Hey mate! This is your personal thread for Gab's Army, my mentoring project. The idea is to start together an intensive training to take your technique to a new level. Please share here your favourite musicians and also audio or videos of you playing different techniques.

The principles of our Army are:

+ Improve your technique
+ Make music and solos
+ Have fun
+ Destroy the enemy (hahaha not realy just kidding... ph34r.gif )

Hey Gabriel!

Thank you very much for letting me join the army! I am very willing to fucking destroy the enemy! ;-)

So maybe first a liitle bit about me... I´m 29 years old, living in germany... i started to play the guitar about 12/13 years ago BUT i never took lessons! I teached everything by myself, with youtube, guitar pro and a few advices from friends who also played the guitar! And thats my problem! i never had anyone who showed me how to do and learn techniques the right way...
So now i hope i can find here some help! :-)
I have enough time to practice (almost) every day because i earn my money with playing guitar/6 string banjo in an irish folk band... wee play every weekend two or three gigs...and during the week i teach the guitar to beginners... so i´m a so called "professional muscian"... ;-)
Here is a live video from my band: (i´m the banjo guy^^)

http://youtu.be/QptHb50-w0k


my favourite music is of course heavy metal... despite that irish folk stuff...
favourite musicians/guitar players... so, only to name a few...
Jari Mäenpää ( Wintersun)
Alexi Laiho ( Children Of Bodom/Sinergy )
Satchel (Steel Panther)
Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray) Maybe not because of his guitar palying but awesome song writing...
Wolf Hoffmann ( Accept)

now we come to favourite bands:
Sabaton
Battle Beast
Nightwish
Edguy
Avantasia
Ozzy osbourne
Airbourne
Norther
Sonata Arctica
i think thats enough now to know my taste of music...

The main reason why i am looking to get helf with my playing is because i want to get a lot better (of course :-) )
But few months ago i got told that my timing is shitty and i shall put more feeling into my play... so thats one point... the other is really to get faster in soloing and stuff...

wow... sorry to bother you with that shit^^ now i´ll stop and make a video where i play some stuff for you!

Cheers

Hi mate! I really liked your video playing Banjo! You guys sound really good! My friend Lian Gerbino, an old instructor here introduce me into the Irish music, and the folk metal so I have heard many stuff and I can say that you are really good!

The first that we have to do is to create a guitar routine to practice every day. The only way to become faster is practising diary, exercises and lesson, as a training. How many time do you have to practice each day?

Do you have any video in which you play Metal Rhythm? If not, let's choose a lesson from here, learn it and record it.

Thanks for the fast answer mate!

So, as i said, i have plenty of time to practice! i think i can manage four to six hours a day... exept for the weekends... there i have only like one hour to practice but i have to play a three hour gig... so i think its also kind of practice^^

I recorded a video with some metal rythm for you! Its one video with two clips, one is your stratovarius style rythm and the other is the nightwish style! ( both in one video!!)
i´d liove to hear your opinion about it!

cheerz!

http://youtu.be/MyjCQcwg2Jo

Hi mate! That's a good amount of time for practising! I checked both takes and the overall is very good. I can notice some timing issues, even more notorious in the Stratovarius lesson, sometimes you play a bit before or after the beat. Nightwish lesson is better but there is still room for playing it tighter. But this is not something very serious, you will fix this issue soon if we dedicate a part of your diary routine to rhythm practice.

Let's start designing your routine. What about dividing your day in this 4 blocks:

Warming Up

Hour 1: Alternate picking

Hour 2: Legato & Sweep Picking

Hour 3: Bending, Vibrato & Rhythm

Hour 4: Theory, learning songs/solos, Jamming and/or Composing.

Thank you for sharing your opinion!!
The routine looks great to me! Do you have special exercises for each part of it for me? just like your intensive technique course for the alternate picking?

Thank you!!

Ok! Here we go with the exercises!

Warming Up

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Arpeggios/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&id=26140
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&id=26098

Hour 1: Alternate picking

Patterns: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&id=26102

Example of how to work on them horizontally and vertically



ITC Lesson 5: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=42830

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Modal-...tring-patterns/

Hour 2: Legato & Sweep Picking

Legato:
Kotzen Pattern: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&id=26143

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Bens-Land-Of-Legato/

Sweep Picking:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=43083

Hour 3: Bending, Vibrato & Rhythm

Bending & Vibrato:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/guitar_loves_piano/

Rhythm:
Continue practicing Stratovarius Style lesson and add another Power/Thrash Metal Rhythm lesson. Some suggestions:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/German...etal-Helloween/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/German...IV-Primal-Fear/

Hour 4: Theory, learning songs/solos, Jamming and/or Composing

This part is the most creative one. The idea is that you learn 1 new thing every day about theory: A new scale, a new chord, a new arpeggio and practice applying it. Here you have a good guide: LINK

Use this last hour also for jamming over backing tracks and record your own ideas.

just FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

Thank you a lot Gabriel!!! I will let my guitar bleed!! :-)

When do you think will be the right time to get in touch with you again to check improovements or to see if i´m doing something wrong?

cheers

Hi mate! I'm glad to know that this routine looks cool for you! You can give me comments about your progress whenever you want but I hope to have news from you and feedback in around 1 week.

Hey mate! I'm back and I was wondering... how did you feel working on the routine? Was it effective? Can you note improvements? Please share all your thoughts and then we can make some changes / updates to it.

Hey Gab!
Hope you had a great vacation!! :-)

to be honest, i didn´t mede it to practice as intense as i wanted to... i have to renovate a room in our house, then whe had some unplanned gigs with my band, and i had to start songwriting for a new album... and a little part was of course lazyness.... so, i think i will have to rescedule my routine to maybe two hours a day...? four are really just to much... not that i dont wanted to, but there are really things to do... :-(

another thing that i noticed is the following problem...
over the last 4 to 5 years, i had no really good amp or something like that to play with, so i always practiced and played at home with guitar rig or amplitube... so the signal was going trough my pc... that always gave the sound a little delay, like 12-20ms... not really recognizeable but i think that affected my playing and giving me the timing problems which i now have...
last week i bought a POD HD 500... so now i think i have no more delay in my signal and be able to get the timing right...
any special lessons for that?

Thank you!

Hi mate! Great to hear from you! This sounds really good to me. Let's start with a new 2 hours routine so you can dedicate the rest of the time to composing. I added an exercise for timing and for analysing songs. Please check it out and tell me what you think...

- Warming Up (5 minutes)

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Arpeggios/



HOUR 1:


- Alternate picking (20 minutes)

Patterns: LINK
ITC Lesson 5: LINK
MODAL MADNESS

- Legato & Sweep Picking (20 minutes)

Kotzen Pattern
Land of legato I
ITC 8: LINK

- Bending & Vibrato: (10 minutes)

Guitar loves piano

- Theory: (10 minutes)

The idea is that you learn 1 new thing every day about theory: A new scale, a new chord, a new arpeggio and practice applying it. Here you have a good guide: LINK



HOUR 2:


Rhythm: (20 minutes)
Continue practicing Stratovarius Style lesson and add another Power/Thrash Metal Rhythm lesson. Some suggestions:

Helloween Style
Primal Fear Style

- Timing (20 minutes)

Timing exercise

- Analysing songs: (20 minutes)

Dedicate some time to analize songs and to write down it's structures, chord progressions, and arranging details.

Template table:
Structure // What's happening (arrangements, intruments, tempo, rhythm) // Chord progression & scales used (theory)

AWESOME!!!

will start right now!!

Thank you Gab!

Great! Keep me updated!

Hey Gab!

So, after intense practicing of thestuff above i know now my weakness.... its the alternative picking... i can do it quite fast and clean, but only on one string.... when it comes to change the string to a higher one it might be good... the chances are 50/50 :-) but when it comes to go a scale from high to low its horrible!!
lets take for example the timing exercise! it works really good on 50bpm... in a good mood and when i have a good day it also works on 60bbm... but it still needs time to play (especially the last part) on 70bbm...

same problem on modal madness... 100-110bbm no problem... but its a lucky shot when it works on 120bbm....

today i´ll try to record the alternate picking workout 2.... maybe you have some suggestions for me

cheerz

Hi mate! That's the tricky part of Alternate Picking, and I have special exercises that practiced every day will show exciting results. So don't worry about this.

Crossing strings I
Crossing strings II
Crossing strings III

Please work on those 3 lessons over metronome for 10 days. Incorporate them to your routine during the AP section. Remind me in 10 days to give you the second part of this.

Hi mate, I'm here checking what are the news. I was wondering if you have been working on the routine and if you are ready to refresh it.

Please share your experience and your thoughts about the last weeks work.

Hey Gabriel!
Thanks for asking!

well, i´m trying to practice whenever i can... but the scedule is thight at the moment! a lot of work, producing new cd... and last week i´ve been on holidays in finland... so the routine has to stay as it is untill next year i think!

hope you´re fine,

Paul

Hey Gab!
How are you donig?

So, i´m still practicing and doing well i think! :-)

I´m still trying the modal madness thing and it get better! but i think i still need time for that... a lot of time! :-)

So if you got any suggestions or so just tell them!

Cheers! :-)

Hi mate, thanks for the update. Could you please post here some audios of you playing the lessons? (or maybe videos?)

Hey!
Shure i wil! Just give me two or three days to realize that!

Excellent!

hey gab!
i postet the "alternatiev picking" lesson by dariuz and your helloween style lesson on the REC topic... maybe you can tell me which lessons xactly you want to see?

Hi mate! Great job on those lessons! I gave you specific feedback at REC. Please check it out and let me know if you have any question.

How are your guitar sessions nowadays?

Hey there!
thanks for your feedback!
to the helloween lesson: the timing issues at the beginning is just because its hard without a click playing alone and get into the right tempo... :-P
the wrong note at 00:09 was just my bad...
and ther ather ones... somehow i was shure that you used the minor harmonic scale at this one... sorry for that :-)

so, i´m trying to exercise as much as possible... sometimes i do the complete routine, sometimes just parts of it and sometimes i´m just trying to learn some lessons i find here...

i´d love to post the primal fear lesson you recommended me... but skipping the string in the riff at 00:34 is just killing me! also the fast lick at 00:15 is just hell!! :-)

so maybe you have some more lessons or something to recommend to me to record it and to post here? (got a new webcam this week and i want to try it out!! :-P )
(currently i´m trying to learn the new lesson by ben, the "alexi lahio style"... one of my favourite guitar players... but that will take couple of weeks to get the sweeping and tapping to sound good...)

Great mate! Let me suggest new lessons for the whole routine. You can slowly incorporate them to your practice to finally replace the older ones.

Alternate picking

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Linear-Shred-Zone/


Legato & Sweep Picking

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/legato-stamina/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...picking-lesson/


Bending, Vibrato & Rhythm

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Iced-Earth-Style/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Bendin...Friedman-Style/


What do you think?

i postet again something at the REC board... is that ok for you gab? or do you want me to post it here?

It's even better than post it here because you receive feedback from different instructors!

Hey Gab!!!

I´m back!! :-)
As i told you i had an audition for a band as a bass player and it worked out! i´m now part of IN LEGEND wohoo!! ;-)

So, now i have again some more time to practice here and i just uplaoded a video into the REC SECTION with one of my latest lessons here!
i will record even the other ones later...

cheers!

Hi mate!! How are you?? Welcome back! Lots of congrats for the new band and also for the killer REC take.

The quality of your new band is really good. I'm now listening to the song "Pandemonium", it sounds cool. How was the audition experience? What are the next plans?

Hey there!
Thank you! Altough i dont like iced earth that much because of that unsteady guitar rythms i fought trough it :-D

Yeah! The bandleader/singer is badass... he´s also the drummer of the acapella metal band van canto... maybe you´ve heard about them... And IN LEGEND also has no guitars in it! only piano, bass, some synths and drums :-)
in one week we´ll start a crowdfounding campain to release the second album! we´re planning to release it in january... Our first gig with the new lineup will be on the third of october... and the next ones is a small tour in December with van canto!
We will the where this path will lead us to! :-)
And how are you and your band doing?

i´ll try to record all the last lessons you gave me so you can see where i am right now with my guitar skills!
cheers

That's so cool mate. All the best with the band and the crowfounding campaign! I hope to see a video of you playing live with the band soon.

About me, we are having a great time, lots of gigs every weekend and a good response from audiences from different parts of the country. We are now preparing for a important concert that will be done on November 29th where we will record our first official live DVD. So we are working hard for that show as well as working on new music. All great things.

I will be waiting for your videos to see how we can continue, ok?

Hey Gab!

Dont worry... i´m still here... practicing... :-)
at the moment i´m working on the "Outside bending" lesson a lot and i think i will upload a video latestly next week...

also i´ve been trying the legato stamina... its just so freaking fast.... o.o...

next thing will be the sweep picking lesson... also very fast... but i´m on it^^

Cheers

Hi mate, thanks for the update. It's cool to see you working on the routine that I suggested. Please let me know if you find problems with any of the licks and techniques, and off course feel free to share videos here to let me monitor your progress. Ok?

Hey Gab! just uploaded something again... its the outside bending lesson you showed me!

i´m still practicing the legato stamina and the sweep picking lessons, but they are just too fast for me to complete them... :-(

Maybe you have some other good lessons / exercises for me? thanks


EDIT: oh, and i forgot to ask... i´m trying to play this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E03_D6KOuU4

maybe you could show me how to play this fast solo lick wich starts at 2:22?

i´m trying something like this, but i´m not shure:

E-13p10h13p10----13p10h13p10--------
B--------------------10--------------------10----- ...and so on...
G----------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------

Hi friend! How are you?

I'm glad of knowing that you are currently working hard on the lessons suggested in the previous routines. I'll check the lesson at REC in a moment. Do you have some videos playing the other ones?

About the lick of the song, I recorded a video for you, check it out!

Hey Gab!!! Thanks for your response! To get the 100% right pith in the bending lesson is a pain in the ass!!!
but i will continue to practice it to get it right!!

Thanks for your video with the solo lick!! I will try this one out!!

i posted another video at the rec setion, with the legato stamina lesson... its noch 100% correct with the timing... i know that, but you wanted to see it! :-D
i cant make a video of the sweep picking lesson... its just way too bad right now.... i get the small arpeggios... but when it comes to the four sting things i´m out.... so i have to put more work into that.... maybe you´ve got some "easier" lessons it that case?

cheers mate! :-)

Hi mate, I'm glad to know that the video helped. If you want to explore more about this 2 strings sweeps, I recommend you to check this lessons that include licks using the same technique:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...msteen-lesson3/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Power-...ng-Timo-Tolkki/


However those two lessons are not what I consider easy stuff, but I was thinking that you could work on the following lesson that has some cool exericse to master the technique and off course on the Economy Picking series.

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...rove-sweep-now/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/lessonser...conomy-Picking/

Hey Gab!

Thanks for these Lessons! I´m currently sitting on the Timo Tolkki lesson becase i think it doable for me.... somehow! :-)
i can already feel that i improved on this "two string arpeggios" and that they are more fluent! Here´s a short video of playing it at 125bpm... can manage it to play faster at the moment...


and another question to that... is there a trick to mute the b-string when you have to play it with the first finger??ß for example in this part:
F E
S S S S S S S S S S S S Q
--17-13----13-17-13-17-13-16-12----12-16----|
----------13----------------------------12-----------|
-------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------|

Hi mate! This lesson is evolving very good! Great job with it! I can notice that you can keep timing tight and that the patterns are sounding clear and tight.

About your muting question, I use the palm of my right hand to mute a bit B string when I'm playing these type of arpeggios. This helps to make the pattern sound clearer because the note extincts soon. So I don't have to worry on muting it then. Another trick would be to angle a bit your first finger to stop pressing the fret but keep muting but I consider it more difficult to achieve, the palm muting option is the way to go!

Please try this trick and let me know how it works.

Hello Gab!

I hope you´re doing fine!
I have had a long break now from really excessive exerciseing on my guitars, just because the lack of time... i have a lot to do with my house and a baby is on the way.... ;-)

but i dont want to get out of shape with my playing and wanted to ask you if you could make me a plan with some moderate fun to play exercises/lessons/song (like an hour per day, nothing to hard...) which i can use to keep my hands fit?

when i´ll have more time, i will come back to you with specific questions :-)

Thank you!

Hi mate, how are you? Nice news! Congrats on the new baby coming!

I would really like to help you to design a plan. What GMC lessons do you already know/remember from the ones that I assigned on your previous routines? What techniques/topics would you like to work?

Thanks!!!

So, what i really liked was the "iced Earth" Picking lesson... so maybe something in that style...
and something like the alternate picking lessons we did... they helped me a lot to get faster in playing scales up and down...

and maybe you could recommend me some songs from diffenrent bands i could learn that feature those things mentioned... for example, something you played along to to? or some of your favourite bands??

i´m greatful for every advices and recommendations you give to me! :-)

Ok! So these are my suggestions for the first weeks:


Rhythm: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Teuton...truction-Style/

Alternate Picking: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...tring-skipping/

Sweep Picking: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Power-...ng-Timo-Tolkki/ (continue polishing this one).


About songs, I think that learning song by ear weekly is a killer workout. Which songs? The catalog is endless so if you want, share here a list of songs that you've always wanted to learn and I help you with the decision.

Hey Gab!

I´m still just staying in shape... :-D

Have a look at the rec section... you´ll finde the "destruction" lesson there... more to come next week or so... :-)

i keep having trouble with the real fast 16th notes in the timo tolkki lesson... any advices or not so fast lessons to get there??

Hi mate, thanks for the update. I'll check the rec take in a moment.

About the fast licks on Tolkki's lesson. I assume that you refer to the alternate picking licks which are very fast. I trained this technique mostly using repetitive patterns and sequences. I recommend you doing two things:

- Isolate the tricky parts and create small blocks that work as technique exercises. Work on this small blocks over metronome every day. Focus on making movement from your left and right hand the smaller possible.

- Check the right hand lessons from my technique course. You'll find one string, crossing strings and outside/inside picking lessons and exercises that are the ones that helped me to develop this technique: LINK

Hello Gab!

I hope you´re doing fine!
I´m back (again)... and hopefully the motivation to gat better (again ;-) ) lasts longer than the last time!

I´m currently sitting on Peters Winter Tune 6 and its going great! i can play it by mind, and get to small details that make it more interesting!
But there is one part i just cant do it "in time" or at that speed. Its the Part from 02:12 to 02:22 or video number 7
This 16th notes in a 12/8 measure just making me mad!! (and the "string jumping"....)

If you want to i can also post a video here of the part (just to see how terrible it sounds now) ...

Do you have andy advices for me (of course except starting slow and getting faster every day)?

Thanks man!

Hi friend! Great to hear from you!! Let's continue working!!

Please share a video of you playing the part at different tempos to let me give you feedback, ok?

Wow... its been again some time... sorry for that... but i just made the video you asked me about last time... here it is at slow, medium and original speed.... it just seems my right hand cant get the beat that fast .....

would love to read your toughts about it and about youw way how to make this work! Thank you Gab!

https://youtu.be/irl1Vo_T3X4

Hi mate! Great to hear from you!

I've tried the part and the main differences that I find in my technique (compared to your video) are:

- I don't use my right hand pinky as an anchors point. I keep my right hand closer. However, Piotr does it like you so both ways can be ok.

- My motion is strictly up and down, while your hand seems to do and extra circular movement. You need to try to minimize and optimize your right hand movement to be able to play this fast.


As this is a very demanding riff, I think that it can be good to add some warm up exercises into your routine. The main difficulty here is that it's based on triplets so the right hand picking pattern is different each time.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment