What Are You Working On Right Now?

[Byrdman]

Keep at it man, it's a never-ending learning experience but that's why we keep going.
Sorry about the band though.

I appreciate that!! It's good to know that everyone probably has this happen and it's part of it. Not good that it happens, just that it does happen.

The past few years, as I've been trying to up my own game, I've become painfully aware of many things in my technique that were holding me back, that really needed to be addressed.

I've changed-

Keeping my fingers (even that damn pinky!) close to the fretboard
Muting strings in various ways
Breaking the link between my pinky and ring finger,
Moving my pick grip further down my 1st finger, to help with switching slants, to better help with outside and inside string changes
Altering my picking motion to a side-to-side, instead of rotating it too much (like you would turn your hand when opening a door knob)
And working on being able to pick any lick just as fast, whether starting on a downstroke or an upstroke.

Getting these bad habits fixed, er, improved, has made such a huge difference in my being able to tackle harder stuff.

There's still one thing that I don't practice often enough- trills- that's still holding me back, but they are so boring.

Yeah the flailing pinky is a thing for me as well, so any suggestions on how to keep that pinky close and not move when the ring finger moves would be appreciated very much!

 

[la szum]

Sorry to hear about the band, Barry. Bummer.

I hope you keep on keeping on. There are good people
out there to connect with----even if you have to kiss a
few crappy ones to find them.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Working on my new album. Any thoughts on these leading contenders for the artwork:

 

[Los-D]

artwork:

 

[la szum]

Not a damn thing. I've been in a playing drought as of late. Haven't felt inspired to pick up the guitar much although I feel the break is needed so I can hit it again with new perspective.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Yeah the flailing pinky is a thing for me as well, so any suggestions on how to keep that pinky close and not move when the ring finger moves would be appreciated very much!

There's these 2 riffs I practice a bunch to help break the ring/pinky dependence thing:

I'll See The Light Tonight YJM 71 thru 78

And this from Muse The Handler, which plays 8x's total. Note the fingering I use:

And then another thing I'll do from time to time is play a Maj7 chord across the top 4 strings:

st/fret/finger:

4/10/4
3/9/3
2/8/2
1/7/1
1/8/2
1/7/1
2/8/2
3/9/3
4/10/4
4/9/3

Repeat

In this one, I try to keep each finger just touching every string, basically muting them, while playing the note of the arpeggio. Which is quite difficult. But between the 3, it has really helped control my pinky. And build up its strength, while helping to free it from the ring finger.

 

[TSJMajesty]

And if ya really wanna work that pinky, learn this:

Even at a very slow tempo, the trick is to keep the timing consistent- same amount of time spent on every note! No speeding up on the pull-offs, and slowing down on the string changes or hammer-ons, in other words. And every time you move to a lower string, you use a 'hammer-on from nowhere.' Which many times is the pinky.

I'll pay it as sextuplets, and 16th notes, to help keep my timing consistent. (Since it puts the accents on different notes.)

I didn't tab it out completely correct, as there's really only a single picked note when you start on each string with your first finger. Everything else is legato.
And ignore measure 243. That's where it repeats, and I transposed the key, since it's played on a guitar tuned to C, I believe.

Also, in 241, use a slide from 8-7, and again from 10-11.

Hell, you could just loop beat 4 in 240 thru beat 2 in 241. Just looping those 3 beats will give that pinky a workout!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Working on my new album. Any thoughts on these leading contenders for the artwork:

View attachment 24835


View attachment 24836​

They're both sick! I prefer the first one.

 

[FuzzyAce]

@Moondog Wily
I agree with the others on the 1st one!

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Thanks for the feedback gents! Much appreciated!! I actually developed the second one for the title track of the album and then started second guessing my originally developed work for the album which is the first one ;~)) So I think I will do it as originally intended, first one is the album art, second one is art for the title track!!!

 

[Byrdman]

Thanks for the feedback gents! Much appreciated!! I actually developed the second one for the title track of the album and then started second guessing my originally developed work for the album which is the first one ;~)) So I think I will do it as originally intended, first one is the album art, second one is art for the title track!!!

I liked the first one, but the second one was pretty sick too. for the second, the mouth with the tongue hanging out drew too much attention from the rest of it which may be better with a sexy woman's mouth not a dude's but what do I know

 

[Byrdman]

Sorry to hear about the band, Barry. Bummer.

I hope you keep on keeping on. There are good people
out there to connect with----even if you have to kiss a
few crappy ones to find them.

Yes, still moving forward. It just sucks to have to start over...

The other guitarist and the drummer still want to get together, but I told them I'm in but they could count me out if they were wanting to play with that bass player. I'm in sales, so I have pretty good track record of sizing up bullshit and I saw through his passive aggressive, going behind the other members back and talking shit about everyone but not trying to be talking shit about everyone style. I asked the other guitarist if he did that about me to him and he had done so and I told him he did the same with me about him, lol

 

[Byrdman]

There's these 2 riffs I practice a bunch to help break the ring/pinky dependence thing:

I'll See The Light Tonight YJM 71 thru 78

View attachment 24850
And this from Muse The Handler, which plays 8x's total. Note the fingering I use:

View attachment 24851

And then another thing I'll do from time to time is play a Maj7 chord across the top 4 strings:

st/fret/finger:

4/10/4
3/9/3
2/8/2
1/7/1
1/8/2
1/7/1
2/8/2
3/9/3
4/10/4
4/9/3

Repeat

In this one, I try to keep each finger just touching every string, basically muting them, while playing the note of the arpeggio. Which is quite difficult. But between the 3, it has really helped control my pinky. And build up its strength, while helping to free it from the ring finger.

Thank you! I will introduce them. I am currently doing something like the first one my teacher started me off with but I will check out the other ones too.

 

[Stone]

Right now Crafting
Anyone ever use the Fryette ? Working on that for STP
Im impressed so far...

 

[TSJMajesty]

Anyone ever use the Fryette ?

Is it a Mesa?

There's so many I've lost track.

 

[Stone]

Is it a Mesa?

There's so many I've lost track.

No I don't think so Tom, its based on the VHT amps from what I can gather

 

[la szum]

Right now Crafting
Anyone ever use the Fryette ? Working on that for STP
Im impressed so far...

View attachment 24890

Had that Amp in real life. It's thick and juicy. Fryette Deliverance.

Are you going to use a dual amp setup for Dean's tones? Vox AC and something else? Just curious.

 

[Stone]

Had that Amp in real life. It's thick and juicy. Fryette Deliverance.

Are you going to use a dual amp setup for Dean's tones? Vox AC and something else? Just curious.

Yes Dave so far the Freyette is it for the heavier part, as for the simultaneous layered clean part yes AC30
So dual amp and dual cabs setup in the works

 

[PLX]

Yes Dave so far the Freyette is it for the heavier part, as for the simultaneous layered clean part yes AC30
So dual amp and dual cabs setup in the works

Surprised there's isn't a VST out there yet for the Demeter TGP-3

 

[TSJMajesty]

A weird problem I have (maybe some of you can relate) is that at certain tempos, my picking is erratic. Go slower, or faster, and it's fine. But at these in-btw speeds, my picking is "choppy-like", and the timing gets into da-dum, da-dum, da-dum territory.

So I figure that's the next thing I need to clean up, so I've been sitting for an hour so far today, with the metronome on 175, just playing alt-picked quarter notes, followed by only as many 8th notes as I can play without them getting choppy, or uneven, timing-wise. And focusing on not holding the pick too tight (= choppiness), or too loose (= uneven timing.)

Dum, dum, dum, dum, dadadada, dum, dum, dadadada dadadada, dum, dum, dum, dum, etc. Just 1 note, over and over. Then I mix in some different notes to help with the boredom, but I guess this is the only way (I know of) to fix this shit!



On the bright side, 175 is about the tempo of Highway Star, so I'm using the last section of that solo (at half-speed, with an occasional burst at tempo) to counter the boredom, and I realized I had been playing that section wrong for a long time!

I had been playing it: B- 10-10-11-13, 11-11-13-15, 13-13-15-17..., when all along it's: 10-11-13-13, 11-13-15-15, 13-15-17-17. So that's good, at least!