DianeB

Aw, Steve, I'm so sorry you can't make it this year. Yes, sometimes, life gets in the way. Keep the faith, and bring us a song in 2019.

Fascinating. As I scanned the keys, I thought, if Psychology Today magazine had been around in the 18th century, this could have been a cover story. Alas, as the author points out, equal temperament has largely leveled out the differences. Moreover, our almost universal standardization on A440 leaves few other than devoted musicologists with the awareness that music doesn't have to be like this. Great find, Nutty1.

Lately, I’m uncharacteristically messy. I have the organization gene in every cell. Grocery store surveillance cameras everywhere capture me straightening up produce bins. Next to the TV and Bose rests a random pile of CDs: Chicago II, Lake Street Dive, Gregory Porter, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Pink Floyd, a Ken Burns “Jazz” DVD. On my desk I see a scribbled chord block from last night: how is this a C11? Where’s the F? Oh, there it is. At my elbow, Berklee Music Theory Book 1 and my flash cards for keys. Behind me, two different scores and version, oh, 15.6 of a chart for “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” for the neighborhood band. In my practice room, the music stand holds tomorrow’s fingerstyle homework for my tutor. On the floor is spilled the aftermath of today’s acoustic jam: charts, paper clips, folded up foot rest and guitar stand. The black cord for recharging my portable lamp traces a crazy path across the beige carpet to the receptacle. The washcloth for wiping the humidifier tank sits crumpled at my heel. I reach in my pocket for a tissue and two picks fall out. And the horn parts to “God Bless' the Child” keep ringing in my head. God bless this mess.

Amen to all the above. Congratulations, Steve! Thanks to everyone in our guitar family who made this possible. We’ve got a good thing go--, no, wait — we’re working on a groovy thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYZL4PtmXlI

@Danny Robey I agree with Gerard. You could benefit from the introductory Speed and Agility workout as early as session 5. But I think your time at that pre-barre stage is better devoted to the course fundamentals and learning a few songs. Try it out. Around sessions 7-8, I strongly recommend starting the Major Scale Mastery workouts: these will help you learn the fretboard, intervals, and melodic patterns.

The relative humidity in my practice room is now steady at 40-50%. I suspect it took a few weeks for the walls and furnishings to become fully hydrated. With the temperature around 72 degrees, it's comfortable.

Mark, what a wonderful testimony. It reminded me of the 2014 documentary, Alive Inside.

Hi, Tpettygirl, and welcome to the forum and the course! It sounds like you are off to a good start. Chords can wait. You will get them. I think Steve introduced the C and G7 early as a taste of musical dessert to sustain the new student while she figures out the notes. As you start out, I recommend these two very short collections of valuable advice: First, Learn to Practice, by Tom Heany The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills, by Daniel Coyle

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of flat keys, I will fear no voicing: my barre and my capo, they comfort me. —Yours truly, upon attempting Blood, Sweat & Tears

Fred, unless you can find a good printed source, I think your best options are to listen carefully to the recordings, and watch any video of the Eagles, or YouTube lessons, you can find. I've been working on Eagles tunes since I was a teenager. Here's one printed strum pattern, from Acoustic Guitar magazine (May 2016) for "Tequila Sunrise".

Here's my neighborhood band, "Uncommon Ground", at our holiday party in December. I have a G&L Tribute Strat ("Judi" is her name). We had a blast.

Mark, I'm well along on Level 2 Advanced. I hadn't looked at the PDF in months until just now; I play along with Steve in the video on my iPad. It's nice to have the PDF to describe what's happening, but the videos really have all the info you need. As you play along, you hear what's in quarters and what's in eighths. As for speed, if I can do it on an acoustic, you can, too. It won't take a lifetime, but it's taken me a couple of years. So far. When I can't quite keep up with Steve, I pause the video and repeat that section. For variety, I do the scales out of order sometimes. This works for me. Thanks for reminding me about the PDF. It would serve me well to play through these sometimes with the sheet music in front of me.

But finally and ultimately, music remains an intensely personal issue. Maybe the most important commitment you can make is to the music fan that lives inside of you, to find out just what it is about music that really, really knocks you out. In that discovery, you'll find most of what you need to know to take you wherever you need to go. All of you here have roads ahead of you that will be filled with good musical days, the ones where you feel like you can play or hear anything, and bad musical days, the ones where everything you do sounds like a bad Madonna tune. But that variety, that sense of unknowing, that feeling of having to make it up yourself, that sense of adventure — that is what music is at its best, and that's a big part of why having a life as a musician is so much fun. —Pat Metheny, Berklee Commencement Address, 1997

Yes, Greg, I believe you are correct. G(major)6 uses the same notes (pitches, for the purists; pitch classes for the ultra purists) as an Em7 in first inversion. The name will depend on the context.

Greg, ditto for you.

Yes, Maria, E-G-B-D is Em7 (1-b3-5-b7). E-G-B-D# is (I think) Em(maj)7. Em is G aeolian, so the flatted 7th is F for both, as I understand it. I could use some clarification with this, too.

Mark, I sent you a private message that should help.