Hi there Monte! I haven't expected the MTP to start so fast, but that's a good surprise:)

So first I will tell a bit about myself..

My name is Marek and I am 22 years old. Years ago I decided to buy a classical guitar. I think it was 8-9 years ago. I learned basic chords, some barre chords, also many songs from tabs. The progress wasn't huge, but stable. 6 years ago I bought my electric guitar, and after few tries with it, I concluded that I sucks and will never be good at playing ( how great is that ). After that I stopped learning new things, because I didn't believe in myself and also started dating with my girlfriend ( well ex now for few months after 5 years.. ). Not going into details I haven't learned to much over the years, playing same simple stuff, and learning rarely. The date I joined GMC is more less when the idea to try to learn playing arose again. Since than I improved, not as much as I could, but that is because I have some motivation problems, and also must study hard + work...

1. The weakest spot ( like there was a strong one ) It could be said I have no theory knowledge. I still have to learn where are certain notes on the fretboard. When it comes to pentatonic box, I can play all the boxes one after another, so I do know "box shapes". Still the only exercise I did about that was playing them up and down, box after box with the metronome.

2. I think I know how to practice with the metronome, although I don't like it. I rather play along guitar pro, or what I like the most with a backing track. In fact my "practicing" is warming up and after that learning lessons and playing them with backing tracks. I most probably will have to practice with metronome anyhow, as I need to improve my speed.

3. Oh my, that is really a tough question! I am not into shred to much, but if I could play those lvl 10 shred lessons, than I could surely be able to play the easier lessons also...

4. Well, I think that working with someone ( so with You in our situation ) will motivate me to keep stable practicing. I have no strict goals when it comes to my guitar playing. I would like to improve both at rhythm playing and soloing. I am a beginner so all my techniques need improvement, the technique that doesn't appeal to me is sweeping. We can say that rhythm lessons can be the first to concentrate on.

I will write more later, and am willing to answer any questions:)

Hi Marek. Please download the tab in the main thread please. Unless you don't have guitar pro that is. Also, tell me what it is you want to work on first and I will recommend some lessons. Talk soon and check the main board soon for your first assignment.

Hi Marek. First assignment can be found on the main thread. Post here if you have any questions about it. Also, post here and let me know what you want to start working on with your playing and I'll get you pointed in the right direction. It can be anything. Technique, rhythm etc. Looking forward to working with you!

Hello again:) I have tux guitar, so can open guitar pro files without any problems:)

Firstly I will write what lesson I learned/learn.

Carlos Carnillo - Melodic Solo in Gm - we can say this lesson is "learned". The video is already on video responses and upload section.

Jeff Curtis - Melodic Tapping - well the last tapping part is still to be learned up to speed.

Lian Garbino:
- Blind Guardian Style lesson - the fast scale run in the middle is what I can't do in time. Sometimes in 140 bpm I can do it, but most of the time do some mistakes also in that speed.
- Slayer beginner - well it was easy for me and learned it in few takes.

Marcus Siepen:
- Basic Rhythm Guitar - surely it could be played cleaner, but more less "learned". Will have to make a video.
- Black Sabbath Style - control over harmonics is very poor, otherwise quite good. On 130 bpm I play with more feeling, at full speed I play it less "soulfully" I think..
- Pentatonic Solo - also need polishing and speed improvement.

Daniel Robinson:
- George Lynch Style - I think I can play it quite good, will have to make a video also..
- Etude - hmm sweeping parts are terrible, otherwise quite good

Trond Vold:
- Picking Exercise - can play it at 80bpm, at 100 bpm I fail at the last part or even if not - my hand tense up as the speed and concentration is to much for me.
- Rock Solo Beginner - can't do the last pull off ending part.

Gabriel Leopardi:
- Muse Style - can play it, but it need more cleanness for sure.
- Megadeth Style - learned, palm muted middle could be cleaner
- Power Metal Rhythm - still to be learned properly

Pavel Denisjuk:
- Heavy Metal for Beginners 1,2,3 - can be marked as "learned".
- Hand Control - 60-80 bpm backings can do it, faster = mistakes

Kai Muchlenbrunch:
- Downstrokes Only - "learned", but as this lesson is so "headbanging" I am not sure if I play it clean or not:D

There are other lessons that I practiced, but these are the ones I remember well.


I think that something concerning cleanness and speed would be appropriate. Here is a list of lessons ( not all of them ) that I added to my bookmark to practice later, but haven't started/gave it enough attention:
Little Finger Work-out, Alternate Workout, AC/DC Style, Blues Soloing - Beginner, Black Sabbath Style Lesson ( Gabriels one ), Alice in Chains Style Lesson, Joe Satriani Style Rock , Neoclassical Etude #1, Rhythm Exercise.

Awesome Marek. I love Joe Satriani so let's start with the Satriani Style Rock.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...ani-style-rock/

Get to work on it and let me know if you need any help with it. Let's try and have you post the first 4 bars by Saturday, but feel free to work on as much of it as you woud like. Let me know if you have and questions or need any help with this Marek.

I am happy with Your choice Monte:) I will enjoy learning and playing this one. I hope to upload what You expect by Saturday, not later than on Sunday ( I have my last "winter session" exam at the university at Saturday morning ). Should I encounter any problems I will ask here:)

Awesome Marek. No worries on the upload. You can upload whenever you get a chance. Have fun with the lesson, it looks like a fun one.

Marek, are there any lead techniques you would like to start working on? Sweep picking maybe. Just kidding, but let me know if you would like to start working on legato or tapping etc., and I will start looking at some lessons for that.

Hmm improving my left hand abilities would come in handy for sure, as I have weak fingers, and I struggle for example with the pull-off ending part in Trond - Rock Solo Beginner lesson. So a bit of legato practice won't be bad for sure:)

Hi Marek,
Are you talking about bar 28 in the Trond lesson? If so tell me at about what tempo can you play that lick without making any mistakes. Tempo of that lesson is 95 bpm. Since you have already worked on that lesson let's just go ahead an perfect it. No need to reinvent the wheel. Is there any way you could post yourself doing a take on that lesson? Any tempo would be fine just let me know what tempo the take is at. This is a good lesson. You can work on the Satch lesson and we'll work on polishing up the Trond lesson. That should keep you plenty busy.

Well just sat with guitar for half an hour to check it, and well I can play it up to tempo at 55bpm with GuitarPro, at 75bpm I can't do it. What is more, it surely wasn't played with enough force, I mean the sound wasn't as strong as it should, and after 20 minutes of this "legato test" my hand tensed up and started to ache, but I don't know the right words to describe where:/ "the outside side" of the palm, the connection with the first finger. But well, the pain went away quickly, and it wasn't big, and I had no proper warm up so most probably it just the way it has to be when You have weak fingers, tensed up and pushing the strings without rest. Also it took my a while before I found out how many notes should I play in one metronome click.. So my metronome skills aren't good

I am also not able to play the "natural harmonics thingy" in bar 10, but that is "magic" to me..

So should I lower the tempo even more, to practice the 28 bar legato run, so that maybe my hand wouldn't tense up so much, or stay at 55 bpm and increase it gradually from there?

No problem Marek, could you post a video of you playing it at 55? That will give me a good idea of where you are at with it and we'll break it all down from there. Let's focus on this lesson for now and if you have extra time you can work on the Satch lesson. Sound OK?

Sounds good, I will do my best to upload the video on the weekend:)

Cool. I'm looking forward to it.

Well I had some time, so I recorded me playing the 1 ionian box as You wanted ( up and down, twice ), and all 5 boxes of pentatonic scale ( did one mistake in third box, also up and down ). The file is much bigger than it should, I modified some older "file" and it was long... Anyway it won't take years to hear it.

Click to view attachment

That was good Marek you played in time. On the Ionian box though the tab is phrased in triplets (3 notes per beat). You played everything in 8th notes (2 notes per beat). Any chance you could upload you playing the Ionian box in triplets when you upload the triads portion of this weeks assignment? Just want you to get used to playing the different note groupings to the metronome. Thanks Marek and good job!!

Sure thing, will do. The triad thing is quite amusing I must admit. Not really familiar with these
2
2
4
shapes. But it can't be difficult can it?

Also I have found a great site with mp3 metronome clicks, here is the link
Wondered how to insert clicking into reaper, and this is exactly what I needed. Will share the site in separate topic also:)

Check the main thread Marek. I recommended a lesson from Andrew on chords and scales. Should clear everything up. If you have any questions let me know and I can explain them more.

Hi Marek. I'm getting ready to give an assingment for next week and I need your help. Can you look up what notes can be found in the scale of D Major? Thanks dude!!

Well D, E, F♯, G, A, B, C♯, these are the notes. I had to check Andrew theory lesson for the formula...

You are correct Marek. Thanks dude!! Check the main thread over the next couple of days as I am going to elaborate on some things and give you guys a fun assingment.

Hi Marek,
I am wanting to solo over a C mixolydian chord progression. From reading the posts I did in the main thread can you answer the following questions please?

1) Is this a Major or Minor mode?

2) What is it's scale of comparison to figure out my chord options?

3) What are my diatonic scale options for soloing over this?

4) What are my pentatonic scale options for soloing over this?


Use the chart I gave you to figure these out. Thanks Marek.

Here is the exercise I had to finish. I will dive into the theory stuff later, although I don't know if I will be able to learn "so much" now... My mind is burned after all these exams I had. Will try still.
Click to view attachment

Hi Marek,
Thanks for the update mp3. The triplets you did were more like three 16th notes. The three notes in a triplet should be evenly spaced. Do you understand? If not I will try to explain a little more. Do you have the ability to listen to a guitar pro file?

Don't worry about the theory stuff. Delve into it when you get a chance. I am just wanting you to start thinking about it. Let me know if you understand the triplet comment. Good job marek, just need to work a little more on your timing.

I understand, I actually didn't know why I played it the way I did:P It was something like "ding ding ding - darn wrong, try againg - ding ding ding - bah wrong again - ding ding ding - hmm bit better, enough"

Marek check out this thread:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...mp;#entry347187

Hi Monte! Sorry for the delay, I had a bad day yesteday... Not that this day is better, but I have found some time, so here is a video of me playing Trond's lesson. It is my first take, and there are some mistakes, but as I am quite nervous ( can be seen on the video also.. ) and it shows perfectly how pathetic my hammer-ons are I decided not to record another one. One of my "not so long, nor short" goals is to have many lessons recorded in their full speed and posted on Youtube, so hopefully there will be a better take on the lesson recorded in the future...



I think that the hammer ons are most problematic, pull offs don't require strength to "bash" the fret in order to make it sound, and the strength is what I lack... Anyway that is what I suspect, I am likely to be mistaken.. Sometimes it sounds bit better, but I must focus on using "extra strength". Otherwise I can "hit" the right spots with my fingers, but it won't sound anything good...


THE LICK PROBLEM/IMPROVISATION PROBLEM
I know it will sound stupid, but I never understood what a lick is... Because of that I never learned "certain licks" and so I also haven't improvised at all.

For example this part of the tab of Marcus Siepen - Pentatonic Solo lesson. Starting from the e-string 5-8-5 run, I don't know if the lick is just 4 notes, or maybe the lick is the whole bunch of notes from 5-8-5 up to 7-7 on the A string...

e|-------------------------------------------------5-8-5---5-----------------|
B|-------------------------------------------------------8---8-5-8-5---5-----|
G|--5----------5-----7--5-----5--------------------------------------7---7---|
D|-----7---7------7--------7------7--5--7---5--------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------7-----------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e|----------------------------------------------------------------/12--------|
B|--------------------------10--10--10-8--10---8-10--10---8-10-8-------------|
G|--5-7-5---5----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|--------7---7-5-7-5--------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------7-7----------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

THEORY
I will try to read all the topics/posts about it as You adviced, although as I wrote earlier, my theory knowledge is non-existing and it is hard for me to even learn "much" of it at once, anyway will try my best. I feel guilty already about being the slowest responder

I'll answer back in more detail shortly Marek. Don't worry about your theory knowledge. Read what I have wrote so far and then get on the General discussion thread and start firing questions. We will ALL help you. It really isn't that hard, you just haven't been exposed to it so you think it is knowledge that you can't grasp. Read my postings in the main thread and then ANYTHING you don't understand start asking questions. We won't know what to help you with unless you ask questions and let us know what you don't understand.

Hey Marek-

Sorry for chiming in here but I can at least tell you what has been helping me regarding the hammers/pulloffs.

Repetition is key here. Right Monte? I think you should concentrate on what Monte is having us do. Pick the A ionian box and just run up and down the scale with your drumbeat/kazbox. You have to develop the strength to do this correctly. Counting will also help you improve this too.

I can also maybe recomend trying a different posture while your playing?
Also when you play it almost seems like your doing homework. Get into it! Stick your toungue out. Nod your haead. Tap your foot. Make stupid facial expressions like I do. THos can also help your accent your feeling and communicate better with yuor axe.

I'm having problems with Pull-offs. Monte recomended a procedure call "Pre-fretting" the note which has helped tremendously. If you interested I can explain more. Need to see you play the A Ionian Box to see if you are already doing it or not.

Keep going man!

Opeth.db no problem about You posting in this thread at all, nice to see You here!:)

You advice me to run the scale up and down doing hammer ons / pull offs? It will surely help and I will do more of these, but we all know that such exercises aren't to exciting:P

When it comes to my posture, I play bit differently when I am not recording myself, but when I am recording I have to put some more stuff like books on my chair, as otherwise I am sitting to low for the camera to see the lower part of the guitar:P So while playing without the camera, the posture is bit better. And when it comes to my facial expression, I am so angry that my face is visible at all:D If I could hide it, I would let myself to "express" more;)

I don't know what pre-fretting is, I would gladly hear about it. I suspect that it has something to do with placing fingers above the fret in advance of fretting it, but don't know:)

How you think I feel? I been playing for 20+ years and the first thing Monte tells me is that you need to learn how to count and play this exercise>!!



Thats exactly what it is. Mainly for pull offs though. Its hard to expain but you are correct. I will do a video later for you so you can see what I am doing.

This is true Marek, these excercises are boring. I am not advocating that you run the scale for 15-20 min. 5 min a day in a VERY FOCUSED manner will do the trick. Ask Opeth.db. The key is consistency and this is why you need a routine. There are two kinds of practice routines. One is where you sit down and play a little of this, then play a little of that, basically noodling but not really focusing on any one thing. If you want to make real progress you need a routine that you do as often as possible. It doesn't need to be 10 hours a day, 1-2 hours is plenty. Even 30 min of FOCUSED practice can get you great gains.

Marek tell me how much time you can realistically dedicate to practice a day and I can spell out a FOCUSED routine for you to work on.

Good job Marek!! 100%!!

Thanks Dan:)

Monte, behold! This is my "daily plan".

Monday: If not seeing friends I can find much time for practicing, but my stamina won't let me to practice more than two hours most probably.

Tuesday: horrible day, I get up, go to work, than to the university and am back at 8-8.30 pm.. So finding any real motivation can be hard, so lets say 30-60 minutes of practicing.

Wednesday: at the university from 2 pm to 8 pm. 60 minutes sounds right. Can be more, but I rather write the "lower limit".

Thursday: not known yet... Most probably will be back home 4 pm.
Friday: back at 12 am.
Weekend - well, differs.

Okay the list wasn't necessary... All in all, we can say that I have 1 hour per day for practicing, although one day it can be 30 minutes and another one 2 hours. Also if I am in "practicing mood" I will find some more time most probably. Lack of playing stamina makes playing more than 3 hours bit dangerous for my hands:P

That is fine Marek. We are gonna mostly focus on the Trond piece then, although I am gonna give you some excercises I want you to do every time you practice for warm-up. The key is doing everything the same way consitently to make some good progress. I'll get back to you on this shortly.

Sure:) I can use some warm up exercises, as most of the time I am doing the ones from Marcus Siepen lesson about warm-ups and sometimes run the pentatonic scale up and down in all the boxes.

There is a "good" legato "lick" ( as I said not sure what a lick is ) in Marcus Siepen - Pentatonic Solo lesson, here is the tab:

e|--/12--10--8--10-----------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------12-13-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13--|
G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13-17-13-12-13-13--12----12--------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------------14-----14-13-14----|
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

But this one involves the pinky, and that is even more killer for me than Trond's one. Or in other words, this one is out of my reach now, still can try to practice it on some ultra shred speed like 50 bpm..


Also in pentatonic major scale, there are 5 boxes, I assume that the situation with lydian scale is more less the same?

We are supposed to solo in D lydian, so this will be "one box" , but it doesn't look so organized as "have here child, 5 pentatonic boxes, learn these"

e|-----------------------------------------------------------12-14-16-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------12-14-15------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------11-13-14--------------------------------------|
D|------------------------11-12-14-----------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------11-12-14-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--10-12-14-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Also do You thing checking out some Lydian based lesson is a good idea considering what we are supposed to do?
For example these two made by Muris the Mighty: first second

Marek,
Look at the tab with the diatonic and pentatonic scales and the Triads. I want you to know all the triads and the First 3 positions of the A major scale. The Ionian, Dorian and Phrygian positions. Then I want you to know the 1st, 2nd and 5th position of the F# minor pentatonic scale.

The scale you tabbed is just the Lydian position of the A major scale, don't worry about this shape just yet. Do you understand that all these positions/boxes contain the exact same notes, just arranged in a different shape? This is important for to understand.


Marek I think you learning Muris's Lydian serial is a great idea. I have Jer and Opeth working on it as well. I'll send you a tab tomorrow with it broken up into licks. Once you get the licks memorized you should be able to go over half of it in about 30 min, so if you work on half one night and half the next you should be able to make some good progress.

After I get you the tab I'll go into more detail about how I want you to practice it specifically. Thanks dude!!

Cool I had a good idea:P I am still waiting for the exercises/plan ideas You said me to wait for:)

I'll get them to you today buddy.

Check out the Lydian thread on the board Marek. I gave you an assignment.

Hi Marek,
I am gonna have Opeth (Dan) stopping by to make sure you are up to speed with the rest of us on the theory. As far as your excercises I am gonna have you just run the Diatonic Boxes in 8th note triplets using hammer's and pulls at a slow comfortable tempo with the Kaz-Box to get you started. I want you to do this for 5 min a day WITH THE KAZ-BOX. I want to see an upload of you doing this please. The other thing I want you to do is to concentrate on learning your Major and Minor Triad shapes. 5 min/day on this as well. The rest of the time I want you to concentrate on the Lydian serial and the group assignments. Thanks dude!!


Dan....Help him out with the pre-fretting to get his pulloffs smooth!! Thanks!!

Ok Marek-

I have been assign by the doctor to help you out here. I will get a a pre-fretting video for you tonight hopefully. Gotta go pick up my axe from the shop tonight.

Where are you with the theory we are explaining here? I can explain how to get triads needed for the specific mode to play with? Do you know the basics? Terminology?

Let me know.

Monte, will do my best:)

Dan: well in fact my theory is so bad that I don't know what I know What I know is that there are 12 notes:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

So with the formula for for example the pentatonic scale, or major scale, I can say what notes are in the scale..

I know that the major triad is made of the first, third and fifth note in the certain scale, and that the minor triad is made of the first, flattened third and fifth note in the scale.

I know that Major Scale will have the notes that Major Pentatonic scale has. And suspect that the Minor Scale will have the notes of Minor Pentatonic scale also ( can be wrong.. ).

I do not understand the whole concept of the major scale and it modes... In pentatonic scale I had 5 boxes of the same scale, without any "moods". Now I have a scale, and each part/box of it has different subname/mood and I don't understand that. Are there different formulas of different modes? I expect not, because it "is" the same scale after all.. Really confusing...
I can read Andrew theory lessons to understand it... Here is the link to the "where to start" thread, maybe You could give me the numbers of lessons I should read, I know the more the better, but keeping things basic at one moment would help me, as now I just have so much new material before me, that I am bit lost:/ Many thanks in advance for You dedicating Your time for me..

Welcome to hell Dan!!! Just kidding Marek. Dan will get you squared away and I'll keep checking in and clarify if Dan needs help. You aren't that far behind you just need a little clarification on a few points.

All you Dan.....

I understand about all this new material my friend. Right Monte!

Anyways..Lets start with some simple stuff.

Your right there are 12 notes. The chromatic scale.
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

Ill just ask a series of questions. I dont want you to get a ton of info at once.

So If I were to say...
1. Give me the Scale of GMajor.
2. Scale of Gminor?

Can you figure it out..

I assume that scale Gmajor is Major Scale of G

Considering this is the formula for the major scale: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1

We have: G A B C D E F# G

Considering the formula for minor scale is : 2 1 2 2 1 2 2

We have: G A A# C D D# F G

Still I don't know these formulas by heart, had to check them before answering. I bet it won't need to much dedication to learn the formulas for pentatonic major and minor + major and minor scales, but it shows on "what level" I am.

Im sorta at that same level Marek. Monte threw this at me to help solidfy the theory for me by helping you. SO bear with me too.

Ok. Using the GMajor scale do you know what chords we would use to play in this key?


Major/Minor Scale formula I have seen written 3 different ways.
-2212221
-TTSTTTS
-WWHWWWH

Minor
-2122122
-WHWWHWW
-TSTTSTT

All the same but technically we should be using the TS for Tone and Semi-Tone but they are all correct.

Do you know what an interval is?

Why do we use modes?

To start infusing some mode theory what mode would be Major/Minor be?
Major = ? / What number is the mode? =
Minor = ? / What number is this mode? =

Interval is the distance between notes in a scale. When we count the notes, we also count the ones between which the distance is.

Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian= Major Modes --> I, IV, V
Aeolian, Dorian and Phrygian= Minor modes --> II, III, VI

I took the info about modes from our announcement thread, and the numbers from the table provided. I assume that the numbers presents the intervals between the root note and the certain ( numbered ) note in the major scale.

I can't answer what chords can be used in Gmaj scale. Using the table provided for us( and the knowledge that I, IV and V intervals are major, and II III VI are minor ), I would bet that as these are the triads:
Gmaj Amin Bmin Cmaj Dmaj Emin F#dim

So we could use these chords for sure. But most probably there are multiple ways of making those chords "different" yet still containing the base notes.

Still can't think of why to use modes, will try to re-read Monte's post about that...

Ok.

So in order to get or chords on the GMajor scale we use somethin called stacking thirds.

So we have,.,.
The formula for the major scale: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1

We have: G A B C D E F# G
So count every third..
Our chords for GMajor is... G B D

Cmajor is..
C D E F G A B C
Our chords here would be.. C E G

Does this make sense?

WE use modes to get different feelings and are good for improvisation.
Read Andrew's lesson here. http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...?showtopic=5012

After you good here we will go into leaning how to find what you need for modes.

Where'd you go Marek?


I posted a prefretting video for you.
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=25322

Let me know how you are doing...

First of all, I am very grateful for You making the video! I think that I actually knew it already, but didn't do it all the time, and I haven't put enough attention to it, now I will certainly look after that. Don't know how could I help You in anything "in exchange", but if there would be a way, than tell me:)

When it comes to "stacking thirds". I understand how You did it, but I am unsure why is it so? Considering we would be limited to one scale, would we be limited to the three chords that we have thanks to "stacking thirds" thing? I read this lesson few days ago lesson and from what I understood we could use chord based on any note that the scale consisted...

PS: excuses: I was quite busy last days, and also practiced playing quite heavily:)