Secondary Dominants in Christmas Music
In this lesson I explored the use of secondary dominants in a few well known Christmas songs.
Then I had a little fun recording some four part harmony on O Come All Ye Faithful
Read More
What Does it Look Like to Prepare for a Show?
We'll talk about a checklist for your first show, mindset, gear, what songs to plan, how much to prepare, stuff like that.
Then I'll take questions!
Read More
Office Hours Q&A
Craig was looking for tips on writing guitar parts to someone else's songs.
Bobby wanted some guidance on what to practice in order to progress as a guitar player.
Barry was curious about anticipating notes before playing them while soloing.
Mark was curious to learn more about guitar harmonics.
Phil asked about my CAGED Soloing series and how it relates to the Circle of Fifths.
Read More
Polish a Previous Challenge
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Read More
Refining an Idea
Bringing a song from the creation stage, through the editing/arrangement stage, and into the finalizing stage.
Read More
How to Harmonize a Melody
This lesson was all about how to harmonize a melody. If you'd like to learn how to write a melody, check out my Melody Making Course.
Read More
Office Hours Q&A
Here are this week's questions:
Mark was having problems with maintaining tuning between multitrack recorded guitar.
Craig was looking for some picking and finger exercises to help build up dexterity and speed.
Frank needed guidance on getting started with loop pedals.
Barry asked for a brief overview of walking bass lines.
Frank asked about powering pedals on pedal boards and staying on rhythm while looping.
Read More
Fun with Pedals
Read More
ONLY Write a Chord Progression
Make it as simple or interesting as possible. If you're just joining us, pick a few chords you like in a key! No melody, noIf you don't know how to do that yet, choose a few chords from one of the sets below:
G Am Bm C D Em F#°
C Dm Em F D Am B°
D Em F#m G A Bm C#°
If you're more advanced, try playing around with more interesting voicings, secondary dominants, modal progressions, and whatnot.
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Read More
Melody Making Magic
We're going to explore some cool melody making concepts using the attached PDF.
This would be a great lesson to come back to after watching my Melody Making series
If you’re watching later and you still have questions, feel free to comment below or ask on the next Office Hours, every Thursday at 10am Pacific.
Read More
Office Hours Q&A
Weezley asked asked how to avoid sproingly brassy sounds while picking
Ronnie asked how a mode can be a major key
Rich asked if triad voicings always need to have a root note
Jeff had a question about what notes to play when doing double stops
Brian was having issues getting fingers to the right place on a C chord
Boro asked if its a good idea to memorize riffs when learning to solo
Read More
Spooky Music
In this lesson we discuss a symmetrical scale consisting of R w 2 h 3 w 4 h 5 w 6 h 7 w 8 h R - resulting in two nested fully diminished chords. It creates an eerie tonality with no home.
Then we dive into the whole tone scale, frequently used in dream sequences in movies and TV, and on shoes like the Twilight Zone and plenty of others. It gives you augmented chords to play with.
Write Something in 20 Minutes
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN RIGHT HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Read More
Chord Clusters!
I'll be talking about chord clusters, which is just a fun way to think about playing all the chords in a key within the space of just a few frets. I'll give you a sense of the concept, why its important/useful/fun, and a couple ways to practice and use the concept.
Read More
Office Hours Q&A
Read More
Office Hours Q&A
Here are this week's questions:
Ray was looking for clarification on the circle of fifths.
Mark had a couple of questions about chord shapes after completing my Rubik's cube Series.
Read More