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Cram Session – Feb '16 Ex. 5

Breaking Benjamin's Keith Wallen

Photo by Courtney Dellafiora

For this month’s question, Breaking Benjamin guitarist Keith Wallen chimes in with reader Benoit Champagne and PG staff on where they’d like to see themselves grow in their musical pursuits.

Question: What’s one area you’d like to improve on in your music?

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Intermediate

Intermediate

  • Learn the difference between diatonic and non-diatonic notes.
  • Use dissonance to spice up your solos.
  • Understand how scales, chords, and non-diatonic notes work together.
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Why is it that when soloing some notes that seemingly shouldn’t work, do? And no, it’s not jazz we’re talking about. So get ready to play some dissonant music that sounds wonderful.

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Steve Albini in the control room at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.

Photo by Kevin Tiongson

Words of wisdom from the legendary engineer, proprietor of Chicago’s Electrical Audio, World Series of Poker champion, and, in the band Shellac, the compass for brutal guitar aesthetics.

“All day every day, we’re grinding it out,” says engineer Steve Albini of his team at Electrical Audio, the Chicago studio he built and has run since 1997. “We’re constantly in session, constantly under fire.”

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