Wim VD

Danny, Beautiful song! I just listened to it a couple of times through headphones and the sound is really great. It has a nice hook and catches the ear. Thanks for sharing. Wim.

Welcome to the guitargathering community, Tony. Did you follow the main L&M guitar course before starting the fingerstyle course? Wim.

Gerard, The concept of using the 3rd and 7th of the underlying chords in soloing is also explained in Session 19, and the bonus DVD contains a nice workout to practice this. Wim.

@colder I fully agree. Knowledge of jazz chords, related arpeggio's and scales are to me the fundaments of melodic soloing. And the ii-V-I progression works well in many styles. Wim.

Congratulations with your progress, Neil. Enjoy the blues session. Wim.

Well played, Mandy. I admire your perseverance and wish you all the best with your recovery. Wim.

@mark_h, Mark, I am glad you are feeling better and that you shared this beautiful song with us. Wim.

I agee with Neil. Just recently I started to focus on the CAGED system as basis for learning arpeggios and chord tone soloing. I did not really need it till session 19. So it's a good idea to stick to the content of the course and the session you are in. I wish you all the best with your learning. Wim.

@WATSON43 Beautiful playing and singing. Great solo. Well done. Wim.

Thanks, guys! wim.

Yesterday I watched the documentary "Kurt Cobain : Montage of Heck" and afterwards I felt like playing and recording a Nirvana song. It's the Leadbelly blues classic "Where did you sleep last night" from Nirvana's MTV Unplugged. Had much fun learning it. Wim.

Thanks for this info. I just downloaded Song Surgeon Trainer on my iPad. It's the basic version and it is for free. Wim.

@NeilES335 Neil, Justinguitar has some nice free lessons on Jazz. This is the link to his Jazz Index Page: www.justinguitar.com/en/JA-000-Jazz.php On this page, you will find a section on Jazz Standards. I learned to play Autumn Leaves, Misty and Blue Bossa from these online lessons and enjoyed them a lot. In these arrangements, the chords and melody are played separately, which makes it less complicated than learning chord melody fingerstyle. Very interesting as well is the harmonic analysis that Justin does on all 3 songs. Thanks for your nice words on my playing. I am currently still working on arpeggios and the CAGED system to improve my soloing. That's a huge task. Take care, Wim.

Thanks, Steve, Randy and Mandy (nice rhyme). Wim.

Neil, Congrats with your progress. Now may I suggest you do yourself and your wife a favour and learn a couple of songs? That's not a sidetrack but the application of what you have learned. To get you going, here is the sheet for Misty from the real book. With the Jazz Chords workout in progress and the Major Scales completed, you're ready to tackle it Cheers, Wim

As I have the pleasure to select the theme, I would like to kick off this month's recording challenge with a fingerstyle arrangement of Mission Impossible. Another one from the Song Hits. Wim. http://soundcloud.com/wim-van-damme-401299565/mission-impossible

@Randy120, I wish I could sing like you. Great playing as well! Wim.

... in anger

For similar reasons, I play electric with headphones and amp simulator between 8 PM and 9 AM. So I play my accoustic almost exclusively during daytime in the weekend. Wim.

I just submitted my song, Cindy. Thanks for putting this together. Wim.

Nice! Well done.

@Cindy I have recorded the song for the 1st forum cd today in Garageband. When exporting from Garageband, the default format is .m4a. would that format be ok for you? Or could I get some advice on how to turn this into mp3? Wim.

@mark_h Great fingerstyle playing, Mark. I like this kind of arrangements where you play both chords and melody. Get well soon, Wim.

I just came across these 2 video lessons on chord embellishments. One is on minor, and the other on major chords. In Session 19 of the L&M course is an exercise "Stievie's groove" where Steve briefly explains this topic as well. The 2 videos here give some more detail and examples.

Thanks, @Nutty1 and @Jim26. Will you participate to the challenge as well this month?