#musictheoryforguitar

[laurenbateman]

Music Alphabet On Guitar Lesson - Beginner Guitar Music Theory

[soundguitarlessons]

New YouTube video lesson up this week about how to start improvising classical music on the guitar. 👉Link in bio. . Wishing you all health and safety right now! . . . . . . . . . . . . #classicalguitar #guitar #guitarlesson #guitarteacher #learnguitar #improvisation #musictheory #fingerstyle #fingerstyleguitar #classicalmusic #classicalguitarlesson #classicalguitarist #classicalguitarteacher #composing #practiceguitar #guitarpractice #guitarist #musictheoryforguitar #minorscale #arpeggio #youtube #guitarlessons https://www.instagram.com/p/B_DvuRHp7UN/?igshid=11z1z7qrw04bg

[jerrycherryband]

Happy Sunday Cherries! It's very useful to know The Circle of Fifths. In this video I'll teach you how to write chord progressions to improvise over using the circle. Please enjoy the video  Happy Playing  and have a great week.

[diarrheaofthekeyboard]

Cheater

9.20.2020

Of the many dumb macho things about guitarists, one of the dumbest is the plurality hatred of capos and alternate tunings. One friend I left behind because he’s a toxic bigoted asshole used to say “gay-po”. Another friend I’m very close with and is a much better musician than I’ll ever be thinks capos and alternate tunings are lazy. 

I do understand why people think like this. They’re wrong, but I understand it. For some, like the first guy, it’s just meatheaded stubbornness. “Oh, you’re too weak to play a barre chord higher on the neck so you use a capo to play open chords.” For others, like the second guy, it’s presentation of the instrument “well this is how it’s tuned and so you just work around that and it is what it is.” But that’s not how the guitar developed and it’s certainly not how rock developed or how it’s played. 

Yer basic capo is a movable nut. It’s a clamp. That’s it. And yes, you can use it to move open chords up to the key of the song you’re playing and play anything you want incorrectly. However, you can also use it to move the song into the key you’re singing in. So if you want to play Norwegian Wood like it is on Rubber Soul, then you’re stuck with a capo on the 2nd fret, because that’s where it’s played. I might actually take the capo off for that song, because my voice sounds better in D. 

One thing I really like to do is play a D major 9 chord in a C shape at the 5th fret. But instead of barring my first finger on the second fret to close the chord, I keep it open so the G and high E strings ring out. 15 years ago, I wrote a song in a post-punk band that sounded best in G. So I capo’d at the 3rd fret. And I’d slide that C shape to go from Eb major to F maj 9. It’s a cool sound and fills out the space, which is important in a guitar-bass-drums-singer kinda band. 

The band kept playing the song after I left, largely out of anxiety fueled rage/assholishness, that likely had little to do with the people in the band. Anyway, there were two guitarists they played with afterwards that could never play it right. Because they wouldn’t use a capo. One guy said the chord was wrong because it “went against music theory”. I got that hilarious story from the bassist. The other guy played everything as power chords. So of course, when we had a reunion, I dedicated the song to all the guitarists that had been in the band, and couldn’t play it. (Hey, I’ve never claimed through any of this I’m not an asshole.)

Sometimes I use capos just to find the right tonality. Maybe a song sounds better capod on the 4th fret? Who knows? Let’s figure it out. They’re really great writing tools. 

Another great writing tool is alternate tunings. Like with capos, people don’t like them because they think it’s the easy way out. Tune your low E string down to D and “play one finger slam chords”. That was a fun argument on guitar forums. Or, keep going. Tune the A string down to G and the high E string down to D, and you’re in Open G. Now you can play 20 Rolling Stones tunes that just don’t sound right in standard tuning. Yeah, you could play in standard tuning and only play the inside three strings, but that’s actually the cheater method that doesn’t sound right. You can also play slide. One of my favorite open tunings is Open C. CGCGCE. It’s super heavy and puts the third on the high E string, so it retains a brightness I like. 

Lately, I’ve been playing a lot in Dropped D. On Norwegian Wood, it opens up the droning ringiness of the guitar, which is something I like playing solo acoustic. That tends to translate into the electric bands I’m in because I’m usually the only guitarist. I can always modify it if I need to. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was focused on learning “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden. That song was recorded in Dropped D#. So the whole guitar was tuned up a half step, and then the sixth string tuned down a step. Super weird. Now I can either completely retune my guitar or I can tune to Dropped D and stick a capo on the first fret. So I did that because there’s no actual difference except the fretmarkers are off, and you’re not supposed to rely on those either. Anyway, it’s a really great song not only for learning about Dropped D, but also the descending riff chromaticism is amazing. And it’s the perfect example of capos and alternate tunings working together. 

Now I told you that story to tell you this one.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been watching a lot of the MusicTheoryforGuitar channel on YouTube. It’s this funny metal guy named Tommaso who’s mostly pimping his own method. I’m not interested in his guitar method because I certainly have enough of them rotting on my shelves. But I like his videos. The last one I watched was about the musicality of one note. It’s a simple idea. A C note in a C chord is the root. So it’s not going to have the same quality as the same C note as the major third in an G# major or the minor third in A minor. Cool stuff. Now how can I use it?

I wrote this riff I liked based on the video. I wrote down all the chords in the video and messed with them until I got something I liked. But trying to get everything to sound right with the droned C got complicated. I was playing chords on both the 5th and 6th string, and once I moved the C drone, it just didn’t sound cohesive. So I had an idea. Tune the B string up to C. That worked for a moment but made things complicated when I wanted to keep the drone on the 6th string A minor chord. 

Then I remembered about my partial capo. I dunno when I got it. At least 10 years ago. Maybe longer. It’s called the Third Hand capo and appears to have been discontinued a few years ago. This one is different from “short-cut” capos because you can choose which strings you want to capo, instead of it just being a flat bar. The only thing on the market now that’s similar is the SpiderCapo, but I’ve never used it. Looks like if I ever lose this one that’s the one to get. Anyway, I got the idea to capo the C I’ve been droning, which is on the first fret of the B string. But that presented a problem for my F chord, because you can’t finger a note you’re not having the Third Hand press down on. So I dropped down to D and the F moved up. This also allowed me to consistently voice the other chords in the progression. So now I’ve got an alternate tuning and a weird capo and the song can’t be played without them. 

That’s not cheating. That’s art. Now maybe I can write some lyrics that don’t suck. LOL.

[mikewhittakermusic]

December/January Progress

Throughout December and January I gave myself a lot to do, possibly too much as not everything was completed. However, I still feel that I am making good progress with what I have done so far:

Business cards have been designed and created (see Appendix 1), however the company that printed them has made an error in the printing and so have agreed to print them again for free; this could even be considered a positive as now I have double the amount of business cards than I anticipated as a result.

An orchestral template has been created and put to use (see Appendix 2) and works well as an idea generator. As this template uses Pro Tools stock plug-ins Xpand!2 to maximise the amount I can create without running into CPU and RAM issues the resulting sound is not as good as it could be, so another template needs to be created which includes better VST instruments to move tracks onto after the initial ideas have been created.

Work with Alexander Macrae took place on his D’Cafe series throughout January (see Appendix 3). My role was to record Foley sounds for the first 6 minute (approximately) video. This is almost entirely finished now, and the composition for the video will be discussed, considered and composed with Alexander before this can be included within a showreel.

Potential theatre collaborators were found throughout Bristol and back home in Ludlow, Shropshire. An email was sent out to them asking if they would like any free composition for a project/theatre show (see Appendix 4). I am awaiting replies from these emails at present. 

6 quick one minute compositions in different modes were to be composed, 2 of which have been composed to varying levels of success. The compositions are basic and mainly consist of chord sequences, melodies and harmonies. A further 4 will be composed to be critically assessed by peers.

Further research was done into Music theory and quick composing techniques as the Theatre World can be a quick paced environment with music for a scene being needed very quickly. This knowledge comes from a discussion with Set Designer Frances Norburn who explained that on one of her recent projects (See Appendix 5) the director would tell the musician what sort of a feel was needed for the incidental music during rehearsals and the musician would have to compose this on the spot. This means that template creation is an absolute must, and quick compositions in different styles with short deadlines would be a good practice tool. Research included looking into modes in more detail in regards to brightest to darkest (12tone); changing keys in a range of manners whether it be augmented 6th modulation (reference), diminished 7th modulation (reference) or pivot chord modulation (reference). As my skill set means I am weaker at electronic elements including sampling and synthesis I looked into Youtube videos making the most of Ableton's Simpler, Sampler and Operator (reference). 

Masterclasses were attended at dBs music (Appendix 6), of particular interest were the classes on experimental music composition and using Arduino: 

The experimental music class showed how using a cello bow with a guitar can create an interesting effect and can be made into a full instrument using reverb and sampler. The sound created from this sounds epic yet suspenseful and would be perfect for film composition or theatre, as my main instrument is a guitar this appealed to me greatly. 

The Arduino class was a new discovery for me in seeing how electronics can be controlled and programmed with relative ease using Arduino’s coding programme. This would be especially useful in some areas of sound design for theatre, such as controlling a puppets mouth automatically when someone speaks into a microphone (reference). 

Odd time signatures was another compositional tool that was looked into for creating compositions in different moods. Of particular interest was their use for creating unrest, and how they can create a swing like vibe (reference). 

In conclusion December to January was very productive, but I didn’t achieve everything I set out to do: I still have to create a website; my business cards need re-doing; previous projects need to be mixed and mastered to a better standard for inclusion into a showreel; collaborators are still needed; and the showreel needs to be up and running.

References: 

Viers, R. (2008) The Sound Effects Bible. Michael Wise Productions. 

Ament, V. T, (2009) The Foley Grail, Focal Press, Elsevier.

Felipe Tellez (Oct 19, 2015). 1. Big Orchestral + Mockup Templates for Pro Tools 0 Session and Channel Setup. [Video File]. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nzwGxbagJ0&t=97s

12tone (Sep 25, 2017) Building Blocks: The Modes [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWQC4pdEco

Music Matters (Nov 21, 2019) Modulation using the German 6th - Music Theory [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI7LGdCEc4k

12tone (Mar 18, 2016) Diminished 7th Modulations and the Swiss Army Pivot Chord [Video File]. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6HLn6d05Y

Music Matters (Dec 5, 2019) Modulation using a Pivot Note - Music Theory [Video File] Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQbHSEDpE6s

Seed to Stage (Aug 15, 2019) Ableton Operator Synth Tutorial Deep Dive [Video File] Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBl25OB0E58

Caulfieldcosplay (Jul 5, 2017) Akulva animatronic speech demo using Arduino, Picotalk and servos [Video File] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKzLxwR_qgo

MusicTheoryForGuitar (Dec 9, 2019) The COOLEST Odd Time Signature [Mission Impossible, Music Theory]. [Video File].  Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=948iIiI2kmQ&t=704s

[soundguitarlessons]

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A post shared by Sound Guitar Lessons with Jared (@soundguitarlessons)

This is the intro to one of my recent YouTube lessons. I’ve been publishing a video every week on YT since December and I’m slowly getting the hang of it! I’m really happy with the lighting vibe on this one, which I recently upgraded. Also, this video has some fun graphics at the beginning that make it more visually interesting. I’m not sure how much I’ll be doing that in the future because it takes a TON of time to edit in graphics, and I mainly want to focus on consistently teaching good lessons, but we’ll see. Just sharing for fun :) . . . . . . #guitarlesson #guitarlessons #guitarteacher #learnguitar #practiceguitar #guitarpractice #jazzguitar #jazz #jazzchords #jazzharmony #7thchords #seventhchords #acousticguitar #taylorguitar #tiffanylamp #musictheory #musictheoryforguitar #guitartheory #musiclesson #guitar #guitarist #jazztheory #diminished #passingchords https://www.instagram.com/p/B-qJZsmJ46H/?igshid=ymzxr3bdwept

[diarrheaofthekeyboard]

The Invisible Way

9.13.2020

I had been writing more about 9/11, NYC, and Low’s “The Invisible Way”. I’m not gonna do that now, but I’m keeping the same title because I love that record and it’s appropriate. Oh, also, the new Flaming Lips album is promising. I need to listen to it again. 

Anyway, I wrote a new thing tonight. Or I thought it was a new thing. It was a jam in Am with a cool Fmaj9 chord up on the neck. But it didn’t go anywhere. Then I started jamming on a thing I played the other night but never got to record. I ended up expanding on it and got a couple of parts out of it. Enough to get it down like all of my other riffs. 

After that was done, I listened to the progression that preceded it. And there was my Am -> Fmaj9, with a bunch of leading tone stuff I got turned onto from a lesson by the MusicTheoryForGuitar nerdy metal guy. Good channel. And I had no idea what I had played so I had to relearn it from the recording. 

When I finished, I saw the clip was from 3 weeks ago. Scrolling down, most of my clips have weeks if not months between them. Armed with this knowledge, I have a new mission. Write for them. I’m starting to let it flow but I have yet to listen and write. 

Big day tomorrow. I’ll start out by getting my kid set up for school and then calling Kaiser to figure out therapy services. I had sent out some emails last week and one guy got back to me. He says that Kaiser is changing their out of network pay structure and trying to bring more people in-house. This probably played into me getting ghosted last week. Still, I’ve got to get the ball rolling tomorrow. 

Next, I’m recommitting to my fretboard studies, writing out major and minor scale positions and triad inversions across the neck. The goal is to write out and then practice them 4 times per week. Then I can move around the circle of 5ths weekly. Do that until the end of the year, and I’ll be better than ever. 

In summation, write words to riffs, practice, write new riffs, rinse, repeat. Easier said than done, but even getting to this point and allowing myself to write words instead of beating myself up is huge progress for me. It’s been decades.