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Post by jack1982 on Mar 31, 2019 8:53:40 GMT -6
Well I signed up for the April challenge at that other site, so that will DEFINITELY get me back into guitar playing  I've got a ready-made excuse for not posting anything too - we're learning a song off Griff's upcoming album and he doesn't want it posted anywhere until it's released. It's a slow blues with a nice guitar solo intro, and there's the whole band backing track and all of that, so it should be pretty fun. Gotta get some guitars dusted off and new strings put on! I guess the first webinar is tomorrow. |
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Post by Phil on Mar 31, 2019 10:01:18 GMT -6
Got in 8 solid hours of practice plus 3 hours playing with another guitarist. Playing with another guitarist is providing benefits on several levels:
1. Motivation - there's a concrete reason for learning new stuff and practicing. 2. Accountability - someone else is counting on you to be prepared. 3. Learning - you show each other things you've learned and throw ideas back and forth. 4. Try out things - for example, you can see how something will sound against different chords in real time. No need for the hassle of recording them first. 5. You can critique and correct each other on the spot. These are many of the same benefits you get from taking one-on-one lessons, except for the expert guidance. I know that this is not possible for everybody, but if you can find someone to play with even once a month it's worth the effort. Anyway, this has renewed my enthusiasm for playing and practicing. I've really been focusing on shell voicings. Shell voicings are 3 note chords made up of the root, 3rd and 7th of a chord. They're great for moving around the fret board to get more movement in your rhythm playing. Also, since you're only dealing with 3 notes, it's easy to see how to make a chord major 7th, minor 7th, dom 7th, etc. They also makes it easy to see the relationship between chords in a progression. I've got 2 choruses of the Emily Remler solos that I posted a couple of weeks ago up to a comfortable 160 BPMs. Now I need to get them solid at 180 -190 BPMs. I started to play along with her video at half speed. Believe it or not I haven't played along with an original recording since I was a kid. It's very satisfying and I'll be doing more of it from now on. I signed up to Frank Vignola's Truefire channel. It's $10 a month and he uploads new material all the time. He also answers questions with video responses. So, overall this has been a good (and busy) week. 
Jack - it's good to see your getting back into the saddle again. Welcome back.
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Post by cunningr on Mar 31, 2019 10:20:39 GMT -6
Well i got about 4 hours in plus class, and 1 hour jamming with a friend plus .5 hours drinking Jack Daniels Sinatra. Learned jamming i play better after 2 shots must relax, because my timing and creativity improved lol.
Actual practice working on The Sky is Crying Albert King version. Also used my trio plus to practice with improvisation.
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 31, 2019 12:02:57 GMT -6
Had another pretty good week, still working the Stetina "Total Rock Guitar" thing. Pretty sure at least 30-60 minutes every day. Jack, good to hear you're got something getting you started up again!
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Post by joachim on Mar 31, 2019 12:11:43 GMT -6
My update is pretty much the same as last week. Still working on Groovin' Easy, as well as noodling around with intervals of 6ths.
But the highlight of my week was perhaps discovering this Peter Green cover of BB King on Youtube:
There appears to be an abundance of live recordings on Youtube by Fleetwood Mac from that time.
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Post by grampalerxst on Mar 31, 2019 14:52:41 GMT -6
I'm losing ground, only about 4 hours total this past week. Still working on pretty much the same stuff, the slow grind of getting the Electric Gypsy intro/theme up to speed, the intro of pride and joy, some one-bar phrases from Keith Wyatt, and revisiting the BYCU studies with my new practice techniques.
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Post by cunningr on Mar 31, 2019 15:41:41 GMT -6
I just cleaned and setup my vintage stereo system playing vinyl again, bought the Fleetwood Mac Rumors album.
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Post by jack1982 on Apr 1, 2019 6:01:59 GMT -6
Yeah I love Fleetwood Mac as well, though mostly for Stevie Nicks |
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Post by jack1982 on Apr 2, 2019 8:30:04 GMT -6
Okay, haven't touched a guitar in forever and I decide to play the one with .011's on it.  |
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Post by Phil on Apr 2, 2019 8:45:35 GMT -6
Okay, haven't touched a guitar in forever and I decide to play the one with .011's on it. I can lend you mine. It has 12's and a wound G string.  |
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Post by jack1982 on Apr 3, 2019 6:18:23 GMT -6
Okay, haven't touched a guitar in forever and I decide to play the one with .011's on it. I can lend you mine. It has 12's and a wound G string. LOL nah I like to keep the pain somewhat below agony level Feels great to be playing a bit again. I had to take some time off from the working out because both my shoulders, well they're antiques and don't like having to lift heavy things on a regular basis. Oh well, what's life without all your ambitions being thwarted, right?  Kind of happy with my (minuscule) progress on guitar so far - there's an intro solo that's 8 bars long and I think I've got it up to about 80% of full tempo and it ain't sounding all that bad. |
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Post by Phil on Apr 3, 2019 8:41:19 GMT -6
LOL nah I like to keep the pain somewhat below agony level Feels great to be playing a bit again. I had to take some time off from the working out because both my shoulders, well they're antiques and don't like having to lift heavy things on a regular basis. Oh well, what's life without all your ambitions being thwarted, right? Kind of happy with my (minuscule) progress on guitar so far - there's an intro solo that's 8 bars long and I think I've got it up to about 80% of full tempo and it ain't sounding all that bad. Is there a particular exercise that you think caused it? I had a lot of shoulder issues when I was working out regularly. Pull ups (with palms facing away) cause problems and a lot of pain. Chin ups (palms facing me) don't. Bench presses became impossible. I just stopped doing anything that would set off or aggravate my shoulders. So, don't stop working out. Just stop doing exercises that aren't right for you even though everybody else does them. There are also a few popular exercises that nobody should be doing.
I watch these 2 physical therapists from time to time. They have some good remedies for shoulder pain. Just search their channel.
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Post by jack1982 on Apr 3, 2019 9:29:38 GMT -6
LOL nah I like to keep the pain somewhat below agony level Feels great to be playing a bit again. I had to take some time off from the working out because both my shoulders, well they're antiques and don't like having to lift heavy things on a regular basis. Oh well, what's life without all your ambitions being thwarted, right? Kind of happy with my (minuscule) progress on guitar so far - there's an intro solo that's 8 bars long and I think I've got it up to about 80% of full tempo and it ain't sounding all that bad. Is there a particular exercise that you think caused it? I had a lot of shoulder issues when I was working out regularly. Pull ups (with palms facing away) cause problems and a lot of pain. Chin ups (palms facing me) don't. Bench presses became impossible. I just stopped doing anything that would set off or aggravate my shoulders. So, don't stop working out. Just stop doing exercises that aren't right for you even though everybody else does them. There are also a few popular exercises that nobody should be doing.
I watch these 2 physical therapists from time to time. They have some good remedies for shoulder pain. Just search their channel.
Thanks so much Phil! I think it started with incline bench presses and overhead presses - both of those were hell on my shoulders. I switched to using dumbbells and also corrected my form a bit and that seemed to help a lot. Then I was doing dips, where your elbows are forced out behind you at the bottom - that was a very bad idea. Same with cable crossovers for the chest - they kind of pull your elbows back at the top. What really did it though was going to the dentist for a checkup and that damned chair had me in the most uncomfortable position, it left my shoulders more sore than the worst workout lol. So I decided to take a week or two off and heal up. Went back to the dentist this morning for a filling and that wasn't nearly as bad, but I may have just been distracted by all the drilling going on But yeah I fully intend to get back into it in another week. Thanks for the links, I've been watching a lot of videos on shoulder pain and happened across those guys once or twice. I'll have check them out some more. |
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Post by Phil on Apr 3, 2019 13:26:24 GMT -6
Jack, unlike a lot of Internet "experts" those 2 guys are actual trained physical therapists. They've got some good moves for relieving shoulder and back problems. Plus, I'm a sucker for corny humor. I think they're located up there in your neck of the woods. |
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I've got a ready-made excuse for not posting anything too - we're learning a song off Griff's upcoming album and he doesn't want it posted anywhere until it's released. It's a slow blues with a nice guitar solo intro, and there's the whole band backing track and all of that, so it should be pretty fun.
Kind of happy with my (minuscule) progress on guitar so far - there's an intro solo that's 8 bars long and I think I've got it up to about 80% of full tempo and it ain't sounding all that bad.