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Hi Active Melody Community!
Happy New Year! Let’s make 2016 our breakthrough year learning guitar at ActiveMelody.com. (Thanks to @Charjo for deeming 2016 as our “breakthrough year!”)
We are going to kick off 2016 with a 12 bar blues challenge.
EP127: https://www.activemelody.com/lesson/solo-blues-guitar-lesson-in-a-standard-12-bar-blues-ep127/
BLG005: https://www.activemelody.com/basic-12-bar-blues-rhythm-easy-blg005/
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GOALS FOR JANUARY 2016 MEMBER CHALLENGE:
1. Beginning Players: Be able to play smooth chord changes or a shuffle pattern within the 12 bar structure in the key of A or E with or without a jam track. (Note: Only BLG005 only has a jam track.)
1a. Beginning Player Extra Credit: Try taking a lead using Pattern 1 of the Blues Lead Course over the BLG005 Jam Track.
2. Intermediate/Advanced Players: Be able to play through either EP127 or BLG005 smoothly.
2a. Intermediate/Advanced Player Extra Credit: Play through both EP127 and BLG 005.
3. Participation Goal: 15 Active Melody Member Participant Videos/MP3 posted.
4. Focus on improvement and progress in your playing, not perfection. If you can play the challenge lesson flawless, great! If not, that is ok too. If you are better than yesterday in your playing then you are moving in the right direction with these challenges.
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GROUND RULES FOR PARTICIPATION:
1. Post your video OR MP3 submission of you playing EP127 and/or BLG005 anytime between Friday, January 29th to Sunday, January 31st. (i.e. The last weekend of January.) Please do not submit earlier. I think it is fun to see everyone’s posts at once. You can submit it as played and/or you can make it your own version. I encourage all of you to come up with something to add if you can. It can be improvised or planned and practiced.
2. Submit individually in the Showcase Your Playing forum. Title your posts “EP127 / BLG005 Challenge Response – Your First Name”
3. You can play these lesson(s) at any tempo you would like with or without the jam track.
4. Have fun and don’t be intimidated by these challenges!!! Use these challenges to help you set goals and complete them by a deadline. You can also use this as an opportunity to chat with your fellow Active Melody members and share tips or tricks on this challenge that you think are useful.
5. If you need help with how to record yourself and post it online check the videos in the Forum Help and Other Tutorials forum or send me a private message or email.
I look forward to seeing everyone’s posts! Happy Picking!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska
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Billy (@williammillar31hotmail-com):
That’s the spirit! You never know till you try! I think you will surprise yourself with what you can accomplish! I look forward to seeing your post!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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Hello Bryce,
I’ve been looking for an excuse to tackle EP127. I’ve just about nailed down EP130’s six licks at 90% of full speed (took about 3 weeks or so) I’ve spent a lot of time on that lesson and am ready to try another.
Hopefully time will allow me to get 127 listenable. In any case, the concept is a great one. Goals help the learning process.
Happy New Year to you and the membership.
Marty
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Mark (@mbaribe), Marty(@martyg924cox-net), @smilefred, Mick M(@mikmccarthygmail-com): Way to step up and accept the challenge! I am excited to see/hear your playing!
Brian (@brianactivemelody-com) thanks for your support and comments!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
Thank you for the challenge. I will post something, the best of my tries, no matter how wretched. I’ve been pretty dissatisfied listening back to recordings of my recent playing (lots of unintentional notes and time slipping around).
Before then, I’ll follow through on posting EP090.
Don D.
Active Melody
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Wilfried (@wblues), Duffy (@duffyprattcomcast-net), @debra:
Way to step up to the plate guys! I know you all will hit it out of the park!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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Hey Bryce I said that 2016 is gonna be the year to stop making excuses and knuckle down to learning blues guitar.
I’m gonna try this one out I think over the four weeks and see how I go hopefully. Not sure if I’ll have anything worthy of posting, plus need to learn about recording/posting audio and video, but will definitely give it a shot.
-Steve
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Hey Happy New year Bryce et al, well you got me hooked and I just printed off EP127 music sheet.
I need some focus, discipline to get my brain and fingers re-synchronised; so this fits the bill. I’m limited to time siting with guitar as the surgery was right down and across abdomen where my guitar sits jeez bad planning there! but that will increase and we have a month!
It will be therapeutic to have some frustration running through the veins again; and you can be the judge of quality LOL!Cheers Bri
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Keep at Billy (@williammillar31hotmail-com)! We all got faith in you. 🙂
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
I still need to work hard!
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Cheap Evening Dresses -
Haha, you guys & Girls are not going to believe it!! Looks like I am out of this challenge too!! Crashed my bike this morning and dislocated my shoulder. May need surgery 6-8 weeks recovery. You have to laugh!! Cheers
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@Badger: Am I going to have to send you body armor?!? Get well soon my friend.
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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@bri-uklefty: This is great news and music to my ears!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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James (@mouseladgmail-com): I double dog dare you to participate in the January 2016 challenge! Can’t wait to see your video/mp3. You have a great attitude!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska-
Bryce,
Now it is on! LOL and this vid will be better I hope than my last two that I made to show my mom I was playing… the first one is kinda funny since my guitar didn’t have the high e string, and the other one was funny two… because I had only been playing a month or two..
whether you think you can, or you think your cannot... you are right!
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Badger recently wrote:
I have experienced something and I wonder if any of you have? I practice and practice and become tense, but amazingly after a long break, 1-2 weeks, perhaps working away or a holiday with no guitar playing, when I get home and pick up a guitar it’s the smoothest I have ever played!!
Hey Phil, you might be going to extremes to test this observation of yours.
Jokes aside – what a run of bad luck. Hope you find surgery is not required and recovery and return to playing, better than ever, is rapid.
Rick
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Hi Gregg and I was checking using Youtube webcam which I ompreviusly but it has been removed as not used enough and outdated LOL. However just spent an hour finding out that if you use Windows you can download Photobooth to record using webcam and then upload into Youtube using same process as Bryce’s instruction post.
Sorry but that’s the limit of my teccy knowledge and good luck. Do persevier as this hardest part of joining the challenge, it’s easier learning the tune!
Cheers Bri -
So even after a 7.1 earthquake here in Anchorage I recorded my response to the January challenge last night. I hope all is progressing well with everyone’s responses to the January challenge. I look forward to seeing everyone’s post this coming weekend!
Remember, these challenges are not about perfection. They are about progress no matter how big or small. We are all here to cheer you on!
Happy Picking Folks!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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@strykerward: That’s the spirit! You got to play and push yourself if you want to get better. I’m rooting for you!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
I have successfully recorded EP127 with a mic’d amp set up which is a 1st for me, only got my 1st mic last week.
Well when I say successfully I will have to tweak a few things in future to improve the sound, I can faintly hear my plectrum clicking in the sound, anyway I will work it all out eventually.
I have also just recorded my 12 bar blues, so now to put the video and sound together, I made a few mistakes in this one but Im not going to stress
Looking forward to hearing everyones versions at the weekend 🙂
Mick
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@Charjo: It’s true. I am a kid in the candy store. Especially when you forget to list your videos/mp3s private and I’m a subscriber. 😉
Im looking forward to seeing it at the same time as everyone else!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
I am almost finished. lol I am learning so much about the software I am using. The one feature I am starting to really love is the ability to do “punch in’s”. I don’t have to re-record the whole thing if I mess up. I was going to do the recording as a video, but, for what I am doing, it is just to long, and I can’t fix a mistake in a video without recording the whole video over.
I am happy with about 95% of what I recorded and I am working on trying to make it NOT sound like a homemade project. Which maybe a dedicated forum on mixing and production would be nice here. I am sure that with the wide variety of software, there must be a commonality with all of them.
Don't practice till you get it right, practice till you can't get it wrong.
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@music-amg: What are “Punch in’s”? What software are you using?
-Bryce
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@music-amg: What are “Punch in’s”? What software are you using?
Punch in’s are the means to keep musicians and studio professionals sane. LOL It is a way of recording over a small area on a track with out recording the whole track again. You can define a “pre roll” count, which is a audio cue that the area is about to play. Once you reach the end of the audio que, it records on the area that you have defined. Attached is a screen shot with some more explantions. I am using Realband 2015 by PG Music. It comes with Band in a Box. Very very cool software. What I like is the ability to replace MIDI with real instruments. My example was going to include a piano solo generated by Realband, but, I don’t have the correct addon to do what I wanted.
Don't practice till you get it right, practice till you can't get it wrong.
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Interesting. I get it. If I did a long take on something and I just messed up one little part it would be nice to have the feature to go back and record over it. However, since I am not a professional musician and lord knows I need the practice I just do another take or include my flubs in the final product like I normally do. Lol. 🙂 Different strokes for different folks.
It sounds like you a making quite the masterpiece for the challenge piece. I look forward to hearing it.
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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Looks like I have let the side down on this one, I really do struggle at times with this limited attention span of mine and I got sidetracked trying to learn a different lesson than do the challenge….It is all EP134’s fault, seemingly that is the type of music I like playing( sorry, trying to play)….
..Billy..
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No worries Billy! As long as you are playing and practicing that is what it’s about! Join in whenever you can.
It is one of those, just when you think you have it nailed…it all goes wrong as soon as you try to record it, I will get there in the end. thanks for the support.
..Billy..
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