Prog Rock Volume 2

Lessons

• Lesson 1: More Fool Me - Guitar Lesson

  From one of the landmark albums of the classic progressive rock period, Selling England By The Pound by Genesis, More Fool Me was more of a guitar/vocal duet between Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins rather than a full on band tune. The song featured a 12-string in a very unusual tuning and the song can’t really be played in standard, although a 6-string in the altered tuning does a reasonable job. The lesson does not go into a note-by-note explanation as much as just showing the chords and a few accompaniment ideas. A good feel for strumming patterns and arpeggio-type fills is necessary to tackle this song.

• Lesson 2: Solsbury Hill - Guitar Lesson

  Solsbury Hill has been a popular request here at TG since our early days. It is from Peter Gabriel’s first solo album and features quick fingerpicking in 7/4 time. This arrangement combines much of the original guitar part with the main keyboard riffs into what would be a complete solo guitar accompaniment to back up the vocals. The lesson does not go into singing but this makes a nice instrumental as it is.

• Lesson 3: Hoedown - Guitar Lesson

  Hoedown is another unusual song by Caravan, from their 1973 album For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night. It features a catchy riff, played very quickly in 7/8 time. It is enough of a challenge to keep the song moving along as it is and we take it to another level with the addition of some rapid-fire lyrics. Ways of putting all of this together are covered in the lesson.

• Lesson 4: Hello Hello - Guitar Lesson

  Hello Hello is a quirky song from a quirky band, Caravan. The guitarist and main songwriter is Pye Hastings and the song is from their 1970 album If I Could Do It Again I’d Do It All Over You. A common element among their songs is the use of unusual time signatures and Hello Hello uses a few different ones. The first part of the lesson gets you to figure some of this out. It continues with tips on singing in odd times, and then includes slowed down Play Along and Sing Along segments.

• Lesson 5: A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Guitar Lesson

  This classic features a very long descending bass line as its main harmonic structure, a beautiful melody line on the organ, and cryptic lyrics by wordsmith Keith Reid, who wrote the words to almost every Procol Harum song. The music was put together by pianist/vocalist Gary Brooker, with an assist from organist Matthew Fisher. I have had a hard time deciding what direction to take with this lesson, hence the long delay in getting to it. The lesson includes the basic chord progression, an easy way of playing the intro with a pick, some thoughts on fingerpicking a more elaborate version of the intro, and a '˜Behind The Scenes' improvised version as an example of what could be done. This may even show a bit about why I had so much trouble deciding on the direction.

• Lesson 6: Kalynda - Guitar Lesson

  Kalynda is a beautiful song from the progressive band Renaissance. It is from one of their later albums, Azure d’Or and was written by bass player Jon Camp. The main guitar accompaniment was done using arpeggios on a 12-string played by Michael Dunford. This lesson includes the basic rhythm guitar part, as well as techniques and suggestions on incorporating the melody into an instrumental arrangement.

• Lesson 7: Alone Again Or - Love - Guitar Lesson

  In the mid-1960s, Arthur Lee's band, Love was one of the biggest on the LA music scene. Bands like The Doors credited them as a big influence. They made a couple albums before really focusing their sound on Forever Changes, which was released in 1967.
  
  They never really got much attention from the critics or the general population at the time, but the album is now ranked at #40 on Rolling StonesРІР‚в„ў Top 500 Albums Of All Time. The second songwriter in the band was Bryan MacLean and his tune, Alone Again Or has probably become their most recognizable. It starts off with a very complex instrumental intro, followed by a heavily syncopated verse, which smoothly transitions back into the intro.
  
  This will be quite a challenge for most students but you owe it to yourself to explore the early albums by Love.

• Lesson 8: Closer To The Heart - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Closer To the Heart is a song by Rush from their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings.
  This lesson provides an in-depth look at the acoustic guitar parts that make up the intro and first two verses of the song (before the switch is made to electric guitar). 
  It also breaks down the differences between the original studio version and various live versions of the parts, and analyzes the possible reasons Alex Lifeson may have had for utilizing these different approaches.