Old Habits, Pentatonics And Download Festival! |
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Old Habits, Pentatonics And Download Festival! |
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Jun 11 2007, 01:31 PM |
1) My worst habit was by picking in a down stroke only - I am really trying to pick in both directions and short term it is slowing my progress. In your opinion is this something that will fix itself if I continue doing the exercises? I think my brain needs retraining! I think you have to practice alternate picking as an instance of it's own, not include it as a task to do while praticing other stuff. To my beliefe that will take longer and be less effective. I remember when I did it it took a lot of work until it was stuck brainwise. But as soon as it is, it will just be fluent. Hopefullt your brain can pick up on stuff like that faster than mine 2) I have been looking at your pentatonic scale stuff - again this is fantastic and something I never even looked at in 15 years of practice!!! I am struggling to 'improvise' at the moment (I suppose I've only been really at it for about 4 days). Do you recommend I stick to the exercises until I can get some confidence on the scales or should I try to improvise at a slow speed to get a better feel for moving around the fret board? If you learn att the boxes (or any other method) so that you find your way around, improvising will be easier too. Same there, struggle with the boxes (or how you decide to build it up) until you got the fretboard. And I said (or any other method) because what happened to me (many years ago) is that I got stuck in the boxes. There's a Kris's method for that aswell - Breaking out of the pentatonic boxes - or something like that. So for my sake, I wish I had learned the scales in a less "boxy" way. 3) Can I become a rock start at 32? I hate my day job and I kind of fancy doing the Download Festival at Donnington next year!!! Maybe headline it the year after that! Keep up the good work - Awesome stuff. A success story, kind of, there was this guy who picked up a guitar, learned everything about it and became a "rock star" in just two years. It was only in his town but still, he was the local guitar hero. It lasted for a couple of years, I just googled him and saw that now he's running a music management company of some sort. I don't think age matters that much really but it takes time to establish and you have to have something original to offer. Hope things work out for you -------------------- My bands homepage
All time favourites: B. Streisand - Woman in Love, M. Hopkin - Those were the days, L. Richie - Hello |
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Jun 11 2007, 02:14 PM |
2) I have been looking at your pentatonic scale stuff - again this is fantastic and something I never even looked at in 15 years of practice!!! I am struggling to 'improvise' at the moment (I suppose I've only been really at it for about 4 days). Do you recommend I stick to the exercises until I can get some confidence on the scales or should I try to improvise at a slow speed to get a better feel for moving around the fret board? When you build your training schedule, make time for straight technique practice - both alt picking and Pentatonic boxes, but also make sure you make time to practice some improv. Use the pentatonic, and one of Gabriels Blues backing tracks - Gabriels lessons are full of ideas for bluesy pentatonic playing, and would be an excellent place to start getting ideas. 3) Can I become a rock start at 32? I hate my day job and I kind of fancy doing the Download Festival at Donnington next year!!! Maybe headline it the year after that! Keep up the good work - Awesome stuff. You are never too old - its about whether you want that kind of life and if you have something to offer. -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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Jun 15 2007, 10:34 PM |
I sent this as an email to Kris a few days ago and he, correctly, asked me to post it in the forum. So any thoughts would be appreciated, particularly the questions at the end... Hi I joined your website last week - I've been playing guitar for almost 15 years (on and off). I hadn't been playing for a couple of years then decided I would like to give it another go, so I dusted off my Gibson Les Paul, got my pick out and tried playing some stuff!!! Doh! I was fairly crap! I had played 15 years almost exclusively rhythm so when I tried to play some Iron Maiden solos I failed miserably! BUT I found your site, WOW what can I say - I've been doing the metronome exercises for about 4 nights (1 hour each) and I can almost play some nifty riffs - I still can't play the Iron Maiden solo but I guess with a couple of months on the lessons I should be able to crack it. THANKS a lot, it's a great site. It seems I was practicing the wrong things. Just a couple of questions... 1) My worst habit was by picking in a down stroke only - I am really trying to pick in both directions and short term it is slowing my progress. In your opinion is this something that will fix itself if I continue doing the exercises? I think my brain needs retraining! 2) I have been looking at your pentatonic scale stuff - again this is fantastic and something I never even looked at in 15 years of practice!!! I am struggling to 'improvise' at the moment (I suppose I've only been really at it for about 4 days). Do you recommend I stick to the exercises until I can get some confidence on the scales or should I try to improvise at a slow speed to get a better feel for moving around the fret board? Keep up the good work - Awesome stuff. OMG!!! This is exactly and i mean exactly my story except ive ben playing guitar for 6 years and mostly rythm. Im now branching off into lead and built a bad habit of only down picking not alternate. I atempted the Iron maiden lesson a few days back and faired off pretty well in the first bit i attempted but at slower speed. Im also new to scales and am having difficultuy memorizing penatonic scales. I also have dreams of quitting high school and just form a punk band and play in concerts like download. I suggest you form or join a punk band as a rythem guitarist. It would be a peice of cake witha few month of practice as you mostly play power chords. I joined a metal band called Throwdown as a rythem guitarist. Luckily we have an awesome lead so we still gig and next year weve been booked for a few concerts at community centres and stuff. So good luck my 30 year old twin... Oh yea, Im 16 -------------------- _____________________________________________________
Part of the key to success is to never call yourself good... My RIg: -Epiphone 1967 FLying V -Line 6 POD XT live -VOX Valvetronics AD30VT -Yamaha EG-112 -Yamaha GA-10 -Some Yamaha acoustic which is a magnet to dust under my bed End World Hunger |
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