In this lesson I break down some nice concepts about strumming in 4/4. The reduction technique is one I use with students who are having particular difficulty learning strumming patterns on guitar. I hope you find it useful and I hope it helps even a few seasoned players think about they way they strum. Also, let me know if you're still having difficulty!
Read MoreThis 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!
Read MoreIn this lesson, I'm analyzing the bridge, middle part, or B part (whatever you'd like to call it is acceptable) of the Beatles' "Yesterday."
We did most of the groundwork in the first lesson and since the bridge shares a lot of the same chords as the verse, I brush over those shared parts a little quicker in this lesson to focus on the parts that are unique to the bridge.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreIn this lesson, I examine the chord progression and melody of the Beatles song "Yesterday" and talk about what key its in, how the chord progression uses secondary dominant chords borrowed from the relative minor, and how the melody interacts with the chords using the major scale and the melodic minor scale. We discuss how each note of the melody interacts with each chord to create interesting tension and release as well as how the melody notes affect the chords.
If you want to play along to the track yourself, check out the tablature below and the jam track to play along to the verse and chorus. If you're feeling adventurous, trying making your own voicings of the chord progression by studying the fingerboard dots on the jam track or try mapping out a solo or even a few different places to play the melody.
In part 1, I get into the verse or A section of the song. The next lesson (coming soon) goes over the next part of the song.
Read MoreIn this third melody-writing lesson (check out lesson 1 and 2) I get into how to arrange melodic phrases into sets. Things start sounding a lot more like a melody from a song, especially when we tackle C Phrases. I get into details about how to arrange melodic phrases over a handful of different chord progressions, including how to sneakily play the same melody over two separate chords!
Read MoreIn this lesson, we get more specific about those primordial melodies we made in the previous MTM. Using the Melody Morphs sheet (attached), I walk you through how to create an A phrase and a B phrase with some sneaky techniques. I hinted at C phrases, but we'll get into that in another lesson.
Have fun making melodies using Add, Subtract, Flip, Change and Relocate and post your discoveries on thecommunity forum post for this lesson.
Read MoreIn this lesson, I get into the basics of melody making: building melodic phrases. Rules are meant to be broken pretty much all the time in music, but I lay down some nice simple guidelines for how to create melodic phrases using the Melody Quick Scratch Paper.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreIn this little part 2 lesson, I talk about how old the Pentatonic Scale is (hint: REALLY OLD) and how the Major Scale and the Pentatonic scale kind of play a similar role in melody making - you get to pick and choose. I then assign a little homework based on this lesson.
If you'd like to post said homework, related notes and noodling, or further questions on the topic, visit the community post for this lesson.
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreContinuing with the Music Theory for Guitar series, we're talking about Minor Triads in this video - how they differ from Major Triads and how to make them and think about them.
Other lessons in this series:
Read MoreHi 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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