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As well as the tuition and the exercises that develop skills, technique and understanding of the chosen instrument, it is also important to develop repertoire ie tunes.
On our fourth day of filming, we devoted the day to recording and filming a number of tunes that have been specially written to explore the techniques and skills that feature in our lessons. These tunes will feature as play alongs... guitar players will be able to play along with bass & drums, drummers with guitar & bass etc.
All of the pieces are written with reference to a specific musical genre eg rock, metal, reggae, funk etc... the piece below is written in the style of (New Orleans) funk with particular reference to the Meters, hence the title, Meter Maid.
Above: page 1 of the 'lead' sheet' featuring the solo (guitar or keyboards), bass & drum parts.
The piece features three sections:
Section A: a chord motif featuring 4 basic chords: D, G, C & Em. The speed of the piece is 80 bpm which is quite slow and it is important to play the chords rhythmically accurately.
Section B: features a melodic motif with a strong emphasis on 'the one' (a funk concept explained in our funk tutorial). The notes spell out the Dm7 chord with an additional 4th of the scale (G).
The majority of the piece is based around the alternation of these two sections but there is also a third section which features a modulation (key change) to the 4th degree of the scale (G) which again is a classic funk technique. This third section, section C also features an opportunity for a couple of bars of improvisation and introduces one more chord A7.
Though there is thematic repetition throughout the piece, the bass and drum parts are constantly evolving utilising alternative performance techniques, all of which is detailed in the score and also in the tutorial that accompanies each specific piece.
Sibelius
All parts for the pieces are prepared in Sibelius
Below are two more pictures of the filming on the day:
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