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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Sweet Child ´o Mine

Posted by: djohnneay Jul 3 2011, 09:23 PM

Hey GMC!

It´s been a while since I posted here, but I have been working hard lately.
Luckily, since I have recently gained acces to a camera, I am now able to upload some video´s now and then.

So today I had some time left, and decided to record one of my all-time favorite songs!

I hope y'all enjoy!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 4 2011, 05:43 AM

Hey man! nice video! I would like to give you some feedback about your playing in this one. I think that you should work on your bending technique. You are not reaching the correct pitch in most of the bends of the song so I think that you should work on it.
Keep on the hard work!

Posted by: Ben Higgins Jul 4 2011, 11:41 AM

Hi, I would agree with Gabriel about working on your bending technique. You've got quite a powerful, positive style so with some work, fine tuning your technique you will be so much more effective

I've noticed that whilst playing the main arpeggio theme that you have a lot of excess hand / arm / shoulder movement that can add unwanted tension and use unnessecary energy.

Try this: Hold your picking hand in it's natural state (for example, when you play an E or A chord) and instead of moving your whole arm and wrist down to play the high strings, just angle your fingers down towards the floor a bit and play them that way.. ideally we should be able to hit all strings easily without moving our whole hand up or down over the body.

Also, combine this approach with practising standing up occasionally.. this will encourage your shoulders to remain in a relaxed, neutral state helping you play loosely and comfortable from the wrist.

Obviously when we strum chords we use larger movements, and the forearm and elbow does move.. but for these smaller techniques you want to discourage exces movement of the elbow and shoulders as this will waste energy and possibly cause you problems when you try and speed up

I hope this helps.. please feel free to ask me to explain more if I don't make any sense !

Posted by: djohnneay Jul 4 2011, 06:10 PM

Tnx for the replies guys! About the bending, what would be a good way to practice that ?

I used to just play the bend and then the corresponding note on the string below, or record a note and then play the bend.
But how high the string should be bend, seems to vary from string to string and from fret to fret, which means if I master a bend, I have to do the exact same process for every bend on every string?

With this advice, I'll take out the metronome and practice every part out individually until I nail it, and try to watch my hand/arm movement.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Jul 4 2011, 06:14 PM

yes! that's the best exercise that you can do to improve your bending. Recording yourself is the best way to check if your bending are reaching the correct pitch. The force that you have to do is different in each string so you have t practice it in every string, in different positions and with every finger.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 4 2011, 08:49 PM

Well this is quite good! Your tone is very nice, and you keep the arrangement going nicely, with cool rhythm and solo improvisations.

There are couple of suggestions: try to possibly lower down the volume of the guitar bit when playing rhythm, and volume up when you solo. Timing needs to be better, and bends should be precisely in pitch. Try to work a bit more on this, and it will turn out awesome, just play it a bit more before you record it.

Posted by: djohnneay Jul 5 2011, 09:04 PM

Tnx Ivan, this means a lot, coming from you!

Overall great advice, I will work on it, but I think I'll give this particulair song a rest and focus on other songs for now and come back to it later.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 6 2011, 01:11 PM

Cheers mate! Leaving it to settle a bit sounds like a wise thing to do. If you can, post some other cool takes as well