Hi Harry,

My name is Andres , Im 33 years old, I learnt to play the guitar when I was 17 , I played for a couple of years and I quit and I start playing again 2 years ago.

As you may know we have been mathced up for the MTP, and Im very happy with it. Fisrt of all welcome and I hope this experience will be very helpful for both of us.

I have seen your videos and I must say that you have a very good technique and the right motivation so it will very easy for both us to work.

I read your MTP entries but I would like to tell me about yourself. How old are you? For how long have you been playing? which styles do you like? Which are you strengths and your weaknesses? What are your goals in your playing?

Welcome Harry and please tell me anything you need Im here to help you, Im looking forward to learn a lot with you.

Hey Andres

Now i found my way, here i am

thc for the welcome
ok i am Harry from austria, 35 years old
i started playing at the age of 16, everything learning by myself
i also quit in between like you but started after 10 years again

mostly i like some hard rock stuff like ACDC, Winger, Thunder, Guns n roses and lots more ........
sure some metal stuff like Metallica but i prefer the hairspray rock

i will tell you more later on cause i am quite short in time right now, just wanted you to let you know that i found my way

i am glad to be able to work with you so lets get started

later i will tell you my strenght and my weaknesses and what i am practicing at the moment

thx
cya
Harry

ok Andres here we go again

in the post above i wrote you about the music i prefer
mostly i like hardrock as written but i like to find my own style, and in my vision this is somewhere between ACDC and Metallicai guess
in my former band everyone was upset when i came back with another ACDC or Metallica song but thats the kind of music i like and thats it
i am not fixed to that kind of music, because i also love the music of Genesis or Phil Collins or Pink Floyd
to shorten it up, i am into really GOOD music even if its Rock, Metal, Funk, Jazz or whatever

now to my weaknesses
i guess i have many of them, as i spoke with Pedja sometimes i would say some techniques need to be improved a lot

- right hand (picking hand) up on speed

- Legato
- Muting (more with left hand)
- Bending
- Tapping (never really used it)
- sweeping

- arpeggios
- advanced chords (like 7th, add9 and so on)
- rhythming

- improvisation

- and of course theory but that comes along with playing

that primary what i want and need to improve

my strenght in my oppinion is
- that i can hold the tempo without getting out of speed too much
- the will to get better
- the will to practice (as far as my time let it go, i have 3 kids )
- some good basics to work on i guess

what i am working on at the moment
- scales up and down (major, pentatonic, blues - at the moment i reached 90bpm by just playng scales up and down)
- combine scales (playing one up and the next down and so on)
- patterns/scales with 3 notes per string
- muting (trying to improve the muting of the left hand - position of the hand)
- sometimes bending (not really much at the moment)
- finger exercises like finger independence and finger shifting

- and if i have some time left i jam around over some music to try the scales i learned (mostly slower songs to get not too much speed)

What are my goals ?
hmm thats a good question and it should be in the FAQ category
i guess my primary goal is to get a free and solid player that makes some good music no matter what kind of music
of course my preferable music but i would love to be able to do some hardrock as well as some metal or even cool and rocky funk

but for the MTP i would say
- be able to use all kind of techniques
- playing solos without thinking what note comes next
- playing a good and spicy rhythm guitar because thats the base of each song in my oppinion
- be able to bring over the feeling of the songwriter
- and lots of flexibility in my playing

i guess thats it for the main thing and i am sure that this takes more than 1 month but i have time
so i hope you understand what i gave at my best and we will find a good way to work together

one thing i like to add this on
sometimes i am on business trips and in this time i am not able to grab a guitar but this happens generally 1 time a month
but in the moment of the financial situation all over the world it seems that there is not so much need for the next months so lets see, but of course i will let you know, when time comes

in this way Andres lets go working, we have a lot to do

cya
Harry

I am very much looking forward to Andrus exercises and plan for big Harry as Harry is really hard worker and enjoys playing a lot.

Hi Harry,

Thanks a lot for your introduction it gives us a better perpective to start working.

So let's get to work, this week we will be working on Timing & Rythm, on the lesson Begginer Strumming and Arpeggios

I want you to play very clean so we can start working on palm muting too , try to mute the strings that are not been playing in the chord. Also remember that we are on the Am scale so this will give us the knowledge of the arpeggios of the chords on this scale. If you can I would like you to write the notes of the chords that are been playing.

Please let me know if you have any doubts about this lesson.

I'll be on a trip for the weekend I don't know if would have internet conection.

So have a nice weekend learning this lesson , and I'll be back a.s.a.p so we can move on.

Hey Andres

Here we go with exercise 1

Chord progression is
Am - C - Em - G
Dm - F - G - C

Played notes are (1st part ascending, 2nd part descending)
Am - A E A C E, E C A E A
C - C E G C E, E C G E C
Em - E B E G B, E B G E B
G - G E D G D, G D G D E
Dm - G A D F G, F D A G F
F - F C F A C, F C A F C
G - G E D G D, G D G D E
C - C E G C E, E C G E C

i made 3 takes yesterday, but i only put in the 3rd cause the other ones are too big
i know its not 100% correct but i thought i let you know what i can do after short time of practice

i know you are not in this weekend so i will move on according the syllabus (whatever that means ) and make the next lesson to give you a point view where i am
i will do the frusciante lesson and the slow pentatonics (started already)
i try to put the first takes on tomorrow, so when you are back we can grab the guitar and move on
have a nice weekend with your family and cya soon

Harry

hey Andres

here we go with the promised frusciante and slow pentatonics lessons

ok i have to say in this place, that i followed the mtp test phase with these lessons and i know some of them but i recorded them new so that i gives you a real point of few.

looking forward for your comments and waiting for the next exercises and your vision of what we do next and in which direction we move on

and PLEASE dont hesitate to tell your real oppinion about my playing, i am a big boy ......

hope you find your way back home from your trip

cya
Harry

Hi Andres

i Know its somewhere around 4am your time and maybe you are still asleep
GET OUT OF BED AND LETS GO TO WORK

just to let you know, yesterday i started a bit working around with the alternate thirds lesson from Muris
i got down the "standard fingerings" at around 70 to 75 bpm
with the changed fingerings i have some (not to say TONNS) of problems right now
but i am sure with some more work i will get it someday even if it takes me years

i have done 2 takes, one clean and one distorted just to get a feeling how it sounds in both ways
i can up them tonight if you want

i have done this meanwhile awaiting your timeshedule for our next 4 weeks and i think i will do the "alice in chains lesson" also to complete the syllabus
i have done this lesson from Gabriel 2 months ago, with rhythm i didnt hahve much problems, the solo part was way to hard that time, especially the faster patterns/runs

so thats it for now

cya
Harry

Hi Andres

i dont know if you have seen it, but a few days ago i made the essential blues licks and posted a video

later on in the thread i put 2 more vids in
here is the link to the thread

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=305868

hey man how long do you sleep in bogota ???

cya
Harry

Hey Harry ,

Sorry for the delay , I was on a trip , I just came back , give me a few hours to catch up.

Thanks.

Hi Harry,

Back from the family trip away from technology and civilization. Lets get back to work.

First of all , very nice work posting the three videos, for the moment I'll coment on the first assigment and I'll comment on the other 2 tomorrow.

Begginner Strumming and arpeggios

The lesson

You learned the lesson very well , there is just on note missing on the G chord in the sdtrumming and another one in the arpeggio, you are not playing the D note on the B string.

Your playing

Before commenting about your playing , and correct me if i'm wrong but I felt like your guitar was a little bit out of tune, or maybe you were pushing to hard the strings, I don't know.

Very nive hand position. As I said before you missed the D note on the G chord and thats because you are not using your first finger, use it as muris does , I think thats the better way to play the G Chord. Here is the fingering:

---3----
---3----
---0----
---0----
---2----
---3----

After strumming the chord you are playing B note instead of D , thats because you didn't use the right fingering , watch video number 2 again.

Now the picking, I don't see much troubles in that, If you feel comfortable playing the arpeggios only in one direction thats ok no problem, although I suggest to practice the arpeggios with alternate picking just for practice , so when you are soloing you can choose the best way. Try to pick only the string you want, to get the true sound of the arpeggio, and to eliminate unwanted noise.

Now the strumming, take your time , you're hurrying in the struming , it's like you are worried to reach the next chord and maybe thats why some chords don't sound entirly clean , i.e when you move from the Dm to the F and then to G. Attach all the chord with the same strength , and play all the chords in the same way , some chords sound louder than other , and some sound cleaner than others.

Tone

I know that we are practicing and I also asked you to play it very clean , but we can work on the tone too. The tone you used was to dry and to bright for my taste, I preffer for this king of struming and arpeggios more mid range, were you using the bridge pick up ? if yes try moving it to the neck pick up. Of what I want here is that you find your tone deppending on what your are playing , but from now one I want to work on this too.

Im very happy with your work, very nice take , we're going on the right path. I'll comment on the other videos tomorrow. Please upload a new video of the first assigment using the recommendations I said. If you feel that Im wrong in anything that Im saying please let me know , this is a team work.

So keep working the way you are doing it.

See you tomorrow.

Andrés.

Hey Andres

Glad to have you back and everything is ok with you, hope you enjoyed the trip
sometimes its very useful to get away from all the civilization *hehehe*

so now on to work
about the G chord, i know that and i have learned it like that because for me its easier to move on especially to barre chords, i know the way Muris plays it it sounds some kind of smoother and maybe fuller

i will try to do it in that way on the next take, also with alternate picking

about the strumming
i think you are right, sometimes i play it faster, harder and the next chord comes smoother and slower
in the past most of the time i was playing chords only with strumming like you do at the firestation when you are sitting with friends and drink tonns of beer

i will try to focus on that also next time

tone
yes i mostly use the bridge pick, but you are right, it sounds a bit too bright, i never spent to much time on that because i always thought, that i dont have time to find some different sounds, instead of that i was practicing

but for sure i am up to change that as well, i can try to use the neck pick next time or turn back treble and pull up a bit the mid range for the beginning, maybe later on i have to sit and try to change the settings on the board a bit.

ok i will sit down tonight and have a practice session again trying to focus on the things you said

looking forward your comments for the other vids

i am really glad you are back and we can get this mtp thing running now

cya
Harry



Now the strumming, take your time , you're hurrying in the struming , it's like you are worried to reach the next chord and maybe thats why some chords don't sound entirly clean , i.e when you move from the Dm to the F and then to G. Attach all the chord with the same strength , and play all the chords in the same way , some chords sound louder than other , and some sound cleaner than others.


oh yes i forgot to say in this case you are also right, especially the change from Dm to F causes me problems in this case
sometimes i really have problems with the barre chords, i know the chords and if i play only barre chords in a row its easier then to switch from open chords to barre chords
thats the reason why i wrote "chords" in my introduction, when it comes up that i need to play 2 or 3 songs only with barre chords my hand gets weak and i dont feel comfortable with it anymore and it starts to hurt

so i think i will have to put some chord routine in my practice line
i have done the "beginner chord series" here at GMC and it all shows up the same problems written above.

OK Harry , before we move to the next lessons I really want you to be comfortable with this chords. You have a very good sens of timing , but not changing in a good way from one chord to another affects the timing. I want you to practice the Muris lesson and I want you to learn this Carlos Carrillo lesson too , you don't have to play it a full time , what I want is for you to get used to changing between chords.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...g-major-chords/

And then try another take of Muris lesson.

hi andres

the exercise you gave me, brings me to a point where i cannot go for now
i will have to sit and spend lots of time for this lesson, because i am not able to play most of these chords
but i will do my best but it will take some time
i know the system of the chords (caged) but my fingers dont know it yet *hehe*
i think the next 4 weeks i have to work on this day and night ...........

lets go on i have to work

i start now
i will be on for the next 2 or 3 hours i guess

cya
Harry

Ok try to play it perfect , if after the practice you can't, please upload a video with a slower backing track. Any way I don't think you will have to much trouble to play this lesson perfectly. You will nail it with just a little more practice, just take in count the advices I gave you earlier.

Have a nice practice , see you later.

you mean try to play Muris´ lesson perfect or Carlos ?

Muris lesson. Carlos lesson is only an excercise to improve changing chords.

hey andres

didnt get it perfect today
i feel pretty uncomfortable with the G but i will get it
just did a short clip only with strumming the chords so that i can concentrate more on the chord changes
from Em to G in the first part i have less problems, i changed the fingering on the Em from 2-3 to 1-2 and this way its getting better but from F to G i still have probs as you see in the clip
from Dm to F getting better in my oppinion but theres many work left

nevertheless i am not very pleased with that but i will get for sure
couldnt do the lesson all the time cause my fingertips feel some kind of bloodless now so i did the beginner solo in D from Muris in between to get a bit away from that stuff and came back after 30 mins to the strumming lesson

what about the other vids i posted ? what do you think of that ?

cya man
Harry

i will leave for bed now man, its late and i am tired for today, tomorrow is another day and i will keep on
cya man

Hey Andres
Still awake ? What time is it at columbia ? must be somewhere around 3 in the morning, isnt it ?

still practicing ?

Harry

Hi again

Andres what time schedule do we have for the first week ? when is the first week finished ?

will we keep up on the syllabus for the rest of the time ?

what would you suggest for my practice routine in future ?

ok the first part will be "chords" in every possible position
i learned that i really need to focus on that for a while because there are many things to be done in my playing on that

Good morning Harry,

You've done an excellent work with the first assigment , you complete the whole lesson , and you have a good sense of rythm and timing. So let's move on , but I want you to keep practicing Muris lesson until you get it perfect. And I would Love to watch a video when that happends. If you need more excersices please let me know. I think Carlos lesson will be an excersise too.

So now I would like to comment on your 2 other videos:

Slow pentatonics

The lesson

You learned the whole lesson with any mistakes

Your playing

Very nice played , I like a lot your hand position and you use all your fingers very nice. What I would suggest for this lesson is to stick to alternate picking, it will sound more consistent and it will help you in the future when you will play faster licks. I don't know if you do it on purpose or not but you use economy picking when you switch strings. This is not a mistake , but if your looking forward to develope speed in the future , I would suggest to develope a strong alternate picking technique. You have a nice vibrato , try to use it a little more , and experiment with it, make it wider , faster , and see what comes out of it.


Tone

I like the tone in this take more than in the first video. Try to change the position of the pickup selector while your playing it will give different tones , and that way you will finding your tone.


Conclusion

Awesom work on this lesson , try to incorporate the tips I told you and I would like to see a new video. Awesome work I loved this take.

Frusciante Lesson

The Lesson

You learned the whole lesson perfectly again.

Your playing

Very nice executed, as I have said before you have a very good techinque. As in the previous video I suggest zou to stick to alternate picking, and to add little more vibrato. Your bends are very accurate and solid.

Tone

Very nice clean tone , I like it very much. Same as in the firts video try to give it more warm sound adding some midds to it.

Conclusion

Awesome work , just try to incorporate the tips about alternate picking and vibrato.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So harry you've done an awesome work so far.

Next assigment is choose one of the following lessons :

Smoke under water

Blues groovy library

Alice in Chains Style lesson

I don't think your going to have any trouble with any of this lesson, Im looking forward to the video so we can move on to alternate picking excercises and more soloing lessons.

I will work on a routine for you so zou can have it on the futurre, for the moment lets work on our assigments, we wont have any troubles with them, so we can move on.

Have a nice day and a nice practice.

Andrés.

Hey Andres

Here we go for the next for the next practice session

first of all, many many thx for your words, pushes me further and motivating for today
no man i never lost motivation but i was a bit unhappy with the exercise you gave me, not with the exercise but with the result of my playing
it shows me that there is still a long way to go for me and thats what keeps me up at this time

and so far i have seen that practicing chords is MUST HAVE in the routine

according my picking i need to be honest, never looked pretty much at it, just played how it felt most comfortable but i am sure you are right in fact of faster licks later on, could be a problem which i have already
i see that when i try to get faster ...... also need to improved here this will show up on the alternate thirds lesson *hehehe*

in case of the tone, i already thought about it and put treble back and middle and the bass range up a bit and you are right, it makes the sound better

week 2 assignment:

i will try to do all 3 lessons, deep purple should be no real problem, alice in chains i have tried already with the starting MTP

the blues groove should be a challange but i will try to get into it a bit, maybe some parts of the lesson

i dont want to rush but to keep practicing a bit spicy i dont want to do one thing for 2 or 3 hours otherwise my head will get stuck, so i want to try different things if this is ok for you


MANY THX again for your words according the lessons, makes me some inches bigger
maybe i should change my nickname into bigger Harry

i will keep you updated about the work with video as usual

cya
Harry

hi Andres

here are the first takes of

- Smoke on the water
and
- Alice in chains (only rhythm part) - solo part i still need to work on, need to get the fingerings fixed

looking for your first feedback to continue the lessons with more intense

cya
Harry

What's up Harry?

You've been working very hard, you're like the student every teacher wants.

So lets go to the lessons:

Smoke on the Water

The Lesson

You learned the lesson perfectly.

Your playing

Very nice played. The only thing I would suggest is to put your thumb behind the neck , this will give you more control and it will be easier for you to stretch zour fingers on the fretboard. You have very nice sense of timing and rythm, which is the goal of this week assigment.

Tone

I like it , it sounds rough and hard. Maybe try to use a little less distortion and see how it goes.

Awesome work on this one.

Alice in Chains style lesson

The Lesson

You learned it perfectly, don't worry about the solo this week we are working on timing and rythm, we'll work on soloing later.

Your playing

Very well played, good timing and good rythm , very consistent. In this lesson I liked that you put your thumb behind the neck. It is not mandatory , but sometimes you will feel better in this particular position. Try to mute the strings a littlebit more with your right hand.

Tone

Try this lesson with the neck pick up , we are looking for a darker sound.

Awesome work here too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have an awesome sense for timing and rythm , now Im looking forward to watch the blues lesson, these two were to easy for you , so I really want you to practice the blues lesson.

I also agree to practice different things on one session, sometimes you can't move forward and you keep doing the same excercises, but if you change to another excercise or play a song your mind becomes clearer and than you can come back.

So keep going mate you are on the right track.

Andrés.

Hi Andres

Up for some Blues ?
here we go with the first 2 exercises of the blues library at a speed of 100 bpm with metronom
the blues rhythm itself was no problem at normal speed, just the ending was the problem so i first tried with 80 and at least with 100 bpm to give you an update for today

just a little mistake at the end of the 2nd with the finishing chord, as we have seen in week 1

maybe i will do another 1 or 2 now but dont know if i can make them sound pretty good

hope you like it and dont have too much to add
this time i used the neck pickup clean for some bluesy sound, i like it this time, hope you too

cya
Harry

Hey Andres

In fact that this is still a testphase i thought of making a summary could be useful

THE SYLLABUS
Week 1

Timing & rhythm (Part 1) - Chords to a backing track

Beginner- Strumming and Arpeggios

Week 2

Timing & Rhythm (Part 2) - choice of 3 lessons

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Blues Groove Library - Part 1
Alice in Chains style lesson

Week 3

Soloing - choice of 3 lessons

John Frusciante Style lesson
Slow Pentatonics Lesson
Tarantella Rock

Week 4

Finger Workouts/Exercise

Alternate Picking - thirds Lesson


Summary of Week 1(from 9th to 16th January 2009)

Timing and rhythm - part 1

Beginner strumming and arpeggios - Lesson is done

Outcoming problems:
Technique:
Different fingering from Gmaj chord than in the original Lesson, switching between chords
added lesson from Carlos Carillo to solve this problem

Tone/Sound:
Use more different sounds to get the right feeling of music, work on the tone

Timing and rhythm - part 2

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple - Lesson is done
Outcoming problems:
Technique:
position of thumb

Tone/Sound:
no probs at all

Alice in Chains style lesson - Lesson is done without solo part (will be done later on)
Outcoming problems:
Technique:
position of thumb better than before

Tone/Sound:
no probs at all - just work with the tone, darker sound needed here

Blues Groove Library - Part 1 - Lesson in progress
just the first 2 exercises done yet, wil be added after finished lesson


Soloing

John Frusciante Style lesson - Lesson is done

Outcoming problems:
Technique:
used economy picking - better use alternate picking
working on bends and vibrato

Tone/Sound:
no problems here

Slow Pentatonics Lesson - Lesson is done

Outcoming problems:
Technique:
used economy picking - better use alternate picking
working on bends and vibrato

Tone/Sound:
better than in lesson 1 - still needs some variations


so far for the summary of whats going on here
if you have to add sthg please feel free to do that

cya
Harry

Hey Andres

just a short uptdate for you

Blues groove:
i have some difficulties with the inversions at the end
needs some work more, somewhere at exercise 6 i am at the moment

i guess i need to do them a bit longer

chords exercises:
the first exercise goes better, i will get this soon i guess
not so many probs with the Dm/F/G progression left, just with arpeggios
i will get this

Carlos exercise:
this makes me some more problems, need to get confident to the chord variations
can play them pretty slow but my hand starts to feel like a claw when i do that

Alternate picking thirds:
i already started this one also
standard patterns/shapes go quite well, different fingerings need some more work

this is just a short report for you to keep our thread at live

cya soon
Harry

Hi Andres

I did some practice on the weekend but not so much as usual

nevertheless i made some vids for you to check out

what i have done so far is

Lesson 1 Beginner strumming and arpeggios
still not "perfect" but i guess its going better, especially with the descending arpeggios the chordchanges from F to G making some probs

Blues groove - exercise 1
Blues groove - exercise 2
Blues groove - exercise 3
Blues groove - exercise 4
Blues groove - exercise 5

i slowed the tempo for the blues a bit down to 100 bpm for exercise 1, 2 and 3 and 80 bpm for lessone 4 and 5

most problems comming up at the B and the endings, the groove itself doesnt make real problems i guess

when will the end of week 2 ? wednesday ?

Hey Andres

have just a short question

when i play barre chords after some mins my hand gets stuck, what would you suggest ?
am i having wrong position of hand or what could affect this case ?
or is it because of less playing barre chords ?

when i try to change the position of thumb doesnt help really

cya
harry

Well Harry as I promised Im back today, as I told you my girlfriend was flying to Madrid for one year so I was spending time with her. But now I'm back to work 24/7 with you.

You have done an amazing job with all the lessons, and what is most important of it is that you recognize your own mistakes and abbilities.

I won't extend to much on the blues lesson since you already accompplished 2 of the three lessons for week 2, but of course I wanted you to learn the blues ex.

Ok, as I have told you , you have a very sence for rythm and timing, but as in week one I didn't see you very comfortable changing positions with this excersices. Do you warm up before practicing? or do you go straight to difficult excercises? How are you feeling with the thumb behind the neck , I see that in some positions you have it behind and in others you don't. In this kind of blues licks , that require some stretching I would suggest to use your thumb behind the neck all the time , try to concentrate on that.

But I have to say that you always stay in time , and thats awesome, you just need a little more practice with changing positions. I'll give you tomorrow a nice warm up excercise, for changing positions.

Overall , good job , don't worry about getting the ex at full speed, your getting there , is better to play them perfect slow , than to play them sloppy at full speed.

Regarding the new take of the the first assigment , I see that your playing the G chord the way Muris does, thats awesome , you've been working really hard on that one. I also notice that you're changing better to the F chord, but still have a tiny problem getting to the D chord. Keep practicing you'll nail those chords , before the MTP runs out.

problem with barre chords , that sounds familiar. There was a time when I avoided barre chords all the time , but it's imposible , getting comfortable with barre chords will give you an incredible chord vocabulary. I want you to warm up very well before playing barre chords. If your hand is hurting , stop playing , rest for a cpuple of minutes and got to another excercise , somthing that feels very comfortable for your hand. Try not to make to much pressure, find the teh addecuate pressure for the chord to cound right. Keep practicing , but don't over use them if your feelling pain, with the days you will get more comfortable with them.

So lets get into week three. Since you already learned week 3 solos , but you have a couple of problems with them including alternate picking, I want you to concentrate on the thirds picking lesson by Muris, and after that I want you to record , week 3 solos again but using strictly alternate picking. I don't want you to play Muris lesson at full speed , I want you to get comfortable with the picking pattern it isn't an easy pattern it needs practice. One thing that helped me a lot for this lesson is that I sing the lesson before playing it , and the is just like my fingers know where to go. So please upload a video as soon as you have it.

So keep practicing week one lesson, and the blues ex of week 2. And before practicing I want you to warm up with this lesson from Danilo Capesutto, but we will make a change of it , instead of playing with economy picking I want you to strum each position. Practice it very slowly , it's a warm up excercise , and I think it will help you to improve the chor changes. I forgot , please strectch your fingers and your hand before playing.

So I think thats it for now.

I'll update the resume you made, awesome work by the way.

Talk to you tomorrow , please ask every doubt you have.

Cya my friend!

Hey Andres glad to have you back
Hope your girlfriend will like Europe, especially Madrid or Spain, but just to let you know, Austria is more beautiful

I will keep the Blues lesson in mind (already bookmarked library 2 of the blues groove )

To visualize your own mistakes is not so easy, and the video lessons are very important to get this, but its better to have someone, who tells you also some details

Warming up: i usually try to warm up with scales at the moment, but sometimes i just grab the guitar and play what comes in mind without warming up (shame on me)

Thumb behind the neck or not:
This is kind of really bad habbit, i really must concentrate on it to keep the thumb behind the neck, need to work on that

Changing positions of chords
This is really a thing that you showed me, that there is work to do
As long i was playing in a band this happens automatically, but since i am out i didnt really focus on that, now i am doing the open chords from the beginner strumming and the extended chords from Carlos Carillo as you suggested and i am really getting into it
The changes come more fluently and the fingers get used to the changing positions
Some more weeks and i can move on to advanced chords ......
Awaiting your warm up for chord changing

I am 100% with you but sometimes i „feel“ that i can do it better or even faster and then i want too much ........ also a bad habbit, and then it gets sloppy .....

I was really working on the strumming lesson and really concentrating on the chords and the fingerings, i figured out that at the first part Am-C-Em-Dm you can always keep one finger on the fretboard while changing chords, which makes the changes more fluent form e
Hope this makes some kind of sense

When i wrote that thing with pain in hand i was again trying too much
Since i have done Carlos lesson a few times meanwhile it´s getting more and more comfortable, ok after a while it still starts to get hurting but then i stop and as you suggested i continue with other things and later on i come back for some more minutes
That will work, i will just stay on path in that

So up to week 3
The alternate picking thirds is definately a tough one but i am getting slowly into it
The standard pattern is not the problem, this one i can do at around 75 to 80 bpm
At the moment i am concentrating on the other fingerings but ist a thing that i can do for sure, just takes time to get used to the fingerings – if you like i will do a vid from the status at the moment

I am also doing the Alternate Picking - 16th Note Exercises from Jose Mena to get used to this 16th notes. I also have done Muris „timing exercise“ some time ago, but i always was kicked by this 8th triplets, 16th and 16th triplets

Streching fingers:
How would suggest to do this ?

I will have a closer look on Danilos lesson and will involve it in the warm up thing
[url="http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/economy-picking-iii/"]lesson from Danilo Capesutto[/url

Here is a list of exercises/lessons i already have done or i am still doing from time to time if you are interested
i usually pick out lessons from level 3 to 6 and look if i can do it

C Major and G Major Chords
Beginner Solo in D
Fingers Independence I
Warming Up with Marcus Siepen
Finger Shifting I
Right Hand Basics I
Hands Synchronization I
Muris Varajic Alternate Picking
Timing Exercise
Alternate Picking - 16th Note Exercises
I Got Rhythm Guitar 1 - Drop D
Pentatonic Scale 1 - Position Shifting
Palm Mute Workout
Basic chord series
And the lessons of the MTP like Smoke on the water, Alice in chains, Blues groove, John Frusciante style, Slow pentatonics and the beginner strumming.

Here is a short list of my bookmarked lessons which i like to try someday
This is the result of 85 pages from 125, so i still need to work through 40 pages

- Extended Chords Lesson
- Fusion Jam - Beginner
- Country Picking - Beginner
- In the Style of Brian May
- Aeolian Lead - Beginners
- I Got Rhythm Guitar 10 - Arpeggiated Chords I
- Combining Pentatonics Major and Minor
- Minor 7th Arpeggio Boxes
- Downstrokes and Position Shifting
- Dominant 7th Arpeggio Boxes
- Eric Clapton Style Blues Lesson
- Country Solo - Beginner
- Lydian Riffing
- Drop 3 Chords
- Pentatonic Position Switch
- Lydian Phrasing - Beginner
- Basic Metal Rhythm Guitar
- Blues Groove Library Part 2
- Nickelback Style Lesson
- ZZ Top Style Lesson
- Harmonic Minor for Beginners
- Rock Rhythm with Triads
- AC/DC Style
- Five Exercises to Improve Sweep Now!
- Funky Chords
- Improvising with Arpeggios
- Double Stops
- Economy Picking I – the whole series
- Van Halen Tapping Style - Beginner
- Songwriting - Metal
- String Skipping Arpeggios Workout
- Slash Chords (Starters)
- Extended Chords Ballad
- Clean Up Your Act With Good Finger Placement
- 3 Minutes Warmup
- Blues Solo in D
- Painting the Chords
- Take Control of Your Bends
- Eddie Van Halen Style
- Beginner Rock Rhythm
- Major Arpeggios Etude
- Fireflight - Ballad Style Lesson
- Pentatonic Patterns in Five Positions
- Combining Rhythm and Lead
- Slow Bending Licks Solo Lesson
- Slow Melody Lesson
- Mixolydian Soloing - Beginner
- Blues Soloing - Beginner
- E Minor - Melodic Solo
- Rocking Tune - Beginner
- Pentatonic Solo Lesson
- Rock Solo - Beginner
- Pentatonic Licks - Beginner
- Gary Moore Style + Bonus Sound Tutorial
- Fast Pentatonic Picking Licks
- Hard Rock Licks
- Jumping Around - Beginner
- Phrygian Soloing - Beginner
- Triad Arpeggios Lesson
- Alternate Picking - Upstroke Focus
- Pentatonic Runs & Rhythmic Displacement
- Modal Workout
- Modal Madness
- Acoustic Blues Workshop - Level 1 - Delta Blues
- Alternate Picking Lesson 1
- Guitar Scales for Beginners
- Speedpicking/alternate picking basics
- Barre Chords
- Legato Exercise Lesson
- Little Finger Work-out
- Left Hand Only Exercise
- Pentatonic Workshop Level 1- CAGED Format and Timing Excersies
- Pentatonic Tapping
- Unlocking Your Scales Part 1
- Guitar Exercises (Beginner and Beyond)
- How to Practice Guitar
- Beginner Licks
- Sweep Picking Lesson
- Hand Control Lesson
- Advanced Power Chords
- Pentatonic Rock Cliches
- Open Chords Rock Rhythm
- Hard Rock Rhythm
- Progressive Power Chords and Scales

today i will be on in the evening for another practice session
i try to do a vid of the alternate picking thirds to give you a point of few

still need to write a practice routine, maybe i will do later or do you have any special suggestions on that ?
maybe we can compose it together ?

so now i will end this awesome post, hope you have time to read it

cya
Harry

Harry,
I expect a video of all those lessons you have bookmarked by Sunday!! Actually Sunday might not be realistic, I'll give you until Tuesday!! Do you mind me asking how much time you have to practice each day? You and Andres are doing a great Job!! Keep working and you'll get where you want to go.

Keep up the good work Harry!!

Monte

fine Monte, i guess i can do it till saturday (year 2025) ........
if thats ok ?

THX Monte its an honor for me and keeps me motivating to hear such words

cya
Harry

Hey Andres

did you have a look at this one ?

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...&pid=319718

what do you think of it ?

cheers
Harry

ok Andres here we go with the first take of alternate picking thirds at 85 bpm
just standard fingerings

lets see what you have to say :-))

Hey Andres

Thx again for the nice talking yesterday.
Just to keep you in mind, from the 31st of january till the 4th of february i will out for skiing.
i will be back on the 5th of february to move on working.

i did an improvisation over Pedja´s Fusion collab but i used the wrong backing, the Funk collab backing (shame on me)
SORRY AGAIN PEDJA

but i wanted to post it though because i really like it and i think i did a good job

whats your thinking man ?
Still awaiting your comments on the Alternate picking thirds and the beginner solo

HEY MAN TELL ME THAT I AM THE BEST

cya
Harry

Hi Harry,

Let's take a look at the alternate picking thirds lesson:

The lesson

You learned half the lesson, we have still the thirds picking pattern to learn

Your playing

You started with a nice and consitent alternate picking, and then when you're going up you changed to a nice and consitenf economy picking, and you did that on the 4 patterns. Going down you can mantain the alternate picking but when your going up you changed to economy.

This is very strange , I find it harder the way you're doing it , and the economy picking sounds very good , but remember that the goal here is to play the whole lesson in alternate picking.

Something I miss in this lesson is a little more right hand muting , try to keep your right hand close to the strings muting the strings your not playing.

As always your timing is very nice.

Tone

Your working on your tone and thats very nice. I woulf only suggest for this one to use less distortion , thats all

Conclusion

I want you to play the lesson in the 60 bpm backing track , first the 4 basic patterns, but all of them with alternate picking. And then I want you to play the whole lesson at 60 bpm with alternate picking. At this moment speed is not important , what is really important is to concentrate on your alternate picking , so when you are going up concetrate on not repeating the up stroke.

You have a nice economy picking technique and sounds very smooth. Thats cool , because when you master both techinques you will be able to choose between a stacatto sound (more attack) wich is the alternate picking or a legatto(smoother sound) sound wich is the economy picking.

Nice job , no problems with timing but I really want you to concentrate on the alternate picking. If you want a slower backing please let me know.
-------------------------------------------------

I'll comment on your improvisation and on the Muris lesson later.

Your playing very good , keep on rocking!

Hey Andres my friend, how are you doing ?

here i have 2 videos for you

1) in this i have just focused on the AP so i took the speed down to 60 bpm on the first scale

2) here i tried the first scale with the alternate fingerings at 50 bpm

i really have to concentrate on that kind of picking, comes a bit unfamiliar at the moment, but i think i will get it
just some work and practice and then i will have it in mind ..

just looking for your comments as usual

cya
Harry

Very nive work Harry, congratulations.

Now I want you to play both patterns together like in the lesson, Im uploading 3 bakings at 50,60 an70 bpm for zou to work on. Another recommendation watch your previous video , the one you made with economy picking, do you see that you have a very short movement when doing economy picking, I want you to try and do a shorter move with alternate picking too. That would give you a little bit more speed when needed.

So here you have the backings:


Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Awesome work my friend.

Hey andres thx for the backings

i am a bit out of practice, didnt really have time to work on this week end, so i am a bit confused about the time
what time schedule do we have ?
how long is the mtp running ?
i am kind of lost in time *hehehe*

i guess we still need to make a practice routine right ?

how are you by the way ?
hope everythings alright

cya
Harry

Hi Harry ,

whats up my friend?

How's practicing going ?

what time schedule do we have ?
We are on week 4 , so we are on schedule.

how long is the mtp running ?

One more week if Im not wrong


i guess we still need to make a practice routine right ?

Of course we have to , but I really want to finish with our MTP assigments


how are you by the way ?

Im ok , missining my girlfriend , but with a lot of time to play guitar so thats great.

So Harry how is that thirds alternate picking excercise going? I really want you to nail that lesson , and after that I want you to record week 3 assigments using alternate picking strictly.

I listened to your take on Pedjas collab , and I would like to comment about, although Pedja will give us of course a better understanding of it.

Really nice tone I liked it a lot. You used some interesting ideas in the first 4 bars , and when you switch to Cm I guess you got a little confused and didn't know where to go, it sounded like a couplem of notes on the scale , you chould have stayed on the same rytmic mood as the first 4 bars or you should give some space to the melody. You have a great vibrato I really liked that about your playing , use it more. I liked very much how you resolved the solo , on the G chord and then to the A minor again, it would be great if you used the G#dim7 arpeggio , but as I said you did an awesome work resolving the solo.

Harry you can play very well , you have very nice rythmic ideas, I guess you just have to improve your techinque a little more and you'll be flying like the pros.

Thats it for now, looking forward to watch that alternate picking video.

Have a nice day my friend.

First of all hi Andru

practicing is not bad but not the succes that i wanted to have
still have problems with the alternate picking, you will see in the vid

one more week we have to go ?
i told you i will be out from saturday the 31st of january till wednesday the 4th of february, so i wont be able to practice at this time, so i guess MTP is over for me on friday

according the thirds i always come back to economy picking thats why i made such "big" moves with the picking hand to keep in the movement of up and down, whenever i make short and small moves i attend to come back to the smoother way you called it

in the clip i have done the first 2 scales with all patterns at 55bpm
in the ascending move of the 2nd scale i have a short break of alternate but quickly come back to it, but the run is more or less away so i stopped at the end of the 4th pattern because i couldnt start with a downstroke on the next scale and so i would have been wrong with the picking

the first 3 scales and patterns are not so the big problem only with that DAMN alternate picking brings me out
the main problem i have right now is the last pattern which dont want to go in my mind at the high b and e string

so i will have to practice this thing for a bit longer i guess

according the fusion collab, i guess thats what Pedja already meant, and after listening and listening and listening again i think you and Pedja are right, this is more or less just a few notes played in row without any feeling or whatever
could be much better but i guess for the first try it is not soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad
in fact that i dont have the different scales and modes in my mind (and i guess i will not have in the next future ) its pretty difficult for me to switch easily between them and technique is also a factor you are right
according your phrase about flying, YES i guess i can fly DOWN THE STAIRS ....

i hope Pedja will leave some on my head in his comments
(hope that Pedja dont read this !?!?!?!?)

hope your girlfriend is doing well here in europe and she is ok

cya my OLD rocker *hehehe*
Harry

You made laugh Harry , I love that you take your practicng with good attitude and good humour.

You're still struggling with the alternate picking and I want that strugle to stop, I want you and the alternate picking to be best friends. So I want you to practice the following excercises every day as a warm up, before anything.

So here they go , play them slowly we're not looking to get speed we're looking fo syncronization.

hands-synchronisation1
hands-synchronisation2

Relax your picking arm , you're fighting with your arm and your hand, you have a good posture , but the right hand it's to tight.

Before playing make relax movements with your right hand , like it is loose.

Ok , try those excercises and tell me what you think.

I'm looking forward to pedjas comments too, let's see what happends and please don't fly down the stairs.

Hey Harry,

Whats up? How is practice going?

Did you learnt hands sync excercises?

How is the alternate picking thirds lesson going?

Cheers.

Hi Andru

had a bit work last days and came home pretty late but i was playing every day, BUT......

to be honest this exercise (alternate thirds) seems to be one of the milestones which i will have to reach
still strugling on this because the movement of the fingers is going the other way as it should
its wierd because down everthings ok but on the change of direction there is the big point
i always falls back to the economy thing
its wierd because if you ascending and you MUST pick from the other side (downstroke) its against the movement of the hand and this seems to cause me real problems

yeah i started with the sync exercise but its almost the same problem here, a bit frustrating cause it seems not to want in my mind *hehehe*
i have done this exercise a few times before but i stopped because it was MUCH to easy *HAHAHAHA*
to see it with different eyes can make things way to hard to learn..........

i will get this damn alternate picking in my head, but it will take time, i dont want to rush so i will need some more time (thinking of 10 more years or sthg like that )
no just kidding i will get in 20 for sure *hehehe*

i am not sure if i can do a better video than the last one but i promise that i will try today or at least tomorrow to give you an visualisation of how tough this one is for me

AND singing the exercise doesnt help at the moment because i get headache from me singing while playing

i will do some work now on that and leave you a msg later on ok ?

cya then
Harry

hey my friend

here is some hands synchronisation for you

what do you think about it ?

and some alternate thirds, scale 1

Very nice work , you're getting there it aint going to take 10 years , maybe just 9....joking.

Very nice , I can't hear the metronome , are u using it ? You made a few mistakes, I would like to hear a take with a metronome and with a slower tempo. Sart with a very slow tempo , when you'll be able to play with no mistakes move 4 or 5 bpms up. The trick is to learn the excercises in the right way it doesn't matter how slow you're playing, but if you play the ex at 100 bpm , and you play them wrong every time your brain would not understand which is the right way to play it, and in that case it will take you a lot of time to play it right. So go to a lower tempo , you'll almost there.

Great work as always.

oh i didnt see your reply so i did scale 2 and 3 also

ok i will slow down a bit but now i really think that i am getting nearer and nearer
seems you are right, ONLY 9 years to go *hehehe*
i put the vids on otherwise my work would be for nothing the last 3 hours*hehehe*
i guess the reply will be the same as for the other vids

nevertheless STEP BY STEP

here you are man

i am on to bed now my friend hoping for your reply as always
cya tomorrow man
Harry

Yes same comments as before, sometimes you're reapeting and upstroke and that's what changes the picking pattern. I would like to add that your hand position is great , good work on that one. I'm pretty sure that if you slow down a little bit you'll get better note definition, the low notes are not sounding very good, and the alternate picking will come nice and effortlessly.

Keep the good work my friend, you're getting better every day.

Hey Andru

thx for your comments, they keep on pushing me forward

i will try to set a session today in the evening, but i am nor sure at the moment if i get the time.
as you know i will be out for skiing from tomorrow morning until wednesday next week (4th feb.)

i will try to get on later on and maybe post a new video for you

i will make it at slower tempo, maybe with 50 or sthg like that, lets have a look
i will make it with the clean sound so we can hear where the problems are *hehehe*
i still need to fix scale 4 but i will try to make a complete vid if i can handle it *hehehe*

cya then
Harry