Hi Gus

Finally we have it all set and ready to go I hope we will both have some good experience with this. The first thing I would like to know is what you would like to learn and we can take it from there. Please write down your current playing abilities, post some recordings or a video (if you have) and specify which area you would like to focus on. That can be anything from theory, technique, some of my lessons - just whatever you want. I am looking forward to this and I hope that you will learn many useful things throughout this program.

All the best
Emir

Hi Emir.

Thanks for accepting to mentor me.

Background
I am 27 years old and started playing classical guitar at age of 8. I played until 11. After a 5 year hiatus, I started playing acoustic guitar again, but only chords. Really just for fun. I kept doing that until 23, when I started a band and started learning electric guitar and lead. At that time I attended 1.5 years of classes with a very good guitar teacher where I really learned a lot, but I focused my practice on songs instead of exercises. I still have a tendency to do that, but after joining GMC I am starting to go towards more to serious practice.
So, I feel like I've been playing forever , but in fact my real practice sums up to something between 2-4 years.

What I like to listen
I love most of rock: rock ballads, pop rock, hard rock, metal.
Now and then I listen to other styles.

Some bands I like a lot and you probably heard about: Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin, U2, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Red Hot , Dire Straits, Evanescence, Nirvana, Deep purple...
Some bands I like a lot and you probably did not hear about (brazilian 80s rock) : Engenheiros do Hawaii, Legião Urbana, Barão Vermelho, Capital Inicial, Paralamas do Sucesso, Raimundos ...
Just the tip of the iceberg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAAzGyccJQg
Only in the last 2 years I started discovering instrumental rock, but I have to say I also like to hear Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert...

What I would like to achieve
I really want to be an all-rounded guitarist, at pro level. In fact I'd say I am all-rounded, but on a relatively poor level.
I know I can focus my practice more on one thing at a time, but what I really want to achieve is a 360 degree improvement on all the main techniques.

When I see something like your Vinnie Moore's lesson I think: WoW! That's how I want to play: a lot of rock attitude, everything is on its place (flow, control, melody), several advanced techniques put together not (only) to impress someone but really to enhance the listener's experience!!!


Where I am now
I thought the best way was to make a video and show different techniques
EDIT: Youtube messed up with the video/audio synchronization. .



I hope this is enough info so we can get started

Great video Gus. Thanks much for showing all this stuff. You actually know a lot but you need to improve it all I will suggest a program that I am using for several other MTP participants. Many of you guys are struggling with fretboard skills. Scale positions, keys, changing quickly from one to another etc... Do you know all major scale boxes? If not then we can start with that. Dexxter is currently doing a great job with it. These exercises will force you to use your pinky and learn all major scales all over the fretboard. Once you know all these you actually know all major scale modes After we master that we'll try to use it practically. There will be many tasks I would want you to play. Every now and then I will produce a backing track that you can use to demonstrate what you have learned. Later we can involve bends, tapping, legato, arpeggios and other techniques so you can start producing proper solos and feel comfortable on the guitar neck. Let me know if this works for you and I will send the chart and videos to help you get started

Well, I'd say I know 3 notes per string patterns of major scale, but I don't know them to the heart.
More important than that I do struggle to change quickly from one scale to another and on connecting the major scale boxes.
During improvisation I always "fall back" to pentatonic, cause I don't know what to do on major scale. I think I need some "anchoring points" to my improvisation which I cannot visualize.

So yes, that would work for me as a starting point

Ok then here is the first thing we should work on. This is the chart you need to learn.



In this video I explained this chart to Dexxter.



This is what Dexxter did in just one day. You should play all these like in this video. If it's too fast for you you can slow down a bit.

Thanks for the patterns and assignment.
They look very interesting, and I printed an extra version with the pentatonic marked in red...

I will go home mentalizing the patterns

Good luck man It's gonna get more interesting once you master this.

Ok. I pretty much memorized them and I can do the patterns comfortably up to 80-90 bpm (16th notes). I will try to record so maybe you can see if there is anything I can improve to go further on speed.

So what should I do next?

Ok, send the video and we'll take it from there.

16th notes. First at 70 bpm, and then at 85 bpm. Different angle/position so that should also help identifying any issue...



I recorded it a couple of days ago but finally got the time to edit the video.

Also I had some of the "NoSkill Effect"
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=27328

That was excellent. Now the famous box 5x5 that many of you are doing Read from left to right and top to bottom. You should play the whole thing with no stop. No need to play too fast but it should be clean as on this video that you posted. Btw, you did a great job with picking and posture.

The first line will be between 1-5 fret, second line will be the next group of frets... You will see when you start it After you do this I am creating a little collab for all MTP guys in my group and we will try to use those shapes in a real situation when improvising.

Hi Gus. How is it going?

Just want to inform you that tomorrow I am leaving for a whole week and back on the next Monday.

Cheers

Hi Emir.

I had to skip guitar practicing for 2 weeks, because of my PhD work, but I am finally back on track.

I will be working on this exercise during the week, and record it over the weekend, then you can see when you come back.

Cheers.

Ok man take your time I'm off for the whole week

Hi Gus I am back now. How is it going? According to the new MTP rules I need to give you assignment every week. If you have something for me please record a video so we can move on. Cheers

Hi Emir. Here is the video. Somehow youtube still delays my video, so I just posted it here.
Click to view attachment
It is quite hard to do this exercise non-stop without mistakes, but this exercise is improving a lot my AP, and finally I am connecting the scale shapes to the chords (which I know by heart for many years). Thanks a lot for this assignment!
I redraw your diagram using C-A-G-E-D instead of the numbers, and that helped me a lot to think of the chord shapes instead of simply numbers.

I hope the video is good enough to move forward , but I will definitely add this exercise to my routine practice for the years to come.

Hi Gus, check the new assignment topic and we'll take it from there.

This take was very good. I am happy you learned all those shapes. That will help you a lot I hope.

Hi Emir.

I tried a little bit the new assignment, and it seems I can navigate between patterns like never before So I think it's working.

Still, I've got one doubt about it. In this exercise, should I stick to a single note feel (8th or 16th) and just alternate picking? Or can use legato, sliding, bending and long notes as well?

I replied on the PM. Just play 8th notes for now.

Hi Gus

Sorry for being this late. I was busy as hell and I still am. We can continue where we stopped last time. No need to start the new thing. I will just treat this MTP like we're still in the old phase. This is because we can have some stuff approved that you already submitted as assignment and also it doesn't make difference if I write that we're now in March or December...

So where did we stop? We were doing some scale patterns? Help me with some explanation about where we stopped as I have many guys now in MTP. Did I give you a task before to do or I have to give you a new one? Also don't forget about one REC submission per month and also post the REC link in the assignment thread.

Cheers

Yes, basically we worked out through CAGED patterns, on different tempos. The last assignment was to improvise over a more complex backing track with some modulations , naming the used mode. It was Am, Dm7, E7, Am and so on. I should use A aeolian, D dorian, E mixolydian and so on.
I can post this video on this assignment during this week and then we move forward.

As I posted before on the other thread, thanks to mtp last year, my improvisation skills improved a lot. Now, if possible I would like to focus somehow on perfecting alternate picking and speeding it up a lot.

Since the month is already well advanced, I think we can work on a "not so complicated" lesson for REC, right? I thought of your riffing variations lesson, recently posted.

Ok I get it. GrindGuer is also doing that assignment now. After you post that video we can move onto the picking exercises. My riffing variations is ok. I am here to help with anything you might ask. Just make sure you use correct fingering and palm mute where you feel it should be muted. That's a bit tricky with fingering but it's a great exercise. you don't need to pass that REC but you have to submit it so don't worry much

Check how Maharzan did that modal assignment in 16th notes. You can play 8th notes that will be ok.