Aris's Thread, for Gab's Army |
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...the thing is, I need you to start progressing faster then ever, but to achieve that I need your help:
* Don't know where to start? Just pm me and we will sort it out directly, I am online every day.
* Join My Army. Sounds aggressive? It is! We can study anything from the most fearsome picking techniques to bombastic songwriting. A medal of honor awaits the brave. Seriously, this is an opportunity for you to get a personalised learning experience...what are you waiting for?!
* Join my next video chat! GMC startpage holds a video chat schedule. We always cover a lot of ground and have fun. Remember that you don't need any previous knowledge, and you can be passive in the chat.
* Jam with me - you will find active collabs here.
* Post a topic on this board, guitar related or not - doesn't matter! You will find that chatting with instructors boosts your motivation to practice.
* You haven't missed my latest video lessons, have you?
* Finally I want to tell you a secret. Nah I changed my mind - pm me instead ;)
Aris's Thread, for Gab's Army |
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Oct 2 2014, 09:46 PM |
Hi Aris! Welcome to your thread for Gab's Army as we agreed via PM!
Here I will copy all the info that you've gave me about you because it will help me as a reference to start working. "At first your style lessons came to my attention while I was looking to decode some of the techniques of my favorite bands so I can use it in my own compositions. At first I really liked the skate punk lesson although I don't listen to the style so often but it felt that the parts you composed are capturing the best of it. I was also very glad that you put up social distortion and the stooges (the latter was the least expected and I m glad you find it worthwhile even if it maybe too easy for your playing). Lately I have watched a couple of your video lessons on soloing techniques and improvisation and tried practicing some of the materials on scales and patterns. I would like you to be my mentor in my musical journey. My experience should be on a basic level. I am also familiar with minor/major scales but not fluent. I have also had four live performances with my band at small nights. Since I am already 33 years old + full time job + kids, my time to practice is limited. However, I have decided to make a consistent effort to pursue this dream of mine and spend about an hour every day practicing. Due to this goal I mostly play guitar while practicing instead of learning covers. I understand I have to improve my technique, speed and accuracy before I can play the songs I like with confidence and come up with fresh ideas. I believe you would make an ideal instructor for me since you definitely have the knowledge, technique and you are also very familiar with the styles that I am mostly interested in. I am only mentioning styles because I won't have enough time to start with classical music and end up where I would like to be smile.gif To give you an idea, some of my key goals are: - to be able to play guitar with confidence - to be able to improvise - to create tunes based on my personal ideas and musical styles of interest * BUT you know better what it takes to do all this and more." You goals are very clear and define our next steps. I would like to invite you to share here some audio and video of you playing to let me see your current level, your strong and weak points. -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Dec 5 2014, 07:48 PM |
Hi Gabriel, I found some time that I could play loud and recorded some of my practice routine. Please let me know on your thoughts. Some quick comments on the takes: - phrasing(Guitar loves piano): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHpZxKdGXws...eature=youtu.be I have set some landmarks in the backing track as indicators to know how if I m on the right track and sometimes how long I should hold the silences or some notes with longer durations.Otherwise I can't trust my mind completely for this yet. Am I supposed to be able to play this with the right timing even without using the backing track? This one is evolving ok but it still has some things to improve. The most important is timing, sometimes you tend to go faster than you should and you lose the rhythm of some phrases (for example at 00:11 and 00:15, 00:58). About your question, yes, you should be able to play the lesson without the backing, just tapping the beat with your foot, but it can be trickier than doing it with the backing. However, as this one doesn't include a drum track, I think that it's essential to practicing the lesson tapping the beat. Besides this timing issues, you should polish some ascending passages (00:15, 00:42), as well as your vibrato and bending techniquesw which are a bit weak on this one yet. - rhythm (SD style lesson) - I have uploaded too pretty similar takes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDFw3WFISNk...eature=youtu.be - should be best in overall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC-hNWeyClI...eature=youtu.be - I think this is a better take for the solo in the end I 'll keep on playing this to improve timing and speed eventually. Since this may take a while though until I build up my overall speed ability so to be able to play over the 160bpm backing track, do you think now would be a good time to pick a different rhythm or you would suggest to stay in this lesson as long as it is needed for better and quicker results? Great to see you working hard on rhythm! You have to be careful with the first part when you just have the hi hat because you are not totally tight when the drums start. Then things sound better, just be sure to now hurry up. You tend to strum a bit before the beat in some parts. I think that it would be really good to start with another lesson but keep on playing this one 2 or 3 times every day. Also I wanted to ask you about the way I record my videos (so that you have a better sound quality and visual on my hands movements). I use a laptop to record the video (pc_1) and a second pc to play the backing track from its speakers (pc_2). Then I play the guitar using my amp's speaker. After tunning the volume of my guitar and the speakers playing the backing track, I hit record button on pc_1 which has the camera. Another alternative would be to import the backing track in cubase and make both my guitar and the backing track sound via cubase, thus from the same speaker. Then record it using pc_1 with the camera. I 'm not sure if this will have better video and sound results. What kind of setup and software are you using for this? I go for the second option. I use Cubase to play the backing and record the guitar, to then later mix it and replace audio on video using a video editor like Premiere or Vegas (there are lots of other ones, and some are free). This is the best way to get a high quality audio that will improve your videos and also let us listen to your playing in a more precise way. Please try it and let me know if you need some help. Checking this video is a must! -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Dec 8 2014, 01:42 PM
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Hi Gabriel,
Thanks for your review. I need to work on foot tapping, since I often loose the beat over rhythms with lots note alternations within the same beat. I will also follow the vibrato workout that you recommended and look for a bending exercise. You are right about the first round of the chords in SD lesson. The high hat volume is too low at the start and I can barely hear it when I play. Tapping my foot to stay on beat has already solved this issue though However, I noticed that if I keep tapping my foot during the rest of the parts. I always loose it when it comes to the part with the mutings. About the new lesson for rhythm practice, I did a search at GMC for rhythm workouts and found a lot of interesting lessons. Most of these are based on my assumption that rhythm practice should be basically focused on riff patterns with variety in strumming patterns(down/up motion), muting etc. Based on the above assumption, the below lesson would be great but maybe it's not recommended for my stage since it may take forever to learn. https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/offspr...le-riffs-medley So, I think any of the below lessons maybe suitable too. Amonst the two I would choose Rise Against. I think it has more variety in strumming patterns and mutings. Let me know if any of these would be more suitable than the others. https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Rise-A...-Hardcore-Punk/ https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Offspring-Style/ I am not sure if I should be looking for rhythm exercises (like the following) instead of style lessons. What do you say? https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...c-metal-rhythm/ https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...ds-rock-rhythm/ https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...hythm-exercise/ I will also try your suggestion for better recording quality. Thanks!!! |
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