The video explains almost everything but if you don't have time to watch:
I'm selling the "ULTIMATE MODAL POSTER" through my YouTube channel, it's a chart that artistically and technically describes the modes of major in parallel. I spent the last 3 months designing it and hired 4 local artists/friends to assist, I think it's a great resource to have as a student or a teacher. 
I don't wa...
Hey everyone! Today I've uploaded a huge lesson to YouTube (https://youtu.be/3JizNRwHYNY) that includes theory but also some production and writing advice as well. Hoping it kind of demonstrates the power of these concepts from start to finish and how easy writing can be if you have the proper theory knowledge and equipment to assist.
This PDF should help cement in these concepts if you ...
2019-06-14 14:32:54 +0000 UTC View PostThis latest video (https://youtu.be/55ZVFNUe8iU) kicked off with a truncated version of C.P.E. Bach's "Solfegietto". It's a killer piece that I learned many years ago but struggle to keep up with as it progresses. Maybe one day I'll revisit it to master the difficult sections that succeed this one. For now, here's a tab that includes the left hand fingering AND the pick strokes that I use. It's honestly a mess of economy pi...
2019-05-28 14:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostI posted this video a few days ago on George Harrison's Something:
Here's a one page PDF with all the chords and shapes and structure on it.
My next video will post on Tuesday and includes one of my favorite mini-compositions to date, even though the entire video is on crafting guitar tones. After that it's a toss up on either doing a video on 7th chords (and maj7 / min7) or doi...
2019-05-26 15:51:56 +0000 UTC View PostI've finished a new track! I'm posting it here for you all before I film the music video and get it distributed through iTunes and Spotify. It's called Acreage, it's a happy and sunny spring-timey song. I started writing it several months ago but have been fine-tuning it for quite a while till I could get it to this point.
I've attached the music and tab for this song. Notation isn't my strong suit, so if anyone sees some errors or improvements they could make to the music please ...
2019-05-11 14:34:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone! I just wrapped up with a new video have some related stuff here for you to play with, including the tabs and music for the piece I wrote as well as the mp3. Here's the video: https://youtu.be/3CjeZDUQUwM
I want to take some time here to update you all on how things are looking for the future. This entire year has been wildly busy for me. My time has been divided and I don’t like ...
2019-04-26 15:38:18 +0000 UTC View PostToday I'm uploading a totally different kind of video. It's a deep dive into the chords of a hugely successful ballad. The chords will be walked through during the video but I figured some of you may want to try things away from your PC or phone, so here's a PDF and MuseScore file.
The actual video goes into some pretty confusing territory so if you check the comments on YouTube I'll be responding to some of the questions people might have and hopefully clarify any confusion.
<... 2019-03-26 14:49:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone, today I'm posting a GIANT lesson on mode's specifically for guitarists. If you're not a guitarist, send today's video to one who has been suffering from Modal Confusion.
Here's the charts in PDF and PNG form.
I'll be posting a video here very shortly with some updates- until then, I hope this lesson gets you rethinking your current shapes. The whole idea is to take this concept and apply it to the shapes you already know, and hopefully you'll realize some connec...
2019-03-14 15:23:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Well this is hilarious- about 8 seconds after I uploaded my video as a private video, it was copyright claimed. I've submitted an appeal and hope to get it resolved soon, but I don't want you to wait another day for it so I'm uploading it regardless of the fact that I can not monetize it.
The reason I can do that is because I'm not solely dependent on YouTube advertising dollars to make these lessons since YOU have decided to help fund them. If that wasn't the case, this video...
Howdy folks, I'm going to be testing my live stream set up tonight around 6:00 CST at www.twitch.tv/signals_music
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I'll be at it again at 7:00 PM
Then Thursday at 8:00 PM.
Follow me on Twitter for more updates (@signals_music)
I will likely encounter some bugs and issues- I'm totally new to the twitch platform and streaming in general but I would love to have you drop in for the sessions. I will be taking the riffs submitted for the new Pimp M...
2019-02-12 19:26:56 +0000 UTC View PostI have some important and fun news for you all in this post, so make sure you read all the way through!
First- By request, I've attached the tablature (powertab form and pdf) for the rhythm guitar parts in Red Lined my metal song I wrote for the game "Cant Drive This" by Pixel Maniacs. The song can be heard here
Secondly, I've also attached the mp3 of the 2...
I seem to be making stuff harder and harder for myself on my normal videos by pushing for higher and higher quality and content and editing. I like this process- but I do worry about the time in between videos, so Im hoping that I can still provide you all with some great info and lessons without long stretches of time in between.
One royal pain I've had since day one of trying to livestream is to get the audio out of my DAW to livestreaming correctly without latency. I want to d...
2019-01-13 18:13:21 +0000 UTC View PostI've spent an insane amount of time on this next video and even though it's not any longer than my average video you may see why. It took a LOT of writing and practicing to get things presentable, plus the editing...
Good news is it'll be posted tonight and I've finished the transcription for the video so I'm posting it now. The musescore file will not play 100% correctly but should work well enough.
I need to remix some of the audio for the final performance in the video, when th...
2018-12-27 19:57:58 +0000 UTC View PostYou have ONE WEEK to get your holiday shopping done AND also learn this song. I generally think Christmas music is lame but there are a few good songs out there that I really enjoy. Greensleeves AKA What Child is This is a fantastic piece that is ripe for modification. I'm posting a tab-on-screen video soon but want to make sure you all have the printable pdfs. If anyone uses MuseScore let me know and I can post those files as well.
The melody can be heard using the natural 6th in some v...
2018-12-19 03:09:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a JPG and poorly formated PDF of the stillshot from my video. When I do my video on modal interchange / borrowed chords, I'll have a more versatile version of this with numerals that works for all keys.
I also have had a lot of positive comments abouts the intro solo to the latest video. I'm HAPPY to tab it out if a single one of you wants the tabs, so just let me know here in the comments if you'd be interested!
2018-12-12 06:05:03 +0000 UTC View PostI spent the last week organizing and practicing for a Christmas concert for some students, friends, and neighbors (I had to sing!) so I haven't been able to work on videos, but I did finish a very important element to my next video.
This floaty and ethereal jam track will be used extensively throughout my next lesson, which will be on Modal Mixture; combining scales together that have a common tonal center. In this case we are combining E major and E minor.
I want you to try ...
2018-12-08 22:26:25 +0000 UTC View PostThis is my favorite kind of lesson to teach and my least favorite to edit. Expanding outside of the chords from Major is a challenge for any beginning musician but secondary dominants give a surefire set of chords to choose from when getting bored of just I ii iii IV V vi and maybe the occasional viiº.
It's really a simple concept but it took me a while to grasp so hopefully this video will explain things well and also show you how common these kind of chords are as well as how open-ended the...
2018-11-30 04:16:10 +0000 UTC View Post
"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen." -Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks S01E07)
Tonight I'll be posting a short video on how I work with samples, specifically how I chopped the Twin Peaks Theme song into the main riff driving the track you're hearing right now. There will also be a little info on reharmonization picking a good sample as a source.
A few days after that, this song will b...
2018-11-19 15:06:25 +0000 UTC View PostI spent all day today editing and filming and am finally finishing up at 1AM. I've uploaded the video and it's scheduled to post at 8AM but I'm posting the PDF and tab now. I forgot to render out a version of the intro music without the voice over so I'll do that soon and upload it for yall.
Hope you dig this one, it's seriously one of my fav scales and you hear it all over the last metal track I wrote, Red Lined.
Have fun!
EDIT- There was a mistake in this c...
2018-11-11 06:55:25 +0000 UTC View PostI had a surprising amount of requests for this track, so here it is with a shortened intro and a proper fade out. Just I - IV - V!
2018-11-05 21:58:58 +0000 UTC View PostHere's the background music for my intro. You get to use for ANY AND ALL PURPROSES!
2018-10-29 22:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the tab demonstrating the 4/4 beauty. I'm going to make proper fades on the reggae song about 8th notes, and the film-score intro thing and post those later this week so you can all use them for whatever reasons you deem necessary.
Hope you enjoy the video!
2018-10-28 00:20:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Okay I went off the deep end and made this as the intro, but I've decided for several reasons not to use it, at least in full. Partly in terror of the copyright bots (even tho the audio is all me) but also cause it's a slow intro and i MIGHT be able to shoe-horn in a part of this in the middle of the video. This cracked me up so much though, I didn't want to cast away the idea, so I made what I think is a better intro that uses this same technique. It is faster paced, and still really ridiculous...
2018-10-25 02:49:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe video will post later today- Here's the tabs for the solo in PDF and MuseScore. If something doesn't work for ya just let me know and I'll export it however you need it.
Have fun!
2018-10-19 16:34:23 +0000 UTC View PostHey you fine folks, I was cleared to see again on Monday and life is wonderful. I finished up a new thrash metal track and am posting it here before it goes to iTunes. It's called Red Lined and it'll eventually appear in a cool racing video game called Can't Drive This, available on Steam right now.
My next video is a lesson on how I wrote this solo. I go into detail about structure, scale choices, phrasing, and rhythmic ideas. The tabs for that solo will post when the video goes live, h...
2018-10-18 01:07:39 +0000 UTC View PostToday I took an eye exam that revealed a corneal ulcer. Medication was prescribed, and I'm a week away from healing up. The only reason I decided to pay for an exam instead of trooping it out (thought it was just a scratch or something benign) is because I had some extra money in my checking account this month thanks to you all here.
Had I not gotten it remedied I'd be in a for a world of hurt and serious vision problems.
Just wanted to thank you all - I'm very fortunate to have yo...
2018-10-10 01:35:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Howdy you fine folks. I finally found ONE method to recording myself with proper audio and screen cap, but the problem is there is extreme recording latency so I can't currently use my guitar and am stuck using Midi programs and my mouse.
Either way I filmed this for you to give you an idea of how I produce on the PC without an instrument around. Hope it gives you some insight and motivation to making your own stuff. If you have any questions, fire away!
2018-09-24 19:57:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm releasing my single to you all NOW for free before it's on Spotify and iTunes. The music video will be posted Saturday and I'm ranking it as my favorite thing I've ever made. I just hope it makes you guys chuckle, sing along, tap your foot, or reminisce of the days of yore.
I collaborated with my good partner in crime Jeff Schwertfeger for this. Our creative duo is named BrainForce V, and we used to make songs about video games as part of our work with Machinima. He is one of the bes...
2018-09-14 15:15:33 +0000 UTC View PostThis was a piece I was contracted to do a while back and I still have full ownership of it. It was lost in my harddrive catacombs for a while but I exhumed it and now I'm giving it away for you guys to use in your videos, games, projects, whatever.
It is a looping theme that starts in Dorian, then starts using more of Minor. Eventually there is a modulation to keep things somewhat interesting before it breaks down and loops again.
This is one of my favorite little piece...
2018-09-11 15:47:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Someone on reddit asked about the rhythms going on at 6:58 in this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc9mfvBZxdQ&feature=youtu.be&t=6m58s
It was weird enough to try and figure out and it's hilariously crafted, I'd like you to try figuring it out on your own before you see my best guess.
After about an hour and some liberal usage of the imbedded...
2018-09-10 14:13:05 +0000 UTC View Post