Dwr's Epic Practice Journal |
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Dwr's Epic Practice Journal |
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Mar 23 2012, 06:23 AM |
This will chronicle my journey from 0 to Guitar Hero. I will be posting a beginning movie in the coming days as I get set up. I want to follow Fireballs lead, and video tape my progression as well. My daughter is 6 and she just started playing guitar. So having this record of my progress, will hopefully inspire her.
I call it EPIC Practice Journal because I am calling myself out to be great, and find my voice with guitar. My influences: Metallica (The Black Album and earlier),Disturbed, Atomship, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Amorphis, Dead Letter Circus, CKY, The Red, Volbeat, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, 10 Years, 12 Stones, Gary Numan, In Flames, Manmade God, Muse, Saliva, Seether, Perfect Circle, Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Queens Ryche, Trouble, Bullet For My Valentine, Joe Bonamosso, SRV, Dark New Day, Black Lab, Adelle As you can see I have a range of influences but mostly Metal, and Rock. Background: I am 37 years old. I got my first guitar when I was 16. It was a Ibanez RG, and I still have it. I took a few lessons, but I was having issues with my mom, ended up moving back to my dad's, and didn't pick up the guitar until about 2 years ago.I was going through a rough patch in my life. Trying to find something that made my life feel worth it. My daughter gave me purpose, but something was still missing. I neglected to mention I had all these ideas about why I couldn't play guitar which to be honest I am still dealing with: My fingers are crooked, My memory is bad, My eye sight isn't good,God didn't give me the talent to play, so I must not be meant to play. Those beliefs kept me from pursuing guitar. Then I saw a youtube video of a guy playing guitar with his feet! That killed all my execuses. I still had my Ibanez. Always swore I would learn to play it some day. Then I saw this red guitar online. An AX400 LTD. It was wicked looking. I just knew if I had that guitar I would learn to play. I got the guitar. My cousin paid for it on his credit card, and I gave him the money for it.I picked it up at his apartment. His friends were over there, and of course everyone wanted to hear me play.I tried to make up some excuse of not playing, but before I knew it, I was taking the guitar out of the case, and plugging in. It was an awful experience. The look of "You suck" reflected back at me. I scoured the internet looking for a miracle that would teach me guitar as fast as possible. I found Metal Method. I bought it, and tried to get through disk 1, made some progress, but my old excuses were haunting. Almost a year went by with me tooling around on my guitar with no real progress. I decided to get a guitar teacher. First teacher was good, but narcasistic, and spent more time talking about his bad marriage, and showing off on the guitar, then teaching me. My second teacher was very good, but he had this dark cloud over him. He was either in a bad mood, or thinly masking his frustration with my failure to grasp what he was trying to teach me. He is actually one of Troy Stetina's old students. I just didn't feel comfortable with him. Then I found my current teacher. He is patient, and very good at helping me with techniques, and theory. I would say his own lacking is structure. I mentioned this in my introduction, but I often hear music when I dream. Music I never heard before. I have been lucky enough to remember the melody, and lyrics sometimes, and write them down. My teacher put some of the to guitar, and recorded it. I can't wait until I am good enough to play this music I hear in my dreams. Strengths: Creativity, Drive, Power Chords, Palm Muting, Hammer Ons, Tapping Can name a note on the fret board in less than 6 seconds. Weaknesses: Rhythm, Lead, Speed, Accuracy Lack of Scale, and Chord knowledge, Pull offs, Bends Goals: To be in a band in a year playing my own stuff. Song I want to be able to play: Orion I decided to follow Ben's Bushidos. I started task 1 March 21st. 2012 - Task 1 - 1 Hour I learned the first part, and had issues with the triplettes. Also did Todd Simpson's Lesson 1 0-60 (30 mins) March 22 - 1 Hour practice - Task 1 I just got done doing an hour of task 1 of Ben's Bushidos. I know the whole piece, but my 16th notes, and triplettes are a little sloppy. I can play along nicely at regualr speed, but I need to clean up my picking. All in all happy with my progress. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings. -------------------- Keep on playing!
DWR My goal is to learn to play guitar like its my second language, and my first words to the world will be "Bite Me!". "Just fn play already!" Guitarist Title: Air Guitarist Guitarist Title thread DWR's EPIC Practice Journal l DarkWaveRiffer's Modern Music Mentored By Cosmin Thread Lead Mastery Mentored by Gab Attacking Scales Mentored By Alex Thread Want to know how to practice for success?? Click here!! Are you sabotaging your practice? Click here! |
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Mar 30 2012, 05:30 AM |
3-29-2012
Task 1 (30 minutes) - Getting better, I realized something most great guitar players already know, repitition, and slow, good technique is the key to getting better.I have been doing this task over and over, I am starting to feel the length of a quarter note compared to a 8th note, or 16th note in 4/4 measure. Metal Rhythms with Octaves (30 minutes) - Getting better, I love this exercise! -------------------- Keep on playing!
DWR My goal is to learn to play guitar like its my second language, and my first words to the world will be "Bite Me!". "Just fn play already!" Guitarist Title: Air Guitarist Guitarist Title thread DWR's EPIC Practice Journal l DarkWaveRiffer's Modern Music Mentored By Cosmin Thread Lead Mastery Mentored by Gab Attacking Scales Mentored By Alex Thread Want to know how to practice for success?? Click here!! Are you sabotaging your practice? Click here! |
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