Practicing help
julz_122
Feb 5 2007, 11:37 PM
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ok well i dunno wer to begin, well i find it hard to practice, well like proper practice, i just do not know where to start. Its not the time, i play at least 2 hours a day, but i dont actually practice i just play random songs and improvise. But the thing is my improvisation sucks, its like you said kris in the phrasing vid, about everything sounding like scales. I just dont know what to play i kind of freeze and also i do not know that many scales, i know blues scale, and pentatonic, and a few modes, but i still just cant really play what i want. I looked at the slash vids and kirk hammet vids maybe to help me but i just always end up playing what you said and i can never think of my own stuff using those styles. And when it comes to training speed and such i just dont really know how to i mean i watched those vids but i find it hard since i dont have long fingers and using my pinky on thw bottom E string and even the A is hell. As for scales i dont know where i can learn more, i watched your pentatonic scale vids with horzontal movement and vertical movement, but i still can make it sound that good everything just sounds the same when i play it. This is really putting me down and i dont know what to do i would reall appreciate any advice thx for your time.

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Kristofer Dahl
Feb 6 2007, 08:50 AM
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julz,

Have you sat down with any of the licks in the phrasing lesson - practiced it slowly up and down for 1 hour/day for a week?

If not - do so and you will quicly notice new ideas start sneaking into your playing! smile.gif

Oh and think about breaking your posts up into paragraphs, it makes it easier to read!

Kris

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julz_122
Feb 6 2007, 02:42 PM
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ok i'll try that out

thx for the help

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Zee Deveel
Feb 6 2007, 04:14 PM
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QUOTE (julz_122 @ Feb 5 2007, 10:37 PM) *
i know a few modes

I'm guessing from this statement that you've learned a couple of different box patterns of the major scale under the names:

D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian or something similar.

(Correct me if I'm wrong here, it's an assumption.)

Modes shouldn't just be learned as scale patterns if they are you won't understand how to apply them to music. So if you're going to learn them make sure you learn the theory behind them. If you are having trouble understanding them, gimme a pm and I'll see if I can help.

Your problem sounds like me about a year ago, I'd just mess around and play riffs I already knew all the time on the guitar and it's when I got sick of this that I came across www.freelicks.net. The *only* way to improve your technique is to play new things which you find challenging.

What I did at your stage of playing:

1) I learned all the positions of the pentatonic right down the fret board and made up some little runs that ran across them so I got the hang of piecing the boxes together into music. A cool way to learn the pentatonic is to learn it horizontally in 2 string groups instead of as scale boxes, if you learn it in this way (in addition to the traditional box method) you won't have as many problems trying to "playing out of the box".

e.g.

e---------------------------
b---------------------------
G---------------------------
D---------------------------
A------3-4----4-7-----7-9-
E--3-6----6-7-----7-9 ---- etc

2) I got hold of Guitar Pro and used it to learn some solos from my favourite bands though this was difficult for me since I'm mainly into bands that aren't big on solos. I actually ended up learning a lot of the solos from the section on freelicks; Fade To Black, Sweet Child O' Mine and Sultans of Swing especially were a great help.

3) I started doing a bunch of simple exercises (with a metronome increasing the tempo as I got faster) to improve my dexterity, speed and timing. Things like this worked great for me:

e---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b--------------------------------------------------------------------------- etc!!
G-----------------------------------------------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4
D-------------------------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4------------------
A-------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4------------------------------------------------
E0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4 ---------------------------------------------------------------- (Think this might be one of Vai's)

e----------------------------------1234321---------------------------------------
b----------------------------1234-----------4321------------------------------------ etc!!
G---------------------1234------------------------4321------------------------
D--------------1234-------------------------------------4321------------------
A--------1234-------------------------------------------------4321-----------------
E-1234--------------------------------------------------------------4321--------

4) Self belief; I'm very good at doubting my abilities and judging from your post you sound a lot like me. I used to shy away from learning really difficult stuff 'cause I thought I sucked. Facing things head on and tackling difficult stuff, I bet you will surprise yourself with your ability.

I'm far from being a great guitarist, hence I'm here on GMC trying to learn! So I hope this post didn't come across bigheaded, but I thought I'd share what helped me to bust out of a very similar rut to yourself. Hope this helps!

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Steelkonsum
Feb 6 2007, 05:19 PM
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Good post Zee!


Anyway, I just felt like saying, to you julz, that if you want to make good use of the improvise like hammet/slash lessons you can do what I do when I run out of inspiration. I know at least on the Hammet lesson kris shows two variations of the same kind of lick. If you can't make up your own around it do like this: take the first half of the first lick and then find a way to combine it with the second half of the other lick, then do it the other way around, then try to find a way to combine the first part of the first lick with the first part of the second lick.

Now this might now sound too good all the time but it may provide a little eye-opener. And eventually you will realise, sort of, how the licks are constructed and there you go!

That's what I try to do at least. Working quite well so far.

And yea, as Kris said, do learn to paragraph your posts. makes it easier on the eyes wink.gif

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julz_122
Feb 6 2007, 05:59 PM
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thx alot guys for your input i will definetly take all those things into account! (especially the paragraphing cool.gif )

Also i would like to add, another thing that i realised is that on this site for example there are so many different tutorials and i just don't know where to start? blink.gif

But anyway thx again for the help really appreciate it! biggrin.gif

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Kristofer Dahl
Feb 6 2007, 06:06 PM
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QUOTE (julz_122 @ Feb 6 2007, 05:59 PM) *
thx alot guys for your input i will definetly take all those things into account! (especially the paragraphing cool.gif )


Paragraphing already looks better! smile.gif

QUOTE
Also i would like to add, another thing that i realised is that on this site for example there are so many different tutorials and i just don't know where to start? blink.gif


It's a matter of personal preference - however if you are new to everything - the beginner's section is best.

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raqroso
Feb 7 2007, 12:43 AM
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Great post Zee Deevel...

Who hasn't been there? I think as you become a better player you expect more from yourself and it can get frustrating ..

hang in there Julz!

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