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Posted by: lcsdds Feb 4 2009, 07:13 PM

I don't think I've ever seen a thread on how everybody here attacks GMC lessons. What do you guys do? I personally break each lesson into bite size licks. Then I practice those until I can play each lick at tempo or at least to a tempo that I can play with a backing track. Then I put it all together. It seems like many people here practice the whole lesson all the way through. I'd be really interested to hear how everybody attacks these lessons.

Some of these lessons can be so intimidating that you don't even know where to begin as far as trying to master it. I'd love to see an instructor break down a lesson into a step by step process to play the lesson. I think there is more to it than just play it slowly. Just my opinion of cours.

Posted by: Matt23 Feb 4 2009, 07:22 PM

I take the first 4 bars (sometimes more/less), find the highest speed I can play it cleanly, and play it for half an hour or more with a drum beat. Each day i put it up 5bpm and practice it for half an hour or more, until I can play it full speed. i then do this with the next 4 bars and the next 4 bars etc until i have learned the lesson. I then play the whole lesson through for a bit so I get the order of the sections stuck in my head too.

Posted by: Ctodd Feb 4 2009, 07:27 PM

this is EXACTLY how I am attacking Pavel's Power Galloping lesson.

Only problem is, it is taking me FOREVER to get it up to speed, I couldn't even begin to count the hours I have spent practicing that lesson.



such is life

Posted by: skennington Feb 4 2009, 07:27 PM

My strategy is similar to yours. I've only recently started with slower tempo's though. I basically learn the parts as the instructor has it divided. Vid 1.2.3 etc. Once I have vid 1, then I move on to vid 2, still playing the previous with the next. So by the time I reach the last one, I know the whole piece. Then I work on getting it clean and up to speed.

Posted by: berko Feb 4 2009, 07:30 PM

Great thread man, was thinking the same once!

Well, I consider myself experienced to see what lessons I think i'll be able to swallow up in one piece and which ones are out of my range (even if there is only one more advance section in it but other than that it's doable). I think this first thing is really important: to measure up the tempo, the key, the new techniques and the difficulties of a lesson after listening to it the first time.

So I usually start a lesson when I have enough amount of time to go throw all of the little videos with one breath. If I have to leave it there incomplete I usually give it up for the next few weeks. I'm an impatient little prick I know. When I finish all the vids that doesn't mean that I can play them perfectly and up to tempo but I have them In my head quite clearly so I can have a rest and then come back and repeat all licks many times.

But when I finally manage to go through the whole thing then I learn all notes and 90% of the rhythm. Then I put it together and play the whole thing through without the BT but paying attention to the phrasing and how the licks/parts of rhythm fit together. Now this is far from perfect yet but at least at this stage I consider the lessons finished. This is when I play along with the main vid a few times and then I start with one of the BTs. When listening to the main vid I also listen to how the lead fits the backing. So from this stage on it's practically playing the whole stuff over and over again to make it rock solid.

Sometimes ofc I find licks or parts that I didn't pay careful attention to when doing the short vids. So if I constantly make a mistake at one specific part of the lesson then I guess I have to isolate that and bring it up to level.

cheers

Posted by: Fran Feb 4 2009, 07:44 PM

What I do is learn the first video separately until I can play it along with instructor, then take the second vid and do the same thing. Once I have two vids I play that part along with the main video again, until I memorize it and it sounds semi-good.

And the proccess goes on until I learn all parts and can play them along with the main video.

Posted by: fatb0t Feb 4 2009, 07:50 PM

Well, I gauge the lesson difficulty first.
If the lesson is within my range I learn each video of the given lesson at the correct tempo.. Then I'll play along with the main video. If I have confidence when I play it and I feel like I learned it pretty well I delete it from my favorites and never play it again. I figure even if I can't recall the lesson from the top of my head I learned all the techniques, phrasings, and everything else in the lesson.
I try to learn every lesson that interests me, especially if it's really easy, just to see if there is something in the lesson I could use in my playing.
For lessons slightly out of my range of playing, I learn each lick note by note, I try to figure out why the instructor chose those notes, how the instructor played those notes, and learn the tempo at which the instructor played the notes. I go through each video until I can recall the entire lesson by memory... Then I jam along with the main instructor video or the backing.
For lessons wayyy out of my range I just learn each video painfully slow over and over.. I've been learning Muris's Paul Gilbert lesson for like two months now hahaha

Posted by: Vasilije Vukmirovic Feb 4 2009, 08:04 PM

I recommend you to listen it few times until yo get the feel, and hopefully remember some notes/licks. Then one lick by one. Then you joint first to part, first 3 parts and so on. Practice slower in the beginning. And of course, if you have good ear try to learn it by listening not by GP file, and slow videos, though slow videos are useful maybe for technique and position choices, but try to challenge your self by learning it with your ear!

Posted by: Resurrection Feb 4 2009, 08:37 PM

Unless I find the lesson REALLY easy (that doesn't happen very often ) I usually work on 1 video at a time, then put them all together.

Posted by: Mandos Feb 4 2009, 11:11 PM

I usually tackle them one video at a time, or if it's hard I'll just break it down even further and take it from there.

Posted by: Canis Feb 4 2009, 11:15 PM

I take it chronologicly bar by bar, video by video until I memorize the entire thing. Then I play through it without backingtracks some times, then I either play with the instructor (depends how fast it goes..) or play with backing at a slow speed and work my way up

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Feb 5 2009, 12:56 AM

Breaking down and working on one bit at a time, and then connecting those bits into bigger parts, and then finally connecting everything together sounds like a good way to learn the whole lesson. Of course, sometimes it can be tricky, some parts are easily learned, and some that at first glance look easy can take weeks. This is why it is good to go through the lessons briefly once and check out every lick, possibly with guitar pro. Then I think the feeling "if it can be done in some reasonable time" will be there.

Posted by: utak3r Feb 5 2009, 01:27 AM

At first I'm learning the melody and rythm, to know all the lesson, then learn to play it at whatever slow tempo. When I know it already, I start to polish every lick separately. BUT: do not stuck in one lick till you get it to perfection, practice it and then go to the next one. When you return to this first one you'll notice you've improved in the meantime... it's it has to go into your memory, without practicing...

Posted by: coffeeman Feb 5 2009, 01:32 AM

I do it exactly as you do..... and I never use the gp file , I try to learn them by ear if I cant I use the tabs on the video.

Posted by: lcsdds Feb 5 2009, 01:43 AM

I think learning it by ear is OK but when you try to attack some of the faster runs I think this can present problems. It is really useful to know how many notes fall in the beat when trying to learn the faster stuff. How would you learn something like the crazy legato lick in his Phrygian advanced lesson that Muris pulls off by ear? He is playing something like 12-13 notes per beat so it is helpful to know where they fall. This is an interesting thread. One of the main things that actually made me join this site was that the lessons provided GP files for everything.

Monte

Posted by: coffeeman Feb 5 2009, 01:50 AM

man I wish I could the advanced Phrygian lesson , and learn it by ear.

But of course Muris still play it slow in the inside videos , and thats how I would do it. If I can't play something by ear I play the slow video , and that solves the problem, and If I can't I use the tabs on the video.

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Feb 5 2009, 02:48 AM

I suggest breaking things down into little bits and pieces. So you may take a 2 or 4 bar lick and brake it into logical smaller Q&A phrases. Practice it with metronome or guitar pro (assuming guitar pro file matches video ) and then you work on another bit and connect it.

This way you do whole piece and you never need to come back to it as you will have 100% under your belt

Hope that helps