Been Playing For About A Year Now... |
|
|
|
|
Mar 26 2007, 10:39 AM
|
|
And I thought it'd be good to let Kris, Pavel, and Gabriel what happened and where I'm at. Because I figure, the more they know about my playing the more they can help me.
This is the first lesson Kris did for Ug, it's really an awesome lesson. It is also the first thing that made me want to practice, because when I practiced what Kris was teaching, I got better! Thanks Kris!! Not to mention Curious Coincidence is an awesome song. I know there is a lesson here, but it's fun to look back... I had been playing about 3 or 4 months then, and up until that lesson my playing had really been going nowhere. I really would have ended up as one of those guys with a Dimebag Darrell signature guitar, Marshall solid state half stack, playing power chords goin' "That sounds awesome!"  Well I don't have a Dime signature guitar, half stack, and I don't just play powerchords. I have a used Jackson Kelly, cheap 30 watt amp, and I practice arpeggios, speed picking, advanced chords and complicated riffs. Sure back then I would jam with my friend for hours playing one riff(Whiplash, what else? ). And that was great fun, but I didn't really help my playing too much.Since then me and my friend had a falling out, so I basically just play with myself all day  And I find progress in watching lessons here, and guitar magazines.Well after a year I can play pretty damn good considering how much talent I started off with. I can speedpick pretty fast, and I can keep my playing pretty clean, even with tons of gain, and noisy pickups. I can play things from guitarists such as MAB, Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, John Petrucci, and Steve Vai. I can play riffs from bands like Death, Lamb of God, Megadeth, Pantera, and Slayer. My improvisation is also much better. But honestly I thought I would be much better by now, I thought "After I've been playing for a year, I'd have enough chops to gig, and I'll be able to play Cemetary Gates like nothing!" I definately am not good enough to go on stage and have people enjoy it, and I'm still working on Cemetary. I still think my playing is not nearly as clean as I want it to be, and I think I could be much faster. And I still have problems keeping my alternate picking constant, and controled.Well I guess I'll end with more high expectations for myself... I should have enough chops to gig in year, actually I think I should have enough chops to gig in about 8-10 months. I gotto learn Cemetary Gates after I finish learing Another Day(Dream Theater). I should be able to speed pick 16th note triplets at 140bpm  I suck at sweeping and tapping now, I really need to practice these alot. I should be able to improvise a solo over chord changes. I gotto really practice songwriting. I gotto start playing with other people again.Well this post is mostly for myself, to get a perspective on my playing, so I'm not expecting many replies. This post has been edited by RIP Dime: Mar 26 2007, 10:43 AM --------------------  |
 |
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 26 2007, 01:49 PM
|
|
Hey RIP,
Don't be down on yourself, sounds like you have made some great progress- this is a life time commitment and you never stop getting better if you have the will to learn and practice. Regarding not being able to gig yet - you probably just set your sights too high - sure, you're not going to be able to start a Dimebag cover band and play like the man himself, but he didn't learn to play like that in a year either. Most of us start simple, our first couple of bands are nothing to get excited about, but being in a band is amazing training, and can help you develop in ways that you can't on your own, so its worth it even if you and the band don't start exactly where you want to be musically. Eventually you will get there! Of course you don't have to gig if you don't want to but for me, something simple played perfectly trumps any amount of half-mastered mechanical wizardry - my first embarrassing guitar solo in my first band was about 5 notes out of 1 pentatonic box, but I still felt like a guitar here in front of the audience 
-------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 26 2007, 10:55 PM
|
|
QUOTE (RIP Dime @ Mar 26 2007, 05:42 PM)  Oh, I don't feel bad about myself at all. My train of thought is more like..."Cool, I accomplished this now, but I still got alot more work to do!". I'm never really satisfied with playing, and I'm always trying to push myself to be better. That's cool - and with that attitude you'll go far - I was always lazy because I could do the simple stuff easily. I never really had to try until I decided I wanted to play like Kris - and I wasted 10 years finding that out. QUOTE (RIP Dime @ Mar 26 2007, 05:42 PM) Thanks man  , I do tend to set my sights too high. But I have lots of trouble finding other musicians that want to play the kind of music I want to play.All I can say is good luck - being with the right fellow musicians is inspiring, being with people that don't share your vision can be really frustrating, so if you have a strong idea of what you want to do, go for it and don't take second best! -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
|
|
|
|
 
|
1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:
