Live Stream | 117
Office Hours, Q&A
Question 1 from Tristan boils down to this idea of mixing major and minor scales in a blues situation - I gave a basic blues lesson and explained a range of scales you might find in a blues situation, including the magical mixing of major and minor scales.
Question 2 from Jeff was about exporting (called Bouncing) a track out of Logic Pro X
Question 3 - Keith was asking about fretting hand technique to avoid unwanted string noise up by the 15th fret.
Question 4 - Mason wanted to know how I developed my thumb independence to learn songs like Windy and Warm
There were a few other nice questions at the end - Continue the conversation on the community forum.
MY BAND has been putting out new music, and we'll continue putting out more and more this year - check it out!
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CAGED Basics II
Lesson 10 | Pentatonic Pit Stop
We're in the home stretch with this second-to-last installment of CAGED Basics II.
In this lesson we're exploring the relationship between the D shape and E shape pentatonic scales with a Fix or Foreshadow exercise followed by a practice tune.
Download the PDF (attached below) and use these practice tracks for the tune.
Play along tracks:
75 BPM
85 BPM
95 BPM
104 BPM
Please note: you don't NEED to play the tune perfectly at 104BPM to move on. 85 or 95 BPM is an acceptable goal. It's more about getting the concept and having a clear sense of how you can use these skills in your own writing and practice.
If you'd like to post questions, eureka moments, or your performance of the practice tune, please post to the community forum.
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Live Stream | 116
Office Hors, Q&A
I'll do my best to answer your questions and give examples of how you can practice developing skills related to your question.
Keep in mind, you can always watch later if you can't make it live! Check back a few hours after the stream for a numbered list of each question and a timestamped link to each answer.
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Community Challenge | 62
Write Something Sad
In the video I talk about a few technical ways make something sound sad, put part of the goal here is for you to explore how you might make something sound sad.
Post what you write to the community forum. Feel free to explain HOW you went about writing something sad.
Fun side note - I was originally feeling like my chord progression was in Am, using dorian mode, but I'm starting to think it might be in E minor - what do you think? Which chord feels like home? Em or Am?
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Practice Thoughts | 17
Becoming A Musician
Hi Everyone,
Weird things start happening when you are in the process of becoming a musician. I talk about a few of them here.
1. As Mateus has noticed, learning music theory and recording software forever changes the way you listen to music. It goes from a mostly sensory experience to a more cerebral experience. With practice, you CAN listen to music without critically thinking about it (I call it "sponge mode") but yes, now you have to practice doing something that used to be easy for you.
2. Sometimes when people learn music theory, they feel like they have to have specific reasons WHY they like the music they like - AND they feel like those reasons should be theory based. I'm here to assure you that you can like music for whatever reasons you want - even if you can't put your finger on it.
ONE FUN THING is that you might start gravitating toward more diverse and specific musicians and genres. You might find yourself saying something like "wow I really like the bass line in this song, but the guitar isn't very exciting and I wouldn't write melodies like that." Then you start listening to that band just for the bass. Or you might say "I love the production (recording style) of this album, but I don't necessarily want to play guitar like that but I love the keyboard parts." Essentially, you might start liking more specific things about artists and dislike more specific things. It's kind of fun.
3. As you become more involved in your instrument, you'll feel more comfortable specializing in the things you like about music. Wether thats engineering, songwriting, soloing, fingerpicking, etc - the more you dive into your interests, the better sense you'll have about what you need to practice. This is what I was going for with my move-to-spain analogy.
Diving into your interests as soon as possible will make guitar more fun AND will help you avoid feelings of inadequacy. This is because when you don't have specific goals, you might feel like you need to at least be somewhat good at everything - thats just not true. Just focus on what you like.
HOW HAS THE LEARNING PROCESS BEEN FOR YOU?
HAVE YOU HONED IN ON SPECIFIC GOALS AS YOU'VE LEARNED MORE?
HAVE YOU TAKEN THE PLUNGE INTO THE MUSICAL AREAS YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT?
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Live Stream | 114
Office Hours, Q&A
Here are the timestamped questions:
Question 1: Ray had questions about big hands and how to hold the guitar to maximize dexterity
Question 2: Wayne and Harsh had questions about warming up - best practices and why.
Question 3: Harsh had a question about how to practice using the D shape chord - I gave some ideas using SPJ Jam Tracks
Question 4: Tristan had some questions about movable pentatonic shapes
Question 5: Stevie was wondering about the difference between a melody and a riff. I muddied the waters more here, but it ultimately comes down to context.
Question 6: Vicenco had questions about keeping the pulse while strumming anything other than the classic patterns. I recommended my strumming course.
Question 7: Harsh had questions about how to identify the key of a song so you can play along and solo - check out my Ear Training series and my Live Song Analysis series.
Question 8: Mathias had questions about how to keep the rhythm and pulse while soloing
Question 9: Omar was curious about how my camera guitar works - I can't say yet!
ASK ME ANYTHING! I'VE NEVER MET A QUESTION I DIDN'T LIKE!
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CAGED Basics II
Lesson 09 | D Shape
We're getting close to the end of this series! Get comfortable with the D Shape pentatonic scale and accompanying major and relative minor chords. Watch the lesson, practice the shapes and scale, do the homework, and learn the practice tune at the end! This one is tricky because it's the first pentatonic shape that can't be played in one position.
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Live Stream | 113
How To Hold The Guitar, Alternate Tunings, Penta vs Full Scale, Ear Training
This was a great stream! Here are the timestamped questions:
Question 1: Ray had questions about which leg to hold the guitar and how to approach using a strap
Question 2: Tristan was wondering about alternate tunings
Question 3: Kenneth had some questions about pentatonic vs full scale
Question 4: Jeffrey was curious about the screws on the bridge of a guitar - what are they for?
Question 5: Matt had a question about learning songs by ear and how to figure out specific tricky parts.
Question 6: Tony wants to easily find every note on the fingerboard and asked if arpeggios are the right next step. We got INTO it
Question 7: Jeff had been working on bass and timing and asked if a metronome is the right place to do that. I recommended a different approach.
Question 8: Sam had a question about bending more cleanly
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Live Stream | 112
Alternate Tuning, How To Tell If You're Getting Better, Bad Habits
Here are the questions from this week, timestamped in order:
Question 1: Ray asked about how to get into alternate tunings and if they fit with the CAGED System
Question 2: Harsh asked how to tell if you're getting better. how to tell if you need outside help, and how to get back into it after a break.
Question 3: David showed a specific fingerpicking technique and asked if it was ok or bad. I voted "bad" and gave suggestions, including methods of muting.
Question 4: Jeffrey asked if bass and ukulele are similar to guitar. We went over similarities and differences.
Question 5: Vicenco has problems playing with a pick. I gave some tips for how to hold the thing, and some exercises to practice getting comfortable with the mechanics.
Question 6: Mateus talked about a new music nerd ability to listen to music with an ear for whats going on instead of just absorbing how it feels. We talked about ways to deliberately hang out in either camp.
Question 7: Jeff had a question about bass muting. I gave some tips
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Fun With Thirds | Harmonizing A Scale
In this lesson I first talk about harmonizing a scale in thirds. Then I talk about bouncing from Root and 3rd to 3rd and 5th over a jam track. Then I add 5th and 7th. Then I start applying my melody making guidelines from MTM 17-19, showing how you can move through the scale in thirds to play harmonized melodic parts.
I LOVE this kind of this and I think you will too. I recommend being familiar with MTFG and MTMfirst, but I think you could learn a lot from this lesson after just a few MTFG lessson.
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Practice Thoughts | 16
Oll Korrect
In this Practice Thought, I'm drawing from the funny history of the word "okay" to demonstrate some similarities between the english language and music. Hopefully this will breathe some new life into the old trope "music is a language" and give you some encouragement to explore how you speak the language of music.
It's important to remember as you move along that music isn't about right vs wrong, it's about understandable vs unintelligible. English has words that morph and change their meaning, while music has concepts that feel different to a population over time. This gives us a more solid foundation to say "if it feels good, it is good" in music.
However you feel about it, I hope this video is interesting and encouraging. If you have any eureka moments or just general thoughts, please share in the comments below!
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Live Stream | 111
Writing While Fingerpicking
Here are the questions:
Question 1: Ahmed asked for helping figuring out how to write to fingerpicking.
Question 2: Ray asked about my iPad app - I used GoodNotes
Question 3: Rich shared a cool chord progression and had some trouble figuring out what key it was in.
Question 4: Ray asked what the ideal practice session looks like
Question 5: Tristan asked how to spice up transitions between chords
Question 6: Jeff asked for tips on how to add bass practice into a routine
Question 7: Joe is struggling to aim well on Folsom Prison Blues strumming pattern
Question 8: Kenneth asked some specific questions around CAGED Basics - do you play other chords within the shape or switch pentatonic shapes?
Question 9: Graeme asked a similar question!
Question 10: Paul asked if I have lessons about arpeggios - Yes! CAGED Basics
Question 11: James asked what software I use for recording - I use Logic Pro
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CAGED Basics II
Lesson 08 | Pentatonic Pit Stop
This is the 8th lesson in my CAGED Basics II series, where I'm systematically working through the relationship between major and minor chord shapes in the CAGED System and how the Pentatonic Scales can overlay on top of this info. In this lesson, we're diving into the relationship between the G Shape and the E shape. You'll start with an exercise to help you think about the Fix or Foreshadow situations involved in switching between these two shapes, and you'll end with a fun tune that spans the G Shape and E shape.
Please note: I played the practice track a little fast because my software required it, but you don't need to play the tune faster than 85BPM to move on to the next lesson, which will be out soon!
Check out the PDF as well!
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Community Challenge | 60
Write Something With A Lot Of Space
The video helps explain what I'm talking about here. Have fun! And remember, you don't need to write your best work, just write something.
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Live Stream | 110
The questions:
Harsh was wondering about these kinds of practice bands. Are they worth it? Useful? I gave some thoughts about these, but also about a general approach to practice that might answer these types of questions down the line.
Ray was hoping for a quick round up of guitar embellishments. This isn't the way I think about things, but I tried to give quite a few examples of the types of chord embellishments that translate to lead concepts using Music Theory Monday info.
Anthony was looking for some ways to practice timing. I gave a little talk about the sacred metronome. Happy Birthday to you and your daughter!
David asked me how I keep track of all the song ideas I've written.
Ray F asked about loop pedals and buying pedals in general. I forgot to mention you need a power supply too. If you need info about that, ask about it in the comments or community forum.
Mateus asked about mixing major and minor scales in a Major Key song. I talked about the blues IV chord trick.
Jeff graciously helped me figure out my face-to-face chat system (still needs some work) with a question about how to handle two bends in quick succession. Right hand muting? Left hand muting? How to handle that.
Jason asked what the Rubiks Cube series is about. I gave a taste
Continue the discussion on the community forum.
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MTM | 35
13th Chords
We're tackling the final boss of extended chords: the 13th chord.
This is the final boss because we don't have any more notes to add to a chord after the 13th. Sure, there are some jazz substitutions that include notes outside the scale, but we won't be going there with this course.
When it comes to diatonic chords (ie chords using only notes from the key you're in) the 13th chord represents the use of all available notes.
In this lesson we start with the rigid concept, then break it down into a more broad idea that musicians typically interact with.
If you find more voicings other than the ones I diagramed in the PDF, feel free to post them on the community forum (bug me if you don't see a link here.)
If you have more questions, feel free to ask me on the next Office Hours.
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Live Stream | 108
EQ, Slide Guitar, Moveable Shapes, Chet Atkins
The questions:
Mark R asked if I could walk through how to EQ a track
Ray had questions about slide guitar and the fitting context for 11th and 13th chords. Here is a slide guitar lesson I made last year
Ethan asked about something related to notifications: Basically, I try to send an alert that the stream is starting roughly an hour beforehand, but you can also subscribe to my little Patreon YouTube channel and click the bell for notifications, I think - has anyone tried this and does it work?
Harsh had a question about what to practice on the days when it's a drag to pick up the guitar.
Roscopico had a question about movable shapes, relative keys, and dominant chord.
Andy had a question about Chet Atkins style barrel rolls and another question about thin vs thick picks.
Harsh had another question about whether I have more beginner tracks for technique and stuff. I don't. I'm trying to fill a specific niche here on my Patreon, but maybe someday I'll have a beginner track. I gave some beginner picking advise.
David asked how I switch cameras
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