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Post by jack1982 on Feb 23, 2020 12:54:29 GMT -6
I had a pretty good week of practice, still working on the major-minor thing over various blues backing tracks. I'm getting more familiar with the sounds and how they change when you switch from one scale to another, and finding various ways of transitioning between them that appeal to me. As John says in the explanation of "Chord-On Bleu", playing with the 3rd and b3rd implies a change between the I and IV chords, and sure enough, that works great  Just more of the same for this week, it's quite a long-term project. Also should learn some speedy little "cheap runs" type stuff to toss in for a bit of variety. |
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Post by bluesbruce on Feb 23, 2020 13:21:52 GMT -6
Got back from ski vacation late last night. No guitar all last week, but had a great time!
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Post by joachim on Feb 23, 2020 13:59:04 GMT -6
I am dividing my time between my new course, where we are working on different ideas of improvisation. It's quite a bit ahead of my level, and not as specific as I'd hoped, but I duke it out and hope something sticks.
Then I am still preparing to start on the Joe Pass book, as a life-long endeavor with John. I will see how it goes.
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Post by Marc on Feb 23, 2020 14:50:24 GMT -6
I had a pretty rough practice week, meaning I did not get in the practice I would have wanted too. Today I did a review of the past lessons but focusing on Lesson 8
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Post by Phil on Feb 24, 2020 9:34:15 GMT -6
I'm a little late to the party. I built a barn door this week. I've been promising to do it for over 2 years. It took me 10 times longer than a normal person to make it, but I didn't make any major errors. This is the 1st project I've ever done where I didn't screw up something in a big way. I've been playing exclusively with my fingers for quite a while now. I tried playing with a pick again this week. It was a little awkward and I didn't like the tone I was getting. I really envy the people who can switch back and forth between pick and fingers, but I'm going to stick with fingers only for the foreseeable future. I don't know objectively if I'm making any significant improvement in my playing. However, I have noticed that certain things that were once difficult and required a lot of effort are now easier to play. I'm going to take that as a a sign that some kind of progress is being made. |
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Post by cunningr on Feb 24, 2020 11:05:34 GMT -6
Running late this week, still working on a santana style rythm, my instructor came up with a nice one that incorporates a raking technique. Otherwise still on the Robert Cray solo playin with my friends, struggle with the timing somewhat, problem is I cant seem to memorize the licks to make it flow smoothly.
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Post by jack1982 on Feb 25, 2020 7:11:33 GMT -6
I'm a little late to the party. I built a barn door this week. I've been promising to do it for over 2 years. It took me 10 times longer than a normal person to make it, but I didn't make any major errors. This is the 1st project I've ever done where I didn't screw up something in a big way. Congrat's on the carpentry project Phil! Measure once, cut twice, then...well this is too short now I'll have to go buy more wood - that's my motto |
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Post by grampalerxst on Feb 25, 2020 9:21:50 GMT -6
Gosh, I'm late again ...
I mentioned at the turn of the new year I wanted to add some technical exercises to my regimen. To that end I dredged up a copy of "Rock Discipline" by John Petrucci. He didn't actually write the book, someone else just transcribed a video he did many years back by the same name. It's pretty bad when something presented as an easy fret hand warmup causes a guy difficulty with both hands! Much of it is tailored to playing very fast, which I'm not willing to invest the time to pursue, but a lot of it seems like it will be very good for stretches, skipping across strings, and picking arpeggios--all things I am woefully bad at.
Of special note to Phil, JP recommends the practice of dialing up the metronome past a target tempo enough there's basically a trainwreck then jumping back down as a speed building technique.
Otherwise, typical week. Starting in March I'm going to up the tempo range I'm using for Electric Gypsy from 65%-75% (of full tempo) on the turnaround lick to 70%-80%, and from 80%-90% on the full 16-bar intro to 85%-95%.
In the spirit of Phil's speed sauce I jump the tempo up to 100% for a minute or two every morning. Not too bad for all except the turnaround, which is pretty much a train wreck at that tempo.
Also still grinding away on the original project with my SIL. Going to try to "print" (apparently, cool kid slang for record digitally) a few tracks this weekend.
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Post by Phil on Feb 25, 2020 9:57:41 GMT -6
Gosh, I'm late again ... I mentioned at the turn of the new year I wanted to add some technical exercises to my regimen. To that end I dredged up a copy of "Rock Discipline" by John Petrucci. He didn't actually write the book, someone else just transcribed a video he did many years back by the same name. It's pretty bad when something presented as an easy fret hand warmup causes a guy difficulty with both hands! Much of it is tailored to playing very fast, which I'm not willing to invest the time to pursue, but a lot of it seems like it will be very good for stretches, skipping across strings, and picking arpeggios--all things I am woefully bad at. Of special note to Phil, JP recommends the practice of dialing up the metronome past a target tempo enough there's basically a trainwreck then jumping back down as a speed building technique.
Otherwise, typical week. Starting in March I'm going to up the tempo range I'm using for Electric Gypsy from 65%-75% (of full tempo) on the turnaround lick to 70%-80%, and from 80%-90% on the full 16-bar intro to 85%-95%. In the spirit of Phil's speed sauce I jump the tempo up to 100% for a minute or two every morning. Not too bad for all except the turnaround, which is pretty much a train wreck at that tempo. Also still grinding away on the original project with my SIL. Going to try to "print" (apparently, cool kid slang for record digitally) a few tracks this weekend. Nice to hear that Petrucci backs me up on this.  Of course, once I got the particular phrase I was working on close to my target speed I haven't tried the technique again. That's always been my story - find something that works well and then abandon it as soon as possible.  |
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Post by Phil on Feb 25, 2020 10:15:59 GMT -6
I'm a little late to the party. I built a barn door this week. I've been promising to do it for over 2 years. It took me 10 times longer than a normal person to make it, but I didn't make any major errors. This is the 1st project I've ever done where I didn't screw up something in a big way. Congrat's on the carpentry project Phil! Measure once, cut twice, then...well this is too short now I'll have to go buy more wood - that's my motto I usually measure several times before cutting. After cutting I discover I used the wrong measurement. However, a barn door is a pretty simple and forgiving project. It just has to be relatively square, and it's supposed to look rustic. One thing I didn't consider is how heavy it would be. It's 4' X 8' and weighs a friggin' ton. My big concern now is that it won't fall off.  I used to read a wood working magazine that had a column where experienced wood workers would tell about their big mistakes. Some of them were hilarious. |
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Post by grampalerxst on Feb 26, 2020 5:48:01 GMT -6
Nice to hear that Petrucci backs me up on this. Of course, once I got the particular phrase I was working on close to my target speed I haven't tried the technique again. That's always been my story - find something that works well and then abandon it as soon as possible. No matter, in my mind the technique will always be "giving it the Phil treatment". I'm pretty good at abandoning things too when it comes to guitar. |
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Of course, once I got the particular phrase I was working on close to my target speed I haven't tried the technique again. That's always been my story - find something that works well and then abandon it as soon as possible. 
