You are doing great! it hits a snag about 48 seconds in. I know that transition is NOT easy. The first four pieces are part of the same rythm riff. See if you can play all four back to back and loop it if possible, A, B, C, D then back to A. Part E is preparation for part F which is the hardest bit of the entire mission. These look easy enough on paper, but when one tries to play them, they get tricky very quick. Give me one more go!
Sarge
I did the 4 parts. Those two other I feel are impossible to play together at the moment. I need to gain a bit more stamina and tension control.
That one I did is a fun riff and I might play it during off-camera practice and see if I can come up with any follow-ups or variations.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Perfect!!!! That's what I was looking for. Don't worry about the last two. There are nearly impossible to play back to back, even for me, and I wrote them. They are written to be almost too hard to play. They work fine by themselves for working the fingers/pinky and practicing finger rolling with the middle finger etc. The first four are an actual guitar riff that I wrote to use as a backing track to solo against. I ended up thinking that it's just too busy though for a good backing so I never used it. It did make a very good finger workout though so it makes a good Mission! Also, putting all of them together without having gaps/hiccups is not easy and so that too made it great for Mission work. Making the transition between shapes and such is a good challenge for the hand. Also, it requires good muting/precise picking/pinky power/etc. In short, it's a great workout. The good news is that it looks like you got even better and smoother at playing it after doing it a few more times for this video. It's great!! Please feel free to use any of these bits as inspiration and please do share the results!! You've got this sorted.
You Just...
LEVELED UP!!!
Onward Sarge
QUOTE (Adam @ Dec 19 2020, 09:15 PM)
I did the 4 parts. Those two other I feel are impossible to play together at the moment. I need to gain a bit more stamina and tension control.
That one I did is a fun riff and I might play it during off-camera practice and see if I can come up with any follow-ups or variations.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well fought Soldier!! I like the intro as well. This is a serious single string workout. There are several ways of playing open string licks and each one has it's own character. You can throw just about anything you want at an open string lick as long as it's in key. Also, they work on every string. Try to practice these on every string as a warm up. It's a great way to get the fingers moving. You have a good sense of timing on these licks and your hands are in good synch. It's great to see you playing these this well. It's all the xmas present an instructor would ever need! I look forward to seeing your progress in the new year!
Well fought Soldier!! I like the intro as well. This is a serious single string workout. There are several ways of playing open string licks and each one has it's own character. You can throw just about anything you want at an open string lick as long as it's in key. Also, they work on every string. Try to practice these on every string as a warm up. It's a great way to get the fingers moving. You have a good sense of timing on these licks and your hands are in good synch. It's great to see you playing these this well. It's all the xmas present an instructor would ever need! I look forward to seeing your progress in the new year!
You just... LEVELED UP!!
YOU REMAIN OUR TOP DAWG SOLDIER!!! Sarge
I'm glad I made so much progress! Let's hope next year will bring even more progress and be overall better than 2020 for everyone! But we're not there yet, so maybe we'll manage to sneak in 1-2 more missions before then!
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well Fought Soldier! You have made great progress this year! I'm sure you will make more in the next! This mission throws everything we have learned about tapping in to one Mission. It requires split second control over both hands and the ability to move both hand independently. You manage this quite well. These licks are all similar but each is different. They are designed to be similar enough to get your fingers tricked in to playing something from a previous drill. You don't fall for it at all. Each one is played as written and smoothly. You are doing a great job tapping here as well as with handling string noise and with fret and string traverse! You are ready to start righting your own tapping licks!
Congrats Soldier you just...
LEVELED UP!!!
YOU REMAIN OUR TOP DAWG!! Onward! Sarge
QUOTE (Adam @ Dec 26 2020, 08:45 PM)
I'm glad I made so much progress! Let's hope next year will bring even more progress and be overall better than 2020 for everyone! But we're not there yet, so maybe we'll manage to sneak in 1-2 more missions before then!
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well fought Soldier! This one requires a lot of open string work and some big stretches and nailing it with your pinky. You did every single drill. You keep a very solid palm mute going so that you don't get a lot of extra string noise. This is really key on things like this. These open strings licks tend to generate a lot of string noise if the bridge is not muted properly. This is why I've been so strict on your palm mute technique. Without good palm muting, you can't play these open string licks without getting wads of string noise. Also very well done with your pinky power! Thats why I've been so demanding on your pinky. I knew licks like this were coming up
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Yet more Pinky Sliding!! You have really come a long way with your pinky Soldier!! Being able to slide in to a note with the pinky is not something every player can do. Some folks try to cheat it with the third finger. This causes problems as it means you lose some reach. You are doing great using the pinky for what it's intended to be used for. Gaining reach and sliding up the neck. Also, some of these patterns are truly bizarre. They are not scales, they are not chords. They are completely random collections of notes that I threw together for the single reason that they are hard to play!!! These bits are built to be hard just be to hard and you ripped through it!! I tossed in that rythm/riff bit at the end just to confuse your hand and it didn't work! You adapted and overcame. Well fought Soldier!!
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
More strange patterns Soldier!!! We start with some strange bits that are not really scales, not really arpeggios and not really chords. They are just notes really. They make a bit of musical sense but are mostly strung together to challenge the hand to make reach for notes and stick the landing, and to make the pinky lead it's way through a series of notes. You did a very nice job on these first two bits despite them being a bit strange. Also, there is a finger roll thrown in there that can be very tricky if one has not been putting time in the woodshed working on finger rolls. Thankfully, you have done wads of finger rolls so you put the pinky and reach and finger roll together quite well! Then there is a full on arpeggio with a long pinky reach that you play quite nicely. I think you could use a few more runs through it to make it sound more like a sweep, but you play it well enough for the mission. The last lick is your old nemesis that I keep bringing back in It's easy to mess this one up but I think you are done being thrown off by it and you nail it.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well Fought Soldier!! This one is all about the tapping as you could probably tell It's not just the EVH or even the advanced EVH, this is everything we've done so far with tapping. If there are any gaps in your tapping technique, this Mission will show me where they are. With many players, moving either the right or left hand is a problem. So one of these licks will show me where the problem is. The good news is that both of your hands are working just fine and I don't see any problems. Also, i throw in a one handed lick to see if you can generate enough left hand pressure to not need the right hand at all for hammer on/pull off. BAM, no problem there either. You've got Tapping Skills Soldier!
This one was so hard I started having thoughts of smashing the guitar or breaking stuff around and I'm a peaceful guy. I mean, this can be played with much less effort using sweepy movements and pattern. It's the hardest exercise in the Bootcamp so far
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
This is one of the most insane Missions in all of bootcamp. It's everything we have ever learned about tapping and then we add two notes for the right hand to play Then for fun we do a crazy arpeggio that ends not by going back down, but by sliding up and then going down in a new place. Just getting to the point where you can play these bits takes time. Getting to where you can play them smoothly, much less briskly, takes even more time. As frustrating as these are, do try to keep playing them if possible. This is the type of stuff that can really help. I have noticed that your playing has seemed to hit a plateau of late. You are able to play each mission, but only just. I know it's great to get a new badge. It provides a sense of accomplishment. That's why I created the badge system for bootcamp. However, it's entirely arbitrary as I just sort of made it up. It's just there to provide a bit of motivation to practice. You have made it further than anyone ever has in Bootcamp, but your playing is not making nearly the same progress. You are now in the deep end of the pool and these bits are tricky. Try to see if you can polish the next bootcamp just a bit beyond simply being able to play it as written if possible. Bootcamp only exists to help GMCers become better players. If you are not making gains as a player then I've failed as an instructor.
This Mission is a crazy one so Super Congrats on getting it sorted!
You just..
LEVELED UP!!!
YOU REMAIN OUR TOP DAWG!!!!
Onward Todd
QUOTE (Adam @ Jan 10 2021, 07:37 PM)
This one was so hard I started having thoughts of smashing the guitar or breaking stuff around and I'm a peaceful guy. I mean, this can be played with much less effort using sweepy movements and pattern. It's the hardest exercise in the Bootcamp so far
I tried to push a bit more but I cut my finger, so the left hand parts were quite a pain.
Lately I've been having pretty rough time. Lots of stress and very little sleep. I sometimes get to practice for about 15 minutes and if that happens, I focus on playing it clean.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
This is impressive work soldier!! The only bit that I think needs a bit of polish is that last tapping lick where the right hand is doing "double taps" . The idea of the double tap is to make it sound like you are playing more notes than you are. So the right hand tapping strikes should be as close together as possible. The left hand is doing a lot more work and covering a lot more ground so the right hand doing doubles makes the entire lick sound more balanced. The double strike should happen in rapid fire succession. To practice this a bit, just stop moving the left hand. Focus on just doing two quick taps with the right hand and and take a pause. Do two more and take another pause. Rinse, repeat. After a bit of practice you should be able to do those right hand taps almost on top of one another.
Onward!!
Sarge
QUOTE (Adam @ Jan 11 2021, 06:15 PM)
I tried to push a bit more but I cut my finger, so the left hand parts were quite a pain.
Lately I've been having pretty rough time. Lots of stress and very little sleep. I sometimes get to practice for about 15 minutes and if that happens, I focus on playing it clean.
This is impressive work soldier!! The only bit that I think needs a bit of polish is that last tapping lick where the right hand is doing "double taps" . The idea of the double tap is to make it sound like you are playing more notes than you are. So the right hand tapping strikes should be as close together as possible. The left hand is doing a lot more work and covering a lot more ground so the right hand doing doubles makes the entire lick sound more balanced. The double strike should happen in rapid fire succession. To practice this a bit, just stop moving the left hand. Focus on just doing two quick taps with the right hand and and take a pause. Do two more and take another pause. Rinse, repeat. After a bit of practice you should be able to do those right hand taps almost on top of one another.
Onward!!
Sarge
Is this okay?
Unfortunately, I've cut my index finger in such a way that moving to lower frets opens the wound and I couldn't tape it because I couldn't play that way at all.
GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Egad! I didn't mean to make your injury worse soldier!!! The good new is you got it! That's the DOUBLE TAP!!! You put all the tapping bits togethere quite well here as this is some pretty insane tapping. It's well beyond EVH style and well in to crazy shred tapping. These bits work great in solos as long as one of the open strings matches the key the backing is in. Best case, the backing is in the Key of E, at which point you can use the open E and just about any scale that sounds good with the backing!
You just..
LEVELED UP!!!
YOU REMAIN OUR TOP DAWG!!! Onward! Sarge
QUOTE (Adam @ Jan 12 2021, 06:56 PM)
Is this okay?
Unfortunately, I've cut my index finger in such a way that moving to lower frets opens the wound and I couldn't tape it because I couldn't play that way at all.
