Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A bit cranky... but so what!

Jeez, I don't know if I just need to quit smoking(I only smoke a few a day, anyway), or something, but I was really kind of pissed for no reason today. 'Got up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess.

So, there's this strange guy hanging around my apartment complex by the mail boxes, just loitering, and talking to himself! I mean, I guess there's nothing wrong with that, if he's not bothering anyone, but he doesn't live here, obviously, and it's kinda awkward for people getting their mail. Who knows what the guy will do! We called the police, and they talked to him, but they didn't ask him to leave, or anything. Some help they are...

Today I felt like maybe discussing music theory, again. This blog is slowly turning into a music blog, but I do have other interests. Not sure how you guys would feel about reading a blog on Sumerian Archaeology, though. =p

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This one's for you geetar players out there! So, you've been playing for a while, you know some theory, and hell, you can probably play some pretty challenging stuff! But, you feel like you're in a rut. Maybe you're playing the same patterns over and over again, maybe it's just the same scales, or the same chords. Perhaps it's time for a routine switch up. Check out this website:

http://jguitar.com

There's a scale and chord calculator, and all kinds of neat stuff on this site. You can see which chords sound good with other chords, and learn scales and modes in any particular key center you like. It's a great way of exploring guitar playing, if you don't want to get bogged down in a lot of theory. I used this site a lot when I was first starting out, and it's still useful to me.

If you'd like a suggestion, I would try the Bebop Dominant scale. It's really outside, and sounds awesome, when applied correctly. Here's the Memphis Monster, himself, to show you a neat pattern you could learn:



Yeah, this one is really, really challenging. Pretty much an expert level lick. You need to have practiced a lot to play something like this. But, it's cool - even if you find this lick impossible to do, you'll still learn a lot from trying to play it, trust me. Sometimes, you got to really push your limits, and get out of your comfort zone to get better. I've been meticulously scoping out this entire Instructional for the past week, or so, and the licks Shawn Lane plays in it are BLISTERING! King Kong ain't got shit on Shawn Lane.

17 comments:

  1. hahah nice post my friend!
    love Shawn Lane, so cool.
    +follow'd

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  2. I'm a music theoretist, but have fun : D

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  3. @yong Awesome, dude! Maybe you could teach me a thing or two!

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  4. I'm sorry you were a bit cranky friend. Unfortunately I get that way when I don't smoke as well

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  5. i bet that guy outside your complex is a schizophrenic

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  6. What I've always wondered as far as music/beats/rhythm, is the evolutionary significance of it to humans, and why we're drawn to it from birth.

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  7. You have beats going through your entire body. Your heart beat and your blood pumping, and our brains easily pick up on all kinds of patterns in nature, so that's why music is so natural humans.

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  8. If I had a series of delay, chorus, reverb, and insnae distortion pedals all switched on I could sound like this too!

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  9. I suggest you quit smoking if you're smoking cigarettes.

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  10. LOL, I'd love to see that!

    And, gee, good advice.

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  11. Quitting smoking is definitely difficult, not as easy as SHoTS suggests.

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