What Are You Working On Right Now?

[la szum]

Honestly, it is now in my top 3 Ozzy songs and I feel like it has everything. Having a blast so far.

It does. You could cultivate skills in a diverse armada of approaches
with just that one song, including shifting time signatures, funky ass aregegiated
chords that are in no other rock or metal songs, and some flat-out bad-ass riffage.

I need to revisit it. Stoked to hear you are having a blast with it, Dave.

 

[Warmart]

It does. You could cultivate skills in a diverse armada of approaches
with just that one song, including shifting time signatures, funky ass aregegiated
chords that are in no other rock or metal songs, and some flat-out bad-ass riffage.

I need to revisit it. Stoked to hear you are having a blast with it, Dave.

Spot on mister! I get sad every time I think about him passing, so unique in every way.

With the clean arpeggiated part, a couple of those, "funky chords" really throw me. First 3 are easy pretty standard, but whoa wtf, afterwards?! My pinky no want to do that!

I think he was trying to piss himself off so he'd really slam the 1st palm muted chunk, lol.

Cool thing is I have the 2 main riffs damn near spot on, and they will bring the grins full bore! Solo is a mix, easy in parts, from what I've seen - but it's next!

 

[la szum]

Love it, @Warmart !!!

It was because of Randy and his passion for "theory" and Classical Guitar that I wanted to
learn all that stuff. He was brilliant in so many ways. Amazing how great he and EVH were, too,
and yet there styles and approaches are literally world's apart.

Randy be all, "You will use your pinky fokkers!!!"

 

[metropolis_4]

Some kids were messing around in my music room yesterday and when I came down today there was a thumb pick sitting on my desk.

I decided it was a sign, so now I’m working on my finger picking with a thumb pick. I pulled out some old Chet Atkins books and started digging in.

Also, I came across this section from Country Gentleman. I love these super wide intervals! This is something I haven’t experimented with before, so I’m going to dig into this concept a bit.

I’m a sucker for cool harmonic ideas and I was geeking out a bit on the first measure of the third line how that parallel movement slides the bass note up to the dom 7 all within the A chord tones . So simple, yet so effective

 

[TSJMajesty]

I'm still working on this string-skipping riff. Omg, this is the most time I've ever spent on getting a particular technique under my fingers, and I'm slowly getting it. I just played it @ 118 bpm. But it's taking a LOT of practice!

My aim is that as I get more and more comfortable with it, it'll make learning/making up my own, string skipping licks that much easier, kinda like another tool in the proverbial 'bag-o-tricks.'

My overall goal with all the stuff I practice, is that each thing I learn will help me widen my own palette, so to speak, even though I haven't even begun to take any of what I'm doing, and make it into something of my own. But that is the ultimate goal.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Something a little different today, that involves 2-way pick slanting.

In the context of strict alt-picking, regardless of whether you start on a downstroke or not, if you have an odd # of notes on a string, when you change strings, you have to alternate btw an upward PS and a downward one.

So you need to change the pick angle within the time frame of however many notes are played on that string.

I'm using this diminished lick from The Shadow Man Incident.

The first section is easier, since there's an even # of notes, so you can stay with whichever pick slant you begin with (which depends on how you start the lick.) I start on a downstroke, since it's on the beat (if it begins off the beat, I usually start on an upstroke), so my pick slant is upward.

But as you get to measure 425, you have to start switching back and forth btw pick slants, so that's what I'm working on. It sounds pretty badass @ 168 bpm, which I can't play. Yet!

 

[la szum]

Love that ascending run.

And the Calypso Piano Solo it leads to is growing on me. A little.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Love that ascending run.

Do you hear a little Octavarium in it?

It's this same scale, so has the same "flavor." Cued up-



I just realized (at the end of the whole tone riff) Jordan takes a similar opportunity to play something quite "different" afterwards.

 

[Jarick]

Been listening to a lot of modern shoegaze all week and that got me to start listening to Deftones' White Pony again. Never tried to learn the stuff so going through now. Feiticeira is such a weird guitar song but fun as hell to play.

 

[TSJMajesty]

So as I get my alt-picking, string skipping arpeggio riff a bit faster each time, I'm noticing something that I wonder if any of you can relate to.

The particular section involves 2 notes on the D, 2 on the B, then 1 on the high e, and back to 2 on the B, and 2 on the D. The direction is down-up. dn-up, down, up-down, up-down, so it incorporates a downward pick-slant, then reversing it to an upward PS on the high e "turnaround."

I have it pretty consistent at 110 bpm (it's 16th notes), and can play it very consistent at 100. And I've gone past that tempo, but still not there yet.

But here's what I'm noticing-

I can "brute force" it, and get all the notes, but there's also a few times when the pick seems to just kind of, flow through the strings, almost as if the 4 notes on the D & B are 1 motion. I'm trying for that "feel" each time, but it's only happening maybe 1 out of 5 times I play it. And until I can get it to feel like that, I'm reluctant to go any faster. If I keep going faster without that feel, I'm just plowing through the strings, and probably going to break one of them.

Does anyone else know what I mean by this?

I've experienced something similar when I'm doing triplets, 3 notes-per-string- those 3 notes feel almost like 1 fluid motion.

I haven't practiced many 2 note-per-string riffs, so beginning with a string-skipping lick might have been jumping ahead a bit, wrt building my technique, so I'm also practicing simple Pentatonic, 2 nps licks to help me develop that feel thing, without having the string skip adding to the challenge.

Anybody have any insight here into what I'm feeling with that pick motion?

The times I can tell I got that motion "right", it's pretty rewarding. It also feels like once I have that consistent, getting the lick up to 128 will be much easier. I feel like I must get that pick motion doing what I'm talking about, as opposed to "forcing" the pick through that section, before I tackle 110 to 130, which is where I need to be in the solo.

 

[Eagle]

So as I get my alt-picking, string skipping arpeggio riff a bit faster each time, I'm noticing something that I wonder if any of you can relate to.

The particular section involves 2 notes on the D, 2 on the B, then 1 on the high e, and back to 2 on the B, and 2 on the D. The direction is down-up. dn-up, down, up-down, up-down, so it incorporates a downward pick-slant, then reversing it to an upward PS on the high e "turnaround."

I have it pretty consistent at 110 bpm (it's 16th notes), and can play it very consistent at 100. And I've gone past that tempo, but still not there yet.

But here's what I'm noticing-

I can "brute force" it, and get all the notes, but there's also a few times when the pick seems to just kind of, flow through the strings, almost as if the 4 notes on the D & B are 1 motion. I'm trying for that "feel" each time, but it's only happening maybe 1 out of 5 times I play it. And until I can get it to feel like that, I'm reluctant to go any faster. If I keep going faster without that feel, I'm just plowing through the strings, and probably going to break one of them.

Does anyone else know what I mean by this?

I've experienced something similar when I'm doing triplets, 3 notes-per-string- those 3 notes feel almost like 1 fluid motion.

I haven't practiced many 2 note-per-string riffs, so beginning with a string-skipping lick might have been jumping ahead a bit, wrt building my technique, so I'm also practicing simple Pentatonic, 2 nps licks to help me develop that feel thing, without having the string skip adding to the challenge.

Anybody have any insight here into what I'm feeling with that pick motion?

The times I can tell I got that motion "right", it's pretty rewarding. It also feels like once I have that consistent, getting the lick up to 128 will be much easier. I feel like I must get that pick motion doing what I'm talking about, as opposed to "forcing" the pick through that section, before I tackle 110 to 130, which is where I need to be in the solo.

I play that down PS the whole way, EJ style and it flows pretty smoothly.

 

[TSJMajesty]

To expand a bit, someone mentioned picking fast being akin to bouncing a basketball. It's like, 1 hand motion for 2 actions of the ball, if that makes sense.

So when I'm doing it correct, it feels like it takes just 1 motion to get both the down & up strokes on the D, and then all I do is move my palm a bit towards the floor, as I keep that same motion going, to catch the 2 notes on the B string.

(There's another reason I actually move my palm when doing this lick- it's to quickly mute the D string. Usually I mute the next string with the tip of whatever finger is fretting the next note, but that doesn't work when you've just skipped that string, so I move my palm instead. Don't know if that's "proper" technique, but that's how I do it.)

 

[TSJMajesty]

Took off yesterday from playing anything, which lately is rare.
But I'm still on this string-skipping riff..., yeah it's been a while. Takes so long when you're old like me, and never really had good technique.

I've dug into this picking motion, and it's getting very consistent..., finally! Maybe now I'll be able to get past 110, and then start cleaning up the harder parts of the rest of the solo-

Let's see..., There's the 3 sextuplet, 2 nps, picked arpeggios,

the crazy sliding part,

and of course, all the other string-skipping arpeggios, which should come much easier, once I get this main one I'm still focused on.

I'm still mixing it up with other stuff too; I have to, because staying on this one riff for too long and my hand starts hurting, due to the stretch.

I'm not bored with it just yet. But if I can't break through this tempo barrier, now that I feel like I have the picking right, I may just have to give up.

This fucker is harder than I thought. 128 bpm doesn't mean the same thing, when the notes are all over the fretboard!

 

[Eagle]

Took off yesterday from playing anything, which lately is rare.
But I'm still on this string-skipping riff..., yeah it's been a while. Takes so long when you're old like me, and never really had good technique.

I've dug into this picking motion, and it's getting very consistent..., finally! Maybe now I'll be able to get past 110, and then start cleaning up the harder parts of the rest of the solo-

Let's see..., There's the 3 sextuplet, 2 nps, picked arpeggios, View attachment 48595the crazy sliding part, View attachment 48596and of course, all the other string-skipping arpeggios, which should come much easier, once I get this main one I'm still focused on.

I'm still mixing it up with other stuff too; I have to, because staying on this one riff for too long and my hand starts hurting, due to the stretch.

I'm not bored with it just yet. But if I can't break through this tempo barrier, now that I feel like I have the picking right, I may just have to give up.

This fucker is harder than I thought. 128 bpm doesn't mean the same thing, when the notes are all over the fretboard!

Where is the stretch ?

 

[TSJMajesty]

Where is the stretch ?

 

[Eagle]

View attachment 48599

Where?

 

[TSJMajesty]

Where?

From 20 to 15 is a stretch for me, because of how short my pinky is.

And really, the soreness doesn't actually come from the distance btw those notes, so much as from how I have to arch my hand.

When I stretch out my pinky to grab that note on the B string, and then have to get right off it for the next note, I really have to put pressure on my thumb behind the neck, because the way my pinky hits that note is not vertical..., it's more like, sideways a bit.

My pinky is really "length challenged."

So the riff makes my wrist sore after I do it 30 or so reps.

Added: It wouldn't be nearly as difficult for me if it wasn't preceded and followed by the e/17.

 

[Eagle]

From 20 to 15 is a stretch for me, because of how short my pinky is.

And really, the soreness doesn't actually come from the distance btw those notes, so much as from how I have to arch my hand.

When I stretch out my pinky to grab that note on the B string, and then have to get right off it for the next note, I really have to put pressure on my thumb behind the neck, because the way my pinky hits that note is not vertical..., it's more like, sideways a bit.

My pinky is really "length challenged."

So the riff makes my wrist sore after I do it 30 or so reps.

Added: It wouldn't be nearly as difficult for me if it wasn't preceded and followed by the e/17.

Play it with your third.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Play it with your third.

I've tried all the combinations. Pinky works best for the b/20.

For the Dsus:
e/17-2
b/20-4
b/15-1
d/19-3
d/17-2

For the D:
e/17-2
b/19-3
b/15-1
d/19-4
d/16-2
a/17-3
a/15-2
d/14-1

 

[la szum]

From 20 to 15 is a stretch for me, because of how short my pinky is.

And really, the soreness doesn't actually come from the distance btw those notes, so much as from how I have to arch my hand.

When I stretch out my pinky to grab that note on the B string, and then have to get right off it for the next note, I really have to put pressure on my thumb behind the neck, because the way my pinky hits that note is not vertical..., it's more like, sideways a bit.

My pinky is really "length challenged."

So the riff makes my wrist sore after I do it 30 or so reps.

Added: It wouldn't be nearly as difficult for me if it wasn't preceded and followed by the e/17.

Geesh! Tell him to "Suck it!" already, Tom. He'll survive.


Still impressed by your determination and ability to grind. I bet you could probably teach
those.... uhmmm.... who try to pose as being superior to you a thing or 10!