Keyboard and guitar

Recently, a keyboard fell into my possession. Once upon a time, it was just a black and white row of arbitrary keys. However, with all the knowledge I’ve collected playing guitar, they now have meaning.
Often when creating melodies on guitar, I already have a rough idea of what it sounds like in my head. Putting [...]

Setting moods

I’ve never really fiddled with my amplifier settings. Since buying my amp, bringing it home and finding a configuration I liked, I have seldom touched its various knobs and switches.
However, my drummer buddy, who I’ve made mention of quite a bit lately said something which set off a light bulb: “Different sound settings change the [...]

Learning the major scale revised

Late last term, I wrote of making a serious attempt at learning the E major scale. The approach I took was to remember (visually) where all the notes of that particular scale were on the fretboard.
This approach, I’ve come to realise, is all wrong.
Instead of trying to learn the E major scale, I should have [...]

No hands

For most, if not all guitar players, the early stages of learning are largely spent keeping our eyes on our hands – nervously ensuring they’re in the right positions.
It’s a habit that sticks, making us forget music is about sound.
Over the holidays, while playing some of my favourites, I realised I had become so familiar [...]

Drums on YouTube

In my previous blog, I wrote of playing guitar with a friend on the drums.
Late last night, it occured to me that I can only do this while at his place. Certainly, I couldn’t go over at such an hour and I doubt he would be willing to bring over his kit to my place. [...]

Moving forward

The holidays are now over and it was difficult to keep focused but there were definitely ways to stay sharp.
In lieu of classes, I sent my Saturdays visiting a friend who is a drummer and is roughly on the same – if not, slightly advanced – level of musical proficiency.
Our  goal was just to [...]

Cleaning up the scales

Today, I begun working on a lead guitar part to reinforce the chord progression I composed and discussed in the last blog entry.
I started by randomly doodling all over the fretboard in E . This is a tactic I often employ when jamming along to songs I like. I know if I take a song [...]

The trick

This week I relived the horror of two weeks ago as I was assigned the task of creating a composition once more.
Again, I was dreading the task all week, fearing I would sound like a musician with a broken guitar or a just hack who unknowingly steals the musical ideas of others.
I wondered how I [...]

Unlocking the musical mind

I’m really glad to have broken out of playing just the pentatonic and major scales. I think it’s starting to open my mind to greater musical possibilities.
One thing I noticed before looking at the relationships between notes more closely was that every time I tried to construct a musical sentence in my head, it would [...]