If you check the lessons, the connections are done with triads which are a smaller structure than an arpeggio. Learning the major and minor triads all over the neck and being able to connect them and follow chords will be very helpful for your improvisation training and for understanding the whole fret board. You can work on the major scale lesson and the minor (aeolian) one from the lessons that I shared. There you can find the triads, and you will also connect them with scales.

Ah.....Ok, I misunderstood the descriptions the first time. So, if I add these my practice schedule will look like this.

Warmup: Your warmup exercises, and current Shred Boot Camp Mission
Block 1: Previous lessons:
Single string etude
One note per string alt picking etude
Major and Minor arpeggios
Block 2 + 3 : New lessons:
Lian's riff master: Thrash
Ionian modes harmonized with triads
Aeolian modes harmonized with triads
Block 4: Creative work:
Still working on transcribing and analyzing that Wolves carry my name song.
Writing a track of my own

This is the beginning of my track I got drums so far. And some ideas for rhythm but haven't tracked it yet.
https://soundcloud.com/vonhotch/anima-hollow-drums-1/s-gp0Gu

Hi mate! The routine looks great for me! It's very productive and well organized. And your drum track is very promising!

Hey man, I think I will have some videos of the new stuff by next week. I have just about got the riff master one memorized and the first parts of the harmonized with triads lessons. But this week I got a song analyzed, and rhythm guitars written for my track!
I was having having trouble with the Wolves carry my name song I was working on so I thought I would do some easier ones and work my way up to some harder stuff. I did "Polly" from Nirvana


Structure: ABABAB The song goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. The only change is the first two measures of the third verse are a bit of a base solo.
What is happening. The verse is 6 measures long and is in the key of Em the chord progression is E5, G5, D5, C5. The chorus modulates to Dm, and the chord progression is D5, C5, G5, Bb5. It modulates by using the last two chords of the verse as the first two chords of the chorus which both keys have in common. The chorus is 8 measures long. The only change comes in the third verse when the first 2 measures are a bass solo over and E5 chord, then it continues as normal. After the last chorus the whole some resolves back to an E5 chord.


Now on to my track. I am really excited to see what kind of comments you have for this. I feel it is a really good representation of me and the kinds of things I want to write (well so far anyway ). I have added some rhythm guitar. The structure of the song is verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, outro. The verse and chorus are in Bm. The verse chord progression is B5, A5, B5, B5, E5, D5. The chord progression in the chorus is some power chord variations, B5, C (b5), and, Dmaj3no5. The bridge, solo, and outro I am not 100% sure. I guess I need your help I want to say it's B locrian but I add a chord that I don't know the name of that is not in key. It has the notes (B, E, D#, D).
x The other notes are (B,D,B,E,B,F,B,E,B,F,B,G,B,A,B, ? chord)
15
x
13
14
12
12
It's a very dissonant chord but I like it.
https://soundcloud.com/vonhotch/anima-hollow-drums-1-2/s-3hLsE

Sorry that was really long.

This post has been edited by vonhotch: Feb 4 2013, 12:13 AM

Hi mate! Amazing work! The song's analysis is perfect! I find the chorus modulation very cool and original. Moving the tonality from E minor to D minor gives the song a very sad feeling that make it 100% Nirvana style. It's a new concept to incorporate!

And your new track sound really good! Congrats!! I like the riffs and the different ideas, and the first thing that I note is that it's very well structured. This means that our analysis job is showing results! I think that the bridge uses notes from the blues scale, it's Pentatonic minor with the addition of the blue note. Isn't it?

Do you have some ideas for the vocal melody?

Sweet! The sad feeling was what I was hoping to learn something about. In fact I think I am gonna do "Smells like teen spirit" next. I like the way they can sound sad and tortured while still sounding upbeat and catchy at the same time. I like the contradiction.

And my track the bridge notes fit into Bm blues scale except for the G. These are the notes in that riff. (B,D,E,F,G,A) then if you figure that mystery chord has an Eb. (B,E,Eb/D#,D).

I don't really even know where to begin with vocal melody or harmony. Anything to do with singing will be a challenge for me. I was gonna try to write it similar to a bass part and use the root, and fifth, but try to stick more to the fifths. I read that would give a sadder sound. And since I am not a great singer if I do the singing I may try to do something that is not the focus of the song, and kind of have the vocal part sit back in the mix.

Great stuff! Some more Nirvana songs, and also Alice In Chains or Paradise Lost could work to know how they get the sad atmosphere. If you are not comfortable with your voice you can also use a VSTi to create the melody, and then you give it to a singer. But I think that experimenting with your voice and the mix is a very good idea so go for it!

I am not familiar with Paradise Lost. I will have to check them out! I remember you telling me to try to use my voice to help come up with melodies for solos and stuff, that always felt a bit weird. I thought I would try to work on that and get more of voice,mind,instrument connection going with an exercise I read in a Steve Vai ear training article. You play the major scale and sing the notes as you go to establish a connection in you mind and your ears. I thought I could add a couple minutes of this into my warmup each night. Maybe help in a lot of areas? What do you think?

yes, I know that article and it's the way to do! This will help you with the connection between mind, fingers and guitar. You have to be sure that you are singing the notes on pitch, compare your note with the guitar's note to see if you are always on pitch. Learning songs by ear, playing among it and also singing over the songs (with lyrics) is also a very useful training.

I try to sing along quite a bit to the radio for practice on my way to work......The results sometimes are...um...interesting.
So here are some videos from this week. I had one of the new one the "riffmaster" one, but as I was saving the final video my video program froze and I lost it. I also had a bunch of noise while recoding evertything this time. It was weird. It through me off a bit. My timing might be a bit worse than usual! I ordered some more ram for my computer, hopefully an upgrade will help with recording.
I seem to be stuck at 75% with this one. But it does seem to slowly be getting better.


Have got this up to around 180bpm somewhat ok. Only 15bpm to go.


Some Maj and Min arpeggio practice. I think this is the first vid since I added the 7th string notes. It's at 130bpm.


It has been almost a year since I joined and I'm about to resubscribe. It's been a great experience. But I guess you are gonna be stuck with me for another year!

Thanks so much!!!!!!

Hi mate!! You have been doing a very hard work this year! It's been a pleasure to help you in this musical journey and I'm glad to know that there is a new year coming!

The lessons are ok, but as you said the timing issues are more notorious this week. Keep on practising this lessons, maybe at slower tempos to feel more comfortable and to get a fuller tone of each note.

I had an idea. What do you think about setting myself weekly goals? Instead of trying to show you videos of everything, we can come up with weekly goals, something to focus on within what I'm already practicing. For example since it's broken up into technique and creative practice. For the rest of the week have my technique goal to work my arpeggios up to 170 bpm, and for a creative goal finish analyzing smells like teen spirit. Then practice is even more focused and so can my weekly posts which lately have been the most challenging part.

And I am also looking forward to another year. Gmc is one of the best experiences ever, I have met some of the greatest people here.

I like the idea of focusing on weekly goals. This can be more motivating and the results will be seen more clear. Let's go for it starting this week with the arpeggios and nirvana's song analysis!

Hey Gab. I apologize for missing posting last weeks posting. I got sick and have not been practicing as much as I should have. With that said. I am still having problems with recording video again. I think I may have a solution but until I get it completely set up I may end up having to do something with just audio. Can we do something with that? Right now my video makes my audio click and pop and my video sutters too. Any way, I am tired of giving you excuses of why I didn't do as well as I thought could, and fighting with video is not cool. I did get my analysis of "smells like teen spirit" done.

Band: Nirvana
Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit

It is in the key of Bb minor. The arrangement is interesting in that is goes chrous, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, solo, prechorus, chorus. Or.....(A,B,C,A,D,B,C,A,D,SOLO,C,A) It is interesting that the verse is just 2 notes b and f, and then switches to the prechorus which is the same 2 notes just different rhythm. The solo was cool it took a lot for me to tab out. And I may be wrong but it felt to me like it was played like a linear scale? It was a Bb minor scale.
The more I analysis Nirvana songs the more I respect them. They are simple but have so much emotion, and don't sound like anything else.

Hi mate! I'm glad to know that you are feeling good now! I hate when video gives us problems! I understand that because I have had many problems with video for my lessons, so I know that it's not an easy job. Keep on experimenting and feel free to post audio here by now. There is no problem with that.

Nirvana's analysis is ok excepting the key and scale. The overall tonality as well as the scale used for the solo is F minor. The only section that has a different is that riff that starts when the chorus ends. There Kurt plays F and F#, so this could be analysed as F Phrygian mode.
It's great how much we can learn and understand (and even respect!) a band by analyzing their songs. You won't imagine how much you will respect Foo Fighters by analyzing their songs!

Please review the tonality, try to get the overall feel and let me know if you understand why this track is in F minor.

Ah. Ok. Looking back at my notes, I see it now. It starts on F, ends on F. I had that F# written as a Gb and to check the key I looked at all the flats and compared it to a circle of fifths chart. Now I see without that Gb it fits F minor. I was looking just at one piece of the puzzle.
I finally got some monitors too!!! It's amazing all the little things I already can hear differently.
I can record video and audio just not at the same time for some reason now. I have some more memory for my computer on order, hopefully that will help.
Here is some audio from tonight. The Riffmaster lesson. I tried to mess with some eq and compressor, hopefully it will sound a little better than my previous "mixes". Although I do notice I have a string a little out of tune.
Thanks Gab!
https://soundcloud.com/vonhotch/riffmaster/s-XjUm8

Hi mate! Congrats on your new monitors! It's a great decision to get them! You can't make something sound goo if you can listen to it well.
Your take on Riffmaster lesson is close but still needs more days of practice to sound more consistent.

What are you using for mixing and mastering?

You know I am beginning to think that I am never gonna be done with this practicing thing....
For mixing I am using Reaper as my DAW with various eq's and compressor patches. And Amplitube for my amp sim. But one of the things I am hoping to get my computer to cope with recording better is to not use Amplitube but I got a Line 6 spider IV amp with a line out, I am hoping that using the modulation in that and not software may take some of the burden of my computer.

hehehe yeah, this practice thing lives with us forever.... I'm sorry to inform that. So you say that your computer is a bit slow to use amplitube? I use Line 6 Pod also to avoid using plug in simulators... I find it easier to work in this way.

Regarding the practice, do you isolate short sections (for example the first part of the riff, from the beginning to the pinch harmonic) and practice it as a loop, over metronome starting with a slower tempo?

It didn't used to be too slow it's a problem that seemed to gradually get worse a little at a time. So I was thinking that as I added more and more songs and software my computer began to get a little full and slow down. I also got an external hardrive to store some stuff on so I can clean it up a bit more. But I did have an issue with the usb cable from my interface last night too. Maybe that is part of the problem. Have you ever had a bad usb cable? Do they go bad?

For practicing, I have been trying to loop sections to learn the piece. Do you think I am jumping to playing with the backing too soon? I did it like you say tonight. Slowed it down looped every section a few times. It felt right. I think I should do it more. Will this help my timing. I really want to improve my timing I feel it is my biggest weakness. What do you think my biggest weakness is?

I saw your thread about your show. It is awesome to see how successful you are becoming. Are you still playing shows like this every week?