Boss RC 300 FAQ

Here are a couple of things about RC 300 that I found unintutive that deserve an FAQ

How can I record on a track set to One Shot? 
you can't. You need to change the track properties to be something other than One Shot and then you can record / overdub to your hearts content.

Most probably you want to do One shot because you want the track to play out of sync with other tracks. ie. Have a different length and start as per your demand. In such cases I prefer to turn "Loop Sync" off and keep "Temp Sync" on. This way you can use the track as One Shot where you have to stop it yourself.

The drums/precussion switches off when I stop playback of the last loop 
That is unfortunate. However you can record a dummy background loop if you MUST the beat playing all the time. 

Figuring out the key of a song : Part II

Sometimes there is no minor chord in there.

eg. E G A

Sounds good but has no minor chord. Just notice that E is three half steps away from G which is two half steps away from A

Notice how it conveniently overlaps with the E minor pentatonic scale? The best way to figure this out is to simply notice the 3 tone / 2 tone difference.

If this is the case go crazy with the (in this case) the E minor / G major petatonics / G major scale.

Enjoy! 

Moving from chord to chord

I love jumping between the major/minor ( depending on key ) and 7s, sus2s and sus4s of A , D , C , G , E chords.

There is another technique called walk-up that I did not know of:

Sounds really good if done properly. Basically instead of moving between the shapes of high strings (as in 7s sus2s and sus4s ) you move between the shapes on the low (bass) strings. Good stuff. 

Royal guitar chords

E and A are the kings of guitar chords. Great for bar chords starting on 6th and 5th string.

Here is the shapes that anyone who plays guitar should be familiar and comfortable with.

E      : 022100
Em   : 022000
E7    : 020100
Em7 : 020000

A      : 002220
Am   : 002210
A7    : 002020
Am7 : 002010


Keep playing, keep having fun, keep getting awesomer. Till next time. 

Relationship of Chords / Scales

Just a revision :

The relationship between notes: 
The major scale is king. It goes like this :
root tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone root

Numbered as :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

kapeesh?

Being a guitarist you want to think of it as distance between the various numbers. Try not to. Focus on the note indices. Being a guitarist you can focus on the note numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 instead of c d e f g a b.
Just remember the names on the first two strings though. Or have an idea of the note names on the first two strings and you are good to go.

Next.

Common chord progressions : 

1 major chord goes well with major 4 , major chord of 5 and minor chord of 6

Learn where these are if your one is on the 6th string (bar chord on 6th) or on the 5th string (bar chord on 5th). Covers about a 90% of the songs :)

If you start on 6th string:
4th = same chord moved to string 5,
5th = same chord move to string 5 two frets down
6th = minor chord three frets up on string 6

If you start on 5th string:
5th = same chord moved to string 6
4th = same chord moved to string 6 two frets up
6th = minor chord moved to string 6 two frets down

Details? Lookup Diatonic harmonies. And here is a very simple explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIEmMDwc7E


Soloing? 
A major scale in key x is equal to a minor scale in 6th of key of x.

For C sixth = A.
Therefore Cmaj = Aminor

Using a capo to simplify songs

Lets do it question answer style:

What is meant by transposing down?
Down means lower in frequency which is up the fretboard.

So if I put a capo on the 1st fret what is the transposition that takes place?
You are going to transpose your chords down by half a step (half a tone ... semitone ... by a half note ... all same things).

So your F needs to be played like its transposed value of half a step .... E.

Why this knowledge is useful?
Say you want to play "Stand by me" as given here http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/b/ben_e_king/stand_by_me_crd.htm

Want to use a capo? simple Transpose two half steps to see how you would play it if you were to put a capo on 2nd fret.

Cool way to remember
Since you are moving the capo down the fretboard you are going to need to move the chord shapes up which means transposing down in frequency. 

Guitar soloing, simply explained

There are lots of names for everything about music theory. I will keep it simple and use only one name.  Each one is bolded out below. 


All you need to know : I hope you have seen a guitar and know what frets are. Also when you play a single fret. Its called a note.

This is a keyboard:

Notice the key yellowed out. Notice how it repeats over the keyboard. The distance between two similarly located keys on the keyboard is called an Octave. There are twelve keys between them. These are called 12 tones. These correspond to the 12 frets on the guitar. So the musical distance between two  consecutive frets on the guitar is same as two keys on the keyboard and this is called a semitone difference. A difference of two frets (or two keys on the keyboard) is called a tone.

Fact: The keys on the keyboard are arranged to make playing the key of C easy. The note in yellow in the image above is "C".

When notes are arranged with the following distance between them:
root-note tone note tone note semitone note tone note tone note tone note semitone note
Or Simply:
tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone
Its called a Major Scale

Fact: So you can see why the key of C is easy to play on the piano? Its cause if you play all the white keys on a piano you get the major scale of C. 

The notes on the major scale are what make the interval. So The major scale can also be written as:
1 tone 2 tone 3 semitone 4 tone 5 tone 6 tone 7 semitone 1 ... cause you are at the octave point rinse and repeat.

kapeesh?

But I wanted to play solos.
And so you shall. The 4th and the 7th ... require some skill to place correctly. Why you ask? Cause they are semitones away from 3rd and 1st respectively.

For clarity: Here is the 4th: 

And here is the 7th:

Remove these and this is the interval sequence you are left with:  1 2 4 5 6 ... 1

Five notes ... penta notes. These are called the Major Pentatonic Scale. Play these irrespective of the last note you struck anywhere on the fretboard and you CANNOT sound bad. 

So. What is left is for you is to 

a) Find out which key you are playing in. Determined from chords, more on that on another day. 

b) Remember the names of the notes on the 6th String (the lower E ... fattest string). 

c) Remember these 5 adjacent positions on the fretboard. The root note is colored green

It is important to think of the root notes and the intervals. This will eventually lead you to becoming a master. This is actually more helpful than learning the note names of the fretboard. Also, when you have the root note targeted on the lower E figure out the intervals of all other points on the lower E with respect to that. This will keep you from slipping off the scale. 

How to practice

1.) Lay down a chord progression. For key of C one sample will be (among various other options ... this is solo lesson not rhythm lesson)  C G Am F.
2.) Be aware of root note. 

3.) Observe the intervals on the lower E string.

4.) Play the solo and REMEMBER ... have Fun! 

Read the fretboard like the matrix and kick some agent butt! 

Piano images made from this tool : http://www.pianotools.com/cgi-bin/piano_visualization_tools/intervals.pl