Hard Edge Blues Slow version 2

No matter how much you want to speed it up don't do it yet. I know you want to play it up to speed, but if your timing if off at this speed it won't get any better faster. In fact it'll will probably get worse. Like you said, you are right on in spots and off in others.

I don't want to go through the whole thing bar by bar, so let's just look at the beginning. I'm not sure where you are starting because I can't tell if you recorded the 1st click, but the 1st 3 notes are an 8th note triplet and you are playing straight 8th notes. All 3 notes have to fall within beat 4 of the pick up bar. You are spending too much time on the 1st note of the triplet. That bend on 3rd string 10th fret is fast - it should be (10)trip-(8)a-(8)let. And then the 5th string 11th fret bend should fall right smack on beat 1 of the 1st bar and held for 2 whole beats. Then the 6 16th notes are all played on beat 3 and the final note falls on beat for. It sounds like you got the 3 and 4th beats correct, so the problem is with the very beginning - the pick up bar and bar 1.

Anyway, I think if you get the beginning down you won't have a problem with the rest. Bar 7 is exactly the same as bar 1 and you do the same thing - not holding the 1st note for 2 whole beats.

You always manage to somehow get back on track with the proper timing again, so I think it's just a matter of focusing on those few measures that are giving you trouble.

BTW, I do like your tone and I think you can get this one fixed easily because you are practically there. 

Yeah, like I said, you're only off in a few places, but always manage to catch up and get back on track. I think you'll have this one down soon.

Thanks jack and Phil, I will focus on those spots first. Seems like I keep better time after the turn around for the most part, I am having trouble hearing it in the backing track.

Rich,

I always thought those slow back tracks (which I think are at 50% the speed of the "regular" one) were too slow. I used "Amazing Slow Downer" software, which would allow me to alter the speed without changing the pitch. I found that 70-75% speed was typically a better "slow" speed for me, then could go up in increments as I got more comfortable with a study (for example, 85% speed, 90% speed, then 95% speed, and finally 100% speed). I've also read on other forums where some people suggest playing at 105% speed to really get a song down. I tried this, and didn't really find it to be useful myself, but as always YMMV.

The good news is that nowadays, most DAW software will allow this kind of tempo alteration without changing pitch, so you don't really need special software for the purpose. I know I can do this with Logic. It's worth checking out whether your DAW software can do this as well. It seems that most DAW softwares set the default tempo to 120, but if you set the tempo to 100 before importing your backing track, then when you change the tempo, it'll be equivalent to a percentage. Of course, you could set it at the proper tempo for the piece, but a lot of times you may not know that (also you'll find that a lot of recordings the tempo may vary some).

Bruce

Man, Rich, you shouldn't piss-off the band like that. Glad you discovered the problem. Your timing has gotten so good lately that it kind of surprised me when I listened to "Hard Edge."