Trevor Wong Music

Iconic Toe Riffs (Transcriptions)

Hey everyone, just wanted to share some transcriptions that I've been working on for the band Toe. I've chosen riffs from some of my favourite and some of their most popular songs. I used this as a little ear training workout and as an opportunity to try and analyze their music in a more significant way for myself. I'm sure that their arrangements of these ideas are different, but my goal was to aim to get the pitches right. That's one of the cool things about guitar - you can play the same s...

Shoegaze Chords For That 2010's Sound

Hey everyone, here's a chord progression that I've attempted to write in the sound of early 2010's Shoegaze music. Below are some techniques that I used in the composition.

1) Heavy usage of Maj7 chords built off of 1-4 in the diatonic scale

2) Preference towards Maj7 shapes that begin with a drop 2 structure (1-5-7)

3) The voicings are usually built on the lowest 3 strings

4) Octave / range is used to help give the chords more millage. For example, yo...

Chords For Japanese Math Rock Vibes

A very nice set of chords that I discovered while playing around with a capo in standard tuning. This one focuses on some big sus2 chords and has a nice Japanese Math Rock kind of sound. I think this comes from the type of voicings that I'm using and the simple chord progression focusing on the tonic. Hope you enjoy it!

Can You Play The Most Popular Chord Progression Of All Time?

A quick look at perhaps the most important chord progression / sequence of movement between chords over the past 200 years. We're talking about the Diatonic Circle of 5ths! The motion from this progression and segments of it have been used to form countless numbers of songs. The idea here is that you move by 5th and 4th between chords in your key. You can pick small segments of this progression and you can loop them in order to create new lines and different colours.

Quick Lesson: Math Rock Shred Hybrid Picking Lick

A complex little lick that you can use to practice your hybrid picking and left hand dexterity. Some extra notes about this lick:

1) The rhythmic flow is based around continuous 16th notes. I've tried to model it after something you might hear in really fast midwest emo flow, but I've tried to incorporate more string skipping into my gestures in order to give it a more "mathy" broken sound

2) the harmony is based around something like an Fmaj7sus2 chord with a D note as sort of a ...

Math Rock Fingerstyle Licks To Get You Noodling

A short collection of licks that I wrote for a student in a lesson. The idea behind these licks is that they demonstrate some classic Math Rock / Midwest emo fingerpicking and left hand legato movements. Moreover, a key concept in Math Rock is that the left hand is extremely active in helping to trigger notes. Instead of just holding chords while playing fingerpicking patterns, we want to instead try and write angular melodies and broken arpeggios.

A Fun And Useful Fingerpicking Exercise

Hey everyone, just wanted to share an example of a right hand exercise that I've used to develop my fingerpicking. The idea is an exercise that alternates between your thumb and the remaining free fingers. The goal of the exercise is to help you begin to develop some independence and accuracy.

A brief note on the harmony: I've arranged the exercise around a simple pop / singer songwriter esq loop consisting of Bmaj7-G#m9-C#m7-Emaj7-Em(maj7)

Dark And Gorgeous Chords In FACGCE

A little chord progression written in F major for FACGCE. If you're stuck with your writing, it's a good idea to try out some new keys. I normally play in C major in this tuning and that has become a little stale. F definitely leads to some new sounds which are worth checking out!

Quick Lesson: 6/9 Chords Are Pretty Nice

"One of my favourite kinds of major chord sounds. The 6/9 chord is quite versatile and can help you to capture a consonant colour. The 6/9 chord can also be thought of as a sound that represents a major pentatonic scale"

Some extra notes for you guys:

1) 6/9 chords are built through the interval pattern of 1-3-5-6-9. For example, a C 6/9 chord has the pitches, C-E-G-A-D.

2) In your diatonic scale, this chord can be used as the I,IV, and V chord. Basically, whenever you have ...

Quick Lesson: What's In Your Scale?

An exploration of a simple idea: your scale contains everything you need in order to create music. Are you visually recognizing how materials can be sourced from it? This lesson presents 2 examples of simple materials that can be derived from a major scale.

We first begin by playing a common major scale pattern with our root note on A of the E string. 

From there, I play a Maj7 and an A pentatonic scale and I try to demonstrate how these two ideas can be found within the majo...

Quick Lesson: Beginner Maj7 Arpeggio Pattern

A short lesson that will introduce you to playing arpeggios of 7th chords. Learning your arpeggios is a really important tool for training your ear and helping you to see / understand your major scales more clearly. They also help you to "play the changes" when it comes to composing or improvising over top of a chord and chord progression.

More Dark Indie Lofi Chords!

I had a lot of fun playing around with the jazzmaster arpeggio tone in my last video so here's another go at something similar. Again, I'm going for that Bibio esq, slightly out of tune, whammy sound. Hope you enjoy!

Chords for that indie lofi tone

Playing around with a tone idea today that reminded me of Bibio. Basically, I'm experimenting with a clean jazzmaster sound with some wobbles from my whammy bar to give it that pulsating out of tune effect. Hope you enjoy it!

Learn This Lick To Help You TAP Like A PRO

A little (tricky) lick that I came up with that should really help with your tapping. The lick focuses on taps without a pull off in both the left and the right hand. This will really force you to get a clean and accurate sound with your tapping. It will also get both hands to move around in a way that is a little more piano like.

The Most Emo Chord (Maj7sus2)

A look at what I believe to be the most emo chord. Agree or disagree? I've notated a few great shapes that I use all the time in standard tuning to help you get this sound. 

Chords For When Your Melody Is One Note

An example of pivoting around a common tone. This is one of my favourite ways to practice my voicings and it's a great way to demonstrate the power that different voicings can have towards colouring a note. All of the chords in this set feature the pitch D as the highest pitched note in each shape.

An Easy But Beautiful Set Of Arpeggios

A simple and pretty idea that I've found myself having some fun with this week. It's a great little progression to jam over top of. Try putting it into your looper pedal.

Chords That You Need To Master Before Anything Else

A demonstration of the most foundational chord vocabulary for basically any instrumental / math / emo / indie / shoegaze / lofi, etc guitarist. The thing about these chords is that the sound really depends on context and how you play them. Also, mapping out all of these chords will really help you learn the fretboard. This vocabulary is something that I'll run for myself any time that I enter into a new key. Perhaps you know some of these chords, but do you know all of them? Do you know what ...

10 Inspiring Twinkly Math Rock And Emo Chords

Another set of very beautiful open chords for standard tuning. This time, in G major. G major's open notes allow for some very interesting minor shapes for the ii and vi chords. I think this is a series I'd like to keep doing for different keys so stay tuned!

Learn This Riff To Impress At A Guitar Shop

Here's a fun little riff that you can learn to play next time you are at a music store. It's got a little bit everything in it; it's a bit jazzy, mathy, and kinda blusey and also pretty groovy. Should (hopefully!) sound alright to anyone.

9 Gorgeous Math Rock And Emo Chords In Standard

A little return to my roots! Here are 9 very pretty, twinkly, and mostly open style chord shapes for Math Rock and Emo in standard tuning. These chords are all played in the key of B major. That being said, as long as the chord quality works in your key, you can use these elsewhere.

Chords For Anime Tinged Shoegaze

A new progression of sounds influenced by moods in some anime OST stuff. The progression features a slowly meandering series of shapes that are heavily voice lead. Hope you enjoy it!

6 Major Scale Patterns In 'G' (Updated, 2022)

Hey everyone, here's a little update to my 6 Major Scale Patterns In G document. I've reorganized it a bit to be easier to look at. I've also notated the scales to both ascend and descend. Cheers and happy practicing!

Can You Play Shoegaze In FACGCE?

An attempt to write some Shoegazy ideas in FACGCE tuning. This is a classic tuning for a lot of Math Rock and Midwest Emo music but I think it shares an aesthetic that could work great with Shoegaze. What do you think?

Chords To Flex At A Guitar Shop

A collection of pretty sounding (with some ridiculously hard to play) shapes that look very difficult to play. Try this out (or at least some of it it) the next time you are in a music store. Warning though, the first two shapes might give you carpel tunnel....

Chords For The Most Chill Thing I Can Play

Trying something a little different today. Here's a more minimal 'riffy' idea that features some really mellow jazz chords. These are pretty tough to play / are some advanced fingerings but the sounds are really nice.

6 Essential Shoegaze Chords For Beginners

A run through of some shapes that I commonly hear / see in a lot of Shoegaze music. Not only are these type of chords common, but these exact voicings should help you get some great sounds.

Chords For Your First String Change In A Year...

I changed my strings yesterday after FAR too long. I never meant to take such a long time between string changes but this just somehow ends up happening. Anyways, here's a nice chord progression that was meant to show off the new strings. I've got some nice resonant chords that are played over top of an A pedal tone. Hope you like it!

Chords For Heartbreaking Shoegaze

Another foray into Whirr(ish) style Shoegaze tones, alternate tunings, capos, and big emotional chords. I've got a lot of creative energy that spilled over from my last Shoegaze composition so I was able to pour some of that into this new piece. This one goes for more movement and has a bit more focus on the tonic. Hope you enjoy and have fun learning it!

Chords To Disappoint Your Parents

A colourful but kind of bizarre sequence of guitar chords. The actual arrangement was a challenge written mostly in 7/8 time.