Guitar Tutorials, Music Reviews, Guitar Chatter, Band Talk, Live Performance, Music Education.
Pink Floyd‘s tech-heavy composition, “Welcome to the Machine” was always way ahead of its time. It brooding and searching and minor-based sonic pallet always took some getting used to, at least for me. But, after covering the song, I discovered the incredible melodic motifs contained within.
This is a two-minute section of the song.
When I set out to put together my weekly radio show with three female musicians I had no idea how it would fly. Well, it flew just fine thank you. The final segment was p
lanned to be an interview/review of a double-release by the band, Silver and Moonlight. However, and as a great surprise to me, the interview segment blossomed into an exhaustive analysis of music making, improvisation, the inner workings of band live and composition, and a look into the mind of a gifted and artistic young lady…I would dare say a modern, artistic renaissance woman.
A little background:
Kiaya Abernathy is a vocalist, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, spectacular visual artist, and a very creative photographer. If that isn’t enough, she’s strong-willed, perceptive, and enlightened. That would all be understandable if she were in her forties, but if you take off a decade a
nd a have you are closer to the truth.
Kiaya is dedicated to bringing to the masses art in all of its expression. In this interview, she speaks for all of us who struggle to bring forth creative and meaningful music into a world where sameness and commercial gain eclipse meaning and foresight.
As you listen to Kiaya speak about her band, her father, her ideas, and her hopes for the future, think of the way things could be. The way music would change if her worldview were a reality. If music were set free from the chains of what has to be.
Listen here:
Check out the 31 song double album release by Silver and Moonlight:
Stars Shining Bright and Loon Call are here:
My radio show, The Studio Rocks with Mark Campayno, can be heard every weekend here:
The Studio Rocks w/Mark Campayno
Lo and behold I hear this music…this guitar and bass drum. Then, I hear the voice. Instantly, I knew it was her. I’m thinking no not again! But, this was different. This song cut through my musical being like a knife. The songs ends and the light turns green. I rush into the parking lot, into the
Here is what I have so far of the guitar and percussion part for the song. I will have it finished tomorrow and will turn this into the finished product. This should suffice for the next 12 hours.Guitar Score PDF:
Send My Love (To Your New Lover) GTR
Percussion Score PDF:
Send My Love (To Your New Lover) PERC
Here is the YouTube Link for my tutorial:
This “classical guitar” work in the new acoustic style is by far my favorite of the ones I’ve written 
so far. Both its sound and construction are exactly what I look for in instrumental guitar works. Like anything else that comes as a pleasant surprise, this was one of those sessions where everything came together. I must say however, that I never go into a session with a preconceived idea, well at least not one that is carved in stone. My brain doesn’t work that way even though I can be very conservative and by the book in other areas of performance and study.
I go in to such sessions randomly trying not to get caught up in the guitarists mindset that can plague your endlessly. The thoughts and schemes such as what key? What scales or chords? Should I go int
o an altered tuning or not? Should I play fast or slow? That does nothing more than push your spirit into a one-dimensional force bent on being traditional. Traditional for the sake of tradition. Not to pay homage to it, but to be bound by it.
I don’t remember consciously doing this but it has a logical rhythmic flow to it. The piece starts out by stating the melody in between a very dense foundation 
of dark arpeggiated chords. I overdubbed some, but not all of the harmonics onto the work as a decorative effect. I, like many non-guitarists, tend to find them aurally attractive and very desirable especially on acoustic guitar.
The slurred sections were not easy but flowed surprisingly well considering that I had no plan for incorporating them. I’m very happy with how they turned out. It’s my climbing Mount Everest moment as that are fairly athletic. It will take quite a few minutes to pull them back under my fingers in that exact configuration. However, I must take the time to score out the work so as to codify it. In that way, it becomes “official”, solid, unbending. Unless, of course, I go back and change the score.
As musicians, we all have areas that are endemic to our playing. I love the angular in music, but to produce it well is not easy. This was one time that it happened without the usual struggle and gnashing of teeth. The fleeting moments of non-compliance with the voices in our heads that would doubt us.The total control one has sought from the beginning of the 
journey. However, I’m sure I’ll go back to the struggle until I can take control of angular and the unexpected in my playing.
Thank God for the guitar.
-Mark Jeffery Campayno
Youtube Official Audio Version from Charlie’s Vevo Channel:
“We Don’t Talk Anymore” Official Audio
“We Don’t Talk Anymore” the new single by Charlie Puth, featuring Selena Gomez, contains a very exciting guitar part that will keep your concentration on high alert. Even though consists of only two separate but similar chord progressions, one little slip can cause a bit of a mess due to its fast tempo.
Progression 1 (4 measures)
A Major – B Major – C#minor – G#minor.
Progression 2 (4 measures)
A Major – B Major – C#minor – C#minor.
*For clarity’s sake let’s call these sections A and B, which is clearly marked on the score.
The entire song is played arpeggio style with a fast 1/16th-note texture and it never strays from these two sections.
The difficulty with playing “We Don’t Talk Anymore” will lie in the speed at which the parts are played. The tempo is a “brisk”
It will be easier to play this song using finger style technique on an acoustic guitar. Using a pick will require extreme accuracy for the entirety of the song (3:37). If you are up for it, God bless you!
Here is the structure of the song:
The intro is: A B-Mark
Guitar Score: “We Don’t Talk Anymore” PDF Guitar Pro File
Here is the Youtube link: Youtube Tutorial for “We Don’t Talk Anymore”
-Review by Mark Jeffery Campayno
Just when you thought that technological innovations in music had eliminated the need, or even the will to look back at the past, a band from Seinäjoki, Finland, Free Spirit releases it’s sophomore effort, “All the Shades of Darkened Light”. This 11 song collection opens up with blazing guitar riffs that evoke everything that serious rock fans have been missing for decades.
Can it be that eighties melodic hard rock is still relevant? I must admit, even I had doubts. With clarity, precision, and eighties bravado, “All the Shades of Darkened Light” serves notice that high energy and good old hair metal swag can still rock hard.
Melodic Hard Rock is a tough taskmaster. With so many musical elements to produce not to mention the risk involved, it’s refreshing to see a band pull it off with such ease. The first track, “Through the Night” will have you fully engaged as the band has set the course. There’s no turning back now. With blazing anthems and refurbished vocal hooks filling each track from beginning to end there’s hardly a place to catch y
our breath. But, if you yearn for the days of big hair, perfectly processed guitars, and fist in the air rock bravado, prepare yourself to be transformed. Yes, the decade of decadence and excess lives on!
Want proof? Try “Silence”, a heartbreaking tune reminiscent of the great hard rock ballads of the past. Using all their powers, the boys come through big on this one with a moving performance full of arpeggiated passages, gorgeous guitar breaks, and pleading vocals.
“Storyline” wraps up the release as the 11th track. This summation in hard rock gets to the heart of what Free Spirit is all about. A hint of Def Leppard appears in the main riff, the vocals harmonize perfectly, and everything is just perfect.
Thankfully, Free Spirit is no one trick pony. There’s plenty of variation in their material and one can easily make the necessary connection between the past and the present. Hmmm…guys? Why not an even twelve next time?
Music is music yes? Well, no. As the days pass it becomes clear that music style and music blending are now becoming as one. Sub-genres, new genres, and blended forms are shaking the foundation of what once was a fairly stable set of norms for each culture.
Music is in this state of flux because of the massive increase in the ability of humans to communicate. Instant access to practically to anywhere in the world has enabled a sharing of art and culture unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Music is now being composed that may contain elements from two or more cultures. This is now the norm and the movement is picking up even more momentum as each day passes. 
Take Anurag Mishra, a native of Mumbai, India. He creates music that is eclectic and mixed with culture and pure intuition. A man after my own heart he writes, “I can type and type but words have no meaning really. Just listen, that will be enough.” His musical vignettes are snapshots, or better to say, short stories of his life experience mixed with elements of his native and western musical experiences and intuition.
His mix of nature and urban background sounds are as real and alive as his music. How does one conceive of such creativity? Anurag himself is a man who can be passionate and incredibly humorous. He wears his heart on his sleeve and can be at once, or in part, highly emotional and extremely patient and kind. But, that is what makes his music so varied and engaging.
Using his instrumental musings as musical poetry is part and partial of what Anurag is about. His three-song collection The Journey is a prime example. When Anurag says, “I recorded these songs on an old broken mandolin, the tuning alone took hours, but man the tone of old wood. :)” you understand immediately that he is an old soul. He is clearly a composer free and uninhibited ready to create that which is delivered by the process of “creative composing“. He is a self-taught savant ready always for the music to call.
His compositions come to us as not just sounds, but pieces of our lives. For him, bringing music to the earth is almost a religious experience. He takes it seriously and fights hard to get every once of feeling into his works. He is a master of arpeggiated emotionalism in this case taking cello and mandolin and creating what can only be described as a miracle of moving symbolism in musical dialogue. “Wings” is by far his greatest work thus far. Moving me to a state of paralysis until it ends, its notes fall as pedals of sound pulling at every fibre of my being.
“Breathing” sounds like a classical etude until the entrance of the cello. It’s then that you realize he’s done it again. He’s opened your heart. Out it comes, good memories, bad memories; people flash before your eyes. You see that. which you wished to let go of. Then, instantly the music brightens a little and life becomes once again bearable and recoverable. The song ends abruptly with no warning, but not too soon. For Anurag, you see, will write as long as he needs to. No more, no less. Be assured however, that the message will be there for you. But, only you.
In the last composition, “The Red Earth”, you are struck by the beauty of the world. All the earth, not just your small part of it. He describes the piece as “changes from light to dark, or dark to light”. Don’t dare ask for more of an explanation than that. He won’t give it and in this change I speak of, your interpretation pulls more weight. Creators of world instrumental music are happy to listen to your descriptions as it gives them a window into a world they wish to discover.
At the end of this short but powerful collection, you realize that in music at least the universe and it’s inhabitants can live as one. We can understand each other. We can overcome and embrace who we are. We can create freely. Anurag Mishra’s 8:13 seconds of breathtaking soundscapes prove that the world is changing quickly around us.
Mark Jeffery Campayno
Exotic and glamorous, Lana Del Rey is an old soul. She is from another time, and I for one, am glad the time is now. A good friend described her music as “exotic”. That’s more accurate that any other description I could come up with.
Brave melodic motifs, unusual leaps, daring scale choices, and surprising twists of phrases, this young lady has unapologetically taken pop music to a higher level well beyond the trite and true banality that calls itself popular music.
She does it so naturally that it’s as though she was born to be the change agent in popular vocal music. But there’s more. Lana isn’t a one trick pony. She is more. Sure, her music is avant guade meets 1940’s style standards, but add to her lyrical strength where she holds back nothing in her black or white description of life and you have a complete artist in every sense of the word.
Take her new single, High By The Beach, from her forthcoming new album, Paradise. Lana does not sugar coat subjects, nor does she doesn’t edit her thoughts for radio. She’s not outrageous flashing about like a firefly trying to wow us. No not this girl. “You take the wheel, I don’t wanna do this anymore. It’s so surreal, I can’t survive if this is all that’s real”. Or take her mission statement for moving on after a relationship, “Everyone can start again, not through love but through revenge. Through the fire, we’re born again. Peace by vengeance brings the end”.
This is not a contrived and processed pop star. Lana Del Rey is an intelligent musician who delivers an orchestrated musical palate that has not been heard for decades, if ever. What’s even better is the way in which she continues to experiment, not seeming to care what the expectations are. Using old-school string sounds with lush orchestration, mixing in beats that are not only current but incredibly appropriate, and adding blazing guitar when needed, we finally have a model of what creative and expressive music can be in world of the chronically vapid.
As for her lyrics, they are deep, harsh, sweet, sarcastic, and full of life’s best and worst moments. At times, I swear she is writing about my experiences. That’s how a real artist connects with an artist in any area of expression. Her prose can only come from one who has lived with extremes in ups and downs. The girl has been there and back and knows exactly how to express it. My God, if I could write one phrase half as good as she can…
Lana Del Rey has hit on something. A music that is both from another time and at the same time, timeless. A woman, strong, beautiful, daring, vulnerable, and smart, I for one am taken in by someone who understands life as I see it.
Guitar tutorial for “High By The Beach” by Lana Del Rey
Link to Tutorial Guitar Tutorial “High By The Beach” Lana Dey Rey
PERFORMANCE NOTES:
Key: B Minor Capo Key: A Minor
Scales used in melody: B Natural Minor/B Harmonic Minor
*Capo Guitar at fret 2.
The chords should not give you much trouble technically. The challenge wiil be what you do with them.
How will you interpret this music?
How will you turn a synthesizer-based composition into one that works on an acoustic guitar that has no sustain? Where the notes die quickly where you are the one who must create a sustained effect?
Chord progression for the verse/chorus is:
Am F Dm E
This stays unaltered until the bridge.
Once the bridge does occur, the new progression breathes new life into the structure.
Chord Progression for Bridge:
Dm C G Dm / Dm C G Dm/E7
This new section provides the perfect escape from the previous (and only other) chord progression in Lana’s composition.
The rest, as they say, is up to you.
Lana Del Rey ““High By The Beach” lyrics:
[Lana del Rey]
Boy, look at you, looking at me
I know you know how I feel
Loving you is hard, being here is harder
You take the wheel
I don’t wanna do this anymore
It’s so surreal, I can’t survive
If this is all that’s real
All I wanna do is get high by the beach
Get high by the beach, get high
All I wanna do is get by by the beach
Get by baby, baby, bye, bye
The truth is I never
Bought into your bullshit
When you would pay tribute to me
Cause I know that
All I wanted to do is get high by the beach
Get high baby, baby, bye, bye
Boy look at you, looking at me
I know you don’t understand
You could be a bad motherfucker
But that don’t make you a man
Now you’re just another one of my problems
Because you got out of hand
We won’t survive
We’re sinking into the sand
All I wanna do is get high by the beach
Get high by the beach, get high
All I wanna do is get by by the beach
Get by baby, baby, bye, bye
The truth is I never
Bought into your bullshit
When you would pay tribute to me
Cause I know that
All I wanted to do is get high by the beach
Get high baby, baby, bye, bye
Lights, camera, acción
I’ll do it on my own
Don’t need your money, money
To get me what I want
Lights camera action
I’ll do it on my own
Don’t need your money, money
To get me what I want
All I wanna do is get high by the beach
Get high by the beach, get high
All I wanna do is get by by the beach
Get by baby, baby, bye, bye
The truth is I never
Bought into your bullshit
When you would pay tribute to me
Cause I know that
All I wanted to do is get high by the beach
Get high baby, baby, bye, bye
High-igh-igh-igh
High-igh-igh-igh
High-igh-igh-igh
High-igh-igh-igh
Everyone can start again
Not through love but through revenge
Through the fire, we’re born again
Peace by vengeance
Brings the end
lyrics by Lana Del Rey
http://lanadelrey.com/
Lana’s Twitter
Lana’s Bio
“High By The Beach” Video Link from Billboard
YouTube Video Link:
The greatest WordPress.com site in all the land!
Shootin' from the hip photography tips!
Classic Rock: More than meets the eye... and ear!
From College and Beyond
Author and Anti-Bullying Advocate
Traveling Fashion Designers 🌼
Health and Diet Tips
Free eBooks - Video Courses - Articles
Electric guitar chords, tabs, scales and more...
Live, Love, Travel and Laugh (Proudly Pinoy)
The Unofficial Guide
How To Become a Better Writer—Best Epic Fantasy Books
Yang Pernah Mbuat Aku Bingung
Writing/Tales + Tails + Culture + Compassion
Autism-spectrum-disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder.. autoimmune.
Live life of your choice
Look into our mirrors...You will see the most amazing things...
Words are My Wife.
ronal COVID 19 #stayhomespearfishingadventure #whitmecreatorvidio
because anything is possible with Charisma
Looking Back on Film and Television every Thursday
In search of spirituality
Sharing the Word of Faith
Simple Vegetarian Cooking
Bridging the gap between mere existence and true life.
Practical Wisdom Nuggets
Inspiration is our vision as it is the key to success. This page is about Personality Development, SEO, Amazon Affiliate Marketing, Blog ideas, and photography.
A place to express those little thoughts, share your writing experience or big ideas in words.
Original Beats By JakeBreh
@MarkGTR 