What Are You Working On Right Now?

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

NO!! Absolutely not. Take that to the pothead thread.

This thread is for real musicians, using real books.

Sorry

 

[TSJMajesty]

I should be working on music right now, but if damned I didn't cut my index finger right in the inside where it bends at the top.
Not terrible just a bit sensitive. I should superglue it though, which does help.

A bud of mine purposely cut his finger so it would force him to use his last 3 fingers more. Kinda dedicated.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Sorry

See what I mean? Never uptight.
You need to read a book and change that.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

So you're winging it?

At this point I could do it in my sleep......

 

[FuzzyAce]

A bud of mine purposely cut his finger so it would force him to use his last 3 fingers more. Kinda dedicated.

Here's what I would have said to your friend..

 

[norminal]

So, in an ironic twist....we are working, right now, on friendship and understanding!!!!!

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

View attachment 30467

 

[TSJMajesty]

Working on this riff.

It's triplets @ 147 bpm, so for me, it's too fast to play as alt-pick, since single n.p.s. is my biggest weakness. One of 'em anyway.

So I'm using it to work on my economy picking.


Pretty challenging, but I figure if I can get the back-and-forth, swinging pick motion when changing stroke direction, it'll help me with arpeggio riffs.

Which I also mostly do using economy picking.

Btw, this is from Ministry of Lost Souls, by you-know-who, right before the big finale.

 

[TSJMajesty]

By the way, DT is always switching up subdivisions in their solos/riffs. Like, they'll be playing 16th notes, then a burst of sextuplets, then back to 16th notes, then onto a blaze of 32nd notes, etc.

But in that example, you could keep the "1" the same all through those subdivisions. And the same tempo/time signature.

But with this riff (if you rewind the video above), most of the riff has a triplet feel, in 4/4 time. But in 3 measures of that riff, they switch to 3 groups of 6 notes, which you can't really continue counting across 4 beats.

I've only seen this very few times. You either keep counting in 4/4, so you can retain the triplet feel as you're playing, and just blaze through those 18 notes in each of those 3 measures, and get it to the point where you come out of it on "1", or...

You change the counting, and the tempo, to either 8th notes @ 220 bpm, (which would change the time signature to 6/4), and count those 18 notes as 6 triplets, or go to 110 bpm, and count them as 16th notes and sextuplets. Those would be the only way you could keep a consistent beat across all measures.

Actually, you could play it in 4/4, but count it in "2", giving it a Waltz feel, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 2 2 3 4 5 6, counted One_And_Two_And, and when those other measures come up, you layer half-note triplets (total of 6 notes) over the 1 & 2 &, but "triplify" each of those 6 notes. 6 X 3 = 18.
If that makes sense.

And really, at the end of the day, the more I mess with it, the more I can just "feel" my way through it, without needing to have any consistent anchoring beat. Even if I'm nowhere near the tempo. It's a very cool change of subdivision for sure.

 

[Eagle]

I mostly work on musicality these days and play an unplugged guitar to run through scales arpeggios and everything to keep up my ability to play the ideas without thinking too hard is a separate thing that I can do watching television When improvising I want to let the musical ideas get all my concentration. If you have the scale changes and form memorised to the point that you don’t think about it at all . You don’t think about spelling and grammar when talking because it would stultify your conversation . Unless you’re talking about jazz then you would need to set up a stand with a dictionary on it and some explanatory notes explaining what a sentence is. The fact that the set list hasn’t changed since about 1940 should have been time to learn a II V I from a “real” book.
On the serious side of this; how much repertoire do you guys have in your head that you could use tomorrow without charts . How many songs?

 

[Eagle]

I need to spend more time on this;

Nowhere to hide and pentatonic bs is not going to work And if that’s not enough some twat decided to make the scale 26.5” and moved one of the fret markers up a fret just to make you feel right at home.

 

[TSJMajesty]

how much repertoire do you guys have in your head that you could use tomorrow without charts . How many songs?

I could do a couple rehearsals with a band, and be able to handle a couple sets, but that's about it. But I haven't been learning any songs for at least 15 years, instead focusing on going back and trying to learn all the things I never bothered with back in my gigging days, for the past 7 years or so.

I'm much better today than I ever was, but I still don't have my technique to the point where I'd be able to cover all the solos of the types of songs I play. So I keep working on that, as opposed to keeping songs at the ready.

I've actually improved many of my 'low hanging fruit' areas, that I'm to the point where if I want to get the harder stuff, I'd have to sit and really focus on those areas, which isn't nearly as much fun.

But I'm always pushing myself. I may never get where I'd like to be, and that's ok. Because I'm enjoying doing this more than I even liked playing in bands. Too much bullshit.

 

[Eagle]

I could do a couple rehearsals with a band, and be able to handle a couple sets, but that's about it. But I haven't been learning any songs for at least 15 years, instead focusing on going back and trying to learn all the things I never bothered with back in my gigging days, for the past 7 years or so.

I'm much better today than I ever was, but I still don't have my technique to the point where I'd be able to cover all the solos of the types of songs I play. So I keep working on that, as opposed to keeping songs at the ready.

I've actually improved many of my 'low hanging fruit' areas, that I'm to the point where if I want to get the harder stuff, I'd have to sit and really focus on those areas, which isn't nearly as much fun.

But I'm always pushing myself. I may never get where I'd like to be, and that's ok. Because I'm enjoying doing this more than I even liked playing in bands. Too much bullshit.

I'm the opposite I learned all the interesting solos and "best bits" and then forget the song structure because I rarely play a song in it's entirety during practice . These days I play more with friends for our enjoyment . I don't play stuff I don't like anymore.

 

[metropolis_4]

I mostly work on musicality these days and play an unplugged guitar to run through scales arpeggios and everything to keep up my ability to play the ideas without thinking too hard is a separate thing that I can do watching television When improvising I want to let the musical ideas get all my concentration. If you have the scale changes and form memorised to the point that you don’t think about it at all . You don’t think about spelling and grammar when talking because it would stultify your conversation . Unless you’re talking about jazz then you would need to set up a stand with a dictionary on it and some explanatory notes explaining what a sentence is. The fact that the set list hasn’t changed since about 1940 should have been time to learn a II V I from a “real” book.
On the serious side of this; how much repertoire do you guys have in your head that you could use tomorrow without charts . How many songs?

Not nearly as much as I used to. Back in the days when I was doing more wedding/corporate event bands I had a ton.

These days I’m reading charts for one show for a month and then jumping to the next and I don’t play anything long enough to memorize it.

I do still remember a lot of the old stuff, but it’s a bit dusty

 

[la szum]

 

[la szum]

I wasn't really directing at you -- you're never uptight.

 

[la szum]

A lot of times you can get by with just a Chord Chart....and/or knowing the key signature of the song.

When I would do fill-in or on-call gigs in the past there were times I had little to
no prep time and would just go off of Key Sigs and/or Chord Charts. Even to the
point of making my own.

There's a lot of different music you can do that with, too. Even with a lot of Jazz
(no Jazz head) you just have to know the head, the changes, and then blow. Or
hang back and comp. It can be an hell of a lot of fun----when it is not hella stressful.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I never used charts, because I always played originals.

Well, I did use tab once at a wedding, it was a Bach piece the bride wanted played so I did. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I learned it by sighting the tab beforehand, but take the tab away and I'd been lost.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I always played originals.

once at a wedding,

I once played an original. At a wedding. That I wrote for my (now ex) wife. sigh...

 

[FuzzyAce]

Sorry @TSJMajesty , didn't mean to laugh at your divorce, just the way i read it sounded funny.