Rock Prodigy V1.5 User Guide October 2011 Rock Prodigy V1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011

Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide www.rockprodigy.com October 2011 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011

Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 2 GUITAR BASICS FOR BEGINNERS...... 7 Acoustic guitars and electric guitars...... 7 Parts of a guitar ...... 8 Headstock...... 8 Tuning knobs ...... 8 Frets...... 8 Neck ...... 8 Strings...... 8 Body ...... 8 Soundhole...... 8 Pickups...... 8 Holding your guitar ...... 9 Basic guitar performance language...... 10 What does it mean to press the string at a fret?...... 10 SET UP YOUR GUITAR TO USE WITH ROCK PRODIGY ...... 11 Using your acoustic...... 11 Using your electric ...... 11 Commonly used adapters ...... 12 Things to keep in mind...... 12 TUNING YOUR GUITAR...... 14 What does tuning your guitar mean?...... 14 How do I tune my guitar?...... 14 Select a song or lesson...... 16 What is the difference between the easy, medium, hard, and prodigy skill levels? ...... 16 THE ROCK PRODIGY PLAYSCREEN ...... 18 The horizontal lines represent the guitar strings...... 18 The playline is when you pluck a string ...... 18 The numbers represent frets, also known as “notes” or “cues”...... 18 Zero means an “open string”...... 18

The tail of a number is how long you hold the note ...... 18 HOW YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE PLAYING THE RIGHT NOTES ...... 21 Glowing cues are good...... 21 Dim red disc means the note was missed...... 22 What you hear while you are playing...... 22 Accumulate points by hitting the right notes at the right time ...... 23 Points multiplier kicks in when you hit streaks of correct notes ...... 23 ACCESSING PLAYSCREEN CONTROLS TO ACCELERATE LEARNING...... 24 Tapping during play pauses playback and brings up more controls...... 24 String orientation ...... 24 Tempo change...... 24 Time-line scrub bar ...... 24 Start-over...... 24 Auto-pause ...... 24 Auto-play...... 24 Loop...... 25 Tuner...... 25 Mixer ...... 25 Chord names...... 25 Note names...... 25 Help overlay...... 25 COMPLETING A SONG OR LESSON ...... 26 Discard score...... 26 Save score ...... 26 Share score...... 26 GETTING MORE SONGS AND LESSONS ...... 27 GLOSSARY ...... 28 Accidentals ...... 28 Acoustic Guitar ...... 28 Bar...... 28 Bend ...... 28 Chord...... 29 Chromatic...... 29 Cue (on the playscreen)...... 29

Diatonic...... 29 Dotted Note...... 29 Eighth Note...... 29 Electric Guitar ...... 30 Fingerstyle...... 30 Flat ...... 30 Guitar string...... 30 Half Note...... 30 Half Step...... 30 Harmonic...... 31 Harmony...... 31 Hybrid Picking ...... 31 Interval...... 31 Key ...... 31 Key Signature ...... 32 Lick...... 32 Major Scale ...... 32 Measure ...... 32 Meter...... 32 Minor Scale...... 32 Modes...... 32 Natural ...... 33 Notation...... 33 Note (names)...... 33 Note (on the playscreen)...... 33 Note (values) ...... 33 Octave...... 34 Open String...... 34 Pick ...... 34 Pitch...... 34 Plectrum ...... 34 Progression ...... 34 Quarter Note...... 34 Register...... 34

Rhythm...... 35 Rhythmic Subdivision...... 35 Riff...... 35 Roman Numeral Analysis...... 35 Root Note ...... 35 Scale...... 36 Scale Construction...... 36 Scale Degree...... 36 Scale Length...... 36 Sharp...... 37 Sixteenth Note...... 37 Standard Tuning ...... 37 Strum ...... 37 Tablature...... 37 Tempo...... 37 Time Signature ...... 38 Time Signature ...... 38 Tone (Pitch) ...... 38 Tone (sound)...... 38 Triad...... 38 Triplet...... 38 Tuning ...... 39 Whole Note...... 39 Whole Step...... 39 ARTICULATION SYMBOLS...... 40 Heavily accented note: ...... 40 Accented note: ...... 40 Bend and return:...... 40 Bend: ...... 40 Dead note, also called “muted string”:...... 40 Fade-in: ...... 41 Ghosted note: ...... 41 Grace note:...... 41 Hammer-on or Pull-off:...... 41

Harmonics: ...... 41 Palm mute:...... 42 Pop note: ...... 42 Pre-bend and return: ...... 42 Slap note:...... 42 Slide:...... 42 Repeat the previous note or staccato:...... 43 Tremolo picking:...... 43 Trill:...... 43 Vibrato: ...... 43 Whammy bar:...... 43 THE ROCK PRODIGY METHOD AND PHILOSOPHY ...... 44 #10: Only stuff you want, nothing else...... 46 #9: The real master tracks...... 46 #8: Real-time scoring and feedback...... 46 #7: Any instrument. Even voice...... 46 #6: Stats works for baseball. It works for music...... 46 #5: Yes to clarity. No to clutter...... 46 #4: “Anywhere” means “anywhere.”...... 46 #3: Multiple levels for everyone...... 47 #2: Quality is king...... 47 #1: Cheaper than coffee, yo...... 47

Guitar Basics for Beginners

Acoustic guitars and electric guitars An acoustic guitar is generally larger than an electric guitar, and sounds “louder” when it’s not plugged into anything else. Electric guitars are typically thinner than acoustic guitars. Electric guitars need to be plugged into other devices such as an amplifier to make them sound loud. Some acoustic guitars also are “electric” in that you can also plug them into amplifiers to make them sound even louder. Depending on whether you have an acoustic guitar or electric guitar will influence how you connect with and use Rock Prodigy.

Figure 1: Acoustic vs. Electric guitar

Parts of a guitar

Headstock The thin end of the guitar, where the tuning knobs are found.

Tuning knobs What you turn to tighten or loosen the tension of each string. Changing the tension of the string increases or decreases the pitch of the string, or how high or low it sounds. You will use the tuning knobs to tune your guitar.

Frets The thin metal bars found on the neck of the guitar. There are usually between 19 to 24 frets on most guitars.

Neck The long thin piece of wood between the headstock and the guitar body.

Strings Most guitars have 6 strings that you pluck, strum, or simply make vibrate to create sound.

Body This is the largest part of the guitar. Acoustic guitar bodies are mostly hollow. Electric guitar bodies are commonly solid.

Soundhole Found mostly on acoustic guitars, this is where most of the sound comes from an acoustic.

Pickups Found on electric guitars, these convert the vibrations of the strings into an electric signal that can be used by a guitar amplifier.

Figure 2: Basic parts of guitars

Holding your guitar Rest the body of the guitar on your lap so that one hand can reach comfortably near the center of the body, and the other hand can cradle the neck of the guitar. Also, if you have a guitar strap, you can adjust the strap so that the guitar is positioned similarly.

Figure 3: Holding your guitar

Basic guitar performance language ‘Fret hand’ means the hand you use most commonly to press strings. It is the closest to the headstock and the lower numbered frets.

Figure 4: Fret hand holds the neck of the guitar Pick hand’ means the hand you use most commonly to pluck or strum strings. It is closest to the guitar bridge.

Figure 5: Pick hand is located around the center of the body

‘Pluck’ means to cause one string to vibrate with your pick hand, whether you use a guitar pick, your thumb, a finger, finger nail, coin, or teeth (if you can play like Hendrix)... ‘Strum’ means to cause more than one string to vibrate at the same time; most commonly you will strum chords.

What does it mean to press the string at a fret? When Rock Prodigy asks you to press a string, use a finger on your fret hand to press the string so that it is firmly against the fingerboard of the guitar. Where you press the string is denoted by the fret number. If you are asked to press at the 2nd fret, you are actually pressing the string anywhere between the 2nd and 1st frets. Pressing at the 5th fret means to press the string firmly anywhere between the 4th and 5th frets, and so on.

Set up your guitar to use with Rock Prodigy To get the most out of Rock Prodigy, use any real guitar.

Using your acoustic

Figure 6: Set up your acoustic with Rock Prodigy

Using your electric Use a standard instrument adapter, like those made by IK Multimedia, Peavey or PRS to name a few. Headphones are an alternative, but the adapter is recommended. If you use simple headphones, you will be using your device\'s built-in mic to pick up your guitar playing. Sit close to your device in a quiet room to ensure the device’s mic picks up the cleanest signal possible.

Figure 7: Set up electric guitar with Rock Prodigy

Commonly used adapters Rock Prodigy has used the following adapters in testing: IK Multimedia iRig • http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/features/ Peavey AmpKit LiNK • http://peavey.com/products/software/ampkitlink/ Apogee Jam • http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/jam.php Things to keep in mind Rock Prodigy works by listening to you play. So it will work better if you have guitars that are in good working condition, good quality cables and adapters or headphones. Things like weak batteries (some guitars and adapters have batteries), or faulty cables can interfere with pitch detection.

If you are using the built-in microphone of the device with an acoustic guitar, a quiet room helps; otherwise the mic will pick up other noises in the room and the app will get interference. In recording studio language, we call this entire process of getting the guitar sound into the device “the signal path.” Anything along the signal path can add noise, so try to keep it as clean as possible. For best results, use an adapter to get the cleanest signal from the guitar to the device.

Tuning your guitar

What does tuning your guitar mean? Tuning the guitar is to make sure each string of the guitar sounds to the proper pitch when plucked ‘open.’ An ‘open string’ means plucking the string with no fret pressed. When each open string is its correct pitch, your guitar is in tune. To change the pitch of a guitar string, tighten or loosen the string by turning its corresponding tuning peg. Turning the peg so that the string tightens increases the tension of the string, and therefore raises the pitch, making it sound ‘higher,’ like the right side of the piano keys. Turning the peg so that the string loosens decreases the tension of the string, and therefore lowers the pitch, making it sound ‘lower,’ like the left side of the piano keys.

How do I tune my guitar? To tune your guitar, pluck one string at a time, and tighten and loosen that string until it is the proper pitch. Once a string is in the proper pitch, move to the next string. Once you are done with all strings, it is a good idea to start over and check all the strings again to make sure each is still in tune. Step 1: make sure you have set up your guitar to work with Rock Prodigy. Pluck a string Turn the string’s tuning peg until the display says “OK” Repeat for each string

Figure 8: Use the Rock Prodigy Tuner

Select a song or lesson

Figure 9: Tap to select a song or lesson to play

What is the difference between the easy, medium, hard, and prodigy skill levels? ‘Easy’ is for beginners to get the feel of the guitar. You’ll play one out of every 20–30 notes of the original recording, but you’ll start to play along with the song immediately. ‘Medium’ is for intermediate guitarists. You’ll play one out of 10–20 notes and begin to fill in the song with more emphasis on the main riffs. ‘Hard’ is for advanced guitarists. You’ll play at least half of the notes bringing you a step closer to mastering the song. ‘Prodigy’ will take your playing to the next level, above and beyond the note-for- note transcription. In addition to playing chords, solos, and bends, you’ll learn practical approaches that incorporate more than one guitar part, keyboard leads, harmonica solos, bass parts and more.

Figure 10: 4 skill levels

The Rock Prodigy Playscreen

The horizontal lines represent the guitar strings Each horizontal line on the playscreen represents each string on your guitar. If you are accustomed to reading guitar sheet music called “tab” or “tablature,” you’ll be most comfortable with the thickest string at the bottom of the screen. If you are just starting, you may be most comfortable with the thickest string at the top of the screen. To do this, tap the screen to pause during a song or lesson then tap the “Flip” button. See later in this document for more playscreen controls.

The playline is when you pluck a string The stationary green vertical line is the playline.

The numbers represent frets, also known as “notes” or “cues” When a number crosses the playline, press that fret on the corresponding string and pluck the string. If you see the number one (1), press the proper string at the first fret, then pluck that string when the number one (1) crosses the playline.

Zero means an “open string” When the number zero (0) crosses the playline, don’t press any fret on that string and pluck that string.

The tail of a number is how long you hold the note After you pluck a given string at the correct time, let it vibrate for the duration of the length of the cue’s tail.

Figure 11: Playscreen - Horizontal lines represent the strings on your guitar

Figure 12: Playscreen - Numbers are performance cues

Figure 13: A zero (0) means an open strings

Figure 14: Play notes when numbers cross the playline

How you know when you are playing the right notes

Glowing cues are good

Figure 15: Glowing cues are good

Dim red disc means the note was missed

Figure 16: Dim red discs mean the note was not detected

What you hear while you are playing When you play the right notes at the right time, Rock Prodigy rewards you by allowing the master track guitar to play through. This helps you by providing the reference target music track. Also, you can hear your own guitar signal through the app. To adjust the volume level of your own guitar signal to the rest of the music do the following: 1. From the home screen, Select a song or lesson 2. Launch the song or lesson by tapping a difficulty level for songs or “Play” for lessons 3. After the song or lesson has started, tap the screen to pause 4. In the controls that are visible when paused, tap the “MIX” icon, that looks like a speaker 5. Adjust the volumes of your signal, guitar track, and backing tracks. 6. Note: if you are using the internal mic and internal speakers, the line-in feature is disabled, to prevent feedback

Accumulate points by hitting the right notes at the right time When you are in Perform mode, Rock Prodigy scores you based on how correctly you perform the song. For every note you are asked to play and you perform correctly, you increase your running score. Score is also affected by how long you hold the note. For instance, if you are asked to hold a note for 4 beats, but you perform the note for only 2 beats, your score doesn’t increase as much as it could. Because you score points for hitting the correct notes at the correct times, the more notes you are asked to play means you can score more points. So in general, simple songs usually have fewer notes than complex songs, so the potential score for a simple song is less than the potential for a complex song. Accordingly the “Easy” level of any song has fewer notes than the “Prodigy” level of the same song, so the potential score is lower for the “Easy” level.

Points multiplier kicks in when you hit streaks of correct notes If you perform a series of notes correctly and consecutively, that will increase your score at an accelerated pace.

Accessing playscreen controls to accelerate learning

Tapping during play pauses playback and brings up more controls

String orientation “Flips” the playscreen so the thickest string is either at the bottom (like common guitar sheet music called “tablature”) or at the top (like looking in a mirror).

Tempo change Tap the “Slow” button to toggle through different speeds of playback, without changing the pitch: 1/2 speed, 2/3 speed, 4/5 speed and original speed (1x). A useful way to practice and master music is to practice at slower speeds until you can perform the music perfectly. Then increase speed until you can perform the music at original speed. This feature is available only in Practice Mode.

Time-line scrub bar The time-line scrub bar lets you easily navigate to the exact minute and second of a song or lesson but touching the bar and dragging to the left and right. The minutes and seconds are also displayed as you drag to the left or right. This feature is available only in Practice Mode.

Start-over Tapping the Start-over button restarts the song or lesson from the beginning. If you are in Perform mode, your score will reset.

Auto-pause Tapping the Auto-pause button so that it is “glowing” and engaged will automatically pause play until the correct note is detected. This feature is available only in Practice Mode.

Auto-play Tapping the Auto-play button so that it is “glowing” and engaged will automatically hit every note so you always hear the guitar track. This feature is available only in Practice Mode.

Loop Tapping the Loop button allows you to automatically repeat a portion of a song or lesson for practice. The sections of the lesson or song will appear in a pop-up menu and are predefined for you. This feature is available only in Practice Mode.

Tuner Tapping the Tuner button brings up the chromatic tuner that is preset to the song or lesson’s tuning. So if the song is in “Drop D” tuning, tapping the tuner from within the song will bring up the tuner in “Drop D” mode, and selecting other tunings will be disabled.

Mixer Tap the “Mix” button so that you can adjust the volumes for Line-in, Guitar track, and Backing track. Line-in can be enabled so you can hear your own guitar in the mix.

Chord names With the Chord button enabled, you will see the corresponding chord names displayed scrolling along with the cues.

Note names With the Notes button enabled, you will see the each cue’s corresponding pitch name along with the cue’s fret number.

Help overlay From within a paused song or lesson, tap on the glowing question mark “?” to bring up contextual information for each of the screen’s controls.

Completing a song or lesson

Discard score If you complete a song or lesson in Perform mode, and you don’t like your score, you can choose to discard it. It will not be tracked to your Rock Prodigy profile.

Save score If you complete a song or lesson in Perform mode, and you like your score, you can choose to save it to your Rock Prodigy profile. Over time, you can view your high scores and average scores for each song or lesson.

Share score When you complete a song or lesson, you can choose to post your score to your twitter or facebook profile. You’ll need to login using the appropriate credentials.

Getting more songs and lessons

Figure 17: Visit the in-app store to get more songs and lessons

Glossary

Accidentals An accidental is a note in a song that is not part of its original key. In standard notation, these are the markings (sharps, flats, and naturals) within a bar which indicate that a natural note is raised or lowered so that it fits within the intended scale or harmonic structure of the current bar. These are ways of temporarily modifying the current key signature. A sharp or flat is generally a half step, although there are such things as double flats and double sharps that are used when a note has already been sharped or flatted in the key signature.

Acoustic Guitar A guitar that makes itself heard without using any electric amplification—hollow, generally wood, with a soundhole of some sort. Of course, technology means that we now see acoustic guitars made out of materials like carbon fiber, and others with all sorts of experimental soundhole placements. Contrary to what you might think from its name, the soundhole isn’t where most of the sound comes from. It’s the vibrations of the top, or soundboard, of the guitar that’s primarily what you hear. The soundhole lets air in and out of the guitar, so that the internal air pressure doesn’t stop the top from vibrating freely. Some acoustic guitars also have pickups so they can be amplified, thereby becoming an acoustic-electric guitar. The key thing that distinguishes an acoustic guitar is that you can play it at the beach without having to haul around a lot of other equipment.

Bar A single element of the even division of a piece of music. It will consist of a specific number of beats (rhythmic divisions). In rock, blues, pop and country, it’s usually four beats to a bar. Also called a measure. See also Time Signature.

Bend On the guitar, you press a string at a fret, pluck it, then push up or pull down the string with your fret hand to change its tension. This changes the pitch you hear. This technique is called a ‘bend.’ It takes some hand strength to perform bends, so practice. In Rock Prodigy, when you see an ‘arrow’ by the fret number, that means to bend the string. The smaller number by the arrow is how much to bend the string. ‘1/2’ means to bend the string so the pitch changes by a semitone (half-step), which is the same as playing the note one fret higher and not bending the string. ‘1’ means to bend the string so the pitch changes by a whole tone (whole step), which is the same as

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 28 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 playing the note two frets higher and not bending the string. The bend technique is crucial to getting expression and musicality from the guitar. All Prodigy level musicians have mastered the bend technique.

Chord Three (or more) notes played together. To go beyond that would require a whole lesson in music theory (which you can find on Rock Prodigy). A guitar is capable of playing thousands of chords. Many of these sound good. Some, not so much. We’ll try and concentrate on the first type.

Chromatic Scales and harmony that use all twelve semi-tones (half-steps) divisions of an octave (for the purpose of Rock Prodigy, we’re going to stick to Western traditions. There are many non-Western musical traditions or modern invented scales, like composer Harry Partch’s 32-tone octave scales, but, unless you’re playing a fretless guitar, these don’t apply here). Strictly speaking, there’s only one chromatic scale, since there aren’t any notes that aren’t in it. Kinda makes things simple.

Cue (on the playscreen) In Rock Prodigy, a cue is a combination of a number, a tail, any articulations, and its string. That combination cues the user to perform a musical event. The number represents what fret to press, with the number zero (0) meaning an open string. The number’s tail cues the user how long to hold the note. Articulations can be bends, harmonics, etc. The string is represented by the horizontal line the number is on.

Diatonic Scales and harmony that use only notes and chords derived from standard major and minor scales. Most traditional Western music is based on diatonic scales and harmonies. Of course, as with all things music theory related, this is somewhat simplified. There’s a whole lot of history going back to the Greeks about how scales and harmony are constructed.

Dotted Note A dotted note refers to a note’s rhythmic value. You can add a dot to any subdivision. This includes quarter notes,eighth notes, half notes, etc. When you add a dot to a note, that means you add half of the notes’ normal rhythmic value on to its duration. For instance, a dotted half note, will be held for three beats instead of two, and a dotted quarter note will be held for one beat and a half, instead of one beat.

Eighth Note A note which receives one-half of a beat. In standard notation it’s written as ♪. The standard trick for counting eighth notes in a measure of 4/4 time is to count “one and two and three and four and” for eight even divisions.

Electric Guitar A guitar that requires the use of a pickup and an amp to be heard. They can be solid- body or hollow-body. Pickups come in all shapes and sizes, designed for all types of sounds, same with amps. Legend has it that the first guitar pickup was a phonograph needle stuck in the top of an archtop guitar so it could be heard with a big jazz band. Many electric guitar players, once they get a little more advanced, start to play with swapping different pickups in and out of their guitar to try and find the one that gives them the perfect tone. Some even learn how to solder so they can do it themselves. It can easily become an obsession. See the entry for tone.

Fingerstyle Playing without a pick. Like tightrope walking without a net, it’s challenging but satisfying. Several reasons to play fingerstyle are to enable easier playing of chords that are voiced on non-adjacent strings, the ability to play multiple strings simultaneously, and the increased dynamic range you can achieve. The biggest downside is that it’s somewhat harder, though certainly not impossible, to play fast single-note runs with just your fingers. As always, it just takes practice. Once you’re comfortable with a pick, try playing without one. You might like it, and it’s always good to have another tool in the box.

Flat Lowering a note a half step. Also refers to the symbol (♭) that indicates you should do this. On the guitar, a half step is one fret distance on the same string.

Guitar string The metal wire or nylon string that, under sufficient tension and when plucked, generates the initial sound from your guitar. The lower-pitched strings are wound with finer wire and the higher-pitched ones are plain steel or nylon. When there’s a new set on your guitar, it sounds bright and clear. When they get too old, they accumulate dirt and oil and start to sound dull and don’t stay in tune well. Learning to properly change your own strings is a valuable skill for any guitarist.

Half Note A note with a value of two beats. Normally written in standard notation as an open circle with a vertical line attached to its side. Hold the note for a count of “one-two”.

Half Step On the guitar, to move a note a half step (i.e. Sharp or flat it) you move to the adjacent fret on the current string—up for sharp, down for flat.

Harmonic On the guitar, often you press a string at a fret then pluck the string. You hold down the string so that the string vibrates between the fret and the bridge. When playing a harmonic, you don’t press down fully with the fret hand. You touch the string with your fret hand directly over the fret itself. So when you are asked to play a harmonic at 12, hold your fret finger directly over the 12th fret, and simply touch the string there while you pluck the string, then immediately take your finger off the string. You should hear a sound like ‘ringing.’ Also, after you perform the harmonic, you can actually take away your fret hand. The harmonic should continue to sound.

Harmony The use of multiple notes simultaneously to make chords. Also the theory of how those notes fit together, both as chords and as a melody. There are a lot of different harmonic theories out there, and as you learn more about music, you’ll probably encounter many of them. In Rock Prodigy, we’re going to stay pretty basic and stick with traditional harmonic forms.

Hybrid Picking Playing with both pick and fingers. For some, it’s the best of both worlds. For others, it’s a compromise. But it lets you play more complex chord voicings easier than with a pick alone, while leaving the pick in your hand to play those dazzling runs. An excellent skill to cultivate.

Interval The distance from one note to another, usually expressed in scale degrees and sometimes modified with “major”, “minor”, “sharp”, or “flat”. In the C scale, the interval between C and F is a fourth (C-D-E-F=four notes, hence ‘fourth’). This can start to get strange because of the way scales are constructed (see diatonic). For example, the distance from F to B is not the fourth you’d expect from simply counting notes (F-G-A-B), but is a sharp fourth (the exact same interval can also be called a flat fifth, but don’t let that worry you for the moment).

Key The basic scale, pitch or chord a piece of music is centered around, sometimes called the tonal center or tonic. When a piece of music is said to be in C Major, for example, it means that the piece focuses around the basic triad (first, third, and fifth notes) of the C Major scale. Of course, in reality, things can get somewhat more complicated than that, with modulations, polychords, and altered scale modes. Harmony is like that—it can get complex, and you can spend most of your life trying to figure it out and then how to trick it into doing new things. If that appeals to you, go for it. We’ll help as much as we can.

Key Signature The arrangement of sharps (♯) or flats(♭) at the beginning of a piece of written music that indicate what key the music is in. When somebody says, “This song is in B♭,” They’re referring to the key signature.

Lick A stock musical pattern or phrase, usually a single note melodic phrase rather than chords. Many guitar players have so-called “signature licks”—something they play that easily identifies them. Having a good stock of licks can be great when your brain goes blank in the middle of a solo. But be careful. Sometimes licks get overused and become cliches. A really good lick, with a little grit and determination can grow up to become a riff. See Riff.

Major Scale See Scale.

Measure See Bar.

Meter On its simplest level, the time signature of a piece of music, or the natural divisions of the rhythm of a piece. The most common meter in modern rock, pop, blues, and country is 4/4. Naturally, delve into music theory and it doesn’t take long to reveal deeper layers. There’s simple meter (each element divided by two), compound meter (divided by three or more), polymeter (two different meters play simultaneously against each other) and other variations. Don’t worry, there’s not going to be a test on this, and we’ll be sticking mostly with simple meter in Rock Prodigy, with only occasional side trips to the land of simpler compound meters (6/8, a common slow blues meter, being an example).

Minor Scale See Scale.

Modes Modes are the scales that can be built off of each note of a particular scale. It’s less confusing than it sounds. Let’s say you have a normal C major scale—C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Just take the notes of that scale and play them starting on D instead of C—D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D. That’s the second mode of the C scale and if you take the first, third, and fifth notes of that scale, you’ll get a D minor triad. That’s one of the great things about modes. You not only get a scale, you get a chord to go along with it. Now do the same thing, starting from E—E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E and play the chord E-G-B, an E minor triad. The scale is minor, but the second note is only a half step from the root,

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 32 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 which gives it a subtly different sound and feel. Go ahead, try it with the other notes in the C scale. You know you want to. The modes come to us from the Greeks, who were big on finding mathematical relationships, and they all have Greek names: ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian, respectively. If you get interested in playing jazz or prog rock, the modes will become a major part of your musical life.

Natural An accidental symbol (♮) which indicates that any sharps or flats should be removed for the current bar.

Notation Often called standard notation. The traditional way music is written with 5 staff lines representing notes, different note shapes to indicate individual rhythmic values, time signatures to indicate meter, key signatures to indicate musical key, symbols called “clefs” to indicate note range, and various markings to indicate dynamics. It’s a different language, really, but one which can come in handy when you need to communicate with other musicians. Rock Prodigy uses tablature rather than standard notation, since it’s specific to guitar and doesn’t require learning all the other things mentioned above to get started. But if you take your guitar playing to the next level, you might want to think about learning how to read and write music in standard notation to facilitate talking with those strange creatures called “horn” and “keyboard” players.

Note (names) In Western music, these would be A-B-C-D-E-F-G for the “natural” notes. Why C became the note that centers the piano keyboard is something for which we’ve been unable to find a clear answer. It’s just one of those “that’s just the way it is” things. It’s good to have a little mystery in life.

Note (on the playscreen) See Cue (on the playscreen)

Note (values) The rhythmic value of a note. Traditional rhythmic note values are based on 4/4 time, even though most are used in other time signatures as well. A whole note is called that because it occupies a whole measure (or 4 beats). From there we keep dividing by two, to get half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, thirty- second notes, sixty-fourth notes, and so on. Unless you’re a serious shredder or jazz player, you’ll rarely encounter anything shorter than a sixteenth note. Just be glad that they not longer refer to these notes by the names they used to have. A sixty- fourth note used to be called a hemisemidemiquaver.

Octave Musically, the distance from one note to the next occurrence of that note. Sonically, a doubling of vibration frequency. On the guitar, you’ll notice that in standard tuning both the lowest string and the highest string are ‘E’. The distance from the low E string to the high E string is two octaves.

Open String A string played without pressing it at a fret. Pets are very good at doing this if you leave a guitar sitting around on a stand.

Pick That little piece of plastic—though they can be made of glass, metal, stone, bone, or any of a number of other materials as well—you use to strum the guitar and play individual notes. So called because you use it to ‘pick’ out the notes. Also called a flat pick or plectrum.

Pitch The frequency of a specific note. Over the years, as music theory developed, certain frequencies have been correlated to certain notes. Concert Pitch, the most common tuning standard, is A440.

Plectrum A pick. If you want to sound a little snooty, you can call your pick a plectrum. Plectrums cover more than just guitars, though, and the word comes from the Greek plektron, meaning to strike.

Progression In music, a progression usually refers to the order, or pattern that the song’s chords appear in. Chords are built off of scales. A chord built off the first note of the scale is called the one chord, a chord built off the fourth note of the scale is called the four chord, and so forth. A song that features a pattern of one chords and four chords, are said to have a one - four progression.

Quarter Note A note with a value of one beat. Written as ♩ in standard notation. Hold it for a count of “one”.

Register Register has a couple of musical meanings that are related. The first meaning is the entire range of the instrument. A guitar with a 24-fret neck has a register of four octaves, from E a minor thirteenth below Middle C (also known as E2) to E above

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 34 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 high C (also known as E5). The second meaning of register simply means divisions of that full range. Generally people will talk about low, middle, and high registers. Moving a note to a higher or lower register means moving it up or down an octave. With chords, you usually find a higher or lower voicing, but don’t necessarily shift a full octave. Sometimes a musical phrase will be interfering with the vocalist or another instrument because they’re too close together in pitch, so moving up or down in register will help.

Rhythm The beat. Music is musical tones organized across time. Rhythm is the pattern of how it’s organized. Closely related to meter.

Rhythmic Subdivision The human ear and mind are far more accurate at gauging short increments than longer ones. Using subdivisions in rhythm is a way to increase your rhythmic accuracy and build more solid playing. The basic idea is to mentally count finer divisions, usually sixteenth notes, as a template against which you play the longer notes. For example, if you were playing a measure of an eighth note, two sixteenth notes, a sixteenth note, a dotted eighth note, a sixteenth note, an eighth note, a sixteenth note, and a quarter note (carry the one and… yup, that’s four beats), you’d count it in sixteenth notes using the “one-ee-and-uh” method and play (using bold to signify where the notes start) “one-ee-and-uh, two-ee-and-uh, three-ee-and-uh, four-ee-and-uh”. You can practice by tapping sixteenth notes on your leg or a table top and then say “da” or some other nonsense syllable to indicate note beginnings. You probably want to be alone when you do this. Or, you can use Rock Prodigy to help you with some of our lessons.

Riff A short, catchy musical phrase, generally repeated frequently in a song. These are the things that get stuck in your head (what the Germans call an “Ohrwurm” or “ear worm”.) Think of the beginning of Smoke On The Water. That’s a riff.

Roman Numeral Analysis Roman numeral analysis is the traditional way of analyzing a song’s chord progression. Say a song’s chord progression is the one chord, going to the four chord, and then back to the one. In roman numeral analysis, it will be written as I - IV- I. See Progression.

Root Note The starting note of a scale. The root note of a C scale is C, of a D scale is D, and so on.

Scale An orderly way of getting from one note to its next occurrence. The basic diatonic major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C to cover one octave. There are many different types of scales—major, minor, diminished, whole-tone, and pentatonic, are just a few. Most contemporary rock and pop music is based around the major and minor pentatonic scales with occasional forays into the more exotic.

Scale Construction As we mention above, there are many different scales, but the most common are the diatonic major and minor scales. Once you know the formula, you can play a major or minor scale starting on any note armed only with the fact that one fret distance is a half step and two frets is a whole step. A major scale is made of two identical halves, separated by a whole step. Each half constructed of two whole steps, followed by a half step. For a guitar friendly example, E to F# is a whole step, F# to G# is a whole step, and G# to A is a half step. Then go up a whole step to B and start over again: B to C# is a whole step, C# to D# is a whole step, and D# to E is a half step. String ‘em all together, and it’s a major scale. Once you learn that pattern, you can do it from any note. Remember it’s whole, whole, half, then jump a whole step and repeat. To turn a major scale into a minor scale, all you do is move the third, sixth , and seventh degrees down a half step. In E, this would give us E, F#, G, A, B, C, D and back to E. Once you’ve learned to build these scales, you’re ready for the concept of modes. See Modes.

Scale Degree The distance of a note from the root (or tonic) note of the current scale. Similar to an interval, except that an interval is just the distance from one note to another, regardless of what key you’re in. A scale degree is tied to the root note. For major and minor scales, just assign the root note a ‘1’ and count up from there until you hit 8, when you’re back to the root. So, in a C scale, C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7 and we’re back to C. Sometimes you’ll hear one musician in a band turn to another (usually the substitute bass player) and say something like, “Stay on the one!” or “Go to the four!”. That’s what they’re talking about. Terms like the One, and the Four, can also be reffering to the beats, it just depends on context.

Scale Length The distance from the bridge to the nut of the guitar. On modern guitars, the scale length can vary from about 22.5” to 25.5”. The most commonly used are 24.75” (Gibson-style) and 25.5” (Fender-style) for electric guitars and 24.9” (parlor-size guitars) to 25.4” (dreadnought-size) for acoustic guitars. Shorter scale lengths need less tension to get to pitch, and feel ‘looser’ making it easier to bend strings, but are

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 36 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 more prone to the strings buzzing against the frets because the string moves in a wider arc when it vibrates. Longer scale lengths need more tension, so they feel tighter, are harder to bend, but have more ‘snap’ or ‘twang’.

Sharp Raising a note a half step. Also refers to the symbol (♯) that indicates you should do this. As noted in the entry on flats, on the guitar, a half step is one fret away on the same string.

Sixteenth Note A note with a value of a quarter of a beat. Written as in standard notation. The trick for counting sixteenth notes evenly is to count them “one-ee-and-uh-two-ee-and-uh- three-ee-and-uh-four-ee-and-uh” for 16 even divisions in a measure of 4/4.

Standard Tuning See Tuning.

Strum Playing by sweeping or brushing the strings. This is the most basic technique for playing chords. There are fancy strumming techniques, but when you’re getting started, it’s just up and down. Don’t knock it, though. Building a solid strumming technique and being able to do it cleanly and rhythmically takes practice. In the classic image of playing folksongs around a campfire, this is the skill you need.

Tablature Also called “Tab”. A traditional way of notating guitar music. Horizontal lines indicate strings, vertical lines indicate bar divisions and numbered dots indicate on which fret the string should be depressed. Rhythmic notation is frequently not used.

Tempo How fast it is, usually stated in beats per minute or bpm. In standard notation, there are all sorts of Italian terms that describe tempos: largo, andante, adagio, and so on. None of these terms have a set bpm, so written music has metronome marks to indicate a specific tempo that is used as the basic tempo of the piece. The other tempo markings are then used to indicate changes in tempo as you play. It’s a good idea, when practicing by yourself, to work with a metronome so you can develop a steady sense of time. At the time of this writing, the world record for guitar playing speed is being able to play “Flight of the Bumblebee” at a tempo of 600 bpm. Search for the video online. It’s pretty impressive. There may even be someone playing it faster by now.

Time Signature An indicator of how many beats per bar and what type of note is equal to a single beat, e.g., 4/4 means four beats to a bar and a quarter note is equal to one beat. 6/8 means six beats to a bar and an eighth note equals one beat.

Time Signature In standard notation, the symbol that indicates what the meter is. The top number is how many beats to the bar and the bottom number indicates which note value equals one beat, e.g. 3/4 times means that there are three beats to a measure and a quarter note gets one beat. Some music, like jazz, prog rock or various ethnic musics, can have very complex time signatures or rhythmic structures. These can be fun and challenging to play. We’ll mostly save them for later.

Tone (Pitch) See Pitch and Note.

Tone (sound) The sonic quality of a sound. For many guitarists, it’s all about the tone. Every one of them has a definition of perfect tone, and they’re almost all different. Acoustic guitarists will search for guitars made of specific woods and built with specific construction techniques. Electric guitarists take the wood and construction search and add on pickups, pedals, amplifiers, cables, what type of batteries are used in the effects pedals, sometimes even the amount that the voltage has dropped in the batteries. Some try and duplicate the entire equipment list of their favorite guitarist in the hopes that it will give them “that sound”. Others maintain that tone is all in the fingers and technique and concentrate on developing that. It’s an endless argument, and, for a true guitar geek, a lifelong quest. If you get that far, look for us. We’re still out there questing, too.

Triad The basic chord form. Called a triad because it’s composed of three notes. A major triad is the first, third, and fifth notes of a major scale. A minor triad is the first, third and fifth notes of a minor scale. With that knowledge and the knowledge of how scales are constructed, you can figure out how to play just about any chord in its most basic form.

Triplet Quite simply, three notes played in the space of two. This can be applied to any note value, e.g., an eighth note triplet would be three notes played evenly across one beat and a quarter note triplet would be three notes played across two beats. You can even have whole note triplets, provided you’ve got two measures to play with. A trick for playing triplets when you’re first learning is to play them to the word

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 38 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 triplet (pronounced in this case as “trip-puh-let” across the two note space they’re filling.

Tuning As a verb, you’re adjusting the tuning keys on your guitar so it’s in tune. As a noun, you’re using those tuning keys to put it into a tuning. There are many different tunings used for guitar. If you’ve started using Rock Prodigy, you’re already familiar with Standard Tuning (EADGBE, low to high). Some players who like a heavier sound take that tuning and just move it all down, from just a half step to as much as a fourth (BEADFB). Then there are alternate tunings like DADGAD, used by traditional Celtic musicians, and also by Jimmy Page on Kashmir and Black Mountain Side. There are a huge number of open tunings in which the guitar is tuned to a chord, like open G (DGDGBD), a favorite of country blues musicians and Dobro players, open E (EBEGBE), used by many electric slide guitar players, and many more. If you can think of a combination of notes to tune a guitar to, somebody has probably already tried it.

Whole Note A note with a value of four beats or a whole measure (when you’re in 4/4, at least). Written as in standard notation. Hold it for a count of “one-two-three-four”.

Whole Step On a guitar, to move a note a whole step, move two frets in the desired direction (up or down) on the same string.

Articulation Symbols On the playscreen, horizontal lines represent guitar strings and moving numbers represent frets. If a number may be ornamented with special symbols that are also called “articulations” because they mean to play the note slightly differently in the following manners.

Heavily accented note: Play this note very loudly

Accented note: Play this note loudly

Bend and return: Play the note, bend the string, then “release” the bend

Bend: Play the note, then bend the string

Dead note, also called “muted string”: Pluck the string, but mute the string with your fret hand

Fade-in: On guitar setups with volume controls, play the note with the volume down, then turn up the volume while holding the note

Ghosted note: This is a note that is not deliberately plucked

Grace note: This is a very short note preceding a longer note

Hammer-on or Pull-off: Use your fret hand to hammer-on to a higher fret or pull-off to a lower fret

Harmonics: When these appear above a number play a natural harmonic or artificial harmonic note

Palm mute: Fret the note normally, but use the palm of pick hand to slightly deaden the note by resting the palm near the guitar saddle and bridge

Pop note: Use a finger on the pick hand to lift the string away from the body then release to “pop”

Pre-bend and return: Bend the string then play the note. Afterwards, “release” the bend

Slap note: Use the thumb on the pick hand to hit the string against the body

Slide: Start with the fret hand below or above the target fret, pluck the string, then slide the fret hand to the target fret

Repeat the previous note or staccato: A dot by itself means to repeat the previous note. A dot above a fret number means to play note “staccato” or with a very short duration.

Tremolo picking: Pick very quickly and repeatedly with the pick hand

Trill: Play a note and hammer-on or pull-off the note above or below it very quickly

Vibrato: Play a note then “shake” the fret hand while holding the note

Whammy bar: Play a note then depress the whammy bar

The Rock Prodigy Method and Philosophy We make software that we use ourselves to learn songs and skills faster than ever. We hope it helps you too. Rock Prodigy's mission is to create more music, by creating more musicians... by making learning music easier, faster and more fun. We believe that technology is a profound boon to the study, performance, and dissemination of music: processor speed, audio capabilities and mobility combine in a perfect storm to enable a greater musicality to a wider audience than never before possible. Here’s a music story: Since the 800’s, when monks invented neumes and bars to record, communicate and distribute religious hymns, written music notation has essentially remained the same. This standard staff, clef and note system has undergone infinite permutations to accommodate new instruments and techniques that developed through the centuries, but still woefully mimics the dark ages. This reveals the inherent limitation of music notation: while sheet music itself was designed for religious vocal music, it has to accommodate all instruments of all genres. This artifact rears its ugly head in music education in two ways. First, music students struggle with decoding a cryptic, complex, esoteric system to make their instruments produce the frailest of sounds. For example, for guitarists, how does this music notation capture feedback techniques, bends, and pick slides? With a variety of arrows, squiggles, words in multiple languages and numbers that ornament a staff and notes. Yikes. Secondly, since music notation and education has its roots in dark ages medieval religion, the transmission of music is tinged with austere trappings. Learning music, over the centuries, is not supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be revered. Fast- forward to conservatories of the 21st Century, still propagating 5' x 5' practice rooms, complete with wood laminate benches, fluorescent hum, white walls, and frigid air conditioning. In human isolation, the music student squints at black scribbling on reams of white sheets, continually reprimanded by the tick-tock hollowness of a joyless metronome. Rock Prodigy is different. We think you should enjoy learning music. First, you should hear what you are supposed to sound like. We do that by using the master recordings from the artists themselves. After all, that’s what inspired the music lover in the first place: the actual performance and/or recording of the music by the artist that brought it to life. Next, you should see what to do, as performance cues, synchronized to the master recordings themselves. That way you can see what to do to make the sounds you are hearing. In addition, you should have simplified levels of the music so you can work

© 2011 Rock Prodigy, The Way of H, Inc. Page 44 www.rockprodigy.com Rock Prodigy v1.5 User Guide –Oct 22, 2011 your way up to better proficiency. That means you can get familiar with the music, the structure and the instrument all at the same time, while hearing the target music. Pretty cool. To make the above two points truly useful, you should get real-time feedback on how you are performing. This way, you can adjust your technique in real-time. The feedback can be a number of things: you can hear the original recording; you should score points for doing things correctly; you should see instant visual feedback that decorates the cues themselves, and so on. While those three elements really makes a useful music learning system, we also think that accessibility is key: where you can use this learning system, when you can, its compatibility with any instrument with no special hardware required, and price itself. For example, what if you had the above three aspects, but could only use it once a year? Or only when you are in Hoboken, NJ, U.S.? Or if it cost $10,000 per hour? So we think accessibility is directly related to how useful a learning system can be. And what’s more accessible than each person’s mobile device, and what consumer technology is growing faster? So our hope is that everyone with a desire to learn music and has access to an instrument (including voice) and a mobile device can use our system. Here’s a visual breakdown of the elements of a useful music learning system:

Figure 18: The elements of a useful music learning system When you can hear, see, play and get real-time feedback, we believe you will learn, understand, appreciate the music like never before. We used the word “grok” in the middle because “Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience.” When you lose yourself in music, we believe that’s what happens. You become the music itself. You grok the music.

So our music learning system brings you closer to the music by letting you perform alongside the actual music. There is no better way to appreciate and experience music than to play it. From simplified versions to the note-for-note versions, we think you will find it easier, faster and more fun to learn music this way. During our coding and development to improve Rock Prodigy, we use these 10 guideposts:

#10: Only stuff you want, nothing else. Only what you want. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Pick only what you want. No more song fake books, CD-Rom, community classes of stuff you don’t want. Pick and choose, deep and wide.

#9: The real master tracks. We want to know what we’re supposed to sound like. We’re inspired by it. We try to emulate and imitate in. Then it should be a part of how we learn and experience it.

#8: Real-time scoring and feedback. We want to know right away how we’re doing, not a week, a day, an hour, a minute or second later. Instantly. No lag time. And yes scores, glows, sounds do help.

#7: Any instrument. Even voice. Let me use my guitar. No mods. No special cables. Nothing proprietary needed. Got a built-in microphone or common adapters? No problem. (As of this writing while we have only released our guitar product, our underlying technology actually works with any instrument.)

#6: Stats works for baseball. It works for music. Tell me how I’m doing, over time. Am I getting better? What do I need work on? How are other people doing at it?

#5: Yes to clarity. No to clutter. We are single-minded. Just play the right note at the right time. We don’t ask you to learn esoteric symbols. There’s one thing to concentrate on: right note, right time.

#4: “Anywhere” means “anywhere.” Don’t be strapped to a console. Take your music learning system with you- vacation, train, plane, automobile, on your lunch break, in your private lesson, etc.

#3: Multiple levels for everyone. The gap between fun gaming and really learning an instrument. You don’t need a conservatory. From your first note to prodigy. From the first time you tune a guitar to shredding 32nd-note diminished clusters - that’s the scope.

#2: Quality is king. Forget sifting through tons of tabs and piecing together one that works. Or squinting at grainy web videos. Just give us what is right the first time.

#1: Cheaper than coffee, yo. We have to pay for legal, labor, and licensing. We spend our budget like it’s our own money. Because it is our own money. So this needs to be affordable to as many people as it can be.