Category: New Lesson Tuesdays

Dec 01

New Lesson Tuesdays – Funk and Drum Fills

by in Melodics, Music, New Lesson Tuesdays

Welcome to another wonderful Tuesday here at Melodics. This week we have some funky drums fills made by the Melodics team that will help you harness your inner ‘Bernard Purdie’

We’re taking a quick trip  into the past. Funk music originated in the US during the late 60’s with James Brown , Sly & the Family Stone and others taking the genre to #1 on the charts. Since then the genre has influenced many artists from the funk rock styles of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to the G-Funk craze that was prominent in West Coast Hip Hop during the 90’s.

Our drum fill lessons this week will have all the other elements of the track playing, with you only needing to focus on the jamming out on the drums.

So enjoy the five new lessons and as always feel free to post videos of you jamming away on Melodics via Instagram. Just post your video add in the hashtag #Melodics and we’ll find you!

See you next Tuesday!

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Nov 24

New Lesson Tuesday – Spinscott – Funk Bass

by in Melodics, Music, New Lesson Tuesdays

This week we present new lessons from American DJ/producer and junglist Spinscott. We approached him earlier this year about making lessons for Melodics after coming across his Youtube channel.

While there are a lot of amazing finger drumming videos out there on the interwebs, Spinscott’s ability to play Jungle, DNB and break beats from an MPC is something else.

He regularly performs the routines from his videos during  live sets and decided to turn his Baltimore Club banger ‘Funk Bass’ into a lesson for Melodics.

We liked this lesson so much it is even included in our trailer and is right up there with our most challenging lessons.

“Melodics is an ideal and FUN tool for any level of finger drumming! Whether you are just starting to learn basic rhythm fundamentals, or you’re an experienced performer looking to define new best practices and music styles, this program will help you maximize the value of whatever controller or drum machine you use.”

Spinscott

If you manage to master ‘Funk Bass’ then also feel free to try out a Jungle lesson from Spinscott as well which is a Grade 14 (yikes!) to really put your skills to the test. This lesson is only available for the week so get in quick!

Enjoy the new lessons and if you have a bit more time check out this Baltimore Club remix and remember that Jungle is Massive.

See You Next Tuesday

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Nov 17

New Lesson Tuesday – Live Evil – Bang That

by in Music, New Lesson Tuesdays

Over the past few weeks we have taken you through a wide range of genres lesson wise. This week we delve into the wonderful world of Trap music. Our lessons this week comes from DJ/Producer duo ‘Live Evil’ made up of Kutcorners and DJ Marvel. Based in Vancouver they started performing together way back in 2011 as ‘The Freshest Live Set’ and put with some equally ‘Fresh’ videos on Youtube.

Their latest single released earlier this year ‘Bang That‘ is definitely in your turn up realm and uses an awesome vocal sample from ‘Detroits Filthiests’ 2002 ghettotech classic “Pass out”, available on iTunes. Used with permission.

This lesson will teach you all the elements that make up Trap from the drum and bass patterns to the hi hats!

You will start with these simple elements before moving into a song mode, that will have you playing vocal loops and triggering a police siren. These lessons are simply a must for all the trap enthusiasts out there looking to improve there live performance skills.

Check out our trailer for this lesson to get you in the mood and also check out Live Evil’s Soundcloud. 

As always send us through videos of yourself having a jam with Melodics! You can do this via Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #Melodics.

 

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Nov 10

New Lesson Tuesday – DJ Edition #2 (Flips)

by in Music, New Lesson Tuesdays

Last week our lessons introduced you to the art of cue point drumming and how it can be used in DJ sets. This week we are taking it a step further and using cue point drumming techniques to flip tracks to create new and unique variations.
Flipping has been used throughout the years by producers in particular to sample old records and express them in a modern context. Some of your favourite tracks all have origins from older tracks with hip hop and soul being closely linked. In this week’s lessons you will be able to take an old soul song and flip it into a hip hop jam. These techniques and flipping patterns can potentially be used in other songs in your library to make your DJ sets even more interesting.
Before you dive fingers first into our new lessons check out some of histories finest flips to get you in the mood.

Flip 1

Original:  Roberta Flack – Gone Away  (4:00 in)
Flipped Track: TI – What You Know  (0:17 seconds in)

Flip 2

Original: Imogen Heap – Just For Now  (0:00 in)
Flipped Track: Clams Casino – I’m God  (0:28 in)

Flip 3

Original: 10cc – Johnny, Don’t Do It  (1:56 in)
Flipped Track:  J Dilla – Waves (0:00 in)

So the lessons are up, you’ve heard some incredible flips, now it’s time to get playing!

Also as a special promotion this week all our premium DJ content has been unlocked for ALL Melodics users to enjoy.

So get practicing and feel free to send us through videos of yourself killing one of our lessons via Instagram using the hashtag #Melodics.

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Nov 03

New Lesson Tuesday – DJ Edition #1

by in Melodics, New Lesson Tuesdays

This week we bring you Cue Point Drumming Basics, a set of lessons designed to build skills that you can use with your favourite DJ software.

These lessons will help you to practice and perfect drumming patterns that you can apply to a wide range of tracks.

The art of Cue Point Drumming is becoming a valuable tool in every top DJ’s arsenal. With all previous winners of Red Bull’s Thre3style DJ World Championships using cue point drumming within their sets to gain an edge. Check out 2014 World Champion Eskei83 cue point drumming up a storm with a Pioneer DJM-S9.

So while you may not become a world champion right away, these lessons will push your fingers in the right direction. So practice these lessons, apply the techniques during your next DJ gig and set yourself apart from all the wannabe DJ’s in your city.

P.s – We are always interested to see you guys killing a lesson on Melodics. So send us through videos of yourself doing just that via Instagram using the hashtag #Melodics.

See You Next Tuesday.

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Oct 27

New Lesson Tuesdays

by in Melodics, New Lesson Tuesdays

Our new lessons this week come from two Melodics featured artists Tall Black Guy and Mark de Clive-Lowe. While both lessons are technically different they both possess commonalities in regards to being incredibly inspiring.

nlt-27oct2015-TBG
Tall Black Guy

Tall Black Guys lesson will teach you how to play his 2013 track ‘From Home To Work, And Back’ off his debut album 8 Miles To Moenart. This track as the title suggests delves into the day to day living for Tall Black Guy that involves going to work during the day and making music/watching NBA highlights in the evening . From a technical perspective this lesson will have you playing drums, bass and a very sultry riff with a harp guitar. If you can’t get enough of that harp guitar check out the actual song as well as the original sample. You will not be disappointed.

 

nlt-27oct2015-MDCL
Mark de Clive-Lowe

Mark de Clive-Lowe has gone a different route and has made a completely original lesson called ‘Broken Boogie’. This original piece has many different steps and starts you off with some drums and some cowbell… Yes Cowbell! While it may have taken myself a few attempts to master the cowbell it was a lot of fun to learn and definitely had me wanting more. Once you have mastered these elements there is a great synth pattern to learn that takes this lesson to another level both sonically and grade wise.

See you next Tuesday :)

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Oct 20

New Lesson Tuesdays

by in Melodics, New Lesson Tuesdays

In this lesson Ninja Tune artist Nick Hook takes us on a journey back to the days of early electro/hip hop.

A time where MC’s wore wraparound sunglasses and dressed like Egyptian Pharaohs.

Fashion commentary aside ‘Jamit feat. Egyptian Lover’ is a modern day homage to this era and the 1982 hit ‘Planet Rock’ from Africa Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force.

Melodics have deconstructed the beat and broken it down to it’s instrumental parts so you can learn some key elements of the song. We have also included a ‘song form’ lesson that gives you the feel of sequencing loops live. The challenge with this song is that the original is all made on sequencers so that means you have to have near robotic timing. If you’re a fan of Roland tr-808 drums, vocoders, fast synth arpeggiators and frantic button pushing you will love this lesson.

For further inspiration make sure to check out a behind the scenes video that shows Nick Hook and Egyptian Lover putting this beat together.

Finally feel free to post videos of yourself or your cat jamming ‘JAMIT’ with Melodics and we will feature it on our Instagram page

See you next Tuesday for some more lessons

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