Apparently Satriani’s into Hungarian Minor. Which works, as Satch is a guitar nerd hero.

If you don’t know Joe Satriani, but are my age, you at least know “Summer Song” which was in a Sony commercial in the 90s:

He also sued Coldplay for stealing his song. Did he do it? This Canadian guy’s on the case!

1. COREY BROWN: Hey, you sounded great up there. What was that called?
2. RONI: Well, my guitar solo used a scale called the Hungarian Minor (or Harmonic Minor #4). It has a large number of half steps and a slightly ambiguous tonal center.
3. COREY BROWN: I just sort of meant, "What’s the name of the song?"; RONI: Oh.
4. RONI: I have no idea.

I know nothing about music theory. (Which may be apparent.)

I am impressed how many musicians on the web put lessons and videos out there for free. Amazing resources out there for folks. I don’t play guitar nor am I learning, but I think it’s interesting and I love the awkwardness of the videos, so I watch them.

Subtext to this one: “This song is so fucking simple and yet the guys who wrote it are millionaires and here I am doing this stupid video for free.” Notice how many times he says “it’s VERY simple”, “that’s IT” or “that’s ALL” and how inflects those phrases.

I also love the comments below the video which juxtapose with this guy’s helpfulness. For example: “Seriously, if you need lessons on how to play stuff like this give up”

Anyone find any particular site or set of videos particularly helpful (or funny)?

1. RONI: You mean like… this?; JOHN: YES! Yeah. That.
2. RONI: OK, so when you say you want me to "hit more weird notes" in my solos, you actually want me to use chromatics to create melodic tension.; JOHN: I guess.
3. RONI: (sigh) This would be so much easier if you guys had a strong music theory background.; JOHN: Yeah…
4. JOHN: Or, I mean, if you DIDN’T.

For no real reason other than the mention of MIDI, here’s a MIDI cover of “Kashmir”, which is “for pepole that want to sing with the music only” according to this YouTube poster:

1. RONI: If that’s what you want me to play, then say that!; JOHN: I DID say that!
2. RONI: No, you said, "add more emotion"! Who knows what that means!; JOHN: People! PEOPLE know what that means!
3. RONI: Isn’t it much easier to remember that I play the root and fifth note as an arpeggio?
4. JOHN: Yeah, if you’re a MIDI sequencer, Roni!; DAN: Wait, now I’m not even sure I was playing the same song as you…