NICK JOHNSTON Video Masterclass

In this exclusive feature, we welcome back Canadian virtuoso Nick Johnston. Nick treats us to a plethora of flowing rock phrases, all of which are played over Jason Sidwell’s specially written track, A Joy Fulfilled. Jon Bishop is your guide.

- Jon Bishop

ABILITY RATING

Hard

Key Various

Tempo 120bpm

Info https://bit.ly/3tFqonJ

Will improve your…

• Use of semi-quaver and semi-quaver triplets
• Legato and tapping techniques
• Phrasing with the whammy bar

Tis month we welcome back Nick Johnston to play over an emotive track with plenty of instrumental rock and fusion vocabulary. As Nick explains, performing over A Joy Fulfilled was a creative challenge and the video captures a spontaneous approach without too much overthinking. The tempo is a cool 120bpm and several time signatures feature including 3/4, 4/4 and 7/4.

Nick breaks this track down to have four main tonal centres. The chorus uses A Mixolydian (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G); the bridge uses A Major (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#) and this contains the same notes as the relative Minor scale F# Minor so you can view this whichever way is the most convenient.

For the interlude section C Major is the main scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B) and this pivots into C Minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb) To simplify this you can view the chorus and bridge section as being parallel tonal centres - the only difference between A Mixolydian and A Major is one note; where A Mixolydian features a b7 interval (G), A Major features a Major 7th interval (G#). Similarly, to change C Major to C Minor requires a flattening of the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees.