Asynchronous Jam: Wolves
Video Posted on Updated on
So I finished this before thinking anything about SoundCloud or other hosting services; I hope this is still ok. I heard the bass line Bryan shared, had no luck downloading it, so I thought I’d take a crack at Garageband, something I’ve never used before. I recreated the bass line in GarageBand after a bit of experimentation (what an intuitive program!) and the first track I laid down was with my Guild 12. As the 12 is tuned to D I transposed it to keep it the same as everyone else might use. I kind of went a different way with the song, the tempo had a feeling to me of hounds or beagles trotting along a dirt road in the late afternoon. Anyway, I felt that the metronome was nice enough but replaced it with some jazz brush tracks and that made me think that comping with the archtop might be fun, and in keeping with the mood I played closed 7th chords. After that I threw in the final track, a “lead” which might be more accurately called “noodling” since I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. When that was done I thought the song felt lonely without images so I grabbed pictures from an autumn trip to Nikko, Japan to look at. I flubbed here or there but it’s the first song I’ve ever recorded and I’m happy with it, ugly spots and all.
Introduction to Guitar 
February 9, 2013 at 3:42 am
What a great mood you’ve captured with these tracks, Paul! Awesome. And to know that it’s the first song you’ve recorded, too, is such a treat – thanks so much for sharing this here. There’s a real weight to the bluegrassy feel of the twelve string, and the rhythm you’ve brought out of the bassline.
The noodling isn’t anything to be sorry about, either – how much do you know about scales or lead riffs so far? It seems like you’ve got at least the Dmaj scale figured out. I’m something of an intuitive (see: have no idea what I’m doing) lead player myself, and have a few positions of the blues scale pretty locked into my solo’ing repertoire; I’m still accumulating actual riffs, phrases and tricks to try and make my playing sound better though.
I think it mostly comes from messing around in good company, which it seems like we’ve gotten going here. Looking forward to hearing more!
Bryan
February 9, 2013 at 3:53 am
Hey Bryan,
Thanks for the kind comments; I don’t know anything about scales, really, I mean I know one when I hear one, and I can play a major scale by ear, but knowing the different positions, or how they relate to melody, or anything about lead riffs: zero knowledge. I’ve halfheartedly tried to practice scales once or twice and never stuck with them, which shows. With this track, I played the backing tracks twice and picked out a couple of things that sounded ok to me by ear, then hit record and improvised as best I could. Do you have recommended resources, games, etc., that could make learning scales fun?
February 9, 2013 at 4:06 am
One of the things I’ve figured out – that you’ve stumbled on – is that repetition works! Finding a few key riffs or ‘phrases’ to begin with can help build tension (or create uniformity for verse noodling – like what Mike Bloomfield does with all the awesome 60’s Dylan bands) in a solo, which you can then depart from as a sort of climax, or release. But that’s sort of an intuitive thing… and might not make much sense.
As for the technical piece, my rule of thumb for playing along with major scales involves finding the Pos 1 of the minor blues scale (which I use about 99% of the time). It’s the top position here:
Position 1 of the minor blues scale – in playing along with a major key song – begins where the ring-finger of the Amaj shaped bar chord is. For example, in the diagram I’ve linked to above, Position 1 begins in the fifth fret, meaning the major key is Cmajor (where the ring finger for the Amaj shaped C bar chord would end). A song in Dmaj would put position one at the seventh fret, and Gmajor at the twelfth. (The G blues scale also has a bunch of awesome hammer-ons in the second and third frets that can sound pretty cool).
All of that might be pretty tough to follow… it doesn’t work that well as a written instruction, I suppose, but hopefully is able to help a little. I’ll work on a video intro to my duct taped methodology over the weekend.
Happy noodling!
February 9, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Groovy! That’s was very cool. And I too am more of a noodler with lead stuff. Blues scale in the major key is pretty much my limit. The major/minor relative scale stuff is something to learn here as well. Never quite understood the relationship things. (Guitar-wise anyway 🙂 )