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Post by grampalerxst on Jun 21, 2020 5:44:43 GMT -6
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
This was a humbling week. Decided to give the Electric Gypsy intro a rest last week, it'll be back into my daily routine starting today.
Spent most of my time on the BLYCU Challenge. To flesh out the chorus I tried to steal some licks from the other book I mentioned, Blues by the Bar. It's similar in to BLYCU in that it gives a handful of options for the different sections of a 12-bar blues. The wrinkles are that it's all done in G, versus C in the section of BLYCU we're working through, and transposing up a fourth and preserving the feel/attitude is trickier than I expected. Also, the default backing for them is a shuffle that's ~20% slower than the 12/8 slow blues of our backing track. Speeding things up 20% and transposing them was a bridge too far and in the end I maybe set a record for the most botched/inaccurate lick thefts in history. Even though I could do the BBTB stuff okay with its backing it was extremely difficult to adapt to 12/8--I never quite got them right. For the next installment I'm going to try to be a little more thoughtful about it and get something that flows a little better.
Otherwise, upward and onward.
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Post by Marc on Jun 21, 2020 7:33:40 GMT -6
Happy Father's Day to the dad's and happy Sunday to the rest of ya!
I've had the BYCU on hold for a while I've experimented with other things. Including BLYCU then I realized holy cow you all are on lick 5, I'm way behind.
This week I've been experimenting with improvisation. I came across this YouTube video where this guy was explaining an approach. He first worked on just chord notes, then theorized a minor pentatonic should work. Then moved to a minor pentatonic with chord tones. Then mixed major and minor and eventually some modes. I admit I never finished the video, I got excited and wanted to try it out.
So I loaded up my looper and Trio with a little backing track and have been having fun just experimenting. This also gave me an excuse to apply some triad studies and chord inversion. The result was i almost sound melodic. I almost sound like a guitar player who knows what they are doing. I'll stress the Almost.
I picked up an MXR Classic overdrive off Guitar Centers Daily deal for $20 off. Wow, I love that pedal. It's just a Tube Screamer clone I'm sure with some MXR tweaks. I guess I should have picked up an overdrive a long time ago. So here I go again, tearing up the pedal board to make room.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 21, 2020 9:10:40 GMT -6
Happy fathers day to all you dads out there! I had an okay week, I guess my Active Melody piece is done; the backing track was provided and I wrote a solo for it. Phil was suggesting I replace a certain lick in it, and I did spend an hour or so working on that, but I think I'd played through it so many times already that I couldn't imagine it being any different than it was lol. Sorry Phil, I'm untrainable I've been having so much trouble with my recording equipment. In the video you can probably hear a bit of clipping, but there's no reason for it to be there, all levels were well within spec's. I dunno, when I'm playing and monitoring it in Reaper, it sounds fine - when I hit record, it all of a sudden sounds different. It never used to do that? I suppose I'll try Ableton again and see if that works properly, at least then I'll know if it's hardware or software. If you're ever wondering why I get so little guitar playing done, it's because I spend so much time dealing with this sort of crap Ah well, this week I'll get going on lick 5...oops a little late and get working on that project Phil and I are doing. But for right now I guess I better mow the lawn
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Post by grampalerxst on Jun 21, 2020 9:50:57 GMT -6
I've been having so much trouble with my recording equipment. In the video you can probably hear a bit of clipping, but there's no reason for it to be there, all levels were well within spec's. I dunno, when I'm playing and monitoring it in Reaper, it sounds fine - when I hit record, it all of a sudden sounds different. It never used to do that? I suppose I'll try Ableton again and see if that works properly, at least then I'll know if it's hardware or software. If you're ever wondering why I get so little guitar playing done, it's because I spend so much time dealing with this sort of crap Great playing Jack, nothing stood out to me as asking to be replaced. Very melodic and soulful, so "A" on composition.
I used to have all kinds of problems with popping/clipping that by the "numbers" shouldn't have been there. I'm not sure what your recording setup is. Does it sound different while you are playing w/record on, or just when you listen back. Only thing I can think of is if you had some sort of "input echo" enabled you might be inadvertently hitting a plugin on a bus with the signal twice. In cakewalk I always mute the track I'm recording onto, but I do that to avoid doubling the part and causing a traffic jam getting to monitors/phones through Helix which doubles as my audio interface. I also learned to dial down guitar volume, especially cleaner tones since they have bigger transients. I usually shoot for -16 to -20dB when "printing" an amped guitar part.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 21, 2020 10:23:48 GMT -6
I've been having so much trouble with my recording equipment. In the video you can probably hear a bit of clipping, but there's no reason for it to be there, all levels were well within spec's. I dunno, when I'm playing and monitoring it in Reaper, it sounds fine - when I hit record, it all of a sudden sounds different. It never used to do that? I suppose I'll try Ableton again and see if that works properly, at least then I'll know if it's hardware or software. If you're ever wondering why I get so little guitar playing done, it's because I spend so much time dealing with this sort of crap Great playing Jack, nothing stood out to me as asking to be replaced. Very melodic and soulful, so "A" on composition.
I used to have all kinds of problems with popping/clipping that by the "numbers" shouldn't have been there. I'm not sure what your recording setup is. Does it sound different while you are playing w/record on, or just when you listen back. Only thing I can think of is if you had some sort of "input echo" enabled you might be inadvertently hitting a plugin on a bus with the signal twice. In cakewalk I always mute the track I'm recording onto, but I do that to avoid doubling the part and causing a traffic jam getting to monitors/phones through Helix which doubles as my audio interface. I also learned to dial down guitar volume, especially cleaner tones since they have bigger transients. I usually shoot for -16 to -20dB when "printing" an amped guitar part.
Thanks Grampa! Yeah I always had noise like an old record player - snap crackle pop - when recording (I eventually came to the theory that my CPU was a bit overloaded? I have no idea). But I only heard it when recording, not when I played back the recorded track. That seemed like it went away a while back though. It definitely sounds different when playing with record on, it's gone from having that clipping sound, to sounding really hollow (like way too much midrange and no bass) and now its latest thing is to add a static sound that gets louder and softer in unison with the guitar. It could be some sort of input echo, I'll have to check that out. Lots of playing around to do today lol. Make sure all unwanted effects are turned off, give Ableton a try, probably try opening a new project in Reaper which should eliminate any chance of forgotten effects being turned on, etc. etc. And if all that fails, then try different microphones, unplugging unused effects, etc. etc. Cold beer's gonna taste good this evening
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Post by Phil on Jun 21, 2020 11:08:03 GMT -6
I spent most of the week trying to talk Jack into doing a little project together. After a lot of arm twisting he finally agreed.
Other than that I've been working a lot on getting a walking bass pattern on 12-bar Jazz Blues in F and Bb drilled into my head. Lots and lots of repetition and actually using the metronome.
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Post by Phil on Jun 21, 2020 11:25:21 GMT -6
Happy fathers day to all you dads out there! I had an okay week, I guess my Active Melody piece is done; the backing track was provided and I wrote a solo for it. Phil was suggesting I replace a certain lick in it, and I did spend an hour or so working on that, but I think I'd played through it so many times already that I couldn't imagine it being any different than it was lol. Sorry Phil, I'm untrainable That's OK Jack. It still sounds great (well, except for that one part that we won't mention ). Seriously, you really did a good job on that. Very well played. You put a lot of feeling into it and those bends are flawless.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 21, 2020 12:34:36 GMT -6
Happy fathers day to all you dads out there! I had an okay week, I guess my Active Melody piece is done; the backing track was provided and I wrote a solo for it. Phil was suggesting I replace a certain lick in it, and I did spend an hour or so working on that, but I think I'd played through it so many times already that I couldn't imagine it being any different than it was lol. Sorry Phil, I'm untrainable That's OK Jack. It still sounds great (well, except for that one part that we won't mention ). Seriously, you really did a good job on that. Very well played. You put a lot of feeling into it and those bends are flawless. Thanks so much Phil, very much appreciated! My bends are flawless? I'm printing that out and framing it
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Post by bluesbruce on Jun 21, 2020 12:37:27 GMT -6
Rather ho hum week guitar wise. Didn't get Lick 5 recorded yet, and I'm at work on lunch break now. The president of the United States and Air Force One flew over my apartment yesterday - apparently he likes to do a fly over of cities he visits. Anyway, took a photo off of my balcony, and I'll try to post it here. A presidential visit is far from an every day event here. I was proud that Tulsa did not erupt in violence or looting or fighting. There were protests, but all remained civil. There was reportedly only one arrest (a lady who was protesting inside the area restricted around the BOK Center, they told her to leave or she would be arrested, and she refused to leave...) IMG_6281.HEIC (518.54 KB) Anyway, happy father's day! and hopefully I'll get a lick 5 recording posted later when I get home. Glad to hear I'm not the only slacker. I'd hate to have to make myself do some push ups!
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Post by Phil on Jun 21, 2020 15:28:14 GMT -6
That's OK Jack. It still sounds great (well, except for that one part that we won't mention ). Seriously, you really did a good job on that. Very well played. You put a lot of feeling into it and those bends are flawless. Thanks so much Phil, very much appreciated! My bends are flawless? I'm printing that out and framing it Frame it. You earned it. Glad I got into Jazz where bends are kept to a minimum.
We need some new blood around here or the days of a good old smack down are gone forever.
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Post by joachim on Jun 22, 2020 0:31:17 GMT -6
Jack - great work on that one! I also worked a bit on the same, but didn't make much progress so far. I tried to use some of the lines from the early RNBYCU studies for it - I've started to appreciate that book a lot more lately. Tonight I'll get together with another guitarist playing over the same backing track.
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Post by wannaplayblues on Jun 22, 2020 10:21:19 GMT -6
jack1982 That's AWESOME dude! Think you're gonna blow my efforts out of the water! I've had a week of doing bits and pieces, guitar has been less than I'd like, but I have been getting ready for the AM monthly submission (like jack1982) and I hope to record it tomorrow night - something for you all to listen to next weekend. I'm also going to try recording video with my mobile phone - I think the quality will be way better than any webcam I've tried in the past (see, production values just keep going up with me ). I ordered a phone stand-thingy on Amazon today and that should arrive tomorrow. I'm also looking at a new lesson from the AM site to start working on.
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Post by jack1982 on Jun 22, 2020 11:09:13 GMT -6
Thanks so much Joachim and Wanna Play Blues, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing your submissions as well!
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Post by cunningr on Jun 22, 2020 15:36:30 GMT -6
Jack great playing, I think your recording issue is that fuzzy head under your desk stepping on pedals lol
Well I finally managed to get a plausible rhythm for. Shes a Burglar and started working on the fill licks bending.
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Post by blackcountrymick on Jun 22, 2020 15:55:07 GMT -6
Awesome work again Jack, you're knocking it out of the park!!
I didn't get any where near as much guitar time in this week as I would have liked, so I'm slacking as well with the challenge. Bruce, I've already done the push ups in anticipation!!!
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