Spock's Heavy Pentatonic Ride, Zakk Wylde inspired mentoring Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

Hey Trey / Spock,

I am very excited to getting rolling with your mentoring:




Some of our short terms goals could be to add and aggressive layer of Wyld:ish techniques to your chops, and also sneak in some additional pentatonic boxes.

For reference, here are two examples of your current level / playing:

https://youtu.be/jcJKiRaH6gU
https://youtu.be/D4Uu6wC65H4

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[Spock]

Oh thank you sir! I was just going to PM you about where I should start!




Just right off the bat you're nailing it about Zakk and the reason I love him, and it's really the same way with Ace. I'll be the first to admit that Ace is no wizard, but he plays with soul, and Zakk plays with soul and aggression. And personally I'm okay with missed notes and screw-ups here and there (except the studio). I MUCH prefer a Zakk over and Eric Johnson, Malmstein or Vai even...but that's just me, I love the raw aggression.

Oh, nothing but love for all those guys though. They are RAWK GAWDS!!

Oh, BTW, I'm a squelch addict, and I hang on a whammy like monkeys hang on trees...except not good and with zero control.

I will have to practice up a bit as I told you I put the guitar down for a few years out of frustration, coached little league football, played Grand Theft Auto and other things. It was as if playing guitar hurt me inside if that makes sense.

I'm am very excited though. The "low hanging fruit" will probably be laying on the ground for a bit.

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This post has been edited by Spock: Mar 27 2023, 04:01 PM

[Spock]

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[Kristofer Dahl]

Aaaaaweesoomee, sounds like we're about to get rolling! Very cool response, thanks man 👊

Just remember that having ups & downs is totally normal when practicing.

It's important to not push yourself to practice stuff that does not inspire you. Because that is what causes people to put the guitar down for longer periods of time. However pausing practicing for a few days or weeks is totally normal.

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[Spock]

Good morning Kris.

I saw you had sent me a message just as I was getting ready to get ready for work. So I threw on the guitar real fast to record some piercing sounds to keep the wild animals out of your yard.

I believe you asked me to do some squelches/pick harmonics and then a 4 fret bend?

I snipped out the parts that were just too dangerous.


WARNING WARNING WARNING. HAZARDOUS TO HEARING

I call this one "Screw the Pooch"




BTW...I don''t expect you to like that

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This post has been edited by Spock: Mar 29 2023, 02:20 PM

[Kristofer Dahl]

Awesome!! 🤘this is exactly what I wanted you to play - it will allow us to move forward.

I will think of more concise tasks for you and get back.

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[Spock]

Looking forward to it. I wanted to wait and warm up a bit, I literally plugged in at 6:30 a.m., did that and unplugged. I could have done so much better with the bends if I had played a few minutes first but my new mindset is that I'm going to show the good, the bad and the ugly. I've always only wanted to show my polished stuff and that hasn't worked for me...so you can build my exercises based on my horrific reality.

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[Spock]

.

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This post has been edited by Spock: Mar 30 2023, 06:56 PM

[Kristofer Dahl]

Thanks Trey lots of killer riffing here!

Here is my follow up video to you:

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[Spock]

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[Spock]

Zakk reveals his secret...CHIK'N PIK'N!

As he was developing a style he tried to not play anything that made other's tone. It left him with no classical and tremolo, nothing but Chik'n Pik'n

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[Kristofer Dahl]

Cool!

I haven't checked the whole video - but yes he def uses some chicken pickin' there - I'd say it's part of his 'southern' heritage. It's certainly something we can cover if you're interested.

Btw pretty interesting how his right hand att occasions looks a bit like Marty's (another of my favorites btw)

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[Spock]

So I've been practicing that little simple pattern you gave me. I can not believe how bad my arm is with it. I have ZERO stamina up the backside of my left arm. I keep hoping it will strengthen up. I've also noticed the same weakness while playing a very simple song I enjoy, the repetitiveness of it and I can barely hang on, even though it's not fast.

Another good example is a song by Rush called Natural Science? The very staccato/mechanical part I could play with ease, but not it not only hurts my muscle memory is gone.

I've brought my Telecaster to work and leaving it at my office so I can just sit and practice during lunch time. I'm still having fun playing along with songs and I'm just slowing working on that simple pattern to try to get it to blistering fast speed, but right now it's about as fast as a sloth.

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This post has been edited by Spock: Apr 3 2023, 08:06 PM

[Spock]

I'll post a better video progress video, I was delirious yesterday.


BTW, I'm getting my Les Paul re-setup to a 1/2 step down and that'll be my Zakk guitar. It has a Floyd Rose of I'd do it myself.


I love watching this guys videos...

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This post has been edited by Spock: Apr 7 2023, 07:35 AM

[Spock]

If you go to 13:35 in the No More Tears solo video above, you'll see that most of the blistering fast part at the end is the same exact simple pattern you've got me working on.

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This post has been edited by Spock: Apr 6 2023, 07:16 PM

[Kristofer Dahl]

Cool Spock - and YES that's the pattern! 😎

Just to be totally clear I certainly don't expect the pattern I gave you to be "easy" for you.

Much of Zakk's most challenging fast lines are based around this type of pattern - if this where easy for you we'd already be 'home'!

However it would certainly be interesting to see how you tackle this kind of exercise, since my follow-up advice is likely to be more instructional.

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[Spock]

Hey Kris,

I'm sorry I should have pocked my head in and told you what's going on. I had an injury to my hand, nothing is broken but I may have smashed a tendon or two. Docs wrapped my hand up tight and gave me some pain killers, the pain killers are wonderful but make me shit a concrete Christmas tree.

A service elevator. I had no idea that when I pulled down to lower the gate that it also came up from the bottom and met in the middle. So I yanked hard to pull the top all the way down to the floor and it was like picking up something you expect to weigh a ton but it's more like a feather. The 2 parts of the door smashed the shit out of my hand - I thought I was going to pass out. The guy I was with, owner of my company, said "You won't be playing any G/D guitar tonight. The entire episode was actually hilarious, would make a great sit-com like an episode of Sienfeld because of everything that was going on when that happened. Everything from driving around a college campus asking joggers for someone we didn't know...to finding that person and him thinking my boss was out of his mind to seeing me white as sheet, to my boss digging into my pockets for the cars keys because I couldn't get into my pockets with my hand...oh, my boss is in his 90s, said not to worry about him driving because he could see a gnats ass a mile away. Then he stops to look at a forklift and leans against a freshly painted fence and gets a stripe of wet white paint on the back of his pants and then sits on the leather seats and gets the paint on there.

Excuse the dissertation, the drugs have me chatty as hell.

It's getting better, I started back to the gym but I finger movement still hurts.

My goal, since those patterns are in no more tears, is to start picking that solo out.

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[Kristofer Dahl]

Our so sorry sorry to hear about your hand injury and I hope that you are feeling better soon. Please take the time you need to rest and recover, and don't hesitate to reach out if you need any support. Wishing you a speedy and full recovery.

I will be here anytime you are ready for a new recording!

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[Spock]

Thanks man, I'm good. I started playing again yesterday. I am determined to get this No More Tears solo down.

I was just watching Zakk and he is playing the last parts of the solo different than the instructor (which makes me so happy). The fast part at the end the instructor was saying there were 4 picked notes, I can barely tap my fingers on a desk as fast as that part is. In Zakk's video he says it's all pull-offs and hammer on (CAN I GET AN AMEN!!!!). I should have the bulk of this solo down pretty soon. It's not that difficult if you can just feel the groove. There's a lot of brutal bends, and to just play them they don't really sound right or like there are too many notes for the part, but then just sort of absorb the moment and play from the "chi" it just fits. It's raw, organic.

Anyway, my hand is not 100% but I can practice for 15-30 minutes before it's too sore go on. I played almost all day yesterday.

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[Kristofer Dahl]

The fast part at the end the instructor was saying there were 4 picked notes, I can barely tap my fingers on a desk as fast as that part is. In Zakk's video he says it's all pull-offs and hammer on (CAN I GET AN AMEN!!!!).

Awesome! And remember, it's completely okay to not hit every single note and instead concentrate on other crucial aspects like timing and bending.

On the other hand, it's not advisable to dive too deeply into a single technique and neglect other important musical elements. That's why it's a good idea to prioritize exercises that help you perfect your technical skills.

By the way, I got an error while trying to watch your latest YouTube vid.

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