Live Stream | 28
Office Hours
This was a fun one. We talked about left and right hand synchronization exercises and how to think about soloing over specific chord progressions. I used this E Major Jam Track
We also discussed how to move out of your comfort zone to learn new things. How much to take on at once and how to integrate new stuff into your comfort/thinking zone.
We talked a little about how to figure out strumming patterns and I recommended starting with my strumming series. That will be a great foundation for learning to hear progressions in the music you listen to.
We also talked a bit about how sus chords work and how to start figuring out what you're doing when you noodle around. We also went into drone notes a little bit.
We also talked more about dominant chords, and harmonic and melodic minor. I used this A Minor Jam Track to mess with wether to use a Mixolydian scale or just a modified A Minor Scale (aka, a harmonic minor scale.)
I also fielded some live questions from the chat and we discussed some nice ideas about gear, DAWs, audio interfaces, and a few other great questions. Also, Ernie the dog made an appearance.
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Live Stream | 27
OFFICE HOURS, Q&A SATURDAY
This was a fun one! We talked about Major and Minor keys and how chord progressions can be Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic minor and how that relates to the secondary dominants in the Major Key. The Pixies "Where is My Mind" came up as an example.
We also talked about jamming with friends, setting up a pedal board, and a few other things. It was a lot of fun! If you have follow-up questions or progress related to any of these concepts, post about it on the community forum.
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Live Stream | 26
OFFICE HOURS Q&A FRIDAY
This was a fun one! We discussed a wide range of things from alternate tunings to chord substitutions to recording software to general guitar concepts and CAGED thoughts. It was a lot of fun. At the end I decided to make up and record a little spontaneous jam just for fun with guitar, bass, and drums. This was a fun one.
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Live Stream | 25
OFFICE HOURS, Q&A SATURDAY
This was a fun one - we talked about a lot of things! Whole tone scales, CAGED system stuff, wether you should or shouldn't overlay pentatonic scales on top of each other, how to set up a practice routine, a few thoughts about playing bass guitar, and more!
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Live Stream | 24
OFFICE HOURS, Q&A FRIDAY
In this livestream I talked a bit about CAGED Soloing, how to solo over an atypical chord progression, and a bit about the difference between rhythm's like 6/8, 3/4 as well as funk and sing rhythm. There were a few other nice questions from Patrons. It was a fun time.
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Winter "Live" Lesson | 02
Movable Chords-in-a-Key Finder Using Bar Chords
This holiday season is the weirdest I've ever dealt with. I'm not able to live stream right now due to being out of town and in quarantine, but I'll still me putting out lessons in place of the live streams over the next few weeks on top of the usual Monday content.
In this lesson, I talk about handy I-IV-V shapes on the E and A strings and how they link together to create this easy-to-remember shape for quick chord progression writing.
Then I dig into an approach on songwriting: rapid fire, timed songwriting blips. I don't call them that in the video, but thats essentially what they are. Quick primordial song stuff. Basically it's about practicing the essential elements of songwriting and being quick about it.
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Winter "Live" Lesson | 01
Non-Live Stream Dec 9, 2020
I pre-recorded a few things so I could quarantine away from my studio for the holidays. However, if you have questions about anything, post on the community forum post for this lesson and I'll answer as best I can in the forum, maybe even with video.
In this pre-recorded live stream (aka. a normal video lesson) I cover some fun ways to think about writing chord progressions using 7 and 9 chords and different ways to think about how to play them around the fingerboard.
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Live Stream | 23
Office Hours, Q&A
This was a fun one! We dug into a few patron questions about intervals in solos, CAGED shapes in alternate tunings, and some big clarifications about how dominant = V chord. We also talked about song arrangement in songwriting and a few other things!
Then I went on a long (but helpful) rant about how the CAGED system IS all the possible triads on guitar. It was a lot of fun.
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Live Stream | 22
Office Hours: Q&A Hangout
In this stream we talked a bit about technique - fingerpicking, holding a pick and getting comfortable with single note picking - but we also tackled some questions about how to actually use half diminished and fully diminished chords which led to a fun Django Reinhardt riff.
We also talked about why scale circles have to go clockwise when making chords.
Post your questions, homework, etc on the community forum post.
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Live Stream | 21
Office Hours: Q&A Hangout
This was a fun stream! We talked about the order of chords in a key and how songs like Creep by Radiohead use chords outside the standard set that fits in the key. We then talk about the difference between Dom7 and Maj7 chords and how the chords in a key can all be converted to a set of 7 chords.
Then we went into how to make your solos sound more human by using dynamics, phrase length, and varying the beat you start your phrases.
After that we went into some exercises you can do to help build technique and speed.
Post your questions, homework, etc on the community forum post.
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Live Stream | 20
Office Hours: Q&A Hangout
This week's live stream will be on Thursday, November 12th at 7pm. I'm trying to accommodate more people and be open to more topics, so come prepared with questions! If you have questions now, feel free to post them below in the comments and I'll answer in the live stream.
If you can't watch live, you can always watch later. I hope to see some new faces.
Keep in mind you can hit the notification bell on the video right now to get an alert when the stream is starting.
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Live Stream | 19
Office Hours: Q&A Hangout
Hi Everyone,
I think I need to mix it up a little bit here. It's been really fun to have the livestream on a consistent day, but I want to be more inclusive and give folks a chance to catch a livestream who might not be available on Wednesday mornings.
On top of that, while the monthly topic is a fun concept, I like having the freedom to engage and explore the kinds of questions and curiosities people might bring to the livestream. From now on, I'm going to be a little looser about the topic and I'm going to try to randomize the date and time of the stream so more people get the opportunity to join.
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Live Stream | 18
More CAGED Camera Guitar
This month I surprised everyone with my new camera guitar and I've been talking about general CAGED concepts.
I've been working out a few more bugs with the camera guitar and I think I'll hopefully have a few cool and educational visuals prepared for you.
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Live Stream | 17
More CAGED | Major & Minor
Every Wednesday at 11am PST, I go live and talk about the topic of the month. This month I surprised everyone with my new Guitar Camera and I've been talking about CAGED concepts.
Join me while I discuss Major and Minor in the CAGED system. I'm talking chords and scales.
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Live Stream | 16
More CAGED Guitar Camera
In this livestream, I continue to investigate some different ways to think about the CAGED System using the new Guitar Cam.
Jam track I used: F Major I V progression
Here is the same track without the Rhythm Part: F Major Jam without Rhythm Part
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Live Stream | 15
NEW CAMERA GUITAR and CAGED Study
Surprise! If you've seen my youtube videos, you know that the camera guitar with fingerboard dots is kind of my thing. Well, in this live stream you get to see the first glimpse of the live camera guitar I've been working on for months. It's a lot like my Youtube lessons, except live.
I'm still working out the kinks and I'll be continuing to refine and hone my visuals to be as clear and helpful as possible so that this place can be a badass place for learning. I hope you're excited to learn. I certainly am. I want you to see the fingerboard the way I do and I think this guitar will help tremendously.
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Live Stream | 14
Rhythm Guitar Week Four
For the final week of Fun with Rhythm Guitar! we get into add11 chords and talk a bit about how weird they are to figure out on guitar, how certain voicings don't sounds very good, AND how when you find a nice voicing they can be quite beautiful.
Jam tracks used today
C Major I - vi jam track
B Minor i - VI jam track
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Live Stream | 13
Rhythm Guitar, Week Three
In this lesson, I talk about add9 chords and how they are similar to sus2 chords, but not identical. Then we tinker with how to use them in a rhythm guitar context. From there, we combine this add9 thing with concepts from previous weeks and create some tonally interesting rhythm guitar parts. The homework is to come up with your own ABAC pattern over this jam track:
A Major I - ii
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Live Stream | 12
Week Two of Fun with Rhythm Guitar
We're taking on another chord concept today: sus4 and sus2 chords!
C Major I - IV Progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNDndQDlAA
F Major I - V Progression: https://youtu.be/X_FKHdiNw2c
You can also download a few audio versions on the Week One post here.
I also mentioned the rubik's cube lessons which I think would be a fantastic set of lessons to review if you want to get more familiar with this material.
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Live Stream | 11
Fun With Rhythm Guitar
In this stream I'm talking about the theme for September: Fun with Rhythm Guitar!
We take a basic I - IV chord progression in C and use music theory to play with "chord phrases" using maj6 and maj7 chords.
This is the jam track I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNDndQDlAA
You can also download a few audio versions below! Normal, Slow, and Slower
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