BACKGROUND

My name is Jeff and I am 41 years young. I am pretty much self taught and learned everything I know now by ear from either learning a cover tune, or it has rubbed off on me just by being around so many other great guitar players. There were about 6 years of my life when I was in my twenties where I really tried to practice a lot and take things more serious. I could never really afford lessons but looking back on everything it might have been cheaper than all the tape players I went through.. I am very excited to have you as my mentor and can’t wait to see how my playing will progress with your help. Finally lessons I can afford! Thanks GMC!..

CURRENT STATUS

I feel like I have a good since of rhythm and can hear a piece of music and come up with ideas in my head for melodies and guitar licks. The problem is I can’t always play the ideas that I’m thinking of in my head. My vibrato is OK I think mostly. I just need to relax and make it smoother and consistent. Bending a note to pitch isn’t a problem either. I can AP, sweep and play legato style but not as fast as I would like.

THEORY

Well here probably lies my biggest challenge. Being self-taught I really don’t know that much. I know how to link together boxes and shapes if that makes since. For example once I find one pentatonic box that fits I know where the other 4 boxes are and how to move to them. Same thing with the minor scale shapes. If I find one shape or scale then I know where to go from there. I really want to understand the modes and how to use them for making my solo’s more interesting. There is a great opportunity for improvement in this area.

CURRENT ROUTINE

I have only been able to practice once a week. Usually on the weekend I get one day where I can devote 4hrs give or take. Once I get warmed up I’ll either work on a collab or find a backing track to have some fun with. I haven’t had access to the lessons since October of last year so I’m not working on any of the lessons currently. However now I have renewed my membership so this will no longer be an issue. I will be devoting more practice time to this program and adding a few more days. I am still working out the details with my wife. Maybe you can give her a call like you did Monte’s and explain how important this is.

OVERALL GOAL

I want to be a more well rounded player and be able to compose or improv something like one of my favorite players which is Joe Satriani. I would also like to work towards being a GMC Instructor. This would really mean a lot. So I will also need your help with how to put together lessons, videos and syncing the audio at some point so things will be professional.


I can’t show you any videos accept the one I made to enter this competition with. I don’t have a web cam or camcorder at this point but I am working on it. If things go well I am hoping to at least purchase a good web cam in the near future. I have done quit a few collaborations so if you haven’t already listened to them I can point some of them out so you may get an idea of where I’m at with my playing. Recently (a few weeks ago) I participated in Emir’s Rock Ballad. I think he may be able to help you understand where I am at with my current playing.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Thanks Muris. I appreciate your time and will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Jeff

Sorry, "Bump" . Just wanted you to know I made the edit and added all the information.

Hello Jeff and welcome to my MTP.

No worries, I'll speak with Emir about your technical level and abilities.
In a mean while lets focus on theory and modes since you said
that it might be your biggest lacking atm,
we're gonna try to improve that as fast as possible.
Good thing is that video isn't the must for this kind of approach,
few mp3's and lot of talking would do the trick.

Here are couple of lessons I would like you to look at.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...lydian-soloing/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...g-intermediate/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/phrygi...g-intermediate/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...m-intermediate/

Once you do please let me know of your thoughts,
how much you do understand about those modes
and what is still a mystery to you.

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

This looks like a good plan to me. How about I start with the Mixolydian asap. We can have a good discussion about each mode as I’m working the lesson.

These lessons will help me clean up my technique and learn some cool new licks as well.

Mixolydian it is then.

Hey Muris, I wanted to give you a quick update with my progress. I have been working on the lesson all weekend. Some parts I can play at full speed and others I am struggling with. For example the licks in video 2 and video 4. These both involve AP and the one in video 2 bounces back between 2 different strings at a time, which makes it tougher. I found that by holding my pick different (more like you do) I have started getting more control, better muting with my right hand and have a more positive connection with the pick and string. Off course this will take some practice but I need to fix this now. Also I have small hands and short fingers so that doesn't help. Especially where I have to play on top of the neck the whole time like in video 2.

I am pleased with what I am learning from this lesson and once I get a few things corrected we should be able to move a little quicker.

When you get time could you please send me the backing tracks for 70bpm and 85bpm (full speed)? I am hoping to post an mp3 for you next week.

PS: Do you have any tips on how to get that warm huge delay sound? Like Delay time, feedback, mix etc. Reminds me of Eric Johnson but better and more defined.

Thanks

Great to hear you've been working out!!
Of course there are some problems
but that's pretty natural so have no wworries,
you'll feel great once you overcome those issues.

I'll send you backings asap
and as for Delay settings I can suggest you to set time like 400-500 bpm,
feedback and mix depend a lot of unit that you're using
but you try with about 3-4 repetitions and volume less
than your original signal, must do some tweaking.

Well Muris I have some good news and some bad news.

Good is I have a web camera (Logitech Quickcam 9000)

Bad part is I need to get used to making these and syncing everything up. I also need to get over being camera shy because my picking hand was tensing up after hitting the record button.

This is a short take of where I am at so far. It's at 70bpm. I still need to work on the last few licks. Also I have started practicing with a KAZ-BOX (metronome), which I have never done before. That's really helping. Changing the way I am holding the pick as I mentioned before kind of feels like starting guitar all over. It's becoming more comfortable and I can tell this is really going to help me play faster licks soon. My fingers are tucked in and I'm holding it more parallel.

The next video will be better bro don't worry. Well I guess it's back to the KAZ-BOX for me.

Congrats on camera Jeff !!!!!!!!

And about syncing, as far as I'm concerned it was very cool video,
both quality and syncing wise, just do it like this and we are GOOD!

As for playing, your picking looks and sounds very nice and accurate,
there was some problems with timing at 0:14, part starting for B note,
you went a bit "before" the backing.
Now, I'm not sure how did you setup your monitoring
but nice trick is to have backing playing much louder than your guitar,
it'll help you to hear groove better and stay in time.
Once you are done with the recording
you set both backing and guitar level as it should be, approx equal.

This was very good Jeff, keep it up, we'll make it.

Quick update for you bro!

Today I spent about 3 good hours working with my new friend the kaz-box. I'm feeling really good about this and more confident about my new AP picking technique. Everything is coming along great! I played faster today using AP cleanly than I ever have in my life. It's almost like climbing a wall I never could of before.

I will have an upload for you tomorrow. I've been working on my Muris/skillet tone also so I hope you will comment on that as well.

Cheerio's mate!

Those are awesome news Jeff,
it's hard to express your feelings when you're noticing major progress,
good work!

Ok, here is another take. Once again the camera nerves got the best of me on a few parts but it's not to bad. If I'm not recording myself I can play this with no problems. I'm sure I just need to make a few more videos and I will learn to relax.

On the 16th triplet lick going for the "B" note I almost dropped my pick. Sorry for the timing mistake and butchering the second to last lick but I ended on the right note and beat.

Hope your enjoying your trip to the US.

Weird, for some reason I can not watch your latest clip on my iPod,
older ones are fine tho, will look for net caffe or som.

I took the "&fmt=18" off the link. Maybe that was causing the problem with your iPod.

If you want to give it another try that's cool. I know your busy bro.

Cheers

I'm finally back home so I watched the clip without any problems.

There was some timing issues in second half of the lesson
and I can notice that you're having some problems with
straight AP so I would suggest that we focus on AP for a moment.
At 0:24 (in your latest clip) there are 16th triplets and then 32th runs,
play that section along for a while,
push your picking hand to do only up-down-up-down
and try to feel every note that you pick, start slowly
and build the tempo as you feel comfortable.
After that you have to continue with rest of the lesson
but it time, take a closer look at GP file or main video
to memorize all timings correctly, you're doing fine so far Jeff, keep it up!

Good to have you back home at GMC Muris and I hope you enjoyed your time in the US.

Thanks for the comments. I will get to work on this asap and post soon.
Timing is very important with all of your lessons. Once I get a little out of sync or miss a note then it is hard to recover.
Thanks for your patients.

Thanks Jeff, I had really great time in US!!

Take your time and let me know if I can assist you more.

Sorry for the delay Muris.

My son was on spring break, he has just started his first year with baseball and for Easter we had some family come visit which has all been nice.

I'm back to work and I'm feeling great! I will post some progress soon my friend.

Cheers!

Nice to hear you've been having a nice time Jeff,
MTP is rolling as always, I'll wait for new stuff from you!

Well I have good news and some bad news.

GOOD:
I got 8 hours or so of good practice time in this weekend and feel really good with my progress! I can almost play it at full spead now. It's weird, I pushed myself to play along with your lesson video and found it easier then playing it at 70bpm with the backing track. Anyway, I went back after playing full spead at 70bpm with the backing track and could feel the groove much better. Maybe it helped and got my hands more relaxed or something.

BAD:
I ran out of time and don't have an upload for you. Sorry!
I can try and do a video upload in the next day or so at 70bpm if you you want? We are suppost to have rain here the next few days so my son's Baseball practice is probably going to be cancelled. Or, since I almost have it at full spead (which is the goal anyway) I can keep working towards that and try for a video next weekend. If your just wanting to see how my AP is (to make sure you don't see any problems) I could also just upload a video with a metronome track playing the lick you asked me to work on.

Your call Muris, I'm cool with what ever. Thanks for your help and encouraging me to push myself

Progress is great, glad to hear Jeff!!

Don't worry about time issue, happens to all of us,
post whatever you can, everything will work just fine.

Hey Muris, sorry for not posting in a while. You know I didn't forget about this but had other things going on.

I will get back to the lesson plain soon (after I get the skin on my finger tips tuff gain).

I wanted to work on this so here is where I'm at after a few hours. I have an idea on what needs improvement but would like your thoughts if you have a minute. Licks need cleaned up for sure. This is as close as I could get to a good Tube sound with the Line 6 UX1 and a Strat. I find myself with these stock pickups (Low output, stock) playing (picking) harder then I should and my right hand gets tight (not relaxed like it should). The Notes don't come off clean and articulate. I'm not a Pro yet and not sure if I will ever be. But I'm having fun.

Thanks for your comments and Cheers,

Skillet

Click to view attachment

EDIT: Ok Muris, Steve and Monte where picking on me about the mix and my cheap guitar I'm going to tell there families tomorrow, but for now here is another mix according to there advice.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment


Sorry to get you in the middle of this mess but they will pay big when I'm done

Hey Jeff, great to hear from you in MTP, it's been a while indeed!

Good job with this Satch's tune,
you really have a nice feel for it and tone was sweet as well,
perhaps those low output stock pickups are causing you troubles for picking
but from what I hear it blend the backing very nicely!

Now, there are some sloppy parts, mainly faster legato runs.
They are sloppy but not because of your bad technique,
it's pretty only only because you still haven't figured out HOW to play those licks,
what's picked and what's legato.
Break those licks down, play them very slowly and track down every single note,
you seem to picked few notes eventho you had played them with legato already,
no need for that, that makes them to sound sloppy, nothing else.

Good work indeed, I like it very much,
do some polishing with those legato licks
and it'll be top notch.

Hey thanks Muris for your quick response. I'll clean up those Legato runs and get the rest of the song worked out. I think I'm trying to hard when I play those licks and not letting the notes just happen (I'm picking to much and rushing. I need to let the Legato flow). Your comments are spot on as usual.

My goal when I'm finished with this is to have one thing uploaded to Youtube that I can really be proud of and others may enjoy watching and learning from.

You're very welcome!!

Keep me updated with new takes on this tune,
we WILL clean it up, no worries.

Muris my friend, how are you?

I have decided with the new MTP format and the great responses (applications) from all the wonderful GMC students to step back and make my spot available for another student.

I just can’t seem to find the time to really take advantage of this opportunity at this point in my life and your talent needs to be shared. Taking this opportunity away from someone who is ready to work hard and learn isn’t right and it makes me feel bad. I’ll work on changing things and freeing up time (as I have been) but for now there’s someone that can use your great advice and wisdom. Right now I need to focus on being a husband, father and a provider for my family. This is just a fun hobby for me anyway. At some point I would like to come back and I hope you will consider me as a student when that time comes.

You have been very encouraging, helpful and always available when I needed you or had a question. I know what I need to work on for now so I’ll be fine.

Thanks for everything,

Well thank you Jeff, that's very kind.

I'm aware of your current situation tho,
you take your time and do what you have to do,
I hope soon enough things will get better and you'll have
more time your playing and enjoying guitar.
It was a pleasure to work with you indeed,
my MTP will hopefully run for a while
and as far as I'm concerned you're ALWAYS welcome!

All the best, stay safe and ofc see you around the forum.