THE PROFESSOR As you can hear in Gabriel’s expert playing in this lesson, getting a Weezer vibe in your own writing and playing means learning how to navigate between the major and relative minor scales in any given key. Because they share the same notes, major and the relative minor, they will fit over the same chord progression, but bring a unique sound to any riff or solo you apply them to.
Learning how to build, apply and play the major scale and relative minor scale for guitar is an essential skill for anyone serious about playing in this style, or any modern musical style, from both a riffing and soloing standpoint.
Hi GMC!
Welcome to my new lesson! This time I will cover the style of Weezer, an American alternative Rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1992 which has an endless list of amazing hits.
Music Style:
Weezer’s style is very difficult to define but they are usually labeled as Alternative Rock, Pop Punk, Indie Rock and Power Pop. They have cited Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Oasis, Pixies, Kiss and The Beach Boys as their early influences and I can really find those band’s vibes in Weezer’s music. In this lesson I tried to recreate the style of their most popular songs like “Island of the sun”, “Buddy Holly” and “Pork & Beans”
Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
This tune starts in D minor and then modulates to its relative major scale: F Major. Both minor and major tonalities are the most used by them and this modulation can be found in their music as well as in many other pop punk songs. The scales used for melodies are also D minor and F Major. You can find all the chord progressions on screen and also over the tabs.
Techniques:
This lesson is very suitable for beginners that want to start playing more musical rock lessons.
The techniques used here are strumming, palm muting and alternate picking.
Sound:
I used my POD HD500 to build a sound based on Vox AC30 Combos.
I used Cubase to record audio and midi, EZdrummer for drums and Hallion for bass.
Click
HERE to download my POD HD500 Patch.
Tuning:
I used standard 440 tuning.
Tempo:
120 BPM
Ok guys – let’s start working!