Fireflight'ish Ballad, Road to REC ;) Options

[utak3r]

While practicing bending etc., I had to give a rest to my fingers so I took the old lesson from Carlos Carrillo on a ballad based on one of Fireflight's ballads.

Initially my biggest problems were in the second part with strumming 1/16th chords, but now I'm playing it almost well, now the biggest problem is, what initially was the easiest one the intro, where string skipping causes some inconsistencies in my precision
However, the thir guitar, which is playing nice octaves, gives so many harmonics... it requires strumming with some strings muted (but they give some harmonics either way), I have no idea how to overcome this, except for EQ'ing

This is the original lesson: Fireflight'ish ballad

I didn't like the given backing track, as it was prepared for playing all of the 3 guitars in one go, so I prepared my own track from scratch and played all of the guitars for myself. I double tracked them. No video yet, as it's not ready yet, as you can hear.

And when working on this, I understood, where's my timing problem: the first 1-2 bars. Usually by the 3rd bar I'm all in a tempo and yes, I'm using metronome's count-in, but it doesn't help if I'm not playing :/

One more thing: I've added some vibrato in places where it was begging for it and it wasn't there in original lesson.

Anyway, here's a current status of the recording:
Fireflight ballad ver 01

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[Monica Gheorghev...]

Great to see you preparing a take for REC.

I think you are going in a great direction. I will point out a few things that maybe can help you.

First of all, I want to mention the fact that for the REC section you need to use the backing track from the lesson. Also, you need to play in the same way as the instructor. The vibrato that you added is not ok from many points of view:
- it doesn't respect the playing from the original lesson and this will affect your grade in REC.
- the type of vibrato that you made... from my point of view, don't improve the take because it doesn't fit with the track. It's played too fast for that particular section of the song/lesson.

About the harmonics that you are talking about. Without a video, it's hard for us to make an accurate diagnosis. The issue can be caused by many things: a wrong technique, too much gain, a too angled pick when you play and even a guitar issue. But...if the problem appears only when you play those octaves, then I tend to believe that the issue comes from your technique. Review the position of both hands. Try to analyze what exactly your hands do at the moment when harmonics appear.

Timing - be careful because in the first part (0:00 - 0:37) you have more spots where you hurry the notes.

With a little more practice, I'm sure your take will sounds awesome!

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This post has been edited by Monica Gheorghevici: Feb 2 2023, 07:05 PM

[utak3r]

First of all, I want to mention the fact that for the REC section you need to use the backing track from the lesson.

Ok then, I will save my version for my own as backing just sounds better.

I tend to believe that the issue comes from your technique. Review the position of both hands. Try to analyze what exactly your hands do at the moment when harmonics appear.

Probably a technique (also the gain, yes, but it only amplifies the problem). I can try to not strum the 6th string (I'm trying to do it) but I just have to stroke the D string, which I'm muting with a ginger - but as it's close to a 12th fret, it's audible. Another problem is, after few strums I noticed I tend to press my fingers and sometimes this string is almost preseed... have to work on this.

Timing - be careful because in the first part (0:00 - 0:37) you have more spots where you hurry the notes.

Yes, the first part... still working on it
Once it will be a bit better overall, I'll post a video so you can review it more closely

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[Kristofer Dahl]

Your track has a very nice, deep and mysterious feel.

Lots of harmonics is generally considered a cool feature of a distorted sound - so if you like that tone (and I think it sounds awesome) adapting your voicings to it sounds like a viable option.

After all - there is a reason why power chords were popularised with distortion - you don't need as many notes when you have lots of harmonics!

Amazing man - keep it up 👊

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