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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MTM | 15

Why Pentatonic? Part 1

In this lesson, I discuss how cool it is that nearly every mode fits into the CAGED pentatonic scale shapes and how pretty much everything you're going to play can start with the pentatonic scale and get more complex from there. Then I talk about one common situation where you're likely to have to reach way outside the pentatonic scale to find chord tones - a harmonic minor i - V chord progression.

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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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MTM | 14

Phrygian, Mode Mixing, and Repetition

In this lesson we get familiar with Phrygian Mode and how cool and weird it is - then we talk about the various ways to use the chord set from Phrygian mode, how to mix and match chords from other minor modes, and how to think about soloing over those progressions.

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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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Music Theory For Guitar | Bonus

Major Triads Bonus

I filmed a whole series of Youtube videos earlier this year and realized it was going to take me about 100 years of editing before I finally got through them. This was when I realized I would need to find a better way to do my camera guitar system. I managed to edit this first episode the series before I decided to work on a better guitar camera system. The ending is pretty abrupt because I was planning to move on to the next video, but the next video never happened.

Anyway, I thought this would help reinforce some of the concepts in the Major Triads lessons AND be a nice reminder that I've got more videos like this coming soon. I hope you enjoy it.

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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 | 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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Music Theory For Guitar | 05

Major Triads

Continuing with the Music Theory for Guitar series, the next set of lessons are about Triads! Starting with Major Triads, I talk about how to make them, the language to use when discussing and thinking about them (to keep things from getting too confusing), and how we typically use voicings and inversions on guitar. This gives you the info you need to work on the homework and the practice track. This also prepares you for the next lesson about minor triads!

Other lessons in this series:

- Homework

- Practice 1

- Practice 2

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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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MTM | 13

More Blues

In this MTM I discuss theory that is not exclusive to the blues, but tonally related. I introduce a few ideas about bending - how you always want to think about bending TO a note - and a few thoughts about how “The Blues Scale” is or isn’t directly related to the Blues depending on how you use it or look at it. I also get into this bluesy idea of playing a minor pentatonic scale over the IV chord in a major key - stealing a blues concept and plopping it into a non-bluesy song. Sometimes it sounds awesome and sometimes it sounds a little too risky!

Jam Tracks linked here:

E Major I - IV Jam Track

C Major I - IV Jam Track

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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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Soloing | 03

A Look At Future Lessons

This lesson is kind of an overview of where I'm headed with these CAGED Soloing lessons. Some of you might take this lesson and the PDFs and be able to start practicing solos over all of myyoutube jamtracks, others of you may not be far enough along at this point. And thats OK! This stuff takes practice.

Another reason I made this video is because a few people have expressed a sense of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of chord progressions there are out there. The thing is, if you work hard on one of these CAGED Soloing lesson series (the I - ii Series, for example) the next one you work on will be considerably less work, and the one after will be considerably less work.

Essentially, I wanted this to be kind of a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-sneak-peak for people to get a sense of how expansive the CAGED concept can be. Sometimes its nice to just have a overall sense of how something works.

I should add, this video is entirely about the G shaped Pentatonic scale - not even any of the other CAGED shapes.

I hope those of who you are ready to tackle this can enjoy trying out solos over new progressions and those of you who aren't ready can enjoy a sense of perspective and a clearer idea of where I'm headed with the CAGED Soloing Series.

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