Hey Muris,

Firstly, love your album after I downloaded it from itunes

Secondly, I've now been a memeber on GMC for a month now and realise it is a vast resource of great potential to improve my guitar playing.

The trouble is I'm not particularly disiplined in my practicing which is going to hold me back. I just want to ask your advice on developing a practice routine to, i) make me a better player and ii) fun

I don't know if you have heard any of my playing within the forums but you may know what areas to work on but to help you here is a list where I think I am atm.

Here's what I know;

1. Know major and minor scales and pentatonic major and minor and blues scales though only in a single, (at best 2) 'box' position for all keys. This prob why my improvising is a bit stale.

2. Basic knowledge of how major / minor chords are constructed.

I think I'll stop there. I'll be grateful for any advice.

Thanks

Well first of all you shall expand your boxes knowledge to all 7 when it's about major-minor
and to all 5 when it's about pentatonic.
As you said,it'll surely improve your improvisation
and you'll be more confident while switching positing during some work-outs.

Good thing about guitar is when you nail one key boxes wise
you can apply same formula to any other key with simply moving it up or down few frets.

Now on theory.
Triads are sort of basic,like major,minor,diminished etc.
By simple adding one 3rd above 5th you'll get 7th chord,then 9th chord...
And it's all related to notes in one scale-key that you're currently in so
so you'll find different types of chords on different scale degrees.

This is what I think you shall try to achieve
But main problem is routine to get it and it's fully up to you
and your will to spend more time on it.

Let me know how's it going,I'll be glad to help if I can.
And thanks,glad you liked the album,appreciate it!!

mmm been having a think during my lunch on how to improve and I 've come up with this based on Kris's dividing the practice sesson in 1/3.

1. Warm up

First 1/3

Learn a new scale position (would you suggest a major /minor or pentatonic for fretboard knowledge?) and interlink them into a known scale positions with sliding and / or hammer ons and pull offs. all with a metronome of course!! I currently I do assend / decending runs in triplets which is ok but could do with something to liven the sesson up.

Second 1/3

Pick a backing track to improvise over with new scale positions to develop licks and rifffs and record session for review.

Last 1/3

Work on a GMC lesson in progress, and record it.

What do you think? Would you add / change anyhing?

Edit:- I've been hunting round on the site and found your Pentatonic Substitution Lesson Looks like a good exercise to do.

I would use both major/minor and pentatonic for investigating the fretboard.
As you know,pentatonic is just a part of minor or major scale
so you're not gonna have to do "double" work.

And add jamming to all this,
it's good way to chill and find some nice chops.
Jam with and without metronome/backing,jamming rules.

Yes that would make sense. Doh!!



That has been one of my problems too much messing about without "really" learning anything, but a good jam is a good way to end the sesson.

Thanks Muris. I'll leave you alone for a bit for some serious practice

No problem at all,feel free to ask if you need anything else,
I'm here because of you guys.

Hiya Muris,

Ok I've been learning a major scale position on the fret board which is fine. I know how the scale sounds also know that each major scale has a relative minor scale for example in the key of Gmajor, Eminor is the relative minor because it shares the same notes. Is there anything else I should be learning from this?

I've noticed on the forums that other people are looking at using 3 to 4 notes per string to go up and down the scale in order to stop becomming confimed to scale boxes. I was wondering if the tab enclosed is how this exercise would look.

So many questions lol

Thanks again

I see your point quite well.

This is my approach to it tho.
I'm trying to think of scale as a group of 7 notes(still in diatonic,major,minor etc).
Now,don't "lock" your self by just playing those notes in a row
as scale is constructed but try to choose nice and interesting note combinations from it,
they are endless after all...

And yeah,using 4nps will surely expand your vision over fret board
and make your "runs" bit different.
But once more,don't consider scale as a "run" from note to note and up,
look at it as a pot full of candy and you can pick whatever you want from there.

I love that! I usually say "look at the scale as the collection of all notes you can use" or something dull like that - I like the candy pot soooo much better

Thanks Andrew

I see your point Muris, guess I'm a dumb guitarist

I'll try and play around with the scale see what happens. I'm prob at that stage where I just need to keep playing / practicing and then the penny will drop. It just seems its taking me for ever!

Its prob a combination of lack of technical ability and a lack of knowledge the trick is combining the two.

Would writing an excercise in guitar pro help? I've only just got it and not fully looked into it.

Thanks again.

Not sure 100% would it help but give it a try,why not.

As you said,more practicing and many things will be a lot cleaner and better.
Keep us updated,I'll be more that glad to help if I can!!