Hey mate Ear training is a skill which is very important in any aspect of guitar playing - imagine ditching tabs in 80-85% of the situations and being able to figure out songs without relying on anything else but your ears and your musical knowledge!

What I would suggest here would be for you to make sure you know the basic theory notions regarding the major scale, intervals, chords and the concept of harmonizing a scale using various chords or intervals. After this, I will recommend one easy lesson/ week - easy in terms of harmonic progressions and not crowded and crammed with notes You will have to learn it BY EAR Cheating will only forestall you from your goal. What do you say?

Hi Cosmin. My ultimate goal is to play older Metallica tunes (Kill em all, RTL, MOP, Justice etc) and a bunch of the Opeth stuff off Blackwater Park album. For metallilca I will play Hetfield's parts and sing as well. Would also like to venture into some Dream Theater tunes eventually.

I can play rythym guitar on Master of Puppets (the song) at about 85% speed of the song. I can do fade to black pretty easily. Sometimes my hand gets tired with all the damn down picking on Master of Puppets and I get sloppy.

I would like to learn to play the leads off these albums too.

* How long have you been playing the guitar?
** Long time. Off and on. Rythym mostly. I'm in a band where we do rock covers and I'm solid on those but they are pretty easy. I sing as well.
* What do you feel your current level is?
** Rythym - good, if it's not too fast.
** Lead - terrible. Can play Hetfield's leads of metallica albums but not Kirks.
* What sort of theoretical knowledge do you have so far?
** Basic knowledge of major scale and pentatonic shapes. Can read timing (I can read drum sheet music)
* How much time/day can you spend practicing?
** About 1 hour.
* What are your favorite techniques?
** Metallica style rythym guitar. James Hetfield is my reference.
* What would you like to improve?
** Speed and endurance for riffing, and would like to be a better lead guitar player.
* What is your current experience as a player (band, studio, home)?
** In a cover band where I sing and play rythym guitar and some keys. We gig occasionally. I play some leads (I do the lead on Lil Devil by the Cult). Also in an original hard rock band where I play bass.
* What gear do you own?
** Some great guitars and amps. A pod hd500x. A nice 5 string bass.
* Name a few favorite artists that inspire your playing
** Metallica, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Monster Truck, Dream Theater

This post has been edited by ringmar: Nov 14 2013, 08:35 PM

I say hell yeah man I have a crazy work schedule at the moment but as soon as I get a chance i'll get started on it.

Hey mate!

Got the input data and here's what I think we can start with from Monday to Sunday (18-24 November)

In Day 1 - 4 -> Spending 4 hrs/ lesson (1 hrs each day) in which you should:

- understand the theoretical concepts
- learn the lesson structure
- learn each part and reproduce it slowly with the metronome
- put all the parts together and practice them against the slowest available backing track
- work your way up tempo with the available backing tracks

This week's lesson: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Stamin...-2-Downpicking/

Day 5 - Revision (you practice the lesson, assuming you that you already know the structure and you can play it) - focus on timing, definition, clean playing, articulations and details!

Day 6 - You can take a break from this lesson and start exploring (listening to it and seeing what you need to prepare in order to start working on it) this one a bit, so that you will be prepared for the next week: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Time-To-Gallop/

Day 7 - Revision and recording - if you wish - and writing conclusions so that we may draw a line and see what have you learned in that

How does it sound mate? I Chose only one lesson because I thought that your time is pretty limited and I would rather have you master one lesson than tackle two and master non

All the best!

Cosmin








Alright! Well then Please tell me how much you know from the theoretical notions stated above and then, start sorting this one out, by ear:

We'll begin with lead lines, because it's easier to pick them up, in comparison to more chord based stuff

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Beginn...ntatonic-Scale/

No cheating tho Ok?

Cosmin

This post has been edited by Cosmin Lupu: Nov 15 2013, 09:58 AM

Sounds good Cosmin. I was conservative in my 1 hour per day. I often play more, but I do have to worry about staying on top of cover band and original band material as well, so I estimated 1 hour per day for this lesson plan.

I got the minor pentatonic runs in about 2 minutes. I'll have a look now into the theory, think i've said before i'm quite limited with it anyway.

Dan

Heh, I thought so too, but let's start like this and if you feel braver and you decide to put more time in this after seeing next week's results, we can think of more



Alright man Let me me know if you want another one to tackle - I'll give you something more challenging if this one felt easy

Yeah lets go for something more challenging, only gonna get further by pushing

Dan

Hehe, ok cowboy! How about this one? https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/John-Mayer-Style-Ballad/

That was one you gave me before dude Definitely cheating haha.

Aaaahh! Right you are Hmmmmm, how bout this one:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/dorian...asing_beginner/

Awesome i'll give that a go Cheers man!

Great man! I have an idea - please tell me, do you have any knowledge regarding the modes? I thought of an interesting approach to ear training based on understanding modes in the same time But I need to know where we can start

I wrote down the 5 modes of G Major and memorised them, so I really only have the shapes/patterns at hand.

Ok mate Got it - stay tuned for a little movie and a set of assignments today

Please watch the video and try the exercise but before that, read the theory - I also wanted to ask, how are the first assignments we talked about going? -> https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=661522



The Ionian mode: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...t=0#entry634876

This post has been edited by Cosmin Lupu: Nov 20 2013, 10:42 PM

* How long have you been playing the guitar?
Played the guitar for 7 years.
* What do you feel your current level is?
Beginning to touch into intermediate, end-stage of beginner i would say.
* What sort of theoretical knowledge do you have so far?
Would say none at all, i know what a G, D, C, E, A is but would not say that counts towards any kind of theoretical knowledge.
* How much time/day can you spend practicing?
2Hours.
* What are your favorite techniques?
Hammer-on/pull-off, vibrato, bend, palm muting
* What would you like to improve?
Overall skills and would like to improve on my speed.
* What is your current experience as a player (band, studio, home)?
Home.
* What gear do you own?
Tradition Strat - A cheap look'a'like copy Fender Stratocaster.
Pearl River - Also a cheap look'a'like guitar(Les Paul)
Fender Acoustic
Boss GT-100.
* Name a few favorite artists that inspire your playing
Joe Satriani, Jack Thammarat.


Here's a video of me playing a lesson, think this shows both good and bad sides of my playing.



This post has been edited by MichaelRdk: Nov 20 2013, 08:25 PM

Hello mate!

First of all, I am REALLY glad you decided to act quickly and not let yourself dragged down That post about giving up has hopefully transformed into 'how not to give up'

I've been analyzing your recording and I think you are faring nicely in respect to timing and tightness, but you need to improve your articulation skills, such as bending and vibrato, so I suggest we start with those, alongside with reading about the most important theoretical aspects which later on we will see in action. Also, since you want to develop speed, we should also start with basic techniques that you will encounter in a lot of situations, so this being said:

In Day 1 - 4 -> Spending 4 hrs/ lesson (2 hrs each day, based on your possibilities) in which you should:

- understand the theoretical concepts
- learn the lesson structure
- learn each part and reproduce it slowly with the metronome
- put all the parts together and practice them against the slowest available backing track
- work your way up tempo with the available backing tracks

Bending and vibrato: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Beginn...String-Bending/

Alternate picking focusing on rhythmic subdivisions: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Picking-Hand-Basics/

Day 5 - Revision (practice the lessons, assuming you that you already know the structure and you can play it) - focus on timing, definition, clean playing, articulations and details!

Day 6 - You can go through the lessons freely for 30 minutes and focus more on theory beginning with this topic:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=47641 - I am waiting on your questions after you go through it and I will also give you some tasks here, but first - reading time

Day 7 - Revision and recording - if you wish - and writing conclusions so that we may draw a line and see what have you learned in that

How does it sound to you amigo?

All the best!

Cosmin

It sure has, there was some really good reply's in that post
It sounds good to me, i will begin to work on it right away

That's the spirit Michael! Please keep me posted on your progress and if you have questions along the way, just shoot'em my way, deal?

Hi Cosmin, sent you a pm.