Office Hours Q&A 160 | FRIDAY, May 17, 10AM Pacific Time
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Hi Everyone,
Join me this FRIDAY, the 17th, at 10AM Pacific Time for the 160th weekly live Q&A.
If the above link isn’t working for you, here is a link to watch directly on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSkU7n1t2zk
Here's how it works: bring your questions to the comments below, the community forum, or save them for the live chat.* Questions can be about anything you want - guitar technique, music theory, gear, songwriting - your choice! Also, feel free to link a video of you playing if you have a technique question!
I'll do my best to answer your questions and give examples of how you can practice developing skills related to your question.
Keep in mind, you can always watch later if you can't make it live! Check back a few hours after the stream for a numbered list of each question and a timestamped link to each answer.
*Please note: you may need a youtube/gmail account to ask questions in the live stream, but you can watch without one.
Check out the Lesson Archive for more Office Hours Live Streams
Comments
Hi Scott, your recent lessons on major/minor modes have been extremely useful and fun! I'm having a real blast with writing some bizarre progressions I never would have otherwise come up with, so thank you for those awesome lessons! I have come across the "blues scale" as a sharped 4th / flat 5th note that is sometimes added to a pentatonic scale when soloing (I guess that makes it a hexatonic scale?), but wondered about it's uses, as it seems to be out of key and hasn't been covered in your modal videos. Can it be compared to the modal stuff, or is it something in it's own right? Any information you can give and how to use it during a solo would be appreciated. I will catch up over the weekend, but thank you for your help!
Richard Stapleton
2024-05-17 13:08:11 +0000 UTCHi Scott I had a question about all the new shapes I have now discovered thanks to the Rubik's Cube and the 7th Chords. I am pretty sure this gets explained further along your lesson path recommendation, but at this stage, i feel like I am not ready to move on without learning all the new shapes for each of the CAGED 7th's and recalling them whenever needed. I haven't really figured out a way to practice this either. I understand the theory behind figuring out the triads and the shapes for each key, but I am finding it hard to recall these chords and their shapes at will or randomly. For example, in the D shape follow up video, you did illustrate the whole scale and the shapes so well across the fretboard using just 2-3 shapes essentially, but when I tried to apply that to the C shape, the A shape, the G shape and the E shape, it wasn't as easy to recall the various shapes involved and i kept getting confused between them. I feel like I suddenly have so many new shapes to practice and also to form them easily while strumming is becoming a challenge. Do you recommend moving on to the Natural Minor lesson and beyond or getting to grips with all these shapes and knowing them really well before moving on? I seem to just have D, E & A shapes down so far. The C and G are really confusing and tough to recall. Also, is there some trick to remember / form each of the chords in a key - i.e: major, minor, dim, maj7, dom7, min7, half dim and dim from a specific scale for the CAGED system inside a specific set of 4-6 frets to switch to easily? For example, if you took the A major and figured a way to play A/Amaj7, Bm/Bm7, C#m/C#m7, D/Dmaj7, E/E7, F#m/F#m7, G#-half dim between the 1st and 6th frets. That way when trying to come up with chord patterns, we can also practice chord shapes and voicing around those same frets? Sorry if my question is confusing, but I will try and be in the chat to try and clarify.
Mithun
2024-05-17 11:13:15 +0000 UTCHi Scott and all the community members, A few weeks before someone ask for more songs analysis and it happens that I have discovered a podcast that do a great job about it. It’s called ’Strong Songs’, it’s animated by a dude called Kirk Hamilton, a very talented musician based in Portland. It’s not a question sorry but I just wanted to share a great ressource with the community.
John-Frederic
2024-05-17 10:13:11 +0000 UTCEdit: whoah, my message got really long, I hope it won't give you too much of a headache, sorry in advance ;d Hey, I've got a question regarding noodling, music inspiration and jamming with others (or myself with the use of the looper pedal). Everytime I am trying to sit with the guitar to play a bit, and I want it to be 'creative' and improvised, I am finding myself falling into this loop of playing powerchords, either on EAD or ADG strings and most od the times with the same strumming pattern as well. I cannot go out of it for the love of me, and think about some backing for the jam, based on other types of chords, which would be more interesting. I'm feeling frustrated with it lately , as I am starting to feel like my creative juices are not flowing at all, and I would love to somehow change it, so that I can comfortably sit, take my guitar and play some chords with little solos in between them while my friend is playing on the drums for example. I've been participating in your courses for last 3 or 4 months already, I am now on Music Theory Monday lesson 7 about Dorian mode and on the G shape of CAGED part I at the same time. I went through whole Music Theory For Guitar before that, doing all the homework and guitar excercises you've provided. I think it helped me a lot with my technique, I improved from being able to play scales at 130 BPM to 180 BPM easily, I know and understand how scales are made and what dominant chords are and why they are so importent, but I still feel like I don't know anything about what to play and how to apply all the gained knowledge. Don't get me wrong, it's not a problem with your courses, as they are great and you are explaining everything wonderfully, it's problem with my brain, and with how I cannot think about what to do with my guitar learning and playing next. I don't know myself if there is a question somewhere in my complain above, but if there is, I believe it would be something like: could you steer me in the right direction a little bit and help me finding what I should do to improve?
Mateusz Kowalski
2024-05-16 14:02:01 +0000 UTCHi Scott. Probably can't watch live, but could you please share your thoughts/explanation about the Nashville Number System? Thanks and greetings from Switzerland.
Paul Blue Jean
2024-05-16 12:29:14 +0000 UTC
