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Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 13 2012, 09:24 AM

Task 25 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQE8p3upOBA

A new lick for ya from Higgins himself !! Notice that the ending phrase is the same as the Penta Shred 3 lick but everything else is more tricky !

I created these licks to not only give some ideas for pentatonic phrases but also to introduce you to some of the picking pattens that I use. They might seem unusual so if you really don't get on with them, then feel free to modify it to something more natural for you but I do encourage you to give my picking approach a go.. there's method in my madness !

I use consecutive down strokes where many people might use upstrokes instead.. I like the forceful sound that it gives. The down side is that it can make it harder to stay in time but see how you guys manage with it !


 Penta_Shred_4.gp5 ( 1.93K ) : 128


Deadline is next Friday 20th July or I'll make you dance around wearing a tutu in front of the Apprentice group !

Posted by: HungryForHeaven Jul 13 2012, 12:35 PM

Ok, I'll post an audio take. Just to have done something for this whole Bushido thingy.

 Warrior_25_bt_110bpm___H4H.mp3 ( 173.06K ) : 206


The picking pattern reminds me of this lesson:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/horizontal-arpeggios-lesson/

I'm off on vacation now!

H4H

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 13 2012, 12:48 PM

Yeaaaaah - with drums and everything ! Most triumphant take !

That does mean that I have to give you a Donut now !

Where are you going on vacation H ? Tell us all

Posted by: HungryForHeaven Jul 13 2012, 01:35 PM

And bass, in case you didn't notice the B notes. Thanks for your kind words, though.


No kidding!


Going to Norway for a week or so. Beautiful country, and the forecast says... rain, rain, and some rain.

Posted by: gregc1 Jul 13 2012, 02:21 PM

Heeeey, I think I can do this one at a decent speed.

I'll give it a try... later after work

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 13 2012, 02:22 PM

Niiice !

Rain.. just like here !

Posted by: DeGroot Jul 13 2012, 04:12 PM

Nice one H4H! Man, I just woke up and there is already a take?!

Cool sounding lick. This picking pattern comes a little more natural to me than the Penta shred 3.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 13 2012, 04:18 PM

Yeah, that is a bit mean isn't it ??

Posted by: maharzan Jul 13 2012, 08:18 PM

Its so odd doing this kind of licks after having done virtually no sweeping exercises and tonnes of AP stuff.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 14 2012, 11:41 AM

Well, we like to keep you constantly on your toes here in The Temple !

By the way, you guys haven't had any push ups for a while.. so 1000 push ups for you all before you pick up your guitars today !

Posted by: Opetholic Jul 15 2012, 06:10 PM

Forget about playing anything, I didn't want to even see my guitar for the entire week last week I think this is due to an overdose of alternate picking exercises.. So today I decided to pick up my guitar again and here is my take for this week's task (luckily this week we don't need to have a great tone )

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 15 2012, 06:40 PM

Great to see some action from you, Mert !

You nailed those patterns easily.... I think you can do a better job at bending my friend so maybe we should think about setting you up with some bending licks or lessons ?

Posted by: DeGroot Jul 15 2012, 09:38 PM

Ok, here is my try!

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 16 2012, 08:29 AM

Niiiice ! Did you use use an economy upstroke approach for this ? That's the way I used to play stuff like this... is another good approach to do

Posted by: maharzan Jul 16 2012, 11:06 AM

Wow great takes you guys!

Opetholic, you are on a spree man.. I just sa you posted Mojo Oro 3 too. Wow!!

Posted by: Opetholic Jul 16 2012, 11:15 AM

Thanks Chandra The third part is like the first one except for the crazy run at the end. Honestly I could have done better with the third part but I think I've had enough Mojo Oro Practicing too much alternate picking somehow killed my enthusiasm to play the guitar I mean I can do fast AP but it is sort of pointless, I can't do that kind of stuff while improvising, it is only after I practice, you know what I mean?

Posted by: maharzan Jul 16 2012, 11:58 AM

You are telling me ? I can't even improvise. I have tried to learn it since past 2 years.. but its been vain. Haven't really found anything that clicks yet.

Posted by: DeGroot Jul 16 2012, 05:19 PM

Thanks! Yeah, I kinda got locked in with playing it like that. I tried both ways and just had a better flow for me with the economy upstroke. I can see why you play it your way with the added power to the downstroke.

Posted by: DeGroot Jul 16 2012, 05:46 PM

Just checked out Mojo Ojo 3! Real inspiring to see you play such intensive and demanding lessons. I'm sure you'll find playing all these demanding lesson will not be "pointless". You'll have that conditioning and sync that a lot of players strive for. I'm sure it will naturally carry over into a lot of your future playing. Just look how effortlessly you play the penta lick.

Btw, have you checked out Mojo Ojo 4 yet? hehe, kidding...

Posted by: Opetholic Jul 16 2012, 06:12 PM

Thank you for the encouragement DeGroot It means a lot to hear good things from good players. Oh man if there was a Mojo Oro part 4 I think I might have gone crazy

And Chandra, about not being able to improvise, well join the club

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 16 2012, 06:24 PM

I think it also depends what kind of angle your hand is to the guitar body. If it's quite parallel, then the upstroke thing works better but if you have more of a Friedman type thing going on, then it lends itself to down stroke power !

I like both..



It's one of those things that seems really difficult and elusive but it does directly correlate to how much time you spend doing it. I haven't really played guitar for a while and it's been even longer since I really improvised properly so my skills will be way done on that score

I find the best way is to focus on something small. Take about 3 notes from a scale you really like and start messing around with them, figure out why they sound good etc and then try to put your own spin on them.

Posted by: gregc1 Jul 17 2012, 01:44 AM

Here's my offering for this task. This pattern seemed a little more natural for me than some of the last few. Picking pattern seemed like my tendency as well so I got sort of lucky there.

Ben, I've been focusing a lot lately on getting my hand a bit more parallel to the strings like you mentioned to try and kill some of that noise. I still seem to eventually fall back to my normal way but it's feeling a little more normal now and I do hear a difference in certain situations (although this take is a little noisy). That noise has been a struggle of mine for a while so I appreciate the tip to help in fixing that.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 17 2012, 08:30 AM

Nice one, Gregmaster ! Sounding very smooth

Ah ok, good... hopefully it just takes a little adjustment and doesn't affect your picking as I wouldn't want you to compromise your natural way of playing too much. Picking is a pain in the backside sometimes. One might find an angle where they're able to slice through the strings nicely with speed but then it leaves them open to noise or vice versa.. Just takes a bit of playing around.

I remember an old article from Vai where he says about focusing on the end result.. the perfect sound. As long as we focus on achieving that perfect sound then gradually the elements involved in playing guitar align themselves with the aural result we're going for. That's the idea !!

Posted by: Opetholic Jul 19 2012, 11:22 AM

I think it is now a commonly accepted truth that my vibrato and bending skills suck so as a start C-Maestro assigned me your Vibrato Odyssey lessons I hope I can do justice to them.. See you in the REC zone sometime soon Benmeister I am just a bit scared though that I will lose my AP skills if I don't work on them everyday and instead focus on articulation

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 19 2012, 12:43 PM

Ah, sounds good ! Well done to C-man

No you won't lose it... I haven't lost mine and I don't practise AP much