Emotional Ballad

by Guido Bungenstock

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  • Hi GMC!

    In this lesson I wrote a ballad dedicated to all Ballad lovers of the GMC world. :-D
    It starts with some typical Beatles chord changes that everyone heard before. On the first four bars you can here a simple melody that is very vocal inspired. Then I crank up the guitar volume and the melody converts to something more dramatically. The chords are actually almost the same but because I just changed the bass notes here it sounds a bit different:

    A Part
    C | Am6/C | Fm6/C | C/E |
    C/G | Am/F# | Bb79| C |

    Then for the next B section the mood of the sound changes radically to something more melodramatic.
    There are a lot of modulations here that maybe couldn't be noticed at the very first time because I kept the melody simple. And of course there are a lot of different scales here too. So when you jam over the backing track you carefully have to listen to the chord changes and change your scales very fast.

    To make it more musical I added a lot of different phrasing techniques like time shifting (see my very 1st lesson about this: link), Whammy bar techniques, a lot of bending & vibrato, dynamics, etc. All played with my soul and my heart.
    Keep in mind that all these different techniques are only helpful to create a soulful touch.

    So sometimes things are almost impossible to transcribe. The most important thing here is FEELING!

    Some licks have some small chromatics that sound a bit outside, same with these typical 3 typical Minor7th arpeggios in bar 15, Bar 14 is a good example how to use the Altered Dominant Scale over a D7#9 chords and at the end we have some easy Tapping with hammering-from-nowhere.

    B Part
    ||: Gm79 | Em7/9/11 | Cm7/9/11| D7#9 :||
    Ebsus2 | Dm7#5 | Fm7| Em7#5 Dm7#5 C#m7#5 |
    Dm7 Db/Gb | Eb/Ab Gm7/11 | C5 | C5 |

    So I hope there's a lot to discover for you guys!

    Final words
    Even if the whole solo doesn't sound so much complicated it's not so easy to play because of the feel. I'm always trying to play a melody with my heart and emotion by adding accurate bending, a warm vibrato and dynamics. Also the "time shifting technique" I mentioned before makes it more natural. Sometimes only one or two notes that are played just a bit too late can add so much human touch to your playing.

    I tried to transcribe as close as possible. Specially in the Guitar Pro 5 you'll find all this little extras!
    Have fun with it!

    Technical specifications
    Guitar: Music Man Luke II
    Strings: D'Addario EXL 120
    Amp: Peavey JSX Top with Marshall 2x12" V30
    Effects: T.c. electronic G-Major

    Mics: Shure SM57
    Audio Interface: Focusrite Saffire PRO 24
    Recording SW: Logic 9, several plugins

    Standard tuning: E, A, D, G, B, E

    Tempo: 60 BPM








































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