Dinaga's Insane Lessons Hunt!, With small, achievable goals to success! :) Options

[Dinaga]

Hi and welcome to my Insane Lessons Hunt!

I've noticed that not many people post REC takes of Insane (Level 9 and Level 10) lessons, which is of course, reasonable because those lessons are so hard. It needs months, maybe even years for a regular guitarist to learn those lessons, and it's hard to stay motivated for so long!

That's why I started this topic: I want to learn some of the 'Insane' lessons - Because I'm nowhere near that level, it will take some time. But to keep my motivation I am going to post my slow success by recording myself playing the lessons at lower speeds, starting at 50%. Whenever I feel some noticeable improvement (for example, nailing a specific lick I couldn't do before or being able to play the lesson 10% faster), I'll post a new video, so that progress can be seen.

And the final goal is of course, to finish the Insane lesson and then laugh at the previous lame attempts. But until that, let's go slowly and precisely.

Some of the quotes that inspire me in my journey are:

"Anyone can be motivated to practice all day long, but few can find the motivation to practice every day." - Kristofer Dahl
"Speed is a byproduct of precision" - Todd Simpson
"The Only Opponent Is Within" - Ben Higgins
"That Floyd Rose guitar was a complete waste of money" - Father

Of course, it would be awesome if others joined this as well! It doesn't have to be level 9 or 10 lesson, just pick a lesson that's currently too hard for you and you think you'll need more time to learn it, so you can make smaller, achievable goals and post your progress here. We can give feedback to each other and constantly improve!

For now, here's two beginner attempts at Muris Varajić's lessons:
*Oriental Shred at 50% speed (yeah, I know I messed that diminished run in the ending, will improve that! ) and
*Mojo Oro - Part 1 at 60% speed.

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[Dinaga]

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like the idea

When I'm working on difficult lessons I use different approaches to master them. One of them is to isolate the more difficult parts and work on them as a loop over metronome. Another thing that I do is obviously to use the slower tempo backing tracks. And the third thing that I do is to create exercises that could help me with something that is being difficult for me. I usually create variations of the licks that allow me to play them in a repetitive way.

That's great approach! I too do the isolation and loop smaller parts until I get them done. When I learn all the parts I usually play the whole track on slower tempo because it makes the routine much more interesting. But the variations trick you use is a very good idea, I didn't come up with that before!

Yes, I saw you were working on the Extreme Neoclassical lesson, and I think it's one of the very few lessons here which is actually level 10 Good luck mate, I'm sure you'll master it well! I am really looking forward to see/hear your take on slower speed, no matter what it is, because this is such an awesome lesson!

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[Gabriel Leopardi]

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like the idea



That's great approach! I too do the isolation and loop smaller parts until I get them done. When I learn all the parts I usually play the whole track on slower tempo because it makes the routine much more interesting. But the variations trick you use is a very good idea, I didn't come up with that before!

Yes, I saw you were working on the Extreme Neoclassical lesson, and I think it's one of the very few lessons here which is actually level 10 Good luck mate, I'm sure you'll master it well! I am really looking forward to see/hear your take on slower speed, no matter what it is, because this is such an awesome lesson!

Curiously the part that I find most difficult at fast tempo is a part that doesn't have fast notes but some string skipping. I'm talking about this type of ideas:

  F                                              
  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S S  S  S  S  S  S  
------------------------------------------------|
----13-12-13-10-13----13----13---13----13----13-|
-------------------12----10----9----------------|
------------------------------------12----10----|
--8---------------------------------------------|
------------------------------------------------|


  G#dim                                          
  S      S  S  S S  S  S  S S  S  S  S  S  S E   
------------------------------------------------|
--------12-10-12-9-12----12---12----12----12----|
----------------------10----9-------------------|
--9------------------------------12----10----9--|
------------------------------------------------|
------------------------------------------------|

The skip from strings 2 to 4, only playing 1 note on each is what is giving me troubles. It's weird because I can play the Gilbert style three notes per string skips..

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[Dinaga]

Curiously the part that I find most difficult at fast tempo is a part that doesn't have fast notes but some string skipping. I'm talking about this type of ideas:

  F                                              
  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S  S S  S  S  S  S  S  
------------------------------------------------|
----13-12-13-10-13----13----13---13----13----13-|
-------------------12----10----9----------------|
------------------------------------12----10----|
--8---------------------------------------------|
------------------------------------------------|


  G#dim                                          
  S      S  S  S S  S  S  S S  S  S  S  S  S E   
------------------------------------------------|
--------12-10-12-9-12----12---12----12----12----|
----------------------10----9-------------------|
--9------------------------------12----10----9--|
------------------------------------------------|
------------------------------------------------|

The skip from strings 2 to 4, only playing 1 note on each is what is giving me troubles. It's weird because I can play the Gilbert style three notes per string skips..

String skipping is a beast! I practiced his song "An Old Modern Time" and it's a string-skipping night mare! The fastest I could go is 120 bpm (the original lesson is 158 bpm). This is a bit older recording, and the quality is bad because I filmed it with phone camera and no DAW:



I should probably return to practicing this one again. It sounds really good, especially for neoclassical fans.

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