Englishman in New York (nearly) Options

[Andrew Cockburn]

Hi All,

Thought I'd introduce myself :-) I am a 39 year old Brit, recently moved to Connecticut USA. I've been playing guitar for probably 30 years now, starting at school on classical, then teaching myself electric later. I have played in a few bands, and done a lot of home recording, but for the last 15 years I have been lazy and kind of plateau-ed out, rehashing the same old scales and licks. About 3 months ago I got myself a Line6 Variax 700, and it totally inspired me to become a better guitarist. First, I bought Kris's Video online - awesome ! But I became scared at how little I really knew about lead guitar. From there I found my way to GMC and immediately joined when I saw Kris was an instructor - hi Kris!

Now the hard work begins - I have to unlearn bad habits, and add to the 2 major and 1 pentatonic scales that have got me this far. On the one hand, I feel like I have to start again from scratch, but on the other hand, I feel inspired that there is still so much out there to learn !

Wish me luck ...

Regards,

Andrew

[Steelkonsum]

Hi All,

Thought I'd introduce myself :-) I am a 39 year old Brit, recently moved to Connecticut USA. I've been playing guitar for probably 30 years now, starting at school on classical, then teaching myself electric later. I have played in a few bands, and done a lot of home recording, but for the last 15 years I have been lazy and kind of plateau-ed out, rehashing the same old scales and licks. About 3 months ago I got myself a Line6 Variax 700, and it totally inspired me to become a better guitarist. First, I bought Kris's Video online - awesome ! But I became scared at how little I really knew about lead guitar. From there I found my way to GMC and immediately joined when I saw Kris was an instructor - hi Kris!

Now the hard work begins - I have to unlearn bad habits, and add to the 2 major and 1 pentatonic scales that have got me this far. On the one hand, I feel like I have to start again from scratch, but on the other hand, I feel inspired that there is still so much out there to learn !

Wish me luck ...

Regards,

Andrew

Awesome! Welcome mate!

It's never too late to learn more about guitar, or anything for that matter. And you seem to have some nice experiences - if you have some material of yoruself playing feel free to upload it on the upload section to get comments and tips on how to improve!

[Andrew Cockburn]

Hi Steelkonsum !

Yes, I'll see if I can find some guitar solos I'm not too embarrassed about and I'll post them for comment.

[Kristofer Dahl]

Hey Andrew - welcome!

I see you have already contributed with some greats posts Looking forward to hear more from you.

Kris

[Andrew Cockburn]

Thanks Kris - I am loving GMC!

[Andrew Cockburn]

Wow, who was this guy???

Well I thought that since it was just past the 1 year anniversary of my arrival at GMC that I'd take some time and reflect on what I have learned over the last year - please indulge me

When I joined GMC I was looking for a way to take my playing to the next level - I was completely bored with my playing. It was workmanlike, but not technically or emotionally inspiring, at least to me. Heres an example - I posted this a few days after I joined GMC:

 The_Work_Song.mp3 ( 1.51MB ) Number of downloads: 107


Ok, no bad notes, I used the right scale, but DULL and LIMITED. When I found Kris though freelicks, his DVDs then made my way to GMC I knew I had found something special. I immediately set about getting better. Now, a year later, I have boosted my playing for sure. I don't recognize the player I was then - I have so many more techniques to use, even though I am just starting out with many of them. In the last year just in terms of guitar playing, I have:

• Learned about muting and cleaned up my playing
• Started proper Alt picking
• Learned about using a metronome
• Learned the mechanics of sweeping
• Improved my tone & phrasing
• Boosted my Legato
• Started Tapping
• Improved the way I hold my pick
• Changed my pick for a thicker one
• Understood the importance of relaxation - lost a lot of tension in my playing which helps with fluidity
• Upgraded my Vibrato
• Moved out of 2 pentatonic and 2 major boxes and opened up the fretboard
• Learned about the existence of 3 note per string scales
• Started intentionally playing and composing with modes

But it doesn't end there when I started, most lessons were by Kris, and Pavel had started about a month earlier ... Kris very kindly allowed me to start contributing theory lessons, and over time gave me my very own forum, and eventually made me a Theory instructor, that was a day of deep honour to me - I felt (and still feel) that I am nowhere near the skill of players that Kris was by now recruiting to GMC - Marcus, Dave Walliman, Gabriel, but I did enjoy writing on aspects of theory and after a year we have a good library of lessons. Still more work to be done here, but now I can answer most theory questions with "check out such and such lesson"

The funny thing is that I never thought of myself as a theory expert - I had had some training at school and picked up a lot through 30 years of playing, but sitting down and writing about it really crystalized a lot of theory I had in my head and I started to really understand things a lot better, which I hope I have communicated in my lessons. A seminal moment for me was when Tank finally got me to understand modes (thanks Tank!) - 3 weeks later I had written a lesson on modes as If I had been playing them for years - in fact I had, I just didn't know it, and I now had names for some of these wierd scales I had been playing To this day, I get a warm glow when I manage to explain something on the boards and a light comes on in someones head, and they say, "Oh, I get it now!". So I say to all the people patiently working through my lessons, a huge thankyou!

But it doesn't end there - while I was still basking in the glow of my new instructor-hood, Kris was finding it harder and harder to keep the forum under control as it grew from a few active users to hundreds of posts per day. I was surprised and honoured when Kris asked me to help him with this, and as you know, since then I have also become the forum moderator, and have spent some time working on guidelines and trying to keep things organized so that Kris can concentrate on developing new instructors and working on the site. I have recently been helped in this by an awesome group of guys - the rest of the moderators who we introduced one by one - Micke, Uncreator, Tonymirro and most recently Smells - thanks guys you are doing an incredible job!

One of the great joys of moderating for me of course is banning members - and as a special one year anniversary present, Kris has greatly increased my banning quota so that I can ban up to 10 members a day, I'm really looking forward to it - I think I will start picking members at random this afternoon ... mmmmwwwaaahhhaaaahaaaaaa ...

Only kidding of course - one of the best things about moderating GMC is that it is so damn civilized that as moderators we rarely need to do anything, so a big thankyou to all in the GMC community - you guys all rock, and I am glad to know you all!

Which brings me to my final list - what else have I done through GMC?

• Bought Several new Guitars
• Met a lot of cool people from across the globe who I am honoured to call friends
• Seen GMC grow from 1 lesson a week to 3 lessons per day
• Learned about a bunch of cool new guitarists and boosted my music collection
• Learned a lot more about different guitar types
• Learned about tube amps
• Built my own tube amp

So, here it is, one year on, and I now sound like this ... I am pleased about my improvement and looking forward to the next year of solid progress !

 Rock_Ballad_BT.mp3 ( 1.15MB ) Number of downloads: 129

[MickeM]

Welcome new guy!

I'll have a listen later... Swedish Eurovision song contest on the TV, I can't be distrurbed right now.

This post has been edited by MickeM: Feb 9 2008, 09:16 PM

[JVM]

Awesome progress andrew! I think it's about time you started making your own video lessons

[Slammer]

... and add to the 2 major and 1 pentatonic scales that have got me this far...

Don't worry Andrew there are lots of Theory Experts here who will help you learn some new scales.

[botoxfox]

Don't forget that in the last year on GMC, you also finally learnt how to spell definitely correctly.

[MickeM]

Don't forget that in the last year on GMC, you also finally learnt how to spell definitely correctly.

Yeah, definately!

[Andrew Cockburn]

Don't forget that in the last year on GMC, you also finally learnt how to spell definitely correctly.

[Andrew Cockburn]

Don't worry Andrew there are lots of Theory Experts here who will help you learn some new scales.

Gee, thanks Slammer - you sound like a helpful chap, I look forward to getting to know you better

[Slammer]

[blindwillie]

So, here it is, one year on, and I now sound like this ... I am pleased about my improvement and looking forward to the next year of solid progress !

You have achieved a lot in one year Andrew.
Get a beer and put it o my tab, you have deserved it.

Met a lot of cool people from across the globe who I am honoured to call friends

The above is so true. It's rare to find a place online where people get along like this. I don't know you all really, yet there are alot of people here I think of as friends.

[Andrew Cockburn]

You have achieved a lot in one year Andrew.
Get a beer and put it o my tab, you have deserved it.

Thanks

[mattacuk]

Fantastic post Andrew! Heres to you, my good GMC buddy You have looked after me in times of need, supported me in my thirst for theory knowledge and most of all been a really good friend !!

I hope we will be good friends for many years to come

PS. Does anyone feel like singing a Sting song?

[Andrew Cockburn]

I hope we will be good friends for many years to come

Of course And thankyou for setting such a good Theory example

[DeepRoots]

Andrew- i would still be on the Am pentatonic if it weren't for you!

Not only have you showed me lots of awesome theory lessons and have been mighty patient with me on PM but you also inspired me to take theory in to my own hands and absorb as much as i possibly can!

Its thanks to you that im earning a couple of extra £ a month teaching theory to beginners, and starting next week ill be giving my first guitar lesson to somebody twice my age

Life is good- and you got the ball rolling- cheers Andrew!

[fkalich]

song was really nice. and I mean really nice. very precise, but not mechanical, had a lot of feeling. I don't hear a lot of uploads so lacking of flaws. and it is just as hard to play slower like that as fast. very hard to hide flaws, guys playing fast have a much easier time doing that.

My flattery this does not mean I want you to go easy on me when I do eventually upload My Grandfather's Clock. However, I intend to make it as perfect as yours here, except more likely to set my dog's hair on fire.

edit: typo

This post has been edited by fkalich: Feb 9 2008, 10:42 PM