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Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 18 2012, 05:20 AM

Hi DarkWaveRiffer!! Welcome to your http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=43110 thread!!

Could you please tell me a bit about you, your musical tastes, influences, strengths and weaknesses? I would need some videos of you playing rhythm and solo guitar, so please post your best material here. If you have some music or ideas of your own, also post them here. Also let me know how you think that I can help you and what are your expectations for our job. You can check the other Army's thread to discover the different modalities of this project.


The principles of our Army are:

+ Improve your technique
+ Make music and solos
+ Have fun
+ Destroy the enemy (hahaha not realy just kidding... )

Posted by: DarkWaveRiffer Apr 18 2012, 12:48 PM

Hi Gab, Thanks for the invite. Here is a bit about my influences, and strengths/weaknesses as a guitar player. I will also include my background. Basically can start me off at beginner lead stuff (2-3, maybe 4). My signature contains links to Cosmin, and my EPIC journal where I have links there to my some of the recorded lessons of my progress I have tried.

My influences: Metallica (The Black Album and earlier),Disturbed, Atomship, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Amorphis, Dead Letter Circus, CKY, The Red, Volbeat, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, 10 Years, 12 Stones, Gary Numan, In Flames, Manmade God, Muse, Saliva, Seether, Perfect Circle, Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Queens Ryche, Trouble, Bullet For My Valentine, Joe Bonamosso, SRV, Dark New Day, Black Lab, Adelle

As you can see I have a range of influences but mostly Metal, and Rock.

Background: I am 37 years old. I got my first guitar when I was 16. It was a Ibanez RG, and I still have it. I took a few lessons, but I was having issues with my mom, ended up moving back to my dad's, and didn't pick up the guitar until about 2 years ago.I was going through a rough patch in my life. Trying to find something that made my life feel worth it. My daughter gave me purpose, but something was still missing. I neglected to mention I had all these ideas about why I couldn't play guitar which to be honest I am still dealing with:
My fingers are crooked, My memory is bad, My eye sight isn't good,God didn't give me the talent to play, so I must not be meant to play. Those beliefs kept me from pursuing guitar. Then I saw a youtube video of a guy playing guitar with his feet! That killed all my execuses. I still had my Ibanez. Always swore I would learn to play it some day. Then I saw this red guitar online. An AX400 LTD. It was wicked looking. I just knew if I had that guitar I would learn to play.

I got the guitar. My cousin paid for it on his credit card, and I gave him the money for it.I picked it up at his apartment. His friends were over there, and of course everyone wanted to hear me play.I tried to make up some excuse of not playing, but before I knew it, I was taking the guitar out of the case, and plugging in. It was an awful experience. The look of "You suck" reflected back at me. I scoured the internet looking for a miracle that would teach me guitar as fast as possible. I found Metal Method. I bought it, and tried to get through disk 1, made some progress, but my old excuses were haunting.

Almost a year went by with me tooling around on my guitar with no real progress. I decided to get a guitar teacher.
First teacher was good, but narcasistic, and spent more time talking about his bad marriage, and showing off on the guitar, then teaching me. My second teacher was very good, but he had this dark cloud over him. He was either in a bad mood, or thinly masking his frustration with my failure to grasp what he was trying to teach me. He is actually one of Troy Stetina's old students. I just didn't feel comfortable with him. Then I found my current teacher. He is patient, and very good at helping me with techniques, and theory. I would say his own lacking is structure.

I mentioned this in my introduction, but I often hear music when I dream. Music I never heard before. I have been lucky enough to remember the melody, and lyrics sometimes, and write them down. My teacher put some of the to guitar, and recorded it. I can't wait until I am good enough to play this music I hear in my dreams.

Strengths: Creativity, Drive, Power Chords, Palm Muting, Hammer Ons, Tapping Can name a note on the fret board in less than 6 seconds.
Weaknesses: Rhythm, Lead, Speed, Accuracy Lack of Scale, and Chord knowledge, Pull offs, Bends

QUOTE (Gabriel Leopardi @ Apr 17 2012, 11:20 PM)

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 18 2012, 04:50 PM

Hi mate! Thanks for this complete introduction. It really clarifies me who you are and how we should work.

The first thing that I want you to check and incorporate in your life is a positive way of thinking. I will share with you motivating videos and writes all the time since "keeping motivated" is the most important thing. This is the first video that I will share with you:



and now... some work to do:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=42825
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Hand-Basics/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/right-hand-basic1/

Could you please post a video of you playing this 3 exercises in a week?

Posted by: DarkWaveRiffer Apr 19 2012, 06:30 AM

hi Gab,
Good video, He has some very valid points. Don't lose sight why you are playing guitar in the first place. When I rejoined a few weeks back I started following Ben's Bushido Tasks, and The Picking Hand Basics was the first task. So I am pretty familiar with that exercise. Just to let you know I have about 30 minutes a day to dedicate to each of my three mentors. So please keep that in mind. On the weekends I try to put in 9 hours over the weekend. I checked out the exercises, and they definitely are within my capability. I will give them a go. Thanks for your time!

QUOTE (Gabriel Leopardi @ Apr 18 2012, 10:50 AM)

Hi mate! Thanks for this complete introduction. It really clarifies me who you are and how we should work.

The first thing that I want you to check and incorporate in your life is a positive way of thinking. I will share with you motivating videos and writes all the time since "keeping motivated" is the most important thing. This is the first video that I will share with you:



and now... some work to do:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=42825
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Hand-Basics/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/right-hand-basic1/

Could you please post a video of you playing this 3 exercises in a week?

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 19 2012, 04:56 PM

QUOTE (DarkWaveRiffer @ Apr 19 2012, 02:30 AM)