# My first real video... comments please!



## HammerAndSickle (Jun 2, 2009)

So, I'm a pretty shy guy when it comes to my playing. I play live sometimes, but its only ever been for school events and I get by under the assumption that no one in the audience knows anything about music anyway  I don't really have nerve problems, so much as I freak myself out on the thought that what I'm playing, no one really wants to hear. So the only recorded output I have are the band recordings my friend and I made, and my parent's videotapes of my school concerts 

I finally decided to make something, though. A girl who goes to my school added me on facebook, and we got to talking because she's into the same music as me (A girl who likes Vai?! ). Apparently her boyfriend plays too, and we were all talking about Guthrie Govan when the question comes... "can you sweep?"

This one gets to me. Because it means that someone is knowledgeable enough about guitar to appreciate technique, but not knowledgeable enough to see beyond the "shred!" stage of impressive-ness. So either I play tastelessly and impress them or play what I like and they're usually not impressed...

Also, sweeping is one of the areas which I'm least confident in. Because I'm not the cleanest or fastest sweep-er in existence. I write complex arpeggio sequences that I can't play (but my friend forces me to play them at speed anyway... ). I think of myself more as a musician than a guitar player anyway. But I put this little improvised session together to show her an example of how I play. 



So, any comments on my playing, tone, or criticism of how to improve would be appreciated. Just wanted to know what you guys think, because I don't have much around here to gauge how good I am.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jun 2, 2009)

Not saying I can do much better, but that was horribly sloppy.


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## CynicEidolon (Jun 2, 2009)

Work on doing it with a click track. And try less gain so you aren't covering up your mistakes.


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## thesimo (Jun 3, 2009)

well..

The tone is bad, it could be the camera ,but you have way too many highs, it sounds raspy and it hurts my ears. If u did a full strum of all the strings it would be completely horrid. when what you want is a full strum to unleash the most brutal gurgling tone ever. So i guess reduce the gain a little and EQ it and keep the presence down!

The playing.. well ... you knew some quite difficult 3 string sweeps that were executed kinda well but most of it was scratchyness/pick noise. Work on muting accurately when your sweeping - I dont think your technique of having an un-anchored picking hand is helping much there , I find having my pinky anchored next to the vol knob helps smooth out sweeping as you can use the spongy part of your palm to mute.

But the major gripe was the bending, u need to start from scratch there. Nearly all of them were off. Get a tuner out, find a note on a string, and a harmonising one 2 or so frets lower. and see what both notes say on the tuner. Then as u bend from the lower to the higher one watch the tuner and you will see when youve bent to the note correctly. Then work on your vibrato at the height of the bend so you have an in-tune vibrato even at that high tension.

My final point is tempo. It sounds like your racing to get the notes out as fast as possible, get a guitar pro tab of the songs your using, turn on the metronome and stick to it. so you can play consistently

Also for practicing kill the verb/delay, you want to hear every mistake.


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## Apophis (Jun 3, 2009)

work on tone and keep practice 
overall it was not so bad, we have a lot more worse Youtube players who think that they almost second Malmsteen, so keep practice and you will be better during time for sure


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## sol niger 333 (Jun 3, 2009)

Ouch I'm not a fan of shredding really anyway. Too much gain/top end and sloppy playing. If ya cant keep away from the strings you aint playin tape em up dude. Also play to a metronome or over a recorded riff or at least tap your foot while you play if you ever want some form to your playing (lead included) Keep at it though you are young. Lots to learn and learning is fun.


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## klutvott (Jun 3, 2009)

The harmonic at 4:22 was good. You need to slow things down quite a bit. Playing things clean comes before speed. Also work on your intonation, bending and vibrato. Use a metronome.


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## hufschmid (Jun 3, 2009)

keep it up dude, keep practicing 

And congrats for posting a video on youtube, it takes guts


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## HammerAndSickle (Jun 3, 2009)

Part of the tone issues might be the camera microphone: it sounds much bassier and fuller in here, even without the reverb and delay. I didn't eq the amp for recording at all, I used the same settings I always play with and just hit record. Overall I like my tone a lot, so that's my only guess.

The rhythmic aspect, I'm not really sure about that. All of this is really just improv, stringing licks together. There's no "click track of songs I'm using" to download, or really a metronome or anything because it's not a song. In context the licks are (usually ;P) rhythmically on, when I'm playing with the other guitarist or musicians. It just seems like its off because the whole video is a collection of licks rather than a cohesive "solo". Plus they're all just licks I wrote or play, except the little final product tapping I butcher in there 

I will work on the bends, though. This video might be an outlier because they're usually much better (and I practice with the tremol-no locked down, so the tension is different). But I have times sometimes (like in the video) where they're absolutely ugh-worthy.


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## Joeywilson (Jul 9, 2009)

cool stuff man, but if you dont mind this is just what i think you should do if you are really trying to impress these people:

be yourself. if your more a soul guy and not a shredder then why hide that? guthrie govan is fast but thats the least impressive thing about his playing i think. and he is one of my favorite guitarists. If you are trying to impress someone why wouldn't you play what you are comfortable with? they'll either think "okay, well he doesnt sweep or play at 10 billion bpms. but he can still play guitar good!" or "he sucks because he doesnt shred". if they think the later of the two, then they are closed minded and arn't worth a second of your time.

but if you are gonna go the "meedlymeedlyWHOOOOOO" alley these are
some things that i think everyone should actually do before actually learning how to sweep pick [these might be something that only applied to me, i dont know]:

-learn how to alternate pick the arppegio first. it makes actually sweeping a breeze

-dont play faster than you can pick [applies to everything, i noticed your hand stuttering

-turn down the gain, arpeggios sound best when you can hear each note in the sweep. not a big wall of gain.

-dont write above your ability.

-also, always practice with a metronome. i dont mean all the time but when you are intent on learning something always have a metronome in the room, as soon as i started doing this my playing got a lot better and tighter a lot quicker.

thats my 2 cents....okay, like 2 bucks but whatever.


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## CrushingAnvil (Jul 29, 2009)

Hey buddy, good effort man.

I'm seeing comments saying it was sloppy but I think that its just you dialing too much gain in and turning the highs and mids up.

I think the girl would have fell for it though 



metallisuk said:


> cool stuff man, but if you dont mind this is just what i think you should do if you are really trying to impress these people:
> 
> be yourself. if your more a soul guy and not a shredder then why hide that? guthrie govan is fast but thats the least impressive thing about his playing i think. and he is one of my favorite guitarists. If you are trying to impress someone why wouldn't you play what you are comfortable with? they'll either think "okay, well he doesnt sweep or play at 10 billion bpms. but he can still play guitar good!" or "he sucks because he doesnt shred". if they think the later of the two, then they are closed minded and arn't worth a second of your time.
> 
> ...



 yeah, mine was 2 cents, yours...well, does he have change for a 50? 

Shawn Lane said trying to play faster than you can actually works...although I've never implimented such a theory...


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## Bevo (Aug 2, 2009)

You have to love this forum, very constructive reviews of your playing including the bad and how to fix it.

Not into shred but the only advice I can give is to take what the others have said and practice till you feel better. This will not only help what your trying to do but also improve you as a player.

Once you feel confident that you have it, re record and show us you new chops!


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