There is another way : Making life work as a creative - My New Podcast

Create, live, breath and be free

I am so proud to say that my first podcast has been broadcast and is now available online and in iTunes. This is something which has been in the planning for sometime now and I have an exciting information and interviews to share with everyone in the near future.SO what is it about?"Create, live, breath and be free" : There is another way!The goal of the 'There is another way' podcast is to help and empower those on a journey to break away from the 9 to 5, captive working environment and live the life they truly want to. To explore life, the world and creativity.There is another way podcast is all about the journey of being a creativity, a no holes barred account of the ups and downs of being a creative. Neil aims to give listeners the whole truth about the journey and the inspiration to know that they can make it work, no matter their circumstances. With advice, interviews and live talks, this podcasts aims to assist you in making the right choices about your future.Please subscribe on iTunes to get the next Episodes, we will be realising a next Episode every Sunday!Enjoy and thanks for your support.PeaceNeil

Improve your finger independence for guitar - try chord voicings

Facing the finger

Improving finger independence is one of the biggest challenges facing beginner (and more advanced!) players, there are a whole host of finger exercises out there (including student's favourite...the spider). I have found that another way you can tackle this area and work on building your finger independence is to use chord voicings and switch between them.

Video Lesson

So I posted this video lesson which uses some  more 'complex' chord shapes and then spend your time switching between them. This is also a great 'musical' method to improve finger independence over the more traditional spider exercises.Download PDF of chord shapes here For more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking Follow me onTwitterFacebookInstragramLinkedInEnjoy!PeaceNeil

Brucie's Extreme Guitar | Opinionated lessons and thoughts on guitar playing

Along with my Guitar Creativity videos on Youtube, I have now started a new series of videos. These videos are entitled 'Brucie's extreme guitar' and I am offering opinionated lessons and thoughts on guitar playing.The idea of these videos is to think through and play devil's advocate on some ideas and opinions relating to guitar playing and the whole guitar world. I really want to suggest some things which might get you thinking or maybe even get you all fired up.Here is the play list of the videos so far and the first is any introduction to the series.I hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts!EnjoyPeaceNeil

Steve Vai's Guitar Intervals Ear Training

Training the Ear

So, I thought today I would share an ear training method that I have borrowed from a lesson that I had with Steve Vai. I will put this out there first that there are so many good ways of practicing ear training and.....there are SO many good apps out there are well.

Personally, I recommend having a look at EarBeater (you can use it for free on the website) or download the app.

Visualisation : Auralisation

The best way to start with ear training is to start listening out for intervals, the relationship of one note to another and with each of these relationships for an octave (12 intervals) try and assign a aural ‘clue’ or a visualisation of something you can recognise as the interval from an existing song or theme.For example, a descending 5th is the interval of the first two notes of the Flintstones, an ascending b2 (and descending) is the theme from Jaws.

The link below is a list of intervals that I use to make these associations, you may not know some of these tunes or songs, and I would encourage to use your own if you ‘hear’ something more obvious to you.

Interval list.

Now you have an idea of what intervals sound like and hopefully have some strong associations with existing themes, you should be able to start naming intervals when you hear them.

Steve Vai ?

So where does Steve come in?

Well, Steve suggested a number of great methods for working on your ear, including singing the note before you play it, and singing harmonies to the lines you are playing. The one I am going to expand on here is using an existing recording of lots of intervals with them names after they are played, this should enable you to hear the interval, guess the interval and then get the confirmation of the interval.

He suggests recording a whole series of intervals, both ascending and descending and listening to them when you can.For those of us with busy lives, we could then listen to these recordings on the way to work or on the train or at the gym.

And as a BONUS for my loyal readers, I have recorded a series of ear training intervals for you to download for FREE here.

I hope you find them useful and enjoy this exercise and that it helps you with your ear training. Remember it is a continual learning experience!

Enjoy!

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I hope that you found this article useful and enjoy my blog, podcast and YouTube channel. I’m always happy to share my thoughts and to help others as much as I can and I will never charge for my blog content. Having said that, I truly appreciate when someone supports me in return for the time it takes to write articles, produce podcasts and videos, where I share my years of work and experience with you.

Here are some ways you can show your appreciation:

• sharing my content online.

• buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SpencerBruce

• subscribing, liking and commenting on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeilSpencerBruce

• Listening to my music on streaming services like Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3llyDSr

• buying my music and sounds on Bandcamp: https://lightb4sound.bandcamp.com/

• Visiting my online store: SpencerBruceStore

Peace

Neil

Brucie's Extreme Guitar : Opinionated a New Lesson Series Introduction

So I have started a new guitar series of videos. The video below is an introduction to a new creativity and guitar lesson series I am going to be doing. The idea is that I will play devil's advocate on a number of issues that we all may hear about or know about. This is my opinion on the topic and I will also try and question that opinion as well.The main thing is asking the question, and seeing how I would answer and how you would answer, There is no right or wrong, and we all may learn something. Some of the topics might be controversial, some might wind you up a little bit, but please be part of the conversation and let's see where this goes.This lesson is about how to improve your phrasing by stealing rhythms from other melodic ideas. It is a great way to get our of a rut and find new meFor more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking https://gumroad.com/l/zCAXyFollow me onTwitter http://twitter.com/lightb4soundFacebook https://www.facebook.com/SpencerBruce...Instragram https://instagram.com/lightb4sound/LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/neilbruceEnjoy!PeaceNeil

Pedalboard Rundown : Atomic Amplifire Teaching board with Boss RC30 and Suhr Riot, EHX Nano POG

It is the already nearly August 2016 and whilst I have already posted a couple of different pedalboards recently this one is for a different purpose...teaching and demonstrating. So I have put together another pedalboard .....the teaching pedalboard!Not sure why but always seems like a good thing to do at the begining of the heavy gigging season and blog about it. I know how much you guys love to see pictures of pedals boards and read about them. So here firstly is the picture in action….. Atomic Amps Amplifire Pedalboard with Boss RC-30 for looping and teaching ideas, the EHX Nano POG for adding bass parts and the Suhr Riot for a bit of lovely distortion (The Amplifire has the third switch set to switch on the boost which is usually an OverDrive and switches 1 and 2 up and down on Patches), there is also the Jerry Cantrell Wah for when I feel like adding some interest.This now gives me the option to go directly to a PA, sound card, Roland Cube monitor or straight into an amp, depending on the gig or my mood. Just got a few different patches now to cater for bothFull review can be found hereEnjoyPeaceNeil

NPD JHS The AT (Andy Timmons) Overdrive pedal

JHS The AT (Andy Timmons) Overdrive pedal

So it is new pedal day today (NPD!) and my JHS Andy Timmons Signature overdrive has just arrived, so I thought I would do a video blog for no other reason than I am very excited!! I will be doing a review soon, but needless to say it sound AWESOME!!Some just asked me on Facebook...

What are the main differences between AT Overdrive and the Angry Charlie v3?

The main differences are the Angry Charlie has 3 band EQ which closely represents the overall tone stack in a Marshall JCM800. So it is very close to the Marshall Gov’ner pedal. THE AT Drive, has an over all EQ control, which acts a bit like a lowpass filter is used to adjust the overall tone of the pedal (so a bit like a mid control ish!) and the Air is a LP filter too but seems to adjust the HF response. The main difference though is the toggle switch! This give you 3 levels of headroom and is represents a 25W, 50W and 100W power stage. So at 25w you get a lot of compression and more distortion but at a lower level, 50W is a bit more biting Crunch/Distortion, and 100W is a really loud power amp type tone. I have it set at 50W currently and then over compress it by running the EHX soul food into it, this gives gain compression but a boost in the mids which makes it stand out on solos!Any more questions, just shout!EnjoyPeaceNeil