# What techniques are you currently working on?



## distressed_romeo (Feb 16, 2006)

This section of the forum needs this...we don't post here often enough!

What techniques are you currently practicing or refining?

This evening I was doing some clean-toned sixteenth note rhythms with a delay (Pink Floyd or U2 style), and I've been working a lot at cross-picking arpeggios and some solfege exercises recently. Also been working at improving my intonation when slurring with the wang bar.


----------



## darren (Feb 16, 2006)

I'm working on the one technique that seems to be a lifelong struggle for me. It's called "playing the guitar". I seem to be getting better at it, but sometimes i have my doubts.


----------



## Drew (Feb 16, 2006)

You and I both, darren. I've found that focusing on the "not sucking" aspect of that technique has helped considerably, but there's still room for improvement. Maybe I should focus on attaining positives rather than avoiding negatives? They say in mountian biking that thinking "Don't hit that rock" is the surest way to hit it...

Also, alternate picking and sweeping. I know, you're not supposed to practice them together, but somehow the combination is actually helping.


----------



## bostjan (Feb 16, 2006)

Shut up Drew, your legato technique rivals Ritchie Kotzen's. (grammar error, possessive missing noun). Sounds like you don't have to worry about not sucking.

In the meantime, I have to work on my legato playing. I found "Cryptic Writings" is a good exercise in legato playing. 
I really need to work on my sweeping. I have a practice that is Pachelbel's Canon in D with sweeping arpeggios instead of chords. I'd really like to learn T-Mac's Tower of London, though.

In my experience, it's best to take things one step at a time
1) Learn simplest example of a technique.
2) Play example through the circle of fifths
3) Find a song with a more practical example of the technique
4) Practice this example through the circle of fifths
5) Repeat steps 3 & 4 with more difficult examples if needed
6) Try to make your own application of the technique
7) Play it through (you guessed it) the circle of fifths


----------



## Drew (Feb 16, 2006)

bostjan said:


> Shut up Drew, your legato technique rivals Ritchie Kotzen's. (grammar error, possessive missing noun). Sounds like you don't have to worry about not sucking.



Dude, thank you tremendously, but I completely disagree. Thanks though.  

And your method of approach for practice is fucking methodical, and will be asismilated into my practice workout.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 16, 2006)

Does anyone here actually have a proper timetable for practice? I used to when I was younger, but I don't really anymore...I just work at whatever happens to need work.


----------



## strychnine (Feb 16, 2006)

I actually havent worked on my chops in a while...im sure it'll catch up with me.


----------



## David (Feb 16, 2006)

excessively twisted phrasing like Freak Show Excess by Vai.


----------



## Ken (Feb 16, 2006)

It's back to basics for me. I'm really getting reacquainted with modes on a very pure and simple level. 

I think my biggest area for improvement is finding joy in playing again. I'm done with exercises and "working" at playing guitar. I already have one job, I'll be damned if I want another one...


----------



## bostjan (Feb 16, 2006)

Practicing regularly is important for making headway. I find that at some point, everyone plateaus and gets bored with exercises. That's about the point when learning tapers off. 

I used to use this as an excuse for my GAS. "Oh, I'm so bored with my playing. I think I'll buy a ring modulator." It at least got me back into exercises as a form of experimentation. 

It even lead to me purchasing a nineteen tone equally divided octave guitar and mod'ing my backup seven so be nineteen tones as well.


----------



## telecaster90 (Feb 16, 2006)

Reading music


----------



## David (Feb 16, 2006)

you know, I moderate my two passions, excersizes and learning other peoples songs... and writing my own stuff. That way, I never over obsess one aspect of my playing, and stay pretty good all around, WHILE enjoying it.


AND, am I the only person who enjoys practicing to excessive amounts?


----------



## BCrowell (Feb 16, 2006)

++1 to Drew & Darren's practice mentallity!!

Recently, to work on my technique, I've adopted the following rigorous routine :

-Grabbin' a Corona & watching: 2 Hours of "_Satch Live in San Fransisco_" and mentaly thinking "I think I can, I think I can" 
-Grabbin' another Corona & watching 2 Hours of "_Vai Live in Astoria_" and mentally thinking "I think I can, I think I can"  
-Grab the entire remaining case of beer & watching "_Petrucci's Rock Discipline_" and thinking "AHH F*&K, who am I kidding"  
-Out of beer, so I hit the Pinot Noir, and watch "_Rush In Rio_" and think "I CAN! I REALLY REALLY CAN!"  
-Then pass out happy as a lark... without playin one single note...mumblin something about "tone."



David said:


> AND, am I the only person who enjoys practicing to excessive amounts?



Nope, I use to live for playin'/practicing with every spare moment. Since, however, I graduated, got a real job, a woman, etc... I'm lucky if I get to play 30 minutes straight!!


----------



## Shannon (Feb 16, 2006)

I'm working on sweeps & have been for quite sometime. I can "fake" it and it still sounds good, but I know it's still wrong. By fake, I mean that I nail the downstroke but I basically end up doing hammer-ons when I'm suppose to be doing the upstroke. That upstroke is a bitch to get right.


----------



## Shawn (Feb 16, 2006)

Circle picking or as EJ refers to it "bounce" technique with speed and accuracy. 

Sweeps that I have written and incorporated the circular technique with, taking some time to get 'em tight with more speed and accuracy.

Double string bending, maybe a little tapping......that's about it.


----------



## David (Feb 16, 2006)

BCrowell said:


> Nope, I use to live for playin'/practicing with every spare moment. Since, however, I graduated, got a real job, a woman, etc... I'm lucky if I get to play 30 minutes straight!!


Hey hey hey now, don't jump the band wagon on my parade, haha. School can be challenging... I'm in Honors Euro this year, and next year, I'll have AP US History (50 textbook pages a night), in addition to Calculus, advanced bio, and AP English. <--- total nerd right here.


AND THEN, on top of that, I'm not like a normal child who gets everything from mommy and daddy... my mom can't even afford to feed me. She's made some pretty bad choices. I've got random odd-job work to do for whoever will pay me doing manual labor (well I'm 16 now so I can legally get a job), and pay the bills. 

I also have a girlfriend that demands to be with me 24/7, and I actually am with her about 24/7, infact she's right next to me now and says hi.


Just cause I'm YOUNGER, doesn't mean I get a ride home from mom everyday to sit in my room and play guitar for 8 hours, haha. The only thing I don't have to worry about, is credit card payments, and the annual land tax on our place.


----------



## David (Feb 16, 2006)

Shawn said:


> Circle picking or as EJ refers to it "bounce" technique with speed and accuracy.
> 
> Sweeps that I have written and incorporated the circular technique with, taking some time to get 'em tight with more speed and accuracy.
> 
> Double string bending, maybe a little tapping......that's about it.



oooh, circle picking is fun!


```
|-------------------------------------------------------------17-12-|
|-------------------------------------------------------17-12-------|
|-------------------------------------------------16-12-------------|
|-------------------------------17-12-------17-12-------------------|
|-------------17-12-------17-12-------17-12-------------------------|
|-------17-12-------17-12-------------------------------------------|
|-17-12-------------------------------------------------------------|
```


----------



## bostjan (Feb 16, 2006)

Good for you! 16 and in calculus. It'll help you understand things better in school.

I played more when I was in school. Right now the economy is not so good, so I have to work two jobs to make half of what I made working one job before. grr


----------



## David (Feb 16, 2006)

bostjan said:


> Good for you! 16 and in calculus. It'll help you understand things better in school.
> 
> I played more when I was in school. Right now the economy is not so good, so I have to work two jobs to make half of what I made working one job before. grr


damn! what do you do?

I used to be slick with ebay, until I was fined for powerselling under the age. Dropshipping and turbo lister is the easiest thing since sliced bread.


----------



## SevenatoR (Feb 16, 2006)

Sweeping is a royal pain. At least not 'faking it' like Shannon said. Sometimes I have to really work on strict alternate picking because 'economy' type picking comes more naturally to me, but it doesn't always work out just right depending on what you're playing. Other than that, not sucking in general is always a really big consideration.


----------



## bostjan (Feb 16, 2006)

I'm a physicist and guitar teacher. I used to sort mail. Hard to believe 40 hours of mail sortation (in 2001) > 40 hours of phyics + 20 hours of guitar teaching (in 2006)

I'm not so good at sweep picking, but how in the hell can hammer-ons substitute for upward sweeping?! I actually do better upsweeping than downsweeping. I guess it's from practicing the fuck out of "Under A Glass Moon" when I was 18/19.


----------



## Drew (Feb 17, 2006)

bostjan said:


> I'm not so good at sweep picking, but how in the hell can hammer-ons substitute for upward sweeping?! I actually do better upsweeping than downsweeping. I guess it's from practicing the fuck out of "Under A Glass Moon" when I was 18/19.



LOTS of gain. Usually, I hear the reverse, that a lot of guys will pick up but hit-on back down for legato runs...


----------



## Leon (Feb 17, 2006)

Ken Burtch said:


> It's back to basics for me. I'm really getting reacquainted with modes on a very pure and simple level.
> 
> I think my biggest area for improvement is finding joy in playing again. I'm done with exercises and "working" at playing guitar. I already have one job, I'll be damned if I want another one...


----------



## Ancestor (Feb 17, 2006)

I'm ALWAYS working on playing with better cleanliness and articulation. But my best playing occurs when I'm inspired and just sitting down to play for the fun of it. 

It's a total paradox, and I guess that's what I work on capturing the most: Inspiration mixed with discipline and desire. 


Yaargh!


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 17, 2006)

Funny Shannon, I did the reverse of what you described...sweeping came quite naturally to me early on, but later I started improving my legato technique so I could eliminate most of the pickstrokes going up for added smooooothness...Richie Kotzen does it, so it definitely ain't wrong, and it means you can add a sly tapped note or two!

Ancester: Great point...I think it's really important to remember music's an art not a sport. 'Learn everything you can then forget it I guess'...


----------



## Roland777 (Feb 17, 2006)

Sweeps, string-skipping and 4 notes per string-runs. (Need to practice that pinky)


----------



## Drew (Feb 17, 2006)

See, i toy with 4-note-per-string stuff now and then, but my problem isn't the pinkie, it's the stretch between y middle and ring fingers. one fret's fine, but two is tough to articulate cleanly... 

Then there's the constant position shifting that stuff requires, lol.


----------



## Roland777 (Feb 17, 2006)

Drew said:


> See, i toy with 4-note-per-string stuff now and then, but my problem isn't the pinkie, it's the stretch between y middle and ring fingers. one fret's fine, but two is tough to articulate cleanly...
> 
> Then there's the constant position shifting that stuff requires, lol.



What I like about it is that you can do descending runs without having to move your hands around the frets.


----------



## darren (Feb 17, 2006)

To be honest, i don't really "practice" at all. Technique is secondary to me, at best. I rarely solo, and if i do, it's usually just to reinforce a melody line. 

I find theory to be equal parts boredom and confusion, and to me, sitting with my guitar and repeating exercises over and over is like going to the gym and spending an hour on the treadmill... sure, it's good for you, but it's tedious and by the end of it, you went absolutely nowhere.

I'm more interested in exploring new and unique sounds, finding odd chord voicings to weave into my playing, and writing riffs and songs. I let my ear and my gut guide me. If there's one "technique" i work on, it's developing my "mind's ear" and having my hands actually play what i'm hearing in my head as it happens. Sweeps, scales and modes aren't a part of the music i hear in my head, so i guess it all works out!


----------



## Tubbs Mcgee (Feb 17, 2006)

Right now I'm trying to perfect those alternate-picking triplets up and down the strings. It's so very annoying when I miss a note or hit an extra note.

After that, sweep picking, and after that, legato. (I can't do legato at all now because my amp won't pick up the sounds well enough.)


----------



## bostjan (Feb 17, 2006)

Tubbs, is your avatar a nine-million string guitar or something?

Darren is right, you have to practice techniques you hear in your head, but let me add that you are doomed to only hear in your head things that are based on what you hear in your ear, so if you listen to a lot of T-Mac, you are going to hear a lot of sweep picking in your head. So it works all ways. Expand your head, train your ears, workout your hands.


----------



## Drew (Feb 17, 2006)

Tubbs Mcgee said:


> After that, sweep picking, and after that, legato. (I can't do legato at all now because my amp won't pick up the sounds well enough.)



FWIW, my legato only really began to come to life after I started it practicing unplugged...


----------



## Tubbs Mcgee (Feb 17, 2006)

> Tubbs, is your avatar a nine-million string guitar or something?


Close! 11.



> FWIW, my legato only really began to come to life after I started it practicing unplugged...


I suppose I could try it...


----------



## bostjan (Feb 17, 2006)

Is it your's, and if so, where did you get it? If not, where did you get the picture? How is it tuned? What do you play on it?


----------



## garcia3441 (Feb 17, 2006)

Finger picking


----------



## Tubbs Mcgee (Feb 17, 2006)

bostjan said:


> Is it your's, and if so, where did you get it? If not, where did you get the picture? How is it tuned? What do you play on it?


Sadly, it's not mine, but it's something I've always wanted...

I found it on this site. I'm not sure how it's tuned because I can't navigate through the site...


----------



## bostjan (Feb 17, 2006)

wow, i hadn't noticed it was an eleven string with a *floyd rose*!

looks cool, but it's a bit much heh.

...and Parker said it'd be too hard to make a seven string bridge.


----------



## guitarjitsumaster (Feb 17, 2006)

linking sweep arpeggio patterns. I dont even use sweeps that much but im obsessed with them. I feel like if I dont get to yngwie level sweeps at least that I should just give up. Im making headway but its a pain.


----------



## bostjan (Feb 17, 2006)

heh i like my single string sweeps just fine -jk

anyone want to teach me tower of london by t-mac?!


----------



## Drew (Feb 18, 2006)

Tubbs Mcgee said:


> I suppose I could try it...




Definitely. You can hide sloppy legato behind gain and get away with it, but fast, efficient, smooth, and well-defined legato technique absolutely HAS to have perfect note articulation, and the easiest way to make sure you're articulating well is to practice unplugged. If you can't hear each of the notes distinctly on a legato run, then it's just going to sound blurred and weak when you add gain. 

I solo with incredibly small amounts of gain - sure, my Nomad isn't low gain by ANY stretch of the imagination, but my favorite lead sound is found with the gain only hafway up. Legato isn't a problem at this amount of gain because the notes coming off the fretboard themselves are even and distinct.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 18, 2006)

What I've often found with sweeping with myself, and when I teach it to other people, is that they'll slave away at it for ages, and then one day they just 'get' it. It's kinda like taking the training wheels off a bike for the first time once it happens; you feel like you're flying. Just takes time...

Drew...+1 on everything. 

Just experimenting with some Queensryche style bi-chordal (I know that's not a real word, but I don't know what to call them!) riffs...


----------



## Shannon (Feb 18, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> Funny Shannon, I did the reverse of what you described...sweeping came quite naturally to me early on, but later I started improving my legato technique so I could eliminate most of the pickstrokes going up for added smooooothness...Richie Kotzen does it, so it definitely ain't wrong, and it means you can add a sly tapped note or two!


Yeah, I guess you could say my sweeps are currently a hybrid of downpicking ascending notes followed by legato phrased descending notes. It definately sounds good, but I really want to learn the "normal" way so at least I have another technique to draw from.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 18, 2006)

Shannon said:


> Yeah, I guess you could say my sweeps are currently a hybrid of downpicking ascending notes followed by legato phrased descending notes. It definately sounds good, but I really want to learn the "normal" way so at least I have another technique to draw from.



Always good...it never hurts to have alternatives.

Here's a couple of little sweeping etudes I wrote for my students...they might help.


----------



## David (Feb 18, 2006)

The problem I see with most people and sweeping (including myself), is that they take the "same way everytime" approach. Focus for a few minutes on it, and make the slight adjustments. Ask yourself if your plucking was a bit ahead, or a bit behind your fretting hand. Little details like that, then make the small adjustments. If it's not working the way you're trying it... then it's not going to ever work until you make some little adjustments.


----------



## Shannon (Feb 18, 2006)

Thanks Romeo. I'll check those out when I get home from work. 

Dave, how about a video lesson? Get to work!


----------



## David (Feb 18, 2006)

Shannon said:


> Dave, how about a video lesson? Get to work!



Doin it this weekend

I'm trying to get down that etude sweep song in the lessons section, drew wanted to see if anyone could do it, lol.


----------



## Drew (Feb 18, 2006)

David said:


> I'm trying to get down that etude sweep song in the lessons section, drew wanted to see if anyone could do it, lol.



 

I can do it, just not as well as I'd like. Your sweeping destroys mine, dude, I bet you could do it way more justice.


----------



## Shannon (Feb 18, 2006)

I should buy a webcam for my computer so I can contribute videos and shit.


----------



## Drew (Feb 18, 2006)

Shannon said:


> I should buy a webcam for my computer so I can contribute videos and shit.



"videos," eh?


----------



## Shannon (Feb 18, 2006)

^ ...of GUITAR PLAYING, you dolt! 

I'll keep those "other" videos to myself.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 18, 2006)

It would be really good to expand the lessons section with videos etc. so it's more in the vein of Chops from Hell et al. We've got some great players here, and if everyone contributed something we could easily get a really good library of sevenstring-specific tutorials going. Mayhaps we could even tempt some of the guys who've been interviewed here to contribute the occasional lick...


----------



## Drew (Feb 18, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> It would be really good to expand the lessons section with videos etc. so it's more in the vein of Chops from Hell et al. We've got some great players here, and if everyone contributed something we could easily get a really good library of sevenstring-specific tutorials going. Mayhaps we could even tempt some of the guys who've been interviewed here to contribute the occasional lick...



That's been in the planning phases for a while - the original holdup was I wanted to get a respectable library of our own first, and then I'm such a slackass I never wrote anything.


----------



## maskofduality (Feb 18, 2006)

i'm currently reworking my picking technique to build up stamina, speed, and movement. after that i'm gonna have to rework sweeps, legatos, and tapping. if i can keep it up, i'll be a decent shredder by june or july. then i plan on going back to jazz theory.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 18, 2006)

Some Michael Lee Firkins-style banjo licks this evening! Anyone seen his instructional video or listened to his albums? The guy's so smooth it's ridiculous...


----------



## METAL_ZONE (Feb 18, 2006)

I ve been jamming on the E Persian scale and trying to memorize some scales


----------



## bostjan (Feb 18, 2006)

Which persian scale? 1 b2 3 4 b5 b6 7 (12H7-203)


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 19, 2006)

Going to write out the 'Comfortably Numb' solo for a student later tonight.


----------



## METAL_ZONE (Feb 19, 2006)

bostjan said:


> Which persian scale? 1 b2 3 4 b5 b6 7 (12H7-203)


Yeah, thats the one


----------



## bostjan (Feb 19, 2006)

METAL_ZONE said:


> Yeah, thats the one



Have you tried modalizing that scale from the fourth? You get a scale very similar in sound to Todi That: 1 b2 b3 #4 5 b6 7 (12H7-184)

I think all great scales hold good modal opprotunities. My personal favorite is Hungarian minor 1 2 b3 #4 5 b6 7 / Double Harmonic 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7 in a 1 - 5 key change.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 20, 2006)

Has anyone read Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Modes (not sure if that's the exact title). It's meant to be pretty interesting.

Playing some eight-finger arppeggios (a la Jennifer Batten) when I got up today.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 21, 2006)

Some twisted blues phrases a la Marty Friedman, plus general alternate and economy picking practice. Working on some solfege just before I typed this.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 23, 2006)

Some Jeff Loomis-inspired sweeps.


----------



## Drew (Feb 24, 2006)

Loads of trem-picking - changing every 8 notes and changing every 4 notes against a two-chord vamp on fruity loops to get my changing-from-string-to-string picking smoothed out. Going towards the thinner strings is easy, but coming back up I've always had a little bit of trouble, and I'm finally making progress there. 

Another day or so of this (or maybe tonight, depending on how I'm feeling) and I'll be able to drop down to a slower tempo and start working back up, changing notes every two notes. From there, it's just straight alternate scale runs. 

(nice thing about doing picking drills against a backing is, when you want to give your hands a break, you can just lay down some legato licks to loosen back up. )


----------



## Chris (Feb 24, 2006)

Sweeping and tapping, mostly. My legato technique itself isn't bad, but whenever I use it, it sounds really forced. Trying to include it in my normal playing without sounding like Shredder-Playing-Legato-Licks is harder than I figured it would be.


----------



## Drew (Feb 24, 2006)

Break out your Satch CD's for a couple days, particularly his slower stuff. Personally, and this is probably because legato is just something I latched onto early on, I find it gives you a lot more options for "looser" phrasing than an alternate picking approach does.

As such, my _picking_ generally sounds forced.


----------



## Chris (Feb 24, 2006)

Chris Quigley does not play cover songs, sir.


----------



## Drew (Feb 24, 2006)

I didn't tell you to LEARN his stuff, just listen to it, in particular the way he phrases. 

I try to learn some satch every now and then, and still can do a pretty close rendition of "Always with Me..." but I just don't have the patience...


----------



## Chris (Feb 24, 2006)

Chris Quigley does not need inspiration from anyone but himself.

[action=Chris]references himself in third person some more[/action]


----------



## Drew (Feb 24, 2006)

[action=Drew]bows in awe to Christopher Quigley's godly confidence. [/action]






Drew Peterson, meanwhile, needs all the help he can get.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 24, 2006)

I was the same Drew, I was playing legato style from day one without really thinking about it. Picking was something I really had to work at, as when I tried it it always sounded like that shredder thing Chris described. Nowadays both approaches are about even (i.e. equally bad.).


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 25, 2006)

Just a general workout tonight. These days I tend to focus on more interesting phrases and practice technique as an extension of that. Plus so more solfege, and some heavy rhythm playing.


----------



## garcia3441 (Feb 25, 2006)

Behind the nut bending, I saw Albert Lee do it. Now I'm trying to incorporate it into my style.


----------



## shredfreak (Feb 25, 2006)

at the moment it's sweep skipping and a lot of stretch exercises. Always do practise alternate picking and legato techniques. And some bluesy impro stuff to keep my phrasing up to a decent and interesting level. A few years back i was obsessed with technique to find out a few months later i couldn't improvise on a simple blues progression, sucks donky balls when you make an ass out of yourself that way  

Really have to agree with drew here on the acoustic thing, specially for legato. With high gain it's easy, but unplugged (or clean even) it's a lot harder to do. Nonetheless it's really worth the hassle of nailing it that way.

I always found rusty cooleys stuff interesting and great to keep my sweeping up to a more then decent level, just start slow and get the figures nailed and then start warping up.

5 am and counting


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 26, 2006)

Taking the unplugged thing to an extreme, I've found that practicing all my usual stuff on steel-string acoustic is a great, albeit masochistic, chop builder. I miss my acoustic...it's stranded back home in Belgium!


----------



## Metal Ken (Feb 26, 2006)

trying to get back into my alternate picking

At one point i had 32nd notes at around 94 BPM on the chromatic 1-2-3-4 thingy, but i havent been practicing it, so i need to get my ass in gear.. School sucks :/


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 26, 2006)

Alternate picking tonight as well...
Don't know why, but I'm not really playing well tonight. It's annoying as I was on fairly good form earlier today.

Some string skipping and three-note-per-string alternate picking.


----------



## Metal Ken (Feb 28, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> Don't know why, but I'm not really playing well tonight. It's annoying as I was on fairly good form earlier today.



Yeah, i hate it when that happens. generally thats the "be done for the day" sign for me. still drillin away at the metronome here. put in a good 30 mins on that blasted box earlier. But, you know, as much as people slag them, i definately think its the best practice tool.. \m/


----------



## bostjan (Feb 28, 2006)

Who slags the metronome? Man, those things are the handiest practice tools, hands down.

Today I did some work on two string bends and my usual arpeggio mayhem.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 28, 2006)

Metal Ken said:


> Yeah, i hate it when that happens. generally thats the "be done for the day" sign for me. still drillin away at the metronome here. put in a good 30 mins on that blasted box earlier. But, you know, as much as people slag them, i definately think its the best practice tool.. \m/



Yeah, it's true...if I'm having a really bad evening I'll just put down the electric and just fingerpick the acoustic, just to sooth my karma.
Metronomes are wierd. I used to use one everyday, but for the past two years, I only use it occasionally, as it was making my phrasing too robotic.


----------



## maskofduality (Feb 28, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> Yeah, it's true...if I'm having a really bad evening I'll just put down the electric and just fingerpick the acoustic, just to sooth my karma.
> Metronomes are wierd. I used to use one everyday, but for the past two years, I only use it occasionally, as it was making my phrasing too robotic.



maybe you should practice _soloing_ to a metronome and chord progressions. out-n-out chromatic and scale exercises on a metronome kinda leads to the droning shredder effect. idk, it worked for me everytime i tried it.

that said my guitar teacher has assigned me "homework" in which i have two weeks to do a myriad of picking, legato, and tapping exercises.


----------



## Metal Ken (Feb 28, 2006)

I can see how it leads to 'roboticism' i guess. I'm using it strictly to improve my picking. i'm keeping all my phrasing stuff seperate and working on scalar shapes strictly with the intent of speed. I work on coming up with interesting ideas and phrasings whenever i get something that pops in my head...


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 1, 2006)

It can also help when learning odd note groupings, as you don't fall back into playing everything in groups of three or four without realising it. I was going over this with a student today.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 1, 2006)

Some odd-metre riffs. Mainly Dream Theatre and Fates Warning inspired stuff. Jim Matheos is one of my favourite riff-writers!


----------



## Metal Ken (Mar 2, 2006)

First 3 Fates Warning albums \m/


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 2, 2006)

I don't know...I prefer the later stuff. My favourite FW albums are probably 'A Pleasant Shade of Grey' and 'Disconnected'.


----------



## bostjan (Mar 2, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> I don't know...I prefer the later stuff. My favourite FW albums are probably 'A Pleasant Shade of Grey' and 'Disconnected'.



+1

[off topic]
I just realized how much I suck today. I got a riff in my head, got out my Zoom 4-track, and proceded to slop my fingers all over the guitar. I felt pretty confident until I tried to record. Hmm. I'm not sure what happened. If I try again tomorrow, I won't remember the feel of it.
[/off topic]


----------



## Ancestor (Mar 2, 2006)

Constantly trying to get my extremely limited classical repertoire together. Nothing super impressive. Same stuff everyone does... Dee, Intro to Diary, Bourree, combined parts of intro to Evil Eye (whatever that is, my tab calls it Bourree??) and Greensleeves.

I need to find some more tunes that are easy and memorize them. My finger picking needs a lot of work.

*edit* Never mind it's a type of dance. I should know that from theory. We studied all that stuff.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 2, 2006)

Try the Pavane by Gabrial (sp?) Faure. It's pretty easy, very soothing, and most people recognise it when they hear it.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 2, 2006)

Just some nylon string playing tonight. Feeling kinda crappy, and it always makes me happy again!

Haven't picked up my nylon string yet, but I was just learning some of the keyboard and flute parts of Nightwish's 'Moondance'. It's a lot of fun as a solo guitar piece!


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 3, 2006)

Working on some flashy nylon string stuff earlier this evening.
Later on, drank too much beer and coffee and made myself feel sick. Printed a bunch of lessons off www.essentialguitarist.com and worked through those. Made self feel a bit better. Currently busting out some sweeps.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 4, 2006)

Some alternate picking exercises today. Mainly two note per string stuff.


----------



## Desecrated (Mar 5, 2006)

I'm trying to nail this fucking 13/8 but i keep slipping into 12 all the time.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 5, 2006)

Desecrater: I'm working on articulating odd-metres with one of my students at the moment. Feel free to PM me explaining what sort of thing it is your doing (ie. a death metal riff, or a King Crimson lead line), and I'll see if there's any way I can help.

As for me...more alternate picking today! After ranting for so long about the joys of economy picking for so long, I realised today that my alternate picking wasn't as clean as it used to be, particularly when it came to articulating triplets, so just been doing some workouts to get that up to scratch. Being able to do both kinda rocks!


----------



## bostjan (Mar 5, 2006)

Any tips for lead phrasing improvements in odd meters?


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 6, 2006)

The imporant thing's to get used to the sound of them and not just play four/four licks over the top (this can be cool if you're into poly-metres, but you should be aware of where the downbeat is at all times). It can often help if you organise your picking patterns via economy picking etc. so you can begin each beat/bar with the same stroke, as that can make locking in the timing easier.
Having said that, strengthening your upstroke really helps, so you don't necessarily rely on the downstroke method I described above.
In terms of mechanical exercises, practicing scales and chromatics in groups of five and seven can be a great help in internalising the sound of the odd note groupings, particularly if you play them along on string with strict alternate picking. If you do this for a while, the wierd groupings start to feel just as natural as threes and fours, and they should start creeping into your playing naturally. Once your comfortable with that, you can get into Rusty Cooley/Shawn Lane style poly-metric licks; playing melodic groups of five or seven notes to a strict four-notes-per-beat rhythmic count, which is a great way of constructing really cool, chaotic sounding runs.
I hope that helps for now. I'm going to write some detailed powertabs explaining all of the above later on today. I'll post them when I'm done.


----------



## garcia3441 (Mar 9, 2006)

Arabic Scales. Going through them all to figure out what sounds best when played on a 7.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 12, 2006)

General technique workout with a clean tone.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 13, 2006)

More alternate picking. Different numbers of notes per string, plus different rhythmic groupings. No amp. Metronome at 120bpm.

Is anyone here ever satisfied with their picking technique? It's the main aspect of my playing that ALWAYS needs some work.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 14, 2006)

Lots of chimy and drony stuff on my fretless guitar. Managed to get the action about 3mm lower than it was today, so I'm back into it again! So much fun with a slide or an ebow!


----------



## Vegetta (Mar 28, 2006)

I'm working (as allways it seems) on the pinky and ring finger on my left hand (had them both broken as a young'un and they didnt heal properly - You dont need to go to the hospital  ) 

I work on phrasing a lot - I tend to want to play too fast and it can get boring sounding, not to mention a bit sloppy.

I am allways trying to come up with riffs as well - I tend to try and make them over complicated but whenever I make up some simple riffs I usually kind of scoff and and say its not good enough (I am my worst critic I suppose) 

There are a lot of areas I should be focusing on but I think I am in the same boat with Drew - Build on strengths instead of working on weaknesses.

I play mainly for enjoyment now, tho the idea of writing some stuff for recording has started to sound a bit appealing -


----------



## Drew (Mar 28, 2006)

Sitting here with my acoustic working on my chording -I'm just comingup with random, tense-sounding chords in E Lydian over (mostly) an E drone, focusing on getting the chords to ring out perfectly cleanly in these bizarre shapes. 

It's actually rather a lot of fun.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 28, 2006)

Try Fates Warning's 'Pleasant Shade of Grey' chord! Fingering is XX4522, low to high.


----------



## Drew (Mar 28, 2006)

a cinch, good sir. 

what I've been toying with, loosely - 


```
Emaj6  Eadd#4/9 (inv.)   Emajadd9  Amaj6/C# Dadd#4/9
|-0-------0-------0-----------0-------5-------7-------|
|-12------11------9-----------7-------5-------7-------|
|-13------11------9-----------8-------6-------6-------|
|-11------9-------8-----------6-------4-------6-------|
|-11------11------9-----------7-------4---4---5---5---|
|-0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0-------------------|
```

The Dadd9add#4 (condensed #4/9 for space) isn't strictly lydian, but as a whole it's actually a somewhat pretty progression.

I've been doing a bar on the 11th for that first chord, and the 5th for the Amag6 inversion, which feel really unnatural, but are good practice for me.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 28, 2006)

Nice stuff! Satch meets Larry Carlton!


----------



## Drew (Mar 28, 2006)

just for kicks: 

[media]http://www.drewpeterson.org/e lydian.mp3[/media]

Ignore the, um, interesting acoustic tone- I stuck a mic at my feet angled up at my guitar to record this just to see how itd sound.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Apr 1, 2006)

Yet more ear-training and general technique.
While practicing singing intervals, I stumbled across some cool string skipping lines...licks based on sevenths sound really sick!


----------



## chris9 (Apr 1, 2006)

i,m just working on good old picking its really dull but i,m starting to get quite fast now, 4 notes per beat around 290 bpm i need to get faster but i guess it just takes practice and even more hard work!!!!


----------



## distressed_romeo (Apr 2, 2006)

Dude, how much speed do you need?


----------



## chris9 (Apr 3, 2006)

i need to get alot faster yet!!!!! i want 4 notes per beat at 325 bpm


----------



## Hobophobic (Apr 5, 2006)

I'm working on sweeping. I'm not doing well with it either. It pushes my patience (which isn't one of my strong points to begin with) to it's absolute limits. I understand the concept. I've seen plenty o' demonstrations. It isn't clicking... but I'm not giving up.


----------



## koma (Apr 14, 2006)

I'm working on rhythm. I just got a drummer solfege book with lots of crazy and unusual rhythms I find it pretty tough but my sense for phrasing is nicely increasing. I haven't read all the threads but is nobody else trying this out??


----------



## Michael (Apr 14, 2006)

I'm working on my stamina, alt. picking, sweep 'n' taps and getting my riffs to sound less crap/lame.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Apr 18, 2006)

Shawn Lane/Derryl Gabel-style pentatonic licks, plus general technique. Started experimenting with hybrid picking again after a long while. Also devoting a lot of time in the evening to eartraining and notational skills.


----------

