Lester's Thread, for Gab's Army |
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...the thing is, I need you to start progressing faster then ever, but to achieve that I need your help:
* Don't know where to start? Just pm me and we will sort it out directly, I am online every day.
* Join My Army. Sounds aggressive? It is! We can study anything from the most fearsome picking techniques to bombastic songwriting. A medal of honor awaits the brave. Seriously, this is an opportunity for you to get a personalised learning experience...what are you waiting for?!
* Join my next video chat! GMC startpage holds a video chat schedule. We always cover a lot of ground and have fun. Remember that you don't need any previous knowledge, and you can be passive in the chat.
* Jam with me - you will find active collabs here.
* Post a topic on this board, guitar related or not - doesn't matter! You will find that chatting with instructors boosts your motivation to practice.
* You haven't missed my latest video lessons, have you?
* Finally I want to tell you a secret. Nah I changed my mind - pm me instead ;)
Lester's Thread, for Gab's Army |
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Feb 22 2015, 04:57 PM |
Hi Lester, welcome to our thread for Gab's Army! Here I will help you to achieve your goals as guitarist and musician with guitar routines, links and explanations as well as tasks and constructive feedback.
These are your current goals: * theoretical knowledge: use of more chords and scales, but also recording and sound (effectswise) * songwriting: anything that helps, also theory about chords inversions, progressions, etc. * improvising: especially I would like to be able to improvise along the chords, not just in a key of a song. and I know only one scale...the minor natural one.. * and lastly I woud like to be able to understand and play the blues (and bluesrock)... Have you ever composed a song? or music ideas? Do you have any stuff to share here? -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Feb 23 2015, 09:49 PM |
Yeah, looking forward to it!
I have been working on a little chord progression with Cosmin, it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJSTnLWTtgQ It consists of 4 chords, which are then repeated with different inversions. Then I experimented with some phrasing with only root notes, 3rds and 5ths...more as part of an exercise to hear the difference, nothing fancy. An example of it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3emr-tf7oI And the little improvisation I did before that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT8CFdH1G2g I've also added a song as an attachment, a little cover I did...I recorded three guitar tracks and some singing using audacity...it's a little bit higher than my comfort zone singing wise, but it was a request I did for someone so I just gave it my best Then I've added some other jams I did on a friend's wedding recently, but we are with two guitars...but to give you an idea anyway.
Attached File(s)
Liedje_voor_Leen.mp3 ( 5.18MB )
Number of downloads: 226
4._Rio_Funk.mp3 ( 4.55MB ) Number of downloads: 182 16._A_real_father_for_ya__met_Stefan_.mp3 ( 7.25MB ) Number of downloads: 236 4._Rio_Funk.mp3 ( 4.55MB ) Number of downloads: 167 |
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Feb 24 2015, 02:07 PM |
Hi Lester! Great stuff!
I have to say that I've enjoyed every single audio that you shared here. You have a good musical taste, you can create really enjoyable melodies, play guitar with good tempo, and your voice is very nice to hear! You have a lot of potential and I would like to help you to get the most of it to start your own career as musician. You said that you want to become better at songwriting, music theory, improvising and I was thinking that the best for working on it is to focus your work here on your own music. I think that it's much more productive to learn theory while making music and analyzing songs that you like than just learning it to accumulate knowledge. So it would be interesting on working on composing and arranging some original songs by you. The first thing that you should think, if you like the idea, is the direction of what you'll do. Do you want a couple of songs in a specific genre that could take part of an album? Do you prefer to work on different styles just to experiment and learn and see what happens then? Instrumental? with vocal? -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Feb 25 2015, 01:40 PM |
This sounds really good! Honestly, we are always ready for songwriting. This skill is not related to how many concepts you know, it's related to how many things you have to say. I can notice that your music direction is clear and the artists listed there are all related in one sense. This makes things easier since sometimes the direction is the thing that makes us lose focus while creating our own music.
The first thing that I'd like to ask you is to share here 10 of your favorite songs which we'll analyze as a starting point. -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Feb 25 2015, 08:55 PM |
Oh, this is so hard! I always like to search for new artists that could surprise me, but if I had to choose a playlist right now, this would probably be it
Not necessarily in any order and they are not all guitar songs, but I guess that's ok: 1. Geek in the pink - Jason Mraz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X_AgLfpndM 2. You Fckn did it - Jason Mraz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grK2IrVKylY 3. True Sorry - Ibrahim Maalouf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzv7P7qGdM 4. Seven nation army - Ben L'oncle Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWWZx8P9MAA 5. Neon - John Mayer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DfQC5qHhbo 6. I see fire - Ed Sheeran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TgiH5Rr3M0 7. Stop! - Joe Bonnamassa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMXXnLSRdBE 8. Sloe gin - Joe Bonnamassa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_6yCHnSI4 9. Goodbye - Tingsek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n699dykRXs 10. Englishman in New York - Sting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27gTrPPAyk This post has been edited by Lester: Feb 25 2015, 10:57 PM |
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Feb 26 2015, 02:57 PM |
That's a very interesting list! Now it's time to analyze each of them to have a map of the structures, tonalities, progressions, and arrangements most found in your favorite songs. I can help you with theory stuff once we have the chords and scales used.
The idea is writing down the structure and then write a short description of each part that shares the tonality, the chord progression, and how it's arranged. Please share your results here, but if it's possible, use a real notepad for you to have this analysis there. This is also a good excuse to learn how to play each of this songs. Deal? -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Feb 28 2015, 01:48 AM |
Ok! Sounds good, I'll wait for your news.
-------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Mar 3 2015, 02:53 PM |
Hi Lester! Great stuff! You did a very good job with this. I can say that your notes look very good. I can see the structure and progressions used there very clearly. The overall tonality is as you said: Bbm.
About your questions, the difference between diminished and m7 b5 is that the second also includes the minor seventh. There can be a confusion there because a diminished 7 chord is a bit diifferent. This is how I describe them technically: dim: Root, m3, d5, dim7: Root, m3, d5, d7 m7b5 (half dim7): Root, m3, d5, m7 When you are on Bbm tonality, the second chord build over C root, is m7b5, but off course you can avoid using the seventh and that's when the chord can become more mysterious since it can be one of both depending on the overall tonality and also on what's happening with the melody at that moment. Your other question was about the V chord, in this case Fm. I can say that the chord used in the bridge is F, but this doesn't mean that you aren't on Bm anymore. The use of a major V is something very common on minor tonalities and has been used since the baroque days to give more tension to the V chord to then release to I. It can be explained as a minor key variation but since you will have to make a slight change to the scale used at that moment we can say that this chord is borrowed from Bb harmonic minor scale since it's the V chord that you get if you harmonize the scale. I can be also explained in other ways, but you just need to know two things: - The V chord in minor tonalities is usually switched to Major to create more tension. - Melodically you should use a minor scale that includes the major 7th interval. Besides harmonic minor, you can also try melodic minor depending on the context. -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Mar 4 2015, 02:19 PM |
Harmonic and melodic minor scales are scales that have a major 7th, check out the structure of each scale:
C major: C D E F G A B Intervals: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C Harmonic Minor: C D Eb F G Ab B Intervals: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 C Melodic Minor: C D Eb F G A B Intervals: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7 So starting from a major scale, you get the harmonic minor lowering the 3rd and the 6th to minor while you only have to lower the 3rd to get the melodic minor scale. -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Mar 4 2015, 10:29 PM |
Ofcourse, it's so obvious
I must have been very sleepy wen reading it, thanks for the reply though |
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Mar 5 2015, 02:09 PM |
Great! It's been interesting to see how you can learn new music theory concepts thanks to the analysis of your favorite songs. This is exactly the main goal of this first step in our work together. Keep going!
-------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Mar 11 2015, 01:57 PM |
Hi mate, what version of the song are you analyzing? Because I'm checking the original one and it's in Am while you are working in Bm.
-------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Mar 11 2015, 03:07 PM |
This one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grK2IrVKylY This is a live version, but it's on the album I bought years back...which one do you have? |
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Mar 12 2015, 01:54 PM |
Ah ok! I was checking this one:
Now I could play the chords that you've transcribed along with the song and it sounds great. You are on the right track with this one. It's a very interesting tune. The curios thing is how many words he uses in the verses, that's a lot! -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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