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2021 in review

Calvin Phillips

Music Theory Bragger
Nov 11, 2019
2,588
1,988
As we close into another year or music, we look back over this year. The first half of the year we pretty busy for me. I had a ton of material to go over, rerecord and get out. Remix.. etc. In the end I ended up recording and releasing 4 new albums this year.

In the beginning of the year the sound and mix quality was ok, but got dramatically better as the year went on. It's to a point now where I'm ready to go BACK and do all my songs over again. But, I am going to leave that for now. I may do a best of series, with plug and unplugged versions of my favourite songs but again am unsure when that will actually happen.
Brutality:
This was written in 2020 and I believe the first version of the album too. But the real recordings came out in 2021. An album full of angst and emotion as my friendships belitttled into nothing. The theory behind most of these songs are edgy but the structure was pretty damn good IMO. I also was very happy with the overall feel but the songs were still longer. 180 BPM will do that to you. As the album goes on it gets softer and becomes more rock songs near the end.
Centzless:
These were essentially the first songs I wrote with my newer guitars in 2020 but were songs I figured would become a lost soul due to thief stealing my guitars and accessories. Once I repurchased what I lost, the album came back to life. I used the ORIGIONAL recordings for some songs and added to them. This is where the jazz influences started to come out. The album finishes off with some bangers before the finale full despair.
True View:
More blues/jazz influences are visible in this set of songs. The songs get longer again, but they all tell a story. The title track is the best one IMO. These were the first to be written in 2021, although a couple were carried over. Again, original recordings used and added to. I'll be honest too, some of these songs I would have to legit relearn. This is where the improv solos began.
No Centz At All:
My first visit to 240 bpm. I haven't really left. This entire album is a banger to me. I cant get over how good the songs flow, even if the mixing isnt 100%. They were loud enough but not clear enough. The tone got much better too overall. Some of my best work is in there.
What's in store for 2022? I have a new album that needs tweaks before release. I was going to release it this month, but i'm gonna hold off til the new year. These songs are even better then no centz at all. Things seem to be going up and up.
For the rest of December, keep an eye out as I restring my guitars and will be playing some of my favourite riffs and songs from 2021. You'll be able to see them here youtube and instagram.
I also have new projects on the way with familiar faces. The song writing has been going pretty good. Getting easier and easier. Stay tuned!








This was a blog I posted on reverbnation and figured I'd share it here. In the beginning of the year (I just saw the thread in the related threads when I posted this) we had goals, I'm curious to see who surpassed their goals, and maybe achieved more.

For me, I do not believe I recorded anything with another person but myself. I want that to change in 2022. My brother and me are gonna probably start something up once we move in together (I haven't gone into detail on that yet but will soon). I also didn't end up really completing a song with my friend Ryan. We have restarted that project again, but well see if we actually get anywhere. But overall, I feel I achieved a LOT.

*my theory has DRAMATICALLLY improved. Not only can I write in keys now, I can play to a key and possibly follow chord changes depending on the chords in the song.
*I learned and memorized major and minor caged positions and have found root notes in those positions to be able to play to any chord I want. There are two key positions I found that make it really easy. I know syn says dont have favourites, but you gotta start somewhere.
*I learned the blues master class and jammed many new chords. Chords I never thought I would ever understand, or finger
*Along with caged knowledge, my sweeps became clean enough that you can hear the arpeggio I am playing. I am able to now sweep in the bpm of the song I play. I just cant sweep more then one loop at a time. So I usually sweep into a bend, vibrato.. etc.
*Do to the help of my caged knowledge, improving became much easier for me. I now find I dont write solos anymore, I improv them. and try to play what I improved. Sometimes this is a lot harder then I thought it would be. Usually I improv a solo in segments.. once I get a lick down.. I move onto the next one. And obviously if I dont like what I played, I redo that part. But I play the solo in whole when I do it.. its a long process usually takes a day to write the solo. and yes, 90% of the time I have to RELEARN IT.
*As stated in my blog, I wrote a TON of songs. I'll be reviewing my favourites for the last few weeks. Play some licks and riffs.. attempt solos I haven't tried ina while... If there are any songs you want me to go over, play.. explain.. etc. Speak up and I'll do my best to get the proper information to you in what I was doing.
*my biggest more exciting thing this year was finding rick beato's youtube channel. I find I refer there more these days then the lessons here. THere is nothing wrong with the lessons here, and the lessons here will teach you ev erything you need to know. But the beato book really opened my eyes and made things I couldn't understand in the lessons here crystal clear. I'm also a complicated guy and the way rick explains things is different then PG. PG does a great job dumbing down a complicated measure for you to understand in the beginning. He really pushed my theory knowledge in the right way when I first got here. And for that I am ever so grateful.


Okay, there are my key points to my success in 2021. We can go a step further here too if you'd like, and maybe state our 2022 goals as well. But for now, thats all I have to say for 2021. With so many new people here, it'll be interesting to see what our new memebrs have done this year before joining the school.

What pushed you to come here? Did you struggle and get a refer here? Or was it random? Or did you see an add and just come? Is the school helping you or helped you achieve your 2021 goals? Lets hear what you have to say.
 
T

TheRedMageGuitarist

Guest
Dude I didn't even know you had 4 albums at all!! And I gotta admit, the play on the "Centz" word is totally cool. 4 albums in one year is insane. And I loved reading the growing process!!
 

Flower Hands

Garage band Groupie
Sep 15, 2021
47
144
BRA
8
okay , lets see? 2021?
after a half dozen years of playing pretty badly I find a minimum level of shreddy shreddy is needed, I wasn't into metal so I never really did any exercises.

When your role model for guitar is James Page, u get quite a few holes in technique, and survivor bias, survivor bias explains a whole lot of things.
back in may I reached the big milestone, picked up teh Akeles Last Stand by ear, not entirely accurate, but 70% is okay.


Now I'm just working back to get a lot of the very basic things very well engrained to get into metal and jazz, that chordal stuff is hard to follow, and it's not as boring as I thought it was.

I didn't know how to actually play arpeggios 👀

behold, the first time I played a metal lick in a sketch, it's not good, but I used an arpeggio and for a couple of microseconds I go into the 150 bpm range (super fast if you ask me, not reachable for about 98% of pro guitarists :rolleyes:).

 
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T

TheRedMageGuitarist

Guest
okay , lets see? 2021?
after a half dozen years of playing pretty badly I find a minimum level of shreddy shreddy is needed, I wasn't into metal so I never really did any exercises.

When your role model for guitar is James Page, u get quite a few holes in technique, and survivor bias, survivor bias explains a whole lot of things.
back in may I reached the big milestone, picked up teh Akeles Last Stand by ear, not entirely accurate, but 70% is okay.


Now I'm just working back to get a lot of the very basic things very well engrained to get into metal and jazz, that chordal stuff is hard to follow, and it's not as boring as I thought it was.

behold, the first time I played a metal lick in a sketch, it's not good, but for a couple of microseconds I go into the 150 bpm range (super fast if you ask me, not reachable for about 98% of pro guitarists :rolleyes:).
::
You have the Jimmy Page tone down flat, buddy!
 
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Calvin Phillips

Music Theory Bragger
Nov 11, 2019
2,588
1,988
Dude I didn't even know you had 4 albums at all!! And I gotta admit, the play on the "Centz" word is totally cool. 4 albums in one year is insane. And I loved reading the growing process!!
There are some songs that are pretty good some drag on.. but any song I wrote bad or good I finished it off. The writing process has improved and if you have time to go through them all you can hear the progress through each set. A LOT were written time ago and I redid them over and over but eventually you just become a perfectionist and you'll never be happy with the finished product. So I left them and moved on. I'll go through some of my favs eventually. Some came off pretty good. I may re mix the songs but I'll never bother to rerecord most of them. Instead I may do acoustic touches to some. Like a best of album type thing.

You'll probably remember some of the material as most came from my improv videos. I did try to advertise a bit here but I didnt want to be one of.those guys posting albums and videos everywhere. Hence why I just have a link in my signature.

If you do go through them let me know some.of your favourites. There a variety of styles from metal to acoustic unplugged/clean and blues and rock.
 

Saphyra

New Student
Dec 16, 2021
323
546
23
France
Wow it was intense for you,
I had many work for my chemistry studies (yes I am not a professional musician 😅) and I didn't finished yet my new composition (dw I did like 70%) but at the end of the year I am learning some Chopin pieces and some Hollow Knight ost ^_^ (maybe I will do my own arrangement of piano of Path of Pain) and I hope that I am less busy at 2022 ^^
 
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