[Gilbucci]

I've now decided to huck out all of the stressful technique practice and work on songwriting, because, that's what I'm really interested in now..that, and technique practice is a pain in the ass

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by Gilbucci

I've now decided to huck out all of the stressful technique practice and work on songwriting, because, that's what I'm really interested in now..that, and technique practice is a pain in the ass

Go for it. If there's a technical thing that's preventing you from executing one of your musical ideas then work at it, but otherwise just work at finding better musical ideas.

[Gilbucci]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Ideas are running pretty low right now. I'm trying so hard to create an awesome proggy riff

[Bound]

Originally Posted by distressed_romeo

For practicing intervallic scales, you could start with some thing easy like thirds and play the scale 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6 etc. and then do it the same way descending. Then try it with bigger intervals, such as fourth, fifths, and even sixths or sevenths. You can get into even wierder combinations, such as playing descending thirds whilst ascending the scale...3-1-4-2-5-3 etc. You can come up with some great licks by experimenting with intervals in this way (check out Carl Verheyen, Jennifer Batten or Joe DiOrio's 'Intervallic Designs for Jazz Guitar' book), and if you sing along, it's great for learning the sounds of the different intervals, and how they make up the scales.

lol.. that sounds like it's going to be a bit out of my brains capabilities, but I'll give it a shot. I definately won't be doing anything like that with harmonic minor any time soon....

[Gilbucci]

Has anyone else noticed that your chops are much better when put into a musical situation? I jammed to a backing track a little while ago, and found that my chops are much more fluid and clean when I was jamming and not totally focussing on it.

[lordofthesewers]

Originally Posted by Gilbucci

Has anyone else noticed that your chops are much better when put into a musical situation? I jammed to a backing track a little while ago, and found that my chops are much more fluid and clean when I was jamming and not totally focussing on it.

very true, i found that too. That is because when I jam i don't care that much about doing strict stuff like alt picking all the notes, like i would in a an alt picking drill. When I jam I would throw in a legatto lick for example when i found feel that my right hand was getting tired so i wouldn't fuck up, but keep playing fluid by throwing leggato in there. Just an example

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by Gilbucci

Has anyone else noticed that your chops are much better when put into a musical situation? I jammed to a backing track a little while ago, and found that my chops are much more fluid and clean when I was jamming and not totally focussing on it.

Totally. It's wierd, but when you're not focusing on the minutae of your technique, it tends to become a lot cleaner and more fluid.

[Gilbucci]

Yeah man, it's totally encouraging, haha. I guess it's the pyschological part that makes the difference.

Hmm, it seems i've hit a major block in my writing. I can't come up with ANYTHING So, I'm going to focus mainly on memorizing the notes on the neck, because, I really blow in that department. Does anyone have any specific method they used that helped them?

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by Gilbucci

Yeah man, it's totally encouraging, haha. I guess it's the pyschological part that makes the difference.

Hmm, it seems i've hit a major block in my writing. I can't come up with ANYTHING So, I'm going to focus mainly on memorizing the notes on the neck, because, I really blow in that department. Does anyone have any specific method they used that helped them?

Do it one string at a time...

The notes on the guitar seemed totally incomprehensible to me when I started playing, then one day I saw a diagram of the notes in the chromatic scale in the school library, and then a diagram of the notes on the low E string in a Troy Stetina book...suddenly it clicked, and the guitar started to make sense. Learn the chromatic scale, and start visualising it along each string, THEN get into playing positionally. Trust me, it works. I've heard Satch used to practice his scales in a similar way...

[Gilbucci]

So, basically, say each note while ascending/descending the neck?