jer youre making great progress... enforcer is an excellent teacher

keep up the great work

Jer,
I gotta say I am really impressed with your work ethic. As someone who can identify with you as having to balance a wife, kids job and a serious guitar addiction I really hope you get your playing to level that you want it to. Just wanted to say I have a lot of respect for how hard you are working. Keep it up man and you'll get ther man!!. I think you are a real inspiration for alot of players on this board, at least you should be!!. Enforcer, you are doing an awesome job as well. Good job both of you guys!!!

Monte

Jer is a great student Monte, apart his willingness and dedication, his ability to follow a scheduled program is just amazing. And also his progress is also very consistent. He is doing a great job for sure



Thank you John !

Here is my trooper video. Still at 75% I thought I speeded it up a bit but I guess I didnt. Regular is 160. I was at 120. My next one will be at 130 for the rhythm part. I started the solo too. I cant get the feel of it from the guitar pro file. So I lisitened to the real song and used GP tab and got the feel that way.



AIC - Getting better. Still at 75%



More later on tonight.

Jer watch out!

here comes the detail (devils disguise):

Theory question and application-> In what key is the Trooper? Try to detect the key and the scale for the first solo part. (Second part is different) So after finding out the key, try to find if is major or minor. And when all that is done, try to apply this on practice: Which notes can be played and which notes are forbidden?

That will help you actually practicing the solo. When you cant remember if at one point you have to press 9th or 10th fret for example, knowing that 9th fret is out of scale, will help you to remember where to put that finger...

Trooper is going well, you are still at some point of getting used to song, and you are making mistakes on easier rhythme parts because they are too easy and you loose concentration. Intro is ok, verses are ok (apart some remembering song traffic issues) but on melodies, you have some little problems try to work on that... And always buddy, when you work with anything, especially solos, try to keep the metronome beat there, as this will have a direct impact on how successiful you put that special part back to the song... For that long and slow bends, to maintain stability, try to use more than one finger...

About AIC Solo, man I fear you might need to drop it to something like %65. Once you play it perfectly without anykind of errors you might speed up a bit play it there like 100 times without error. Like you did, after you stopped you bt. But stopping the bt is not an answer, if you set your bt to a lower tempo this will either guide you, and will help you maintaining that same perfectness when you speed up. For example listen to the take near the end. You tend to slow down with difficulty building up. Well that is not a solution, as you can already play that in that speed that you are dropping to. You should keep your speed constant. If you get faster whole part must be fast, if not whole part must be slower... Try that for tonight, practice AIC Solo with %65-70 kind of speed, you'll see tomorrow you'll be playing it better with %75

All in all, you are doing great, work in progress becoming better. Dont forget Kris' bending exercise, that will help you get your bends better

Cheers mate!

Thanks for the kind words Monte and Outlaw.

Seeing as how I had my Nightwish shirt on today I threw these in. I play these with the band. We havent played them in a while so there are some flubs. Its just for fun. Enjoy!

Kris' Bending Exercise is done, if you are able to, I highly recommend you to send that video to January Beginner Challenge....You have very little time left, and you succeeded on this in a few days only, but even if you are unable to win that, that would be a good contribution

Lets take that exercise to our warming-up arsenal and replace it with Tantarella Rock

AIC video solo is also great, you may consider speeding up. Take a video with + 5/10 bpm with rhythm parts too ok?

By the way, your nightwish videos are great by the way, you prove there that you got nearly all the skills to be a great metal rhythm guitarist. Now our target is to become a great solo guitarist

So your schedule for tonight is:

-Trooper Solo Workout
----10 mins getting used to positions
----10 mins getting it done

-AIC Lesson
----10 mins speed up, and gettin used to playing solo up to speed
----10 mins performing whole exercise (rhythm and solo) together up to new speed

-Tantarella Rock Lesson
----Learning the solo, Getting used to positions and setting a optimal slower rhythm



Keep up the great job buddy you are doing this perfect

Can

Sounds good man!

I'll look at the theory stuff at work this week.

Also, starting in about 2 hours my wife is out of town until Friday night.

So I'll be the only parent with a 4yr old daughter and a dog to take care of. Not to mention my normal load....

I'm still making it my goal to have a 1hr+ session each evening though. But in case something weird happens, thats why.

Some AIC coming at ya.

1st video -35 bpm



2nd video - 30 bpm


3rd video -20 bpm


4th video -10 bpm


this is one of those days where you dont feel like you are getting anywhere.

Are you kidding me? This actually is a great progress!!!

From the videos I can tell that your comfort zone extends to -15bpm. And you are nearly there at -10bpm!!! You nearly nailed this. Keep practicing at -15bpm until you make virtually no mistakes... (Actually you did play hardest part in -10bpm first take, but this is not a real anchor. So your target it playing this perfectly at -10 bpm and beyond. You are doing great, if you have time from regular responsabilities today I will be very happy with other videos too!

Congratz man! I started to think you are no longer a beginner with your recent strides! GMC really works

Cheers brother!

Can

Not perfect.

But I'm just stoked that I am within 10bpm of normal speed. And its DISCERNABLE!

\m/ \m/

man its been processed for ever! I am dying here!

ME TOO!!!!!

Finally I could watch it mate! You surely dont have any problems about rhythm licks of this tune buddy. Thats being said, you should start working on the solo too:lol: You know the keyword: practice slowly and speed up gradually... And what about tantarella exercise?

Ok, that was a relief buddy, you are going better and better with each day, plus you started to do some speed runs with solos... Keep up the good work!

Cheers

I started learning the Tantarella exercise too. Just learing the parts so far. Nothing worth filming.

Yeah, I'll run thru the rhythm on the Trooper at this speed each time but I'll be focusing on the solo now.For me, if its a song I want to play the rhythm parts are important too so I hate skipoping them and focusing on a single part of the song. I have to be competant in all of it. And the rhythm is 80% of the song. But yeah, solo time now!

More tonight. And I'll be looking at the theory questions you posed today at work.

I’ll explain my thinking as I answer this. Hopefully that helps you see how I look at this stuff. That way if I am off base we can see why.

My gut tells me that everything Iron Maiden has ever written is in Emin. But that may not be true.  So lets look further into this solo here.

I’ll be using the guitar pro tab and referencing that when needed.

Okey dokey, here we go. Page 6 of the tab. The solo starts with a lick that includes the following notes. (this is the part of the solo I played before. The 1st 4 bars. Before the long repeating run)

E, D, B, A, Bb, G, C,

First thoughts:

**Starts on E. (Emin)
**Cant have B and Bb can you? The Bb is a very quick sort of passing tone though…

Lets put the notes in order starting on E.

E, G, A, Bb, B, C

What are the notes of Emin? (start on E and apply WHWWHWW)

E, F#, G, A, B, C, D

Yep, except that Bb this would fit Emin.

Thoughts so far?

Ok, there is a problem here, the easiest place you can search for the key to the song is backing chords... Look to the same page but to the other guitar. Backing guitar is playing: E5-D5-B5-C5-D5 for the first solo and the for the second one backing is A5-G5-E5-F5-G5

That gives you these following deductions:

-The key to the solo must be E for the first solo... (The chord progression is willing to return to E note you may say where it finds its peace...)

-The scale for the solo must contain these notes:

E-B (from E5)
D-A (from D5)
B-F#(from B5)
C-G(from C5)

so you have E F# G A B C D if you write this in order. You have the Eminor scale

On the other hand for the second solo:

A-E (A5)
G-D (G5)
E-B (E5)
F-C (F5)

you have C D E F G A B this cant be Eminor as it has F instead of F#, you can easily spot here that this progression starts by A and you have the natural major scale above and its related minor is Aminor and automatically you can say this must be A minor. There you are right. This second solo is a direct modulation from E to A and the second solo is from A minor. This is an obvious characteristic maiden solo, they generally start to a solo with Emin with one guitarist than they modulate the backing solo from E to A or to G minor

Hope this is useful. And by the way you can ask me why he used a Bb over E minor there. That is fairly and easy question. Generally maiden guitarist use a lot E minor pentatonic runs for fast solos. And there there are using blues scales too instead of pentatonics sometimes. Bb is the blue note, that is all. Do you remember the note that differs in pentatonic and blues scale?

Cheers

Can


Remember what I've said before buddy, the solo actually might contain some out of scale notes. But

I misunderstood you then.

When you said: "Try to detect the key and the scale for the first solo part."

I thought you wanted me to find the key based on the solo. I found it to be Emin.

You are saying that is correct, yes?

I hadnt looked at the 2nd solo yet. You already answered that.

What next?



I'm familiar with the blue note in the blues scales. And that its the pentatonic scale with an extra note. But I dont know what your question is asking...

Yeah buddy you were right about Emin I just wanted to show you a very precise way to find the key and the scale I didnt asked you anything about Emin pent and E blues scales I just wanted to be sure that you know them, and you know them its ok

These tricks like the one I explained before as the modulation from E to A etc are the keys to learn a style from a band and replicate or make it better.

I want you to learn intervals for building modes from any note... Like you may use for major: TTSTTTS or minor: TSTTSTT you may want to fill that for the following:

Ionian:
Dorian:
Phrygian:
Lydian:
Mixolydian:
Aeolian:
Locrian:

It is not hard, you can find this information in many place on forums...

Cheers

Ionian: ttsttts
Dorian: tstttst
Phrygian: stttstt
Lydian: tttstts
Mixolydian: ttsttst
Aeolian:tsttstt
Locrian:sttsttt

Ok, now try to play this on guitar when you get home. All from a key that you like, you may use 3 note per string method.

Now lets make things a little interesting.

Write these modes in the following way:

Ionian(major) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Aeolian(minor) 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Dorian:
Phrygian:
Lydian:
Mixolydian:
Locrian:

Play what?



Ok, here I dont have any sort of "system" or "Shortcut" that I am aware of. I just have to write them all out and compare to the major scale.

I'll use C as an example.

Dorian - tstttst C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb Compared to Cmaj tells me that its = 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Phrygian - stttstt C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb = 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Lydian- tttstts C, D, E, F#, G, A, B = 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 (is that right? #4? Is that how you write that?)

Mixolydian - ttsttst C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb = 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

Locrian - sttsttt C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb = 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7

Pick a note, for example D...

You should play 7 modes from the root D. Try to memorize how they sound like... I just try to familiarize you with the modal content, if it feels kinda silly just tell me

I see.

Question 1 - Do you want me to start on the 6th string root all the time?

Question 2 - I am under the understanding that to "hear" what the flavor of each mode is, there needs to be a backing to play over. As thats how the modes work. Do you want me to play a Dmaj chord and then play each mode over the top of it in D? (is that how it would be done?)

Ok, answer 1: you'll just need 3 strings to play a modal scale with 3 notes per string way. that means 6th and 5th string root choices will result in the same shape. Starting from 4th string, you'll need to shift your last pair of notes one fret up due to B string. Starting from 3rd string youll need to shift next 2 string shape one fret up etc... So its up to you...

2: You dont need a backing but you'll be able to understand which chord will fit which mode at the end of this session.

So you find out that:

Ionian 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Dorian 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Phrygian = 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Lydian = 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 (is that right? #4? Is that how you write that?)

Mixolydian = 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

Aeolian = 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Locrian = 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7

Now what I want you to do is grouping together major ones and minor ones together. There is one with dim5. Which one is this?

(you are doing this great, actually basic music theory is easier than people think)

Tonights grind.



Tarantella Rock - off to a good start. (I think) -30 BPM



AIC -30 BPM (75%) I cant tell if this is getting any better or not.



Trooper - All solo. HALF SPEED -80 bpm That second part is KILLING me. I sat there and tried and tried and tried to find what beat that run starts on. And with the GP file its somewhere between 2 beats. I'm really guessing where each time. No way thats the correct way to learn. Its gonna take me a while to get through this part. I need to be able to count into that and I just cant....

Hey, guess what I just discovered.... The camera wasnt running..... SWEAR WORD!!!!!!

I'm not setting everything back up for this. Not tonight. More on the trooper tomorrow night.

DANG.

Yes buddy, you did this good. Tarantella has a nice start now.

For AIC, I though you were playing it nice with -15 bpm... You made mistakes thats why you slowed down the metronome?

Its a shame to find out that your camera wasnt working Now as I cant see this I cant give you any suggestions... Maybe you just can isolate that part that gives you creeps and play it even slower until you can play all the solo with the same speed without much effort... Believe me there are only a few tricks on that solo, and they are things that you can use everywhere while making some improvisational stuff.

That was one of these nights, I believe, buddy. But surely this is because you got a lot of responsabilities at home now that you wife is out of town. We dont have much tonight but you'll do better, and I got an inside source who told me even if I dont get choosen for the next phase, these mentoring programs will continue if we choose to continue to do lessons... So we dont really have a time restriction.

Cheers

I'm struggling to get the solo down correctly more than 2x in a row at -30 even. I find it very speedy. It doesnt sound that fast but to my hands it is. I'm going to try and get it down at -20 tonight.



Its that repeating run on the 2nd and 3rd strings.



That bend comes and goes very fast and then youmove to the next string. That part is killing me. The big part is it doesnt seem to start on the beat. So going into it is very sloppy. That and it speeds up as it nears the end of the lick. I couldnt even get it down cleanly at 1/2 speed. More tonight.

Great news on the continuing. I really like working with you and I'd love to continue as long as you'll have me.

I did a little practicing this morning. Nothing with video. My pc wasnt even on. Just running thru some stuff while the little one was having breakfast.





The dim5 one is Locrian. The oddball.

Major = Ionian. Lydian, Mixolydian
Minor = Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian

I decided this based on the 3 or b3. Is that correct?

Is this correct?

Yeah Jer, these are totally correct. Now lets check out which chords we can build using the 1-3-5 and 7th notes... I'll do this as follows for ionian:

Ionian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
When you combine 1 3 5 7 you have a Maj7 chord.

1-) Try to name the chords which you can form by using the 1 3 5 7th degrees from the other modes...

2-) Try to group modes that has major and minor characteristics. There is one mode that has a diminished characteristic. Which one is this? (This is actually easier if you name the native chords for all the modes)

I did this in a previous post.

The dim5 one is Locrian. The oddball.

Major = Ionian. Lydian, Mixolydian
Minor = Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian

I decided this based on the 3 or b3. Is that correct?



I dont follow this. I know for Aeolian it will be a Min7 chord. But I have no idea on the others.

Sorry buddy, I think I just missed it

That is a correct assumption, you check if a scale is minor or major by checking the 3rd note on the scale.




Ok lets take another example:

Mixolydian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

you take the root. You add the 3rd, this is a major 3rd so you have a major 3rd interval with the root.

Second, you add the 5, and you have a major triad. Than you add 7th. In this case this is a minor 7th, b7 or a dominant 7th. When you add this you have a dominant 7th chord.

Lets suppose you have G for the root. When you add the 3rd 5th and dominant 7th you have a G7 chord (G dominant 7th)

And Aeolian has a Min7 chord, you are correct. Lets see why is that.

Aeolian: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7, so your chord will use the 1 b3 5 and b7. With 1 b3 5, you have a minor triad. When you add b7 to this you have a min7 chord. So native chord for aeolian is the min7 chord.

Got it?

I follow you this far.



You are losing me here. I see b7. *minor 7th, b7 or a dominant 7th* is tha t3 names for the same thing?

Ok lets take this that way, as you are aware of this in western music you have 12 notes in total. Those are:

C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B

When you play two notes together you have the notion of intervals:

Lets take C as the root

0 semitones - > C-C Unison (no interval)
1 semitones - > C-C# minor 2nd
2 semitones - > C-D major 2nd
3 semitones - > C-D# minor 3rd
4 semitones - > C-E major 3rd /diminished 4th
5 semitones - > C-F perfect 4th
6 semitones - > C-F# augmented 4th / diminished 5th
7 semitones - > C-G perfect 5th
8 semitones - > G-G# augmented 5th / minor 6th
9 semitones - > G-A major 6th
10 semitones - > G-A# dominant 7th / minor 7th
11 semitones - > G-B major 7th
12 semitones - > C-C octave

so you have these names for intervals. Lets check mixolydian:

you have

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

so you have here:

root / major 2nd / minor 3rd / perfect 4th / perfect 5th / major 6th / minor 7th

minor 7th is also called dominant 7th.

Hope this cleared things a little. I am waiting for your questions about this.

and also in classical music notation you use numbers to imply these notes so:

b6 is a minor 6th b7 is a major 7th...

I see. count the tones/semi tones to find the interval and name it after the interval. NOT THE NOTE.

yes?





Since the 7th is also called a minor 7 why dont we call is Gm7? Is that because the 3rd is major? To be Gm7 it'd have to have a minor third?

multiple names for the same thing is very confusing.....

Yes you are totally right. These names are not about the note but the intervals


No you cant say Gm7 because this would be actually 1 b3 5 b7, you are right thats because of the min3rd. The reason you call it G7 is the presence of major 3rd. When you have b3 and b7 you have Gmin7 or Gm7, if you have 3 and b7 you have a G7, and finally if you have a 3 and 7 you have a Gmaj7. Also, uncommon but, if you have a b3 and 7, you'll have a Gmin/maj7 chord

I know this must feel a little confusing but actually really it is not buddy. Notation differencies are due to classical music/jazz and popular music approach differencies.

ok gotcha. On to the Aeolian one then.



I follow this except for the b7 again.

Lets use A for example. Why isnt this called "A minor dominant 7"?

do we just call it minor once if there are 2 minors in the chord?

Ok, think like this:

You know, when we talk about a minor chord, we would surely expect a minor 3rd isnt it? Also when we say the minor scale, we expect that to have a minor3rd with minor6th and minor7th if this is a natural minor. So, when you talk about a Amin7 chord, you expect to have a minor 3rd and a 7th by default. Because this is the natural way. When you have a maj7 there, that is an unusual thing so you must write there, yeah this is a minor chord but it has a major 7! So you write: Amin/maj7. Why dont you call it A minor dominant 7? that is because it is the same thing to say A minor minor7.

I know that is a little different from the major point of view, because when you see a major chord you expect that 7th must be a major 7th in the natural way, and you tend to write it like G7. But you cant because to write a major chord with a minor 7th like Gmin7 that way. But this is impossible since you write Gminor with a minor 7th that way. So they chose to write it like Gmaj7 for the major chord with a major7th and G7 the major chord with min7th conventionnaly to prevent misunderstanding.

The reasoning here can be a little confusing, but just try to remember this

minor 3rd and minor 7th is called a Xmin7 chord
minor 3rd and major 7th is called a Xmin/maj7 chord
major 3rd and minor 7th is called a X7 chord
major 3rd and major 7th is called a Xmaj7 chord

Hope this enlightened the subject a little. Keep the questions coming, I'll answer all of that within my knowledge...

ok, I think I follow you here.

So, where were we?

Ok, we were talking about finding native chords to modes ok? Now we have chords for Ionian / Mixolydian / Aeolian... We have Dorian / Phrygian / Lydian / Locrian left

Ok, we were talking about finding native chords to modes ok? Now we have chords for Ionian / Mixolydian / Aeolian... We have Dorian / Phrygian / Lydian / Locrian left

I used A for the examples here.

all correct. Just remeber that locrians diminished property is more important than its being minor or major. Here is your priority list:

Root is the most important thing in a chord.
Next comes the 5th. If 5th is not a perfect 5th, it changes all the feeling the chord. You have 3 options in that. Regular fifth, diminished fifth (noted dim5 or 5-) or augmented 5th (noted aug5 or 5+) Note that if you dont play the regular 5th, it is ok. Even in some playing in extended chords like 13th that requires 7 strings in guitar, you can omit the 5th and play it in 6 stringed guitar. That is because because of some physics reasons about string vibration, you already have the note of the perfect 5th in root note already.

After that you have 3rd. When you have a regular perfect 5th on your chord, minor 3rd/major 3rd in a chord defines everything.

After that comes 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th...

Lets list the chords of the modes:

Ionian : maj7
Dorian : min7
Phyrigian : min7
Lydian: maj7
Mixolydian: dominant7
Aeolian: min7
Locrian: dim5

so the best way to play these scales are with the backing of these chords... When there is some chord progression, you actually have to choose the right mode... Is that ok?

yeah, that makes sense.



So, lets say I was playing this chord progression.


E5 D5 A5 B5

We have the notes E, F#, A, B, D (yes?)

And we determine that the key of the progression is Emin. (starts on E, and Emin has E, F#, G, A, B, C, D)

So we can solo in Emin. We know that.

If we look at E Aeolian and the sequence of modes, does that mean that we could also use these?

E Aeolian
F# Locrian
G Ionian
A Dorian
B Phrygian
C Lydian
D Mixolydian

Since all 7 of those have the same notes?

Ok, thats ok for today I think. I will write comments on your videos, what do you plan on doing tonight?

oh man, at least tell me if I'm right on that last post.



Tonight.

20 min - Tantarella - I plan on adding in the next part for this.

20 min - AIC - I'm not consistent enough at the -30 bpm so I'm not sure if speeding it up will do any good.

20 min - trooper - I cant seem to get that 1st repeating run down at even half speed. And I cant find where in the beat it starts. I posted this earlier. Got any ideas here? How would you finger that? How do I count into it? I dont want to burn up multiple nights not getting anywhere if there is something I am missing.

sorry buddy you added this just before I wrote my own post


Ok, we will use Emin that is for sure, but we have to think like this:

E5 D5 A5 B5


We will play E aeolian when E5 is there, then we will start to think like D Mixolydian while D5 is played, When A5 is played we will think like we have a A dorian, and with B5 we'll think like we are soloing in B Phrygian. Yes, notes are the same but think like our root is constantly changing with chord changes. Ofcourse when we do that, it means we are playing in an extremely theoretical way. You can keep this simple, you can use Emin over the whole chord progression but try to play notes that have some kind of relation with root notes of progressing chords(like 3rd 5th etc) but in related modes...

You know, there is no certain formula to play a good solo, and music is an art not maths, so you play with your heart while improvising but you need to follow this kind of rules to keep things more secure and simple.

Ok, I believe for tonight you'll notice you are playing AIC more consistently, solo for trooper will need you to play it as slow as you can possibly. But you'll speed up on this faster than other exercises. I have to check fingerings for that, can you give me the bar number for the parts you have problems? Its ok for tantarella...

Yep, I'm with ya 100%. Thats what I think too. And thats what I meant by the mode choices I used.



Bar 94