Office Hours, Q&A

Question 1: Dennis asked about some "diads" or two note chords, specifically about the blues in this case. We talked about how when you're in a band, you don't always need to play ever note in a chord because other folks in the band are likely doing it already. Also, we got specifically into this cool weird thing about the blues and how this weird diad/interval (in this case a tritone/flat fifth) scoots up or down half a step to change from the I chord to the IV chord and V chord.

Question 2: Andy was wondering about whammy bars or tremolo systems and how to start using them. I launched into my own complicated feelings about them and got specific about how to set up your strat to get the most out of your trem OR set it up to make sure it DOESN'T work so your guitar stays in tune better.

Question 3: Bob wanted to know some right hand patterns for arpeggios. I attached some Note Name Scratch Paper below for you, Bob, so you can figure out some of your own preferred arpeggios! There are so many options with the CAGED system. Also, check out my two-chord jam tracks for practicing arpeggios!

Question 4: Mateus liked my Chords in a Key Finder lesson and wanted to know if there was a system to quickly find the chords in a key on the higher strings. I walked through a couple fun ways to think about the chords in a key on the top three strings.

Question 5: Glen wanted to know if there were common movements through the CAGED shapes when soloing. I gave him a few ideas for some "standards" but also got into this concept of finding your own comfort zone and learning to branch out from there.

Question 6: Mike had questions about how the heck you figure out which fingers to use when sliding from one CAGED pentatonic shape to another. I gave him a few ways to think about it but also emphasized heavily that it would involve a lot of deliberate and mindful practice.

Question 7: Kevin wanted to know how to practice the solo from Hotel California and I gave him a few suggestions about how to practice any solo as well as some ideas for what lessons to help bolster some concepts related to that kind of stuff.

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Office Hours, Q&A

I'm trying something new - each question is time-stamped for ease of use.

Question 1: Rod asks about V of V chords and if I'm going to do lessons on making chords to a melody instead of making a melody to chords!

Question 2: Quinn ask about proper left hand placement and pressure and I give some ideas on how to double check your technique so you don't hurt yourself in the long run.

Question 3: Davin asks about 6/4 chords leading to a discussion about the difference between slash chords and inversions.

Question 4: Greg asks what I use for making my PDFs (Adobe Illustrator) and writing on them on my iPad Pro (Goodnotes)

Question 5: Russ asks about how to practice switching between chords and rhythm in a blues context - I recommended a backing track like this one.

Question 6: John asks for a simple way to play an F# half diminished.

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Office Hours, Q&A

In this stream we covered these topics:

• The difference between 3 notes per string and the CAGED system - drawing some key thoughts about how they interact.

• Strategies for how to make things more interesting when you're playing a "boring" guitar part for the full duration of a song - how to zoom in on practicing more specificity with rhythm and how to make things more interesting with different voicings and whatnot.

• How half diminished chords are typically used and what that sounds like - if you find other uses for a half diminished chord, feel free to share in the community forum!

• Resources for practicing rhythm guitar. I suggest my Rhythm guitar playlist combined with my Strumming Patterns series - that should get you some fun resources to practicing strumming patterns.

• Techniques for how to practice singing in tune better - ways to dig in on vocal control and thinking clearly about what note you're playing.

• Places to find people to play music with and what skills you'll need to play with other people. Basically, do a google search for open mics in your area (when the pandemic allows, obviously.)

• Wether you ought to know what notes you're playing at all times.

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Office Hours. Q&A

What a stream! We laughed, we cried.... jk. We had some great questions AND a technical glitch toward the end, resulting in two separate streams.

We covered questions about where my Patreon is going in terms of content, direction, and what I'm hoping Patrons will get out of it. Then we talked about what to look for in a private guitar teacher and why you would want to have one! Then we dug into the idea of tuning your whole guitar down one half step and then somehow got into chromatic transposition.

Then we dug into a question about where to go when songwriting: how to get OUT of the key with your chord progression using similar chords AND how to just launch into a totally different key by just cramming in the V or IV of the key you're headed.

After that I launched into a (hopefully encouraging) rant about how while you're learning music theory, you HAVE to be ok with just writing music that you like without worrying about wether or not it's "music theory correct." Eventually you'll be able to analyze what you're working on for the purpose of making it sound deliberately the way you want it, but you don't HAVE to KNOW why things work to enjoy what you make.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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