Sorry for delay Roger, I was out of town yesterday, another gig!

Latest clips were very good, specially the very last one,
bending is getting better and vibrato is sounding much smoother,
there is still room for improvement as you know
but there is major progress compared to when we started, no doubt!
Keep working on those and now lets work on Alternate Picking a bit.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...picking-thirds/
Here's one nice picking lesson for you that involves 3nps patterns all the time,
I'll give you full tempo backing which is 100bmp, let me know if you
need slower one, maybe you have some software to slow it down tho.
Good luck and please let me know if you need any help with it!

Click to view attachment

Thanks Muris for the comments.

Good to hear that things are progressing . I will start working on the AP thirds lesson, as well as continuing with the other AP exercise + solo.

I have Soundforge, so I can easily slow the backing down. Have started with that lesson a while back, and know all the 3 nps patterns already, so hopefully this won't take too long to record a reasonable take

Off to band practice now
Cheers
Roger

Sounds great Roger, have fun with the band
and looking forward to new takes.

Hey Muris,

Just a quick update from my side after we had the chat discussion last week. I have started tonight again (after I returned from the US) with the alternate picking thirds lesson and I can more or less play the 80 bpm variant. However, it's still too sloppy, so I will practice it for a couple more nights if you don't mind and post a take Friday or Saturday (I have work appointments tomorrow and the day after in the evening as well unfortunately).

The biggest problem I currently have is that my pick is moving within my fingers, which I need to correct and that results again in sloppy playing as well

All in all a good lesson to practice!

Thanks for your patience

Welcome back Roger!

Take your time and some rest,
weekend seems to be just fine,
I will wait for your takes.

Hey Muris,

Here is something that should sound like the lesson, it's at 80 bpm and it frustrates me really bigtime.

Somehow, I can't concentrate myself at all during this lesson (I tried it many times), while this is of crucial importance for myself to not cause all those sloppy mistakes to happen (stringnoises, out of time playing etc). As a result of that, you will get something like in this video

I have tried at much lower speeds as well, and the result is definitely nothing better.... higher than 90 bpm and then I can see it becomes sloppy because of the speed.

I practiced this lesson now for several days, and the patterns are fully in my head (they were already before even practicing this at the beginning of the week). Besides the concentration bit (which I actually have with most of the etude kind of things, but I guess that's normal), I also notice that with those lengthy durations I have to continuously correct my picking hand (also the pick tends to move), which also doesn't help.

Anyways, sorry that I just had to vent my feelings a bit (as the frustration level was higher than I can normally cope with ), but I guess it only shows my biggest problem at the moment: alternate picking .

Hopefully you can give me some pointers how to continue with this.... Time to grab a beer and sit in the garden for a while!

Cheers
Roger

I can some some struggle Roger but we can fix this in a sec!
Main thing is that you keep your
left hand wrist too much behind the neck,
you have to push it in front to get more comfort,
here you have 2 whole frets per string pretty often
and it's very hard to play that the way you do,
imagine you're playing it with legato,
you have to hold your fingers kind a vertical with frets
and that means wrist goes ahead!
Give it a shot and let me know if it's getting better!

I tried this, and I certainly see the point that it gives more comfort regarding the stretching. Nevertheless, as I am not used to playing that way at all (my legato is also having the same problem I guess ), the results are even worse off than before. Will practice this for a while and see whether I can improve it.

Cheers!

It depends of what you play atm Roger,
the way you hold your hand in the video
is great for bends and vibrato, no doubt,
but it doesn't work that great for stretches,
all in all we need to adapt our hands along as we play!

Sure thing, will just take some time to get used to this new way of playing

Cheers!

Time is on our side, let me know if you need more help tho!

Hey Muris,

Here is a new take in which I tried to focus on my left hand posture much more. The take is still sloppy (especially going down during the last pattern, where a suddenly increased speed without any reason ), however I thought it would be good to know first whether all the basics movements/position are more or less OK now, before cleaning it up further?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers
Roger

Left hand posture is much better now Roger!
However you might try to close your legs
and turn on the left a bit,
you're hitting your belly with your left hand
which causes you some extra problems,
actually you did try to avoid that few times
in the video, when you move in the place.

Keep it up, it's going fine!

Yeah noticed that as well, almost unavoidable with such a big belly as mine . Will work on that as well and will get there sooner or later

Same thing happened to me with Axis,
22 frets, neck pretty deep in body etc.

Just a quick update from my side Muris: slowly getting improvement in the lesson, and hopefully I can record a proper take this weekend (have squash/bandpractice today/tomorrow).

Was also thinking of working on the April challenge a bit of yours (the intermediate one ).

Cheers
Roger

ps: Summer Song is definitely improving as well, but we have difficulty in using it in the MTP on the forum (concerning tabs, videos and such - after feedback from Maria on it). Will update you on this once I know more.

Looking forward to it Roger,
let me know about Summer Song through PM in a meanwhile!

Hi Muris,

I've been practicing the alternate picking in thirds lesson an aweful lot, and been busy trying to record a proper take this evening since 21:00 ... and somehow, when I press that record button I get all those uncontrolled things happening during the take (string noises etc etc). Anyways, this is the best I could get out of this lesson for now (which is really a big dissappointment for me ).

Anyways, let me know your thoughts

Cheers
Roger

Just sent a PM with the first part of Summer Song .

Replied .

Now few words about your 3rd take on the lesson!
IMO you're progressing very nicely but of course
there is always some room for improvement.
Sync IS the problem as you said and maybe you should
try this lesson couple of times but pretty slowly,
you can even practice without backing and turn on metronome only.
What I would suggest is to focus on picking more and less on fretting hand,
as far as I can see you're applying not enough power in picking
and that usually leads to bad sync when playing exercises!
Play it slow, pick each note harder and also apply some palm muting,
you can mute bottom strings when playing on top string,
just in case if something starts to ring.

Now I'm gonna give you a bit more freedom and let you
to pick next lesson that we'll be covering!
In a mean while don't forget to work on lessons we already started with, ok?

Thanks for the comments. Will certainly continue with the previous lessons on a daily basis, but am glad as well that we can move on a bit.

I was thinking to take something completely different for a change:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...-rhythm-lesson/

Would that be logical (if so, could you give me the backing at full speed?), if not I am more than happy with any lesson

Funk Rhythm lesson, great idea Roger!!

And here's backing for you!!

Click to view attachment

Cheers!

ps: Focussing now on the picking hand really helps for the other lesson, thanks for the advice!

You're welcome Roger. picking is always a problem,
even if you've been practicing it for a years, no worries!

Hi Muris,

Here is a take of the Funk Rhythm lesson at 95 bpm. I can play it pretty much the same at 105 bpm but it's a bit less stable than this one. I kinda miss a bit of the funky feel still and the main riff is a bit sloppy sometimes, but working on that .

Looking forward to hear your thoughts

Cheers!
Roger

Nice work Roger!!

Here's the thing about Funk and those grooves,
when you listen to a take it might sound almost
100% fine and in time but when you LOOK at the player
you will realize why it sounds ALMOST perfect.
And you're guessing the reasons of course,
you must be more relaxed overaly
but another very important thing is to actually
feel the rhythm by tapping with your foot
or even small dancing with your shoulders!!

You learned piece correctly and that's very crucial at this stage,
now you just have to dive more into groove,
get some nice mood and do The Funk!

Can't wait for next clip (including some dancing)!!

Been busy practicing the Funk Lesson and it certainly improves. Hopefully I can record a take tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have also made a take for this month challenge on your dynamics solo writing lesson, and I would love to hear your comments as well on that one.

Here it is:



Cheers,

Roger

Yeah, I just saw it in REC thread and said few words as well.


Here's what crosses my mind atm and these
are truly small details but those mean a lot!
First, somehow you play staccato notes in a phrase
when it should be legato, not technique but connection between
notes, you make a gap probably because of the sync issue,
that happens on picking parts tho.
So pay more attention to that, keep it flowing.
Next thing is picking and bending probably,
I can always make complaint about it
but you ARE making some major progress since we started
so just keep working on that as you have done so far.

Thanks for the additional comments, besides the ones in the REC thread - and I will certainly work on that. Maybe you won't believe it , but I am quite a perfectionist, so all details do matter a lot to me and it only helps me to get more focussed on my playing.

Nevertheless it's good to see that I am making some progress

Cheers!
Roger

I knew you're gonna understand my point Roger,
those details can really make a huge difference after all!
Keep up the work and let me know when you
have a new recording on the way.

Here is a new take of the Funk Rhythm lesson. This time at full speed (105 bpm) and I tried to get some dancing in as well (however, I need beers for that normally ).



Anyways, it's not perfect (e.g. not so happy with the first couple of bars), but hopefully certain aspects have improved a bit. Was quite busy the last days with band practice and such (my own funk song at practice went 10x better than before though .. so it certainly pays off to do this .

Cheers
Roger

Yeah, I can feel the groove Roger, much better regarding that topic!

Now there are some spots where you have only technical issues
to they sound somehow sloppy and not so clean,
you might wanna break it down into smaller sections,
play slow just to catch up your picking and see if everything is going as planned
and then build up the speed slowly.
Now need to play it too slow tho, maybe 15-20 bpm slower than full tempo.

Good work!

Thanks Muris.

I know exactly what you mean, but the really frustrating bit (as always) here is that I can play it much cleaner and less sloppy once I don't hit the record button or put on the webcam .

Nevertheless, I will certainly keep on this lesson doing it much slower to really notice what I am doing. Can't hurt

Any new lesson I can take a look at as well?

Cheers
Roger

I know that rec button makes us all real problems!
Have you ever tried to put whole thing in loop,
record dozen of takes and simply pick the best one?

As for new lesson I suggest Luke!!
Nothing too fast but still full of many important stuff like tone,
vibrato, attack etc.
Perhaps you tried this already?

Here's backing for you.

Click to view attachment

Yeah, to record I use the loop functionality all the time ... but don't worry, I notice that the process is improving over time, basically the same story as with playing for other ppl... you just have to get over it

Regarding the lesson: never tried that one before, but it's a great lesson ... will get on it tomorrow

Yeah, as the time goes we get more confident and everything comes in place nicely,
looking forward to your take and please keep working on other lessons as well!

Will certainly keep working on the others .... after just practicing the Luke lesson for a couple of minutes I already notice that several aspects of my playing are improved a lot so I can actually manage this lesson probably (wasn't the case 2 months ago for sure ). Cool lesson btw!

This gets my motivation even higher .

It's all about hours we spend with the guitar and whole effort
but everything pays back nicely, no doubt!

Btw, if you have any problems with Luke lesson, specially with timing,
you can check out this thread where I uploaded
a slower take on it, easier to follow everything.

Thanks Muris!

Just a quick note that I am quite busy with work currently, and in the evenings stuffed with other things (like band practice tonight, squash etc).

Will practice regularly though and hope to have something uploaded by the weekend

Cheers
Roger

No problem Roger,
let me know when you have something!

Hey Muris,

Just to update you a little:

1) Funk rhythm lesson is now better regarding rhythmic placement as far as I can judge it, and will continue to work on that for the next days and will post a video when I am satisfied

2) Luke lesson: did not have time the last 3 days to practice, but today I achieved quite an improvement and can more or less play the lesson at 50 bpm with OK timing. Only struggling a bit still with bar 9, 11 and 12. I noticed that I find it somehow quite hard to do chromatic pull-offs smoothly with 4 fingers on 2 strings after each other . Anyways, will try to record a video of that as well in the next days.

Am quite busy currently as well with my band, as I am going to sing in the band as well ... and that brings a totally different dimension into my performance, which is taking up a bit of time.

Sorry for the delays (tomorrow I have 2 birthday parties and we have 'Mothersday' in the Netherlands ... so going to visit 4 homes in one day which are spread around 150 km from each other , but you will get something from me soon hopefully

Cheers
Roger

Despite of lack of recording I must say that I'm really glad to hear
that you're working a lot with the bend,=
and specially that you'll be doing vocals too, way to !

Regarding Luke lesson and chromatic pull-offs,
it's natural to have problems with that kind of licks
IF you haven't played something similar before,
actually doing pull-offs or hammer-ons with all 4 fingers in a row
just might be the hardest combo available,
practice it slow until your fingers get the idea on how to execute that.

Looking forward to new takes Roger,
have fun at parties etc!

Hey Muris,

Here is another try on the funk rhythm lesson. I believe that the rhythmic placement is better now, however I noticed afterwards that I danced less . Hopefully this one is good enough for the REC program .




Anyways, looking forward to your thoughts on this one

Cheers
Roger

It IS getting better Roger!!

Rhythmic placement is pretty much on place
except those muted triplets that you've been missing, at 0:23.
They are not crucial but give really cool flavor to Funk, muted or ghost notes.

And the last note B should be a lot shorter,
whole rhythm section stops immediately and you should do the same,
do not let it ring a lot, that's the point of that kind of endings,
short, accurate in in your face!

Good take, worthy for REC, no doubt.

Great, thanks for the heads up!

Since yesterday evening late, I suddenly noticed that I was putting too much pressure on the fretboard with my playing to get the placement right and after I did this much less, not only this lesson went much better, but all my playing went great in comparison to earlier .... kind of an eureka moment I guess for myself

Eureka is best feel ever Roger!!

I cannot say if you have applied too much pressure
but one thing is for sure, we need to be as much relaxed as possible
and that very often means less pressure as well.
However I would keep working on applying more attack with the picking,
it's sometimes very helpful for timing, articulation etc.
And you'll always know when you apply too much, it'll sound wrong.

Hey Muris,

As discussed this afternoon in chat: here is my first try on the Luke lesson. Kinda sloppy still (but don't have any time left today to get that sorted now ): timing is not perfect at several places as well as some bends are out of pitch, but you were definitely right to record something prior to my holidays, which start tomorrow

After I return I will keep on going with this lesson until it's OK regarding timing and will then move on to the 65 bpm speed as well.

Any helpful pointers are always appreciated

Cheers
Roger

Hi Roger and thanks for recording!!
I know that you have a lot on your mind atm so it's very appreciated.

Here are few pointer of course.

This added not on bend at 0:08 is always tricky when you try it for the first time.
And you have to be very focused when doing it,
your hand needs to keep bend fully while pinky is adding a note,
of course it's matter of practicing but concentration as well,
you have to say it "hold right there until it's over!!".
And you can also try it with tapping every once in a while
until you're able to play it perfectly with pinky.

Rest of the bends were pretty fine imo but I noticed that you've been
using pinky very often for some other bends like at 0:17 and 0:45 ,
you can play those much easily with ring finger to get better control
of the bend and eventually apply some vibrato,
it's very hard to control bend with pinky imo, no need to torture yourself.

Timing was like 95% ok tho!
There are some tiny problems with faster part
but I'm sure you'll clean that in no time with some more facused
practicing on that specific part.

I wish you some great time at holidays Roger
and thanks for the take, it was VERY nice!

Thanks for the feedback Muris, much appreciated!