Skronk = Assertive Dissonance

[@glengholizadeh4831]

Eric Haugan is what it means to be an intellectual musician, a nice guy, whilst having a huge amount of empathetic energy in his aura and teaching. The type of person that I'd happily have a beer with and share some thoughts about anything. Your awesome dude. Thanks for the great lessons. Your genius is appreciated!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks so much Glen! You get me - i just want people to take it easy!

[@glengholizadeh4831]

@@EricHaugenGuitar haha, yeah... tell me about it! Honestly, I have learned alot from you. I also use your ideas in jam nights here around London. Keep on rockin man, your work is of great help. 🤘🤘

[@karlmontevirgen8840]

From fellow skronker and skronk enthusiast, please post more videos on this subject! I love watching this one over and over.

[@ZackRL96]

I much prefer this to passive aggressive dissonance, thank you.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh I’m quite familiar with that as well 🙃

[@russelljoplin2728]

What fun! I'm imagining an SNL skit with Christopher Walken coming out of the control booth and saying "The only cure is more SKRONK!"

[@mattgilbert7347]

I am forever in your debt for introducing me to The Way of The Skronk.

[@Tandle779]

Also I wanna mention one of my favorite dissonances is a minor or major second played between two adjacent strings.. very julian lage and nels cline sort of feel.

[@TommyFosterMusic]

That one tune- “Any Major Triad” by Squealy Dan, had that great lyric line: “Have you ever seen a Skronk’s tears? Well, look at mine…” 😉 Great stuff, thank you !!

[@vdub1959]

I love Friday’s at noon EDT! Thank you Eric! 👌🏻👍🏻🤘🏻

[@jimgiblet]

Brilliant! I have always loved Mark Ribot and this style of dissonant guitar playing. I have been obsessed with adding the diminished fifth/augmented 4th ever since our music teacher in high school told us a story that it was banned in medieveal europe by the church and labelled the 'devil's interval' but it's fantastic how you can create tension, then resolve it, I use it in my guitar playing all the time. Hit the major 7th, keep hitting it like you mean it, then when no one can take any more, you resolve aaah

[@-jank-willson]

that sounds like an old wives tale, i doubt the church really cared about something insignificant like that, especially as nobody would want to sound dissonant like that anyway back then...

[@nachogd8392]

This topic was badly needed! Thanks

[@bigpoppasquat6330]

Thanks Eric, for a great lesson! After 50 years satisfied with cowboy chords, for the first time I think I might want to learn theory because of your comment about hitting targets. I’m inherently lazy and want quick results, and I’m afraid of failure. So far music theory has confused me as much as quantum physics, but your explanations make sense to me. I enjoy your sense of humor and off topic references. My kitchen is a mess right now and your clean and sunlit house is a relaxing break from reality. That has been the function of your channel for me, entertainment and ASMR. I wish I could say I was going to sign up for your CAGED course, but lesson has inspired me to buckle down and learn the guitar part for Cry Me a River. I need specific, achievable goals, and “learn music theory” is a lifetime endeavor in contrast to “learn one song.”

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Smart! It’s always good to have simple, actionable goals! Btw my “where to start with music theory” series is a great place to pick up the bits of music theory that are actually useful, without too much extra scientific digressions 🤓

[@nateo7045]

Music theory is actually extremely simple if you break it down to its basics, which is how you should approach it anyway. If you can count to 7, you're golden, but really you can get away with counting to 5. Pentatonics, tried and true. Extremely simple to visualize. Super fun for improvising. And from there you can add 1 note or thing at a time. But it's all just small variations once you learn the basics.

[@LSDis4me]

I came here for the Ribot/Skronk lessons 4-5 years ago. Stayed for all the other great stuff Eric teaches too. Pateron’d Eric’s next TrueFire series, The Mindfulness of Skronk.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Ooooooh good idea! I’m actually in talks with the team down there about what courses I should make next!

[@steveo44]

Tom waits would be proud of this playing!. Great Lesson again. Thanks for taking the time

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

That’d be nice! Thanks Steve ✊🏻

[@haevan92]

the skronk lessons are always the best

[@jankyfloyd797]

I just kept hearing the Cramps, especially Can't hardly stand it. Really enjoying this lesson.

[@Bloodbarn]

Yes falling down the stairs lesson !

[@fredhystair5789]

Great one Eric ! I love those tones. I was re-watching your episodes on Marc Ribot, when this came out. Fantastic lessons. Thx so much for your work

[@villevirmala667]

This is greatest guitar playing channel in KZbin together with Tomo Fujita. Your sense of sound and phrasing is impeccable

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks so much!

[@asaskald]

This is high praise and I agree with it wholeheartedly.

[@blues61]

Wow. Just wow. So much to unpack, but so interesting and intriguing. Thanks man!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Minor chords are easy to skronk but yeah those majors are .....tricky!

[@extremelynormalperson]

Oh my gosh this sounds amazing!!!

[@kenstrohan5089]

Skronk a riffic!! Awesome lesson!

[@panjandrum.conundrum]

Loved your earlier Ribot vid from the living room (?). Skronk rulezzz

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah back at the old house!

[@ar3308]

I really enjoy your content, style, approach and philosophy towards guitar / music / song craft. Thanks so much for creating such watchable, informative and inspiring videos. Keep up the excellent work.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks man!

[@karllongbottomguitars9192]

Absolutely awesome as ever Eric, many many thanks my friend

[@-jank-willson]

the secret to sounding good with dissonance is this: 1) do not play it loudly, play it subtly, and play it naturally, do not put special emphasis on it. This way it will gaslight people into THINKING it is part of the scale, and that THEY'RE actually the ones mis-hearing it... 2) do not end a lick with it, rather, have the dissonant note/chord in the middle of your playing progression (this way people won't get 'disappointed' when it doesn't end the way they were expecting) 3) make sure to play it that same way multiple times in the song, so that people won't think that it was an accident on your part. Heck, mix it up with a variety of dissonant note/chords so people will know that you are doing this on purpose, but make sure to mix it in with 'real' consonant note/chords so it doesn't sound like complete garbage. It is VERY easy to overuse dissonance, and it is VERY hard to make it sound good. You can't build a song out of entirely dissonant notes (that I know of)

[@darwinsaye]

That’s only if you’re just into playing it safe. There are a number of players who are great with dissonance without being so timid about it. You probably wouldn’t like Marc Ribot, Robert Quine, Robert Fripp, or David Rawlings playing. Or pianists like Tom Waits or Thelonius Monk.

[@-jank-willson]

@@darwinsaye have to check them out

[@robertbodle2354]

boosh - i'm on it. nice guitar - waited to get a better look - flat fifth - got it.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! The number one way to get that sound!

[@davedee6339]

Oh man, sounds beautiful to me!

[@bradtindall2588]

Love this style of course. Eric you the man.

[@whoozworldizthis4221]

Now I've got cake in my head "HES GOING THE DISTANCE!"

[@kingofkingsVAR]

Oh this is the juice I been waiting for

[@boomerdell]

"...the cat that likes to knock things off of the table side..." Perfect. And thank you for introducing me to the oh-so-excellent music term, 'skronk'. I shall abide by the apt definition of "assertive dissonance," as the lesson progressed, I started thinking of it as "intentional dissonance" and even by the end as "beautiful dissonance" -- side note: I love paradoxical expressions like that when used appropriately -- so I'll include those in my lexicon. And such a very cool and highly accurate point you made about how our auditory processing and listening experience is so wonderfully adaptive: as you noted, when we first hear a dissonant chord or melody, we kind of naturally and instinctively wince, but then as we re-hear it and it starts to settle for us, we get more comfortable with and interested in it. Reminds me a bit of abstract expressionism. Love it.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! Adaptation is the key to life!

[@bug4291]

Big thanks guitar guy, I will be using this information.

[@coastercook]

Great lesson this week. Thanks! Love to see more on this subject. I love it when YT guitar teachers try to play badly, but end up sounding awesome. That lick at 8:33 sounded cool and different. I've been trying to use the brown notes in my playing. Larry LaLonde is a guitar hero of mine.

[@alwnwee4867]

Sounds like something Geordie Greep of black midi would play

[@tekketsu94]

@@alwnwee4867 or Robert Fripp

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I forget what that “staircase” lick is called or who did it first, but yeah it’s one of those wonky tricks that gets passed around from guitar nerd to nerd 🤓

[@Benwooododododo]

Now that’s what I’m talking bout. That’s a taaaaasty opening lick

[@simontromans2748]

Thanks for remembering CAKE.

[@flittedacrossmybrain8584]

Thanks for defining that term for me; I hadn't heard of it. Groovy surf stuff.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! I don’t know any other way to describe it - trying to get it out there isn’t the guitar lexicon 🤓

[@robertlivingstone3364]

love your playing

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Rob!

[@frankvaleron]

Really great lesson, can never have too much Ribot. I think as well as the tritone / flat5, another part of this is using minor intervals on major chords, like the minor third and flat7, and harmonic minor / major7 ideas on minor chords. And angry staccato as you say!

[@paulbates4100]

This is musical poetry explained. Thank you Mr Eric.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I try!

[@saskfarm]

Thanks Eric

[@Coglucence]

What an entrance!

[@Vladtheimpaler5211]

Primus forever. Just saw the Tribute to Kings show in GR MI. So great!

[@mr.joshua657]

I'm not sure if my medulla oblongata was ready for this lesson quite yet. I'll have to revisit this one a number of times me thinks.

[@mr.joshua657]

Revisit #1. Just say'in.

[@timwinecoff2181]

Well done Eric, I'll check my sewing kit to see if I still have any more iron on raw silk knee patches. If memory serves well back to 1972 they were about a flat/5th shade tone away from that Burgundy chord you are wearing. Maybe a bit more Merlot. Thanks for every Friday and appreciate you every day.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

thanks Tim!

[@heckatron2586]

Fun lesson! Been playing some Ribot-Waits songs, but this helps explain some of what’s behind the spooky runs.

[@DeGroove]

I love your SKRONK! For a second there I thought you were gonna play “Camel walk from Southern culture on the skids”….also kinda skronky but no b5 or anything unusual. (I immediately checked) What was the name of that other guitarist you mentioned at 1.30 next to Ribot? Didn’t catch that. Robert…something? This style is what led me to your channel a few years ago and I’m still exploring and loving every published second of it! Support this man y’all, you won’t regret it! Take care Eric and have a nice day.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I know Rick!!! His son takes drum lessons with my best friend - NC is a small community 😎😎 Robert Quine is the other NY 80s skronklord

[@DeGroove]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Right! Sweet

[@guitarswhiskeyandgolf]

"That does yield skronkiness" 🤣🤣

[@rgpawling]

Great lesson Eric! Looking forward to putting this into practice so I can really skronk up the place

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yessssssss break things!

[@rubenstroem]

Skronk. Now I have a name for what I go for! Also thanks for Marc Ribot 👍

[@emilienbialecki448]

So surfy I love it

[@toastoftowne1076]

Cool lesson. Sweet guitar. Thanks again. Aloha

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Hat by Roland lifestyle 39.99

[@crimfan]

The out of control skronk started out sounding like Robert Fripp circa “Lark’s Tongues in Aspic”. He was very much in control!

[@brennonjohn]

I’ve been digging some Eileen Jewell and her guitar player, Jerry Miller, made me think of your lessons.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I love his playing! So simple and yet perfectly elegant!

[@DemosInTheDark]

so good, dude.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Jus doin my part to make KZbin guitar a little weirder ✊🏻✊🏻

[@macsarcule]

“Broke it - then you just look at it” [stares intently] Relatable! And super funny! Yes to SKRONK! Thank you again for making Friday awesome and full of goodness and peace. 🎸☮️ [skronk, skronks, skronking, skronked, will have skrunk, skronksky, skronkly, skronkily, skronkiness, pre-skronk, post-skronk, intra-skronk, infra-skronk, ultra-skronk, skronkify, skronkmentation, skronkification, skronkability, reskronk, inskronkication, proskronkmentarianism]

[@russelljoplin2728]

Don't forget anitdisskronkatarianism and skronk-o-meter.

[@MattHerrettMusic]

Definitely need more of this! Do a Rawlings one!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Did this overview a few years back! kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYbPmoSLq8-Jn5Y

[@GratefulSeaDog]

Nice Longbottom guitar!

[@baileywatts1304]

keys to the City of Refuge right here

[@bad8400]

I think maybe explaining what you played over the C as an augmented triad could help people understand it more clearly and more easily catalog that sound, cool lesson.

[@bad8400]

Also I think that chord would be most accurately named a D7#5/C, really nice Mingusy sound.

[@dtwenty5114]

Hi Eric good news from the Canadian Shield, the gang from Kids in the Hall are planning a TV show. maybe the musical score will a Shadowy delight

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! I saw that! ICONS return!

[@DallonAnderson]

I was literally just wishing for more SKRONK

[@patrickhaynes2692]

year late to this but i love the skronkiness of tweedy's playing on wilco's a ghost is born

[@azbluesdog]

"You gotta think about stuff a little bit." And then you can stop thinking so much. Because, you know. Music.

[@justinrayguitars6024]

I've been playing skronk for yrs and didn't even realize it!

[@hansmjakobsen6865]

I WANT TO BEAM THIS VIDEO INTO EVERY HIGH SCHOOL BAND PRACTICE SESSION - EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS ☝️🎶😄

[@meadish]

Bringing the Skronk, yet again! 7:06 Sounds a bit like an augmented chord? Any truth to that, or is my ear just trying to be clever?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah totally! That does indeed make a Caug9!

[@Tandle779]

Assertive dissonance is how I would describe getting into Steely Dan. There's all kinds of clever dissonance in all kinds of music but something about Steely dan is "I'm gonna play this, I know it's jarring right now.. but in your 2 months it'll be your favorite thing." like god damn kid charlemagne's tonic chord is a C7#9 the ONE chord!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! To me, Steely Dan is the exact endpoint of my music theory knowledge. I always say “I want enough theory to understand everything up to and including Steely Dan” 🤓

[@fdg6832]

Dude! My new musical mission: to "yield skronkiness"!

[@chrisegonmusic]

I did get the impression that you were a Marc Ribot fan. Lovely stuff my friend 💎

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah he broke my mind the first time I heard “Clap Hands”

[@chrisegonmusic]

@@EricHaugenGuitar He's a great one!

[@timothy5974]

Good morning sensei. I answered Gb for C. Should I be thinking F#(#4). Excellent Skronk!!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Hrmmmm in this scenario it doesn’t matter too much! I guess I lean towards F# because that’s more in the key of Em

[@dtwenty5114]

Well Eric this is interesting...reminds me of Shadowy men from a Shadowy planet!. Cool

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! I LOVE shadowy men/kids in the hall!

[@blackrainbowfiresword177]

I'm definitely calling my new band "Assertive Dissonance".

[@theguitartundra]

One of my first shows was Primus and Rush - primus started out with … ‘Here come the bastards” - all the Rush fans were like huh, and went to the bar.

[@ronmercer7766]

Rush were hip enough to bring Primus out with them , and too keep them on the tour. They did the same with Rheostatics, another 'weird' band that lots of Rush fans didn't dig so much but the Rush guys really liked them , and put them in front of tens of thousands of people. Lots of dissonance and general weirdness that I'm sure infected a few Rush fans.

[@theguitartundra]

@@ronmercer7766 that’s ace, and I’ve not heard of them so, will have a listen. Thank you 🙏 😊

[@defectivetoaster7713]

ah so that’s why everytime I die are literally the scronk kings

[@duanefarland9988]

SKROnK, I have only heard that term on here. Is it a haugenterm? Really enjoyed the show though. I appreciate your wisdom

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Dunno where it started!

[@gwlee7]

Oh my, It's seventies spy movies soundtrack day. Awesome!!!

[@dananthony6258]

You would probably love playing with the Barry Harris Dom 7 b5 diminished chord scale.

[@craigwood8862]

This is also top shelf

[@417altavista]

Smokin allll the Skronk weed. It does the business good!

[@benwinch5338]

I love this! First time I've ever seen someone trying to teach Ribot. How about an excursion into Sonic Youth sometime? Or is that too droney to be skronk?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Do you follow my buddy Adrian @anyonecanplayguitar ? I’m pretty sure he’s dissected some Sonic Youth!

[@benwinch5338]

@@EricHaugenGuitar Thanks for the tip

[@benwinch5338]

Oh yeah, I know that guy. He's great. Flamin' Groovies "Shake that Action" and Slint's "Nosferatu Man" -- two other guitar lessons I never thought I'd encounter.

[@knowbare]

8:33 Sounds likes its straight out of De-Loused In The Comatorium!

[@LuigiForte]

Take the veil cerpin taxt!

[@ragnadrabinowitz7629]

do you like tom verlaine? great video!!! i love skronk-y stuff.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah I do!

[@JasonClute]

Yo, it’s funny how you find your people. A cake reference, the Crow soundtrack reference, Carl Longbottom ( That Pedal Show!), those pants with that blue guitar (skronk), first concert Melvins opening for Primus! Come on, how cool is all this 💩 My first concert with opener. So my first may have been something I don’t remember cause I worked at a local amphitheater, plus battle of bands concerts in middle school. But my first real one I bought tickets for: Neil Young with Blind Melon opening!!! I’m really enjoying the Trufire course but I haven’t made it as far as I wanted. I’m trying to take my time. It’s crazy how much I need to rewire my brain. I can’t sit there and play simple things without a mistake or doing hot licks! I needed this course bad! Thanks for all you do!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Are you from NJ too?? Back in 94 I saw Neil Young, Blind Melon, and Soundgarden ALL ON ONE BILL!!!!

[@JasonClute]

No, originally Michigan but have lived in the south for 40 years. It had to of been same tour but I would if remembered Soundgarden. Plus I was thinking it was 92 or 93. Oh well, my memory ain’t great. If I don’t remember Soungarden that’s pretty bad. This was before any brain killing chemicals too 🙂

[@seaoftranquility7228]

Gillian Walsh and Dave Rawlins doing some Floyd would be absolutely awesome!!!

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

Maybe you can cover Richard Thompson’s skronkier stuff. He’s really good at it.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Been a while since I looked at his stuff! Gimme some Thompson skronk recs - I make no promises to tab em out, but I am curious!

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

This song, and this version particularly, is pretty skronky. Shoot Out the Lights. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4i4qJaobNuXh5o

[@jacksonvega7751]

Glorious

[@joeybetz6561]

Surprised I haven't seen anybody mention Syd Barrett yet, he was most certainly the king of skronk and especially that creepy spy kinda guitar sound used here

[@woollythewombat995]

@8:07 "To play skronkily it ain't no accident" = Premeditated skronk

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Totally just heard the Law & Order sound effect reading that 🤣

[@donindri]

Been enjoying the Cagey Zen course. Not so easy to keep it slow and simple, may have to add some Skronk to it......, nah. Did buy a pizza today, maybe I’ll eat part of it frozen? Nah, too skronky! Thanks for posting.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! Thanks for taking the course! It’s always hard to keep it simple and intentional - for me too!

[@malcolmmcatee3752]

"Eight Miles High" by the Byrds has some good Skronk going on

[@johnandre5558]

I have said it before, trademark SKRONK! Also, Assertive Dissonance, great band name.

[@anyapossomhandsacker518]

3:24 YEUP!

[@whiskycavendish]

The Drones / Tropical F*ck Storm do some wild Australian wonky skronk 👍

[@dannyspiteri1589]

How do you find improvising in this style? Does it require too much forethought?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Naw! I'm used to it by now!

[@jltrem]

It's that dinosaur noise again...SKRONK!!

[@alphanumeric1529]

I saw that show, Melvins opening for Primus. But it was in a very bad place, very bad things happened, and personally, there was a hex on me, and maybe us, for that trip.

[@sergiohernandezramones9868]

Hey can you spell out the last name of the guitarist Eric mentions? Mark who??

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Marc Ribot - he's a NY session man who does all sorts of unpredictable stuff!

[@MikaelLewisify]

Nice. Reminds me of Bill Frizell

[@emilienbialecki448]

Check out the band Messer Chups, the guitarist is so fantastic, plays rockabilly aswell with The Bone Collectors!

[@maggieo]

Eric will not be surprised that I loved this lesson. He's the guy that knows all my favorite songs. May Arto Lindsey bless you and skronk you, Eric! PS: at around 7:00, I thought you were going to break into "Rhapsody In Blue." And then, at 16:34 I thought you were going to break into some King Crimson, like "Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II)." kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5PaiH5sp6-HbNU

[@smalleranimals]

I kept hearing that classic lick from Red - an E maj chord but sometimes adding the A# on the G string (and then bending it now and then).