Wim VD

For some unknown reason I cannot reply to the existing thread on the Forum started by @UncleHammy, but creating a new topic is still working. So here is my entry for this month. I took the chords from AC/DC's Ride On and added some improvisation. Thanks for listening, Wim

@NeilES335, Hi Neil, The Session 14 Bonus Materials contain an intro to arpeggios. The exercise is a harmonized major scale in C, played as 7th arpeggios. The harmonized major scale is further explained in Session 15. The course however does not contain any further coverage of arpeggios. It was only in Session 19 (soloing), that I became really aware of the importance of arpeggios. In this Session, Steve explains the concept of Chord Tone Soloing (when playing a solo over a chord progression, the chord tones of the underlying chord are the safe notes to land on in your solo). To put Chord Tone Soloing into practice, the only way I find working for me is to learn chord arpeggios and to build the muscle memory. Now this is a big task. Following the CAGED system, this means learning 5 moveable patterns for major and 5 for minor triads, and extend that to also cover 7th chords (major, minor, (half-) diminished etc.).  The resource I used for this is Chord Tone Soloing from Barrett Tagliarino. I have included arpeggios in my daily practice routine for about 6 monts now, and it is worth the effort. To be able to instantly make the connection between the chord, the chord tones (and the related scale or mode) is a very important skill and is a breakthrough in my development as a guitar player. As you know I started the L&M Blues course last week. Where Sessions 2 and 3 of that course are hard to many students, it is the knowledge of 7th chord arpeggios that helps me through these sessions without real issues. So I can only recommend to put the effort into learning arpeggios in depth, because you will benefit from it in your guitar learning journey later. Wim.

Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover is in my top 3 of coolest Strat solo's. Wim.

Thanks, Mark, I think it would fit your playing style very well. Wim.

@Eracer_Team-DougH and @NeilES335, I guess I will be on this blues journey alone then. As long as the old forum is still on line, I can get some Blues Session related info there if needed. just finished Session 1 and starting 2 today. Things will get a bit slower from now on, but it's big fun. Wim.

I just started the L&M Blues Guitar course today and was wondering who else is currently working on this. Wim.

That 's great, Greg. I guess you are the guy in the middle, right? Wim.

Looking for a song that would fit into this month's challenge, I came across this one from Passenger. I don't play fingerstyle often, and learning the intro took much more effort and time than expected. But now it's done, I definitely want to keep it in the small repertoire I started to build. Thanks for listening. Wim.

That's great, Ian. Well done. Wim.

Thanks, Neil. You are now moving into the last couple of sessions of the course yourself and that is where things get really interesting. Keep going, you're almost there. Wim.

Mick, envision yourself in a nearby future as guitarplayer playing the songs you love together with Jules and friends. It's this kind of vision that get's people started and motivated on this journey. Enjoy L&M and don't forget to learn some songs on the way. Wim.

When working on a new piece of music or an exercise, I use 3 information sources. The 2 main ones for me are the audio file and the tab. I do know all the notes on the fingerboard, but still the most efficient way for me to learn a melody is to look at the tab. The tab tells me where to play a note, whereas the sheet music leaves this open. I only use the sheet music, as third source, to identify the key and for the info on rythm and lenght of notes and breaks. Please don't get me wrong here. I do think it is important for me to understand and know what notes I am playing and how they relate to the key and to the chords they are played over. But I rather derive this from the position of my fingers on the fredboard than from the sheet music. Now this is what works for me, but there is a big disadvantage. I am not able to read sheet music or tab at playing speed. So basically, I have to analyse and study a piece of music and then completely memorize it. Unlike myself, my 13 year old daughter who is learning to play violin, has gone through 4 years of studying music theory as part of her classical music education. She does not have to fully memorize the music she is playing, because she has learned to read and play notes simultanuously at the required tempo. That's a nice pay off. Now tab would not work for violin anyhow ? Wim.

I am sorry to read this, Randy and I hope you recover soon. Wim

Thanks, Steve. The strange thing is that this feels more like a start than an end to me now. It's like having earned an entry ticket into the world of making music. On the journey, I learned a lot about the learning process as well. A piece of music might seem tricky and difficult to learn at the start, but by breaking it down into smaller pieces, by taking it really slow, and putting in the necessary time, it can be done. Building this confidence is to me an essential part of a musician's development. Thanks again for all that you do for us. Wim.

Thanks , Greg and Diane, I really like the monthly recording challenge and will keep participating to it. Wim.

@V7#5b9 Thanks Gerard, I am still working on the Chord-Tone Soloing resource. That will take me probably another 6 months. It's very rewarding to progress in this area of playing by ear and to have my fingers finding the right notes more and more. Also I would like to build a small repertoire of songs that I can play from memory. So far I have worked on songs till I could record them, and then moved to the next one, without maintaining the ones learned previously. I think I will spend one practice routine per week specifically on repertoire. And I still have the L&M Blues and Fingerstyle courses waiting for me to get started. I will start the Blues one first. Wim.

With a last practice session on the bonus materials of Session 20, I finalized the L&M course today. Wow, what a feeling! Before starting the L&M course, I never ever thought I would get this far. For too many years, I thought I missed the talent to become a guitar player, but what was really missing was a good course and teacher. Searching the internet for good guitar instruction materials, I found L&M some 2,5 years ago and started to practice with lots of enthusiasm. On the way, I also got the Song Hits and discovered Justinguitar as a great additional resource for learning songs. The Major Scale Mastery Fredboard Workouts have been essential to my development as well. They have been the key for me to "unlock" the fredboard. I combined them with Session 17. Sessions 18 and 19 were the ones that required most practice time, also because I used complementary resource to dive a bit deeper into Jazz (with Steve's Jazz Chords workouts) and into soloing (with Chord Tone Soloing by Barret Tagliarino). And here I am at the finish line. I cannot thank @Steve Krenz enough for being the guide in my guitar learning journey. It's his way of teaching, his personality and his method that have taken me this far. I synchronized the L&M sessions with learning the Song Hits. So I consider the last songs of the song hits as my "graduation" projects. The first one recorded is "Don't know why" by Norah Jones. The final and definitely most difficult one to get under my fingers is "Mona Lisa". I would like to encourage all who are on the L&M course. Like others have said on this forum, it's all about practice, perseverance and patience. Trust the process. Steve's method works. Wim.

Great first gig with you new band, @Six String. I wonder how you memorize all those songs. Are you using an iPad with chord charts on stage? Wim.

Congratulations, @DianeB, That's very inspiring. Wim.

@lefty54, if you have an iPhone or iPad, the easiest option is to install Garageband and to connect your guitar with an adapter like iRig. Garageband is good enough to record practice sessions or your own backing tracks. Wim.

Hi @colder, I am not on the fingerstyle course yet, but currently learning the fingerstyle intro of "Let her go" (Passenger). Getting these 16 bars of trickiness under my fingers takes much more time than expected. I have not played this kind of alternating bass style for a while, and it feels like I have to build the picking hand coordination up from scratch again. But the good news is that there is progress. It just takes a bit more practice, perseverance and patience. Wim.

Great story, Greg. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice recording, @CapM

Congrats on your progress, Neil. Enjoy Session 14! Wim.