masterclass: tom morello

It was a BUSY 2018, culminating in two huge transcription projects: MasterClasses by Santana and Tom Morello (I submitted around 300 pages of transcriptions for each!!). If you’re not familiar with MasterClass, it’s a new venture that allows the world’s leading professionals a platform to share their knowledge with ANYONE interested. How cool is that?!

The first MasterClass project I worked on was for guitarist Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame). I would highly recommend this for aspiring musicians, professional musicians, and also fans who would like to get to know this interesting artist better. Tom shares not only guitar technique, but also his own philosophy about life and music, as well as why and how he got into the world of music (a fascinating story, by the way).

The major challenge for me was navigating the detailed guitar-specific and effect-specific elements of this project. Because Tom’s playing goes way beyond merely playing notes and chords, it was particularly challenging to create clear notation and guitar tablature. In many cases, due to effects pedals or other unconventional playing techniques (such as even playing the guitar CABLE and not the GUITAR), I needed to not only indicate the notes he plays but also the sound that he creates (often on separate staves). What a fun puzzle to solve!

here is a thorough review of the Tom Morello course.

Link to MasterClass: http://www.masterclass.com/tommorello