Hey Sumit

This is your thread Please tell me a little bit about yourself and your playing experience/ abilities! This is where we'll start talking about building around your melodic lines, so feel free to ask anything you need to know!

Cosmin

thanks cosmin,

My skills are - i understand about scales , i started on scales only2 months back. i can jam over the backing tracks of G major ionian. I haven't learnt more scales yet. I am trying on building my lead speed. About rhythm i know about 10-15 of the most basic chords and have been singing and playing bacing music based on that. recently i have bought an electric guitar, and joined GMC ,

MY approach for the moment is that I learn atleast one small lick every day. mostly i am picking up the GMC lick of the day and so far learnt 2 of them ( though not exactly mastered them ). I am doing this so that each day i don't get confused on what to do and what not to do and have a clear goal of learning 1 lick per day .

also during the day, i pick up a song whose chords i don't know and practice new chords and improve strumming. So with this approach i am aiming to improve both finger control and speed required for the lead and chord vocabulary and strumming.

So thats about my backgound. Now about melodic lines and chords -

on your videochat that day, i asked you how to come up with the right chord progression once i know the melodic line. this will be really helpful to me in performing the excercises that you were showing on videochat that day but also for learning chords of indian music. you see unlike western music the chords of indian music are not readily available on the internet. and being an indian i would like to work on indian music as well as western.
I would sure like to play on guitar any song whose music is playing in my head. So i think now i have answered your question(s)

cosmin , i was wondering , based on my background could you suggest me one of your licks to start with, i would work work on it with you and you could guide me through

Hey Sumit

I love the instrumental Indian music and it's flavors so this will be a very interesting thing to tackle.

First, we should aim to understand the theory behind scales, their structure, the way chords are being built and the relationship between chords and notes/ phrases/ arpeggios.

Based on this, you will build a strong knowhow of music disection and analysis so that you may be able to understand almost every music piece that you will hear - if you practice and focus on this, of course

What do you say? I would start out like this

Cosmin

good to hear that you like indian instrumental music
yes i wan't to build up the right foundation you mentioned.

I am sure under your guidance i would be more successful than trying theory on my own. Also lets make it equally practical and i would request you to help me with melodical lessons for excercises rather than kind of excercises that feel completely like a robot

Alright! Let's get to work then

Let's start with the following little drill, which I've used with other theory enthusiastic students and it provided good results

1) We have the major scale built up using this formula: w w h w w w h.

w = whole step
h = half step

2) Any natural major scale is built after this formula. Example:

C D E F G A B C

there's a w between C and D
there's a w between D and E
there's a h between E and F
there's a w between F and G
there's a w between G and A
there's a w between A and B
there's a h between B and C

Now, if you look at your guitar, you will notice that if you play the C note (3rd fret D string) the D note is one whole step up, on the same string. That means that the note right next to the C note is C# and the note next to C # is D. So, 2 frets up means one whole step and one fret up means a half step.

3) Now, we have concluded that E is the major third in the case of C major and if we lower the major 3rd with one half step, we get the minor third and automatically, we can create a minor chord - C minor in our case.

Here are the formulas:

1 3 5 - major chord formula. Example: C E G
1 b3 5 - minor chord formula. Example: C Eb G

4) If you know these now , please tell me how does the D major scale look like - what are the notes making it up. (Use the w w h w w w h formula, starting from D) and tell me the notes making up the D major and D minor chords

What do you think mate?

Cosmin

D major scale - using wwhwwwh
D-w- E-w- F#-h- G-w-A-w- B-w-C#-h- D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

D major chord
using 1 3 5 = D F# A
D minor chord
using 1 b3 5 = D F A

This is perfect Now, I would like to ask you to workout the same drill for the Bb and Ab major scales I gave you different ones in comparison with Himansu, so that you two won't cheat

For Normals you mentioned that

there's a w between C and D
there's a w between D and E
there's a h between E and F
there's a w between F and G
there's a w between G and A
there's a w between A and B
there's a h between B and C

so For Flats i am inferring that

there's a w between Cb and Db
there's a w between Db and Eb
there's a h between Eb and Fb
there's a w between Fb and Gb
there's a w between Gb and Ab
there's a w between Ab and Bb
there's a h between Bb and Cb

Bb plus half = Cb and Cb plus half = C So i am inferring that Bb plus whole = C

first 4 notes are -
Bb // C // D / Eb //

Eb plus half = Fb
Fb plus half = F
so Eb plus whole = F

Correct Now, am I correct to assume that you can figure out any major scale and a major chord derived from its root? If so, how about moving a bit forward

Do you know anything about the concept of harmonizing a scale?

alex was teaching on video chat that day , i picked up a few things, but other than that No.
here's what i picked up but not sure if my understanding is correct or not ?

harmonizing means playing chord progressions based on the scale

so if its A major scale we need to harmonize

A major = A // B // Db / D // E // Gb // Ab / A

then using triads we can play the following chord progressions to harmonize

A Db E
B D Gb
Db E Ab
E Ab B
Gb A Db
Ab B D

i am not sure if my understanding is correct , and if it is then i don't know how can we include a minor chord in between the progressions , and is there any other way to create a chord progression other than triads ?

Mate, let's take an easier example - G major - it has G A B C D E F# G

Harmonizing it offers us Gmaj Am Bm Cmaj Dmaj Emin F#dim Gmaj

These chords result from the fact that we can only use notes belonging to the scale itself in order to make up chords which harmonize the scale. based on these assumptions, can you please tell me what notes are making up these chords? After that, we'll get to your other question

G A B C D E F#- these notes on the fretboard ?

Yes mate, but let's see what are the note combinations making up the chords, when harmonizing the scale

cosmin, i really don't understand what we are trying to achieve here .

for me to be answering this question requires - looking at the chords

Gmaj Am Bm Cmaj Dmaj Emin F#dim Gmaj

on the fretboard and check what notes have been used. is this what we wan't ?

also since i have no theory background - i know the above chord only because i have memorized them ? Are the notes that form these chords to be memorised or is there a way to find how they are formed. sorry but i am getting a little confused. Perhaps before asking the questions if you give me rough outline at what is about to come i would get the bigger picture

thanks

Hey Sumit I was trying to make you harmonize Gmajor like you have done with the Amajor scale and tell me the notes making up the chords so that I may take you to the next level where we use 7th intervals. I thought you knew the formulas needed to harmonize the major scale, since you wrote those chords down for me

You do not know the formulas? You have memorized the notes making up the chords from somewhere?

Please let me know and I will explain everything from 0 if you wish. I took things a little bit faster just because I had the impression you knew these things

Cosmin

ok , i understand now that you thought i already knew . well i think we should totally start from level 0 on the topic of harmonizing , i don't know the formulas

Ok mate, here we go

Harmonizing means - creating chords out of each note in the scale, using only notes belonging to the scale itself. This rule renders the following chord types: M m m M M m diminished M I.e: Harmonizing C major: Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj Amin Bdiminished Cmaj

M = major

m = minor

The major chord formula is 1 3 5. I.e: C major is C E G

The minor chord formula is 1 b3 5. I.e: C minor is C Eb G

The diminished chord formula is 1 b3 b5 -> B diminished is B D F

Knowing these please harmonize the G major, E major and Ab major

Please let me know if you understood the ideas

Cosmin

yes now i have understood the idea.
a scale can be harmonized using chords formed by following formula - M m m M M m diminished M
G major, E major and Ab major
G major scale - G // A // B / C // D // E // Gb / G
G major can be harmonized using the following chords - Gmaj.. Am..Bm..Cmaj..Dmaj..Em..Gbdim..GMaj
notes of G major chord (135) = G B D
notes of G minor chord (1b35) = G Bb D
notes of Gbdim chord (1b3b5) --> Gb major scale --> Gb // Ab // Bb / B // Db // Eb // F / Gb --> (1b3b5) --> Gb A C
=======================================================
E major scale = E // Gb // Ab / A // B // Db // Eb / E
harmonizing of E major scale --> M m m M M m diminished M --> Emaj..Gbm..Abm..Amaj..Bmaj..Dbm..Ebdim..Emaj
Eb diminished chord (1b3b5) --> Eb major scale --> Eb // F // G / Ab // Bb // C // D / Eb --> 1b3b5 --> Eb G Bb
=======================================================

you have directly written B diminished is B D F without writing the B major scale first and the picking up 1b3b5 ... how have you done this without writing it out ... does that mean you are not applying the formula because you remember the notes ??

==============================================================

Hey Sumit! Your assumptions are correct but, since we are dealing with major scales which do not imply the usage of flats ( from the first place (we have G major not Bb major for instance) I would like to ask you to re-do the drill and use # instead of b

On the other hand, I know some chords by heart and I can name their notes pretty fast. Otherwise it takes some seconds until I can figure out the notes by using the formulas. Once you know the chord formulas and all the notes making up a scale, you can get really really good at decomposing a chord and quickly stating its notes.

What do you think?

Cosmin

Hi Cosmin
coming back to the question
using sharps instead of flats

G major
harmonizing rule = M m m M M m diminished M

G major scale = G // A // B / C // D // E // F# / G
G major can be harmonized using chords = GMaj - Ami - Bmi - CMaj - DMaj - Emi - F#dim - Gmaj
The notes of these chords are --- GMaj (GBD) - Ami (ACE) - Bmi (BDF#) - CMaj (CEG) - DMaj (DF#A) - Emi (EGB) - F#dim (F#AC)

E major scale = E // F# // G# / A // B // C# // D# / E
E major scale can be harmonized using chords = EMaj - F#mi - G#mi - AMaj - BMaj - C#mi - D#dim - EMaj
The notes of these chords are -------------------(EG#B ) (F#AC#) (G#BD#) (AC#E) (BD#F#) (C#EG#) (D#F#A)

Ab major scale = Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Harmonization of Ab major scale with chords = Abmaj Bbmin Cmin Dbmaj Ebmaj Fmin Gdim
notes of the chords are - Ab C Eb // Bb Db F // and so on

notes
1. i understand that using triads like i have done above is one way of finding notes of the above major minor and diminished chords
2. i understand that another way is using the formulas (1 3 5 ) (1 b3 5 ) and ( 1 b3 b5 )

1 Question - even though i have done this exercise using sharps instead of flats - i am not sure what you mean when you said --------- .. can you explain this in detail that when should sharps be used instead of flats ?

Hey Sumit! Great observations and correct results!

Mate, check this out:

1) Triads and those formulas are one and the same thing I never looked at them as being different things, meaning that I have deduced all my chords using formulas and never taking anything for granted - just because I knew those notes were making them up. I always tried to analyze and understand everything.

2) Are you familiar with the Circle of 5ths (4ths)? This circle is the answer to your question, regarding sharps or flats If you don't know it, I will gladly explain it to you. But tell me if you know anything about it so far.

Cosmin

Alright Sumit!

Check this out - here's how I see an 8 hrs/ day schedule:

1hr - ear training - intervals, chords and sorting out a progression/ phrase out of a song or why not, even a whole song
1hr - legato
1h - alternate picking
1h - rhythm/ riffs
1h - theoretical aspects - tackling a concept and learning everything there is to know about it
1h - applied theory - applying what you have learned in the previous hour in a real context
1h - jamming
1h - composition/ songwriting/ orchestration

I think that 8 hrs is a lot, but I would be very happy if you would be able to keep up with such a schedule - what do you think?

Cosmin

looks great ... i will do it

Good morning mate! Would you like me to set up some tasks for each hour, or do you already have something you were working on?

good morning cosmin - for a start of the plan can you set the tasks for today ? it would give me a good starting point . and also help you to assess my progress ?

Sumit, before giving you stuff to work on, I was wondering if you could send me a recording of some sort, with yourself? It would be very useful, just so that I could see what your level is and what you should focus on

Tell me what you think

Cosmin

http://soundcloud.com/sumitnxt/guitar-recording

hi cosmin,

as i don't know any longer lick yet, i have played one of the small licks and played it for about 2 minutes .

rgds,

Sumit

Ok! Well, we will take things from the ground up then

To start, I would like you to go through ALL of Bear Rose's beginner lessons! They encompass a lot of the things that we have discussed about and my suggestion would be to reduce the practicing regimen to only these, until you get a good grasp on your techniques and build up confidence:

1hr - ear training - intervals, chords and sorting out a progression/ phrase out of a song or why not, even a whole song
1hr - legato
1h - alternate picking
1h - rhythm/ riffs
1h - theoretical aspects - tackling a concept and learning everything there is to know about it

This week's tasks:

1) Please use the C major scale for the following drill:

- play the C note then play the D note (its second)
- play the C note and SING the D note
- do this exercise with all the C major scale intervals until you can sing them relaxed against the C note

2) Ben's Land of Legato - First Lesson - It can be a good place to start - is it too difficult?
3) Ben's Picking Hand basics - it's imperative to go through it
4) All of Bear Rose's Beginner Lessons involving chord shifting - if you get them clean, you're already in good terms with rhythm
5) ALL of the theory behind the lessons above

What say you my friend - ARE YOU READY?

Cosmin

thanks cosmin .. i appreciate the effort you are putting for me

Nothin to it mate! Let's see you get up there and become a great player!

hey cosmin,

How are you ? I have been not quite able to follow the 8 hour plan. However I have tried to get myself to a good starting point for the last couple of days. I am sorry for not keeping you informed about my progress, a little bit of allowance in this matter would help me develop the teacher within me to keep me on track from within

I am trying to get myself from becoming too serious about the whole guitar learning business and at the same time try to achieve excellence purely by spontaneity. Approaching guitar not as an instrument which has been mastered by others but as an instrument that allows itself to be mastered .

There is a certain way in which the guitar works and the theory of music is just an interpretation being followed . There could be many such interpretations yet to be explored. Masters of guitar do it after becoming masters . I am trying to explore it before i begin guitar in order to check whether the whole theory business is even necessary or not

bottomline is i am enjoying it more than i enjoy listening or playing guitar and would request you to have patience with me while i make a fool out of me just for the sake of trying something

bye for now.

Hey Sumit! Yours is a very interesting approach - but mind you, this sort of dealing with the instrument takes MORE time involved as you are exploring now, not going on an already beaten path.

I will wait for you to tell me your conclusions after trying this. Keep in mind that music is a foreign language just like any other. Learning it and then using it to write stories is what everyone did, to a greater or smaller degree

The choice is yours my friend, I am here either way

Cosmin

hi cosmin , here's what i have discovered uptil now -

sound and feelings are directly connected without any knowledge required
i can sit and make tune without knowledge of scales and theory
If i keep working on tunes i will one day become a great composer . there would be ofcourse other people with knowledge on music who can provide bass for the tune , appropriate chords for the , percussions , vocals and so on.
I can learn all these but it will be not more important than composing a good melody.
If i learn scales i can jam on a backing track creating music on a fly , however if i choose to i can simply keep composing tunes and i have a reason to believe that such tunes would sound if not better at least equally good.

Another thing is that in order to create an great tune no amount of practice is required , Its a field of awareness that creates good tunes more than anything .

Bottomline is that I already am a great composer, i just need to start believing in myself

True and not true in the same time

If you only want to write songs, your imagination and A LOT of exercise will suffice up to the point where you will desire to orchestrate and think other instruments. That's where you'll probably need more knowledge and there are times when you will here more complex things in your mind and you will want to play them and without practice, that won't be possible.

Sumit, don't rush anything - it's a bit extreme to go from an 8 hr practice routine to a 0 hr practice routine

Hi Cosmin,

Whats up ?
I know i have disappeared from GMC for sometime.

Would like to tell you that i was just trying to relax a bit. I have been doing some progress r though not much on guitar front but no regrets

The schedule you made for me is extremely helpful although i am not spending 8 hours a day i am trying to cover the topics given by you.

Cosmin i have a question for you

At this stage i have learnt the 5 scale patterns of pentatonics and how they can be appliet to all the keys .

Can you teach me how can i learn to play / write my own solo on any song i want to using the 5 scale patterns of pentatonics ?

Howdy mate! Welcome back and to answer your question, sure I can! Are you working on a particular song on which you'd like to come up with a solo at this moment?

No Cosmin i wasn't talking about any particular song, but all songs in general.

My current method of soloing over a song is this -

1. i find out what is the key of the song
2. if it is a major key - i use major and minor pentatonic scale patterns for that key for soloing
3. if it is a minor key - i use only minor pentatonic patters for that key for soloing
4. However the solo that i play are just all-right but nothing special because i am playing them extempore while the song is playing.
5. I feel that i am just playing random notes of the relevant pentatonic in order to play the solo .
6. Honestly i don't think these solos are good enough that people would call them professional level
7. I would like to learn concepts like phrasing and repetitions so that i could write more interesting solos . How and when to use techniques like tapping , bending , vibrato , sliding etc. such that an audience would really consider spending money to buy my music
8. Also i havent really understood what is the use of learning licks ? There are tons of study material containing thousands of licks ? Are they really useful to learn ? or should i just focus on creating my own solos ?

Cosmin I know i might have asked too many questions here but please take your time and try to answer all of them . I would really appreciate it

thanks

Hey man

All these questions have one answer - your ears I think that the best way to come up with an original and heartfelt solo is to play what you hear in your head and THEN after recording it, analyze it and see what you used and IF you want to modify it by using a certain scale here and there, you are free to do it.

Let's try the following drill:

- pick up a backing track you like and see that you know the chords that make it up
- listen to it until you know all the chord changes in the track
- once you are familiar with it, sing in your head any melodic line that comes to mind - do not think of scales or arpeggios, just sing whatever comes to your mind, as simple or complex as it may be.

At first, it will be a few notes that may sound silly to you - this is where it all begins Record those notes, and then try to find a suitable continuation in the same manner.

I know it sounds abstract but it's the only way in which you may create honest heartfelt music - I know you want that

How does this sound to you? Can you send me a little recording of your first line, created in such a way?

Cosmin

This makes sense cosmin

In my next post i am going to give you the recording of the drill.

Thanks

Sumit

Totally AWESOME! Let's see what you got!

hi cosmin.

i am back

last time we were talking about creating my own music by first singing to a baking track and putting it on guitar . I totally loved the idea and it took away a lot of confusion of what to do with lot of theory about scales and an encyclopaedia of licks.

I however did not return with my own recording. Once i could see that creating my own music would not be as difficult as i thought. I then realized that it would be interesting now to do some cover songs . I then spent about one month practicing one particular section of sultans of swing solo of dire straits. now i am very close to playing it like original. also i picked up a 3 minute song on alternate picking practice by a teacher called Danny gill and am still in process of finishing it.

I am enjoying these cover songs a lot and now i am thinking of a new thing for which i need your help again.

cosmin my new idea is this - I want to combine two or three songs from Lessons of GMC and want your help regarding this.

I would be happy to do this with any lessons of diffuculty level 4 to 7.

the main idea is that there should be a continuity when moving from one song to other so that it all appears like one single solo

can you help me on this ?

Hey Sumit! Welcome back man!

Sure thing, let's start with the following:

- select three lessons of the desired levels which are played in the same key (look at the text description of each lesson and see what key they are being recorded in)
- post them here and we'll take it from there

The styles don't matter, anything goes, as long as the keys are the same

Deal?

Cosmin

Cosmin 1 question

same key means - all 3 A minor
or
1 - A minor
1 - A major
1 - A dorian

It is prefferable for them to be in the key of A minor for starters (just an example) We will deal with more complex stuff later on after we take care of this

GMC Song 1 by Muris

GMC Song 2 by Laszlo

GMC Song 3 by Ben Nisenblat

how about these ?

Hey mate, here's a little vid to explain my idea in a better way

very good explanation cosmin.
i am happy that things are so simple. Please give me some time now to test the theory.
I believe i am not only going to try and link these 3 videos but try out some more ?

you are the best
thanks


sumit

another thing do you think the end product would sound professional if the backing tracks are linked using sound mixer / editor

or do you think the end product would sound better if i record chord progressions and program a drum track that fits all 3 songs ?

Thanks man! Glad you liked it! It's entirely up to you buddy but at first try to link the original tracks and then we'll see what the next step could be

Hi cosmin

in the first video of our new idea song by muris - there is this tab that i am having difficulty understanding how to play using a pick . it looks like it is to be played by fingerpicking the strings B and D on the frets 10 and 12 . how do i play this using a single stroke of pick without hitting the G string in between. is the g string to be muted using on of the fingers of right hand ?

  Em                                                             
                                                      |--3-|     
     
---------------------------------|------------------------------|
----------8--10--10g12-----------|------------------------------|
----------------------------9p-7-|--9s---12s-9--------7br--5----|
-----7g9--L--10--10g12-----------|---------------------------7--|
---------------------------------|------------------------------|
---------------------------------|------------------------------|