Fret War Updates

Round 24: Let There Be TONE!

2010-08-09 00:42:09.166869

It's been a while, so let's do one this week. Due on Sunday, and I'll actually try to play. For this round, I want you to bust out your nastiest, weirdest, sweetest, coolest, freakiest, awesomest, messiest tone tricks you can. Doesn't matter what kind of music, just get in there and make your guitar sound freaking awesome. In your submission, don't say how you did it, and everyone who comments has to try to guess what you used. Then in your comment tell everyone what tech and tricks you used to get that tone. Go!

Round 23: Open Minded

2010-06-05 06:39:40.075017

Next up, we do David's round: > Play only in the open position. > > Come up with a nasty, gritty song using only the open position. Play no > higher than the 5th fret (some say open stops at 4th, but I found that > too limiting). Use alternate tuning, whammy, tap, anything. > > That’s it, develop a riff and then solo over it but go no higher than > the 5th fret. You can check out what David did in [his round submission](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/255/round/255/2010/05/17/023331/) as a sample of what to do. Remember it's not really an entire song in the open position, just come up with a good part of it that way.

Round 22: Hank's Mixolydian Madness

2010-05-30 23:58:24.750118

Sorry I was away for a couple weeks. Had other pressing things to deal with, but we're back. And we're going to go through the rounds people proposed during Round 21 in this order: * [Low Hanging Fruit](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/39/round/255/2010/05/17/012629) * [Open Minded](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/255/round/255/2010/05/17/023331) * [Riffs or Transcribe](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/1/round/255/2010/05/18/095721) * [Slide](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/40/round/255/2010/05/17/132008) * [Six Layer Finger Take](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/255/round/255/2010/05/17/033623) * [Simple Major Pentatonic Over Two Keys](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/1/round/255/2010/05/18/093543) * [Alter Chords For Pentatonic Goodness](http://fretwar.com/static/data/player/1/round/255/2010/05/18/094552) That's the initial order, and we'll say the winner of the next round can change the order, remove one, or add one to the list. Without further ado, here's [Hank's](http://fretwar.com/player/39) round. Low Hanging Fruit ================= > Make my own round? I took the easy way out, I picked the 1 major mode we > haven’t done a round on Mixolydian. > > Mixolydian is distinguishable by it’s flat 7th from the major scale, > thus giving the tonic a dominant tonality. > > I think of it as Major Dark. > > [Wikipedia Mixolydian Mode](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixolydian_mode) > > Pretty simple backing track, verses are all D Mixo, working over > variants of a 3rd inversion D 7. Bridge is BbMaj7 to A, then B C G D > Chorus. > > Melody leans heavy on the flat 7 … that’s kinda the point :) Pretty straight forward. I'll give you a few more pointers on this one: 1. First, work out chords that Mixolydian fits over by doing some research online for good mixolydian modal vamps or riffs. 2. Next, record your chords and just play the mixolydian mode over it, making sure to pause on the flat 7th. 3. Do this in a few keys to figure out what one works best. 4. Finally, record the one you like best and send it in. Experimental Part ================= Alright, I'm curious to see if we can get people to do this by tomorrow at midnight. I want to see if giving less lead time will make the game more interesting. So, let's see if we can get this round in the bag Monday, to add to the challenge, and then we'll post the next round Friday so that we give only a few days lead time on rounds from now on. Of course, if there's no submissions, we'll go back to doing it by next Sunday at midnight. Go!

Round 21: You Write The Next Round

2010-05-10 15:42:42.110099

This round we're going meta. Instead of telling you something to do on the guitar, I'm gonna get you to write a round, and play it as a demonstration. Here's how it will work: 1. Think up an idea for a round. Maybe it's a genre, a specific odd key+mode mix, anything you think would be challenging but not too hard. 2. Now, play your own round and get a good recorded submission to "beta test" it. 3. Send it in like normal as if it's a submission. Everyone will then rate these "proposed rounds" based on whether they'd like to play them as well as if the recorded submission is any good. We'll then take the winner and all of us will do it for the next round. Tips On Writing A Good Round ============================ Writing a good round is easy, and your round doesn't have to be well written since I can clean it up for you. What you should do though is make the round simple enough for someone to do in an evening, but not so easy it's boring. If there's odd theory in your round, then include an explanation of the theory at the end. Other than that, go crazy. Talk about effects, genres you love, things you've always wanted in a round, an idea you've had. As long as you can play it, someone else will be into it.

Round 20: Back To Basics

2010-05-03 15:24:00.856818

Let's do another round where we just play the guitar. I got this sweet new guitar that sounds crystal clear and want to show it off. What better way to do that than to have a round of just guitar. Let's say you can use effects but keep it minimal. In fact, if you can get the sounds of the room into the submission then that'd be interesting. Also try to keep it to just one take with a minimum of editing. Those are just suggestions. Most important thing is just do it with one guitar. Ideas For Inspiration ===================== Sometimes you have no idea what to make for a song, and get stuck thinking whatever you've made sucks. The competitive aspect of Fret War, even though they're fairly tongue-in-cheek, can stifle your output. I know of several players who've told me they have something in the works and then they don't post it because they don't like it. So, I thought I'd throw out some ideas to get people's creativity going. These are things I do all the time and they really help me. Maybe you can mention some other ideas in the comments. 1. Relax. A stressed or worried mind isn't all that creative. 2. Do object writing. This is where you take a single random word, and then write about it using all of your 5 senses plus emotions and thoughts about it. It gets your mind flowing through perceiving abstract things in different ways. 3. Noodle while watching TV. With your attention on something else you'll not be focused on your playing, so you'll relax and get your mind in a good frame of mind. 4. Related to object writing, pick a random word and work out a few chords that seem to describe that word. Then build a melody around it. 5. Take chords changes from another song, record them, and then just play whatever sounds good over them. Bound to find one good idea. 6. Play a different instrument then translate it to guitar. I will sometimes work a melody out on piano, transcribe it, and then try it on guitar. 7. Keep a notebook of ideas. I stopped doing this, but it's really helpful. I'd just keep a moleskin on me and if I had an idea I'd jot it down. Song titles, lyrics, whatever. Just write it down. 8. Play the wrong notes. Pick a few chords and then play all the worst notes like you don't care if they're right. 9. Remove timing. Take the beat away and try to play without any timing. This works best if you record some chords in one time, then some melody or solos *without* listening to your chords, then combine them. It'll sound hilarious and probably something will come of it. 10. Learn a different style than you're used to. I'm currently learning Country. All sorts of different techniques and ideas in there. These are just a few things to give you ideas. What's yours?

Round 19: Goin' To The Movies

2010-04-26 19:26:48.841328

This round was suggested in the forums and sounds like it'd be fun. It's simply this: 1. Take a favorite movie theme you know or want to learn. 2. Do your rendition of it. Let's hope we don't get sued! As an alternative challenge, you can try doing your theme for a fake movie scene of some kind. Like, "Willem Defoe Fights A Giant Alien". Or, "I Finally Kissed A Girl". Also, this round is totally open. Keep it simple. Over produce it. Just go with your creativity.

Round 18: Locker Room Bad Breath Funk

2010-04-13 01:36:16.942763

Looks like people like rounds that emphasize on guitar only, so let's try another round that features only the guitar. This time however, lets throw in a style too, and one of the best for the idea in this round: Funk. You see in Funk, the guitar is a drum. It's just a damn hihat, and is sooooo boring. wakka-wakka-wakka-wakka. It's like Fozzy Bear. Sure it's fun, and without the guitar funk just seems kinda flat, but I'm sure there's a way to make it more interesting. This is where you come in, your job is to "funk up" something else. Using only a guitar and your favorite style, find a way to make it funky. Maybe you love blues, so do a funky blues. Maybe you're into jazz so pull out some funky Herbie Hancock minimalism. Maybe you've got a jones for neo classical metal then find that funk angle. Extra points for putting funk where it don't belong. Another way to describe this round is make your favorite style smell like it just came out of the locker room with nasty toes and bad breath. Levels Of Composition --------------------- In this round, you can go either just you and a guitar, or you can try to layer it up and do a few tracks combined. The key is *only your guitar* is allowed. That means no drum tracks, no other instruments, just the guitar, and just *one* guitar. Choose your weapn and fight the whole duel with it. Do or die. And, let's say you can throw in effects if you got them, especially if you need to make your guitar sound right to fit your song idea of choice. Now, remember, this is just the optional part. You could totally do a single track funky as hell blues put into a single amp and no pedals. You could go the other way and have your guitar play the role of bass, drums, piano, and vocals. The choice is yours, and it's multiple-choice.

Round 17: Shibumi

2010-04-05 23:30:07.157833

This was suggested by [MadRabbit](http://fretwar.com/player/151) and it'll make a good breather round for #17. The idea is to do a song with just a single guitar. Of course MadRabbit is the master of this, but lets see if we can put him in his place. What you're going for is just a guitar. That's it. No drum tracks, no effects, just what you can get from a guitar, amp, and your natural room acoustics. This will be a good one to practice recording, and also just simply making a nice song with just the guitar. There's no other restrictions, except it's just a guitar. Chord melodies, a full solo, mixes of chords and solos, whatever works as a good simple song. Recording Advice ================ For this round you'll want to do a few test records to make sure that you get the sound quality right. In the case of a purely acoustic recording your mic placement, input levels, and room acoustics are important to the quality. This is in addition to your normal playing quality. First thing you should do is make sure you have the basic tone of your amp and guitar setup the way you like. If you're using an acoustic guitar make sure that you're getting the best sound out of it you can. If your picking hand is too heavy from years of hardcore metal then practice a lighter touch. Next you'll need to setup your recording inputs. The range of recording equipment is massive, but make sure you check the following: 1. You input level and mic's placement to the sound source. 2. The balance between multiple mics if you are going for a stereo record. 3. The level of the recorded track when you finall master it. 4. The volume of your amp if you use one and how close it is to the mic. 5. The "proximity effect" on many mics will add bass you may not want. Move the mic back or look at dropping the bass on your amp a bit. 6. Try to get the same tone you get with your ears from the mic by listening through the mic to what you're getting. Once you have it all setup, take notes of what worked. I write down the dials on the amp, distance of the mic from the amp, angle of the mic, and input levels and settings on my recording devices. Another suggestion is to spend the week practicing through this recording setup so that you get used to playing that way. Playing through your recording gear is yet another way to hear how you play, sometimes showing mistakes you might not notice when playing normally. Finally, if you're going through an amp and you can record two mics at once, try this trick: 1. Setup your amp to record just like normal, getting your tone right. 2. Now, setup a second mic that's slightly away from the amp near you. 3. When you play, play so that this second mic picks up your picking. When you finally mix, you'll be able to mix these two together and give more of a realistic acoustic feel, especially since there's no drum track so the clicking of the pick will give you the rhythm.

Shed 9: A Fun Ear Training Exercise

2010-04-01 02:41:42.143126

Being rather new at studying guitar I definitely needed to work on my ear quite a lot. In fact, ear training and rhythm are the two hardest things for me. In order to work on my ear training I've been doing a few fun exercises lately that focus on the more "functional" method of hearing notes. The exercise I've been doing for about 2 months now has really given me surprising results so I thought I'd share. First off, what this one exercise does is train several musical things at once: 1. Singing a particular note within key. 2. Hearing that note, in they key and playing it on the guitar. 3. Being in key on the guitar. 4. Playing a scale and hearing all the roots your playing. 5. Learning the cycle of 4ths and hearing changes that way. 6. Finally, being able to do all of this without looking at your guitar. It sounds like quite a lot, but it's a fairly simple exercise that's just pretty hard to do at first, but then you get good at it later. Stage 0: Scales In Cycle Of Fourths =================================== This is pretty simple. Let's say someone taught you 5 scale forms (I learned 5 and also 7, but settled on the 5 simpler forms). These should be major scales, but you could probably do this with just about everything. You probably practice these either in position, or up and down the neck. I try to do both when I'm working on speed and accuracy, but when I work on my ear I've found this is useless. Instead, what you want to do is pick a single scale form, say one that starts with the root note on the 5th string with the middle finger. Then, you want to play all the scales on the 5th string in the cycle of 4ths. For example, you start at C (5th string, 3rd fret), play that scale. Then jump to F (5th string, 8th fret), then Bb (5th string, 1st fret or 13th fret), and so on. Start of very slow, and at first set the metronome really low. And try to keep time as you jump around and keep it clean. Now, obviously you'll get bored as hell doing this, since part of learning about practice is also learning how to make it meditative rather than a chore. When you get bored and your mind is wandering, it's time to ramp up the difficulty so you have to concentrate. This is also a nice trick when you're bored and keep losing focus. Just throw in something that makes it difficult and you'll suddenly have to focus. The goal here is to be able to jump to a key and land on the right one. It will also start training your ear to hear key changes. Stage 1: Sing The Root Note =========================== You can find most of the notes in the cycle of 4ths and play that scale, or you're just bored. Now what you do is when you jump to the scale, stop and try to sing the root note. If you're off, move around to see what note you're actually singing and then adjust both your voice and guitar up until you're on it. Then play your scale while still singing that note. Make sure you breathe and try to relax your neck and vocals. In fact, look up at the ceiling and push you check out a bit since, if you're like me, you probably slouch and stare at the guitar. Your hands know how to play the scale, so once you're on the root note and singing just don't look at the guitar. If you can't sing that note, because maybe it's too deep or too high, find one an octave above or below. In fact, changing up the octave of the note you sing is a good change up for your voice if you can do it. The goal with this stage is to be able to hold the root note, and then start to hear how it sounds against each of the notes in the scale. At first, you may only hear when you play the exact note you're singing. But, play slower and try to hear how your voice interacts with the guitar. You may also have a hard time holding the note if you've spent many years singing what you play. Just keep if you get off, stop at each root note and sync back up. Stage 2: Stop Looking ===================== I sort of just did this on accident. At first I found that I had done the scales in cycle of 4ths so much that I was just doing them without looking. I was maybe 80% accurate but it was showing that my ear was improving. What helps make this more interesting and useful is if you can sing the note, then switch to it on the guitar, correct whatever is wrong, and try to do it without looking. There's a kind of "zen archery" process you follow to actually get this to work. In zen archery they can hit targets without looking, sometimes blind folded. They do this by repeatedly doing the exact same motion and process before firing with intense focus such that when they stop focusing their body just knows how to do what it needs. This is the same kind of training used by snipers, and anyone doing any kind of accuracy training. For our little exercise, we're going to use this "setup": 1. Stop playing, be quiet. 2. Close your eyes, put your head slightly up. 3. Visualize in your mind the root note you'll sing/play. Imagine screaming it "C!". 4. Sing what's in your head as close as you can. 5. Play it on the guitar. 6. If they are wrong, then briefly look down and correct your singing or guitar. 7. Once correct close your eyes with head up again and play the scale and sing. 8. Do it again for the next key in the cycle. The goal here is to train yourself that when you think "C" your hands right away play it, and your voice right away sings it. By doing this repetitive process you'll eventually train yourself this way. Of course, this is freaking boring too, so try as much as you can, then take a break. If the process is annoying you then just goof off with it. Stage 3: Make Chords (3rds, 5ths) ================================= If you can get to reliably sing the root note, or again if this is boring, then ramp it up by singing the 3rds and/or 5ths instead of just the root. What I do is I sing the root, then the 3rd. Then I sing the 3rd while playing the root and 3rd on my guitar and I try to hear the chord. Once I've got it locked in I play the scale and try to hear the 3rd pop up as I play. Right now I'm at the 3rds, and haven't moved to 5ths yet. So far this is helping me hear chords, sing harmonies, and it's just fun and kinda cool. What Methods Do You Use? ======================== Everyone's got methods they use, unless they have perfect pitch that is. What's your method for training you ear? Write up some comments here telling us if you have something fun you do, books you liked, or particular software that helps.

Round 16: Two Keys And A Bit Of Odd Meter

2010-03-29 19:07:52.640019

This round will be a fun capstone to [Round 14](http://fretwar.com/round/14) and [Round 15](http://fretwar.com/round/15) which will attempt to blow your mind by combining the two of them together. This round will feature a tiny bit of composition on your part, and an extra optional challenge to play in an odd meter. Hopefully you'll read the *whole* thing instead of just what's on the very front page (click the link Chad :-). What you'll be doing is using chords to link two keys together so that you play Ionian in one key, and then Lydian in the next key. I'll suggest a few example chord changes, a song structure, and then also talk about odd meters for the optional challenge. The Challenge ============= Ionian and Lydian are very close modes, with only one note different (the sharp 4). This means you can't really just combine the two modes, since nobody could really hear the difference. Instead, you have to change keys in the song, purposefully going from Ionian in one key to Lydian in another. There's a few ways you can do this, which I'll get into in the lesson section. For the challenge, your job is to come up with a song structure that has two distinct keys and play Ionian in one key and Lydian in the other. This gives you a lot of space to try out different sounding things to see what seems most dramatic, weird, or interesting. For example, you could decide the Verse and Chorus are in different keys. Then during the Chorus you'll use Lydian, and "pick it up" during the Chorus flipping into Ionian to make it happy. This is only a *suggestion* though, you should play with some chord progressions to figure out what sounds cool to you. The Optional Challenge ====================== If you're feeling extra frisky you should try to play the song in a timing that's not 4/4. Try a 2/4, 3/4 or even 5/8 time. Anything exotic that isn't heard very often. If you can make the two sections use a different timing that'd be extra double points. The Lesson ========== You should already know the two modes you'll use, and you probably are familiar with different keys. The missing link (hopefully and literally) is knowing how to compose chords so that you can transition from one key to another. They way you do this is to use one of a few "tricks" to make it happen: * Morph a chord that's major in one to minor in the other (or v.v.) * Write out the chords for both keys and use a common chord to link. * Just go for it, and force it to happen through the melody. However, you can use these tricks (and many others) but it's much easier if the key you choose is to transition to is along the cycle of fourths. This is why we also had the [shed post on cycle of fourths](http://fretwar.com/static/data/shed/2010/03/25/201923/) so you can learn what those are and use them in this round. To keep it simple, we'll pick two keys that are only 1 step away on the cycle of fourths, and transition between those two. Morphing Chords ---------------- The simplest and probably most free form thing you can do is just take the last chord of one key's progression and flip it to what the next progression needs. Let's say you're doing A for Ionian and D for Lydian. You'll notice (which is more obvious in the next section) that these two are very similar when you're doing Ionian and Lydian, so you want the key change to be obvious. Let's say we have these two sets of three I/VI/V chords to work with: |: Amaj Dmaj E7 : Gmaj Dmaj Emin :| Two things to notice here: In the key of A the E chord is E7, but in D the E chord is minor. No problem, on the last time you play each progression and want to transition to the next one, just change it. Imagine we did each one twice: |: Amaj Dmaj E7 : Amaj Dmaj Emin : Gmaj Dmaj Emin : Gmaj Dmaj E7 :| There, that's all there is to it. Try out different organizations of the chords and force different ones to switch to their cousing in the other key and see what happens. Linking Common Chords --------------------- Using chords that are common to both keys is the most "correct" but can also be the most boring. Let's imagine that you're picking the keys of F for Ionian and Bb for Lydian. F G A Bb C D E F Bb C D Eb F G A Bb If you've been paying attention you'll see that these are very close, with only the E vs. Eb between the two (F G A Bb D Eb F is Bb Lydian). This is why the chords are so important. Now, if you lay out the diatonic chords for these two scales we have: Fmaj Gmin Amin Bbmaj C7 Dmin Edim Bbmaj Cmin Dmin Ebmaj F7 Gmin Adim Next we can find the common chords, which looks like Dmin, Bbmaj, Gmin. If you change the 7th chords to major chords then those are common, but then we wouldn't have our next trick: the 7th chords determine the key. With these ingredients we can then come up with a chord progression to solo over. First we get three chords, trying to use a 7 chord: |: Fmaj Bbmaj C7 : Ebmaj Bbmaj Cmin :| The first set if from the F and focuses on Ionian, the next one is from the Bb and focuses on Lydian. Now we just need to "link" them in order to transition using a common chord: |: Fmaj Bbmaj C7 : Dmin : Ebmaj Bbmaj Cmin :| Finally, we can tweak the last set of chords and on the last repeat put Bbmaj at the end to link back into the F key and repeat it: |: FMaj Bbmaj C7 : Dmin : Ebmaj Bbmaj Cmin : Bbmaj :| All that you need to do now is play with how many of these to play, timing and the rhythm. Also, if a chord sounds wrong don't use it, just try another one. More Than One Fourth Step ------------------------- In the above examples we only change keys by one step on the cycle of fourths and back. This is the easiest, and probably even that is too adventurous for most pop and rock music. If you want to make the changes more dramatic, then try jumping more than just 1 step on the cycle of fourths. For example, you could do A to C instead of A to D. The trick though is if you try this you'll also want to play with 7th chords and see how they sound as "linking chords". The extra note makes the transitions more clear. If you keep going down this road you'll eventually just invent Jazz. Screw It, Just Do It -------------------- The last method, and probably the most fun to try is to just pick two keys at random, do chords for both of them, and then just play over them when they come. Don't try to work out linking chords or anything, but have the melody and soloing be the strong driver between them. Good solid riffs that force the key change at the end of each transition will make this happen. This is also the easiest way to make something sounds like crap, but remember if you play something often enough it'll start to sound good.

Shed 8: Memorizing Triads And Fourths

2010-03-25 20:19:23.943606

This shed post is a simple mnemonic trick for memorizing two very important parts of music theory. First is the "Cycle of 4ths" and second is the triads that make up all major chords. Memorizing these will help with figuring out the notes in a chord, chord changes, and many other elements of harmony. The way I'm going to show you how to memorize this is a little different from how most musicians are taught. That's because I'm a programmer, so I try to find easier ways to memorize the few things I need to know. Rather than memorize a ton of useless information, I look for a few patterns that and mnemonics that help you memorize the information and use it. Cycle Of Fourths ================ First, let's do the cycle of fourths since that's the easiest. What's meant by the "cycle of fourths" is you pick a root note C, that's the key you're in. Then you pick the 4th note in that scale, and move to the next key F. From F you pick the 4th note and move to that key and you're in Bb. For example, if you were to have this chord progression: |: Cmaj7 | Cmaj7 | Fmaj7 | Fmaj7 | Bbmaj7 Bbmaj7 :| Then you could play along in the cycle of 4ths over this by first playing a C major scale, then an F major scale, then a Bb major scale. The very easiest way to memorize the cycle of fourths is to do two things: 1. Realize that the word "BEAD-G" is the key to the cycle. 2. Practice playing all your scales in the cycle. A key to memorizing anything is to find a basic pattern in the structure and memorizing that, rather than memorizing everything. If we take the all the notes in the cycle they go like this: C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G At which point it repeats itself. Now, if we strip out the repetitive flat notes have this: C F BEAD-G BEAD G Now memorizing the cycle is saying this while you play: "C F (flat)BEAD-G BEAD-G" Which means, you play C F, BEAD-G in flat keys, and then BEAD-G. That's it, but a really great way to practice this, which I've been doing for a while now is to try this: 1. Take a scale form you want to work on, say, 5th string starting on middle finger. 2. Play each scale in the cycle of 4ths jumping up and down the string. 3. After you can find each one, move up to singing the root note as you play each of the scales in the cycle. 4. Now level up by trying to do all that while looking up at the ceiling and not at your guitar. Another exercise it to do all of your scale forms from one position following the cycle of fourths. For example, do all the keys in the cycle but don't go above the 8th fret, or 6th fret. What the above exercises should do is train your ear to hear the movements in 4ths, to hear when you're in the right key, and to find notes on your guitar. It's not the only exercise that does this, but it's a fun way to practice boring scales. Memorizing Triads ================= Triads are the fundamental parts of basic chords, and the basis of harmony. If you know the triads for all the chords then it's easy to build arpeggios, analyze a song, figure out what makes up a chord, or discover new chord shapes on your guitar. It's also something lots of other musicians have problem remember so if you memorize it you can impress everyone like you know something. Normally you're told to just memorize all the notes in all the triads for all chords in every key with all the sharps and flats in the right places. For example, you'd be told that these are the triads for B, Eb, and D major chords: B-D#-F# Eb-G-Bb D-F#-A Nice, so you've got tons of sharps and flats and it's very hard to see the pattern. Next they'll tell you nonsense such as, "To make a chord flat you just flat the 3rd which makes a B minor chord B-D-F#." Oh that's even more to memorize. However, an important rule of triads is the *name* of the notes stays constant, it's only the sharp/natural/flat designator that changes. If you know that, then memorizing the notes is obviously the most important thing, and it's also the easiest to do. First you just remember the notes in order (which does require memorizing): CEGBDFAC That's all the notes you need to remember, and in that order. From this you pick any note and you'll know the *name* of the notes in that chord. This is important because the name isn't the real note, it's just the first step. You'll then just need to figure out what gets sharped and flatted for each chord, whether it's major, minor, diminished, or augmented. Let's try it, without the sharps and flats required, for the first part of the cycle of 4ths. Next to the names of the notes, we'll show them again with the required flats: * C CEG C-E-G * F FAC F-A-C * Bb BDF Bb-D-F * Eb EGB Eb-G-Bb * Ab ACE Ab-C-Eb * Db DFA Db-F-Ab * Gb GBD Gb-Bb-Db This list is organized as simply the key (Eb) followed by the names of the notes in the triad (EGB), and then the *actual* notes using the sharps or flats notation (Eb-G-Bb). How I went about memorizing this is I just kept repeating "CEGBDFAC". I would say it more like, "CEG EGB GBD BDF DFA FAC ACE" or other combinations of those triads. Then I went through the cycle of 4ths and played each actual note with it's correct sharps and flats. Doing this often enough and I quickly memorized them very well. An important thing to note is that I memorized these using the cycle of 4ths. If you use the cycle of 5ths this becomes a fairly easy exercise because the third note in a triad is the next note in the cycle of fifths. Think about that for a while, and you'll see a way to practice both triads and cycle of 5ths (not 4ths) is to repeat the notes in the cycle like this: CEG GBD DFA ACE EGB BDF F#A#C# ... Finding as many different ways to view these structures is what will help you figure out new things about music. Cool Stuff You Can Do ===================== Alright, so you memorize these two structures and then what can you do? Apart from impressing your friends at stupid parties (even though playing the guitar is probably more impressive), you can actually figure out structures very quickly. You can also decipher chords quicker. For example, if you're given the instructions "play the 4th then the 3rd from C" you can snap out of your head to play "F E C". If you are given a chord of C/G (C with G in the bass inversion) then you know it has "G-C-E". If you see notes in a song of "G-Bb-Db" then you know that's a G diminished chord.

Round 15: Lydian Mode For Greater Good

2010-03-22 15:30:51.888905

Round 15 will cover the Lydian mode, which is very similar to the Ionian mode we just did in Round 14. The main difference with Lydian is that it raises the 4th making it sound more modern. The reason is that modern music doesn't really play a natural 4th that often, especially in Jazz, Blues, and Country. Included in this round is a copy of the [US Navy Basic Music Manual](/static/data/round/2010/03/22/153051/media/US_Navy_Basic_Music.pdf) which is an excellent free manual that covers a wide range of practical music theory. I'll be using their way of describing scales and modes since it's simple to understand, but if you have your own way then go for it. The Challenge ============= For this round we are looking to get you into using the Lydian mode where you'd normally use the Ionian mode. Your challenge is to craft another simple 3 or 4 chord progression that lets you play the Lydian mode and either emphasize the sharp 4 note (F# in a C Lydian mode) or simply craft a regular major mode progression and play Lydian on it anyway. The key to the challenge is to work in that sharp 4 note so that it fits the chord progression you've crafted. An extra challenge, for those who want to do multiple submissions, is to do a second submission (or a section of your song) that is very modal and minimalist. Go with a single chord and a droning bass note. Maybe no chord at all, just multiple instruments implying a chord or two. You'll be surprised at both how easy it is to solo over such minimal composition, but also how hard it is to make it sound interesting. Chords to look at in this challenge are the major 7th, and major 7th#11 (major 7 sharp 11) chords. The Theory ========== Hopefully you know what the major scale is from Round 13, but if not then lets review the notes: * Key of C: C D E F G A B C * Key of G: G A B C D E F# G If you're not familiar with the theory, the two scales above have the same "pattern" of increments of notes taken from the main chromatic scale. The chromatic scale is basically all the black and white keys on a piano played in order. Another way to say that is every "semi-tone" or half step. An example of a semi-tone is E-F or G-G# or Ab-B. The chromatic scale is pretty damn annoying though, so the major scale is a pattern that's pleasing for most of its notes in a particular key. This is why if you play a B scale over a C major chord progression it'll sound bad. Most of the notes in B conflict with C. However, as you'll see in a second, if you play the Lydian mode of the G major scale (C D E F# G A B C) it'll actually sound pretty decent. The reason is that the patterns are almost the same sequence of semi-tones between C Ionian (Key of C) and C Lydian (Key of G), except the 4th note is sharp (F#) in C Lydian. But why does this sound good? Well, whether it sounds "good" or not is entirely cultural taste, but for the most part a natural 4th note (F) conflicts with most of the chords in a given key. It probably wasn't that way until Jazz and Blues started changing how we listen to music, but today a natural 4th note seems to drive people up a wall. They just like pentatonics, and if you look at the C major pentatonic you don't find a natural 4th: * C Major Pentatonic: C D E G A C * A Minor Pentatonic: A C D E G A No F there, and since we've been listening to this scale over and over and over for more than 100 years, and something like this is found all over the world, we just got used to music not having the natural 4th or the natural 7th. In fact, another way to look at pentatonics is a "corrected" scale that removes the unstable 4th and 7th notes creating a set of notes that fits most music better. Memorizing Lydian ================= There's a few ways to describe the Lydian mode. Probably the easiest is just "Ionian with sharp 4th." That makes it simple since, if you know the major scale, then you can extrapolate to the Lydian mode very easily. For example, let's say you want to do the F Lydian mode: 1. Play the F major scale like normal: F G A Bb C D E F 2. Change the 4th note to be sharp: F G A B C D E F Tada! That's all there is to it, and turns out the F Lydian mode is actually in the key of C (C to F is the 4th). Alright, so learning something usually involves looking at it from multiple ways until you find one way that, for whatever reason, lets you memorize it and use it. You can also learn the mode as a sequence of steps: * W-W-W-H-W-W-H -- W==Whole Step, H==Half Step * 1 1 1/2 1 1 1/2 -- same thing * 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 -- The number of semi-tones, so 2 is 2 semi-tones. There's many different ways to look at it, but an interesting way that works for many different scales and modes is the use of tetrachords. This is talked about in the manual for this round: * [US Navy Basic Music Manual](/static/data/round/2010/03/22/153051/media/US_Navy_Basic_Music.pdf) In chapters 5-8, and how it works is you use combinations of 4 note sequences also called "tetrachords". These four note sequences can be either Major, minor, natural minor, or harmonic minor. When you combine them with a Link note in different ways you get different modes and scales. That means all you need to know for this round is that a Major tetrachord is: * 2 2 1 / W W H And that a Link note is always 2 semi-tones (one whole step). We can then lay out all the modes like this: * Ionian MLM (M=2 2 1, L=2, M=2 2 1) * Lydian LMM (L=2, M=2 2 1, M=2 2 1) * Mixolydian MML (M=2 2 1, M=2 2 1, L=2) That's all there is to the Major modes and how to construct them. The minor modes will be covered in later rounds, but they work the same way, just with the minor and natrual minor tetrachords. Even if you already know your scales and modes, try looking at them from the point of view of tetrachords. You may find that opens up a unique perspective and helps you hear it or play it differently. For more on this in the Navy manual, see chapters 5-8, with the Lydian mode covered in Ch. 8 on page 74.

Round 14: In Ionian And Three Chords

2010-03-16 14:39:47.407702

Let's go for a minimalist fun round to get the creative juices flowing. The minimalism in this round will be harmonic because you'll only have three chords available to you. You'll also have to play the regular major scale in the Ionian mode over these chords to solo. The trick will be interpretation and "bending the rules" to make this combination of three chords and Ionian sound interesting. The Challenge ============= Take the Ionian mode (the major scale) and any three chords from a chosen key and craft your song around this setup. Obviously don't play the scale in order like when you practice. Instead base your melody and soloing on the major scale over the chords you've chosen. For extra points, try to do it in one of the following styles: * Ambient spacey. * Country. * Classical (especially Neo Classical). Remember that Ambient will be almost entirely tricks of effect and composition. Country will probably be just a straight forward major scale mixed with a major pentatonic. Classical or Neo Classical will be very Bach inspired. But if you got better ideas, go for it. The Lesson ========== For a bit of review, a "mode" is basically the notes of the major scale, but starting on a different note. If you take the C major scale, and then start on the D note, it'll have a minor sound. If you start on the F note it'll have a major sound again. If you're not familiar with this concept then try playing the modes and singing them at the same time. Go slowly, and see if you can hear how they do sound different. Now, even though these modes all seem to sound different, they are still the same notes. Sure, playing them all by themselves in sequence makes them sound "minor" or "major", but these aren't played in sequence or by themselves in most music. There's also harmony, or chords too. In our challenge you are allowed to play three chords. The three chords can be just about anything that fits in the harmonized major scale. Here's the main harmonized chords in the key of C and G: | C | Dm | Em | F | G | Am | Bdim | | G | Am | Bm | C | D | Em | F#dim | Over these chords you can play the regular C scale (or G scale over the G chords), and if you played the scale at different times it'd sound different. Give it a try by recording, for example, the following chord sequence at about 60bpm: |: Dm Dm | Em Em :|: C C | G G :| NOTE: The ':' (colon) in the above means to repeat the stuff between the colons. So in this case you'd play the Dm/Em sequence once (play it twice) then do the same for the C/G sequence. Now just play the C major scale at an even pace to match it and listen to these chords you've recorded as you play. You'll see that even though you're playing the "Ionian" mode, it actually will seem to "shift" depending on the chord playing at the time. When the Dm|Em chords play it sounds "minor" and sad. When the C|G chords play it sounds major and happy, and in fact seems to "lift up". Recording various chord sequences and playing different modes over them is how you learn to hear the modes. Using Only Three Chords ======================= This challenge involves both a mode you play, and the chords that define that mode. Even though you are playing notes from the Ionian mode, you still have to come up with something good for the harmony. With only three chords this can be difficult, but there's a little "trick" you can use to get the most out of them. Make your song a simple ABAB type song, like Verse Chorus Verse Chorus, now in the Verse (A) section play the typical I|IV|V chords (C F G), and then in the Chorus either play them out of sequence, or play fewer of them. For example, you could do I|IV|V|IV (C|F|G|F) for the Verse, and then in the chorus ramp it up with |I|V|I|V| (C|G|C|G). If you also change the intensity during the chorus then it'll signal to the listener that this part is important. Another helpful thing about modern harmony is that some styles let you break the rules and play mostly major chords where you'd normally play a minor chord. Try putting in a chord that's normally minor but switch it to major instead.

Round 13: It's Rock, Not Metal

2010-03-09 18:48:20.598513

The last round was lots of fun, and I feel like keeping up the genre theme we've got, so now we're going to bring out a genre we haven't really done that much: Rock 'n Roll. Now, I know some of you are going to go crazy and bust out your screaming distorting and your best Randy Rhodes tapping solo goodness, but I said *Rock*, not Metal. We're talking AC/DC, Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones, Black Crowes, Cream. The classics that focus on a few chords played against a driving beat with that darker smoother distortion. The kind of music that destroyed the world in the '60s. And we'll do this one in G. Seems to be lots of great songs are in G. Some Things To Try ================== Not a strict requirement, but if you're interested in making your mix a little more interesting try some or all of these: * Change the panning during the song to focus the arrangement on a particular instrument. * Pan the rhythm section to a separate position in the mix from the leads. * Change the volume of some part of the mix to accentuate changes in tempo or increase action in the theme. You of course can do all three, but a key is to do these sparingly, almost so that people don't notice you're doing it. Of course, this is totally optional.

Round 12: Let's Get The Show Back On In Style

2010-03-01 08:53:20.075114

I blame it on a guitar. Not just any guitar, but one that I bought recently which turned out to be absolutely perfect. It has taken up all of my fascination and effort for the last few weeks, making me neglect my Fret War duties. What kind of guitar is it you ask? It is a G&L ASAT Classic S. Not many of them made. It sounds exactly the way I want it to sound. It's first guitar that doesn't make my hands feel like raw meat after hours of playing. I now play just this guitar, all day, all night. It is lovely. However, Fret War must go on, and it must come back in style. The Caleb experiment, while fun for a few, seems to have driven off some folks. What we need is something simple. Something fun. What we need my friends is: An A Major Blues ---------------- That's right, do them up any way you like. Country fried, happy and chunky, swinging and rolling, all that matters is that you play blues in the key of A Major. The Return Of The Show ---------------------- Next week I'll be cranking out a new Fret Show and writing more for the Shed as well. If there's topics of interest you'd like me to cover let me know. In the next installment of the Show I'll be demonstrating how I used a Reaper plugin to clean up a badly recorded piece of audio recently. It's actually quite interesting and makes for a good Shed+Show combo piece. Round Notifications Going Out ----------------------------- You'll notice that everyone is getting notified about rounds. You'll get them for rounds, shows, and sheds now too. If you hate them, read further down for how to turn them off. Alright everyone, the Conductor is back and we're going to start playing again. Stay tuned for some fun surprises as well.

Shed 7: Chromatic Exercise

2010-02-04 00:15:59.052513

Here's a little chromatic exercise to free up your fingers. Included media contain the tab and a MIDI sample. It has a slight *Flight of the Bumblebee* feel to it when you play it fast enough(at around 200 BPM). Make sure to take the progression as high up the fretboard as you can and also closer to the neck, to ensure your accuracy and speed are consistent. Start the metronome at 80 BPM and play a couple of times until you get used to it. Then increase the metronome speed by 10 BPM and play again. Repeat the process until you can play accurately at around 200 BPM, but make sure you don't rush it. Also, these type of chromatic runs tend to put a lot of pressure on your fretting fingers. Make sure to warm up before starting the exercise. If you reach a certain BPM that is too fast for you, stop and go back to a slower BPM. Don't increase speed until you're 100% superawesome at your current speed. Also, these are the kind of licks that easy to learn, hard to play very accurately, but great to impress a crowd with. :)

Shed 6: Motivational post where I play Mr.Expert

2010-02-03 22:54:33.538586

Musicians, like people from every walk of life, hit a brick wall or two once in a while; this is when they think of giving up. Now, to lump all musicians into a single group can be crude. Every musician has their own set of goals and objectives. Some want to play that latest Mily Cirus song for fun, some want to write songs, some want to be the next Van Halen, yet some just want to rock out in their showers. That being said, at some point people do feel like giving up. How one deals with thoughts of discouragement, demotivation and giving up, is what separates a strong musician from a weak one. There are literally a billion reasons one could come up with for lacking motivation. Life, economic realities, bad breakups, disabilities, addiction and so on. But in my opinion, as long as you're still in good health, all those billion reasons have more than a billion solutions. Just like hacking code, every solution in real life has multiple solutions. Sure, every solution may not be efficient, but the efficiency of solutions comes from experience. The important thing to realize is that if you have a problem, you can fix it. Have a lot going on in life? Cut down on the number of hours you play, but don't give up. Bad breakup? Stop moping around and starting rocking out. Can't afford better equipment? Take up a second job. Only you can fix your problems. And if you quit before even looking for solutions, then the only reason you're giving up music is you. Personal problems aside, a major factor that might influence in giving up is lack of recognition. Sure, you can play music for playing music, because it makes you happy. But let's face it, musicians want appreciation and people want great music. It's a two-way relationship. If this was the 60s and you gave up solely because you weren't popular enough, then I might cut you a little slack. But in this day and age, that is merely an excuse musicians use to cover up for their lack of ability. Nobody knows your band? Well, buy some cheap shared hosting and a domain and put together a little page for your fans. Register a goddamn MySpace page if you can't afford hosting. Make a Facebook page. Add a hundred million people as friends and make them listen to your music. Don't even get me started on recording/production. Take a look at some of the amazing music that the FretWar guys have been putting up. You *don't* need a label deal. In fact, fuck the labels. Buy some cheap recording gear and download a copy of Audacious to record and mix like a pro. Even a goddamn $5 microphone will give you decent sound quality. Any 12 year old kid sitting in his basement can record amazing quality music with just about nothing but his guitar and a $400 netbook. The point I'm trying to make is, when you feel like giving up, no matter how many solutions you have, you will try convincing yourself that giving up is the only option. I've just been hit with CTS from RSI. The last time wasn't so bad, but this time it's much worse. My fretting hand can't take any pressure, so I'm taking a break from my gigantic practice sessions. The pain will go away in a couple of weeks, but there's also the possibility that I'll have to painfully relearn the way I play. This might even mess up my chances at music school. But you know what? Once the pain goes away, I'm going to rock fuck out.

Round 11: Caleb Vs. The Wizard Zed: Guitar Duel Choose Your Own Adventure

2010-02-02 16:13:19.884615

We're going to do this one a little differently. I was trying to figure out how to pull it off so we'll just keep it loose and see how it turns out. What we want to do is make a "perpetual guitar duel". The theme will be Caleb battling the Wizard Zed in a blues style. Imagine Caleb has entered the Wizard's chambers and killed nearly everyone in his path. Now him and Zed fight to the death. What we're shooting for here is a good consistent set of "clips" taken from a guitar duel you create. I'll then piece them all together after the round and do one really long guitar duel. To make it work we need to do a bit more editing on the submission than before. Here's how you'll do it: * The song form will be Intro:Verse:12-Bar-Duels*4:Pre-Chorus:Ending * Put the BPM at 140 and use a drum track that's consistent. * Each section is 4 bars long, but each of the 4 "Duel" sections is a regular 12 bar blues. That means you'll play for a full 12 bar blues progression four times, once for each character. * Use the standard blues changes: G:G:G:G|C:C:G:G|D:C:G:D * Major or minor blues, either way, and you can mix them or add a few non-blues tones for effect. * We'll do it in the key of G so we can also get crazy with open tunings. * Record your song like normal, but make the cuts between sections clear. * Finally, when you submit, send in the whole song, but also attach your lead track as a separate track. * Extra points if you can carve your lead track into the above sections for easier combination. The goal is to have 4 decent takes of a Duel section, and then some surrounding parts. I'll take the best leads and sections and then combine them into one monster song. And now for the fun part: It's choose your own adventure. You get to decide in your duels and your song whether the Wizard or Caleb wins. Whoever has the most compelling reason why it should be one or the other will decide what the ending of the story is like.

Round 10: Gimme Some Soft Soul

2010-01-25 10:25:20.271993

Whew, I need a break from Caleb. It's fun but the theme is very metal, so we'll finish it off in Round 11, but in Round 10 I thought we'd bring everyone back so they can play something that's not metal for a change. One thing we haven't done is Soul. Stax Records. Otis Redding. Isaac Hayes. We can even throw in some Motown with Marvin Gaye, James Jamerson. You could even pick up some newer Soul/Pop like Joss Stone, or Corinne Bailey Rae. The challenge in this round will be doing an original song in the soul style, but working out the melody with a guitar. No singing. Sing with your guitar. Here's the parameters for this round: * No faster than 90 BPM. Let's keep this slow and sultry. * You have to use the harmony from an original song by one of the masters. You can modify it, but not too much. * You have to include at least one non-guitar instrument. Maybe a little piano riff, or a harmonica. Not too much, just a little flavor. Now when I say "use the harmony" I mean figure out the chords and then play them, not sample from the original song. Other than that, there's no other limits. Just cook up something bluesy, catchy, maybe even a little pop to it.

Round 9: The Epic Battles Of Caleb: Ch 4,5,6

2010-01-19 08:34:13.219253

We're continuing the dovetail rounds to finish up the concept album. Again 3 at a time so you can pick and choose, this time 4, 5 and 6 are up for grabs. *NOTE:* I'm going to implement multiple submissions better so that each submission is its own thing, similar to forum posts. Wait for that before you submit to this Round. Chapter 4: The Wizard Zed ========================= The evil wizard Zed appears one day in the Royal court to steal princess Telem. Zed made a deal with King Theo that he failed to honor and Zed wants his payment back. The deal was King Theo's enemies would fall if Zed was given Telem as his own. King Theo refused so Zed decides to take her. Caleb tries to fight Zed but loses ('cause Zed is such a badass) and she is taken anyway. Setup: Black Metal phrygian, ridiculous over the top theatrics. 4/4 time. Chapter 5: The Wizard's Lament ============================== The Wizard Zed is back in his lair, with his new trophy, Princess Telem safely in her gilded cage. The Wizard tries to get her to love him, making himself beautiful, but she despises him. She can tell he is disgusting. Yet still, he tries to make his moves on her. Tries to charm her, in his dark way. When this fails, he laments capturing her and must decide what he'll do with her now that he can't get what he wants. Setup: Dark Disco. Imagine if Slayer played "Love Rollercoaster" as the Wizard is making his creepy moves. Chapter 6: Caleb's Blood Soaked Journey Through Zed's Castle ============================================================ Without any time to waste, the court wizard helps Caleb transport as close as he can to the Wizard Zed's Castle. Caleb sneaks inside, and works his way to the top of the castle, hiding as a servant. Zed is unaware that Caleb is coming to kill him. Caleb dispatches anyone in his path who might expose him. He quickly makes his way to the top, hiding bodies as he goes. He finally gets within two flights of the stairs to Zed's chambers when he is confronted by a vast armed guard. He has been caught. With nothing left to lose he draws all of his available weapons and commences with the final bloodbath working his way to the door of Zed's chambers. Nobody survives. Setup: Let's go Industrial on this one. Fast brutal industrial with no set key or timing, you choose. Get as much action going as you can on this one, it's the battle just before the final one though, so don't blow your entire wad.

Round 8: The Epic Battles Of Caleb: Ch. 3-5

2010-01-14 03:19:37.636974

The story continues. Since we didn't get too many submissions for all of Round 7, we're repeating some of the chapters in this round, and adding one new chapter 5. Chapter 3: The King's Death Dealer In Love ========================================== He returns to the kingdom a decorated hero but he can't wash the stench of blood from his fists. His powerful body is even more contorted, as he discovered in his battles that it hardens further the more he fights. His return home is more of a retirement than anything. Even though he can't have her, he pines for the King's daughter, Princess Telem. He dreams of living in the palace as the family's guardian, so he can at least be near her. Setup: Happy Ionian, rock, or jazzy with a bit of fatigue. 12/8 time. Chapter 4: The Wizard Zed ========================= The evil wizard Zed appears one day in the Royal court to steal princess Telem. Zed made a deal with King Theo that he failed to honor and Zed wants his payment back. The deal was King Theo's enemies would fall if Zed was given Telem as his own. King Theo refused so Zed decides to take her. Caleb tries to fight Zed but loses ('cause Zed is such a badass) and she is taken anyway. Setup: Black Metal phrygian, ridiculous over the top theatrics. 4/4 time. Chapter 5: The Wizard's Lament ============================== The Wizard Zed is back in his lair, with his new trophy, Princess Telem safely in her gilded cage. The Wizard tries to get her to love him, making himself beautiful, but she despises him. She can tell he is disgusting. Yet still, he tries to make his moves on her. Tries to charm her, in his dark way. When this fails, he laments capturing her and must decide what he'll do with her now that he can't get what he wants. Setup: Dark Disco. Imagine if Slayer played "Love Rollercoaster" as the Wizard is making his creepy moves.

Round 7: The Epic Battles Of A Killer Named Caleb

2009-12-31 09:15:50.118356

We need to do a concept album. A set of songs telling the story of Caleb The Killer. The story will be in 8 chapters (assuming we don't get bored) with the first 4 done in Round 7, and the final 4 in Round 8. Here's chapters 1-4 of the story, with an explanation of how this round will work after. Chapter 1: A Train Station Coin Locker ====================================== Our hero is born into the land an ugly mutant and abandoned at a train station by his desperate parents, stuffed into a coin locker. A nun finds him, and takes him to be raised at an orphanage. He is given the name Caleb. He grows up an orphan, ugly, and not very smart, but he has a terrible gift the nuns try to hide from him. Setup: Dorian or minor pentatonic in 3/4 time. Chapter 2: A Killing Machine ========= Caleb is out buying food for the orphanage at the market when street thugs try to steal his money. He fights back even though the nuns told him to never raise his hand against another man. He also finds out the reason they told him this is because he is the perfect killing machine. His body is disfigured but strong as diamonds, making him a deadly force against the thugs. The captain of the King's guards see Caleb take sword blows without so much as wincing and immediately asks him to become one of King Theo's royal guards. Caleb serves King Theo well for years, helping the King establish even more lands in far away battles. Setup: Metal Aeolian, but timid, uncertain. Free time. That's right, no time. Chapter 3: The King's Death Dealer In Love ========================================== He returns to the kingdom a decorated hero but he can't wash the stench of blood from his fists. His powerful body is even more contorted, as he discovered in his battles that it hardens further the more he fights. His return home is more of a retirement than anything. Even though he can't have her, he pines for the King's daughter, Princess Telem. He dreams of living in the palace as the family's guardian, so he can at least be near her. Setup: Happy Ionian, rock, or jazzy with a bit of fatigue. 12/8 time. Chapter 4: The Wizard Zed ========================= The evil wizard Zed appears one day in the Royal court to steal princess Telem. Zed made a deal with King Theo that he failed to honor and Zed wants his payment back. The deal was King Theo's enemies would fall if Zed was given Telem as his own. King Theo refused so Zed decides to take her. Caleb tries to fight Zed but loses ('cause Zed is such a badass) and she is taken anyway. Setup: Black Metal phrygian, ridiculous over the top theatrics. 4/4 time. How This Will Work ================== Alright, this is a challenge in creative interpretation. We've done a lot of musical stuff, but nothing that demanded interpreting something slightly odd ball. The key to this is take the above fairly ridiculous story and have fun with it. However, there's four chapters, which is a bit much for most people, and we want everyone to play. So what we'll do is use the comments on this round to figure out what chapters we'll all do in order to get good coverage. Nothing set in stone, just get a discussion going of what people will work on so others can try to do things nobody else is doing yet. There should be enough players that if everyone does 1 or 2 chapters then we can have a good competition with different interpretations of each chapter, and work out a pretty fun little "album". For inspiration, even though it's an advertisement for Milk, you gotta go see [Battle For Milkquarious](http://www.milkquarious.com/) It's a hilarious rock opera, and actually pretty damn brilliant. I'm A Serious Musician With No Time For D&D Music ================================================= If the above idea of doing a weird concept album about a mutant in a magical land doesn't sound like fun to you, then just pick one of the "setups" from above and, like, do whatever it is serious musicians do.

Show 10: Site Updates

2009-12-27 00:29:54.889463

This is a quick post to tell everyone about some new site updates: * You can now go to [gear](/gear) and see a display of the pictures people have posted of their gear. * Player's gear is now shown on their player page so you can see what they use when they play Fret War. * You can now comment on [rounds](/round/latest) just like you can on submissions. * You can also comment on [shed](/shed) and [show](/show) posts too. * All your posts are formatted now with some simple formatting. Try out the comments for shows on this one and shoot me any suggestions you have about the new changes. Next up is a better Winnnars display and index page.

Round 6: The Locusts of Locrian

2009-12-21 09:12:29.923104

When you think of the modes of a scale, you usually think of the ones everyone learns for common song forms. Aeolian, Mixolydian, Dorian, and all their friends. But Locrian is the bastard step child of the modes. It's usually off on its own, with only odd sounding chords with weird names to support it. In Round 6 we'll explore Locrian. Your task is to come up with something that uses the Locrian mode, and if you can maybe even the Super Locrian (or Altered Scale). The goal is to stretch your musical tastes to something you may not really know how to use. To find a use for this odd dangling thumb of a mode. To get you started, here's some basic information about the Locrian and Super Locrian scales. Locrian ======= * It is the 7th mode, so play a C scale from B and you've got it. * It's formula is 1-b2-b3-4-b5-b6-b7 or H-W-W-H-W-W-W if you like steps. * It is considered a minor scale. * The important note is the b5. * It works over diminished and -7b5 (half-diminished) chords. Common chord progressions (in C) would be: * |Bdim : D| * |B-7b5 : E7| * |B-7b5 : G7| * |B-7b5 : E7(b9) : Am9| These are of course just suggestions to get you to hear the mode. Don't take these *literally*, and instead create your own progressions that could work. Super Locrian ============= This mode fits with the melodic minor scale and is found most commonly in Jazz. While the Locrian mode is found in classical harmony, but not often used, the Super Locrian is used as it fits over many of the altered chords found in Jazz. Here's what makes up a Super Locrian scale: * It's 7th mode of the melodic minor scale. * It has a formula of 1-b2-b3-3-b5-b6-b7, or H-W-H-W-W-W-W. * You can also think of it as 1-b9-#9-3-b5-#5-b7 which shows you why it's so great for altered chords like A13b5#9 (my favorite). * It will work over any altered chords found in minor chord progressions. With this scale you'll want to find some scale patterns and practice it, and then work up a few chord progressions that it might fit over. I'll have some chord progressions for this round in shed posts during the week. Don't Be So Literal =================== Remember, the goal is to learn these two scales and try to use one of them in a song. It can be slow, fast, in any key, use weird progressions, and even switch between the two. Use your ear and sense of style to make something awesome. Good luck!

Round 5: Going Country(ish)

2009-12-08 17:47:50.424662

Let's do another open ended round. It appears that folks take rounds with sheet music *much* too literally, so in this round, we're just gonna leave it open ended as hell. For Round 5, you have to submit something from the south of the US. That could be Country, New Country, Blues, Bluegrass, Southern Rock, Rockabilly, anything from south of the Mason-Dixon line at 39o 43' 19.92216" N. Hell, if you stretch this you could do Psychobilly. You could do Salsa! You could do Tejano! Blues Rock! Blues-grass-rock-psychobilly! The goal in this round is to get as close to the genre you've chosen as possible without violating copyright. Good luck!

Show 9: Fixes Today: Replies And Password Reset

2009-12-07 03:27:00.797090

Today I was determined to get out replies to comments and password reset. Do or die I was going to finish those two damn features. In the process I fixed a whole bunch of other bugs, but the two most important features are password reset and replies to comments. Password reset is described [here](http://fretwar.com/c/player_forgot.html) and accessible from the login forms. Replies are simple, there's a reply link on each comment and you write what you wanna say. Eventually we'll enable the "douche flag". Here's a screenshot: ![replies screenshot](media/replies_screenshot.png) Finally, we also have started to email you when someone comments on your submission. To make sure you can opt out of these notifications, we've created a notification management page: [http://fretwar.com/user/notification](http://fretwar.com/user/notification) Just disable it if you don't want emails about events on the site. ROUND ENDS TOMORROW I was working so hard I didn't get to actually work on my submission at all, so I want to make the deadline tomorrow. There's a fairly lame countdown timer on the [round now](http://fretwar.com/round/latest) so you can figure out when it's due. -- Zed A. Shaw http://zedshaw.com/

Shed 5: Learning Those Weird Round 4 Chords

2009-11-30 17:33:04.699397

Round 4 has some classic Jazz chords from the 50's era of Jazz that are still used today, although not quite as often. Most of these chords will be familiar to you, but the stranger ones, and some of their transitions will be very foreign. In this shed post we're going to teach you how to practice these chords so you can play them. Learning to play complicated chords requires taking two chords you are having trouble with, and playing them one after another up and down the neck of the guitar. Imagine we have these two pairs of chords:

|: Gmaj7 Gmaj6 | Am7 Am6 :|

And we're going to play the following forms of these four chords: * 3X443X Gma7 * 3X243X Gma6 * 5X5555 Am7 * 5X4555 Am6 Here's the process you go through to be able to play the above chord progression and these chords: 1. Figure the chords out from the descriptions above and make sure you can finger them and they sound good. 1. Without a metronome, play the Gma7 then the Gma6 chord repeatedly until you get the switching between them down. 1. Now set the metronome on about 60 BPM, and play: |Gma7 Gma6 | G#maj7 G#maj6 | Amaj7 Amaj6 | ...| all the way up and down the neck, playing two beats per chord. 1. Once you have Gma7 Gma6 down, do the same thing with Am7 Am6. Up and down the fretboard. 1. Finally, when you have each pair fairly good, play all four in the same way, up and down the fretboard. 1. TIP: If you hear a dead note or one that sounds bad because of your fingers muting them, then play the chords like normal, but just pick that one string until you get is sounding right. While you do this, you want to keep time, and you want to play the chords so that each string is played cleanly. The Chords To Learn ------------------- With this practice pattern in mind, you'll need to learn the following set of chords for Round 4: 1. 3X443X Gma7 1. 3X243X Gma6 1. 5X5555 Ami7 1. 5X4555 Ami6 1. 46X577 D13b5b9 1. XX4557 D13 1. X3545X Cma7 1. X3225X Cma6 1. X5X565 Dmi7 1. X5X465 Dmi6 1. 3X3455 G13 1. X4X46X G7b5 1. 3X3444 G7#5b9 1. 3X343X G7 And here are the most common two chord combinations you can use to learn them for Round 4:

|: Gmaj7 Gmaj6 :|
|: Am7 Am6 :|
|: Ami7 D13 :|
|: Ami7 D13b5b9 :|
|: Cma7 Cma6 :|
|: Dmi7 Dmi6 :|
|: Dmi7 G13 :|
|: Dmi7 G7b5 :|
|: Dmi7 G7#5b9 :|
|: Dmi7 G7 :|

Once you've got those under your fingers, go back to the [Round 4 sheet music](/round/4) and practice all the chord combinations in the same way. If you spend about 1 or 2 hours a night, you should be able to play these chords for the song. Hearing These Chords -------------------- In the next shed I'll have a recorded version of this lesson where you can hear me play these chords so you can understand how they sound, and how they relate to the Round 4 music. Mickey Baker ------------ The above method for learning the various Jazz chords comes from Mickey Baker's books on Jazz and Blues guitar: These are excellent books that work as a trainer for playing Jazz. They were written in the '50s and have a few mistakes or strange terms we don't use anymore, but if you're into old style Jazz just before Bebop, then these books are great. I'd recommend buying the first book (Jazz Guitar Micky Baker) since it's updated with better notation and printing. The 2nd has the same content. The 3rd book covers quite a lot of advanced topics, and especially gets into doing some fun things with chord melodies, but it may be too advanced for some.

Round 4: Four A Blues For You

2009-11-30 08:18:12.707873

In this round, we're going to get away from the simple setup-for-solor style of composition and get into some very nice Jazz and Blues chord structures. By the time you're done doing this round, you will hopefully have learned: * At least three or four weird chords. * How to replace common chords with more complex ones. * Ways to alter a basic blues into more involved structures. * Some Jazz chord theory. However, we don't want to blast your brain quite yet. First you need to get started with just "a blues". Four of them actually. Beginner To Advanced ==================== This round is going to be run differently from the previous rounds in that there's a composition for every level of player. In fact, you could submit multiple submissions in this round if you so desire. Indefinite Articles Matter -------------------------- There's "the blues" and then there's "a blues", and that subtle "the" vs. "a" matters quite a lot. If you crack open the [sheet music PDF](http://fretwar.com/static/data/round/2009/11/30/081812/media/indefinite_article_blues.pdf) you'll see there's 4 blues numbers I've composed. What you should learn from these four pieces of music is how your basic 12 bar blues can be "meta programmed" into less and more complex forms without losing its original structure. Now, your first one is nothing fancy. It's your typical "quick change" blues progression in Bb. What I've done is I've written a few "guide tones" to the composition so you can see how they chords might relate to a melody or solo. You could play a simple Bb pentatonic over this and be done with it. But, to make this piece of music interesting, you should try to solo such that the guide tones appear in your solo at the given beats. Next up we have the simplest "proto blues" you could have as "Blues #2". This is actually the basis of Boogie Woogie blues and most later rock and blues forms. Notice that this is also in Bb, but it's in 2/2 time. Notice also that it doesn't have a turn-around like you're used to. Later in the week, I'll throw up how this kind of blues is turned into a fast moving 16th note boogie woogie. Blues #2 could also be a very good ballad, or slow mean and dirty old blues with some modifications. Blues 1 And 2 Challenges ------------------------ In both Blues #1 and #2 your goal is to solo so that these guide tones land on the "strong beats" of 1 and 3, and that your other notes and phrases build around them. You could stop there, and those could both be very fine submissions. Blues 3 And 4 Meta Blues ======================== Let's say you've nailed 1 and 2, or it's too boring for you. Now we'll step into two advanced forms I've composed for Round 4 and advanced players. In Blues #3 you have almos the same structure as Blues #1, except I've added some new fancy Jazz chords you might not know and changed the structure *just* slightly. The guide tones are now adjusted to fit these new chords, but since the guide tones are on the strong beats, they aren't that much different from Blues 1. In Blues #4 I've gone off the deep end in interpreting and "meta programming" Blues 1. I've replaced almost everything with alternate chords and II-V or II-V-I progressions. I've adjusted the guide tones to match each chord, and there's two chords per bar. On top of that I've thrown in some really out there Jazz chords. We're talking Alts with #5 and b9 and b5 all over. Blues 3 And 4 Challenges ------------------------ Over the course of this week I'll be showing you how to play these chords and hopefully how to solo over them. If you stick with it, by the time you get to the end of Round 4 you'll have learned all of these chords and how to play them. Your challenge with Blues #3 and #4 is to first play the chords, with a good comping style, and then to solo over it. I'm pretty sure there are players who can already do this, which means you can also take these ideas and *compose* your own rendition of this. Remember, that's *compose*, not "jam". If you don't play these chord changes, then I wanna see sheet music in your submission. ABC, MIDI, PDF Attached ======================= I've included all the source material used to make the sheet music. There's an [ABC](http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/doc/ABCprimer.html) file for you, if you want to do your own rendition. There's a PDF, and there's a midi file for Blues #1 and Blues #2. Over this week I'll be posting [shed posts](/shed) that show you how to play these chords and include my playing the music to show you how. P.S. Notify me if the sheet music is wrong.

Show 8: Fret War Back Online, Test Please

2009-11-28 20:05:02.488108

Alright party people, Fret War is now running on a real PostgreSQL database so we should be able to handle multiple users better and have more stable deployments. There are possible problems with the winnars, and with submissions, so if you haven't done a submission and it fails, then please let us know. Also, if you have confirmation/signup problems then we need to know that.

Show 7: Round 3 and Fret Show on Holiday Schedule

2009-11-24 18:12:14

Everyone, myself included, seems to be out of time this round because of the holidays. I personally won't have time to do the show this week, and couldn't find time last night to work on my submission. Therefore, let's say Round 3 is a "holiday scheduled" round, where it lasts two weeks, and we'll pick things up like normal on Sunday Nov 29th at Midnight. At that time all the regular rules apply, get your submission in, rate them all, then I do the show. At the suggestion of Chad, I'm going to give everyone time to rate the submissions before doing the show and then the round. Alright everyone, keep sending in those kick ass submissions, and have a good holiday if you celebrate, or week if you don't.