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Hi Active Melody family!
It’s December, 2024 Site Member Challenge time!
So I’m using Charjo’s excellent suggestion for this month’s challenge. He suggested using a 12 bar blues in A backing track (which you can download from this lesson) and trying different approaches to playing lead over that track. You could play:
- Major Pentatonic
- Minor Pentatonic
- Blend the Pentatonics
- Arpeggios
- Chromatic notes
- Diminished scales or arpeggios
- Change the scale to match the chord (works great over the 5 chord)
Make sure to use the backing track from EP547
Try to come up with your own creation! You can use what I played in EP547 as inspiration, but take it in a different direction. You can do it!
The submission date for this challenge will be Sunday, January 12 – you can start submitting Friday, January 10/strong>
**If you need assistance with how to record yourself and post to the forum see this post**
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GROUND RULES FOR PARTICIPATION:
1. Post your Youtube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud links of you playing your chosen lesson anytime between Friday, January 10, through Sunday, January 12, 10:00 pm CST. Please do not submit earlier. I think it is fun to see everyone’s posts at once.
2. Submit individually in the “Active Melody Member Challenge Response Submissions” forum. Title your posts “December 2024 Challenge Response – [Your AM Screen Name]”
3. Please submit only a single video or audio file for this challenge.
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. In my opinion, it is better to show progress versus perfection with these challenges. So if you are a beginner and can only play the first couple of measures. That is completely ok. If you play two more measures of the next challenge piece than you did the previous one, you are on track to getting better. This is what these challenges are about…you learning guitar and getting better. Remember we are all here to support you no matter what your current playing level is.
I look forward to seeing everyone’s posts! 🙂
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Since Brian couldn’t remember how it all started I thought I’d mention some challenge fun facts:
The first official Active Melody Site Member challenge was organized by Bryce in September 2015 but the inspiration for them might have come in from a couple of prior events.
One of them was EP112, a cool funky rhythm lesson in which Brian asked the AM forum community to contribute to the lead in the next lesson. So the lead Brian teaches in EP113 is a combination of AM members’ contributed licks and it turned out just fantastic, one of my all time favorites!
Another event that might have sparked the idea was when Charjo recorded a Jimi Hendrix style track and posted it on the forum and then Brian offered to come up with a lead to it. Do I remember it right, Charjo?
Another fun challenge fact: Brian was once a PARTICIPANT in the challenge, the 2nd one issued by Bryce, it was lesson EP027 🙂
🎸JoLa
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Hi Jola,
Thanks for the honourable mention.
My first post was a version of EP105 Gilmour style on Jun 14, 2015. Bryce was active and already getting very involved from April that year.
On July 1st I posted a Hey Joe rhythm and challenged members with the “Canada Day Challenge” to add a lead. We were all really new to recording ourselves in those days. I believe that was the first challenge on the site. Bryce was the first to respond followed by Brian who floored me with quality and creativity in his playing.
The following month, Brian challenged us to put a lead over the track of EP 112, I’m not sure if Bryce had a hand in that. We posted responses in August which led to the compilation video of members ideas in EP 113.
I like to think that maybe I inspired the challenges but Bryce certainly took the idea and ran with it.
Here’s the link to the thread. Bryce’s response isn’t available but check out Brian’s amazing lead.John
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The track for EP 547 wasn’t quite what I had in mind. I was looking for a straight mid-tempo 12 bar major blues shuffle where we could all go back to basics and take it in a major or minor direction. It’s hard to find a very straight blues backing track on AM but I was thinking something like EP 219 or EP 527.
EP 547 is is a little slower, a little more in the gospel vein and leans more to the major pentatonic.
I do like the idea of everyone on the same track applying our own ideas, though. Should be fun.
John -
Had a listen to the EP547 track. It’s really beautiful with lots of interesting changes. Guitar always sounds great over a nice organ pad. Might not be able to keep it to just two courses though.
John -
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I had originally planned to do this Challenge in standard tuning, but Open A works so well with the EP547 track that I’m going to go with that.
Brian played a Clapton signature strat for EP547. I don’t have that, but I did attempt to build a copy with the same noiseless pickups and tone circuit. It was originally meant to be a “Blackie” clone, but I ended up putting a mint colored pickguard on it. I’ll play that for the challenge. Lowell George played a strat in Open A. Maybe I can channel a bit of that.
– Bret
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