Practice Track A minor Funk

Use this practice track for polishing up your A minor chops. You can use A minor pentatonic, A natural minor, or A Dorian (Dorian mode of G major). There’s just one chord, Am7, with an occasional change up. See if you can figure out the chords in the change up. It shouldn’t affect your scale for soloing too much, although there is D chord which has a F sharp in it, so the A dorian would be better suited than the A natural minor over the change up. The A minor pentatonic has neither an F or F sharp, so isn’t affected.

Bass Practice track Am, Bm – slow funk

Hi Here is a practice track for Bass players. Building on our G major scale knowledge, this track uses an Am7 and a Bm7 chord, the II chord and the III chord of the G major scale. Start building a bass line with your root notes, and when you are comfortable with knowing where all your rote notes are in a position, add other chord tones.  To find the chord notes, first you need to know your G major scale. Then starting at the root note of the chord, take every second note up the scale for four notes. These are the chord notes!

The track follows this sequence, and the first chord you here is Bm7.

||:Am7           |                  |Bm7            |                 :||

Ear Training practice track

Hi all,

This practice track is to help you with your ear. I play a phrase over 4 bars, then there is a 4 bar gap for you to play the same phrase. The progression is

||:C           |C              |F              |F          :||

The key is C major. I played all phrases in the 2nd position moveable scale shape. But you should be able to use just about any C major fingering!

Enjoy!

Corona Virus Arrangements

Things have been moving very quickly with the Corona Virus pandemic, and I have been like many others, taking time to get on top of the advice from the government, as well as other sources.

As a result, I have decided to switch to online delivery of lessons across the board, starting from Monday 23rd March. I apologise for the inconvenience this may cause, but believe it is the right thing to do for community safety. When things have settled down, I expect we will be able to return to lessons as usual.

I realise the this may not suit every student, and if that’s the case, I am happy to hold your remaining lesson payment for this term in credit for future lessons. Otherwise I think the online format will allow us to maintain continuity of instruction while doing our bit to slow the spread of the virus.

All students would have received a communication from me by email, with a text notification where possible as well, giving you the information you need to access your online lesson, which will be at the same day and time as usual.  If you haven’t received this communication, please contact me as soon as possible. If you need to change the lesson time, get in touch with me, and we can work out an alternative time, though it’s helpful for me if we can minimise such changes.

I appreciate your kindness and support with this new approach – I will be on a learning curve with it, and hopefully there won’t be too many teething problems. My wish is for everyone to get through the next few months safely and in good health.

Kind Regards,

Rob Reeves

C Major Practice Track

Here is a practice track for guitarists to practice soloing in C major. The chords are

||:C           |             |F         |             :||

As well as using C major, you could also experiment with the C minor pentatonic scale.

Have fun!

If you would like to hear some of my guitar work over this rhythm track, I have released it as a single called “Cat Cuddle Cafe” by Rob Reeves. Access it on Apple Music or Spotify from this link….

You can also purchase from iTunes or Amazon if you want the 1’s and 0’s on your device!

Practice track for Bass Players – C major

Here is a practice track for Bass Players in C major. The Chords are

||:C            |               |F            |               :||

Try playing a bass line with just the root notes first, and when you can hear the chord changes well, try putting in some runs with the C major scale. You can also try working off your chord tones… the 1,3 and 5 of each chord. It sounds good adding a 6th or a 2nd to the chord tones as well. Experiment and have some fun!

If you would like to hear my bass line for this track, I have released it as a single called “Cat Cuddle Cafe” by Rob Reeves. Access it on Apple Music or Spotify from this link….

You can also purchase from iTunes or Amazon if you want the 1’s and 0’s on your device!

Another One for the Bass Players – E Blues

Here is another practice track for the bass players. It is an E 12 Bar blues. The rhythm part is played with all dominant 7th chords, while the lead guitar plays with the E minor pentatonic scale. Here are the chords:-

|E7               |                 |                  |                |

|A7               |                 |E7             |                |

|B7               |A7            |E7              |E7           |

Try constructing bass lines from your dominant 7th chord arpeggios. Add in the 6th for a classic blues bass line. For your runs, try the the myxolydian mode from the root of each chord.

 

Bass Practice Track – A minor and E minor

This is a practice track for bass players, wanting to practice up their chops in C major with a basic rock feel. The chords are A minor and E minor:-

||:Am          |               |Em          |             :||

Use your C major scale to create runs between each chord. You can also use your arpeggio notes for each chord to create interesting lines. You might also like to experiment with using your A minor pentatonic runs on the A minor chord, and E minor Pentatonic runs on the E minor chord.

Jam away, and have some fun!

Cheers, Rob.

Guest Teacher Libor Smoldas

Rob’s Guitar School is very privileged to be welcoming Libor Smoldas, one of Europe’s leading jazz guitarists, to its guest teaching program. Libor will be conducting a limited number of private lessons, along with a group clinic on Saturday 3rd March 2018. Libor, “Europe’s rising young jazz star” according to All About Jazz, USA, has performed and taught extensively throughout Europe, the USA and Australia, released a number of albums, and won a number of awards for his compositions.

Cost for a private 30 minute lesson with Libor will be $45. Cost for the 2 hour clinic will be $50.

The clinic will run from 2PM to 4PM, Saturday 3rd March, at 39 Kirri St, The Gap. Bring your own guitar and notebook.

A private lesson can be booked between 12PM and 2PM, same location!

As numbers are strictly limited, secure your spot today by booking for the clinic now!
Click to book!

Book your private lesson now at
Click to book!

This is a fantastic opportunity to get the good oil from a great guitarist, so book now! Don’t miss out!

Check out Libor’s web site for list of concerts…try and get along to his Brisbane gigs!

Here is a couple of youtube videos of Libor playing….