Office Hours, Q&A

This stream had a lot of good questions. How to sit down and write music that fits your mood, how to figure out the key of a riff in your head or how to apply chords to a melody you've come up with. We also got into a bit about what MIDI is and if you need an audio interface with a DIN connector (you don't.)

Then we talked a bit about what kind of tuner to buy if you're experimenting with alternate tunings, how to start making chord and melody arrangements, and why it's so awkward an un-guitarly to play major scales.

We also talked about the meter of lyrics and how to identify the meter of your lyrics and use that in your own writing.

Read More

Office Hours, Q&A

This week we got into a lot of live chat questions. It was a fun one, and the camera guitar is back up and running so we'll get to use that from now on.

One thing I talked about at length was how to get into the initial phase of ear training - the idea of trying rapid fire to find the key in a bunch of songs on a spotify (or youtube) playlist. Don't listen to the whole song, just the first 30 to 60 seconds and see if you can figure out the key. If you get a list going and you want to ask the community about it, post that here. If you feel like you're getting a sense of things and want to take a stab at the chords, try here.

We talked about plenty of other things, including how to read (and prepare to read) lead sheets, how to play bass with a guitar player and also related - how to approach ranges when playing with another guitar player.

I also offered a fun challenge to come up with a bunch of voicings for rhythm guitar on JUST the D, G, and B strings on any of my jam tracks (because its fun) and I've attached some scratch paper to aid in that process. I'd LOVE to hear what you come up with because voicings on those strings are my favorite.

Also I told Christiane to watch Octave Shapes | Memorizing the Fingerboard, but if you haven't you should too.

Read More

Office Hours, Q&A

We had questions about posture, how to get into jazz and what jazz is (essentially), how to start jamming with friends and what it looks like to jam with friends vs with musicians you don't know, CAGED system soloing and modes, AND what kinds of effects pedals to start with.

Read More

Office Hours, Q&A

This was a fun one. We got deep into sus chords up front and how the IV chord in a major key is tricky with sus chords. We talked about a quick way to think about secondary dominants. We talked about what to think about when you're soloing, how to approach double stops, and a load of other things! Including how you can set out to write in a mode and just end up writing in a Major or Minor key AND how the opposite can happen too!

Read More

Office Hour, Q&A

This was a fun one. We talked a lot about Dom7 chords today. First, we talked about wether they HAVE to have the 7 to qualify as a dom7 chord, or can they just function that way. Then we talked about Augmented chords and how they function, and then how you can sneakily substitute a fully diminished chord for a V chord in harmonic minor. This A minor jam track was used at one point.

Then we got into some other good questions about a variety of things: How I got into music, general ideas around writing bridges and writing music in general and a bunch of other things!

I promised someone (Hugh, was that you?) that I would attach my CAGED Pdf from YouTube, but you can also find my notes from this lesson as well.

Read More

Office Hours

This was a fun stream - there were MANY questions about soloing over chord tones, so I want to set up a set of links here for resources:

MTM 16, 17, and 18 will help you understand how to make melodic phrases, which is foundational to making solos.

CAGED Soloing series helps you take these melody-making concepts and apply them to specific chord progressions in specific.

Why Pentatonic part 1 helps you understand that the pentatonic scales are dope BECAUSE they a) fit the guitar well and b) they allow for you to EASILY adapt to nearly any mode - this is to help solidify that the pentatonic scale is really just a scaffolding of the major and minor scale.

There were plenty of other great questions, too!

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More