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Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 4 2009, 06:24 PM

Hi Angel!

This is place where I will give you assignments and upload videos. You will do the same starting tonight. Bookmark it, subscribe to it as it will be easier to follow when I post new things in!

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 5 2009, 02:11 PM

Lets get started Angel!

After reviewing your guitar CV you mentioned your primary goal is to improve your guitar playing in general. There were other minor goals such as learning scales, modes and fast rock licks!

We will start with some alternate picking lesson and I will give you one link for my lesson that you can start to work on!

Here is your 1st assignment :

- Record each lick in 3 different tempos! Make sure tempos are at least 15-20 bpm difference.
- Try to show me your maximum tempo for these licks, I want you to push yourself here!
- Feel free to ask for more exercises if these are too easy for you!
- Upload your takes in this thread. Ideally I would like you to do videos, put them on Youtube and embed them here.

Time limit for 1st assignment would be a week from now(13th of September). If you manage to do all the exercises before that, I will put more exercises here for you!

I would like you to do all exercises in the same 3 tempos !

Regarding practice schedule, I think you should do this an hour every day if you want to move tempos faster. Even better, do it 45-50 minutes with brake of 10 - 15 minutes. If you do it 50 minutes that gives you 10 minutes per exercise! Plenty of time to learn them all in slow, regular and fast tempo before recording it all.


Extra assignment :

- Start working on my Alternate etude at 160bpm lesson.

Link for the lesson is http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/alternate-etude-at-160bpm/

Let me know if you have any questions Angel!

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 6 2009, 12:14 PM

Great!
I'm going to start reading those pdf files right now!!
Thank you so much Pedja,
You'll know about my improvements soon.
Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 6 2009, 12:23 PM

Excellent Angel.

I will post my takes of these examples soon (today or tomorrow latest).
Let me know if you have any questions!

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 7 2009, 04:46 PM

Hi Pedja!

I'm working on the exercices and doing well by now. However, I have a question...
What kind of metronome do you use for practising and recording? Do you have any suggestions?

I'm trying to study with guitar pro 5.2 as I rewrote all the notes in the staff but the metronome doesn't work for some reason. I also have ableton and riffworks which include a metronome.

This is the first time in my live that i'm using one! So...I'm wondering how can I record that metronome as you did in your examples.

Thanks,

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 7 2009, 04:52 PM

Hi Angel!

Great to hear you are doing well with exercises. Regarding metronome, I was asked the same question by Sondre

You have to open TEMPO TRACK in your DAW (digital audio work station). In that tempo track you can click on various tempos and on exact place in the bar where you want it to change. Then you open Midi track, assign VST instrument to that midi (I did EZDrummer) and then in the midi track in ONE BAR find the click sound that suits you. I choose between C2 and C3 octave on G# note if I am not mistaken as my click. Next step was to draw 4 quarter notes on that click. After that I closed that midi editor, took the midi track and did copy paste as much as I needed and it was ready and done!

I hope this makes sense, if not I will shortly post some screenshots of tempo track and midi editing !

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 10 2009, 10:01 PM

Angel,

How are exercises going? I hope they are coming along!
Let me know if you need extra help or have any questions.

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 11 2009, 03:11 PM

Hey...!

Sorry I've been busy these days... Exercices are doing great. Every day I've been playing the escales with the help of a metronome for an hour. However, I haven't been able to record that 'tempo track' and use the midi editor and that stuff. I'm still trying to figure it out. But...good news!!!!

Cause I'm leaving for the weekend, I just recorded the samples now and upload them. I recognize some mistakes...If I have had the weekend...So here they are...











I Hope you like it!!
I'll be back on Sunday night so...I'll check your comments then!
Have a good weekend,

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 13 2009, 07:44 PM

Hi Angel!

Thank you for recording and submitting those videos. I have noticed some good things in them but also things that need work. Let me first tell you that I am satisfied with what you did so far, but I somehow know that you can do better than this! If I didn't, I would stop to mentor your right away So what we will go for now is to try and correct those little things that make these exercises (and playing in general) sound good.

1) Muting (both hands, especially left hand muting)
2) Wrong notes (in some examples you tend to miss a fret or lead into it, so transition needs work)

- Muting is something that showed after first video. Your right hand picking technique is a bit different than mine, so just by looking at it, you are not resting palm of your hand on the strings. You should be doing that when playing examples but not too strong but rather extremely lightly ! We don't want muted examples, we want clean notes wherever we play them! So right hand muting is necessary.
- Left hand muting also needs work and it goes together with right hand (you have to sync them both). In left hand try not to pull off notes too strong, or to lift your fingers too fast! This produces unwanted noise from other strings you are not playing but also from the string you are focusing on.
Let me give you an example how you should do it. When you play first note in Exercise 1, you should be muting with right hand because left hand can't mute in that situation. But, as soon as you play 2nd note in that exercise, now you can mute with your left hand as well! How ? Well you simply use your 1st (index) finger to stay on 3rd fret , or lightly above it. That way you get legato, smoother sound and transition between the notes and you get clean sound!
Don't forget, muting should be done with right hand as well with palm of your hand!

- Wrong notes are kind of a big deal for me I don't like wrong notes in this beginning phase because with guitar playing we really a lot on finger memory. If you play and practice exercises wrong, you will play them wrong, it is as simple as that. So I would like you to focus more when recording and try not to hit any wrong note in the exercise. I know you didn't hit many of them, I am more referring to sliding in or out of the notes and making phrasing (rhythm playing) weaker because of it. So this is something I would like you to do as well.

Overall Angel you did good and I am happy with your progress. Now we need to do these again but focus on muting and making all examples sound alive

I would like you to try to record same exercises , same tempos (or lower tempos by 10 bpm ? ) and try to apply muting as I mentioned above.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 13 2009, 09:57 PM

Thanks Pedja!

I'll record it again soon. Maybe tomorrow or in a couple of days.
Regarding my right hand, I use my pinky to rest my hand in the pickguard. Is it Ok?
Sorry that I had to change the metronome three times for each tempo in every video.

Take care,

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 14 2009, 09:05 AM

You welcome Angel!

If resting your pinky helps and does the work, then I would say it is OK I just think you need to pay more attention to muting and it will be great.
Don't worry about metronome in videos, these are minor details, I am watching videos to see your technique posture and everything else not metronome clicks

Let me know if you need any help Angel, I am here.

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 14 2009, 10:12 PM

Great!!
Keep on working!

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 15 2009, 10:13 AM

Ok Angle, great. Let me know when you can post those examples again. I will give you couple of extra examples now so you can keep working on your alternate picking.

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 15 2009, 01:15 PM

Thanks!
I'll check it this afternoon. I can't wait to eat those! hahaha...

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 15 2009, 01:30 PM

Haha, awesome, I am very happy to hear that!

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 17 2009, 11:56 AM

Angel,

I will be out of my town today, back tomorrow.
Keep working on the alternate picking exercises and try to post some audio and/or video for me. I look forward to see and hear improvement in muting!

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 18 2009, 05:59 PM

Hi pedja!

I recorded the samples just a few minutes ago. All of them so...by the last video you could see that I was a little tired.
That's the problem when homework gets bigger...Anyway, I have a surprise for you in the last video.

I recorded the firts 5 exercices at 60/80/100 bpm just like the ones before. For the next 3 execrcices a used 80 bmp which is the maximum speed I can reach and tried a couple of times, repeating the same lick as you will see.

I've been thinking about my goals and I recognize that they are not precise and clear. Let me say that I wish I could develope more towards Rock fusion or Jazzy Latin Rock. Because I like jazz and Rock, I think that Santana, John Scofield or Al di Meola are perfect examples of what I want to reach in a long term.
Anyway, we could talk about it in the future. By now, I found this exercices very useful. I notice that my left hand is getting stronger when I play other stuff!! And I start to notice some improvement in my speed.

So, here we go...











Ok. Here there are the next 3 exercices that you suggested from this week. All related with the G scale. I'm used to that pattern or boxes (whatever you want to call it) though I struggle with the tempo a lot.
Here they are...








And the surprise!!! I will record this with the backing track in the future. I started practicing it this week...



Well, I hope you like it.
And looking forward to hearing from you...

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 19 2009, 10:58 AM

Angel I must say I am very positively surprised with all the videos!
The improvement between these and previous you posted is very noticeable. I am very happy that your muting is sorted in these videos but also you are keeping time great.
A minor pentatonic exercise (number 4) needs more work. Also, on exercise 5 I am getting a feeling you are shifting your alternate picking pattern. Make sure you start with down stroke followed by upstroke and do that until the very end of exercise. Exercise 6 is not complete as you left out some notes out of it. Make sure you check out PDF file for it again. Everything else in examples is coming along great man, very well done!

Regarding Alternate picking etude lesson ; I really dig the effort, you definitely got the notes down. I would like you to watch my lesson and notice original fingerings I am using. You will notice that I use 1st and 2nd finger in the very beginning not 2nd and 3rd, and then I shift that 1st finger down on 1st string to G note. So this might be tricking getting in the beginning but it is much more worth it as it will give you more speed and flexibility later on.

Overall very good work Angelo. You did great man. Work on exercises 4,5 and 6, and then we can work on Alternate Picking etude very soon!

Pedja

P.S. I like the additional things you wrote in the post. We will aim for everything very soon, for time being we are focusing on fundamental technique so that everything could be easier later on!

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 19 2009, 05:32 PM

Hi Pedja!

Thank you sooo... much for your support. I take your word. I know exactly what you mean about those corrections that you made.
Regarding the 4th example, I recognize it needs a lot of work...It looked to me a very simple and easy pattern since I learned many years ago. But it's so much different when you practice with the metronome and specially the down AND up strokes. I'm having a hard time with those.
You are right with the 5th example. I totally shifted from down strokes to up strokes in the beginning. I makes it easier to play. But don't worry, I'll make it next time as in your pdf file. I will also check the notes again in the 6th example.

Keep on working!

You'll have news of my progression soon.

Take care

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 22 2009, 10:40 AM

Hi Angelo!

Very good work so far with everything you have done. I am very happy to hear that you realize your own weak points and most importantly, you are working on correcting things. I am sure very soon we will move onto Alternate picking etude and do some cool things for improvising approaches.

Let me know how everything goes. I am expecting your update with new videos soon.

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Sep 28 2009, 03:26 PM

Hi Pedja!

I'm sorry I could't answer you early. I've been busy this last weekend.
I'll post some videos soon...Maybe today.

Keep on working,

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 28 2009, 03:30 PM

Hi Angel!

Thank you for keeping me updated. I know you are doing good work, let me know when you have something. Don't force anything today if you don't feel ready to record

Pedja

Posted by: duendezillo Oct 2 2009, 03:00 PM

Hi Pedja,

Finally I have some stuff...I just recorded a couple of vids. They try to show what I've been doing this week. I'm trying to play all the exercices from 1 to 5 in a row. I'm still busy with the rest. Maybe I could try to post some vids for number 6, 7 and 8 exercices now or during this weekend.

As you will see I still make mistakes like unwanted notes or some 'missmuting', but I must say on the other hand that I pushed myself a little further this time with upper tempos...110 and 120.

Well, I hope you enjoy with the vids!
Regards,

Angel

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Oct 5 2009, 04:27 PM

Angel thank you for recording those videos. It shows that on some exercises you are doing better than others. I want you to keep working on all of them just like you have been doing now. Every day try to do at least 45 minutes of just covering these exercises in 3 tempos (that is 4 minutes per exercise or minute something per tempo). It should give results within 10 days I am positive about that. Also, make sure that muting and unwanted noise is brought down to minimum (none would be ideal).
We shall move forward in a little bit, I would just like to see last set of videos for Alternate exercises before we move on.

Thank you Angel and keep up the good work!

Posted by: duendezillo Oct 7 2009, 03:47 PM

Great!!

'I believe in hard work' (Al di Meola)

'Keep on working' (Angel)

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Oct 7 2009, 07:32 PM

Excellent quotes Angel

We will start with new MTP system soon. I will open up a new thread for you and this one will be locked

Posted by: duendezillo Oct 7 2009, 09:54 PM

Ok.
No probs