YOUR Guitar Diary for 2012

[rjbasque]

Got about an hour in tonight. I haven't done warmups in a while, and when I ran through them tonight it shows. I had to back the metronome speed down to get through them. Still a bit stumped by Swamp Funk, but keep plugging away at it. Whenever I miss a day or 2 of practice all my progress seems to evaporate.

I have been looking at Robbie Calvo's Rhythmcraft over lunchtime. I'm thinking of adding this to my routine. Not sure if this is taking on too much though.

Anyway, finished up with 15 minutes of mp3 jamming. Some of the songs were heavy on barre chords. Noticed I need to get back some endurance with these. The most positive thing is I've been able to get some consistency in spending time with a guitar the past few days.

[rjbasque]

Like I said got some consistency going with an hour again tonight. Did a bit better with the warmups, still need to work on endurance with the barre chords. I wandered off with some noodling and had to reign myself back in. So I jammed with a couple of mp3s. I again had to reign myself back in when I was about to start working on a totally new song. So I forced myself to work on David Hamburger's selection. I set up the performance video with a loop for the 3rd chorus, and just kept drilling it for 15 minutes. Still not getting it all, but hitting about 2 out of 3 mostly.

Funny 2 weeks ago I was thinking of dropping this piece completely but I decided to give it to until the end of the month, and it looks like it's starting to come together. I guess I just had to make the commitment to really work on it. Tomorrow is usually a non practice day, but I think I need to put new strings on the Tele. So I'll probably do that after work tomorrow night.

Noticed it seems a little quiet here tonight. Hopefully everyone is busy practicing

[wvgman]

Today was a good guitar day although I spent very little time actually holding one. I did teach a lesson on major and minor chords to my two students and we had a good time going over these things. I had so many things going on in January that we didn't get together at all that month and tonight was only the second lesson we have had in February, but the cool thing is this: I can tell they have both been practicing and, man, they are miles ahead of where they were when we started. I do believe that places where they have school all year long need to go back to the idea of taking a long break each summer. I believe the human creature was designed with a need for a break every now and then. It is refreshing and invigorating. I am excited to see the renewed eagerness in these two students. A great day! They are all good; some just much better than others.

[Johnny]

Today was a good guitar day although I spent very little time actually holding one. I did teach a lesson on major and minor chords to my two students and we had a good time going over these things. I had so many things going on in January that we didn't get together at all that month and tonight was only the second lesson we have had in February, but the cool thing is this: I can tell they have both been practicing and, man, they are miles ahead of where they were when we started. I do believe that places where they have school all year long need to go back to the idea of taking a long break each summer. I believe the human creature was designed with a need for a break every now and then. It is refreshing and invigorating. I am excited to see the renewed eagerness in these two students. A great day! They are all good; some just much better than others.

Good to hear wvgman
I agree recreation or at least some alternation in what we are doing is always good.

[Bluefugue]

Wow, wvgman and RJ! Great news on both fronts! It's always so rewarding to teach someone something. I can see why some teachers are so passionate about what they do.

I did not get much done today, guitar-wise, to be honest. I spent most of it discouraging myself by watching videos of people I will NEVER play like. My girlfriend was with me and is still recovering from surgery, so I spent a good bit of time keeping her company. One thing I have been doing over the past several days is visualizing ala RC's lesson. I picture myself onstage, try to REALLY see what I actually look like when I gig with my band, and what I would like to do differently. I watched some video of myself and found some common areas that I mess up. One is the trill in the solo to Back in Black as seen here between 2:00-2:05: . I always mess up that part of the solo for some reason. Even though I practice it, I still get nervous when that moment comes up, and I mess up. Please keep in mind we are all pretty much beginning (though older) rockers. . I don't know how to edit a YouTube video before putting it here, so I had to put it here as it was posted by one of our band members (not I); I could probably NEVER figure out how to get something from a video recording onto YouTube.

Hope you all are having a great evening!!

[Jestme]

Bluefugue

Thanks for posting. Man you have a lot going on and to see you posting and practicing during such a hectic time is really inspirational. Thanks I gotta get me some real practice things going. Also thanks for the video I thought you guys sounded great.

[sjtaylor147]

A pretty good session. I've set myself a number of goals for the year, one of which is to considerably sharpen up my theory knowledge. I duly spent an evening constructing inversions of M7 and Min7 chords and incorporating these into some nice sounding progressions and reviewing the relevant sections of the New Yord Guitar method Primer 2 [Bruce Arnold].

For the second part of the session I tackled some sight reading exercises from Bruce's single string reading book. I'm at the stage of being able to read simple melodies in position but I found this a completely different kettle of fish! My head hurt quite a lot.. from page 1 onwards .. but it's a marathon not a sprint. Seriously though I can see these exercises are going to be extremely worthwhile.

[rjbasque]

Blue,
No worries about attending to personal matters. For most of us music is a luxury, one we're passionate about, but still a luxury. So when family or work takes you away, we all understand. We've been there.

SJT: That sounds like a pretty big jump into the deep end of theory. Are you one of Bruce's Sherpa students?

[sjtaylor147]

rjbasque: I'm not one of Bruce's sherpa students, but I know its a weak spot so I figure I may as well jump in with both feet. Its a great feeling to make those small leaps of comprehension where something clicks into place. I guess there'll be plenty more of those to come yet..

[sjtaylor147]

An eclectic evening this evening. I managed to get a couple of hours under the belt and had a fun evening learning some new songs. I started off trying to get the Toy Story song 'You've got a friend in me' under the fingers to play for my 2 year old daughter who loves the film and sings the song all the time. I then jumped to Steve Vai's take on Caprice 24 which oddly enough I found easier to make a reasonable stab at than a kids film song.. [surely something wrong here! Although thinking of it I've never seen any evidence Steve Vai can play any of the songs from Toy Story..]. A bit of 'Here comes the Sun' by the Beatles, a few phrases out of an Eric Johnson song I've not heard before and a run through Bucketheadland and I'm done for the night.

[Forgive me for writing two posts in a row. They were quite a few hours apart, you're just all asleep!].

[Bluefugue]

Bluefugue

Thanks for posting. Man you have a lot going on and to see you posting and practicing during such a hectic time is really inspirational. Thanks I gotta get me some real practice things going. Also thanks for the video I thought you guys sounded great.

Thank you for the kind words, Jestme!

Today was band rehearsal for a gig tomorrow, so I really didn't get to practice individually too much. Unfortunately, after rehearsal, we had to discuss the future of one of our band members who has a lot of conflicts with gigs that we could otherwise accept. We all love him dearly and did not want to have to give an ultimatum, but the band is on the verge of becoming exactly what we want it to be, and what we got into the band for in the first place. Does anyone have thoughts on that?

I just can't keep my eyes open any longer. I'm really sorry for not being able to post more on a practice regimen, but I don't want to just make stuff up about what I'm practicing.

Take good care, all!

Gassho.

Bluefugue

[torr71]

Haven't had much time for practicing past few dayz just some deliberate noodling ,,,leaving to head back home in a couple of hours ..but I've been reading that "Guitar Zero " Book something to help pass the time away

[djdrdave]

I have decided to change course once again. After the band gig thing fizzzled out, i still want to learn repertoire but i practiced last night and decided to go the instant gratification route, i want to go through all the 50 licks courses as i am sure at will build up dexterity for me and also force me to get through some sticking points. I am going to do it quickly though and save the licks that need the most work, things like sweep picking will no doubt be filling up my playlist!

[robbie calvo]

Hi Guys,

I've been checking through the posts and wanted to thank you for responding to my StageFright / Performance Anxiety question. More on that in a moment but I also wanted to tell you about some speed learning techniques that we employed at G.I.T.... If you continually make a mistake at the same point in your performance, isolate that lick,run,chord or whatever it is and just work on that small section. G.I.T. called this 'chunks' of information. Take the same small chunk and practice that perfectly, slowly at first and then bring it up to speed gradually. If you do this you will be able to encorporate that back into the main body of the piece you are working on. Remember this...If you keep practicing and making mistakes you are 'Programming mistakes'. That's not what you want. I also advocate visualizing the small chunks too. See yourself performing the moves perfectly. Another thing to remember is this...speed is a bi-product of accuracy.

O.K. regarding stagefright. I will be producing a book, DVD this year and hosting seminars around the country addressing this issue for all musicians,performers, pblic speakers etc. The idea is to empower you to be the 100% you are capable of, regardless of location or performance situation. I am passionate about this project and truly believe it will make a positive change in your life, in more ways than one.

I will probably post sections of the process here on the forum to see how you guys react to the exercises...if that's ok with you.

I lost my dearest friend to a heart attack this week. He was a brilliant man and a mentor to me on all things about life. We went shopping last week to find him an ES175 Gibson that he'd always wanted...that's all I need to say...

Have a fabulous,brilliant and inspired Day.

Robbie

[torr71]

Hey Robbie,
So sorry to here about your loss..These things can really be Heart Breaking more so when its unexpected ..Will keep you in my Prayers..

Speed Learning

Was reading about this in the "Guitar Zero" book '..... study of a Group of Musicians ,,and the better ones , when a problem came up . They stoped and worked on the Problem right away , just that one section of the piece they were working with...and this group were the Better Musicians..
The Key was "They stop right away" and "they only worked on the part that was the problem..."
Now I'm hearing about it again...sooo it must be true

Thanks for the Heads up and look forward to your exercises and more words of wisdom...
Peace

[Jestme]

Robbie

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. It is very shocking when something like that happens so suddenly.

Thanks for the tips and ideas. Of course we will be happy to have you post pieces of your upcoming project. I recommend that you post the locations of your tour spots as I'm sure many of us would be glad to see you if you are in our areas... especially NH or MA... ;^)

[Johnny]

Sorry to hear about your loss Robbie.
Thanks for the tips and your guidance.

[Johnny]

Hi!

I have the honour to be the host here on "Your Guitar Diary for 2012" the next 14 days.
However wvgman may pull a special guest host out of his hat again .
English is not my first language so please bear with me if some sentences turns out a bit clumsy.

Last year I didn't do much focused learning and practice, but in the very last days of 2011 I started to make a plan.
Actually I had just made a few scratches on a notepad, when I got the message from wvgman, asking if I wanted to host this thread for a period.
Glad for the offer, and it was a great reason to get real serious about making plans and schedules. Thanks wvgman!

At the moment I'm training some basic skills.
Although my hearing abilities have improved it's still far from being good.
Ear training seems to be one of the most important things to do I think.
I use The Functional Ear Trainer (version 1) from http://www.miles.be
Another thing that helps my ears is to just repeat a chord, tone or lick slowly and listen.
And of course listen to music and try to hit some of the chords/notes.

Recently I also discovered that I missed out on some strumming patterns. Correcting that now, and it fits right into my attempt to "play in the pocket" to the Metronome.

My learning and practice today:

A bit of ear training with the Functional Ear Trainer for about 10 minutes.
Practising strum patterns. Did that for about 20 minutes - twice even .

Finally I went on with Matthieu Brandt's Triads and Hendrixian Doublestops.
I think I'm about to get to the more exciting part now.
I have used triads and doublestops to explore the fretboard, so the patterns and inversions on the top and middle strings aren't new to me.
However this course will be a good probably help me put it to good use,and pick up a few bits on
harmony.
However today I didn't feel to inspired, so I just saw and listened to the video about band arrangement and took a glance at a PDF.
Well maybe tomorrow will be better for this.
Have a great day

[Johnny]

I have decided to change course once again. After the band gig thing fizzzled out, i still want to learn repertoire but i practiced last night and decided to go the instant gratification route, i want to go through all the 50 licks courses as i am sure at will build up dexterity for me and also force me to get through some sticking points. I am going to do it quickly though and save the licks that need the most work, things like sweep picking will no doubt be filling up my playlist!

There are very different opinions on the 50 licks courses. And I guess it's because they "just" show a little piece of the music - sort of taken out of content. But I think they definitely have their place.
Like you said they can help build dexterity, and they will give some good hint about what notes sounds good where.
Last but not least it's very rewarding to get the phrasing and rhythmic timing right. It makes all the difference between just playing a few notes and actually playing a great sounding lick.

Have fun

[djdrdave]

Robbie thanks for all the tips, and most importantly sorry to hear about the loss of your friend

Hi Guys,

I've been checking through the posts and wanted to thank you for responding to my StageFright / Performance Anxiety question. More on that in a moment but I also wanted to tell you about some speed learning techniques that we employed at G.I.T.... If you continually make a mistake at the same point in your performance, isolate that lick,run,chord or whatever it is and just work on that small section. G.I.T. called this 'chunks' of information. Take the same small chunk and practice that perfectly, slowly at first and then bring it up to speed gradually. If you do this you will be able to encorporate that back into the main body of the piece you are working on. Remember this...If you keep practicing and making mistakes you are 'Programming mistakes'. That's not what you want. I also advocate visualizing the small chunks too. See yourself performing the moves perfectly. Another thing to remember is this...speed is a bi-product of accuracy.

O.K. regarding stagefright. I will be producing a book, DVD this year and hosting seminars around the country addressing this issue for all musicians,performers, pblic speakers etc. The idea is to empower you to be the 100% you are capable of, regardless of location or performance situation. I am passionate about this project and truly believe it will make a positive change in your life, in more ways than one.

I will probably post sections of the process here on the forum to see how you guys react to the exercises...if that's ok with you.

I lost my dearest friend to a heart attack this week. He was a brilliant man and a mentor to me on all things about life. We went shopping last week to find him an ES175 Gibson that he'd always wanted...that's all I need to say...

Have a fabulous,brilliant and inspired Day.

Robbie

[djdrdave]

There are very different opinions on the 50 licks courses. And I guess it's because they "just" show a little piece of the music - sort of taken out of content. But I think they definitely have their place.
Like you said they can help build dexterity, and they will give some good hint about what notes sounds good where.
Last but not least it's very rewarding to get the phrasing and rhythmic timing right. It makes all the difference between just playing a few notes and actually playing a great sounding lick.

Have fun

I know just learning 50 licks is not a great strategy to progress, but right now I think i have to do something for myself after totally suspending my Truefire time when I was working on songs for the band that fell through. Most of the 36 or so songs I was learning weren't my favorites, so it's nice to kind of get the instant gratification of the 50 licks. Doing the 50 shred licks right now and these are downright fun to play!

[gadlaw]

Hi Guys,

I've been checking through the posts and wanted to thank you for responding to my StageFright / Performance Anxiety question. More on that in a moment but I also wanted to tell you about some speed learning techniques that we employed at G.I.T.... If you continually make a mistake at the same point in your performance, isolate that lick,run,chord or whatever it is and just work on that small section. G.I.T. called this 'chunks' of information. Take the same small chunk and practice that perfectly, slowly at first and then bring it up to speed gradually. If you do this you will be able to encorporate that back into the main body of the piece you are working on. Remember this...If you keep practicing and making mistakes you are 'Programming mistakes'. That's not what you want. I also advocate visualizing the small chunks too. See yourself performing the moves perfectly. Another thing to remember is this...speed is a bi-product of accuracy.

O.K. regarding stagefright. I will be producing a book, DVD this year and hosting seminars around the country addressing this issue for all musicians,performers, pblic speakers etc. The idea is to empower you to be the 100% you are capable of, regardless of location or performance situation. I am passionate about this project and truly believe it will make a positive change in your life, in more ways than one.

I will probably post sections of the process here on the forum to see how you guys react to the exercises...if that's ok with you.

I lost my dearest friend to a heart attack this week. He was a brilliant man and a mentor to me on all things about life. We went shopping last week to find him an ES175 Gibson that he'd always wanted...that's all I need to say...

Have a fabulous,brilliant and inspired Day.

Robbie

Condolences on the loss of your friend Robbie. There has been the recent loss of Howard Morgen who recently was able to do a TrueFire course and the near death of Pete Huttlinger who is a guitar instructor and performer that we are aware of and some of us know personally. A lot of real life happening all around us. As I've gotten older it seems that the people I know who are passing away becomes a larger and larger group, friends, acquantances and people I know. It's could be a rough thing to deal with. For me, I remember those we've lost with fondness. I remember what those who aren't with us any longer have taught us about living, about life. We are all here for a short time after all, it's good to those fabulous, brilliant and inspired days. Again, condolences.

[Johnny]

I know just learning 50 licks is not a great strategy to progress, but right now I think i have to do something for myself after totally suspending my Truefire time when I was working on songs for the band that fell through. Most of the 36 or so songs I was learning weren't my favorites, so it's nice to kind of get the instant gratification of the 50 licks. Doing the 50 shred licks right now and these are downright fun to play!

They are a good supplement. I'm having fun with the 50 Texas Blues Licks at the moment.
I know wvgman had great fun with the 50 Shred licks too.
If you haven't noticed there is a thread where Jeff Beasley answers some questions about the 50 Shred lick course:
http://truefire.com/forum/showthread...Know-Questions

[sjtaylor147]

They are a good supplement. I'm having fun with the 50 Texas Blues Licks at the moment.
I know wvgman had great fun with the 50 Shred licks too.
If you haven't noticed there is a thread where Jeff Beasley answers some questions about the 50 Shred lick course:
http://truefire.com/forum/showthread...Know-Questions

I'd have to agree. I also treat the 50 Lick courses as quick 'pick me ups' to dive into when I'm either too tired to focus, or getting nowhere fast with whatever I'm trying to work on. Often just taking a break and playing round with a few of these can reinvigorate a session.

[Johnny]

I don't think learning is just about being taught some things from a teacher, instructor, books and whatnot.
Learning is also very much about exploring on your own.

Of course exploring is often inspired of what you have been taught, read or heard.
I often find that the things I discovered while exploring are very rewarding and they seem stick better with me.
It is probably a good idea to do a little research to have the discoverings confirmed though .
I also think it's good practice to write down what I have learnt and discovered - maybe not in detail, but at least the important parts.
It makes it easier for me to remember, even without looking at what I wrote down ever again.

My learning and practice today:
As sort of warmup I started out with a lesson from Essential Techniques.
Did some strumming to the Metronome.
And spend some time on Triads and Hendrixian Doublestops.
That's it for today. Maybe I'll do a lesson from 50 Texas Blues Licks later.

[Jestme]

Johnny
I fully agree wiith you regarding exploring being a great learning tool. When you discover something it does usually stay in your mind, as you said. Still I've been thinking of video recording some tunes and licks I've discovered or even learned from someplac, to keep as a refresher or even to use for comparison to judge progress later.

[djdrdave]

They are a good supplement. I'm having fun with the 50 Texas Blues Licks at the moment.
I know wvgman had great fun with the 50 Shred licks too.
If you haven't noticed there is a thread where Jeff Beasley answers some questions about the 50 Shred lick course:
http://truefire.com/forum/showthread...Know-Questions

Thanks and no I hadn't seen that before so I can't wait to check it out!

I'd like to add to repertoire to, but songwise there aren't many songs on here for obvious copywrite reasons, although the
course the covers all the common chord progressions could be useful, and I know there is one called chord melody cafe that
teaches you a few solo guitar pieces that are good. I think one of Howard Morgens (R.I.P.) courses teaches you a few songs as well.

[djdrdave]

Johnny
I fully agree wiith you regarding exploring being a great learning tool. When you discover something it does usually stay in your mind, as you said. Still I've been thinking of video recording some tunes and licks I've discovered or even learned from someplac, to keep as a refresher or even to use for comparison to judge progress later.

Johnny I think recording is a great idea. I've done this in alot of areas of my life, like when I was learning Spanish or even as a little kid I'd record myself reading. I've done the same with guitar, but am not consistent with recording it.

I had a recent hairbrain scheme to try to record every bit of playing i do from now on, but i am not sure if I'd ever listen to it all.

Nice part with the 50 licks is you can copy the backing track into your DAW and record yourself practicing with it.

[Johnny]

As mentioned earlier I started this year by making a plan and a schedule for learning and practice guitar.
I wrote down some different topics of what I thought was useful to learn more about.
Then I added some resources under each of topic - like courses, websites and books.

I quickly discovered that I was down a slide to overdo this plan and probably run out of paper :D
So I stopped up, and thought that I better make some achievable goal first.
After all playing guitar is a hobby for me, and I do have quite a few other things to do.
With a clear goal it was easy to filter out some of the things that was less important.
Of course there are some things that I want to learn about out of sheer curiosity, but they have no rush.

I also made a schedule based on how much time I thought I could spend and what drills and courses to do on a everyday basis.

These things really help me to keep focus.


My learning and practice today:

A bit of Essential Techniques.
Strumming with the metronome.
Moved on with Triads and Hendrixian Doublestops.
And finally I got almost half an hour with Coreys Texas Blues Licks.

All in all not a bad day.

Tomorrow will be a long day at work, so I doubt there will be any time for playing guitar.

[wvgman]

I am so saddened to hear of Robbie's friend passing away. My thoughts and prayers are for Robbie and the other friends and family who are left without this dear fellow.

Bluefugue and Johnny, excellent posts you guys have made. Very real and very interesting. It seems we learn something everyday lately about just how short life really is and how we need to attend to those things and those people who care for us and for whom we care deeply. And somehow, it all works together to teach us about the preciousness of time and of life. Set your priorities based upon the things you value most. Enjoy all you can and share the joy with others. We are not riding alone on this journey; we are all going together even if it is in different vehicles.

[gadlaw]

Well for the first time in a good long time I've managed to get some guitar playing in for two days in a row. Not much compared to some of you guys who manage to go through a whole 50 lick course in a day but I did get some pentatonic work in, first five licks in the progressive licks course and some from one of my blues books while watching the election returns.

[PosterBoy]

Working on Legato, Been given some really good tips on my playing and how to improve with a few small alterations of hand position etc

Also working on a Skate Punk Rhythm piece, which is at 210 bpm with 1/8 notes. Lots of Alt Picking and string crossing pedal tones.
Much more challenging than I thought, really have to pay attention to the right hand.

[Johnny]

I'm pretty bashed after a long day at work, but in continuation of yesterdays talk about planning and schedule. I can give an example from my draft.

----------------------
*Technique /Ergonomics*
Focus: Dampening, Stretching gym (for the odd chord),vibrato on bends (solo).

Task: Do exercises. Stand up and relax!

Resources:
Essential Techniques by BC (cycle).
Guitar Gym
Bluesology -> Blues Techniques


*Rhytm*
Focus: two or three string inversions.
Task: Practice with a Metronome/drum beats. Keep it simple and try to stay in the pocket!

Resources (don't get lost!):
Rhythm parts in Blue Grooves, Blues Expose, Alchemy, Architec.
Keep eye on Low-Down Rhythm Licks at TF Punch-In.
Rhythm Architect
40 days rhythm swat
Triads & Hendrix Double Stops.
50 blues rock rhythms
Solid Strumming
------------------------
As you can see I wanted to point out the focus area, what task to do and finally some resources that could be helpful.
I made the same for soloing, theory and other topics.
And as you may notice I seem to have hard time not get lost and overdo the resource list - even with a reminder I keep adding resources

However making that plan really helped me to stay on track.
But today there was no guitar, just work and an hour on couch watching some absolute silly television that I didn't have to think about

[Jestme]

You know sometimes you need to take sometime off. I often find that the next time I get to play, I am fired up and energized and have a great fun and profitable session.

[Johnny]

You know sometimes you need to take sometime off. I often find that the next time I get to play, I am fired up and energized and have a great fun and profitable session.

I agree completely Jestme.
Sometimes I have hardly touch the guitar for weeks. When I pick it up again I often surprised positively over my playing. Some things that have been practiced seems to have settled in, so to speak.

The plan/schedule thing just helps me to have a more focused learning and practice. However it is adapted ad hoc.

[rjbasque]

Missed a couple of days practice since my last post. Did have a couple of days where I had a few minutes, and just ran through the warmups, and then played along with a song or two. So last night I spent about 90 minutes, admittedly close to half was noodling and transposing some settings from the modeling amp to the headphone amp modeler (did I lose anyone there?).

So one of the warmups is to play 2 note power chords in position on all 5 string pairs, then 3 note power chords in a different position on the 4 string groups. So I worked on added a mixture of 2 and 3 note power chords in multiple positions. Then I drilled on Swamp Funk for a while. There is one measure right in the middle of the 12 bars that is still just throwing me on this chorus. I finished up by alternating the 2 other choruses over the long jam track, for practice.

[Johnny]

So I'm picking up on some basics at the moment, and speaking of basics remind me of the ever returning discussions about getting out the of "pentatonic rut".
Well thinking it over, maybe it's not as much about getting out - but more of getting into use the pentatonics creatively?
Listen to what great guitar players like B.B.King can do with just 4 notes!

Just throwing in a few tips I picked up from various sources:
Try finding the sweet notes, and to some extend follow the chord changes.
A good start to follow the chord changes is to play the root note of the chord on the first beat.
Then move on to mixing the minor pentatonic/blues scale and the major pentatonic scale.
Experiment with phrasing. Listen to and try to play along to something like Little Walter and James Brown.
Use vibrato, bending and sliding for cool variation in phrasing.
Use pauses.

I'll take some of that medicine. I think some of those 50 licks will be handy in that field - to listen and learn how the pro's do to make a few notes sound so great.
And of training my ears

Apart from that is there something that I can learn or practice to help me being more creative?

My learning and practice today:
About 20 minutes on 50 Texas Blues Licks.

Take Care!

[Bluefugue]

Lately, I have been practicing for gigs as we have shows the next four weekends and last weekend. Also, spending lotsa time with my little one. :D

In terms of practice, been doing my chromatic warmups, with string skipping and finger independence. Other than that, I've been working on repertoire with 50 Blues Licks. Been working on Jeff McErlain's 50 Blues Licks, especially Eric's Turn and Jimi Flash. Got the licks down and now I'm really working on speed.

I'm going to begin taking a course on songwriting/progressions/inversions to start recording. I have heard from so many people that writing, transcribing and recording are essential to ear development and internalizing theory, and I'm going to start taking that advice. I have avoided it mostly because of the learning curve involved in using audio interfaces and recording software (translation: I'm a lazy-a$$, lol), even though I have everything I need.

Hope you are all rocking!!

[wvgman]

Hey Blue, when you are practicing for gigs, that is where you want to be. It means you have a defined agenda and set list with real songs to tackle! And spending time with your kids should be way up on the list above guitar practice. Family first; guitar and other stuff later. Works for me.

Johnny, I love the way you express you practice experiences! Great work, my friend!

I taught my two students tonight and worked on arpeggiating some major and minor chords. What better tune to use than House of the Rising Sun. They seem to enjoy it and when I announced that it was time for me to leave, one remarked, "WOW!, That time sure went by fast!" Yes, it does when you are enjoying it, but enjoying it sure beats the heck out of just enduring it. LOL

[herby]

So I'm picking up on some basics at the moment, and speaking of basics remind me of the ever returning discussions about getting out the of "pentatonic rut".
Well thinking it over, maybe it's not as much about getting out - but more of getting into use the pentatonics creatively?

I think that's a great observation Johnny. I haven't been commenting but I've been following your posts and am really impressed with how you're going about things. Keep up the good work!

[Johnny]

Johnny, I love the way you express you practice experiences! Great work, my friend!

I taught my two students tonight and worked on arpeggiating some major and minor chords. What better tune to use than House of the Rising Sun. They seem to enjoy it and when I announced that it was time for me to leave, one remarked, "WOW!, That time sure went by fast!" Yes, it does when you are enjoying it, but enjoying it sure beats the heck out of just enduring it. LOL

Thank you very much for your kind words wvgman! Glad to hear that you have a god time teaching

I think that's a great observation Johnny. I haven't been commenting but I've been following your posts and am really impressed with how you're going about things. Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much Herby! I'll try to keep it up.
I haven't been too active in this thread till now so I guess I'm trying to catch up.
On the subject of creative use of few notes; while doing one the 50 Texas Blues Licks today I noticed Corey mention similar reference to B.B, and that much can be done with few notes.

I'm going to begin taking a course on songwriting/progressions/inversions to start recording. I have heard from so many people that writing, transcribing and recording are essential to ear development and internalizing theory, and I'm going to start taking that advice. I have avoided it mostly because of the learning curve involved in using audio interfaces and recording software (translation: I'm a lazy-a$$, lol), even though I have everything I need.

Hope you are all rocking!!

Good idea to transcribe and recording I think. It's on my to do list, but it seems to slip into the background all the time.

My learning and practice today:
Good guitar day. Finished at work sooner than expected, and it's Friday
Started out celebrating the early weekend by diming the amp and put the pedal(s) to the metal. Just fooling around with some licks and stuff for half an hour or so.
Then it was back to do some of things on the schedule.

Strumming for about 10 minutes keeping time by tapping my foot. Then another 10 minutes with the Metronome.
I try to follow Jeff Beasleys great tip and adjust the volume between the metronome and guitar so I can't hear the metronome when my timing is right. All big smiles when I can't hear the metronome for some time, but then...TOK...TOK...TOK.
I got to notice if I start to play too slow or too fast when I fail. Anyway I use just downstrokes to pick up the rhythm again, and then continue some pattern.
After dinner I experimented with playing to a backing track while recording. I need to this more often...heh.
Finishing with a lick from 50 Texas Blues Licks.

Have a great weekend!
See ya tomorrow

[Johnny]

On everyday basis I try follow my schedule in order to not get too far away from the planned learning curve.
However during the weekend I just do some stuff that comes to mind.
I also catch up on some things that I feel have been neglected. Of course there are hinderings, like the things that my wife feels are neglected on her "honey do" list. They are not guitar/hobby related, but it's not wise to ignore "She Who Must Be Obeyed".
That said she is very supporting and understanding

Okay, back on topic I saw Joe Bonamassa showing his take on a 12 bar blues in E on Youtube.
I couldn't help but smile when he shows some chords (around 2:22) that Danny Gatton taught him, and Joe says "Don't ask me the names of them." So much for theory.
I guess the conclusion is that good ears win over theory, isn't it?
At least I think it's safe to say that good ears and just some basic theory will go a long way.
Anyway some good tips in that video:


My learning and practice today:
A little running scales to the metronome.
Doing a bit of random Youtube lessons and stuff. Those YT suggestions sure can get you all over the place, can't they? :D
Finished with just noddling along different songs to train my ears. Trying to hit the right chords, bits and pieces.
A very laid back, but not fruitless guitarday

[wvgman]

Yes indeed, Johnny! I love the comment about good ears. I know some folks who know nothing about theory, but they hear something once and they can play it. That stuff just blows me away. I have to use everything I have. Great job!

[PosterBoy]

Big lesson learnt this week.

So my I've been working on my Skate Punk piece. I got down slowly and then started working on speeding it up.

It's a real lesson on right hand technique. It contains a lot of cross string work with pedal tones etc

I changed some of the strict alt picking and included some downstroke work as it felt more natural to me.

All fine at 150 bpm and 170 bpm but as I get closer to the orginal speed of 210 bpm I found I couldn't play it.

Normally I would just give up and say I'm not good enough, but I realised the downstroke stuff I felt was natural at slower speeds just doesn't work at higher speeds and Alt Picking is needed.

[Johnny]

Yes indeed, Johnny! I love the comment about good ears. I know some folks who know nothing about theory, but they hear something once and they can play it. That stuff just blows me away. I have to use everything I have. Great job!

Yeah it's amazing what some people can play by ear.
Although that skill is partly inherited and partly trained during the upbringing, I think most people are able to train their ears musically.
Maybe not perfect pitch, but at least good enough to quickly establish what key or notes are in play.
It will get better as we practice

Normally I would just give up and say I'm not good enough, but I realised the downstroke stuff I felt was natural at slower speeds just doesn't work at higher speeds and Alt Picking is needed.

I use alternate picking a lot, even at a slower pace. I rarely play very fast, at most a few short runs and triplets, but I doubt I'm close to 210bpm. I just like alternate picking .

My learning and practice today:
25 minutes on Triads and Hendrixian doublestops.
15 minutes on 50 Texas Blues Licks. I stopped a bit premature, when I pulled the high E string out it's anchor at bridge. Maybe I overdid the bending a bit

Take care!

[concerto]

If someone got nothing to say, all the theory and practice is useless - imo. Good ears are like a good tongue: They are essential to communicate.

Struggling with my practice (lately)...


The thread : "My new practice regiment" was not to be meant as an cynical self-reflection trip. RATHER intended as a humorous and relaxed view on practicing.

My approach to music has always been via the ear/feelings/emotions/sounds/and moods.

On the one hand all these courses and licks definitely have broaden my vocabulary and understanding of the instrument...but : It's a bottomless barrel.
I mean, instructors get paid to invent new stuff that has to be 'learnt'. Sometimes I somewhat feel guilty when another "Licks you MUST know" comes out and I got no time to internalize the " must know" stuff.
Really like Johnny's filtering system... There's so much info out there, its just impossible to absorb everything.

Imo, the stuff one really MUST know is to be able to let the voice inside out.... - the one and only reason why we decided to make music - to express something via this instrument.

[sjtaylor147]

I spent the last few days working through 50 Progressive Blues Licks. Still a bit of work needed to get some of the phrasing under my fingers but overall I was happy with my progress. There were some nice licks and Corey did a great job throwing in enough variation to keep it all interesting. Tonight I then spent an hour or so playing around with some pedal steel ideas from the Country courses until my fingers could literally take no more. Ouch! More practice needed methinks.

[Johnny]

If someone got nothing to say, all the theory and practice is useless - imo. Good ears are like a good tongue: They are essential to communicate.

Good point Concerto!
Music is sort of a language isn't it? And the voice was our first instrument I guess.
And thinking about it, the phrasing and pitch changes in spoken language tells a lot about what is being said.
I mean even in a foreign language, you can hear if they ask you to turn the guitar up or tells you to turn it down .

Tonight I then spent an hour or so playing around with some pedal steel ideas from the Country courses until my fingers could literally take no more. Ouch! More practice needed methinks.

Don't take the no pain no gain too literally. After all it's better to progress slowly than to be halted completely by fatigue .

My learning and practice today:
Was a short stint, of Essential Techniques, some strumming and a glance at Triads and doublestops.
Didn't feel really motivated today. Even if I didn't know I would still have guessed it is Monday today .

[sjtaylor147]

Don't take the no pain no gain too literally. After all it's better to progress slowly than to be halted completely by fatigue .

No problems there, it was my pitifully puny calluses letting me down

[Johnny]

Well today I didn't get to practice much.
I did however replace the strings on the LP and ordered a new batch + some extra .010's just in case.

I want to spend more time on the song arrangements in Triads and Hendrixian doublestops.
So I've change my schedule a bit. For the last couple of weeks I have taken some time with this and the 50 Texas Blues Licks,on everyday basis.
Now I've changed that so I only do one of them on the same day. so now it's 3 days with the triads and 2 with licks.
Maybe I'll change it again, if I can get some hours on the Triads during the weekends.

I have Matt's Jump Blues and Corey's 50 Progressive licks in queue too, but I guess it will be in a month or so, before I have finished what's on the current schedule.

My learning and practice today:
All I got was 10 minutes with the 50 Texas Blues licks.

Take care!