Wim VD1

Great performance, Ian. Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience with us. Wim.

Still working on mastering pentatonics. This George Harrison style solo is a great exercise on playing the major pentatonic scale all over the neck. Thanks for listening. Wim.

In the comments section of this lesson's YouTube video, I asked Steve to explain the concept he was using when playing a Bm lick over an Em chord and a G lick over a C chord. In his response, Steve referred to Larry Carlton's super arpeggio concept explained in the video below. The graph in the video clarified everything for me, so I thought it was well worth sharing this on our forum here as well. Wim

Thanks, Ian. Yes, it was fun experimenting with some dissonant slide guitar for the intro and the flanger and distortion effects for the other parts. Chris Cornell's unplugged version sounds much more harmonic than Soundgarden's original. I want to record an unplugged rendition as well. Wim.

Great topic, @Steve Krenz. In order to improve my solo / improvisation skills I have spend about 2 years now working on scales, chord tones, licks and learning complete solo's from songs, especially in the blues and rock area. It seems to be a very long road to get to the point where my fingers play the music I "hear" in my head. Looking forward to another great Live Lesson (although I cannot watch them live because they are in the middle of the night on my side of the Atlantic 😀) Wim.

Soundgarden is one of the famous grungebands from Seattle, together with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. They got a Grammy for Black Hole Sun in 1995. There is a great acoustic version by their singer Chris Cornell as well. Wim.

Nice one, Mandy! A sinking mic and a black wig make me curious about how you will tackle the rain song challenge of this month 😀 Wim.

"Black hole sun won't you come and wash away the rain?" In my search for songs about rain, I came across Singing in the rain, Purple rain, It's raining men, A hard rain's gonna fall, Have you ever seen the rain,... and ended up with this one from Soundgarden. After some weeks on acoustic, it was fun to go back to electric and play around with effects. Thanks for listening. Wim

Ron, I think Steve's birthday was yesterday 😀, but of course I join you in wishing him a great time and thanking him for what he does. Wim.

@Old Guy, Sorry to hear this. So this month, 2 of our most active forum contributors (you and @Texaspackerfan) had severe damages to their home studio. Take care guys. I hope that things get back to normal for you real soon. Wim.

Thanks, Mandy. I only have a picture of the view. But now our dear moderator @NeilES335 might blame me for using disk space on non guitar related topics 😀

This month I spent 2 weeks of holidays in the French Pyrenees where I had a great mountain view from the terrace while practicing this solo blues arrangement. Now I know how it feels to have an office like @mark_h! It's a simple 1 track blues shuffle in E, with some rhythm and some licks. Thanks for listening. Wim

Danny, That's bad news. Luckily you woke up and could intervene quickly! Music and guitar playing helped me to relax and put things into perspective on several occasions as well. Take good care, Wim

I use an iPhone or iPad with an adapter (iRig from IK Multimedia) and earphones If I want amplification. The sound is not great, but good enough for practice. I often practice without amplification. Wim.

I am travelling regularly for work and manage to take my Traveller Guitar with me most of the times. It looks like a headless Steinberger, weighs only 1.4 Kg. and fits into a suitcase. The laprest and arm support visible on the picture are own-made modifications that can be screwed on. At this very moment I am on holidays in France with the family and play my Traveler Guitar almost daily 😀. Wim.

@Texaspackerfan and @Nutty 1, I am also thinking of doing some "playing on the porch" and record it. 1 track, no special effects, just like @mark_h. Wim.

Another great one, Danny. I listened to it several times and looked up the original song as well. Maybe hard to believe, but I never heard of Merle Haggard before. I think I need to expand my knowledge of country music beyond Johnny Cash and Ryan Adams. Well done! Wim.

Very well played, Kevin. I like the singing in harmony as well. Wim.

Just noticed today that he old L&M site (community.learnandmaster.com) can no longer be accessed. Obviously I am happy that we moved to this Guitargathering forum, but it's still a pity to lose access to the old archive of posts. Wim.

Neil, It is about 2 years now since I have been working on Session 17. Looking back, and after working on many songs, I can say that for playing solo's and melodies, I am benefiting most from the following: - Steve's Major Scales Fredboard Workouts - Arpeggio exercises. A good introduction is given in the bonus materials of Session 14. I also used a more in depth resource "Chord Tone Soloing" by Barrett Tagliarino. - Good old major and minor pentatonics. There is a lot of music you can make with 5 notes, and it takes me more effort than expected to learn to master mixing major and minor pentatonics in a rock or blues song. I have not yet used the 3 notes per string approach in solo's. For specific legato style soloing this this technique is useful, but that is not a style I have been working on so far. So I did do my homework on Session 17, but the benefit I got out of it was rather limited. And I did use other exercises to learn the notes on the entire fredboard. Enjoy Session 18! That is a nice one, especially combined with Steve's Jazz Chords Fredboard Workouts. Wim.

Thanks Ian. I was already working on Layla when @Nutty 1 announced the new challenge. So it was either stretching the theme a bit in some creative way or working out another song. I hesitated on doing "Wild Horses" from the Stones, but decided to stick to Clapton. I will try to tame those horses at a later point in time. Wim.

Well done, Mandy. I found a nice story on the internet about this song being written as part of a musical. The sinking mic was actually quite funny to watch. Wim.

Layla was originally recorded in 1970, but I guess the love of Eric Clapton for Pattie Boyd that inspired this song originates from the 1960's, so it still fits the challenge 😀. Wim.

@costancr Yes, I often have the same feeling. While working on blues and rock resources these days, I would also like to be working on fingerstyle. And there are so many songs and solo's waiting for me to learn... The way I deal with this is by setting long time goals. After finishing L&M Guitar last year, I planned to take about a year to learn blues and rock. That should take me to August 2019. For fingerstyle, I plan about 18 months, so that will take me to the beginning of 2021. It's a rough plan, and I mostly underestimate the time required to learn something. But the long term perspective helps me focus and deal with the feeling that I should be working on all those resources at the same time. Wim.

Great choice, Kevin. I had not heard this song for a long time. Very well played and produced. I like the stereo effects as well. Wim.