Welcome to Shred School
Shred School is a virtual interactive guitar course that runs in 8-week intervals. Participants can join for the entire 8 week cycle, or drop in on a lesson that looks interesting. Lead by veteran instructor Zach LoPresti, both courses aim to demystify music theory and technique as it pertains to the guitar. You'll learn how to connect chords, scales, and arpeggios over the entire guitar neck, giving you #fretboardfreedom and the confidence to write, improvise, and learn songs by ear with ease and joy. The goal is to give the hungry musician a plethora of useful tools to create any style of music with.
What to expect from the course:
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8 Weeks of 60-min Long Classes on Sundays
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Note identification/ear training exercises
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Backing track mp3's to work on improvisation
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PDFs of staff and tablature notation
"beginner" class goals:
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be able to play any triad/inversions, anywhere on the neck, on top three strings + framework for applying this to other string groups
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7th chords in root position, at least one string group
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have a strong grasp on basic rhythmic syncopation & subdivisions
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develop a foundation for clean alternate picking
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be able to play any major scale/mode both horizontally (up/down the neck) and vertically (single position)
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understand modal harmony from both the Relative and the Parallel perspectives
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at least 3 cells or patterns for scales and arpeggios that can be applied to any key/mode/chord
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basic triad voice leading (cycle 2)
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basics of sweep picking
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legato basics
"advanced" class goals:
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all triads across neck, all four 3-note string groups - voice leading in all cycles
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all 7th chords/inversions across neck (from major/harmonic minor/melodic minor chord families), 4 string groupings, starting points E - A - D - voice leading all cycles
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framework for chord extensions
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triad pairs- general concept + modal applications
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intervallic diatonic chordal approach (i.e moving stacked 4ths through a key)
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string skipping applied to both scales and arpeggios
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using modal variations to step in and out i.e. Modal Variation Chart i.e. Painting with all the Colors
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advanced cell patterns (odd groupings/jazz modes/extension based chords)
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using both diminished and dom-diminished scales
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more advanced sweep picking + economy picking
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hybrid/chickn’ picking
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selective picking/hammer-ons from nowhere
