Something fun for guitar lovers : MP3 + Tablature

[Corey]

Here's something fun for anyone out there who likes guitar. Had to write a birthday tune for a friend at the last minute and as part of it I thought I'd post the main cycle here with tab for fun, even if you don't play, it's lovely to listen to, but if you do play, this is a cool little excercise. It's based on a I - vi - ii - V7 cycle, but I worked out a few nostalgiac sounding subs so it sounds a bit more meaningful. Anyhow check it out:

Click here for the MP3



Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Corey]

P.S. If it gives you trouble at first try this:

1) Slow it down to about 80 BPM.
2) Break it down into 4 bar phrases and learn them as chunks then stich them together.
3) Remember it's just based on a very simple I - vi - ii - V7 progression which repeats every 4 bars, so in this case that's A Maj7 - F# min7 - B min7 - E dom7 since we're in the key of A. So that's the core, just a basic 4 bar repeating pattern and all the rest is just decoration. So just revert back to that basic cycle anytime, that gives you a safe home base.

Anyhow another thing which would be extremely cool is if anyone who plays wants to download that and solo over it and then post it, I'd love to hear it. It's pretty basic, if you stick close to A major, F# minor, or F# blues you'll be pretty safe, but you can also extend it and go for some D Lydian, E Mixolydian, or even E Blues ideas too, the chords will support any of that sort of stuff...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Corey]

Update:

Added Bass and Drums:

Here's the MP3 with bass and drums

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

I like the audio2 version for sure.

Good job.

[Corey]

Now hopefully we can get the Worm to bust one out over that...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Worm]

I wish I could, but that's way beyond my ability!

If its not a G,A,C,D,E,F chord (maybe a few minors too) I'm out. Well I can play a couple different scales. I love the guitar, but it doesn't love me back, yet anyway. I'm certainly at the beginners level at best.

I did download the mp3, and when I'm at that point, I'll proudly post it.

Now if you want me throw down some French Horn on that track, I can do that.

Now hopefully we can get the Worm to bust one out over that...

[Corey]

Well:

1. I'd love to hear some French Horn anytime. No matter whether it's simple or complex, I guarantee you I'd enjoy it.

2. It's much simpler than it seems, well within your abilities no doubt. The thing about comps like this is that you can play straight through in just A Major if you like and you'll be fine, same for F# minor since it's the same notes. You can get fancy too, but the basic A Major scale will take you through the entire piece.

Like I was mentioning there's really only 4 chord form in this whole piece and they keep repeating, so the cycle is:

I - vi - ii V7 (in A Maj)

So we get:

A Maj7 - F# min7 - B min7 - E7

And that just goes over and over. So if we look at the notes in these chords you can see how it easy it actually is, we get:

A maj7 - A, C#, E, G#
F# min7 - F#, A, C#, E
B min7 - B, D, F#, A
E7 - E, G#, B, D

Same notes basically, super simple... So if we parse that into a single scale we get:

A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A

or A major, which is the exact same scale as F minor. So anyhow there's 3 approaches really, but easy enough for all:

1. Easy soloing : To do this, just (ignore all extensions) stay in A major or F minor and play straight through. Any ideas will do, but have fun, that's the main point.

2. Intermediate : To do this, stay in A major or F minor like in approach 1 but try to think of the chord tones of each chord as it comes up. So for example, playing strictly from the A major scale, try to land on the notes which are most relevant to the chord you are atop of, as per the chart above, i.e. when the change slides from the F# minor to the B minor try playing an A since that's the 3 of F# minor and the 7 of B minor, this will give you a nice strong feel. This is more or less modal playing, i.e. using the modes of A major to play over the changes. *NOTE* a minor scale is simply the 6th mode of the major scale, so if you have ever played in a relative minor scale over a song you have already played modally!

3. Advanced : Parse each chord as it's coming and choose the most interesting melody regardless of scale, i.e. try to extract something catchy and whistlable from the harmonic structure as it passes by. It's like picking "only the finest" plums from a moving conveyor belt full of plums. According to brain researchers, this remains, to this day, the single most brain consuming task ever recorded, i.e. of all the things they've observed the braing doing, nothing has been observed taxing it more than playing over fast jazz. So I'll leave it at that.

Here's one basic link on that for support BTW, although there are better ones out there, a quote from this page "UCLA brain scan research studies which shows that music more fully involves brain functions (both left and right hemispheres) than any other activities studied.":

http://www.k111.k12.il.us/Gifted/mar__2001.htm

It's true, I can feel it. No question in my mind about that fact at all. Music absorbs you completely physically, mentally, and spiritually, all to the max and at the same time. I used to box lots too, and I've noticed only music and boxing are truly in the moment, i.e. you completely succeed or completely fail several times per second (with no hope of repair) for an hour or two at a time. I think this is present in many activities but is exponentially magnified in boxing and music due to the stakes at hand, i.e. getting slugged or looking like a complete idiot in front of an audience.

Those are the only two activities I've found which use %100 of a person's resources, but you'd be surprised how close skateboarding comes. I would say if boxing and music are 100% then skateboarding is 95%.

Anyhow Worm, you should try method 1, you will be shocked how easy it is. This might sound complicated (the chords are a tiny bit tricky to get cleanly)
but harmonically the whole beauty of this piece is that it achieves a complex sound via a very simple internal structure. Gotta love harmony. BTW if anyone wants the drums and bass tracks (to do their own mix) as seperate tracks I can post them... Also if you post a solo track I can mix it in over here if you'd like.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software