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Post by jack1982 on Jun 23, 2019 5:09:53 GMT -6
I'm still working on that solo I posted last week. It was supposed to be 12 bars but once I tabbed it out, I was puzzled why I only had 8 bars of tab?!?! After a thorough investigation it was determined that my solo was only 8 bars long So I wrote another 4 bars lol. I downloaded the 30 day free trial of Guitar Pro, which is a tablature program; on Thursday during our next webinar Griff is going to play our solos based on the tab we submit, so I'm kind of trying to get it right (luckily Guitar Pro can play a MIDI version of what you've typed in, so I know it's not too far off). My solo is in 12/8, which is rather confounding when you're as unfamiliar with sheet music as I am. There are four dotted quarter notes per bar, or of course twelve 8th notes, etc. In one bar I've got a dotted quarter that needed to be reduced in length by a 16th note, so that's a quarter plus an eighth plus a sixteenth all tied together (or something like that). Even though my solo is only at 65 BPM I slow it down to 30 BPM and add a drum track which is just a metronome counting triplets, that way I can hear exactly where each note falls, then I write it out on paper and finally try to input it into Guitar Pro. So I've still got a couple of bars I'm screwing around with, once those are done I'll be where I should have been a week ago, and can get busy adding in all the ornamentation stuff we covered in the last webinar. Then tab it out, and then I'll be set. Hopefully, possibly...a slim chance I might get an additional 12 bars added to it
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Post by cunningr on Jun 23, 2019 5:34:03 GMT -6
Jack sounds like a fun learning challenge, I am a member if that forum but none of my passwords work and i cant reset or make a new account. I can get to the online version of my course I bought way back. Anyway good luck with that!
I am closing in on my last 2 classes before Vacation, were are working on finger picking rhythms making progress but feel stalled a bit. Also on my own found a basic slow blues rhythm I am trying to learn as well. Still working on Chitlins Con Carne, stuck on the 4th section of the solo.
Got in about 3 hours of good practice. Also added major scale pattern 1 into my learning routin
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Post by grampalerxst on Jun 23, 2019 6:33:28 GMT -6
Jack, I agree--that sounds like a fun project. I'd be interested to know what you think about guitar pro at the end of the 30 days.
My week was constricted time-wise, a lot of hours in the office which both eats time and wears me down mentally. But for all that I still managed at least 30-45 min of decent quality guitar time each day.
I changed things up in my approach this week. For Electric Gypsy I had been beginning with looping "the lick" starting at 60% tempo and working up to 80-85%. Then I'd loop the whole first 16-bars again starting around 60% tempo and working up to 80%. This week I've started just jumping into the loop of the first sixteen bars at 80%. I did that mainly as a time-saver. It presents some different challenges than the detailed work up and I think I'm going to stick with it this coming week.
In the two helpings of humble pie category, I also spent some time trying to play EG without the loop of the original recording as a partner, and using a metronome/foot tapping instead. Not so pleasant to listen to. I'd harbored a fantasy that maybe over 4th of July with a few days off work I could knock out a sharable recording at 80% tempo, but I'm clearly a good ways off from being ready to do that. I don't know if syncopated is exactly the right word, but the "pulse" of the notes seems to be 16th-note based, and a number of the phrases start on other than the strong beats and it's hard for me to keep the flow and get the accents right with just the metronome clicking away. I'd also learned how to play it close enough to Andy Timmons in timing that it gets hard to distinguish me from him as I listen while looping. That sounds like a brilliantly good thing, but the downside is there are some spots that are rough for me where he was carrying all the water and about all I was doing was not clashing with him. Going with just the metronome makes those spots stand out. So that's a downside of the looping trick but I still think the pros outweigh the cons for me--I just have some rough spots to smooth over as the process of it going from his to "ours" to "mine" (borrowed, of course) plays out.
It seems I selected EG (at least those first 16 bars) as the hill I'm willing to die on, as I refuse to put it on the back burner. It's not technically easy, but it's also not something impossibly hard for me to attain. I just need to gut it out and continue to do the work.
My blues phrasing stuff is going pretty good. I added the first three of the 2-bar phrases last Sunday, and working them out by ear went more smoothly than when I first started on the one-bar phrases. So today I'll add the next three and see how that goes. I hate to sound like a Keith Wyatt commercial, but I really like the method he lays out (the demo recordings have him playing the first phrase, then a space for the student to repeat the phrase, then he plays the second phrase, the student repeats, etc.) This continues through the whole first section of the book, so I'll have upwards of 200 of these phrases to internalize which should keep me busy for a while. This ~call-and-response format reinforces that getting the right fingers/pick to the right strings/frets at the right time is only the prerequisite for a note. And I think forcing myself to work by ear even though I have everything tabbed out in the book is a good exercise for me even though it slows down the initial learning process.
Although I can't conveniently use the call/response format, I'm doing a similar thing with the demos of BYCU as I work my way back through the first 14 or so studies I "learned" two years ago. Progress is slow but I don't mind. I really enjoy nerding out on learning the distinction of creating musical notes rather than just making strings vibrate.
I've also upped my emphasis on having some free time each week to "just play". Most of the time I just work on fleshing out little ideas I come up with, but sometimes I revisit songs I've partially learned in the past and try to relearn/improve them. Sometimes what used to be difficult is now much easier, but sometimes what seemed pretty straightforward is now very difficult.
I wish I had better results to back up all the fine talk above. However, in the crawl-walk-run paradigm I'm still in the early stages of crawling when it comes down to having the guitar in my hands.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jun 23, 2019 7:18:35 GMT -6
Another lousy week for me. Been having some left rotator cuff problems. Woke up sleeping on my left shoulder one morning this week, and man did that get it really flared up. What a drag it is getting old... (ironically, I think Mick Jagger was in his 20's when he sang that 50 years ago). Painful shoulder makes playing guitar a little less pleasant. I did actually put some new strings on my guitar, and man does that improve playability. I don't know why I have such an aversion to replacing the strings. I really need to do it more than once every year or more.
As far as Guitar Pro, I've used that program for years, and absolutely love it. Of course, there is a learning curve, as there is to using any kind of complex software program.
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Post by Phil on Jun 23, 2019 8:23:08 GMT -6
I got in 9+ hrs. No big breakthroughs or video or anything. I did, however, buy an app for my phone for $14 called "iReal Pro." You put in a chord progression or select one of the hundreds of songs and choose a style. It generates a bass line, drums and piano backing track. You can turn down/off any of those instruments and loop the whole thing as many times as you want.
Don't know if any of you have heard of this app. It's very popular with Jazz players. I've only had it for 2 days, but I'm finding it very useful and easy to use. Much easier than going thru the hassle of making a backing track in Reaper or finding one online. I just plug my phone into the aux input on my amp and it's ready to go. The bottom line is since it's easy to use I'll be more likely to use it.
Jack, tabbing something out yourself can be a real challenge. It's also a great exercise and helps you learn to read music. The tab I wrote out for that Magic Sam video we did took me forever. I'm sure there are all kinds of errors in the time values I assigned to notes. Best thing to do is look at other tabs and see how they handled similar situations.
I have an old version of Guitar Pro. My son has version 7 and loves it. I think it's considered to be the top program for writing guitar tab today.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 24, 2019 16:56:27 GMT -6
I have to say I'm really impressed with Guitar Pro - my main complaint is that figuring out the time values of notes is confusing as hell Ah well, learning something new. I was using a program called TablEdit (tablature editor) and what I really liked about that was it had a "ruler" at the top - in 12/8 time there were 24 spaces, a 16th note each, and you just used the arrow keys to move to the appropriate spot within the bar to enter your notes - it then assigned time values for the notes automatically. So, using 4/4 time as an example, if you put a note on beat one and another on beat three, it would automatically make them both half notes. Add another note on beat two, the first note automatically became a quarter note. Handy stuff for idiots like me lol. As far as I know (after using it for 3 days) Guitar Pro doesn't do that - you have to enter the proper notes yourself. But it creates really nice looking tablature and even after just a few days, I've pretty much figured out how to make it do everything I need it to do.
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Post by Phil on Jun 24, 2019 20:42:22 GMT -6
Jack, once you get thru the learning curve you'll find Guitar Pro to be much more flexible(and even easier to use)than TablEdit. TablEdit was the 1st tab program I had, so I'm familiar with it. You'll figure out those subdivisions in no time.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jun 25, 2019 5:47:44 GMT -6
As far as I know (after using it for 3 days) Guitar Pro doesn't do that - you have to enter the proper notes yourself. But it creates really nice looking tablature and even after just a few days, I've pretty much figured out how to make it do everything I need it to do. Jack, I'm with Phil - I don't think Guitar Pro can do that, either. I guess they figure a musician should know the note values! I think I had looked at Tab Edit when I first was looking at tab software years ago, but decided the features in Guitar Pro blew it away, and GP was pretty inexpensive back then... I've just found a variety of uses for it over the years. If a beginner guitarist asked what kind of software to get, I'd advise them first, a good DAW program; then second, Guitar Pro. On second thought, I might put a good amp sim package ahead of GP, if their DAW of choice didn't come with one.
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Post by Phil on Jun 25, 2019 8:13:22 GMT -6
Jack, One more thing about Guitar Pro. If the time values don't add up to the time signature (4/4, for example) and you go to the next measure, the incorrect measure's staff lines will turn red.
If you really get stumped post an example of the tab and audio. I'm sure that collectively we'll figure it out.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 26, 2019 5:41:47 GMT -6
Thanks guys - Phil, oh yeah I'm extremely well acquainted with the staff lines turning red I actually got the solo tabbed out (added another 4 bars to make it 12). www.dropbox.com/s/9hj36nc2qcdc1h4/June%20challenge.pdf?dl=0But the assignment is to now add in a bunch of ornamentation including "tweedlies" (quick hammer on pull off combo's), so I've got to deluge the thing with a bunch of 32nd notes lol. Ah well, I'll see what I can get accomplished today
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Post by bluesbruce on Jun 27, 2019 6:28:52 GMT -6
Thanks guys - Phil, oh yeah I'm extremely well acquainted with the staff lines turning red I actually got the solo tabbed out (added another 4 bars to make it 12). www.dropbox.com/s/9hj36nc2qcdc1h4/June%20challenge.pdf?dl=0But the assignment is to now add in a bunch of ornamentation including "tweedlies" (quick hammer on pull off combo's), so I've got to deluge the thing with a bunch of 32nd notes lol. Ah well, I'll see what I can get accomplished today Jack, you can also put your last measure on the same page with the rest of your score if you'd like to get it on one page. This is what they call "design mode" in Guitar Pro - you could add a fourth bar to your last line on the page. You can also adjust the spacing of the bars within a line, allowing more space for "busier" bars, less space for those that don't need it. You can probably look at that in Guitar Pro help - it's a nice feature to be able to get something like that all onto one page. You can also remove those chord boxes, which would probably get it all onto one page. To do that you use what is called the "stylesheet" - there's a switch on there to turn these off. Or you can place chord grids down above lines in the score. I'd suggest to just turn them off - I don't think those simple chord diagrams really serve any useful purpose on this score. I obviously can't hear the timing you're trying to denote, but sometimes using what GP calls "grace notes" works for Griff's "tweedlies", and may help your tab not look so busy. Those are just my quick Guitar Pro ramblings in looking at the tab you linked to. Feel free to tell me to shut up, and I won't be offended! I'm not trying to sound like "Mr. Knows It". Really! I'm also well-acquainted with the dreaded red staff lines - oh, how I've often wished Guitar Pro would give you a hint like "you need another 16th note to fill this measure"...
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Post by grampalerxst on Jun 28, 2019 6:19:58 GMT -6
Not familiar with GP at all, but just looking at the score and recalling your prior recording, I tend to agree with Bruce in that it's likely notating some of the 32nd notes as grace notes might better convey a bluesy feel. Of course, I don't know how GP would translate that to midi and you might get some strange playback results. And I may be off since I haven't heard this version.
There are some stylistic conventions/rules for how to group beats and such for readability that I don't know, but it looks like real music "on the page"!!
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 28, 2019 6:51:48 GMT -6
Thanks so much Bruce and Grampa, great tips there! I'll definitely check out design mode as my learning progresses Yeah, those chord boxes are pretty silly, especially since they were played on keyboard anyway. Very much appreciate the advice! Here's what I submitted for the last webinar: I wasn't really done writing it, and it certainly needs more practice, but deadlines are deadlines Griff gave me a bunch of suggestions, so I'l probably work on incorporating them into a more finished take.
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Post by Phil on Jun 28, 2019 8:11:59 GMT -6
Sounds good, Jack. I especially liked that thing you did with the octaves at around 1:09. Very cool sounding technique. I don't think I've seen anybody do that before. Then again, I haven't seen everything. Anyway, I'm stealing that. Regarding written music: unless Griff requires it for the exercise I don't think it's necessary to clearly indicate every little "tweedly," 1/4 bend, or other nuances. Those are individual stylistic idiosyncrasies.
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Post by cunningr on Jun 28, 2019 10:00:40 GMT -6
Sound nice Jack! Was that a use of some octaves in there? Well my class is done until August, but taking my guitar with me on vacation.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 28, 2019 17:15:35 GMT -6
Thanks guys! Phil, that part at the very end was originally just a single note line, but since I'd used some octaves earlier in the solo (like I learned from John in "Three Ways to Say it"), well what the heck might as well toss in a few more Yeah I pretty much notated everything just as an exercise - gotta make the brain work once in a while lol. There's another tab program called Sibelius which Griff uses, I guess it's extremely complicated (and extremely capable) but if you use it every day like he does, you get good with it. The free version is called "Sibelius First", and Tuesday he's giving a webinar on how to use it. So that should make my brain hurt even more Rich, yeah I stuck a couple of octave parts in there. Good to hear you're taking your guitar with you on vacation!
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