Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

  • Log In
  • Weekly Lessons
  • Take The Tour
  • Forum
  • Hear From Our Members
  • Membership Sign Up

April 2025 Challenge Response – Mike D

Home › Forums › Active Melody Member Challenge Response Submissions › April 2025 Challenge Response – Mike D

  • This topic has 19 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 8 hours, 36 minutes ago by Tremelow.
Viewing 19 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • May 11, 2025 at 3:55 pm #392742
      Mike D
      Participant

        My challenge was switching between pick and fingers and playing over a track I normally wouldn’t

        Live on planet Earth ? You got the blues.

      • May 11, 2025 at 4:09 pm #392749
        sunjamr
        Participant

          Great idea, Mike. Plenty of good phrasing, and I love those upper fret licks.

          BTW: Run! Your house is on fire!

          Sunjamr Steve

        • May 11, 2025 at 7:17 pm #392779
          Alan L
          Participant

            That’s really rocking. Tricky changes, you played some great stuff over that.

          • May 11, 2025 at 7:33 pm #392785
            Bill
            Participant

              Cool track, very jam-bandish. Different for you for sure. Great tone and phrasing!!

            • May 11, 2025 at 7:44 pm #392789
              John H
              Participant

                Nicley played Mike… love the quack, feel and groove.

                John

              • May 11, 2025 at 9:58 pm #392791
                AndréM
                Participant

                  You the switch no problem.
                  Lots of chord in that backtrack.
                  Well done.

                  AndréM

                  AndréM

                • May 11, 2025 at 10:45 pm #392794
                  Stacey
                  Participant

                    Great innovative playing to keep the melody interesting over the Reggae style track. Nice guitar tone as well. You succeeded in alternating fingerstyle with plectrum seamlessly. Not particularly easy to do gracefully for me but you managed well.

                    Stacey

                  • May 11, 2025 at 10:55 pm #392796
                    JoLa
                    Participant

                      Wow, that was pretty cool, Mike! I always envy the players who can so seamlessly switch between fingers and pick without skipping a beat AND holding the pick between the knuckles! You also had plenty of interesting licks in there, that was a good listen!

                      🎸JoLa

                    • May 12, 2025 at 5:02 am #392805
                      Laurel C
                      Moderator

                        That did seem different to your standard palette. The backing track went very well together with your playing over it and alternating pick with finger style. Hybrid picking? Really enjoyed your mix of riffs and phrasing and keeping it varied too.

                      • May 12, 2025 at 8:16 am #392812
                        Guido
                        Participant

                          Liked the original backing track and your very original soloing over it! An unusual reggae rhythm with some very strange but very cool chord progressions! For sure something very refreshing and different from the usual country or blues and I enjoyed very much to listen to it. Excellent choice and amazing rendition!

                          Guido

                        • May 12, 2025 at 10:05 am #392819
                          James B
                          Participant

                            Fingers or pick it all sounds great, Mike. Your phrasing and timing are excellent. You be jamin’ mon. 😀

                            James

                          • May 12, 2025 at 10:58 am #392835
                            JoeD1
                            Participant

                              Really cool Mike. Way to meet the challenge.

                              Joe

                              The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
                              Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
                              --Graeme Edge

                            • May 12, 2025 at 11:19 am #392842
                              Mike W
                              Participant

                                Very cool submission, Mike. Great picking and hitting the chord changes – sounded good.

                              • May 12, 2025 at 12:47 pm #392884
                                Andy N
                                Participant

                                  Nifty idea for the challenge and some nifty switching between fingers and pick too.
                                  Certainly a different genre for you but you looked very comfortable and had plenty of cool phrases in the bag.

                                • May 12, 2025 at 2:41 pm #392908
                                  Michael L
                                  Participant

                                    Wow, fun times Mike! Sounds great, and some good changes to work through on this one.

                                  • May 12, 2025 at 3:30 pm #392919
                                    Manfred M
                                    Participant

                                      Your limitation was probably to make it as uncomfortable as possible for you, Mike. It’s amazing what comfortable, melodious music came out of it. Great backing track with a great rhythm. Challenging to play it adequately. In any case, you passed the challenge with flying colors.

                                      Take the chance to meet your AM friends on Zoom
                                      The next Meetup will be on May 31, 2025

                                      For more information click here

                                      I look forward to meet you.
                                      Manfred

                                    • May 12, 2025 at 4:58 pm #392957
                                      KT
                                      Participant

                                        Enjoyed listening to your presentation. You did a great job switching between finger picking and picks.

                                      • May 12, 2025 at 10:08 pm #392975
                                        Dieter
                                        Participant

                                          Wonderful performance, great playing.

                                          Dieter

                                        • May 13, 2025 at 3:49 am #392985
                                          Martin W
                                          Participant

                                            That’s a cool trick Mike switching from pick to fingers , it gives a subtle dynamic .
                                            Nice improv over the backing track you didn’t look like you were outside your comfort zone .
                                            Martin

                                          • May 13, 2025 at 5:03 am #392988
                                            Tremelow
                                            Participant

                                              That was fantastic. You pulled great licks out of your hat and not for a second was anything repetitive. I neither saw nor heard the change between fingers and plectrum – very nimble.

                                          • Author
                                            Posts
                                          Viewing 19 reply threads
                                          • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
                                          Log In

                                          Search Forums

                                          Quick Links

                                          • Latest posts
                                          • Most popular posts
                                          • Posts Freshness
                                          • Posts with most replies
                                          • My active posts
                                          • All my posts
                                          • Posts with my reply

                                          Links

                                          • Blog
                                          • Resources
                                          • About
                                          • Contact
                                          • FAQ
                                          • Refunds & Cancellations
                                          • Sitemap

                                          Recent Lessons

                                          Part 2 (of 2) How one note can help build an entire solo. Guitar Lesson – EP610

                                          Country Blues by yourself! (seeing the chord shapes makes this easier) – Guitar Lesson – EP609

                                          Is ONE position of the Minor Pentatonic scale enough? Use notes sparingly – Guitar Lesson – EP608

                                          Contact

                                          For all support questions email: support@activemelody.com
                                          For all other inquires email: brian@activemelody.com
                                          • Facebook
                                          • Twitter
                                          • YouTube

                                          © 2025 · Active Melody. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

                                          Free Weekly Guitar Lessons

                                          Enter your email address below to have the weekly guitar lesson delivered to your email address. I take privacy very seriously and will not share your email address.

                                          • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

                                          Active MelodyLogo Header Menu
                                          • Weekly Lessons
                                          • Take The Tour
                                          • Forum
                                          • Hear From Our Members
                                          • Membership Sign Up
                                          • Log In

                                          Insert/edit link

                                          Enter the destination URL

                                          Or link to existing content

                                            No search term specified. Showing recent items. Search or use up and down arrow keys to select an item.