Hey buddy, let's start working on things - had in mind some quick drills to work on your chops, one lesson for each technique mentioned in the PM - can you have these ready until next Friday, let's say? Would you prefer making a video with all of them or just audio?

Alternate picking and legato: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/legato...g_intermediate/

Articulation: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/bending-control/

Deal?

Cosmin

Hey Cosmin!

It's definitely a deal! I really like all Muris' lessons and they all make me want to actually practice. I used to be around when he was an instructor here and I was always looking forward to his lessons. There are probably a ton of lessons in between 2010 and now that I haven't checked out, but that'll come in time. I've seen 10 or so of your lessons and they were all very nice! Also heard some of your bands stuff, and even though I mentioned a lot of different genres earlier, I do like the more djenty and prog stuff, especially if there's a dreamy vibe to it.

Enough of that! The Walliman lesson is great if a bit intimidating, but I won't shy away from the challenge, and I think what will cause me the most problems is some of the timing as well. Coming in a 16th note after a beat has always been one of my weaknesses, but we shall see. It's not so bad as it's "only" at 80 bpm.

And I'll definitely be making videos, if that is alright. I just need to adjust a bit with the focus, lighting and so on, but that'll come.

On a side note I've also got a 7 string guitar which I probably use most of the time... well, that or the strat. Depends a bit on what I'm playing.

Would it be alright if I post some other stuff in regards to my playing in here along the way besides just things you have mentioned? Or do we keep it clean and straight?

EDIT: Thinking about maybe starting a thread in the practice area that will just be about other things I'm practicing as well? Not too sure now. Could use that for all other things and keep this pretty streamlined?

Mornin' Ben!

You can post anything you wish in this thread It's yours The whole idea is to keep to the tasks at hand so that you may progress What did you have in mind regarding other questions?

Morning! This is the best day in a long time! I'm happy as can be for some reason. Had a bit of a less-good few weeks for no particular reason (well, it's another, long story!). The sun is shining, I've been up early, I've signed up for singing lessons...for free!

Yes, you heard it right. Free (and good) singing lessons paid by the state basically. I had singing lessons for half a year when I was 15, almost 10 years ago, and I'm really looking forward to it again. Back then was just regular all round lessons, but this time it's more rock-esque lessons in regards to general technique as well of course, but also about belching, overdrive, twang, curb and so on. I might share some of that as well, as I know you sing as well. So perhaps you'll have a few tips there as well.

I'm practicing some other stuff as well on the guitar so I might share that as well, if that's alright. Trying to get my alternate picking comfortable at 16th notes at 140 bpm for a start. That's still very shaky, but I've only been back at practicing that for one day after 5-6 years away from practicing.

...Anyway, back to this being a good day! The sun is shining, I'm feeling motivated for exercising (which I haven't done for 2 weeks. Recently lost 11 kg in 5 weeks through exercising, then not been feeling like doing anything for the past two weeks, but now I feel like I want to get back in the saddle... on my racing bicycle). But first to clean up my apartment! And then I need to learn to drink coffee. It's cheaper than energy drinks.

I was thinking about making some progress videos along the way, if that sounds meaningful to you. I.e. I might upload the Muris' lesson tonight (along with "Lydian beginner phrasing", "Dorian beginner phrasing", "jumping around" and I think there's one more I can't remember right now, which I started practicing 2 days ago... might upload them to the REC program as well).



OKAY! Too much energy from energy drinks, clearly.

Also, if you don't already know them, be sure to check out Sieges Even and their album The Art of Navigating by the Stars. It's an absolutely amazing and complete album and I think you might like it. Some of it anyway. Here's a playlist of the full album. If you have the time and feel like it be sure to at least check out the very first song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8i-lMU9UTY...dBf3y_TCLmhpP88

That genre/style is probably my all time favorite. It could have a spice of djent at times and it'd be absolutely perfect.

Hey mate! Sure, go ahead and post everything - it sounds like you have a lot of time on your hands as those lessons are not so easy, but I am very curious to see the results. Recording yourself is a great idea, as the recording is your mirror, in terns of playing

Regarding singing - I see you are using a lot of terms that are very familiar to me, such as twang I think we'll have a great time together talking about these as well... and as a last thing - quit energy drinks You might want to try green tea as it gives you a lot of energy and it is also very healthy! It even beats coffee, you know

I am waiting to see some vids so that we may begin discussing on things!

I'll try and get a few videos up tonight. I was so tired yesterday evening that I could barely sit up straight. Of course I then ended up being up very late and felt very awake in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep.

I usually don't drink a whole lot of energy drinks, but wanted to try it out to see the effects. I don't like coffee either, and yesterday I came crashing down so hard after having been pumped up on energy, that I'd rather just be a little tired all day I think. Funnily enough I actually went out and bought green tea yesterday as well right after I had signed up for the singing lessons. They start next friday.

Just spent some time on the two lessons, and while I've got the Muris' one almost down to presentation level, the David Walliman one is causing me more troubles. Especially with the timing.

No matter man - you can post a recording as it is now, so I can take a look and help you along the way What say you?

I'll see if I can get it done tonight, but I'm going to my girlfriend's place tomorrow untill Wednesday. I'm bringing my guitar so I can practice while she's away during the day, but I probably won't be able to record unless I bring my PX4D and some other stuff. I'll look into that tomorrow before I go.

Mind you, I haven't worked a lot on it. Half an hour earlier today and some time just now. Half an hour as well maybe. I still don't remember the full lesson, so it's me playing this while looking at the tab.

I haven't paid too much attention to the bends yet, as I've been wanting to just the hang of the timing of the lesson. Some quite glaring mistakes, but hey, warts and all as I said in the PM. Throw something at me!

And let's throw this in for good measure, though it went better earlier. I know there's a wrong note in the end, but I'm getting a bit t ired now

Hehe!

Mate, here are my thoughts on this:

- your tone is very nice
- you got the grasp on both lessons
- in the first video, I can clearly see that you don't harness the lesson yet You should internalize it and focus on interpretation and flow, as right now it is almost 95% correct, technically but it feels very mechanical - am I making sense?
- Muris will not be pleased about your timing, young man That's what you need to focus on in order to get this lesson straight to the top! Please slow down and make sure that everything is in good timing, as right now, a lot of your phrases begin a bit too abruptly

Do we have a deal?

Cosmin

Cheers, Cosmin.

The tone was actually created for my 7 string with different pick ups obviously etc., so it's more luck than anything. I also prefer playing on my 7 string, though the strat is easier to play as it has such low action, but I still feel more at home with my other guitar.

I have brought my guitar along to my girlfriend's place and will be practicing while she's away tomorrow. I've brought my soundcard and webcam and everything (it all fit perfectly into my guitar bag!), so will give it a go today/tomorrow.

I know what you say about the Muris one. I would have prefered to upload the takes I didn't record earlier, but oh well. I have absolutely no problem going back to say 50% tempo and practicing slow. I really want to go totally back to square one and not try and jump ahead or anything. Get everything down to a tee, you know. That's also why I'm practicing some of Muris' 2-difficulty lessons (lydian beginner phrasing, dorian beginner phrasing and jumping around... and I think there's one more which I can't remember right now!)

That's very good man - what I want to point out tho:

NO rushing Take your time - of course, don't become a slouch - focus on each and every detail possible, both when learning and when recording - deal?

Yes, I agree. I will probably record a bit more progress of things once I get home and get going. Will be home again tomorrow.

Great I will be around... watching... waiting

I will try and record something tonight. I did a few takes yesterday, and I ended up doing the best guitar face you will have ever seen. Me and my girlfriend was laughing so hard looking at it again and again. I'll probably upload that bit to a thread. It's definitely my best guitar face yet ever!

Let's see it then - hope it didn't spoil the playing tho

Wanted to record something today, but my football coach asked if I wanted to come home to him and try the new Fifa demo, and now it's getting really late. This wasn't in my plans! I will upload a gif of it tonight when I'm on my laptop.

Two new Murises. I've yet to be on the laptop, so no funny guitar face. Sorrieeees!

Oh, and here's this just from before bed time:

Howdy Ben - the 75 BPM one is cool! The 100 BPM one is a bit problematic because of your tendency to delay the entrance in each separate phrase - see min 0:13 - am I making sense? Focus on correcting this

Wow - nice touch man! I think you need to develop a little more variation in phrasing, but you are definitely on the right darn track

Well, there's one more thing - these types of backing tracks are too long and too linear to develop creative playing - I would use them for rehearsing a particular lick, but usually if I want to create, I would consider recording a chord progression from the moment I have a structure in my mind and work my way up from there.

It needs to open up into something different - can you feel that? By this, I mean that the backing is static and it makes your playing feel static too

I'll give it a bit more work for sure. I've been jumping back and forth between 75 bpm and 100 bpm. I could of course just play it with a metronome to work it up to speed. I see what you mean though. I tried 50 bpm, by the way...that was a nightmare! I think my problem is the octave in the start of each measure...rythmically. If that makes any sense.

I absolutely do need to develop my phrasing more, but that's why I actually chose this track and why I like these kinda more static tracks. There's not so much going on in regards to chords and so on, so I feel I can focus more on my phrasing than if I had to think: "Oh, here's an Am7...here's an Fmaj9 and then here's an E7 and now it modulates". But I completely agree otherwise!

I'm beginning to hate this lesson...

I submitted two takes of lessons I have been working on today to the REC program, Beginner solo in D and Jumping Around beginner. (Yeah, I do like Muris' lessons!). They're not completely polished, but I felt confident enough to post them in there.

About that octave thing - yes it does make sense The 'jump' causes problems, so focus on that jump, ok? I know because I played the lesson myself

Regarding the 'staticness' - it is good to be able to have space to develop your phrases and not worry about the changes while composing, but the downside is, that you will get so caught up that you will end meandering aimlessly around the track and waste a lot of time, instead of being focused - this is what was happening to me - I don't know if it's your case tho - how do you feel about this?



On'em, as we speak



Mate - you are almost there! There are very slight timing issues which you should be able to observe if you play against the original recording - they are very little, but I can feel them -they are more like hesitations, if you know what I mean Try this idea and let's see how it works, aye?

I will! Are we gonna continue with these two or add some new stuff? I will continue to work on all of this though, no problem.



I do agree, I just don't feel totally comfortable at the moment improvising over too much of a non-static backing track. I know it's good to push boundaries though, of course.



Cheers! I know it's back to square one, but hell, I'm sure it's good to build from the ground up.




I'll try and record that, same with the Muris one. I know that that usually goes much better. It's usually how I go about learning lessons to begin with.

On a side note. I was supposed to start my singing lessons today. I was up early, had breakfast, showered, everything, ready to go... then I bend over and I get stuck! My back started hurting like crazy. I had even gotten over the nervousness and was looking forward to it. I would have been out the door 5 minutes later. Had to cancel. As long as I don't move too much, it's alright, but I'm not singing, standing up, moving around etc. So I cancelled today. Next friday will hopefully be better!

Hehe - aside from 0:44 when things sounded blurry - it looks like you are ok with it Now focus on fixing that one and record with the backing track - aim to understand the lines well before starting to record - as now you have done a good job, but it needs to be non mechanical, if you get what I am saying. Sometimes, we can imitate but, when we face the idea of playing by ourselves we can't play that perfect because we haven't completely understood the length of some phrases or rests Hope I was clear BTW - 0:34 kittie time! What are doing there human??

Take care of that back, mate - and yes, we will stick to these two until you get them straight, because you are VERY close

I need to spend 10 minutes practicing those 1 or 2 measures around :44. I've been procrastinating it and I don't know why. I keep forgetting how it goes.

Fair enough. As you have noticed with the RECs I've been working on some stuff on the side as well. I've got another one to put up for the REC program, but I'm not sure if I should wait or not. I'm feeling a bit over-active on the board at the moment... but I'm not sure what the general view on that is. I just want this place to be as active as possible!

I just can't remember the last part of this! I can play it on it's own, but as soon as I get to it as part of the lesson I've forgotten what the hell I'm supposed to be playing:





And I can't tell if I'm improving or not with the Muris one:



As for feel and non-mechanicalism( ) in the Walliman lesson. I'm really struggling with it, as I'm not feeling it at all!

Hey Ben - all I can say is MINOR HESITATIONS in both lessons

The Walliman one - if you don't feel it then, that's that We can try something else - why not you tell me a bending/ articulation based lesson which you enjoy? The idea is that at this point, you can play it technically well, but it sounds rigid and that is NOT what we want, right?

The Muris one - I think you are ready for the REC zone, although, I felt that little hesitation at about 0:34

What say you?

Cosmin

Sounds cool by me. I liked the Walliman lesson to begin with, but it just hasn't grown on me since then. I'd love to work more on bending and so on though. Let me have a look through some lessons and I'll be back to you.

I'll definitely work more on the Muris and bring it to the REC zone!

Good plan - bring it on mate!

I keep coming back to Muris' lessons, though I've been trying to find some other ones.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...-tune-beginner/

Or perhaps this is a good bending workout:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/String-Bending/

Hey mate - both are good I think that you can tackle them both, as in start with one, finish it, record it and take it to the REC zone and then the other in the same way. I think you are a very proficient player and your learning curve is quite a steep one That's a compliment

I'll get to it then!

Well, I've been down the road before, but I used to play with my whole arm back then, and I've now changed to playing with my wrist, so that was back to square one for starters. Then not having played for years and years properly, plus I used to take some short cuts when practicing and not do it properly. These days there are no short cuts and I don't care if I'm playing level 3 lessons or level 7. I don't feel quite ready to move on to way harder stuff yet though, as I still need too many takes on the easy stuff. I'd like to be able to play all those lessons from the REC fluently every time, not just 4-5 times (then choosing the best take).

Ah mate - I see your point, but you have to understand that there are days and days You may feel like you can take over the world one day and then another, you are down in the gutter. This is occurring regardless of how great your chops are - but I think that you plan of tackling as many lessons which are a bit under your level is a good one. In this way, you will become stronger and more confident and when the right time comes, you can move on Keep me posted with takes and I will help out with everything I can!

My bending on my seven string seems so much better than on my strat, on which I just can't get it right. My 7 string is being fixed though. I usually fix and repair everything myself, but this I couldn't get right. Some filing on the saddle of the low B had to be done as well as some floyd rose stuff, which I couldn't for the life of me get right either (as soon as I pulled up the whammy bar it went out of tune, dive bombs were fine...). He said he'd see what he could do.

Always a good thing to take it to a luthier Let me know how it goes

Will do. I don't even feel like playing my strat now. It feels so lightweight. 0.09 strings, such low action you could probably just blow some air onto the fretboard and play the notes, but yet it just feels less right than the 7 string.

If he had thet spare parts that he might need I'd be able to get it tomorrow he said, if not it might be another 5 days. Hopefully tomorrow! I really don't feel like touching my strat at the moment and I'm even contemplating selling it

Mate... if you care about my thoughts - don't sell the strat You'll want one later on. We all do well, not me.. I want a telecaster

I am known for selling stuff and then regretting it 5 days later! I sold my digital piano and a couple of months later I had to go out and buy a new one!

I won't sell the strat right away, but I prefer not to practice technique on it as it's such a difference from the other one. I might have my parents bring me my last electric guitar which I've left at home with them. It's a cheap one but in pretty good condition. And looks awesome!

I try to practice on all my guitars, so that I won't feel like they are strange to me in any way when I need to use them onstage. Plus, hell man, that Strat has a super nice tone - I'd use it only for that

Before my seven string was fixed (way back when it was in terrible condition) I used to play all of my guitars, but now...well, there's just such a difference between the seven string and the strat. I like the strat for chords and so on though. I have a third electric guitar at my parents' place. I forgot to ask them to bring it with them though. I kinda want it now.

By the way, I haven't really gotten going on the lessons. Been ill for 2 days, had my parents come by and been working on my "The League of..." collab take.

No worries mate - take your time, as no one is rushing you Keep me posted on the progress when you record, ok? It is normal to feel that some of your guitars are friendlier in respect to some techniques, but it would be awesome to be able to express yourself with the same ease on each one. As Musashi says - In all things have no preferences. You can read more about his 21 rules of living If you are interested, I can tell you more about it

http://www.musashi-miyamoto.com/dokkodo.html

Sounds interesting. I will have a read in a bit.

I was supposed to go to the singing lessons today, but I've had a bit of a change of heart and feel a bit stupid. I signed up for them thinking it was a good idea, but for some reason I wasn't signed up for complete beginner lessons, and as I said it's been almost ten years. So if I were to join I'd like it to be from the beginning or at least have practiced my singing at home myself. I can still hit the notes...sometimes. And I'd have liked to have gotten that "sometimes" out the way before starting. It's sort of how my brain works. It was the same when I was a kid and started playing football - I practiced at home before starting as not to look a complete fool. As far as I can tell I can sign up for the lessons again any time.

I'm thinking about signing up for mixing/producing lessons instead. It's less intimidating and you're less "naked" in your "performance", if that makes sense.

Now I better get singing incorporated into my practicing. I've got a midi keyboard (with weighted keys, 88 of them as well etc), so I'll try and use that for practicing for a bit.

Stupid Ben!

Mate, let me tell you a story

There was this clumsy dude at the sword seminar/exam today - he is that sort of nerdy guy that you would expect everyone to make fun of, but he came and watched, listened and executed. Clumsily but patiently and driven and guess what, he made it My old headmaster in highschool had a saying - 'If you feel like you wanna do something, just do it. Don't think THAT much about it'

In less words, get out there and learn without worrying if you are prepared or not

I do agree that some times you just have to take the jump and plunge in both feet and do the best you can, but it was just too much of a leap of faith. I don't feel confident in my rythmical feel or anything yet - not even on the guitar. So I'm going to join another course which is about mixing and producing music. It's a bit less intimidating!

I'm gaining massive amounts of confidence on the guitar at the moment, so that's really great, but as said it was a bit too much with the singing lessons as of yet, even if one of my friends heard me singing the other day (mind you, just along with a Pearl Jam song) and she was really encouraging me to take the lessons at some point. I can probably get the singing lessons for free any time within the next two years, so it's all cool. Need to practice my voice more!

I understand your fear, but I don't understand why you should fuss that much to prepare yourself for going somewhere to prepare yourself - if you get my meaning