Trevor WongAn overview of the best moveable Maj7 chord shapes for standard tuning. This is a fairly comprehensive vocabulary of practical chord shapes that you will use in a lot of situations and styles. Study up!
THE BEST MOVABLE MAJOR 7 CHORDS (perfect for Shoegaze, Math Rock, Emo, Indie, etc)Trevor Wong2023-11-11 | An overview of the best moveable Maj7 chord shapes for standard tuning. This is a fairly comprehensive vocabulary of practical chord shapes that you will use in a lot of situations and styles. Study up!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comodd meters are boring? #mathrock #guitar #songwriter #musictheory #midwestemo #jazzguitarTrevor Wong2024-05-24 | Some hot tips that will help you to find some new rhythms and new ideas without having to change time signatures. This is the real math!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comDo you think about technique? #mathrock #songwriting #guitarlesson #musictheory #guitarTrevor Wong2024-05-21 | Another great place to start.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comCant write? Start with rhythm! #mathrock #guitar #guitarlesson #songwriterTrevor Wong2024-05-19 | One of my favourite solutions to break out of writers block. Often times, for me at least, getting stuck isn't so much about lacking inspiration or ideas, as it is just me not zooming out far enough to think big picture about how music even works to begin with. Try this out!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comendless new chord shapes? #mathrock #guitar #midwestemoTrevor Wong2024-05-15 | A simple little trick for finding a ton of new chords. Try it out!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comYoure as good as anyone, you just havent put the time in yet #mathrock #midwestemo #guitarTrevor Wong2024-03-28 | One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten from one of my guitar instructors / mentors. If you aren't satisfied with where you are, just put more time in.
#mathrock #shorts #midwestemoA Haunting But Beautiful Shoegaze JamTrevor Wong2024-03-05 | A little experiment I was working on last week. Mostly trying to figure out how to create melodies using the tremolo bar. It's a work in progress but I had fun trying to create this. It's tricky to get a good balance of timbre from "dives" while keeping your guitar relatively in tune. A bit of a haunting effect!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comMath Rock Tapping: Beginner Riffs That Level You UpTrevor Wong2024-02-24 | A collection of tapping riffs designed to push the beginner / intermediate player outside of their comfort zone. These riffs will show you some new contexts for known skills, and will introduce a few new concepts.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comHow To Make Difficult Chord Changes EASY To PlayTrevor Wong2024-02-22 | Hey everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus, but I am back with another more "long form" guitar lesson. This is a subject that I teach to students all the time. Master the principles in the video and you'll be on your way to playing chords effortlessly!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comMath Rock Loops For A Snowy DayTrevor Wong2024-01-26 | Another cool Math Rock / Midwest Emo loop jam, again in D major. This one sorta inspired the last one. To me this sound captures the nostalgia of being a kid in a snow day. You wake up and see the snow falling and you know that school is going to be cancelled. You get ready to bomb down the hill in your DIY sled that is two cross country skis with a lawn chair mounted to it. Let's go.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comPretty Emo Loop JamTrevor Wong2024-01-24 | A pretty little layer of loops that I came up with the other day. D major, standard tuning.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comA Riff For An Out Of Body ExperienceTrevor Wong2024-01-16 | A very fun and maybe a little challenging, riff to play in FACGCE. I originally started writing this as an exercise for a student, but I really enjoyed the sound of it and kept working on it until it became a little two bar idea. Once you get it down, it's very addictive to play!
In terms of the exercise for the student - the riff is meant to demonstrate an example of how you can use chord shapes and fingerings as the basis for melodic ideas in math rock and midwest emo. The melody and chords are very intertwined in this line.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comA Riff For BoredomTrevor Wong2024-01-13 | A little riff that for me kinda captures the sound of being bored and the journey of finding your way out of it.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comHappy New Year In Emo Jazz ChordsTrevor Wong2024-01-01 | Hey everyone, just wanted to wish you all a happy new year. 2024 is hopefully going to be a productive year for the channel, I'm hoping to create more long form lessons and dive into new and fun stuff! Let me know in the comments below if there's anything you'd like to see me try this year!
This little chord progression is a trevor style harmonization of auld lang syne. It's got all my favourites in there haha.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comCarribean Math Rock? #mathrock #midwestemoTrevor Wong2023-12-03 | ...How To Make A Riff More Complex...Trevor Wong2023-11-28 | One of the easiest methods for adding more movement and complexity into your pattern based lines. It's all about discovering what the rhythmic and shape template is the idea.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comEthereal And Dark Math Prog RiffTrevor Wong2023-11-25 | A preview of a song I've been working on. The song itself is going to be another acoustic guitar duet but for now, here's a version on electric guitar with some crazy reverb!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChords To Help You Sound Good At GuitarTrevor Wong2023-11-21 | A new chord progression featuring some pretty complex shapes for standard tuning (still playable though!). This one focuses a lot on my favourite sounds - chords with sus2 and sus4 type sounds built into the centre of the voicing. Also, this music is played on my new acoustic guitar (Martin SC-13).
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.com6 Essential Shoegaze Chords For Intermediate GuitarTrevor Wong2023-11-18 | The next instalment in the essential Shoegaze chords series. This video covers a few new chord sets and voicings that are perfect for the style. If you haven't seen part 1, be sure to watch that first!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comSteal This American Football / Owen Style Acoustic Emo RiffTrevor Wong2023-11-15 | A fun riff to demo my new acoustic guitar! This is a riff written in E major that essentially goes back and forth between an E chord and an Amaj7 chord. Hope you enjoy! The tab is up on my Patreon page. I realized after i filmed this that the shot is not the most friendly for music notation. Sorry!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comTrevor Wong | Alternating Mirror (Acoustic Guitar Music)Trevor Wong2023-10-21 | Messing around with my acoustic guitar yesterday. Ended up writing and recording this. Nothing too serious, but a little experiment with what I've got in my cheap acoustic guitar and an sm57 mic. Hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comEmotional Shoegaze Chords And MelodyTrevor Wong2023-10-18 | Some very pretty and emotional sounding shoegaze, math rock, and post rock chords arranged into a fun little progression. The progression centre's around movement between IV-vi-I with some short variations here and there. Moreover, in order to keep a lower and thicker sound, I tried to keep the arrangement to the bottom 4 strings. Hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comI Wrote This During A Power Outage... (Instrumental Math Rock Song)Trevor Wong2023-10-12 | Here's something that I wrote during a power outage last Monday. I had nothing to do except play guitar so I came up with this little song. Hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChords For Melodic And Dreamy ShoegazeTrevor Wong2023-10-05 | A new Shoegaze (and dream pop!) progression featuring big 7th chords with the 5th in the bass. This one is written in standard tuning in the key of E major. I really tried to stick to a balanced arrangement, focusing a lot, on the bottom 4 strings. Pretty happy with the results!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comCant Escape Standard Tuning!Trevor Wong2023-09-21 | Alternate tunings are great but, there's something about the flexibility of standard that always has me coming back. You can play basically any style and do whatever you want in standard once you get familiar enough with it.
By can't escape I mean that, although I'll always have fun writing stuff in alternate tunings, standard is the home base.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comArpeggios For An Indie Sci-Fi RomanceTrevor Wong2023-09-16 | Very niche, but I've been watching a lot of very random, and sometimes terrible sci fi movies on various streaming services. This little idea is inspired by some of the sound track things that I've been hearing. Hope you enjoy! It's actually one of my favourite little riff ideas that I've written lately. It's very simple, but is fun to play and quite pretty!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.combig math rock riff in standardTrevor Wong2023-08-20 | a fun little riff that i wrote last weekend, a bit tricky to play but a good challenge for climbing up and down the neck.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comHand-Breaker Math Rock Arpeggios In 7/8 TimeTrevor Wong2023-08-15 | Hey everyone, sorry for the delayed absence from posting! Hopefully I'll be back at it with more regularity from here on out! Anyways, this idea is a simple but difficult arpeggio idea in an odd meter. It features one of my favourite picking patterns and uses some very pretty shapes in E major. Hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChonky Midwest Emo / Math Rock RiffTrevor Wong2023-07-18 | just a quick idea I game up with the other day in Db-Ab-Db-F-Ab-Db (open Db) tuning. Hope you enjoy
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comDuet This: Pretty Little Verse Chorus Idea (Midwest Emo)Trevor Wong2023-06-28 | Hey! I wrote this simple and pretty idea the other evening and I think it would sound really great with another instrument or maybe a voice! I'm not much of a singer so I'm curious to hear some other peoples ideas over this. Give it a shot!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comsad guy emo jazz chordsTrevor Wong2023-06-23 | A very simple but fun to play and pleasing chord progression in FACGCE. I stumbled upon this by accident while just noodling in the tuning. Sort of started turning the gears and added a cool minor IV bit to the end. This is really nice to play on acoustic guitar too. Give it at try!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comcrazy big emo chorus toneTrevor Wong2023-06-22 | Experimenting with some chorus over my usual drive sound. I think its pretty sweet. Definitely gotta play with this more!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comRefreshing Shoegaze Chords / ProgressionTrevor Wong2023-06-16 | Tried to come up with something different from what I'd normally play in this style. This is a new progression utilizing two non-diatonic sounds; A major II chord and a minor IV chord. I think this leads to a pretty interesting and uplifting / refreshing sound. Also tried out a different strumming and rhythm idea with the glide technique. What do you think?
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comDreamy And Ethereal Shoegaze ChordsTrevor Wong2023-06-10 | Another Shoegaze idea! This one is in the key of E major and focuses on a lot of great open A chord shapes. Also, the progression sounds great for a lot of styles other than Shoegaze. I originally thought about recording this on acoustic guitar as these chords sound beautiful when played on that instrument. Would recommend trying that too!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comBittersweet Shoegaze ChordsTrevor Wong2023-06-02 | A shoegaze chord progression that I've been sitting on for a while. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this one in one of my stories. It's a fun progression to jam over top of - especially while doing melodies with the glide strumming / picking technique. The bittersweet part of this progression comes from the minor iv chord. Don't really hear that one too much in shoegaze but I think it sounds really good here. Enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comWeird Ethereal Chord ProgressionTrevor Wong2023-05-31 | An usually chord progression that I came up with last week while playing around with some chord changes that pull from C major and C minor. I think this lead to a pretty...interesting sound. What do you think?
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.com8 Essential Chord Progressions For Midwest Emo And Math RockTrevor Wong2023-05-18 | Hey everyone, here's a little project I've been working on for a while - a list of some of my favourite chord progressions and sequences that work great for Midwest Emo, Math Rock, And Post Rock.
Something that you might notice in these progressions is that they are quite simple and there's the underlying theme of 1) the progressions start on either IV, I, or vi, and 2) the movement is very stepwise instead of the traditional pop leaps going in 3rds / 6ths and 4ths / 5ths. Makes for some great simple movement and emotional tension!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChords For A Stupidly Hot DayTrevor Wong2023-05-14 | A chord progression inspired by the un-seasonably hot weather that's hit my city. At some points in time, it feels like there's not much to do other than sit inside and play some guitar. I came up with this progression while overheating lol.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comFACGCE: 7th Chord Shell Voicings And 9th ChordsTrevor Wong2023-05-13 | Important basic chords for those who are working and playing in FACGCE. These will give you a nice road map for playing simple chord progressions with a more 'precise' sound.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comMidwest Emo Hybrid Picking Warm Up In FACGCETrevor Wong2023-05-12 | Hey everyone, sorry for the inactivity over the past few weeks, been pretty busy! Here's a new exercise that I came up with this morning which serves as a nice little warm up for the left and right hand. I designed the exercise to focus on pull offs within a chord shape and pull offs with each finger. This should hopefully help you build up your strength and stamina for playing fast legato lines in midwest emo.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comsuper emo chord manTrevor Wong2023-04-21 | More chords in the open C sharp tuning. Hope you enjoy! Tried to expand my vocabulary a bit in this tuning by trying to mine out new sounds that I haven't quite used yet. Hope you enjoy.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comA riff for spring timeTrevor Wong2023-04-13 | Some fun emo riffs that feel like they bring the energy of the spring season. hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChords For A Nostalgic Emo VerseTrevor Wong2023-04-10 | More chords in this really nice tuning (probably my favourite right now!). Was going for a more simple and straight ahead 4/4 feel. The chord progression is also made pretty overt in this one as it is I-vi-IV-I. This is a great sorta sombre / nostalgic and hopefully progression. Would recommend!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comA Clean EndingTrevor Wong2023-04-03 | A pretty simple guitar riff idea played as clean as I could get it. I could see this being a somewhat simple but fancy ending to a song.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comLet go (fun math rock / emo riffs)Trevor Wong2023-03-30 | A new riff that I wrote this morning in the new tuning I've been experimenting with. Lots of fun to play and came together very quickly. Might tab this one out if anyone is interested in learning how to play it. We'll see!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comChords For An Intense Life MomentTrevor Wong2023-03-24 | Not really sure how else to describe this progression. To me, the feel of this one is a very dramatic, self reflective or maybe contemplative sound. "The chord soundtrack to someone making a very difficult decision or coming to grips with something intense". Musically, some new chords in a new tuning for me (C#-G#-C#-F-G#-C#). Hope you enjoy!
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comMy $25 Drive Pedal Is Now Worth $600, Wtf?Trevor Wong2023-03-20 | So apparently my Digitech 'Bad Monkey' Pedal has exploded in value over the past week or so. If you haven't heard, the pedal company, JHS Pedals, did a video demonstrating how the Bad Monkey is basically a sonic clone of a 'Klon Centaur' distortion pedal, a pedal with a value in the thousands. Pretty crazy. I've always been a huge fan of the "Bad Monkey' and it has been in my rig for years. I bought it used and found that it has always sounded better than my other drive units. I guess the moral of the story is, when you're buying pedals, don't worry about whether you're buying a cheap pedal. Just focus on whether you like the sound or not.
MUSIC: trevorwongmusic.bandcamp.comBeautiful Math Rock Chords And TappingTrevor Wong2023-03-19 | Hey everyone, here's a fun chord based math rock tapping riff written for standard tuning (capo 3). This one was really influenced by a cool progression I heard in an Oragami Angel song that goes I-ii-IV. Hope you enjoy learning the riff and chords!