RD King

RD King

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R.D. King is an award-winning composer and performer of instrumental acoustic guitar music. Following a tumultuous childhood, King has confronted the anxiety and alienation of modern life by seeking deeper meaning, beauty, and connection through music. A captivating and energetic performer, King blends guitar pyrotechnics with cinematic and evocative music. Inspired by literature, philosophy, art, and meditation, King’s pursuit of music is his deepest source of personal gro... (more)

RD currently offers 26 guitar lessons at JamPlay, with 26 intermediate lessons.

RD King's contribution to JamPlay

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Intermediate 26 Lessons

Biography

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Fingerstyle

A Deep Dive into Fingerstyle Composition

Looking to try your hand at writing your very own piece of music but not sure where to start? RD King's course on Fingerstyle Composition will give you an arsenal of practical tips and techniques that you'll be able to use to write songs on your very own right away!

1

Introduction

RD King introduces us to "Fingerstyle Composition"!

4:14 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

2

Why We Make Music

Before we dive into this series, RD King gives us a quick explanation of some of the principles he took into account when designing this course.

1:52 Runtime

0.0 Difficulty

3

Fingerstyle as Texture

For our first hands-on lesson, RD breaks down what defines texture in fingerstyle guitar and how the different voices in a piece of music interact and relate to each other.

11:24 Runtime

1.5 Difficulty

4

Rhythmic Intrigue

In this lesson, RD shows us an example where we take unusual fingerstyle patterns and create interesting rhythms and even time signatures!

10:30 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

5

Cross-Rhythms

Let's look at some cross-rhythms and how they can help us add greater independence between voicings.

10:14 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

6

The Mystery of Melody

In this lesson, we dive into melody writing and some of the difficulties that fingerstyle guitarists face when trying to write melodies around complicated bass lines.

6:02 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

7

The Magic of Cross-String Melodies

For this lesson, we look at a technique that enables us to let the melody ring out.

7:46 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

8

Back to Bass-ics

In this lesson, RD guides us through fingerstyle bass parts!

20:05 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

9

Basslines Beyond the Thumb

Let's continue our look into bass parts, but this time focusing on basslines beyond the thumb!

11:07 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

10

Three (Voices) is a Crowd

In this lesson, we explore two ways of adding harmony to a fingerstyle passage; filling in the chord at the beginning of each measure and adding a new harmonizing melody to accompany the original melody.

8:24 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

11

Interplay and Counterpoint

For this lesson, let's explore how to make the third voicing in the middle of the melody and bass even more independent.

11:11 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

12

Reaching for the Stars

RD breaks down range for this lesson, and how to take it into account when writing a piece of music.

12:44 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

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13

Highlighting Harmonics

Let's dive into one of the most exciting aspects of guitar, harmonics!

15:19 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

14

Repeated Strings

In this lesson, RD gives us some tips and tricks when trying to master the technique of playing repeated strings on the guitar.

12:30 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

15

Expression

RD talks to us about expression in this lesson, and how it is an overlooked subject matter in fingerstyle guitar.

16:04 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

16

Altered Tunings

For this lesson, we explore how to utilize capos and altered tunings in fingerstyle guitar.

12:16 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

17

Capos

We take a closer look at capos in this lesson and get a better understanding of how we use them to change the sound of an existing piece or to be used as a compositional device.

7:37 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

18

Improvisation and Experimentation

We have acquired a lot of tools for our musical toolbox so far, let's take a deeper dive into how we start to use those tools to craft a piece of music!

10:14 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

19

A vs. B: Creating Contrasting Sections

For this lesson, we talk about structure and how we develop one section to multiple sections in a fingerstyle piece.

9:48 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

20

The Compositional Process

Before we dive into the last few lessons of this course, RD gives us a short introduction to the overall compositional process.

5:17 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

21

Compose! I: Genesis

In this exciting lesson we begin our journey to actually write our very own piece of music, RD first gives us some great jumping-off points to begin!

13:21 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

22

Compose! II: Coalescence

In this lesson, we will be moving on to phase two of our compositional process where we will build upon the ideas we have come up with and expand on them to create an A section.

12:24 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

23

Compose! III: Expansion

Now that we have our A-section ironed out, let's expand on that to make a meaningful contrasting 2nd section!

11:36 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

24

Compose! IV: Development

As we start to get all of our musical pieces to jive together, it's time to take a look at the overall structure of our piece of music to see what type of mood or direction we want to take our piece!

14:59 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

25

Compose! V: Synthesis, Part 1

As we get into our final leg of the compositional process, we look at the process as a whole over our piece of music, diving into each section of our piece to make sure all of our elements are working together.

17:23 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

26

Compose! V: Synthesis, Part 2

We are at the end of our fingerstyle composition journey and to close the course out, RD gives us some final thoughts on how to fully complete a piece of fingerstyle music.

13:50 Runtime

3.5 Difficulty

Fingerstyle

A Closer Look at Fingerpicking Patterns

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