Lesson Start: Mike starts to play some very wet advanced guitar. Michael reminds us Brian is known for his harmonies and for us to not be intimidated. Once we see how its done and have it explained to us it becomes more clear. Hopefully.
OK, its the usual situation. If you have the guitar toys to get these cool sounds its going to enhance this experience. If not well you can still learn a lot.
I would call this intermediate at least. You know your major and minor and pentatonic scales and aren't lost playing box positions high up the neck. You know the octave positions for the 5 octave centers and their I IV V note names in minimum the guitar friendly keys. You have some basic framework to work with. You have put in a couple of hundred hours or more already.
I just read a review of this pedal and the reviewer says its not "Queen in a Box" unless you have guitar skills. In which case you'll probably love it. But it doesn't have the Harmonizer aspect in it does it? No indeed not!
Michael Casswell is a great guitar player and has one heck of a lot to teach us here. As he puts it himself: we have to know the background chords in order to know which harmonies (note-scales) to place over the chord as its played. He does a heroic job and tries successfully to show us how to slide into root, third and fifth notes over these chord positions. These chords usually aren't that many, perhaps 4 or 5 chords cycling in a predictable way until they don't also using inversions. What a great blend of backing track and melodic harmony!
This lesson is in a class by itself and has some really cools riffs, licks, chops, and superb phrasing and harmonization. It almost gets you thinking about looping some of your own stuff together and trying these harmony ideas on top. If you like Brian May's style. Queens style. Then buy this. Its more sophisticated than many 3 chord rockers. I like it. I am sure spending some time with this DVD would make me a better guitar player and give me some good experience in song composition. But its not for the beginner and would 99% of the time be daunting.
“I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.”
― Angus Young (AC/DC)