Hey there Bondy!!

Very excited to start getting down to some of the MTP stuff

Thought I'd at least introduce myself first, and then we can talk about what we'd like to do!

So... In contradiction to my silly user name, I despise being called AJ - it's just my intials! That's not to make you feel bad for calling me AJ earlier, as that would be a rather distressing first post to you as a mentor

I made the mistake of having my first email address as ajmurrell - and my mates all decided it would be hilariously funny to call me AJ dispite my dislike of it, unfortunately the more I disliked it, the more my mates got used to calling it me!

So yes, I'm Adam, and that little ramble above is something I suffer from, it's like a ramble-torrets, just to warn you!

Hi Adam well we are in the same country in the same time zone so thats a good start, I'm also a bit of a rambler so you we should go together well, I look forward to my first lesson.

Yeah I was talking to Vaialation last night about that, it works out well for us!

I've had a look at your entry video's for the MTP, so I know you'd like to improve your Alternate picking, Sweep picking and Clean playing and I was just wondering if there was anything else you wanted to add that you might want to work on?

I see you're also a Yngwie fan I have a couple of lessons that are right up that street if you're interested!

I wanted to wait for the sylabus thats being provided before discussing a definite plan with you, but I was thinking if we had up to 4 key areas that you wanted to improve, in 4 weeks we can fit them all in nicely and get a little practice reigme going

I'm not sure how hard you want to be pushed, so it might be good if you could let me know realistically how many hours a week you have to put towards practice.

That sounds great Adam, my sweep picking really is none existent at the moment and I really need a base to improve that; also I have never had a practise regime which i have stuck too so that would be good. As regards to how far I want to be pushed shove me of the cliff mate, I work better when i'm getting nagged at Time wise I can put in at least 1 hour every weekday; 2hrs or more at the weekends (per day), I'am at you beck and call Master Murrell. I like to have goals they keep me motivated so give me all you got I'm ready to learn & Practise hard.

Excellent man! That sounds perfect. I've been working on some sweep picking exercises today and think what I'll do is provide a sweep picking style piece for you practice each week, progressively getting more complex by adding extra strings

I have a 3 note per string exercise for this week, next week we'll move on to 4, then on to 5, and onto 6!

So my plan is to merge the sweep picking into each weeks extra activities as it's a skill thats best not rushed into learning, and very fun to play with too!

I see the syllabus guide has just come online so I will give that an overview before giving a lesson plan - I'll write out the full 4 week cycle as a draft after we've discussed what you'd like to be included. I'll try to include as many GMC lessons as possible, and throw in a couple of mine for more precise exercises on what you would like

I was thinking of using these area's as a base for us to work on:

*Alternate picking

*Sweep Picking

*Tapping

*Clean playing

If this sounds ok, I'll get cracking on exercises for each, making sure they're fun - as that was the most important thing for me when I started practicing properly, still is!

I also want to throw in a brief warm up routine that I would like you to play every day 2-3 times, as this really does help with progression and with each of the key skills above too.

That sound great Adam I look forward to seeing the lesson plan

Draft 4 Week Plan

---INCOMPLETE---

I shall be posting two activities per week to keep things in line with the recommended syllabus and also adding some exercises/lessons in which you can ask for specific help on techniques. In both cases a video upload by the end of the week to show progress on each activity would be great.

If you could look through all of the "Activity 1" lessons and make sure you haven't done them before and are interested in learning them, then let me know they're ok. There are other options included HERE if you'd also like to check them to see if there are lessons you would prefer to learn, I just choose these ones because I thought they matched your intended target areas for improvement.

The "Activity 2" parts of each week, really are for your particular areas you want to improve, so the posts in the draft aren't written in stone. I would like to have a talk at the end of each week where you can tell me what you'd like to do for the next week.
I can then produce lessons from the GMC archive or record something myself.

Of course if there's anything you're not happy with, or if you find something too easy/hard or would like help on anything please do ask! I want you to be as vocal as possible!



Week 1

Activity 1

Beginner - Strumming and Arpeggios
This lesson will prove very usefull for working on timing, picking and rhythm. It will also highlight any problems that we may need to work on.

Activity 2

Tapping exercise 1 - Introduction to tapping using hammer ons and pull off's.
Sweep picking exercise 1 - Introduction to sweep picking using 3 string arpeggio's

Week 2

Activity 1

Blues Groove
This is an excellent lesson for improving some blues rhythm ideas. It will also help with timing, finger strength and left/right hand synch.

Activity 2

Tapping exercise 2 -
Sweep picking exercise 2 -
Alternate Picking exercise 1 -

Week 3

Activity 1

John Frusciante Lesson
John Frusciante is legendary for his melodic phrasing and fantastic clean tone This lesson will be excellent for getting used to adding personality to your playing. Working on your vibrato, timing and rhythm.

Activity 2

Tapping exercise 3 - Introduction to tapping using hammer ons and pull off's.
Alternate Picking exercise 2 -
Sweep picking exercise 3 -

Week 4

Activity 1

Alternate Picking Thirds
Here's another lesson from the guitar god himself (No sucking up anyone, honest ). This one will obviously be great for what it says - Alternate picking! But it will be great for improving speed, finger movement, dexterity, scale shapes and stamina.

Activity 2

To be decided

Week 1

Activity 1

Beginner - Strumming and Arpeggios
This lesson will prove very usefull for working on timing, picking and rhythm. It will also highlight any problems that we may need to work on.

Activity 2

Tapping exercise 1 - Click to view attachment
- Click to view attachment

Introduction to tapping using hammer ons and pull off's.
I would advise learning this one bar at a time. Don't worry about needing to upload a video in a time frame, lets see how you do first.
I have used my third finger for tapping, simply because I find it more comfortable and easier to apply enough pressure. You can use either third or fourth finger for this exercise.


Sweep Picking exercise 1 -Click to view attachment
- Click to view attachment -

Introduction to sweep picking using 3 string arpeggio's
As above, I would recommend learning this one bar at a time. Take care with fretting each string as you sweep upwards, and practice much slower than the tempo I posted!! Try playing this on a clean amp setting to begin with, so you can hear any unwanted string noise.
If you have problems with it then do let me know, and like I say do take your time and if you'd rather ignore the song part and just practice the arpeggio's individually thats absolutely fine.

Ok man, the lessons are up! It was quite an adventure for me I must say First time for lots of things!

First off, don't be put off if these seem to long or too fast or whatever! I wanted to at least give you soemthing that would keep you busy for a while, while also improving your technique. So I'm not expecting you to learn all the parts for both exercises.

Hope this is all ok!

Looking good Adam; I have done a couple of the lessons before, but i'm willing to do them again because I did not complete all of them upto the full bpm last time around. Besides I want to lose all my bad habits so starting from scratch is probably the best thing for me. On another note I have to say I think your doing a great job so far, i'm very impressed with what you have done here to help me. top marks lol 10/10

Great to hear!!

Sorry the video's for activity 2 aren't ready, I know exactly what I want to do, I just want to record during the day time while its sunny so you can actually see what I'm doing in the video I make I left it too late today and by the time I'd written all the lesson plan out - It was pitch dark outside and my "eco" light bulb thats replaced my 100w in my room should not legally be allowed to call itself a "light".

Glad I'm meeting your standards If I don't in the future you have to kick me a bit! I'll try to keep it at 10/10

Right... Ok!!

I've recorded the two exercises/lessons, and may have bitten off more than I can chew! I've been tabbing out to Guitar Pro 5 for what feels like hours - there must be an easier way than inputting each fret!!

But Activity 2 is now up and live I do hope you have guitar pro, otherwise I can send you it in regular tab format.

The lessons are longer than I expected and thus I'm going to re-arrange the plan a bit as I'm still uploading and sorting this out - gimmie an hour or so!

OK bondy - just finished uploading the video lessons and Guitar pro files (Please have guitar pro! I really should have asked you first ) so check them out!!

I got Guitar pro 5 Adam so breathe easy just downloaded the Tab sound really cool looking forward to doing that one having problems atm with you tube uploading a video for the MTP ahhh

Thank god for that!

I've updated the "Week 1" post so check it over

I can see this thread getting mega messy!!

Here is my first video for you, had a few problems with you tube took ages to upload(then found out i uploaded the wrong one) So this one will do for now LOL.

Excellent man! Can see you have little problems with this level of playing Thanks for uploading though, it helps in deciding what lessons to recommend. How do you feel about the syllabus lessons planned for the future weeks? Also, what are your thoughts on the 2 lessons I uploaded yesterday?

I may well have overloaded you, sorry!, but I thought if you worked on them bit by bit, you'll have things to switch back and forth with when you get annoyed/bored with one

Thats the way I practice, making sure i keep myself entertained!

I would like to recommend that we keep the chord lesson (the one you just posted your playing on) as part of the warm up routine that I'll get together for next week. So just play through this a few times a day if you get the chance.

Small little things repeated, even if they're a bit easy for you, really do help you feel more "intune" with the guitar over a few weeks.

Adam the other two lesson you did are really cool and I'm enjoying playing them alternately as you suggested; I have just about memorized them both. I have to give you some credit here because this is the first sweeping lesson i have enjoyed learning. As for the rest of the syllabus lessons I'm looking forward to next weeks Blues lesson alot, and week 3s lesson I have done before but that was a long time ago and I probably did not finish it so I'm quite happy with those 2, the alt picking one not to sure on thats a long lesson to learn in a week but I will give it ago.

Glad you're enjoying them I remember learning those two examples and having a lot of fun with them, especially the sweep picking one.

I personally find exercises a little too mundane for me to get the motivation to really improve my playing with them, so always looked for ways to included them into something that is pleasing to the ear, and satisfying to learn.

I'm going to do the blues lesson next week as well, as I haven't seen it before and I want some new blues licks in my playing, so we can exchange notes on that one well.

If you've already done a lesson and would rather do one of the others (if you check the syllabus I believe there's 3 for that particular week to choose from) otherwise I can select one that works well with what you want to accomplish.

I have other lessons in mind too Should be a pretty full few weeks!

Do you have any questions or problems with the lessons I gave you?

No Problems atm Adam think I will stick with the 2 lessons you provided, I want to get them down before I do anything else.

I think I've given you enough to work on for now

Really glad you're enjoying it though mate. How's the tapping one going? I based it on a nuno bettencourt solo, in a song called "flight of the wounded bumblebee" which is a song I learnt fairly early on. (Not up to full speed!)

I recommend giving it a listen if you haven't heard it already, I also recommend checking out the album Extreme: Pornografitti.

It's got some seriously cheesy 80's power ballads but Nuno does some AWESOME guitar work.

As usual, any questions let me know.

Just so I can get an idea of where to look for alternative lessons for the following weeks - could you have a think about what areas you definitely want to cover? I know you've said: Alt picking, sweep and clean playing but should I focus on any in particular?

Also, could I ask for a video of the lessons I've provided by next Thursday? Don't have to be up to tempo, just want to give you a week and see how you get on with it

Hey Adam the tapping one is coming on fine, I will check out the Extreme cd for sure I thought it sounded like Van Halen LOL.

I have been having some thoughts about lessons and really think I should drop the clean part of the brief and do something on scales because my knowledge isnt very good, perhaps you could come up with something for me to learn.

I wont be able to post my videos until Friday though because i work late on a Thursday and the kids will be in bed when I get back, I dont know how to record with headphones on plus i no longer have my Fasttrack. i'm connecting to my laptop through my X3 Live.

Thats fine, we can say Saturday or Sunday if its easier for you to record then?

I need to do some scale work myself! Are you familiar with any of Andrew's theory lessons here on the forum? Which scales do you know?

Complete newbie when it comes to theory I find it hard to get my head round, Gmajor scale and some pentatonic thats it shame on me

No worries man, I'm very bad when it comes to theory too - so I'll be on the same wave length with you.

I'll find some of Andrew's lessons to work through, he's done an amazing job on providing in depth theory lessons that I actually understand - it's just getting myself to read them thats the problem, my attention span is so low! Maybe this will both kick us up the arse a bit to get learning a bit more.

As Ivan said on the chat the other day, "knowing theory for a musician is like knowing grammar for a writer." I saved that quote as it rang very true for me.

how is it going guys? Adam, you said you will have a video here soon so I am just checking

Not too bad Emir, Adams A great teacher so far

Yeah sorry, its a bit of a maze here!! If you look at the post starting "Week 1" there's a tapping lesson and a sweep lesson

Really enjoying the MTP so far! Already learnt a fair deal with video software and things. Still trying to work out the best way to output videos in small size with good quality using Adobe Premier.

cool guys this must be a lot of fun. I was going through your plan and I can tell you that I feel like doing something like this as well I would probably be surprised how much I still have to improve even from a simple stuff.

Thanks Bondy, hope I continue to keep you practicing up!

So to clarify, I shall take some time to look at some GMC lessons that work in tune with some of Andrews theory lessons for next week.

I can give you another tapping exercise, sweeping or alternate picking one for next week also.

I think the plan works quie well for us if we do one syllabus style lesson, keeping focus on building up strength in Rhythm and timing, while providing you with some more fun technique exercises in a song type format to keep it interesting.




Coming from the maker of Sevdah metal?! Can't see much areas you need to improve on!!

I know what you mean though, I know I'm in the intermediate category so other guitarists can spot my faults and know my weaknesses, but parents for example can say things like "You should go busk, you're so good!" but I feel it doesn't matter how good I get in my life time - I'll be aware of area's I need to improve. No matter what level you're at as a muscian, there's always things to learn

This is 100% true

Not sure if i'm doing this sweeping right so I thought i would post progress of on both lessons for guidance

Sweeping


Tapping



Please excuse the numerous mistakes been trying to get takes down all day

Ah thats awesome man! Really great to see your progress

The video's show really great progress so far, and you've obviously put a fair amount of time into learning the positions of these exercises.

Now for the tips/advice!

Sweeping-

I'm really impressed with your progress on this, and your left hand can obviously deal with the speed of this exercise well.
Advice for the left hand would be to really get used to the two arpeggio shapes because there's a couple of instances that you break the pattern and hit some wrong notes.

This exercise only uses the minor and major 3 note arpeggio's and the first note on the high E is the only note that is different between them.

I suggest switching between them starting the shapes at the 12th fret, just to get used to the shape, and then moving it up and down the fret board to get used to the feel of it.

Muris sweeping lesson here - http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...picking-lesson/ has some excellent minor/major exercises utilising 2-5 string arpeggio's. Focus on the 3 string arpeggio's for now.

Advice on the right hand - The motion you're using to play the notes at the moment isn't correct, and I'll try to explain how it should be done. If you imagine how you play a chord, with a fast "sweep" of all the strings in one fluid motion, this is, in effect, what we're trying to replicate.

You can think of a strummed chord as a very fast, un-muted, sweep. If you were to slow that strum down so that your picking hand moves in one fluid motion from the low e to the high e string, then we're getting close to what we want. This can feel very sketchy and unnatural to begin with trying to keep it in time, but you'll quickly adjust and feel more comfortable with it.

The other important thing in this technique is muting. Taking the example of strumming a chord, fret a barre chord on the guitar and imagine playing each note in a fluid strum, but once moving from the 1st to 2nd string during the upward motion of the sweep, you will need to mute the 1st string so you only ever hear one string at a time.

We don't fret a sweeped arpeggio as a barre chord, but you can use this as a visual reference, usually we only have one finger in contact with the fret board when sweeping.

If you watch the video of Muris sweeping lesson, and pay attention to his picking hand, you can see this fluid "sweeping" motion in effect.


Advise on tapping

Really good work here man! Wasn't expecting your tapping to be this good, and I don't mean that in a rude way! You mentioned you've tried Muris' EVH lesson but wasn't sure what your abilities were. I recommend just keeping going at the pace your going! Pay attention to the guitarpro tab to get the right notes and descending timing right, but technique wise I can't fault anything.

Excellent work though all round man, the sweeping lesson really should have had some explanation from me and I didn't do this at the beginning so sorry about that.

I hope I've explained myself in a way thats reasonably coherent! If you don't understand my rambling descriptions, do let me know and I'll try again

Awesome work though, looks like I'll have to get cracking on next weeks stuff soon

I thought the actual sweep was wrong!! gonna really slow it down and try and get the motion right, Thanks for the positive comments much appreciated

Got another question When i a sweep what should i be doing for the 15 up or downstroke because i think thats whats throwing my timing of, Below is how i'm doing it now.
D D U
D 12 15 12 U
D 13 13 U
D 12 12 U

Its not showing this right 12d/13d/12d/15d/12u/13u/12u

I really should have clarified that as well! Sorry, the most important things you end up forgetting to mention when explaining guitar things it seem!

I will try and write this in a way that reads ok, but essentially the difference from the way you play it is to actually use a pull off from the 15th to the 12th fret.

I may have to update the guitarpro file to show you what i mean as it effects every single arpeggio.

On each arpeggio it should be played D 12, D13, D12, U15, (pull off)12, U13, U/D12.

You'll notice the last note I've left as either a down or an up, I need to clarify with someone (maybe Muris?) about which is the proper one to use - as I have learnt to play this with an Upstroke at this point, which means you have to string skip to play the second note of the arpeggio. I recommend trying both and seeing which is easiest for you and I shall PM someone to verify if this is ok.

Sorry for leaving out yet another vital bit of information Bondy!

That's no problem Adam; I should have asked at the start will try and work on that and hopefully post another video soon.
Thanks for clearing that up

Hi there Bondy, I just messaged Emir who very helpfully pointed out that the first note of the arpeggio should always be played with a downstroke. Here's what he said:


"The first note always downstroke because the accent is on that note. In this exercise you have 2 accented notes. The first note and the highest - or every first one in the triplet group. You won't get the right accent if you play upstroke. That note has to stand out and always be heard as note number 1 in the pattern. Only downstroke can produce that feel."

So play the first note of the arpeggio with a downstroke from now on

Looking forward to some vids! Do take your time though, no rush

Adam Watch Vid explanation in there!!!
Click to view attachment

Video Response

Click to view attachment

After trying to get this to work in adobe premier for over an hour, I gave up and used Windows Movie Maker

That helps alot Adam thanks, I need a strap to stop my whole arm from moving. it wont stay still

hehe, there is some felxibility allowed in the forearm so don't go asking your local hospital for a cast to keep it stationary

It's just you'll find the motion very uncomfortable when adding extra strings to sweeps or building up your speed.


Also just to note - I'm going to keep the wednesday as the end of the week, so I shall post week 2's agenda and lessons sometime in the afternoon on wednesday.

I was going to say you may want to learn half the examples in the blues lesson by Ivan (which is the syllabus lesson for next week) so that you have plenty of time to continue practicing the tapping/sweeping lessons.

Oh, and I'll be introducing a 10min warm up for the week as well

Hope you're looking forward to it!

As always, any questions or anything you want me to include or ANYTHING. Ask me!!

You're being a great mentoree so far mr Bond(y), thanks a lot.

A student is only as good as the teacher going to try and get thie sweeping down if it kills me!!!!

Sorry to be a pain Adam I just uploaded a very short video i think the movement of my left hand is now correct just synchronizing the 2 hands together now I think my fingers are about to bleed so please tell me I'm closer before they fall off. LOL

Click to view attachment

I've only read the first four words and desided to make a post about just that before I read on...

You're not a pain! Here to help! Pester as much as you want!

Now to read the next few words!

Ok so is it any better am I going the right way now

Left hand is excellent! Well done mate, great improvement there.

Just a note about timing, and this is what I remember being the hardest thing when I learnt this - All notes have to be equal in length. So the pull off note needs to ring out for the same duration as all the other notes.

What you're doing at the moment is playing the pull of and not letting it ring for its duration. This is a bit tricky to get used to because your picking hand has to pause its nice fluid motion while the pull off takes place before continuing again.

If you would like a video demonstration I can get one up in the next half an hour easily? Do ask

EDIT: Just to clarify, left hand is perfect - no BS from me honest, besides the timing issues this is great!

No thats ok I understand what you mean I was just trying to get that left hand right, I put 2 hours in today just on sweeping and was starting to get narked LOL

Heh thats awesome, hope you're enjoying it still?! I do hope I'm not coming across too "yay! awesome! well done!" etc and being patronising or appearing false... Honestly, the left hand movement is perfect and just what you should be aiming to get used to for sweep picking.

On a different note as just general adivce about practicing... I would recommend stopping any time you get frustrated or have had enough, and just giving it half an hour or the rest of the day before coming back to an exercise.

It's a bizarre experience, but it seems to be when I just can't push any improvements on something after a practice session and leave the guitar alone for a few hours, when I come back I find it much easier than before.

Might be slightly exagerrated but it's also very true, wish it worked with other things in life!

As long as you tell me when I'm Bad its not a problem, The compliments are greatly received

How's it going today mate? Ready for tomorrow's new stuff?

How have you been doing on the tapping and sweep little songs? I was gonna leave doing another new tapping/sweeping song unless you felt comfortable with week 1's?

Of course if you crack them before week 3, I'll just post them here when you're ready

We've got the blues lesson coming, a warm up lesson that I feel is a great Alt. Picking work out too and some of Andrew's theory to go over!