Time to start off our little a challenge!!

Post a reply in this thread where you put a link to your recording (for instance using www.yousendit.com). Also - let us know how long you have been playing (be honest!).

If you have any additional infrmation about the recording, feel to free write what you want.

If we get any contributions - we will take it from there.

/Kris

Hmm. Well it seems we have a slight lack of competitors...

I guess we will leave this challenge for a while and get back to it in a couple of months and see what happens then.

If anyone has an idea of what we might have missed we settting up the rules etc - please let me know.

cheers

kris

I will try to record and post something later.
I have been so busy lately I have not had time to actually record anything though I have been practicing this a bit.

Give it a few more days, I'm sure the lack of entries is entirely due to people spending so much time on them that they're not done yet. We can always hope at least.

Ok, I had a go

here is the link .

MY HOT BLUES TRY

I did it in just a couple of takes - I think I can do better but at least its a start.

I have been playing just over 2 years - No formal lessons. I cant play any whole songs really - just riffs and licks and stuff. I want to be able to take it a step further but I think I need to play with others in order to move to the next step really but I am finding that difficult at the moment - I am an older player (46) never picked up a guitar until 2 years ago.
I am hoping to find other musicians to "jam" with.

That's not a bad start at all. You've got a decent sound, and you got some vibrato in there. Once you get comfortable with the timing, that'll turn out to be a very respectable solo.

/T

Thanks Tank,
having listened to it a lot myself, I can tell the timing is way out in parts.

Timing Timing Timing...sigh. Always my problem is timing. My timing really is terrible.

I have tried to improve and I am sure I have a little, but not enough. I always wanted a Metronome that tells you the beat of the bar, i.e that calls out ",1,2,3,4,,1,2,3,4, etc rather than one that beeps, and perhaps a visual display that tells what bar you are in too?...is it too much to ask - does anyone know of such a device?

Every musician must develop a good sense of timing, so keep at it. It's as important as learning where to put your fingers. You are a right in persevering with a metronome. Until you can focus the beat in your head, never be too far away from a metronome when practising.

Boss to a range of metronomes called "Dr Beat". There is a DB88 and a DB 90 as far as I know, they have human voice counts. As far as telling you what bar you are in, I'm not sure, you'd need to check the specs. I'd assume that they are pretty expensive though, I don't use beep metronomes, so I couldn't tell you. I much prefer swing arms.

edit: Or alternatively you can download one for free from here:
http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tuner/tuner_e.html
look down the page, the metronome has voice counting which can be used as beats



/T

we are suposse to improvise around the hot blues solo not just play it right?

Excellent Metronome. Just what I always wanted. Thanks Tank

I just looked back over the original post from Kris

"Let's try to keep it simple. The aim of this challenge will be to use the "Hot Blues Solo" licks over the provided backing. Basically I want you to strictly use the licks from the lesson - and improvise around with them."

I missed the sentence, "Improvise around with them" lol I will have another go soon and mix up the licks a bit.

I did not see anybody responding to this post till a while ago. I put about 60 seconds of just add lib but with no backing track. I slowed it down a bit. I also worked the time in a measure from double time to almost playing behind the beat. A bit of major/minor rhythm at first to get a sense of structure. Octave slides are at the end. Also faded it out before I got to crazy.

I will do another with Kris's backing track.

Any complaints, see me here or email me at [email protected]

http://www.texasamp.com/gmc_blues_pentatonic.html

Thats what I am talking about !!!! - That is fantastic Texas, Thats why I play the guitar because I WANNA BE ABLE TO DO THAT....- great stuff, thanks for treating my ears and making me strive towards something.

I havent checked out the blues lesson yet. Maybe I l try to learn some of the lics tomorow and try to record something Saturday.
Cool initiative Kris!

Texasamp.. You have got great tone.. You have some great amps as well. I can really tell your into the blues.

Thanks for the compliment. Took many years to get my sense of time in my head and to play rhythm with short solo accents, and to sing at the same time.

Blues is my favorite to play cause the way it makes me feel. Don't get me wrong... I have studied classical for about a 2 year period. Listening to Adreas Sergovia (sp?) a lot.

I also dedicated a year to try to grab that style of Yngwie Malmsteem. Those arpeggios are hard to do plus his alternate picking is very fast. It strenghened me my blues licks though, and I use alternate picking for ascending and decending scales in minor or the pentatonic blues scale.

Regards,
Darrell S. :smoke

You've got a sweet sound mate, I've never really been turned on by the Fender sound, but that was ace. You've got a healthy set of amps too

I've recently been lucky enough to get lessons with an award winning guitarist, who's switched got me playing Malmsteen. I've never really been into his stuff before (though I studied Bach's cello suite's, and Paganini's Caprices at school many moons ago), but certainly getting his licks up to speed has improved my alt picking, and ironed out some technical defects no end.

Nice one

/T

What format do you want the sound files to be in ?
whats best for you ?

also ?
did you want us to improvise using our own sytles.
Or strickly stick with the lesson scales you have on the lessson ?

How are you guys recording over top of the track ?

or what programs are you using ? Cakewalk or what ever.
thanks
or whats the best way to covert it back to a *.mp3 file

Hey there!!

Seems we got some action in this challenge!!

What I suggest we do since I will be out office (more in this thread) - is to prolongue the contest time, basically I'll give you guys two more weeks to polish your recordings. The winner will get one month free gmc access.

I will get back and post some comments too!

/Kris

PS The new tapping lesson 3 has a backing track which I think will be cool for the next challenge!

+ 1

I really like that recording. Really nice to listen to. As I've only just started learning how to play the guitar, I'll just check out the recordings people made for this contest. It sure gives me inspiration.

Offtopic: Texasamp, you got any advice for a beginner (1week) in order to work on the techniques used in your recording? I'm starting to learn the basics - chords and basic scales - so there's alot ahead of me.

Really nice submission.

Hi Sammy,
This technique does not come over night. Learning how to bend, vibrato, finger roll, pull off, hammer on and alternate picking is the trick. My advice, do not learn wrong, because it is hard to retrain you mind to doing it the correct way a second time. Practice daily, keep your guitar close to you, so you can see it at all times. Do not practice till your hands are strained or till you are frustrated to the max. Do not try to learn more than 1 or 2 solos at a time.

Listen below:

My GMC recorded solo at normal speed.
http://www.texasamp.com/images/amp/guitarm...ll_GMC_Solo.wma

My GMC recorded solo at a very slow speed.
http://www.texasamp.com/images/amp/guitarm...c_solo_slow.mp3

This short lick that I had to learn back in the mid 80's is a basic pentatonic blues scale using, bends, finger rolls all using triplets and alternate picking. You need to divide this up into 3 or 4 sections and learn them one at a time till you have it down perfect. Lot of players try to play Stevie Rays licks but if you do not get each small bit perfect, it will not come off correctly.
http://www.texasamp.com/images/amp/guitarm...e_solo_fast.mp3

Here is the same lick very slow.
http://www.texasamp.com/images/amp/guitarm...hile_slow_2.mp3

Hopefully these links will play for you. If not, let me know or you can always go to...
http://www.texasamp.com/gmc_blues_pentatonic.html

Good luck,
Darrell
Texas Amplification

I took a little from lesson and added my own stuff.

http://chipspc.com/music/blues.mp3

Weeell...

Looks like we have a winner! Out of the two contestants who played over the hot blues backing, chipk1 is the winner!

I think chipk1 did a good job of combining both his own ideas with the ones presented in the lesson. Get it touch with me to get your one month free GMC access!

However, I also believe fretdander did a great job which shows he has practiced the licks seriously. Just make sure to follow the advice you got from this thread.

Comments on texasamp:

Fantastic recordings, everything is right, the feel, the sounds, the licks... Glad to have you here + thanks for the "mini lesson!".

/Kris