If you have access to a midi guitar you could play it in, but I normally just write it out. I do sometimes use a midi keyboard but I'm not very good so it's normally more of a hindrance than anything else really.
The trick to performing the lick is the hammer-ons. Make sure you are able to hammer-on strongly with your pinky as each grouping of notes starts with a hammer-on from this finger.
Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:56 am Post subject: Change of Direction
Hi guys! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything in this thread so I thought I'd go for a change of direction. Rather than posting one lick a week I think it'd make more sense for me to update this thread as and when I come up with cool new ideas that I think would be worth sharing.
So to kick things back off I want to talk about right hand technique.
Often the thing I notice most about guitarists who come to me for lessons (especially those looking to focus on advanced techniques) is that they spend all their time focussing on their fretting technique, or only about combining their fretting technique with some direction of picking. So something I have been working on with pupils is trying to improve right hand technique through focussing on the different approaches you can take to picking.
In my opinion, until you can make one note sound good there is no point in trying to execute difficult licks and phrases as the right hand will always let you down.
So lets isolate the problem:
- Choose any single note (7th fret on the D string is a nice one as it is near the centre of the guitar neck).
- Slowly pick the note using down strokes - aim to make sure that each note sounds exactly the same, you'd be surprised how often this isn't the case!
- Continuing with the down strokes... Is your hand/wrist comfortable? Can you feel any sort of tension? Is your thumb relaxed or locked in place?
- The aim here is to make sure your hand/wrist has no tension and that each stroke sounds great.
- Now try to vary the dynamics... Play as quietly as you can manage, then as loud. Try focussing on the transition of increasing and decreasing volume and how your pick attack changes to facilitate this.
- Once you feel you've taken more control over your down strokes do the same with just up strokes.
- Follow all the same steps for up strokes as you did down strokes.
- Once you're comfortable with just up strokes, combine the two first playing down/up then up/down.
You'll be amazed at just how much of a difference this can make to your playing as a good picking approach is the key to creating a good sound. Also you'll be amazed at how much difference the angle you strike the string at can make, so the key here is experimenting!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. It's funny how often guitarists overlook the one of the most important aspect of our instrument. I really started focussing on this form of practice after talking to a saxophonist friend about his practice regime, he actually spends up to an hour a day just working on his breathing in order to achieve the best tone. As guitarists we can definitely learn something from that, our picking approach needs to be completely uniform and under control regardless of the guitar we are playing and we really need to get to grips with controlling the on board controls of the guitar, if you are really comfortable you can sound exactly the same regardless of what guitar/amp you use (to a certain extent).
Also you'd be amazed at how useful it is to focus on your breathing when playing guitar, I've had a few back problems this year from playing guitar for many hours and over the past few weeks after focussing on my breathing it has improved a bit.
Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 10325 Location: UK - Southampton
Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2013 11:49 am Post subject:
Brilliant stuff Gabe - I love this kind of thing. Couple of vaguely related articles I found useful a long time ago when I developed joint RSI in my index finger:
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. It's funny how often guitarists overlook the one of the most important aspect of our instrument. I really started focussing on this form of practice after talking to a saxophonist friend about his practice regime, he actually spends up to an hour a day just working on his breathing in order to achieve the best tone. As guitarists we can definitely learn something from that, our picking approach needs to be completely uniform and under control regardless of the guitar we are playing and we really need to get to grips with controlling the on board controls of the guitar, if you are really comfortable you can sound exactly the same regardless of what guitar/amp you use (to a certain extent).
Also you'd be amazed at how useful it is to focus on your breathing when playing guitar, I've had a few back problems this year from playing guitar for many hours and over the past few weeks after focussing on my breathing it has improved a bit.
This is the sort of practise I've never done on guitar, or that I've never done much of. My girlfriend played flute at uni and she would spend hours a day back then doing the breathing exercises. I took a similar approach to the piano when I was about sixteen, but with the guitar I've always enjoyed all the odd bits of technique that have come together from not having learned to control everything, to the point that I tend to set my guitars up differently and with different gauge strings so that they sort of trip my hands up a bit. I've definitely spent time in the past thinking about how inconsistent my picking and even fretting is. You rarely think about how to fret a note or how what you're doing is influencing the outcome and whether or not you have any conscious control over that. _________________
Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 3105 Location: a series of tubes
Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2013 8:24 pm Post subject:
Lots of great information in this thread, especially the bits coming out of late.
I'm giving lessons to a friend's mom, which has led me back to the grindstone with my own playing in terms of fundamentals. I'd hate to set a bad example and give a sort of "do as I say, not as I do."
Would you recommend starting with strum patterns on single strings or simply starting with the big, wide "cowboy" strokes that are usually used? I'm telling her to use as small a movement in picking as possible in order to develop fine-motor control that's needed for individual picking, then simply widening the scope to the strings needed for the chord. _________________ [quote="jcyphe"] Mo is the most sensible person in this thread.[/quote]
[quote="icey"]and thats for the hatters (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻[/quote]
Would you recommend starting with strum patterns on single strings or simply starting with the big, wide "cowboy" strokes that are usually used? I'm telling her to use as small a movement in picking as possible in order to develop fine-motor control that's needed for individual picking, then simply widening the scope to the strings needed for the chord.
I'd start with single note strokes, then move on to larger note blocks. When looking at chords focus on how each note rings out and make sure the chord is completely even. I like to keep all my motions to a minimum even when I'm doing some loud strumming.
Pro tip for guitarists: Never underestimate how powerful adjusting the pole pieces and height of your pickup can be. If you ever feel like swapping out pickups, compare the guitar with one that you're happy with the sound of. See how close you can get it by a few very tiny adjustments. You'd be amazed just how much you can change the sound of your guitar with just a little fiddling.
Joined: 16 Dec 2009 Posts: 9093 Location: Hopelessly Wayward
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:04 pm Post subject:
No rush Gabe, I was just curious & knew your course was manic.
Some things I am interested in are inversions, drop 3 & 2 chords and good left/right hand technique for 16th note strumming & picking _________________
paul_ wrote:
drink 2 beers and wank to the Sears catalog.
robroe wrote:
I dont need a capo. I have the other chords in my tonefingers
Ok so it's been a really long time since I last uploaded a lesson, so apologies for that. Anyway, tonight I was watching a Bill Frisell documentary on youtube and there was one little clip that really caught my attention. He played a scale, but instead of just playing each note cleanly, he managed to play them in a way that sounded like leaving the sustain pedal down on a piano. This is a great sound and definitely something worth exploring.
Here is an example of a C major scale performed in this manner:
let ring:
----8-----------------------0-------------------------------------------------
--------12--10-----------------3-------0-------------------------------------
------------------12--10-----------5-----------0-----------------------------
---------------------------------------------7-------3--------0---------------
----------------------------------------------------------7--------3----------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here is one for G major scale:
let ring:
----8-----------------------0------------------------------------------------------
--------12--10-----------------3-------0------------------------------------------
------------------12--11-----------5-----------0----------------------------------
---------------------------------------------7-------4--------0--------------------
----------------------------------------------------------7--------3--------0------
------------------------------------------------------------------------7--------3--
The nice thing about these shapes is that once you have them down you can just alter a note at a time to work through the different keys.
Joined: 02 Nov 2012 Posts: 4836 Location: Around the corner
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:59 am Post subject:
I'll try to repeat your licks mechanically without understanding what I'm actually doing. My theory knowledges are poor and I'm too lazy to study it well, so it will be like gymnastic for me, maybe something will stay in my mind _________________
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