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Post by joachim on Mar 15, 2015 4:24:55 GMT -6
I've been working on "Hard Rocker" in BYCY; it's coming along, I am still playing it at 80%. Then I got carried away practicing fingerstyle blues, and spend more time on that than I planned - it's alot of fun. I've also been transcribing some easy lead tracks from another blues book "Fretboard Roadmaps Blues Guitar" by Fred Sokolow. Even though wasn't difficult, it felt really good to be able to just do it. The book by Sokolow is very short, more like a blues cheat-sheet than a real book, but he makes some interesting points in a different way that BUCY; it always helps me to learn different lessons from a different angle - and it gives me lots of ideas for getting started on improvisation, as it's more oriented on teaching you licks for a particular pattern first and then applying them to a backing track afterwards. The book also has some cool fingerstyle arrangements, which are really challenging me... I am not being an apostate, though - I still love BUCY which goes more in depth with the different topics  |
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Post by Phil on Mar 15, 2015 5:37:49 GMT -6
Looks like T-Bone got up earlier than everybody else. I only got in 5 days for a total of 5 hrs. of practice this week. That's still above my minimum goal of 4 days/4 hrs. so I can't complain. The time was fairly evenly distributed among exercises, "Big Bends," "True Trem" and noodling around. I didn't do any Jazz practice except on the "noodling" day. The big event of the week was recording the first 12 bars of "Big Bends" over Jack's backing track. I thought I had this down. I played along with John G's full version and got it up to full tempo. I was sounding like Gary Moore when playing along with the recording.  Then I pulled the backing track into Reaper and recorded myself. It was an unmitigated disaster! I knew things weren't going well while I was recording, but I pushed through anyways. When I listened back it was far worse than I imagined. My bends were flat (what's new?), my timing was off and it sounds like I'm out of tune with the bass. To sum it up it sounded horrible. Regarding the timing: I've had problems in the past when playing over a complicated rhythm guitar, and with "Big Bends" the bass is a bit complex. I get distracted and confused by what I'm hearing, lose the pulse, and therefore lose my place. My solution to this problem is to 1). Check my tuning against the bass, 2). Count while I'm playing until I get this internalized. 3). Obviously, work on my bends and listen to my recordings of them. Once again I was reminded that playing along with the full version is a totally different animal than playing by myself over a backing track. Playing along with the full version is like walking on a tight-rope with hand rails to keep your balance. You have to be accurate in the placement of your feet, but the hand rails keep you from losing your balance and falling off. Playing over a backing track is like walking the tight-rope with no assistance. It's completely up to you to maintain your balance. My plan for the coming week is to get serious about spending 1/2 my practice time on Jazz and changing the way I do my practice log. I've been keeping a practice log since Feb 2014, but I've always just noted what I did on a given day. After reading some stuff about practicing this week, I'm going to start writing out tomorrow's practice schedule today. In other words, when I finish practicing on any given day I will write down what I want to work on the following day. I think this will help to keep me even more focused on the important things - the specific things I need to work on. |
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Post by jack1982 on Mar 15, 2015 5:42:47 GMT -6
To my utter surprise there's no weekly update on the forum member's practice routine yet - is this caused by a lack of discipline?!? Uncertain where this might lead us, I hereby open up the topic... Well it's only 6:30 AM here in my neck of the woods, I just got up  I had a good week of practice, 12 1/2 hours on guitar and 5 1/4 on bass. Worked a lot on Minor Soul Chop in the R&B book, got good takes of the rhythm guitar and bass line recorded, so now I've just got the lead left. It's a very slow song so every subtlety has to be just right - the timing, how long each note is held, etc. Also worked on Tremblin' Tremolo in More BYCU. I start each practice session at two-thirds tempo and slowly work my way up to 90+ percent. I spend about 15 minutes just working on the first half of the song since that's the most difficult. It's getting better; it's a very fast and challenging song and will take quite a bit more work before I record it. I may need to spend more time on it each day, a half hour just doesn't seem to be enough for this one. Also worked on the first song in Troy Stetina's Heavy Metal Lead Guitar Volume 1. Man cannot live on blues alone  I finished that book a long time ago but my idea of "finishing" something was much different back before I started trying to get a good version of each song recorded for people to actually listen to. Also did my usual improving along with backing tracks. On bass I worked on Minor Soul Chop and Tremblin' Tremolo. Soul Chop is done and I've got quite a few takes recorded of Tremblin' Trem, some of which are okay though none that I'm totally happy with. Might keep working on that, might not. Also worked on Bass Aerobics; I got up to chapter 3 but decided to go back through chapter 2 again - I really like those songs and thought they improved my technique tremendously, but since you only spend a week on each song I wasn't able to get any of them up to full tempo (at least not while playing them well). I think I've been playing for a little over ten months now, that's probably the longest I've stuck with guitar in the last 25 years. It's all thanks to you guys on this forum keeping me motivated A huge thank you to each and every one of you, I'll buy you a beer if you're ever in the neighborhood! |
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Post by jack1982 on Mar 15, 2015 5:47:13 GMT -6
1). Check my tuning against the bass, Is my bass out of tune? I really should check stuff like that  Let me know if it is and I'll make a new recording. |
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Post by Phil on Mar 15, 2015 6:01:13 GMT -6
1). Check my tuning against the bass, Is my bass out of tune? I really should check stuff like that Let me know if it is and I'll make a new recording. Your bass is definitely in tune to itself. My son noticed that it sounded like we were not in tune to each other. It could be me or it could be that you're not in concert pitch. I'm not sure and will have to check it later. In any case I was going to contact you to see if you still had separate tracks for bass and drums on Reaper, and if you could render them separately as mono 320 mp3's like you did for me with "Jumpin' Blues." I'd like to boost the drums a bit and have more control over the final mix. Keep practicing "Tremblin' Tremolo" for a few more weeks. I'm finally getting a chance to catch up. |
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Post by jack1982 on Mar 15, 2015 6:11:40 GMT -6
Is my bass out of tune? I really should check stuff like that Let me know if it is and I'll make a new recording. Your bass is definitely in tune to itself. My son noticed that it sounded like we were not in tune to each other. It could be me or it could be that you're not in concert pitch. I'm not sure and will have to check it later. In any case I was going to contact you to see if you still had separate tracks for bass and drums on Reaper, and if you could render them separately as mono 320 mp3's like you did for me with "Jumpin' Blues." I'd like to boost the drums a bit and have more control over the final mix. Keep practicing "Tremblin' Tremolo" for a few more weeks. I'm finally getting a chance to catch up. Sure no problem, sorry about that! I'll re-record that bass and post separate tracks of the bass and drums on SoundCloud later today after I've gotten a bit of caffeine in me I had the bass really loud in comparison to the drums on that one, probably makes it hard to get the timing right. Yeah you're getting perilously close to catching up with me in that book  One of these days I'll finish Tremblin' Tremolo and finally get to some Groovin' Easy |
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 15, 2015 6:24:58 GMT -6
My report is easy this week - lazed on the Beach in Belize, did some incredible snorkeling, drank too much rum and Belikan beer... didn't touch the guitar. OK, good for the soul. Rejuvenated, ready to get back to it. I'd like to second what Joachim said above about using other sources - nothing wrong with that at all. Would also like to second what Jack said about helping to keep each other moving forward.
Bruce
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Post by cunningr on Mar 15, 2015 7:10:33 GMT -6
It's 2 pm here I am doctoring a terrible hangover resulting from last nights club hoping listened 2 to different blues bands and a flamenco group.
Got in 5 hours of real practice this week, had 2 days that I only got about 15 minutes of technical excercises, one night my son recruited me to make a video of him playing drums. This provided me an opportunity to use garageband to record the drums directly I mic, d a track to pick up the backing track, and used my iPad to record. 2 hours later I had a decent first time demo of him.
I started on preaching gospel blues, and spent time bending to pitch, and using metronome to play scales. I am trying to bring more attention to technical skills.
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Post by wannaplayblues on Mar 15, 2015 9:40:33 GMT -6
Ok, my practice routine has fallen apart and I got no BYCU work done this past week... but did a few other things on guitar. I got a new book which is geared toward technique and speed so will start that tomorrow along with some blues rhythm work from another book but will certainly get on with lead work from BYCU! Well, that's my plan anyhow. Will update you in a week It's mothering sunday here - so I was busy this morning visiting mum hence why I didn't start the thead @tbone. my bad! |
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Post by blackcountrymick on Mar 15, 2015 17:17:01 GMT -6
I got in about 10 hours guitar this week but no bass. I recorded a Troy Stetina rock guitar lesson I had been working on and ordered a book by Barrett Tagliarino to give me some structure to learning how to improvise.
I'm really enjoying working on "Slow Dance Dreams", a very melodic piece with arpeggiated chord rhythm with what John calls an active rhythm lead line over the top, although this is a slow song its going to be a challenge for me to get it to sound smooth. To provide a bit of variation I also have a funky blues solo and a "rockabilly" 12 bar shuffle in the practice pot.
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Then I pulled the backing track into Reaper and recorded myself. It was an unmitigated disaster! 
I finished that book a long time ago but my idea of "finishing" something was much different back before I started trying to get a good version of each song recorded for people to actually listen to.
Let me know if it is and I'll make a new recording.
One of these days I'll finish Tremblin' Tremolo and finally get to some Groovin' Easy 
