So here's our thread for October, we'll do both weekly assignments and month assignments here.
As you can see in MTP info thread I linked you, month assignments must be provided in REC as well.
Now, I thought that it could be good if we use Fusion Jam for month/REC assignment,
you already started working on it and there is plenty of time to polish it nicely.
Of course, you don't have to wait whole month to post it,
you can keep me updated with it every once in a while so I could give you more feedback,
suggestions etc, ok?

As for first weekly assignment I'm giving you another improvised take to make,
use this very Fusion Jam backing and let me hear your ideas and everything.
At the end of the week I would like you to post a video of it.

Lets roll!!

Oh no.. not the improvisation.. You know, this one is a real off beat and I can't get the timing on my head.

Anyway, after a lot of tries, here is what I could get. The timing on the mid section is still off. Sometimes, I get it right sometimes not. Oh the start sounds awful too. I think its too much practice for today. The latter portion seems to be spot on (at least to me).

Hope you like it as well.

This was really nice, you are getting there for sure, keep it up,
we have time till November, I'm sure you'll nail it till then!!

As for improvisation, we really have to work on it since it's probably major part of being a musician,
you don't have to play it this style tho, play anything you want but keep it
logical and with sense, lets go.

Thanks Muris.. will do.

Heres just another take I tried this morning.. wasn't fully satisfied with the earlier one.

Much better!!

I see that main problems appears from 0:20 till 0:27,
bit more work on those licks and it'll be really good.
Be careful with syncopated part tho, from 0:23 till 0:26,
you mustn't land any of those notes on the beat, everything is offbeat.

Thanks Muris. I think I have worked it out. will try recording later tomorrow.. BTW, I also laid out the improvisation. need to practice a little and record.

That's great, keep me posted!

Ok... after about 10 tries of uploading on YouTube, it finally got uploaded. When its not meant to be, its not meant to be. Had to wake up all night. You can't imagine how frustrating it was.

Anyway, here is the improvisation try.

Sorry to hear about upload problems, must have been pain!!

This impro was great tho, some sweet ideas, specially after few first beats.
I said that cause you were obviously guided by timing and chops from original lesson.
But what I would like you to try is to play an impro like if you have never heard of original lesson!!
Play your own thing, own ideas, free yourself from any lick in the lesson.
We have few more days with this task, can I ask for another take?

Hmm.. I tried one again. Will Bm natural scale work well or do we need to stick to B Dorian?

I would go with B Dorian all the way, yeah.
Btw, you can post mp3 only this time,
no need to bother with videos always, audio would work just fine for this kind of task.

ah .. nooooo.. I have to redo that again! Its okay.

Ok, I was thinking of that too but video does give a good feel. Bad this is it takes bit of a time trying to process and upload. will try audio this time. Thanks Muris.

It's not redo, it's more like working on weekly assignment in steps,
looking forward to audio tho, no rush.

Oh I meant I did compose the first half again in Bm natural scale so will have to rethink that bit again. No Probs tho.

I see, my bad then!

Ok, here is a try finally.. I didn't know what scale to play on G7.. B Dorian didn't seem to play well.. Anyways, let me know what can be improved.

Thanks Muris.

Oh yeah, now we are talking, well done, great impro!!

And btw, you did really good on G7 chord tho,
you stayed mostly on chords notes which is always safe bet.
But lets discuss this G7 chord and possible scale that can be used over it.
We can focus only on G7 chord related to Bm (or B Dorian to be exact).
What are your thoughts, how would that scale look like, notes?

Thanks Muris. Had a tough time trying to get that impro.. I was like out of vocabulary or something.. struggled a bit.

Here is what I thought, G7 has a note F and then G which are totally out of what B Dorian scale has. So, trying to play B Dorian normally isn't going to work since the notes wouldn't sound good. But the chord also has B and D notes which are in B Dorian Scale. So, we will need to flat 5th and 6th notes of B Dorian.. if I am saying the correct terms.

Is that correct ?

That was well analyzed and you're 100% right, we have to alter 2 notes from B Dorian
in order to follow G87 chord nicely and we get scale that goes like this:
B, C#, D, E, F, G, A and B.
This scale is also called B Aeolian b5 and it's one of the modes from D Melodic Minor
but the truth is, we had nothing to do any kind of Dm here, specially not with Melodic Minor.
And I just remembered, I had same conversation with a member in this topic.

I'm gonna give you next weekly assignment in a sec, hold on!

Btw, how is Fusion Jam Lesson going?

Great.. I still need to understand the theory well.

I did grasp the timing.. need to practice a bit and record.

looking forward to the next assignment.

I went through the replies and that was awesome although the first part didn't make sense to me (too much theoritical) .. I will learn them one by one. I am always thinking in terms of chords/ or what sounds good on a chord and not sticking to a scale. As I said, I still need to learn a lot when it comes to theory. I have been reading a few articles and definitely have learnt intervals, and major scale (and bit of minor scale, I can trace them out given some time) particularly. I have also come to know some modes such as Mixolydian (been doing that a lot), and recently, Lydian and now Dorian.

Can't take all theories at once but few at a time is good. BTW, I am stealing a thread by Emir about playing D major scale all over the neck and been practicing that behind the scenes as well. That was supposed to be secret. ha!

Be sure to ask anything you need about theory, will be pleased to help you!

And here's our next weekly assignment,
it's a AP Lick in key of Am, played over Am, F7 and E7 chords,
kind a blues/jazz feel since it has few chromatic lines,
string skipping is involved as well.
Tempo is 120bpm, try it slow and build up the speed smoothly.

Click to view attachment

I m on this.. grabbed the notes at 40bpm.. wow.. long way to go. Not sure if 120bpm is possible in a week.

So, what is the trick here, I see there are so many off notes but it sounds good. Landing on the right note at the beat?

120bpm is the tempo I chose cause it sounds ok,
you don't have to play it at 120 by all means but get as close as you can.

Could you be a bit more specific about "off" notes you mention
so I could give you explanation?

I mean the chromatic notes.. sharps than regular Am Scale ?

Well the regular Am scale was hardly in use there,
we had A Dorian over Am chord instead.
F7 chord provides us with Eb note and as usual tool in Blues/Jazz
we get to connect chord notes by playing chromatic, Eb, E and F per example.
The we had E7 chord that gave us G# note instantly,
we might consider using A Harmonic minor over this E7 chord
but Harmonic minor would hardly sound Blues/Jazzy.
Instead we stick to notes of E7 chord (E, G#, B and D) while connecting few using chromatic,
D,D# and E per example, also we used G note as a passing tone towards G#, 9th note in 3rd bar.

Thanks Muris for explaining.. I will read that again and grab the whole thing one by one. I have to have guitar to understand.

Anyway, here is another development on my end. Hope its good to post here. Couldn't stop from sharing...

I got my G-force to my friend in US (via ebay) and he will be shipping it very soon to me. Can't wait to try it out. ooo.. so excited!

Congrats, I recall how I was excited when I got it.

okay.. now I understood the theory.




Thanks so much. I hope you are 'using' your G-Force and Triaxis.

ah progress.. I am still not yet used to the fingering but I just tried with 70bpm and went well.

80... arrrg struggling at 90.. the last bit.

yeaaa!! did at 90!

yup.. just did it at 100bpm.. cool now its getting pretty extensive!

My brains kind of slow perhaps.. I saw a video on youtube (on speed) that said.. its just not about practice.. or fingers.. its about how fast you can think..

That's very true, muscle memory has major roll
but nothing can't be done without proper brain use.

oh yea.. doing it at 110bpm.. sloppy.

Keep it up, it shall work just fine!

You know what? I just tried at 130bpm.. saw Petrucci on his video gave tips to try on a faster tempo and them come back on the slower, gets a lot easier.

Of course, my fingers just don't move at that speed but definitely thought I would try.. I think I can do up to 114bpm or so.

Oh yeah, pushing things a bit ahead of our current limits
could be quite useful to figure out how our hands should act,
I'm glad you tried it!!
Whatsoever, 114bpm sounds like a fine match, go for it.

I will record a take on Sunday.. been quite busy with work and Saturday is a busy day for me. Hope its okay.

on that note.. I just tried .. and voila.. 120bpm!!! need a bit more practice.. but YEAH I CAN DO IT BABY!!

Of course you can.

OKay.. I tried a lot of times but still doesn't sound so clean.. Should I try a clean tone take?

It was quite descent, good work!!

A clean take (or one with less distortion) would be great tho.

Thanks Muris.. will do.. That was my default lead tone and haven't actually tried any other presets.

No problem at all.

heres the take!

Even better,
I noticed only one missed note (over F7 chord),
you passed this as far as I'm concerned,
I'll give you next assignment asap.

How is Fusion Jam going btw?
Don't forget, we need it for REC.

Yep.. thats what happens at fast speed.. Is it on time? Its pretty hard to do that on timing as the notes on the beat are not 'root' note or something that can be easily played. you know..

I haven't practiced fusion jam honestly.. I have been doing this for the whole week and I am glad I reached 120bpm.

will practice for sure.

Thanks Muris. I hope you are having a good weekend. Cheers!!

Btw, I just did a impro in CLydian Collab by David. This one is the fastest one I came up with.. an hour or so.. Otherwise, it takes me like a full day. I am not sure if its appropriate here but I wanted to share and get your feedback. I would love to get some fast riffs and as you can see I get stuck at the same melody or timing thing.. Would love to get some other variations in the same song. ya know..

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&id=18696

Timing was pretty fine imo, yeah.
I'll give you something easier for last week so that you could focus more
on REC assignment, Fusion Jam.

I'm gonna listen your colab take tho.

Ok, I just listened and here's what I would think of in future, timing phrasing.
If you analyze your take timing wise you'll notice that each phrase
start on the beginning of each bar, first beat.
Cool idea is not to start from there every time, you can start from 2nd 4th or 8th
OR you can start your phrase with pre-beat by starting on, example, 4th beat in previous bar.

hmm.. will try that trick..

I noticed today that the back of my arm (triceps but near the shoulder joint) muscle is aching. Looks like its due to fast pick movement in recent days. I am learning to pick faster.