Fun Diversion

Computer woes are ongoing but fingers crossed will be resolved before the next millennia. Found a very cool site for creating music that I wanted to share. Here is a link to a little piece I created now try and create your own.
Earslap

Changing Guitar Chords with just one note.

I've always been fascinated by the guitar. To me the guitar offers an endless variety of note patterns and sequences. The fingerboard's variety is a lot like the complexity of a chess board. Today's tinylick demonstrates how you can go through a chord progression while changing only one note in the pattern at a time on the guitar. I was inspired by the cool intro to the Kiss song "Rock Bottom" for this example. You can also find this used a lot by the Red Hot Chili Peppers especially on the album "Californication".

The first part begins with a G#Minor chord then followed by what I think of as a B chord with no root and a major 7th. Then a B chord no root with a 6th. The progression ends with an E Maj7 chord.

Computer Blues and a tinylick - guitar lick

Bad News my computer is officially dead. No more recording or music until I get my new one. Good News - my new computer is on its way and hopefully will be here in the coming week. You would think without a computer that works for more than five minutes at a time I'd play more guitar but I've become so accustomed to playing with music and backing tracks and online guitar lessons I really miss my computer when I want to jam or practice guitar. Today's tiny lick guitar lick is based around the E Minor Pentatonic scale. It is a descending triplet run that has been used by everyone from Jimmy Page to Kirk Hammett. Although this lick has reached cliché status you can still find variations of it in lots of songs. Try doubling up notes and using chunks of it within your solos and improvisations. A great way to use licks like this is chromatically. Move parts of the shape up the fretboard horizontally to build up to your next lick. Randy Rhoads does this to great effect with a lot of his live pentatonic based guitar licks. For a more advanced variation of this type of lick check out the solo in "Readymade" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frusciante really tears up the fretboard with a fast repeating lick.
Ok so here is the basic lick - triplet rhythm.