Hi Tony,

Welcome to your Mtp program
After reading your Guitar CV I have decided to start strong with you from the very beginning. I have picked my Level 3 lesson that incorporates vibrato, bending, pentatonic scale as well as natural minor scale, all from G. Since you have worked mostly with A minor I think this would be nice change for you and not too drastic I hope!
Here is your 1st assignment for December.

Deadline for this assignment is one week from today (10th of December).

Play Rest Collaboration Solo :

- Learn my Play Rest Collaboration Solo lesson found Here
- Feel free to use different fingerings in your fretting hand if that will make execution easier.
- I am providing you the backing track for the lesson. Try to record Video with yourself playing over actual backing track.
- If you can't do video right now, Audio recording is fine as well.

Let me know if you have any extra questions, I am here to help!

Pedja

Thats cool Pedja thanks!

I will get on to it later tonight when I get in from work.

Very cool Tony. Let me know if you have any questions or need extra help with that one.

Had a go at the first few bars or so last night and so far so good. Nice lesson to improve my timing.

I have a slight problem coming up as I have to go to USA on Monday for 2 weeks (return on 19 Dec)

I will upload my first assignment on monday 7th. But then will be away from guitar till 19th, not great timing I know! The mtp is important to me and I don't want to have to drop out. Is it possible for you to set me thoery assignments for the next two weeks and then I can catch up when I return.

Thanks

Tony

Hi Tony,

I will upload your 2nd and 3rd theory assignment before you leave to USA. I hope you will manage to complete them both while you are away

Thanks Pedja, I appreciate that. I will do my best to keep up to speed.

You may like to know that I am a teacher (of Physics) and the reason for the trip to Florida is to take 26 Spanish students to visit the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. It has been planned for over a year and it was arranged to coincide with a Space Shutle launch. Unfortunately the launch has been rescheduled but it will still be a great trip for my students.

No worries Tony, we will find a way to adjust in any situation life throws at us

Thank you for sharing that with me. Your students will have a great time I am sure. I never visited Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Now that I read about it I feel bad as I am sure it would have been great experience! Today I came back from book fare in my town and I am already more recharged with energy and new experiences. I can just imagine what some space center would do to me

Hi Pedja

I have been trying to copy the tone you use in the lesson but getting nowhere near!

Do you have ant tips on settings that you can share?

Thanks.

Hi Tony

I actually erased that tone in my POD X3 Live by accident so I can't share it with you. I think it had slight delay, some chorus in it and some standard distortion. Nothing much going on really, experiment with Amp cabinets and types that will really influence the sound a lot!

I used an AC30 model

Video is very rushed and clips in one or two places but no time I'm now off to catch a plane.

Hi Tony,

I hope you had a great trip!
This video is a good starting point and it shows on what we need to build on. There are couple of spots where timing was off but I think we will focus in future more on bending as it really sticks out in your playing. For time being keep on working on this lesson and we will use it for REC submission by the end of the December. I will post soon your 2nd and 3rd assignment, all theory based so that you could do the work while you are away in USA.

Hi Pedja thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

You are right about the bends and Ireturn on the 19 dec.

Hi Tony,

Glad to see you are checking your thread while on trip As we arranged, I am posting now 2 theory and harmony based assignments.

2nd assignment for December :


Theory reading and analysis :

- I would like you to read my posts from links provided below.
- Once you read it all, memorize 3 and 4 part harmony in C major scale.
- Learn to apply scale degrees rather then numbers ( I in C major is C, IV in C is F etc).
- Write out in this thread all notes for 3 and 4 part harmony in C major as well as in F and G major scales.

Here are the links:

Major scale harmony and chord functions

Cadences



3rd assignment for December:

Chord progressions & harmony analysis

- Analyze all chord progressions bellow
- For each example write out the proper labeling of each chord
- Write a description explaining why you think certain chord progression is in such key/mode.
- For extra work, record those chord progressions and improvise over them - upload recording in this thread.

Example 1

// C / B min / A min / B min / C / B min / A min / G //


Example 2

// D min / G min / C / A min / D min / Bb / C / A min //


Example 3

// F min7 / Eb / Bb7 / Bb7 / F min7 / C min Eb / Bb7 / Bb7 //


Example 4

// Eb maj7 / D min7 / G min7 / F7 / Eb maj7 / C min7 / Bb maj7 / F7 //


Example 5

// D maj7 / B min7 / E min7 / A7 / D maj7 / F# min7 / G maj7 / A7 //

Deadline for both of them is 24th of December! If you have any questions about them please let me know and I will do my best to find a way to help.

Pedja

Tony I will post your 4th assignment which is REC as well.


4th assignment and REC :

Triads in C major scale part 1

- Record video of Triads in C major scale part 1 lesson found HERE
- Use backing track provided in the thread when recording it.
- Try to apply left hand fingerings I applied but stick to right hand fingerings all the way.
- Upload video on Youtube and post it in this thread here.
- Once you have the video, post it on REC board for grading!

Deadline for this (and all the rest of assignments posted) is 31st of December! Let me know if I can help in any way Tony.

Pedja

Hi Pedja

Back from my trip and just about over the jet lag.

Getting stuck into the tw theory lessons now. And enjoying learning this stuff but its a steep learning curve for me every phrase s new and one leads to more!!


Major scale was new to me but I understand the formula for it, ie

T T S T T T S

So in C it becomes C D E F G A B C ie no sharps or flats

In F it becones F G A Bb C D E F

And in G it ecomes G A B C D E F# G

I am beginning to work out the triads ie C is made up of C E G, will complete this post wheh I work out the rest and also do the 4 part harmony.

Looking ahead at the idea of cadences which I have found out is a sequence of chords or a progression this is where I am having trouble finding out which chords are minor/major.diminished and more importantly why??

Can you help with this section?

Thanks

Hi Tony!

Welcome back from your trip I hope you had a good time and are ready to tackle workload here at GMC.
Regarding construction of major scale(s) you got the right idea. Formula is correct and so are the notes for each of the 3 scales. Your question was directed towards modes and chords progressions. I will try to help you as much as I can, but I strongly advise you re-read the links again it might come to you after doing so.
Here we go - what are modes? Modes are scales by themselves. They come or better yet occur within specific original scale. Right now we are working on Major scale. In Major scale we have 7 different letter names and 8th letter name is the same as first. That is a definition of a major scale (7 different notes and 8th that repeats the first one). What are modes? Well if we start a major scale on any of those 7 different notes and end the scale on that same note octave higher or lower, we now have a MODE! So in key of C major we got 7 different modes. C something, D something, E something etc you get the idea. Now if you read the links again, you will see that I listed chord progressions for each mode in C major scale!

C IONIAN = C D E F G A B C
This mode is also known as C major scale. We already learned the order of chords that appear in that mode and the type.
The beauty of other modes is that we keep the same chords that are already in C major scale, but only difference is now they appear on different place in scale. Let me give you an example. In C major, C major chord is known as I but in D DORIAN mode, C major chord is bVII! In A AEOLIAN C major chord is bIII! You see how this works? Same chord, on different scale degree. Why? Because we treat each mode as a scale itself and our order of whole steps and half steps changes as well as the way we label scale degrees.

Now to answer your questions about chords, we have 3 part chords, which you did, they are known as TRIADS and have some sort of 135. We built Triads by stacking diatonic 3rds one on top of another. So C major scale has C D E F G A B C notes. If we start on C note and want a chord, we would skip D note, get E, skip F and get G. So we now got CEG, which is also known as C major triad. If we stack another 3rd we would skip A and get B so we get C E G B which is C maj7!
Why is this?
Because each chord has its own formula. How do we know or figure out those formulas? By using intervals! Intervals are very important in music as they describe distance between any two notes in music.
Here are the formulas for Major, Minor Augmented and Diminished triads!

Major triad = Root , major 3rd and perfect 5th (this is all in relationship with Root of the chord)
Minor triad, Root, minor 3rd and perfect 5th
Augmented triad = Root, major 3rd and augmented 5th
Diminished triad = Root, minor 3rd and diminished 5th

Do you need the distances for intervals? If you do, check out my interval series where I covered all the intervals from unison up until octave!!!

Here is a thread where you will find all those lessons. INTERVAL SERIES
Let me know if you need any more help.

Hi Pedja

Thanks for the help above. I am working hard to catch up and attached is my version of assignment 2 the 3 and four part harmonies. I think it is beginning to make sense to me but I wasnt sure about naming of the four part harmony chords.

Click to view attachment


Onto assignment 3 now!!

With regard to assignment 4, I will do my best to get this done by 31 Dec but it will be tough for me but I will give it my best shot! I can see the logic of why you have set this.

Thanks again for all your help and support.

Tony you did great on your 2nd assignment. I will just help you with one thing you had wrong in your notes. Dominant 7th chord is a major triad with minor 7th. Major 7th chord is major triad with major 7th. So lets say we got C E G B notes. C E G is major triad and C to B is major 7th! We label that chord like this C maj7. If we had C E G Bb, then that would be major triad with minor 7th and now we have dominant 7th chord. We label that one C7 or C dom7 (C7 is better as it is shorter and more common in lead sheets). Now you can get to your other assignments, see what you can do !

Hi Pedja

Please find attached my attempt at assignment 3

Click to view attachment

Am I correct in that you want me to do two rec takes?

Hi Tony,

I am sending you your file with some corrections. Check them out and let me know if you got any questions.

Regarding lesson for REC, I want you to do TRIADS LESSON, which is assignment 4. That way we will do 2 things at once!

Make sure you do examples 4 and 5 with roman numerals as well.

Have to admit Pedja I am finding the Triads lesson difficult to make sound good. But I will persevere!!

Do the best you can Tony and submit video by 31st if possible!

Hi Pedja

Have now added the I/II/III to examples 4 an 5 of assignment 3. I also had go at a revison quiz I found in another thread.

I am sill a bit puzzled at the idea of a dominant chord. I there something special about them or is this just a label because of their position and function in a scale?


I am working hard at assignmet 4 and have just about got there with triads on strings 4,5 and 6 and the first inversion. Two problems are making progress slow, Firstly the shapes are new to me and secondly my sausage fingers find them a bit of a squeeze above 12th fret. Hopefully though with more hard work over the next few days I should be somewhere near (ish!!)


Click to view attachment

This is where I am at with the triads lesson, any comments/feedback will be appreciated.

Click to view attachment

thanks

Good work on the extra quiz and most of the examples in assignment 3. Check out places where you put down bImaj7. That just doesn't work. Same thing goes for bIV. Remember we compare all scale degrees to original major scale interval formula.

Dominant chord is very important. It is very different then all other chords in major scale harmony. It leads us into the I chord of the key so it is very much important. In Ionian mode they appear on V scale degree and we label them V7. On other modes in major scale dominant chord would appear in relation to the root of the mode.



I think you are doing OK wit this one just try to drop things down the octave if it is too hard for your fingers to handle voicings down the neck!

Hi Pedja

Here is my take for assigment 4 the triads 1 lesson.

Not perfect yet by a long way ut I feel I have ade progress.

Sorry about poor quality video and not quite in sync but this is the first time I have recorded audio and video seperately!



I hae sumitted t to the REC as required for the MTP but not expecting great scores. Couple of bum notes and maybe I need to work on making sure all strings ring out more clearly

Cheers.

Hi Tony,

I just graded your take in the hidden part of instructor forum. I am very happy to hear and see that you made it even tough you had very little time to prepare the lesson. I gave you 7 for it but it could have been 8 or 9 easily with couple more days of practice I am sure! We will continue working on chords in January. I will now close this December thread for you and open January one where we will get started!

Thanks Pedja

I think you are right a little more time and I could have got this better. It suddenly came a lot easier in the last two days just that one sticky jump from the C on strings 4, 5, 6 to the next C on 3, 4 and 5. Funny how one little sticky point can affect hw you play the whole piece though. I will kep practicing it I would like to get it perfect.

Looking forward to January's challenges.

You welcome Tony!

The important thing is that besides all the obsticles you managed to pull it off. In January your 1st assignment will be part 2 lesson of triads. This way we can keep the momentum going and do 2 things at once assignment + rec! That will leave us for other cool things in weeks 2 3 and 4. I am closing this thread now and new one for January will be opened soon !