[Seven]

I want to learn songs, loads of them, so I can play along of course. But, im only pretty good at rhythm guitar, whereas im not good at soloing at all, mainly due to the patience it takes to learn a solo, maybe im just burnt out but i'm arsed sitting down playing the first two bars of Zep's Communication Breakdown at 80bpm for 4 days until I can speed it up. So, maybe im asking if theyres any way of teaching myself to pick things up faster?

Also, my guitar teacher once said that you learn the techniques before you learn the songs, this is one persons opinion; strictly true?

The alternative would be to do Stetina-esque books, and then learn what I want to learn. I have it in my head that if I practice enough one day, I should be Yngwie the next, which I need to get rid of; I hear PG did cromatics for months before he could start speeding things up. I've tried this, but I last being able to do this for 3-4 days, then I get bored of the 1-2-3-4 thang.

I had no problems before I was ill in Febuary, I'd just get on with it and usually make good progress, but sitting in hospital made the hunger to be a uber-virtuoso even more, maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself.

Illness = epic phail

[S-O]

Get lessons, find some instructional material, buy a metronome, etc...

We all had to start slow. Except Shawn Lane.

[Bound]

You can always start a practice regime, and stick to it so you don't go nuts.

Stentina's speed mechanics helped me tons! So it's good to work out of.

As far as practice. I only use chromatics for a warm-up. And you'll slowly get better and faster. Don't try to kill your hand or anything, tendonitis is a bitch.

So I do about 20 mins of warm-ups. Some stuff is chormatics some is from Stentina, some is from who knows where.

After warm-ups I go through some of the scales I like to use aeolian, mixo, phyrigian, harmonic minor, maybe some diminished or melodic min. But start off just learning finger posisiton by finger position penatonic and penatonic blues. Then work your way up to major. Definately give this more time in the beggining. I give this about 30- 1hr30, depending on time and how my hand feels.

The more you do this stuff the easier learning solos will be, believe me I know. I'm self taught and I was in the rut you're in now for a long time.

After that, I try to brain cram new material; chords, licks, ascending/descending run patterns, some finger permutations. Actively seek out new stuff everyday and give it some time! Chording and cadences are probably my weaker suit so I give that a lot of attention.

Now, to Zeppelin:
Break the solo up into pieces. More than the bars, if you need to. Learn it in 3 or 5 note licks if it's easier for you that way.

Again don't put too much emphasis on chromatics except getting your fingers limber for now. There's much more valuable stuff to put in your head than spidercrawling your fingers all over the place. And always remember, you're making TWO hands work not just your fretting hand. Your picking hand needs just as much attention.

/longwindedbanter.

[Seven]

Originally Posted by Bound

You can always start a practice regime, and stick to it so you don't go nuts.

Stentina's speed mechanics helped me tons! So it's good to work out of.

As far as practice. I only use chromatics for a warm-up. And you'll slowly get better and faster. Don't try to kill your hand or anything, tendonitis is a bitch.

So I do about 20 mins of warm-ups. Some stuff is chormatics some is from Stentina, some is from who knows where.

After warm-ups I go through some of the scales I like to use aeolian, mixo, phyrigian, harmonic minor, maybe some diminished or melodic min. But start off just learning finger posisiton by finger position penatonic and penatonic blues. Then work your way up to major. Definately give this more time in the beggining. I give this about 30- 1hr30, depending on time and how my hand feels.

The more you do this stuff the easier learning solos will be, believe me I know. I'm self taught and I was in the rut you're in now for a long time.

After that, I try to brain cram new material; chords, licks, ascending/descending run patterns, some finger permutations. Actively seek out new stuff everyday and give it some time! Chording and cadences are probably my weaker suit so I give that a lot of attention.

Now, to Zeppelin:
Break the solo up into pieces. More than the bars, if you need to. Learn it in 3 or 5 note licks if it's easier for you that way.

Again don't put too much emphasis on chromatics except getting your fingers limber for now. There's much more valuable stuff to put in your head than spidercrawling your fingers all over the place. And always remember, you're making TWO hands work not just your fretting hand. Your picking hand needs just as much attention.

/longwindedbanter.

Thanks man.

To warm-up I use a legato lick that my teacher taught me, PG's country lick of terryifying guitar trip and the 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1 thang from Vai's ten-hour work out, last couple of days has become easier because I was finiding that learning 3 different things from 3 different books was wavering my concentration level. Right Now:

-Warm-Up
-Al DiMeola a guide to chords, scales & arpeggios. (I couldnt recomend a book any more than this one, everyone should check it out.)
-Troy Stetinas Total Rock Guitar (Another good-en, although I'm finding the examples a little too easy, has to be said im still in the first quater of the book though)

I'll definately encoporate scale shapes and modal shapes after my warm up routine, with a good ol' metronome.

I think i'll stick with my teachers theory for now, learn the techniques before the songs? Do any of you guys apply this, or just jump straight in the deep end?

[S-O]

I honestly haven't learned/memorized a song all the way through. I listen and analyze guitarists I love. My first guiatr crush was Steve Vai, I tried to absorb soem of his playing, dunno how well it turned out but I like the way I sound. Just try to digest your favorite guitar players playing. Or learn songs. Whatever you like I suggest having soem technique down, you aren't going to be able to wrok your way through much Rusty Cooley or Jason Becker without a sizeable handle on technique.

[Bound]

Originally Posted by Seven

I think i'll stick with my teachers theory for now, learn the techniques before the songs? Do any of you guys apply this, or just jump straight in the deep end?

Knowing the theory behind something certainly helps, but don't let it disuade you from learning something. For instance, learning an Opeth song, to me, is really hard. Just the way the licks are shaped, the way it's phrased. But something that's a little more straight forward or technical comes easier. Especially if it's in a familiar scale.

I still take difficult passages the same way I used to learn whole songs. Just in little chunks, get the fingers used to what's going on. Also, try to figure out the easiest fingerings too, which is best when you're playing slowly.

[stubhead]

Also, my guitar teacher once said that you learn the techniques before you learn the songs, this is one persons opinion; strictly true?

Most great musicians would tell you the opposite. Look at technical monsters like Gilbert, Petrucci, McLaughlin, DiMeola - they each know hundreds, if not thousands, of songs. If you want to get great at playing exercises, practice exercises. If you want to get great at improvising, learn the technical methods of generating melodies. If you want to play songs in a band, you have to know some songs.