[billmeedog]

Hello All,

Rohan (arc_of_descent) had asked a question about understanding and applying modes, so I ended up PM’ing him a long-winded explanation with examples and such. However, it might’ve been easier if I had just re-directed him to a segment of a Guthrie (via Guitar World’s Professor Shred Series) teaching a topic he called: “Musicality as a Priority” in which he goes on about the “un-musical” approach many budding guitarists suffer from when learning and applying new information on guitar. In his example he cites the common mistake of guitarists letting their ear follow their fingers (because there are so many “easy-to-play-fast” scale-patterns that are easily modulated!)

Anyways, in this lesson, I]from (1:42-3:57)[/I Guthrie explains his approach to the Dorian Mode, and I swear to you all that even though my Private Message to Rohan reveals an extremely similar explanation, I NEVER saw this video-clip before, and the ironic thing is that I’ve been teaching/explaining/applying the modes in an identical manner for atleast fifteen (15) years now!!! This is perhaps the ONLY thing I have in common with Guthrie (…well that and the fact that we both like Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Derek Trucks!) Now if I could just play HALF-AS-GOOD as Guthrie I might be happy… – LOL!

So here’s Guthrie’s lesson/explanation, and this is EXACTLY (almost word-for-word) the way I’ve taught it for a LONG time (scary!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkaqfgSqtHg&feature=relmfu

I hope this helps someone (and I hope you see this post Rohan!)

Best of luck! 🙂

~Bill~ 😀

[billmeedog]

@arc_of_descent 12730 wrote:

Hey guys,

I would to learn certain modes like Dorian, etc. Please hear me out before you think “On no, not another newbie modes question” 🙂

The A Dorian mode has a particular pattern on the fretboard which is different from say A Aeolian. Now the A Dorian mode has the same notes as the G major scale, correct? So while playing in the A Dorian mode, I can just play notes from the G major scale.

Now about the patterns, I find myself knowing the major scale pretty well all over the fretboard. Which means arpeggios, licks, single string lines, etc. So why do I need to learn a new Dorian pattern? Can’t I just survive with the major scale. I guess it has something to do with the root?

Hi Rohan!

Long time!

I’ll send you a P.M. here at Infinite Guitar, because my answer is long and elaborate – LOL!

~Bill~

[billmeedog]

@jordp 12546 wrote:

I cant remember where from, but I heard an earlier version of this. I didn’t think he’d be releasing it because of how similar the intro sounds to “Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis” by Trivium…..and its still just as similar, so that kind of bothers me. Also, i seem to remember hearing it around the time Trivium released their album or around when Andy was working on the Trvium DVD for Lick Library.

Not a blatent rip off of course, just raising a point- this must be his “tip of the cap” to trivium if anything. Either way, top track, top playing from a top guitarist.

For your consideration in comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_nJ2vQg3EM

Hi jordp,

You raise a good point here. 😉 I’m a fan of Andy James‘ playing, and I’ve taught a few Trivium riffs/solos to a couple of my more “metal” students – LOL 😎 However, I didn’t know this specific Trivium song until you linked it to this thread. I must say that I am a bit surprised that Andy would’ve gone down such a similar path? Yes, he uses different notes/key/mode, but rhythmically, it’s damn near identical! (See the following 16th-Note Breakdown, with accents (>) shown below each accented (fretted) note in each riff.) One thing that stands-out to me is the use of consecutive dotted-eighth accent-figures (IE: 3-sixteenths in duration) with a couple of un-dotted eighth accent-figures (2-sixteenths in duration) thrown-in for variety (beat-4 of bar-1 & beat-“+_3” of bar-2):

||:_1_e_+_ah_2_e_+_ah_3_e_+_ah_4_e_+_ah_ |_1_e_+_ah_2_e_+_ah_3_e_+_ah_4_e_+_ah_:||
___>_____>_____>______>______>___>______>_____>______>____>_____>______>_____

***This fretted/accented to open-string/un-accented pattern is IDENTICAL in each example that you cited…Good ear BTW!:

As I said, atleast Andy was wise enough to change the scale/harmony used and the rest of the song bears NO resemblance, but the intro…Hmmmm? :confused:

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@missmisstreater 12504 wrote:

Cheers guys! Really touching comments!

THAT is EXACTLY why i’m doing my best to bring people to this forum, its full off class. Everywhere else I’ve posted this, noone cared! hahahaha

Really glad someone appreciated it 😀

Hey Levi! 🙂

Great job as usual! 😎

Ya know, I requested an Infinite Guitar Tutorial (from any takers) about this style a FEW times, and I was never obliged…:( Oh well, I understand though, because it is a more understated and less “obvious” genius to most guitarists, isn’t it? – LOL! After all, sometimes it’s hard to hear some of these parts the way they are “mixed-back!” Anyways, the genius of this topic is NOT lost on me, and you’ve done a terrific job (as usual) of presenting it accurately (as usual!) 😉

Back in 1990, I took about 5 or 6 lessons from a local (Northern Suburbs of Boston, MA – U.S.A.) guitarist/teacher (Brian Rahilly – A.K.A. Brian Alex) who is a MONSTER funk player, and I had wanted to learn more about this “exciting” rhythm style after going to see him play at a local pub. Anyways, when I went to take my first lesson, and started asking him about the rhythm-stuff, he gave me the obvious “required-listening” homework: James Brown, Tower Of Power, and Earth, Wind, & Fire. HOWEVER, I was surprised when he added to that list: Michael Jackson, Madonna (“Lucky Star”), and Gloria Estefan (“Get On Your Feet!”) I was like: “Really?” (Because I never listened to those artists much, I was too busy trying to learn Nuno’s latest, or an old Steve Lukather/Toto or Michael Schenker/UFO solo – LOL!) Anyways, I took his advise, and he started teaching me these rhythms, and it was like starting over in terms of my whole approach to rhythm! I had to learn how to establish a right-hand/wrist “motor” as he referred to it, I had to learn how to accurately mute ALL unused-strings at ALL times (due to the proliferation of “partial-voicings/2-string/3-string chords” AND I had to learn some new chord-grips/vocabulary. I then had to realize and learn the whole single-note/muted/staccato approach to riffing! DAMN it wasn’t easy, but it was a great experience, and I recommend it to ANYONE who wants to broaden their horizons and become a better all-around “musician who happens to play guitar” as opposed to just a “guitar-player!” 😎

Thanks again for your efforts Levi! You Rock…(or is it: You Pop?….Nah, YOU ROCK – LOL!) 😉

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@Sean Conklin 12526 wrote:

Congrats to Mangini!

Hi Sean, 🙂

Yes I agree! Congratulations go out to my “Massachusetts-Homeboy” – Mike Mangini!!! 😎

BTW guys, I hate to tell you all that I told you so, but……I TOLD YOU SO – LOL!!! :p

Anyways, this was a snippet of the post I sent to Sean Conklin back on September 9, 2010:

“Hey Sean,

You’re probably right. Sometimes events/situations like this actually breathe new life into a band! I hope for their (Dream Theater’s) sake (and their fans’) they kick-it-up a notch!

BTW, I was serious about my idea for them to recruit the unbelievable Mike Mangini. My longtime best-friend and drummer Gregg took lessons off Mike back in the early-90’s, so I got to know him a bit. He has more energy, whether drummimg or NOT, than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s intense to say the least!

I hope they at least try to contact him!

~Bill Meehan~”

“At-the-end-of-the-day,” I am just happy for Mike, because he is a genuine, humble (yet uber-confident!) and extremely hard-working guy, and he deserves this opportunity! I am also happy for Dream Theater, because they got a bandmember who is full of energy and ideas, and I think he will surprise a lot of people who think that he is just a “show-off/speed-freak/drum-solo- ONLY” guy, because he’s NOT! Mike is very musical, and he is always pushing himself to learn about various styles of music, etc, and he has an uncanny ability to play melodically WHILE grooving. He really knows how to pace himself, pick his spots, and phrase musically, and those are NOT the typical attributes one would expect from “The World’s Fastest Drummer” (electronically measured hand/stick-strokes per minute!) – I know, I know…That stuff is silly, I agree, as “in-and-of-itself” it has nothing to do with music! However, it is a quantifiable badge-of-honor for a guy who prides himself in being “obsessively-prepared and technically-advanced” in his applications of speed, limb-independence, groove, melody, polyrhythms, etc. – ALL for the “collective-betterment” of whatever musical-situation he’s engaged in… I.E: Refer to some of his live work playing for Steve Vai back in the late-90’s! 😉

Onward and upwards Mike – Congrats!!! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

[billmeedog]

@missmisstreater 12352 wrote:

Hey Chris

It really is a personal taste thing, I prefer to use either a major or relative minor key signature and notate the accidentals because:

1.) Im from a classical background…. and they don’t like modes! I really like the fact that this was includes accidentals.

2.) When doing that the stave shows you that you are playing Aeolian with a natural 6th which is how i like to look at modes

If I use the relevant modal key signature, the intervalic structure of the mode isn’t all that easy to see, the guys i know who do it that was all play with a key center approach, seeing all modes in their relative major or minor.

I know alot of guys hate reading accidentals, but If i see a piece of music with a G key signature and there are C#s all over the place I can make an educated guess that im playing E dorian. Its the same as in the classical world, if youre reading in C and there are lots of G#s you make the assumption that you’ve modulated to the relative (harmonic) minor.

Neither method is wrong (and as we both know, 95% of guitarists don’t even look at the dots! haha)

Which method do you prefer then mate?

Hey Levi, 🙂

Wow, I never thought of it that way, (from the classical/non-modal perspective) but that makes a lot of sense! Great explanation bro! 😎 I’ve often wondered why so many choose to notate from the root’s Natural Minor (IE: in your Dorian example) and then naturalizing the “6ths” as they occur, instead of what Chris Brooks mentioned (which is to notate the mode from it’s relative key-signature.) I’ve always approached it like Chris, (from the mode’s relative key-signature) but now you (Levi) have me thinking that there is a lot of very valid merit to going the “Parallel Natural Minor” (for minor modes) and “Parallel Major” (for the major modes) route, with accidentals being individually notated as they occur. Of course in the case of Harmonic Minor, there’s not much of a choice anyways, since so many people take a quick glance at the key-signature’s total number of sharps or flats and draw their conclusions from there – LOL! Thus the Harmonic Minor’s maj-7th just can’t be an up-front/pre-existing condition. You’re so right though, as anytime I see a G-Major Key-Signature with “D” being sharpened all over the place, then I immediately think “E Harmonic Minor!” 😉 (….And if it’s an Yngwie piece without vocals in a Minor-Key, then I can probably assume that the “7ths” are sharpened! – OK, sorry – bad joke! – LOL!) 😮

Thanks for clearing that up, as I’ve often wondered about that! :confused:

*You’re “The Man” Levi! 😎

~Bill Meehan~

[billmeedog]

Hey Rohan, 🙂

I hope all is well my friend! 😉

Excellent job on the Rubina cover (especially the “standing-up” segment!) I thought your bends, slides, and vibratos were nice and strong on those parts! Later on (when you were “sitting-down” and improvising more) perhaps your note-choices and groove got away from you in a few spots, but you’ll keep gaining confidence and control the more you jam (and record) over backing-tracks (I need to do more of that too BTW, so you’re NOT alone – LOL! :o) Keep digging in! 🙂

See you around the site! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

[billmeedog]

@FilipeRocha 12183 wrote:

I can’t really say anything more than what it has been said but the problem is probably in being relaxed. You have to be completly relaxed while playing, otherwise you have to push the tempo down. if you start to notice that your wrist is tensing up, than you have a problem.

billmeedog;11644 wrote:

– When you ramped the tempo up to approximately 180 BPM’s, I noticed that your forearm got a bit more involved and perhaps you allowed a bit of tension to creep into your forearm/wrist muscles?!? I’m NOT positive of that, but it seemed like that could’ve been a source of some “breakdown” or slight lack-of-control (This is common as one approaches the threshold of one’s picking abilty: (speed-versus-articulation/accuracy!)

Hi Filipe, 🙂

I agree with you 100%. I think relaxation enables economy-of-motion, control, stamina, etc! 😉 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@missmisstreater 12151 wrote:

I love Michaels playing, i’ve transcribed quite a lot for him.

I don’t see as much Tom in his playing, though I see exactly where you are coming from. To me they are both offshoots of Garsed, but each took it in a very different way. They have that modern legato sound at the base of their playing, but then did very different things with it. Michael has a lot of soul and country in his playing.

You would never mistake a Michael solo for a Tom solo, though he definitely has the Hinds thing down.

Of course, in the grander scheme of things, Michael most definitely slots in with that clique

Hi Levi! 🙂

It’s been a while. I hope all is well. As I said previously, I think Michael Dolce is awesome! The whole “TQ-light” statement was regretfully made off-handed and without much thought, so I wish I could take that back, but you cannot un-ring a bell, right?!? Anyways, I thought it was somewhat complimentary to be compared in any way to Tom Quayle, but I could’ve/should’ve been more thoughtful/respectful! 😮 😉

Anyways, Michael (and I) sure think(s)highly of your skills (as he states as much on-line!) You might be the most qualified professional on the planet to be able to intelligently comment on or assess Tom and Michael’s respective styles! 😉 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@Richard Lundmark 12141 wrote:

“TOm Qualye light”? lol :D:D:D
But seriously, I thought he was MUCH more Allen Hinds, both in tone and playing style
REALLY good in any case!

Hey Richard, 🙂

Yeah, I knew after I sent it that it might come across as disrespectful (especially since Michael Dolce is waaaaaayyyyy better/more-accomplished of a player than I am! – Seriously! :o) Anyways, the Allen Hinds comparison validates my statement a bit though, since Tom Quayle has often cited Allen Hinds as a big influence and one of his favorites!

*Dare I say “Tom Quayle = Allen Hinds-meets-Wayne Krantz-meets-Greg Howe”…but with a very unique and awesome tone and improvisational/phrasing style all his own! – LOL! 😉 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

To Whomever, 😀

Thanks for the referral. This guy’s really good! 😉 😎

*P.S. Sort of “Tom Quayle-Light,” but in a good way – LOL! 😉 😀 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@DT_Paul 12083 wrote:

Hey Guys,

a few days ago i compared my triple rectifier 2ch with my guitar rig.
the amp was mic’d with a single shure sm57 on my engl v30 cabinet. The guitar rig setup was quite easy, gratifier with matched cabinet.

the third track is the “preamp” of guitar rig and the poweramp of my rectifier.

All guitar tracks are reamped, so it’s the same track every time.

Here’s guitar rig with matched cabinet

click here

Guitar Rig with Mesa Boogie Poweramp

click here

And last but not least my triple Rectifier

click here

I really like the Guitar Rig Sound and use it a lot, but the real amp is more powerful, agressive and “raaaargh”. “raaaargh” is that specially recto sound, you know? 😀

so, hope you like it 🙂

greetz,
daniel

Hi Daniel, 🙂

Great “A-B-C” shootout/comparison! 😎 BTW, excellent idea to use the re-amp method for the sake of comparing exact same performances. 😉 The following is the way I heard each setup/sound:

A.) Guitar Rig (w/matched-cab): It sounds good, but I thought it had too much “low-mids” (250Hz – 625Hz) which, although “beefy” gets a bit “muddy” (especially if it was in a final mix fighting a bass-guitar for these frequencies!) Also, I thought this direct/modeled Guitar Rig sound lacked some “bite” and “presence” (maybe in a mixdown, a couple of “EQ-bumps” at (approximately) 4KHz and 10KHz would help, although in this case, you were probably trying to keep any “post-tweaking” to a minimum, or “not-at-all,” to retain the integrity of the shootout!)

B.) Guitar Rig (pre-amp) with Mesa Boogie Power-Amp and SM57-mic’d Engl V30-cab: I thought this sound had the right “presence” and “attack,” but could’ve used a little bit of the lows and low-mids that seemed so abundant in the cab-modeled direct Guitar Rig sound!

C.) Mesa Triple Rectifier – SM57-mic’d through the Engl V30-cab: I agree with you, this is the best sound of the three! I liked it because it seemed to have a perfect balance of what the other two sounds had right, without having to EQ it to death during post-mixing. Nice sound! 😉

BTW, excellent/tight playing and cool “riffage” throughout! 😎

Thanks for this insightful and fair comparison/shootout! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 🙂

[billmeedog]

@ToneZappa 12065 wrote:

Just picked up a Fender Blacktop Jaguar and love it. Sounds nothing like a classic Jaguar guitar, its very basic with just two humbuckers vol and tone pots and a three way selector. Has a great neck and sounds very dark….. heres a very quick test clip with just the bridge pup.

Hi TZ, 🙂

Great job! I loved the “avant-garde/fusion” style on this one. 😉

BTW, I checked out some of your other stuff too, and NICE SHRED on that 2002 rock-instrumental! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

[billmeedog]

Rohan, 🙂

Congratulations on getting your original song recorded! Even though it may stilll be a “work-in-progress,” having a recording (IMO) is the best way to hear additional ideas and to get motivated to finish an idea too! 🙂

I liked a lot of your ideas, including the main themes. That said, the following are things that you may want to consider either for this song, or in other songs in future situations:

– In your “Bass-Line” idea (perhaps you tracked this as a clean guitar in a lower register?) whereby you played that “B Minor Blues Scale” descending motif. I LIKED that idea, but maybe NOT every time around. In other words, instead of using it as an “every-time-around” ostinato, perhaps you could “pace” that idea in as the song progresses? Maybe you could try playing more of a “follow-the-root” approach at first, and then introduce the descending blues-line as the melodies get introduced gradually…See what I mean? 😉

– I liked your melody-motifs in BOTH sections! I just thought that perhaps you could do some “variation-of-theme” especially in the “Verse-part” (that’s what I hear it as!) Ya know the part whose progression is like: 6/8-time ||:_Bm______|_Bm______|_Bm______|_G____A__:|| ) As I said, I also liked your idea over the ||:_Em_____|_A______:|| part also!) 😎

– In the solo, I liked your little twist when you played a bit of “B” Harmonic Minor. That was cool! Also, your use of the “B” Minor Blues scale was effective at times, but you may have “gone to the well once too often!” (Bad American cliche there, sorry…LOL!) But seriously, the Minor Blues Scale always works over a static Aeolian progression (which your “A-section” seems to be) but when you kept using it over the “B-section” or “Eminor-to-Amajor” part, I kept hearing the “B Minor Blues” scale’s flat-fifth note=”F” clashing a bit with both chords (Emin and Amaj.) You could try playing “E-Dorian” over this section, (or anything that remains relative to the song’s “B-Minor/D-Major” key-signature.) Also, when in doubt, targeting chord-tones NEVER fails – LOL! Do you agree? Anyways, if you can keep the cool stuff in that solo and maybe eliminate a bit of that excessive “blues-tension,” I thin you’ll have a keeper! 😎

Best of luck bro, and excellent job overall! 😉

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

[billmeedog]

@Spooky_tom 12036 wrote:

Hi Bill.

Your inbox is full. Can´t send you an answer.

/ Tom Jensen

Hi Tom, 🙂

Sorry about that! 😮 I’ve cleared out some space if you want to hit me up with a P.M. now! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

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