Powerful, Expressive Style, love it! Options

[I am Loki]

Hi There Trond,

I have recently been listening to you're two rock solo lessons and am totally taken by you're expressive and powerful playing style. I am currently learning the beginner rock solo in e minor, I will post my efforts when I can play it a little better... im working on the vibrato at the moment. I have managed to nail the bending tho (as my left fingertips can attest.... they are nearly numb haha)

I think you're style is the closest here to what I want to be able to play. I like heavier music like metal and heavier rock, and LOVE solos (up until now I have only really practiced solo peices). I have not focused much on rhythm tho, because my old squier strat just could not cut it (sounded quite crap). but now that I have my lovely schecter I can make the sounds I struggled in vain to make before and now really enjoy practicing rhythm.

I have many questions for you if you have time to answer them. I am wondering when you started out what path did you take? I now have up to 1.5 hours per day to practice and I'm just not sure how to best lay out my time. I am joining a beginner band here in japan, and really want to become as useful as possible quite quickly. They also like rock and heavy metal, so I think ill fit right in. I'm not a total beginner, but you're beginner rock solo challenges me, particularly the legatto part at the end.

Anyway I just want to say I really think you're style has something very special about it. I really enjoy listening to it My path is just starting, but I am committed and will practice every day. My dream is to become able to express myself with the guitar.

I have to get back to class now. See you later!

Loki,

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[Trond Vold]

Thanks Glad you like my rock solos lessons.
Getting comments like this really mean a lot to me

1.5 hours a day for practice should be more than enough and aslong as you dont feel that you have to force yourself to practice, then anything you play will be of some use.

When i had first learned the basics and wanted to improve, one of the things i did was to decide on 1 whole song i wanted to learn. I had all the Metallica tab-books, so i picked a song and spent some time on it. I did this for a few reasons:
1. Playing through whole songs is good for the endurance.
2. You might encounter many different techniques in the same song which will give you a good varied practice.
3. It will also help with understanding rhythm better, and if a more complex song, help with managing odd time signatures and tempo changes.
4. The feeling when you finally master it is unbeatable

But it's important to first go for a song that just out of your reach. Not go for something insanely difficult at once.

Also, a good tip for getting better fast is to record yourself all the time and analyse it afterwards. If you listen closely enough you can hear your flaws.
Then take those flaws into account and re-record what you played. Then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat
Even catching a slight unwanted string-noise in a recording and hearing it afterwards will help, because then you might pay more attention to avoiding it the next time.

Well, enough rambling from me

Feel free to ask as many questions as you like Thats what this forum is for.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

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[I am Loki]

I'm still really learning the basics. I'm going to have to learn chords from scratch because I forgot them all. And really need to practice scales. I think ill do pentatonics first and then move to the minor scale because I really like it.

Picking a whole song is a great idea! My current goals are you're beginner rock solo lesson, ill be pretty pleased when i have nailed that one, and ill post my effort. Im not too far off I think. I don't have any tab books, but I think ultimate-guitar solves that for me

Forcing myself to practice guitar Is'nt the problem... its forcing myself to stop! If I study too much guitar Its bad for productivity and study.

I will probably want to do the pentatonics workshop next. I have been meaning to seriously study scales for a while. Ill probably learn the Minor scale next, because I like it.

I really need to focus on chords too though I think. I might do the very early beginner lessons here to make sure I can nail chord transitions. I tend to stick to power and barre chords at the moment. And I dont really know them, just learn them from songs and whatnot. If you were to learn the basics over again knowing what you know, how would you do it ideally?

Anyway my current quest is to gain knowledge and skill. So lets see how it goes *grins*. Previously I disliked the sound of my guitar under distortion, but now I love the sound and cant help myself!

Loki,

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

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