What Are You Working On Right Now?

[la szum]

Very cool and totally sobering, Tom! Kind of feels to me that we do a lot of these
little micro-adjustments by instinct and on the fly, and then maybe need to clean
them up later.

I was listening to a Producer the other day on Youtube (memory forbids me from
recalling who) and his biggest pet peeve was guitarists not being able to effectively
control their muting in a recording environment.

 

[duzie]

Muting
Unwanted string noise

 

[Stone]

Muting
Unwanted string noise

Same here, practiced that most of the day after chores were done

 

[TSJMajesty]

I was listening to a Producer the other day on Youtube (memory forbids me from
recalling who) and his biggest pet peeve was guitarists not being able to effectively
control their muting in a recording environment.

Funny you mention recording environment..., part of me thinks, This is so nit-picky, why bother? Then the part of me that wins out says, "How would it sound if you recorded it, then isolated the track? Or doubled it?

 

[la szum]

I think some noise is great if you are playing some Ramones or thrashy punk. Maybe even some Hendrix
or Page.

Kind of all comes down to the music and the nature of the delivery. Is it raucous and untamed, or refined
and precise?

 

[duzie]

I think some noise is great if you are playing some Ramones or thrashy punk. Maybe even some Hendrix
or Page.

Kind of all comes down to the music and the nature of the delivery. Is it raucous and untamed, or refined
and precise?

Well this is a lesson in context

 

[la szum]

Gonna write a song consisting of nothing but pick scrapes.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I think some noise is great if you are playing some Ramones or thrashy punk. Maybe even some Hendrix
or Page.

Kind of all comes down to the music and the nature of the delivery. Is it raucous and untamed, or refined
and precise?

Reminds me of watching REO Speedwagon videos back in the day. Listening to Gary Richrath (RIP), hearing all this extra stuff in betweens..., then when I saw how he played, it was obvious.

But his playing was always fire, so it never bothered me.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Part of today, I'm improving my 'economy-of-motion' and muting techniques, at the same time.

I realize I have an unconscious habit of lifting my fingers off the strings right after I'm done with a note, so it's hard to correct that, and it's useful to NOT do that in many situations. Here's an example from DT's In The Presence of Enemies, Pt. 1:

So, playing the 6/8 measure w/ fingers in 1st position, I never need to change anything, as to where/how I'm fretting the notes (until the G chord.) The EOM part.

After playing the C just before the open D chord, I'm trying to retrain my brain to simply relax that 3rd finger, and leave it just touching the string, so it mutes it. (I don't want the power chord here, with the 5th on the bottom, but if I raise that finger off the string, that's what I get. It just doesn't take much with high gain.)

For the C chord, just fret that C note again, let it drape onto the D string to mute it, and I get a clean chord. (That D string should have an X on it, but I couldn't figure out how to edit the tab to do that.)

For the F chord, just bring my 1st finger over onto the F, and let it drape over the other strings, muting out the open D.


It's these little things that I never paid attention to, and never took lessons to have them showed to me, (although Idk if a teacher would've been astute enough to teach these types of techniques) that I'm working on correcting/adding to my techniques, to make everything sound tighter.

And maybe my pointing them out, with some examples, gives someone else ideas to help their playing also.

 

[la szum]

I was watching Al Di Meola's fretting hand motions. I assumed he must be very efficient.
He sounds very efficient.

Not even! He moves his fretting hand far more than I do, and he can still melt my face
by comparison. Fucking show off!!!

 

[TSJMajesty]

I'm probably zeroing in on it due to high gain tones, and harmonics being very easy to hear.

I mean, if I do a run above the 12th fret on the low strings, as soon as I hit that G on the 6th string, it'll produce the 12th fret harmonic from the G string, if I don't have it muted.

So as soon as I'm onto another note, that harmonic creates dissonance, and I can hear it muddying up the notes I'm trying to keep clean.

 

[maguchi]

Thought it might be fun to have kind of an open-ended thread about what people are working on currently. Might be a good place to focus on playing, practicing, learning, and all that stuff instead of just gear!

I am currently working through the TrueFire jazz guitar learning path as I've always wanted to learn and improve jazz guitar. I started it a couple years ago then forgot about it, and picked it back up a couple weeks ago.

Right now I'm speeding through the "late beginner to intermediate" videos as they are pretty easy, but I have picked up a couple things. I'm not great with chords (or theory), so learning the real names and alternate shapes of "jazzy chords" that I've been playing for decades is nice.

Same as before; scales, arpeggios, chords, 6ths and 3rds

 

[TSJMajesty]

Whew! Harmonic minor, legato solos really work those fretting hand muscles, especially dat pinky!

Feels like that good burn you get after a good session at the gym. Kind of.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Songwriting and lyricism. I guess I'm a singer now

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

been working on don7/m6 pentatonic lines.

Like these.

A Dominan 7/E Minor 6 Pentatonic

A Dominan 7/E Minor 6 Pentatonic - over A7 or Em7/6

www.soundslice.com

First it’s 5 caged patterns and sequences. Then a bunch of 2 Bar lines that start at bar 14 in the tab.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I have many riffs that I use as exercises.

This, from Muse's The Handler, 130 bpm

and a few Petrucci legato solos that also give my pinky a workout.

Trying to build strength in that oft-neglected digit.

So lately I'm thinking I need to focus on these pinky riffs every day, until I can start to notice the benefits, namely, when the web of my palm isn't sore most of the time. And just put the alt-picked stuff aside for a bit.

I think I've been spreading my focus too thin across too many techniques all at once, so I'm not seeing much gains in any 1 area.

 

[duzie]

I have many riffs that I use as exercises.

This, from Muse's The Handler, 130 bpm
View attachment 23899
and a few Petrucci legato solos that also give my pinky a workout.

Trying to build strength in that oft-neglected digit.

So lately I'm thinking I need to focus on these pinky riffs every day, until I can start to notice the benefits, namely, when the web of my palm isn't sore most of the time. And just put the alt-picked stuff aside for a bit.

I think I've been spreading my focus too thin across too many techniques all at once, so I'm not seeing much gains in any 1 area.

I’m working with a Truefire Neoclassical Course by Angus Clark that incorporates multiple techniques into some of the lessons.
I’m currently getting tripped up with legato runs that use the pinky
Alternate picking at faster tempo's is also crippling my will to live.
Just kidding!
Even though I fall down I get right back up.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I’m currently getting tripped up with legato runs that use the pinky

Finger/string/fret

There's a part of this legato solo, where it's: 4/4/11 p 3/4/10 p 1/4/8 h 4/5/11, and when I land my pinky on that last note, I can't "drape" my pinky across the 4th string to mute it (not enough pad on my finger), so the only way I can stop the 4th string from ringing, is to lift my 1st finger, juuussst enough to mute the string, which transfers all the pressure on my pinky, all at once, and I just don't have the strength yet built up enough!

It's driving me crazy, cuz every time I do that hammer-on (from nowhere), BOTH strings sound, and since they're only 1 step apart, it sounds like utter , even if for a split second!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Some of us agonize over gear choices; I agonize over the tiniest details of playing accurately and cleanly, with NO note overlap!

 

[maguchi]

I'm not a jazz player by any means. But I ran across this ittle "etude" of some jazz chords that sounds good played as block chords. So I'm working to turn that progression into a musical arrangement with a rhythm and some arpeggios that I can perform kind of as a prelude piece or intro to some other less complex pieces.

A13, Gma7/B, Cdim7, A/C#
Emi7, Emi7/B, D#7#9/A#, A7#5
D7, Emi7, Fdim7, D7/F#
D9, Ami11, D7, G#7b5

etc., etc.