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Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Apr 22 2012, 06:03 PM

Hey mate! Check it out - this is your thread in which we can discuss stuff on music and guitar playing out of what I understood you are interested in being able to improvise, right?

Let me know what other guitar related aspects are interesting for ya and let's rock!

Cosmin

Posted by: anteater Apr 23 2012, 10:12 PM

Hi Cosmin, thanx for your offered guidance, I really appreciate that!

Maybe first a few words on myself: I've been playing guitar for several years now, and at least for the last two years I started playing on a regular basis (4-5 times a week, at minimum an hour/day). I tried some covers (the usual "suspects" like metalllica, megadeth, led zeppelin, pink floyd, the "easy" hendrix stuff, somne blues and so on ;-)...), but got to a point, where I was stuck - both mentally and technically.

Concerning improvisation with other musicians I am not really "good" at, more the contrary. On the other side I've tried some jam-sessions with friends of mine, and its really fun!
... so, at least I know, that it's no easy way to work on improvisation, but I would really like to improve my skills. So - to come to the point - what I would like to do

• train my "inner ear" to identify scales / boxes used in the song
• be able to bring the imagination inside my inner ear to the guitar-neck
• ... be a part of your mentoring program
• ALWAYS HAVE A LOT OF FUN (of course)

So maybe, you could give me some hints where to beginn or suggest me some (at the beginning very basic!) GMC-lessons, where I could start!?
thanx! Hear ya!

anteater/wolf.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Apr 25 2012, 10:45 AM

Hey man!

Thanks for choosing me you know, the whole process starts with the ears, brain and hands.

The ears hear what's being played, the brain knows what to play and connects the hands to the instrument telling them what to do, when and where

Simple, right?

Well, to get to that point (I myself strive to reach that point) means to be able to control your instrument in real time, based on the context you are activating in.

I suggest we divide the tasks into:

Ear training - intervals, scales, chords

Technique - articulation (bends, vibrato, slides) chords, riffing and what would your other favorites be?

Theory - harmony, melody and combining them

This is basically what it takes, but don't get scared, ok? Easy will do and we can get there together if you practice hard and in steps

Can you please tell me what you know so far about the stuff above?

Cosmin

Posted by: anteater Apr 25 2012, 02:55 PM

Hi Cosmin,

sounds good - your suggestion:
concerning the tasks mentioned above I have some basic/intermediate experience:

Ear training:
* Intervalls: means the distance between two notes, eg. C to C# would be 1 halftone, C to D 2 halftone or one fulltone, ... C to the octave of C 12 chromatic steps
* Scales: means the sequence of halfsteps/fullsteps, there I do only know major, minor, pentatonic and blues scale, which I can (more or less) play on the guitar ... but I can't tell the count of b's or #'s of a scale by heart, I do always have to "calculate"
* Chords: means tones ringing together (e.g. triads 1-3-5 or 1-b3-5, ...)
--> thats my "knowledge" so far (I learned piano for some years, when I was a child ...). For me its very hard to tell intervalls between 2 notes by just listening (major scales are somehow "easier" than minor scales) as well as notes of a chord

Technique:
* I work on my articulation now, but sometimes I'm not sure, if e.g. my vibrato is done correctly
* concerning chords I do have problems with quick changes (to sort my fingers ...)
* (single- or double note) riffing is ok but could always be improved
* technical things (I've never done so far) but would be interesting for me are several forms concerning picking (legato, tapping, swipe-technique, ...)
* picking: I'm used to alternate picking and using a metronom ...

Theory:
* ... is not my best-loved field of work, on the other side I would like to know more on "practical" theory

hear from you,
anteater

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Apr 26 2012, 08:37 AM

Hey man!

I've read all the things you wrote and now I got a pretty clear picture of what we can do together I shall choose a few lessons, focusing on the aspects you have mentioned and we can tackle them together:

1) Theory and ear training:

- a first exercise for recognizing intervals would be the following:

- pick an interval, let's say a major third.
- play it against a chosen tonic in as many places on the neck as you can
- sing it against that tonic until it sticks to your memory like a fly on a flypaper
- you can also associate each interval to a specific sound which you know very well (I usually think of the perfect fifth as being the trumpetting sound made at medieval castles whenever someone important arrived )

2) Articulation - check out this little video I made can you do a little video trying to emulate what you are seeing here? It is a good starting point for this looong discussion on articulation



3) Chord shifting - there's this very good lesson on this aspect which we can start working on:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Acoustic-Arpeggios/

4) Techniques - how are you faring with alternate picking man? I would recommend starting out with this very good lesson:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Hand-Basics/

I think these are just enough to get started with let me know if everything is cool man

Cosmin

Posted by: anteater May 1 2012, 05:28 PM

Hi Cosmin,

thanks man for your clear introduction, I'm really motivated to challenge me (and my guitar
what have I done so far?

1) I'm working on my ear training, the trick with the association is a good assistance (but currently I find it easier to identify an intervall, when the low note is picked first...)

2) articulation: thanx for your video, I tried to emulate what you showed me. I think I improved my vibrato a bit, my wrist is more "relaxed" now. I also found some very good lessons for working on this
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/neoclassical_solo_for_beginners/
and:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Blues-Vibrato-SRV-Style-1/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Blues-Vibrato-SRV-Style-Solo/
its really fantastic, watching this guy making his bends / vibratos, and looks all so eeeeeeasy
I'm sorry, I can't provide any video for you at the moment - have got to buy a webcam first, sorry.

3) Thanks also for the chord shifting-lesson: I've exercised this lesson a lot, its a very nice chord progression. Here I have a question:
is the chords are: C - Em7 - Gm6 - A7 - Dm - F6 - G7 - C
while the bass-notes are: C - B - A# - A - D - C - B - C
the sound of this progression is very harmonic, so - finally my question: how are the chords and the bass-notes related?

What I've learned so far in this lesson (beside using my fingers instead of a pick from time to time) is, that I've to watch myself to always have a "clean" grip with my fingers to prevent a deadening of open strings, eg.

4) the alternate picking lesson is a simple - but very good testpiece for the timing of the picking hand. I've done this lesson a lot of times (but have not reached the 120 bmp yet

So - everything is cool for me at the moment!

Hear from you,
Anteater

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu May 2 2012, 04:29 PM

Hey mate! This sounds very good! I see you have been busy! Tell me, when will you get the cam? I would like to see your progress

To answer question number 3 all the chords are built after a formula, right? If we take a closer look to the ones which do not have their root note in the bass, we shall discover that:

B is the 5th for Em7
A# (Bb) is b3 the for Gm6
C is the 5th for F6
B is the major 3rd for G

these are voicings of these chords and the succession of the bass notes provides the harmonic beauty along with the chords themselves what do you know about voicings man?

Cosmin

Posted by: anteater May 2 2012, 08:31 PM

Hey Cosmin, I think I'm gonna buy a webcam at least until end of next week, maybe sooner ...
Regarding the theory of voicing, I'm really blank, man. So - I know at least what is a b3 or a 5th, but the rest - I just have googled voicing - is blank land for me

So maybe you could give me a short example with the C-Major scale and its voicings?

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu May 3 2012, 02:34 PM

Why, of course man!

if we have C major that means C D E F G A B C

if we take the C major chord, we'll see that it's made up following the 1 3 5 formula - C E G

thus, we can have two voicings E G C and G C E it's easy as that...so... do you know how to harmonize a scale?

Cosmin

Posted by: anteater May 3 2012, 06:17 PM

ok, so I think I've heard about triad (C-E-G) and its inversions (first E-G-C and second G-C-E), which means, that the intervalls between the first note and the other notes change, right? So I have an 1-3-5 intervall for C-E-G, an 1-b3-6 intervall for E-G-C and an 1-4-6 for G-C-E, correct?
I just tried them on the 3 upper strings for a C-major scale and every one sounds a bit different compared to the 2 others ...
But what do I "do" with these voicings in a practical sense ???
I think I've also heard about the harmonization of a scale, which means, that I build on each intervall of the scale a triad, which includes inly the notes of the scale, right? But again the same question as above ... can you tell me some simple samples, how I could start playing around with this two things (voicings and harmonization)?

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu May 4 2012, 08:56 AM

Hey mate, if you know these you will have a tremendous grasp over the following things:

1) being able to play any triad, anywhere on the neck at any time in any voicing required
2) being able to play arpeggios, covering 1 or more octaves in all positions
3) using these in your harmonic melodic approaches

Example:

I will give you the following progression:

Am7 Dm7 Em7 with the following tasks:

1) Play it in 5 different positions on the neck
2) Find 5 types of phrases based on arpeggios derived from each chord and make them fit the chord changes in the progression

You are free to use any rhythmic subdivision you want and play the progression spanning each chord over as many bars as you want

Can you see how many possibilities I have created?

Imagine how many nice ideas you could come up with, just by having these things as guidelines

Would you like to approach this?

Cosmin