This is Who I am...
Hey there, thanks for stopping by to check out my website. My name is Brian Kelly, and in case you are new to my stuff, basically I teach music theory to guitar players. I have another website where I deep dive into a whole bunch of different music theory concepts called Zombie Guitar.
I created Guitar Goals as a secondary website for guitar players who aren't necessarily interested in diving into a million different concepts, but would rather prefer to laser focus on one single goal at a time.
So that's what I do in a nutshell...now you probably want to hear me play some stuff.
Well, here are some of my originals. Each instrumental song is intended to demonstrate various different music theory concepts. Each video says which concept(s) are demonstrated.
Anyway, thanks again for checking out my site. Enjoy the vids!
34
This song starts out in a 6/8 time signature (which some also consider to be 3/4), and then it switches to 4/4 in the middle. There are a bunch of cool guitar harmonies too!
Machine Elves
This is a fun one! This one is in 3/4 and makes use of fully diminished arpeggios. At the end of every "loop", a fully diminished arpeggio (aka. dim7 arpeggio) is thrown in there. Listen to this one all the way to the end to hear what the machine elves are up to!
The Message
This song makes use of the change the key down a minor 3rd concept, during the solo section (always my favorite part). I personally love the acoustic ending in this one!
Dark Harmonies
This song has a whole bunch of...you guessed it...harmonies in it! Nothing too fancy, but it has a nice pretty sound to it. Things start to dabble on the line of "cheesy" once the key change kicks in, which is known as the Disney Key Change (move the key up a whole step), but then it quickly gets DARK again with the acoustic ending!
Odd Times
This song bounces back and forth between 5/4 and 6/8. There's a cool key change section in the middle where everything drops a minor 3rd again.
Plague
This one honestly doesn't really make use of any super cool, neat-o music theory concepts other than just being in the key of E minor. That's kinda cool, because I like that key. However when I wrote this song, I was just starting to get into the world of DAW's (Digital Audio Workstation), and in this song I was having lots of fun messing around with synthesizers and timed delay effects. This is a personal favorite of mine. Try listening to this one a few times, and preferably on headphones!
7
This one starts out in regular ol' 4/4 timing, but then switches to...you guessed it. In addition to the time signature change, this song also has a bunch of nice harmonies and a cool guitar solo in it!
Moods
This song smoothly transitions through 7 different keys through the use of a concept known as parallel modes. The song starts out in C Lydian, then shifts to C Ionian, then to C Mixolydian, to C Dorian, to C Aeolian, to C Phrygian to C Locrian...Okay, I know that can sound like a lot to take in, but just pay attention to your mood in the beginning of this song compared to at the end of this song!