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GMC Forum _ Gabriel Leopardi _ Bluesbrother's Thread

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 31 2015, 06:03 PM

Hi Bluesbrother!

Welcome to your thread for Gab's Army. Here I will guide you with your guitar practice, creating routines, practice plans, giving feedback of your playing always based on your guitar goals and musical tastes.

Before we start I would like to know a bit more about you.

- How many time have you been playing guitar?
- Favorite guitarists, bands and musicians.
- What are your guitar goals?
- How would you like to you see yourself in 5 years (related to music and guitar)?
- How many time can you play guitar each day?
- Do you have playing live experience?
- Which are your strong and weak points with guitar?
- What do you know about music theory?
- Can you record videos of you playing?
- Share here audios and videos that reflect your current playing.

Posted by: Bluesbrother Sep 1 2015, 02:33 AM

Hey Gabriel!

I have been playing off and on for about 10 years..more seriously the last year and a half...

My favorite guitarists/bands include SRV, Hendrix, Albert King, George Benson, Steve Vai, ACDC, Journey, Mark Knoppler, Allman Brothers, Joe Satriani, BB King, Carlos Santana.

I have a good understanding of the pentatonic scales and even some theory etc...I play in church (contemporary christian music - sorta pop/rock) and love blues, classic rock, jazz...anything good!

The biggest problem I have is when I sit down to practice I have no idea of what to do to get better. I may practice some things I already know or do, but its hard to figure what techniques or ideas or whatever to get better without a long term plan and short term (each practice session) plan.

I have difficulty with being stuck in my ideas and most of my leads all sound the same, no matter the style. I can play well enough to get by but want to be a good guitar player and Im willing to put in the time!

I even have difficulty when going to try out new equipment in the music store just because I don't know what to play to try out new equipment..haha

My goals would be to be able to sit in with any band and be an adequate musician and even be a great guitar player....not to try to go on tour but to be better all around.

I play nearly everyday and dedicate anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours.

I appreciate any help and mentoring where a plan is formulated to help!

Thanks,

Troy

Gravity_Improv.m4a ( 804.4K ) : 47

Blue_Sky.m4a ( 400.52K ) : 45

Summer_Song_Improv.m4a ( 1.01MB ) : 52

c7_Mixo_Practice_Improv.m4a ( 1.84MB ) : 53

Black_Magic_Woman.mov ( 82.14MB ) : 58

Santeria_2.mov ( 41.72MB ) : 67

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Sep 1 2015, 04:59 AM

Hi mate! Thanks for your info.

I've checked all your audio samples so now I know your current level and have some idea on how to organize our first weeks of practice together to see how everything goes. From what I've heard, I can say that the main things to improve are:

- Guitar Tone
- Expressing techniques: Vibrato, dynamics, and other ornamentation elements.
- Phrasing: Call and response concepts, licks vocabulary.
- Pick techniques: Alternate Picking, Economy picking and use of artificial harmonics.

In order to adjust your playing, we will set two elements in which you'll focus your practice each week. The lessons that I'll suggest working include some other techniques as well, but I want you to focus mostly on the elements that I mark. The work on this lesson is not strict, you don't have to learn the whole thing perfectly, you can create variations of those parts that you find tricky to master in one week, and also add your own stuff every time you feel it. You neither have to learn the whole lesson if you feel that it will prevent you from focusing and working hard on the elements required.

The lesson that I'd like to suggest for this first week is this one: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Blues-Dynamics/

And the elements in which you should focus are: Dynamics & Vibrato.

What do you think?

Posted by: Bluesbrother Sep 1 2015, 07:08 AM

Thanks!

Ill get started on this! Is the best way to upload a video through youtube?

Thanks

Troy

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Sep 1 2015, 01:17 PM

Great Troy! Yes, the best way to share them here is using youtube. It's easier for me to check them. You can set the video as "unlisted" if you want to avoid other people find it.

You can insert the videos here by copying this code:

Ok mate, Looking forward your news.