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Post by bigfab on Apr 24, 2014 8:28:35 GMT -6
Hi, Hope you are all doing well. I am 'back' after 2 weeks of business trips and I will have some time to focus on my guitar playing. I have to work on my bends that were pointed by several of you. So I would be able to record lessons 2 and 4 with more decent bends. I will focus on these for a while as I was suggested. Any advice is welcome here. I have the feeling my ear will never make it  I also bought the BT in MP3 and I will try to work out my first lessons with these new tracks. On the other hand, I would also like to work on BRYCU. I saw several of you are doing that in parallel. So I have BRYCU and also "Chords". I think it will be better to go with BRYCU in parallel of BYCU and keep "Chords" for when I will go with MBYCU. What do you guys think? What would be the most valuable to work in parallel of BYCU? Thanks for your feedbacks. Cheers, Big Fab |
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Post by pickindablues on Apr 24, 2014 14:48:58 GMT -6
Hi, can't comment on BRYCU, but I have ordered it and plan on working through it as well. I think rhythm is as important, if not more so, than lead playing.
I also need to work on my bends - hitting the 'correct' note when bending. I tried playing with the CD, but I was sometimes hearing the CD (which sounds great) and sometimes hearing myself (not so good). So to focus just on my playing I started doing a partial scale exercise on just the top 3 strings of pattern 1 where I fret/play the bent note straight and then bend to it (hope that makes sense). I think it is helping to train my ear to "find" the right note. This is not my original idea, I found it at JustinGuitars, I can look up the link if you want. Maybe others have it as well.
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Post by bluesbruce on Apr 24, 2014 16:17:20 GMT -6
I give BRYCU a strong recommendation. I never got "all the way" thru BYCU, but I did go thru the entire BRYCU. To me, rhythm patterns and playing really bring a song to life. I've heard it said that if you can play good rhythm, you'll always be invited back to play with others. I've also heard it said that even a "lead" guitarist in a band spends 90% of their time playing rhythm. Don't know how true that is, but it sounds good. I think these two courses of study would go well together. I think JohnG has usually recommended BYCU first, then BRYCU.
Bruce
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Post by Phil on Apr 24, 2014 16:59:48 GMT -6
Pickin,
Playing a major scale and bending to some of the notes is another good way to practice bends. I need to start doing that more.
Phil
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Post by bigfab on Apr 25, 2014 1:28:19 GMT -6
Hey, Are we talking about major or minor pentatonic scale here? Anyhow, I think it is a great idea. I will look at Justin's course. What I have more troubles with (I think) is about the timing. I am not too sure how "long" should the bend be. Should we hear the sound of the pitch going up? How long would that be compare to the reached pitch sustain? Not sure I am very clear especially with my English that is not quite right when it comes to technics Phil, you were talking about my "flat" bends. What do you mean by "flat"? Thanks. Cheers, Big Fab |
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Post by Phil on Apr 25, 2014 10:00:15 GMT -6
Phil, you were talking about my "flat" bends. What do you mean by "flat"? Thanks. Cheers, Big Fab Flat means that they were below the pitch you were trying to get. Sharp would mean they are above the pitch. I hope that's clear, if not I'll give an example. Phil |
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Post by bigfab on Apr 26, 2014 3:42:25 GMT -6
well, now that you explain it makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks |
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Post by jack1982 on May 2, 2014 5:48:06 GMT -6
Working on Blues Rhythms along with BYCU Sounds like a good idea - you can never practice enough rhythm. I tend to practice my soloing about 98% of the time and then I record myself playing some rhythm and surprise surprise, it doesn't sound too good lol.
If you're just starting out though, don't give the rhythm parts in BYCU short shrift. Listen to the strumming pattern on the CD and work on replicating that - playing simple chord changes with a simple strumming pattern at a slow tempo is one of the more challenging things there is. I'd definitely recommend getting a drum machine and practicing playing rhythm guitar along with it. That way there's no backing track to obscure any screw-ups. By far the most important thing with rhythm is to be 100% locked in with the drummer. It's much better to play something simple, but in perfect time and locked into the groove, than to play something complicated with bad timing.
I'd also recommend the JustinGuitar site, he's a great teacher and he's got tons of great blues lessons over there.
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Post by joachim on May 2, 2014 6:09:47 GMT -6
I am also doing the first lessons in BRYCU in parallel with BYCU. BRYCU ramps up rather quickly, though; lesson 4 is already quite sophisticated. I suppose that's why John G. suggests starting on it after you've made good progress in BUCY.
Maybe for beginners like us, Big-Fab, we get most bang-for-the-bucks getting really comfortable with the spread rhythms in Chap 1-3 of BRYCU (as well as in BUCY), and the 7th and 9th chord progressions midway in BYCU. Those chord progressions will keep you busy for awhile, if you haven't looked at them yet. They sound great and boost your chord playing, but I've missed some cool strumming tips for them.
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Post by pickindablues on May 2, 2014 10:37:05 GMT -6
Jack1982, I was thinking the same as you as to getting a drum machine. I have a metronome, but that gets pretty dull after awhile. Was wondering if you could share what you have or have looked at? I was thinking of getting a Korg Beatboy, but my choice was really based on it being the cheapest option I could find. Any thoughts? Thanks. |
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Post by jack1982 on May 2, 2014 15:38:12 GMT -6
I don't know anything about that Korg, the one I've got is the Zoom RT123 www.amazon.com/Zoom-RT223-Rhythm-Trak-Machine/dp/B000P3WE60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399064737&sr=8-1&keywords=zoom+rt123 It's a bit more expensive (like twice as expensive), but I really love it. You can program your own drum lines and bass lines (you can always mute the bass if you want). I'm too lazy to program it so I just use the presets lol. I program songs, which is basically just sequencing together the presets (or the rhythms you create yourself). There's one good blues shuffle rhythm preset, so I made 3 copies of it, changed the key of the bass to E on the first copy, to A on the second and B on the third. Then I just sequenced them for 4 bars in E, two in A, two in E, etc to create a regular 12 bar blues. Unfortunately though, the songs stop when they reach the end of what you've programmed, so I had to program in about 93 bars of that blues shuffle, but it only took about 10 minutes. So when I'm jamming along I just reach over and hit play again every 5 minutes or so when it stops. But anyhow I love it and have gotten a gigantic amount of use out of it. Never practice without it really. What I'm thinking of doing next is getting one of those Pod Studios www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pod%20studio&sprefix=pod+st%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Apod%20studio You get the analog/digital converter thing to plug your guitar into your computer, and they come with a bunch of software including a drum machine. There's also some recording software and of course the Pod Farm with all it's amp sim's and cabinet sim's and a ton of effects. I've never used any digital audio workstation stuff before so I have no idea if that Pod stuff is any good or not, but I figure it's finally time for me to enter the 21st century and try that stuff out. There are also other drum machine software packages you can get on PC, one that I'm very interested in is EZ Drummer because it looks ridiculously easy to create all the parts for a whole song on it. |
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