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Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 22 2016, 03:48 PM

Hi Vpavlov! Welcome to your thread for Gab's Army.

Here I'll help you with your guitar practice based on your guitar goals in order to take your guitar playing to new levels. Before we start, I'd 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: vpavlov Apr 22 2016, 07:38 PM

Hi Gab, thanks for having me

Here's the info you want:

- How many time have you been playing guitar?

I started playing WITH an acoustic guitar 30 years ago when I was around 12. For the next 15 years I've played BBQ songs (everything self-taught, self-transcribed, learnt from here and there) at parties, campfires, BBQs in various friendly companies, where everybody drinks, sings and doesn't really care about the quality of the performance (I always got "standing ovations" at the end of the evening from whoever was still alive ) Then I stopped for 15 years -- children, etc.; 18 months ago my interest was rekindled and I bought myself a second-hand 2004 Ibanez RG1550 Prestige. Playing the guitar has been (and will be) my serious hobby ever since.

I keep meticulous records of my practicing and they show that I've spend 645 hours practicing since mid-October 2014


- Favorite guitarists, bands and musicians.

Power metal and Progressive Metal. In no particular order: Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Symphony X, Galneryus, Dream Theater, Avantasia, Iced Earth; Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, Galneryus' Syu, Kai Hansen, Henjo Richter, Michael Romeo, Jon Schaffer, etc.

Besides this I dig all kinds of music: Blues, Rock, Jazz, Classical. I don't particularly like folk, country, bluegrass and the like.

- What are your guitar goals?

Well, that's a hard one. This is my main hobby (the other being astronomy). I'm not and never will be a professional musician -- I have a day job being the CTO of an IT-services company. . Music just fascinates me and I would like to be able to play for fun any song that I like. Of course this is impossible, but the better technical abilities I have, the closer to this goal I will be Composing is also a major goal.

- How would you like to you see yourself in 5 years (related to music and guitar)?

Let's say GMC level 7-8, something like that. Composed enough material for at least a CD.

- How many time can you play guitar each day?

As I said above, I have exact count. My average practice session is 2 hours 15 minutes. But I can't practice every day. The statistics show that I practice on average every other day. Let's say 30 hours per month.

- Do you have playing live experience?

No, except near the campfires and BBQs

- Which are your strong and weak points with guitar?

Strong points: focused, knowledgeable, motivated, more or less good ear training and sense of rhythm. Weak points: no formal training and all consequences. Flying fingers. Picking: sweep picking is an absolute horror; alternate picking is more or less OK.

- What do you know about music theory?

You can safely assume that I can chew anything you throw at me regarding musical theory. I don't claim that I know by heart any jazz chord substitutions, etc., but the phrase "dominant seventh chord with the fifth in the bass" is fine with me If you have to say something about scales, modes, circle of fifths, chord constructions, keys, tone functions, schenkerian analysis, riemannian theory, voice leading, secondary dominants, scale degrees, diatonic scales construction, Pythagorean tuning, harmonic series, interval sizes, just intonation, frequency spectrum, syntonic tuning continuum, 7-limit tuning, etc. -- assume that I know what you're talking about. I DO have a PhD, albeit not in Music Theory -- it's in Computer Science.

- Can you record videos of you playing?

Yes

- Share here audios and videos that reflect your current playing.

I will. I have to first convert them to something suitable and will do that later.


Well, that's all I can think of right now. Hope you got some rough idea and have a battle plan for me

Time to grab my guitar and start calluseing my fingers

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: vpavlov Apr 23 2016, 09:14 AM

Hello again Gab,

here are some current audio samples:

This is a cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley. Backing track and lesson provided by GuitarTechniques magazine. I play all the guitars. As you know the song has a looong intro, so the interesting things start happening around 1:00 mark:

 baba_o_riley.mp3 ( 4.26MB ) : 91



This is an overdub of Avantasia's Mystery of a Blood Red Rose. I play the rhythm and solo guitars in the right channel, the original song is in the left channel:

 MoBRR.mp3 ( 4.18MB ) : 67



This is a demo of a demo of a song I wrote. Its structure is somewhat Blind Guardian-ish, the drums are somewhat Painkiller-ish, riffing is kind of Iced Earth-ish, all in all mix-and-match of the things I like. Its not a very high quality, has a lot of timing, bending, etc. issues, but that is my very first composition and I just had to get it out of my head:

 storm_demo.mp3 ( 4.74MB ) : 78


I hope this will give you an idea of my current skills and problems and what I'm trying to do.

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 25 2016, 04:08 AM

Hi mate!

GREAT stuff. Thanks for all the information and audio. I think that you have a great background and that with some training over different areas and some song analysis you'll be able to reach your current goals in less time than you think.

I've been a power metal fan during my teen years so I think that I can really help you with this style. Have you seen this lesson?

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/40-Power-Metal-Bands/


The first thing that I'd like to suggest is to start working on some technique lessons that cover:

- Alternate Picking
- Bending and vibrato
- Sweep Picking
- Rhythm

Divide the routine in equal parts for each technique and dedicate around 15 minutes every day to analyze a song that you like. What do I mean by analyzing? I let you suggest some lessons and then I'll tell you if we go for them or if I have better suggestions...

Write down the structure of the song. Write down the chord progression of each part, the tonality, the scale used and how each part is arranged.


Deal?

Posted by: vpavlov Apr 25 2016, 07:29 PM

Hi Gab,

Definitely a deal!

Here are my choices:

- Alternate Picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Alternate-Picking-Workout-2/
- Bending and vibrato: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Blues-Vibrato-SRV-Style-Solo/
- Sweep Picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Sweeps_Major_and_Minor/
- Rhythm: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-guitar/basic-metal-rhythm/

As for the song analysis: let me see if I understood you correctly: you want me to pick a song (any song) and analyze it. That's fine. I'm assuming you want me to do this based on its sheet music, not by ear? Because I will definitely NOT be able to do this by only listening to it.

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'how each part is arranged'? I never understood what exactly 'arrangement' means beyond what instruments are being played and their tone (e.g. clean, overdriven, delayed, etc.)

The other requests I get.

Thanks for having me,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 26 2016, 02:03 PM

Great! Let's go for those lessons.

About song analysis, you can use music sheet but try to use this also to train your ear so dedicate some time to at least try to find the roots, and then check if you find them right. Ear training is one of the most important things for a musician so we can use this part of the routine also for it. The idea is that you analyze songs that you like and that are close to the type of songs that you'd like to compose.

About arrangements. The idea here is to write does those things that you find interesting about what each instrument is doing on each part of the song... here is an example:

"Intro: The chords here are Am and G, the key is A minor. The guitar plays a clean arpeggio while the drummer marks tempo with hi hat. Bass is not sounding yet... "


Analysing songs like this will make you listen to them much clearly.

Does it make sense?

Posted by: vpavlov Apr 26 2016, 02:26 PM

Yes, makes sense and I will also try to do this as much as possible by ear only.

Thanks,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 26 2016, 04:02 PM

Great!

Posted by: vpavlov May 19 2016, 09:16 PM

Hi Gab,

a quick update of my progress:

- Alternate Picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Altern...king-Workout-2/

This turned out harder than I thought :-) I'm almost there but need more work on it.

- Bending and vibrato: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Blues-...SRV-Style-Solo/

Still struggling with the vibrato, but more or less OK. Need more work.

- Sweep Picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Sweeps_Major_and_Minor/

This one I'm doing at 130 bpm, which is about 80% speed and sometimes I think I'm doing it, but most of the times I'm not. So more work on this, too.

- Rhythm: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...c-metal-rhythm/

This one I think is ready for a REC take, like this one here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3TV8HDPBYs

What do you think, should I go for it?

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi May 20 2016, 03:01 PM

Hi mate, thanks for the update!

It's great to know that you are working hard and noting progress. Takes are always ready for REC because the idea of that program is to receive feedback from many instructors by once. This rhythm lesson sounds really good, there are not important things to improve. There are VERY little timing issues in some parts, and some power chord slides that could sound clearer, but the overall is perfect. Go for REC!

Posted by: vpavlov May 20 2016, 05:04 PM

Thanks Gab, I'm posting it as we speak!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi May 21 2016, 09:45 PM

Great! I'll grade it there.

Posted by: vpavlov May 21 2016, 09:49 PM

HI Gab,

assuming my previous rhythm guitar lesson is more or less OK (posted the REC take), I guess I need to choose a new one to work on. I like this one:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Nightwish-Style/

I think I might cope with it. It's two levels above what I now play (level 5 vs level 3). What do you think, should I try this one or go for something easier?

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi May 21 2016, 10:13 PM

If you feel motivated to practice hard, let's go for this one.

Posted by: vpavlov May 21 2016, 10:31 PM

All right then, let's rock

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi May 22 2016, 04:54 PM

Cool! Keep me updated!

Posted by: vpavlov Jun 7 2016, 08:27 PM

Hi Gab,

So, I have just submitted a REC take on the bending/vibrato lesson.

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=57071

What do you think I should replace it with?

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 8 2016, 08:32 PM

Hi mate, I think that it's a good idea to continue working on the vibrato of that lesson, but you can also start with a new one.

Here are some suggestions for the "bending & vibrato" section of your routine.

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/guitar_loves_piano/
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Gary_Moore_Inspired_Phrasing/

Posted by: vpavlov Jun 9 2016, 07:57 AM

Hi Gab,

I totally agree with your analysis on the REC take. Your adjective 'nervous' perfectly describes what happens in my mind :-) I get a little bit afraid that I won't be able to do the vibrato movements quick enough and as a result I overdo it. So instead of becoming wide and fast, it becomes shallow and faster-than-needed. :-)

As for how should I continue, I prefer taking up a new lesson, since I'm feeling that I will be hitting a wall if I continue with this one now. I feel that more repetitions of this lessons would be counterproductive right now and prefer to take my mind on a journey to something else and THEN revisit this one later and see if I can make it better.

From the two lessons you suggested, the second is a little bit out of my league, but the "Guitar Loves Piano" one is certainly something I would very much enjoy.

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 9 2016, 03:48 PM

Great decision! Maybe you can also try a bit this one in order to manage that "nervous" feel: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Beginner-Vibrato-Workout/

Posted by: vpavlov Jun 15 2016, 08:17 PM

Hi mate,

quick status check:
- my first alternate picking, vibrato/bending and rhythm + the second rhythm lessons all passed (I guess);
- my sweep picking is at 150 bpm (the original being 170), so I still have more work to do there.

For the vibrato/bending, we already chose "Guitar Loves Piano". So I guess I need 2 new lessons: 1 rhythm and 1 alternate picking. I browsed the collection and liked these two:

- Rhythm: your very own https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/German-Power-Metal-Helloween/
- Alternate picking (well, Economy picking actually :-)) Ben's https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Economy-Picking-101/

What do you think? Will I be able to handle them?

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 16 2016, 03:47 PM

Hi mate! Congrats on your REC work!

The lessons that you've chosen are cool! Please try them and let me know how you feel with the different parts.

Posted by: vpavlov Jun 17 2016, 01:31 PM

Muchas gracias mi amigo,

OK then, I will try to cope with these lessons, maybe a little bit hard, but no pain no gain, right?

Note to self:

These are my current lessons (so that I have them in one convenient place):

- Alternate/economy picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Economy-Picking-101/
- Bending/vibrato: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/guitar_loves_piano/
- Sweep picking: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Sweeps_Major_and_Minor/
- Rhythm: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/German-Power-Metal-Helloween/

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jun 17 2016, 05:08 PM

Great mate! Please keep me updated.

Posted by: vpavlov Jul 3 2016, 12:26 PM

Hi Gab,

I hope you have/had a great time in NYC!

Since my sweep picking REC take seems to have passed, as per your suggestion I'm picking a new harder one. This time your very own:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/neoclassical-sweeping-legato/

(of course I will continue to practice the old one too).

Cheers,
-Val

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 3 2016, 04:17 PM

Good choice! Let's go for it.