answered

Gus (9:48 - 10:55)
Another stereo track Just read jafomatic’s and bladzerok’s comments and I don’t need to repeat it. Nice playing Gus. Your rock feel is very good. There are things you could work on. The first thing is the control. On 10:04 there was that first dirty unarticulated noise which shouldn’t be heard in a studio recorded take. You have tools to mute it before exporting the track. I heard some other minor ones but they were on the edge of acceptable range Vibrato was present most of the time but it really should be more consistent. Especially when you bend and hold the note vibrato should be really wide if you want to sound like a pro. Your bends were good btw. Some rhythmical problems were noticeable all the way from 10:24 – 10:29. I am talking about the hammer ons and pull offs. Rhythm placement of those licks was all over the place.

twist (7:38 – 8:43)

Hi Twist. I remember fixing your GP file but I can’t hear that you corrected some of the notes in this recording. Open your GP file (fixed one) and look at the bar 9 where I changed your 14th fret into 15th. We are in the F# major chord and your 14th fret on the 3rd string is minor 3rd interval from F# but we need major 3rd which sits on the 15th fret. The exact same thing happens in the bar 17. Apart from that everything was correct. You posted this video on Youtube. I watched it and there is something I noticed which I wouldn’t otherwise if you just left your audio You use your pinky in places where you have normal 4 frets situation which is good. Wherever you have wider stretch you are using only 3 fingers. Why? It is more natural to use it there as you’re dealing with more frets. This happens in that part which you didn’t fix (bars 9 and 17) and the last diminished line. Both of these are “crying” for pinky. Because of that you have much more stress to control the whole line. Whenever you have opportunity to use your pinky just go for it. That means when you have 4 frets situation and more than that, always use pinky. Your vibrato is not very developed. You’re vibrating from the finger but you need to do it from the wrist. This will come with time but you really need to practice vibrato more. Your guitar sound is well defined but the type of distortion you are using is a bit buzzy. Listen to Dexter’s take and try to find something similar in your presets if you are using any amp simulator. I am looking for something warm, and with enough sustain but decent amount of drive. This take works as it is and I am happy I could help with your GP file. I am happy to do it anytime but please don’t forget about those corrections. Nice work with your creativity.

Hi Emir. Nice job with the mix. I heard it fully a couple of times already!

Thanks a lot for all the comments. They will help a lot!
I will try to further incorporate those things into my practice routine.

Can you suggest a tutorial or something on how to remove the noise before exporting?

After struggling a long time with out of tune bends, I've been working on bends so it is good to hear they are fine.
However I do have problems with bend+vibrato. I am playing a floyd-rose, so when I bend and than do vibrato the tension varies a lot. If I make it too wide I always find it out of tune . Can you suggest any tips or exercises/lesson to make proper bend+vibrato?

Hi Emir, thank you for your long comment I did not ignore the changes you made on my gp file on purpose. It just somehow slipped through... sorry...

The other thing you mentioned, sloppy pinkie use, is one of my bigger problems. I do that for years and its hard to get rid of. At the moment i am practising scales all day with correct finger palcement to get more pinkie training.
And the vibrato is another problem i am working on. Do you have any suggestions, maybe some lessons, i could learn to help building up vibrato skill?

For the sound, i will listen to the other takes

So, again, thank you for your time and help! This was the first thing i "composed" ever. And i am glad i had the chance to do it here with your help!

Tjchep (9:48 – end)

You are an extremely talented musician. I enjoyed your every upload on forum and every video of you playing. Great feel and overall control, nice vibrato – agressive just when needed. There is not much to be said about your playing. Just keep up the great work and you are ready to start becoming well known player. I heard some dirty notes but that probably came because you were too excited when recording. Almost slipped completely a couple of times You also need to concentrate on your hands instead of closing eyes and just killing the beast out of the guitar which is a great thing if you execute everything properly The weakest point in this solo was that double stop on 10:05 which was out of tune. I would have played these two (look at the bottom Tjchep picture attached). Apart from that I liked everything you played and I can only say well done and thanks for joining the collaboration. I hope to see you again. Well done

This means alot to me. Thank you very much.

Regarding the sloppy playing, I'll admit I sometimes get carried away when playing/recording and that is something that I really do need to work on.

Thanks again Emir.

Dexxter (0:00 – 1:10)

Awesome take Dexxter. Excellent tone. Is this your flying V guitar? I remember from your REC takes that you had killer tone on that guitar. Besides you have an excellent control and feel. Your take sounds extremely professional. Every melodic line and your creative ideas are something that we usually hear from top class players. I like that you moved to the higher octave at some point and broke the low register continuity which gave totally new dimension and huge refreshment. Scales, lines and note choice are all great. I can hardly find any weak point to comment. The only thing I noticed is your bends could be just a tiny bit more in tune. You followed my lick from the lesson (or it sounds like it to me) when I play a note and right after bend to that same note from a fret below. You didn’t bend it all the way to the right spot but that’s really minor issue which is not even worth mentioning Your vibrato is very consistent and great but I would go for even wider vibrato if I played this take. When you moved to the high octave you played just great amount of vibrato. Don’t be afraid to go for it, just make sure that you control it well. Excellent take and thanks for joining the collab.

Thanks Emir for your comments.

I already noticed that the whole thing did not flow like it should be ... and this while even using alternate picking . Anyways, somehow I could not get it right this time at all, which is probably even more obvious in this take due to the large amount of long notes. Will certainly practice this until I get it right as well as with the vibrato.

Hi Emir, thanks for the comments and congrats for this overall great work. I´m seriously thinking sign up you for making backings and final mixes to my compositions. So which is your buy-out clause? 96 euro millions, like Cristiano Ronaldo? No problem: I will talk with Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, for lend me this money. In the next hours you will receive a call telephone from my manager.

Thank you so much Emir, this means a lot to me! Yes, this is my flying V Yes, when I was done with my take I noticed I had the same lick as you on two places. Will work on the bends Thanks for the nice words once again! And thanks for this collab, looking forward to your next!

Some parts sounded like I am listening to Bach

On 1:57 you played C note over F dim 7 chord. That note doesn’t belong to that arpeggio. You should have gone for F, G#. B or D. After that you went for the B note to target that F# sus 4 which is great but I couldn’t hear the sus 4 at all as you already ruined the logical chord structure with the previous C note which created harmonic confusion.

Let me say that the last diminished run wasn’t very well controlled. It sounded a bit sloppy. Sounds like your hammer ons and pull offs are not strong enough.

... now if I can just get to where it sounds like Steve Vai playing an interpretation of Bach!

... I'll go back and check that out. One of my main goals for this collab was to make sure my note choice was perfect harmony wise over the backing chords. That note sounded just right to me, I'll have to see where it's wrong and try your suggestions.

.... more legato work in my near future.

Thanks so much for organizing this collab Emir, and for putting together such great and well though out comments. It's a great learning experience to have someone with a critical ear listening and giving feedback. Awesome!

Feel very happy about what I think it's bad Let's get improving ^^ Awesome collab, thanks Emir

Thanks for the great learning experience and in depth comments. These collabs are helpful in giving us direction and setting goals. Only bad news is I have played much longer than 2-3 years. But since I have been on GMC for that long maybe I can handle that depressing comment. ((Truth can hurt so bad))

I look forward to your next one. Can I auto join it now. lol