and Finn’s Warp Refraction

Threshold will come handy to get the best of this section

Each tactic must be explained in the simplest possible way, preferring

the exposition of abstract concepts instead giving prewritten licks (unless they

need to be used as an example).

What follows is an example from each tactic, as well as an example of

how different tactics can be mixed. Please note they will be written just like

they would appear in the finished product in order to represent a closer

sample of the project’s vision; therefore the writing style in them will be slightly

different.

3.2.1. Melodic Tactics Example

Developing Sequences

A musical sequence is a melodic device that creates a sensation of

continuity.

  33  
 This resource is often used when improvising to build longer phrases

that share a similar, simple motif between them. It can be applied to scales

and arpeggios although its much more common to find it used in a scalar way.

The first step to create a sequence is to assign a number to every note

of the musical scale or chord that will be used. The following example shows

how the numbers will be on a C major scale (C=1, D=2, etc.):

Note that the first number was repeated on the octave of the scale, this

is because the scale will repeat from that point onward. If the musical example

to be sequenced follows an uncommon order or if it spans more than one

octave, the numbers assigned to it must continue until a point of repetition or

its ending is reached.

The next step is to create a numerical sequence, usually consisting of

2-5 numbers, and apply it on the scale or arpeggio’s notes accordingly,

always repeating the pattern on the next note. The following example uses the

most basic sequence, 1234, over the C major scale’s numbers that were

assigned on the previous example:

Notice how the pattern repeats exactly but on each subsequent note.

Remember each pattern can be inverted: for example a 1234 pattern’s

inversion would be 4321, a 1235 pattern inverted would be 5321 and so on.

Its important to note that the inversions don’t necessarily have to be played in

a different direction, so each one of them could be played either ascending or

descending.

  34  
 Besides using more complex sequences, another way to create more

interesting lines using this tactic is to apply them in rhythmic groups of

different subdivision; for example playing a four note sequence pattern using

triplets or quintuplets and vice versa. Playing sequences like this also avoids

making them sound predictable or too mechanical.

The following example illustrates this by using an ascending 1235

pattern (four notes) in triplets (rhythmic groups of three):

3.2.2. Rhythmic Tactics Example

Stealing Rhythmic Ideas From Songs

There’s an old saying that says “Good artists copy. Great artists steal”8.

Rather than being an invitation towards plagiarism, this tactic looks toward

finding inspiration or new materials for studying in pretty much any song or

tune you like.

To do so the first step is taking an excerpt from the melody of any

song:

                                                                                                               
8
The exact origin of this phrase is unknown and has even been a reason of debate. Although
it is generally attributed to Pablo Picasso, there are records of similar iterations of it by Igor
Stravinsky, T.S. Elliot and William Faulkner among many others. For this reason the exact
author of the phrase has not been cited. For more information please refer to this article
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/

  35  
 The example shows the first two bars of “Jingle Bells”. Notice there is

no harmony written at all.

Now we’ll proceed to dissect that fragment into its rhythmic

components only:

Now, for this tactic we’ll use this rhythmic idea as the foundation for our

improvisation, just like in the following example:

Keeping our musical ideas strictly under this premise forces our

creativity to come up with more concrete, solid lines.

3.2.3. Harmonic Tactics Example

Triad Pairs Within Altered Scales

The Melodic Minor Scale contains in its 4th and 5th degrees two triads,

they are located a whole step apart from each other; therefore an Altered

Scale will have those two triads as well.

The Altered Scale is located a major seventh above a Melodic Minor

(its it’s 7th mode) but it might be easier to think of this as being a half step

“before” the same scale. Therefore, the triad pairs in an Altered Scale will be

located in its #11 and #5 degrees.

Between them these triad pairs contain 6 of the 7 notes from the scale,

while spelling out a unique sound of their own.

  36  
 Check the following example, it uses an E Altered Scale because it

resolves nicely to an A minor chord. Each triad’s notes will share the same

colored arrow:

If we group the notes from each triad they will spell out Bb anc C:

For this tactic we’ll use these two triads exclusively in order to create

lines like this:

Notice that each triad occupies two beats, or half a bar, in order to

have their two contrasting sounds constantly in motion. Lines like this present

an extra technical challenge if you try to play tem within the same position.

3.2.4. Pentatonic Tactics Example

Creating New Pentatonics for Altered Sounds

An altered scale contains a minor pentatonic located a minor third

above the root (as discussed on another tactic)9. This tactic will show us

another approach to spell out an altered sound by using different pentatonics.

                                                                                                               
9
I put this just as an example of how can different tactics could reference each other. For this
present document only this one will be shown.

  37  
 The simplest way to come up with new pentatonic scales is to change

one note from a minor pentatonic scale. For this particular example we will

use a minor pentatonic with a lowered fifth. Please compare these two

graphics:

Minor Pentatonic Scale: Minor Pentatonic b5:

For comparative purposes the pentatonic b5 scale shared the same

root as the shape where it came from; but actually this scale spells out an

altered sound when it is played a whole step below the root of an altered

chord; just like in the following example (shown as E7 Alt because it resolves

perfectly to an A minor chord):

  38  
 Notice the roots of the chord were spelled with an X, the reason is

because they are not played at all in this scale. This is why having a strong

foundation in visualizing the shapes in the guitar is so important.

3.2.5. Guitar-Specific Tactics Example

2-1 Scales

This tactic has a very simple, and “guitaristic”, approach to use the

scale shapes you already know into a very unorthodox and unique way. The

idea is very, very simple: choose any scale and play 2 notes from it on a string

and only 1 note on the next one; there is not a “correct” group of notes to

choose from so get creative and try to come up with patterns that truly are

your own.

To illustrate this we’ll use a three

notes per string fingering of A minor as our

starting point. Three notes per string scale

fingerings work particularly well with this

tactic; check the diagram on the right:

The next diagram shows a 2-1 tactic

applied to the same pattern, remember that

the notes chosen could be different, use

your ears to get the results you prefer:

  39  
 The sounds we get from using scales in this way are unpredictable: it’s

like a crossing between an arpeggio, a scale pattern and a pentatonic, yet

having a flavor of their own. The following graphic shows a written version of

the previous example:

To get the most out of 2-1 patterns, they should be treated as a

separate scale rather than just a gimmick. Only by doing that you can come

up with cool licks like this one:

3.2.6. Mixing Between Tactics Example

This example will not be featured in the final project, because does not

constitute part of the tactics themselves. It is included in this current writing for

demonstration purposes, to show how can different tactics be combined to

create interesting lines.

The last example of section 3.2.5 (Guitar-Specific Tactics Example),

shown at the end of it, just above these paragraphs is in fact a combination of

different tactics.

If we dissect it with the tools so far provided we could deduce it is a

sequenced version (Melodic Tactics Example) of the 2-1 Scale (Guitar-

Specific Tactics).

  40  
 This will be easier to understand if we examine the following example,

please remember also in the last chapter it was advised to use 2-1 as a scale

as a separate scale rather than just a gimmick, also that in the melodic tactics

example it was advised to apply numbers to be sequence until we reach the

end of the musical example:

Having that information as a starting point a 1234 pattern was created.

It will be easier to analyze if we have its numbers underneath, just like in the

following example:

Before finishing with this section I’d like to state again that, in my

opinion, any complex idea can always be broken down into smaller fragments;

thereby one of the paths a musician can use to develop his musical language

is to approach things in a reverse order: work on simple ideas first and mix

them to build up a more complex vocabulary.

3.3. Appendix

This last section of the project consists of a quick reference guide and

an album of backing tracks to put the tactics into practice.

The reference guide will deal mostly with explanations of harmonic

concepts (like modal interchange or how scales are constructed) but it is not

  41  
meant to be a harmony book because the explanations given will be short and

concise, thereby its name “quick reference”.

The album consists of 12 backing tracks that were recorded in the

Berklee Valencia’s facilities following these guidelines:

• They were recorded in a variety of styles like funk, reggae, latin,

blues and heavy metal. Jazz backing tracks were not recorded

to follow the project’s general structure.

• All of the backing tracks feature a full band.

• Each track focuses on a different feature like one chord vamps

or chordal resolutions.

• All tracks were recorded at 92 bpm10.

• Tracks don’t last more than 3 minutes in order to maintain focus

while studying.

The recorded backing tracks were:

• A Maj7 vamp

• A -7 vamp

• A -7(b5) vamp

• A7 vamp

• A7 alt vamp

• A7#11 (Lydian b7) vamp

• Alt to minor

• Alt to major

• Major to minor exercise

                                                                                                               
10
See footnote # 4

  42  
 • Melodic minor jam

• Resolving altered chords

• Lydian b7 Blues

One chord vamps tracks are self explanatory, the rest of the backing

tracks follow the same underlining principle: start with a slower harmonic

rhythm (two bars per chord), repeat the basic idea twice and then repeat the

same process but with a faster harmonic rhythm (one chord per bar). Here are

their charts:

  43  
   44  
 Major to Minor Exercise
(Medium Swing) David Villarreal

  45  
 Resolving altered chords
(Medium Swing) David Villarreal

  46  
 Lydian b7 Blues
(Medium Swing) David Villarreal

  47  
4. CONCLUSION

I’m convinced that anyone who has ever taught something to another

person, who has shared his/her knowledge with other people, knows for a fact

how that is actually the best way to truly learn something.

As a student and then as a teacher myself I’ve found over and over

again how knowledge has a mysterious way of “recycling” itself, how the

teacher must become the apprentice in order to truly transcend over

ourselves (actually, maybe education is the only turning point that reconciles

Nietzsche’s and Hegel’s diverging points of view about life).

Embarking on this project led me to remember my own learning

process as well as “teaching myself again”, through concentrated

remembering, which lessons were the ones that shaped me as a musician

and as a guitar player.

All that introspection revealed a new take on the guitar and how it could

be learned in a more efficient way for me. I sincerely wish this contribution will

aid many people with its contents.

I have been a very fortunate human being. I still remember how during

my teenage years Berklee seemed to be some sort of sacred music temple

where some of the best musicians were shaped, polished and forged.

Although maybe that idealistic point of view was subjective and far-fetched, I

know for a fact how Berklee has shaped me to become the best version of

myself, rather than a mediocre version of somebody else.

  48  
 Esse Quam Videri, to keep things not only as a motto or as a catchy

phrase that adorns my beloved school’s shield but having it really into my

essence.

This project reinforced my admiration for those who have been there

on my path to help me improve and become a better guitar player, a better

person and a better human being: from the bottom of my heart I cannot be

grateful enough with all the teacher’s I’ve had in my life.

Of course a project of this dimensions and scope will lead to many

revisions and updates, in fact I think that is part of the beauty of maintaining a

true learner frame of mind: to be open to change, to fully embrace those

moments out of my comfort zone.

Once released I hope this work will open new doors for me, both

professionally and personally. I can’t wait to see what life has in its plans for

me.

  49  
 Bibliography

Aebersold, Jamey, Jamey Aebersold, Rufus Reid, and Jonathan Higgins. How
to Play Jazz and Improvise. New Albany, IN: Jamey Aebersold, 1992.

Bergonzi, Jerry. Melodic Structures. Sunland, CA: Advance Music, 1992.

Bergonzi, Jerry. Pentatonics. Rottenburg N., Germany: Advance Music, 1994.

Crook, Hal. How to Improvise: An Approach to Practicing Improvisation.

Rottenburg N., Germany: Advance Music, 1991.

Crook, Hal. Ready, Aim, Improvise! [Rottenburg N., Germany]: Advance

Music, 1999.

Damian, Jon, and Jonathan Feist. 2001. "The Guitarist's Guide to Composing
and Improvising".

Finn, Jon. Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation. Pacific, Mo: Mel Bay
Publications, 1999.

Gambale, Frank. The Frank Gambale Technique. Book I Book I. Van Nuys,
CA: Alfred Publishing, 1989.

Gambale, Frank, and Gene Dinkins. The Frank Gambale Technique. Book 2
Book 2. Springville, Calif: Legato Publications, 1989.

Gilbert, Daniel, and Beth Marlis. Guitar soloing. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard,
1997.

Goodrick, Mick. The Advancing Guitarist: Applying Guitar Concepts &

Techniques. [Place of publication not identified]: Third Earth
Productions, 1987.

Nachmanovitch, Stephen. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. Los

Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, Inc, 1990.

Sokolow, Fred. Fretboard roadmaps: the essential guitar patterns that all the
pros know and use. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2000.

  50  
 Webography

“Experience the Music: One Hit Wonders and the Songs That Shaped Rock
and Roll”. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Accessed June 29, 2015.
http://rockhall.com/exhibits/one-hit-wonders-songs-that-shaped-rock-
and-roll/?flavour=mobile.

“Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal”. Quote Investigator. Accessed June
30, 2015. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/

Gray, Audrey. “Constructivist Teaching and Learning”. Saskatchewan School

Boards Association. Accessed July 4th, 2015.
http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/old/ResearchAndDevelopment/Resea
rchReports/Instruction/97-07.htm#What is Constructivism?

Hase, Stewart. “Learning Is Non-Linear. Why Not Curriculum?”.

Teachthought. Accessed June 29, 2015.
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/learning-non-linear-curriculum/

Robert Gagne’s Five Categories of Learning Outcomes and the Nine Events
of Instruction”, International Center for Educator’s Learning Styles,
Accessed July 4th, 2015, http://www.icels-educators-for-
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