|
|
Post by grampalerxst on Jun 28, 2020 5:17:13 GMT -6
Underwhelming week for me guitarwise. Had some medical appointments and other distractions. Back to working through the EG intro daily, am going to tick the tempo back up to where I dropped it from a couple months ago.
Also spent at least a couple minutes on BLYCU 6 Challenge each day. The way the cycle works out the first Saturday night is my favorite part of the two weeks. I usually spend the first week M-F getting the BLYCU lick under my fingers. Then on the weekend I start trying to meld it with other ideas in a full chorus setting. On that first Saturday night I crank up the volume a little bit and play recklessly. A sequence of spectacular train wrecks but I usually come out of it with some idea how I want things to go. Most of this coming week will be paring things back and streamlining to something I have a prayer of executing then on the final Friday nights the red light comes on and I start to get a sense of what I've got as I practice "performances". Then on the second Saturday night I'm going for "takes". That's a lot of work for a one chorus throwaway "solo".
At this point in life I'm doubtful I'll ever be able to just toss off a solo in the moment. But if I'm going to get there one day it will probably have to come from repeating that some process over-and-over a gazillion times.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluesbruce on Jun 28, 2020 6:27:51 GMT -6
Had a pretty good week - had the guitar in my hands every day at least. Been playing some BYCU stuff, some various rock solos and licks, and of course the BLYCU stuff. Grampa, I think you're right about approaching these BLYCU "Licks" - first, you've got to get the lick under your fingers and understand where it works in a 12 bar blues. I do think that the part where you "meld it with other ideas in a full chorus setting" will improve as we accrue more "licks" and cover the entire 12 bar progression. I think your comment about "repeating that same process over and over a gazillion times" is one of the most highly guarded secrets of learning to play. Nobody wants to hear that kind of stuff, but the cold hard reality of learning to play is that this is exactly what is required. One of the biggest challenges is making that gazillion times fun, so that we'll do it - that's where "cranking up the volume" and playing recklessly comes in!
|
|
|
|
Post by grampalerxst on Jun 28, 2020 6:46:01 GMT -6
Bruce, sounds like you have a pretty good variety ongoing. At the risk of making this sound like much more than it is, I do sort of feel like the process is going a little better. Incrementally I'm adding to my vocabulary, so far more my mental vocabulary than what you might call my working or performance vocabulary--most everything try I have to practice getting it into place even knowing what I want to do. And I'm starting to feel I'm getting a little better about subconsciously keeping track of where I am in the 12-bar structure--when I come up for air from throwing all my attention into making my fingers do something, I'm not so lost. But those are teeny tiny internal things that are too nascent to be apparent to an unfortunate soul listening to me.  For me even the grind stages of the process are enjoyable enough to keep me going, but yeah, the letting my hair down and not caring for a while is definitely a hoot, especially those one-in-a-thousand moments where something actually goes right. |
|
|
|
Post by jack1982 on Jun 28, 2020 8:25:10 GMT -6
Not a very good week for me, busy with all sort of other crap. And after finishing that Active Melody project I'm a bit creatively drained lol. I did do some work on licks 5 & 6 - the bit at the beginning of lick 6 always screws me up, it's just so abrupt. Oh well, nothing another 5,000 repetitions won't fix. my old mic stand was just a little too short:  So I got one that's slightly taller:  Sigh... |
|
|
|
Post by Phil on Jun 28, 2020 8:52:08 GMT -6
I didn't get much of what I consider solid practice this week. Spent a lot of time with "constructive" noodling - mostly playing around with chords. Watched several videos by Whit Smith, a Western Swing guitarist. Those guys are masters of chord voicings, inversions, and moving chords around. I've also become acutely aware of how the top level players are able to associate melodies with the underlying chords. They always know exactly where they are in a song. The same holds true for licks. You should be able to see how a lick fits in with the chords. I tried to record something yesterday for a top secret project I've roped Jack into. Didn't turn out very well. I couldn't hear the metronome in Reaper clearly and I ended up so out of time it was ridiculous. After that fiasco I searched and found out how to record a click track in Reaper. If anybody is interested here's how you do it: 1. Insert an empty track. 2. Then click on the INSERT tab and select CLICK SOURCE. You now have a one bar click inserted into that track. 3. Grab the right edge of the track and drag it out as far as you need to. 4. If you right click within the track you get a dialogue box that allows some adjustments including the ability to select a drum sound sample if you have one. The advantage of this over the metronome is you have control over the volume, can change the sound, and you get a nice visual aid. So now I can hear and see how bad my timing is.  |
|
|
|
Post by Phil on Jun 28, 2020 9:05:28 GMT -6
Had a pretty good week - had the guitar in my hands every day at least. Been playing some BYCU stuff, some various rock solos and licks, and of course the BLYCU stuff. Grampa, I think you're right about approaching these BLYCU "Licks" - first, you've got to get the lick under your fingers and understand where it works in a 12 bar blues. I do think that the part where you "meld it with other ideas in a full chorus setting" will improve as we accrue more "licks" and cover the entire 12 bar progression. I think your comment about "repeating that same process over and over a gazillion times" is one of the most highly guarded secrets of learning to play. Nobody wants to hear that kind of stuff, but the cold hard reality of learning to play is that this is exactly what is required. One of the biggest challenges is making that gazillion times fun, so that we'll do it - that's where "cranking up the volume" and playing recklessly comes in! It's pretty incredible how so many online guitar teachers avoid this subject. It's like they're afraid you'll stop watching them if they tell you what you really need to do and how much work it takes. A couple of years ago I watched a sax teacher teach a lick. His final words were, "Now go play that about a million times." You don't hear that from too many guitar teachers.
There is a quote that's attributed to various sources: "The amateur practices until he gets it right. The pro practices until he can't get it wrong."
|
|
|
|
Post by wannaplayblues on Jun 28, 2020 13:10:13 GMT -6
So, this week I recorded my effort at the monthly challenge over at the other site (which jack1982 did last week).
It's here for your ear - Interesting points after the vid if you're interested 
So, here's some fun facts: - It's full-on HD!!!! (make sure you select the option if you need to within YouTube)
- I recorded this on my mobile phone (yes, my use-it-every-day mobile phone) by placing it on a phone stand I bought on Amazon. Think it worked really well.
- The video I recorded was 2:30 long and was 454MB large (yep, nearly half-a-gig for two-and-a-half-minutes)!!!
- After my video editing and processing the final file with audio was 110MB large
- The T-shirt was a Father's Day gift - look at it closely and see if you get it
|
|
|
|
Post by bluesbruce on Jun 28, 2020 17:50:28 GMT -6
Outstanding, WPB. Beautiful playing, gorgeous tone, soulful - that could fit right into JG's Rhythm & Blues You Can Use. The video quality was excellent, as well. Your cell phone, or even the web cam on your laptop, can make some good quality video. I absolutely love how well you show your hand position, chord shapes, position of notes played, etc. It'd be nice if a lot of Youtube guitar "teachers" took this to heart. The only "nit" I can find to pick is some harsh light reflection mostly coming from around fret one on the fretboard and some from the headstock. What is your lighting set up? A single light source? any fill lights? Maybe you just need some kind of diffuser? Please take this in the spirit it is intended - this is an absolutely phenomenal recording and video, and I'm not trying to diminish it in the least. Heck, I'd be proud if (1) I could play that well or (2) I could make a video that looks that good. The back drop looks great as well - even if I know it is cloth! Very well done!
|
|
|
|
Post by jack1982 on Jun 29, 2020 8:32:19 GMT -6
I tried to record something yesterday for a top secret project I've roped Jack into. So top secret in fact, even I have no idea what I'm doing   Nah, I'm getting started on it, kinda sorta getting a feeling for the chord progression, and I'll get to work on getting the melody figured out. There's a slight possibility I may be able to combine these elements into something resembling a bass line |
|
|
|
Post by jack1982 on Jun 29, 2020 8:36:12 GMT -6
That was absolutely beautiful WPB! Really a lot of emotion in there. I especially loved that little lick right at :50, that was perfect. Gorgeous guitar sound too!
|
|
|
|
Post by Phil on Jun 29, 2020 20:24:16 GMT -6
So, this week I recorded my effort at the monthly challenge over at the other site (which jack1982 did last week).
It's here for your ear - Interesting points after the vid if you're interested
So, here's some fun facts: - It's full-on HD!!!! (make sure you select the option if you need to within YouTube)
- I recorded this on my mobile phone (yes, my use-it-every-day mobile phone) by placing it on a phone stand I bought on Amazon. Think it worked really well.
- The video I recorded was 2:30 long and was 454MB large (yep, nearly half-a-gig for two-and-a-half-minutes)!!!
- After my video editing and processing the final file with audio was 110MB large
- The T-shirt was a Father's Day gift - look at it closely and see if you get it
Just listened with headphones. Very impressive playing. I'm interested in your audio setup. You probably told us before and I just forgot.  |
|
|
|
Post by wannaplayblues on Jun 30, 2020 2:58:16 GMT -6
Just listened with headphones. Very impressive playing. I'm interested in your audio setup. You probably told us before and I just forgot. It's really no bother to tell you again. I've included some images that I hope will provide more detail.
HARDWARE DETAILS
Let's get the images out of the way, then I'll follow with specifics. Here's my main amp for playing and recording. I'm really growing to love it. Currently most of my sound (including the one in the video) is the amp's emulation of a VOX AC30 with trebble boost. I basically played with the dials until I got a sound I liked from the amp. I actually did it with the phone app that works with the amp - made for a fun experience:
Now when it comes to recording this baby you can actually turn the master volume to zero as the audio goes via XLR on the back (the 3-pronged connections on the top right of the next image) - I only use one of the connectors so get mono sound (I don't do enough with the effects to worry about stereo yet)
Next is my USB interface - a Behringer UM2. It accepts XLR connections on the first input (the one on the left) and has a dial on top to adjust the volume. It also has a nice "red" light to indicate clipping (you don't want that) so I adjust the volume so that the hardest strum I do has no clipping:
I may get a new interface, but at the moment, it seems to be working ok. The headphone jack is the 6.25mm socket on the right. Bearing in mind I use Linux as my OS, I'm hesitant to try "expensive" alternatives like focusrite ( focusrite.com/en/usb-interfaces) as I don't want to end up with hardware I cannot use.
RECORDING PROCESS
Ok, with the pics out of the way, here's the recording process:
- Connect guitar to amp, tune up and get the sound I like from the amp (this is now stored as a preset )
- Plug the XLR cable into the rear of the amp and the USB interface - turn the amp master volume to zero and put on the headphones
- On my Linux OS I use the app JACK to minimise latency to about 11ms (milliseconds) and to connect to the Behringer UM2 hardware
- I run up Reaper on Linux which uses JACK (see above) to get the audio from the hardware into the available tracks. Reaper does this auto-magically.
- I setup reaper with the correct tempo, drop in the backing track, arm a new track and record...
- After recording I tinker slightly with after effects:
- Add reverb!!! I watched a video on the Reaper site and found some free files online to get the right effect
- EQ - I'm useless at this, but generally follow 2 guidelines. I do a pass filter on the low end and cut off anything below 100Hz(?) - I don't think I need to do this the way I record, but for mic-to-amp it's meant to remove low background noise rumble. So I do it to keep it as a habit. I also up the mid slightly and take the top-end up a bit. I just feel it has a better effect (I may be wrong, but I feel better for it )
- Adjust the overall mix volumes of the track(s) so they blend well together (well, to the best of my ability) - recently with reaper, I've barely had to touch the volumes. The XLR audio via interface seems to work really well with the backing tracks of the AM site I use. I may just be lucky!
- MY personal fav trick: I pan the guitar 5-10% to the right. It has an amazing effect of making the guitar part of the room. Front and center equally makes it sound flatter to my ear. When it's panned, it's like it's physically in the room offset to the mic.
Hope that answers your thoughts/questions. Feel free to ask whatever you want on this.
|
|
|
|
Post by grampalerxst on Jun 30, 2020 4:48:27 GMT -6
wpb, bravo! Great playing. Thanks for the recording setup details. Whatever sounds good to you is cool.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marc on Jun 30, 2020 21:54:57 GMT -6
I'm late to the party. I had a pretty successful week in the practice dungeon. Someone recommended Keith Wyatt's Blues guitar books, and they were given to me for Father's Day. I've had my headstock firmly in Blues Rhythm Guitar book. I found it good, though a lot of it is review I have found some things are that I never thought about. Probably because I've focused on leads.
I think that the Trio and a looper has become the greatest practice tools.
wannaplayblues nice playing i'm loving it. Looks like your set up is coming together nicely.
Phil I've spent the last few weeks in this rabbit hole of what you called "chord voicings, inversions, and moving chords around" I came to know them as triads.
I spend too much time on youtube (i pretty much having it going all day when I'm working). There are few things that contributed to this rabbit hole search.
"soloing around the chord shapes" - Tim Pierce
"hunting for the 3rds" - Michael Palmisano
"great melody is found in small jumps" -Michael Palmisano
This all came to a slap on the back of my head by a video by StichMethod Guitar called A WAY BETTER METHOD TO PRACTICING Improvising / Soloing / Jamming On Guitar" It helped me put everything I've learned so far together.
|
|
For me even the grind stages of the process are enjoyable enough to keep me going, but yeah, the letting my hair down and not caring for a while is definitely a hoot, especially those one-in-a-thousand moments where something actually goes right.
Nah, I'm getting started on it, kinda sorta getting a feeling for the chord progression, and I'll get to work on getting the melody figured out. There's a slight possibility I may be able to combine these elements into something resembling a bass line 
