Olli's Playground

Episode 1: Navigating the scale

In the first episode Olli gives you an introduction to the perhaps slightly dusty topic of scales and their application and usefulness when playing guitar. Besides the different ways to play them on a guitar, you'll also learn how a bit of creative variation in ascending or descending scales can produce more interesting melodies.

As an exercise it's recommended that you familiarise yourself with all the notes of the C major scale across the entire fretboard.

Episode 2: You're still playing the scale

The second episode of Olli's Playground refers directly to the first and goes deeper into the relationship between scales and various chords, as well as varying and shaping the notes you play based on the scale — what Olli calls "helping yourself from the note pot". He also introduces different fingering patterns.

As an exercise it's recommended that you play the scale with a focus on or reference to a specific chord.

Episode 3: How many more scales?

In the third part of Olli's scale trilogy it's about the modes — how you get from the scale to them and how to combine them with chords. Using the example of the Mixolydian mode, Olli shows how you can derive it from the chord.

As an exercise it's recommended that you take one mode per key and then learn the notes and positions it contains on the fretboard by heart.

Episode 4: Olli's dreamy minor fantasy

This episode gets really practical. Using E minor as an example, Olli shows how you can musically play and improvise with the notes known from scales — because: "scales are not music"! The three notes that make up the underlying chord — for E minor these are E, G and B — form the core of the melody. The keyword here is "tension and release": notes outside the mentioned core notes create tension and resolve into the core notes. You'll also learn how the core notes can be distributed in different shapes across the fretboard.

As an exercise it's recommended that you familiarise yourself with the E minor chord in different voicings and the scales behind them.

Episode 5: Seeing chords within a scale

This episode refers back to the previous one and should help you better recognise the connection between chords and scales. Various visual divisions of the fretboard such as "three notes per string" or the CAGED system are discussed.

As an exercise it's recommended that you move the classic open chord shapes to other notes across the fretboard and, for certain chords, find all possible triads on the fretboard.

Episode 6: Memorising vs improvisation

As the title already suggests, this episode is about Olli's thoughts on the two approaches "memorising" versus "improvising".

Episode 7: Timing & Rhythm

In Episode 7 it's about nothing less than the most important thing and the foundation of EVERYTHING — what turns notes into music: timing.

As an exercise it's recommended that you play at a set tempo, for example to a metronome, and apply rhythm to what you play. Foot-tapping or head-nodding can be used as physical support.

Episode 8: Vibrato

In the eighth episode of Olli's Playground it's about one of the most important tools to individualise your guitar playing and at the same time give it more expression and emotion: vibrato — that is, bending the string and thereby raising the pitch. A good vibrato can even become a guitarist's signature feature. The basic ingredients that, according to Olli, you'll work on your whole life are motor control and the appropriate amount of force.

As an exercise it's recommended that you play to a backing track or a steady tempo and then pull the sustained note in time, relaxing it appropriately without throwing the pitch off — i.e. without bending too little or too far.

Episode 9: Do you still have a pulse?

In Episode 9 it's again about timing. Olli gives you tips on how to improve your sense of rhythm and make your guitar playing even tighter with the beat.

Episode 10: Pinch Harmonics

This episode covers pinch harmonics and how the tone can be shaped by the fingers. Here you'll learn what pinch harmonics are, how they occur and how to produce them.

Episode 11: Playing electric guitar with feeling

In Episode 11 Olli gives a short talk about the often-mentioned, somewhat mystical and weighty "feeling" when playing guitar and what can give listeners goosebumps.