What Are You Working On Right Now?

[monwobobbo]

Mostly my blues playing both rhythm and lead.

 

[FuzzyAce]

This vid popped up so decided to watch some. Nothing I'm particularly working on atm though. Cued up to the part where Andy is talking about speed practice, etc. I agree with him, and noticed this about my routines or trying to play a fast section. I never work at slower tempos and speed up gradually, because what he says is true -- your right hand technique changes the faster you go. Your movements become more compact (by necessity) so working at anything below 20 or more bpm of the target may not be helpful. I also like how he differentiates between learning vs. practicing mindset.

 

[Dez]

Learning this:

 

[Dez]

Also learned Windowpane and To Rid The Disease this week. I know this song on guitar and it's an easy one to play, the bass is the hardest part imo

 

[TSJMajesty]

Been working on chromatic stuff, mainly this one riff that's mostly 4 notes per string, but it's sextuplets, so the way the riff goes, it shifts the downbeat notes all over the place. Much different than one that's counted as 16th notes.

So I've been taking it really slow at first, counting it as triplets, and when I pick up the guitar to practice it, I set the starting tempo a bit higher each time. Today I started high enough to start counting it as sextuplets, really focusing on landing each downbeat note.

Got it up to 80 bpm, where it really starts to sound cool! Especially when I can keep every note even, timing-wise.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Been working on chromatic stuff, mainly this one riff that's mostly 4 notes per string, but it's sextuplets, so the way the riff goes, it shifts the downbeat notes all over the place. Much different than one that's counted as 16th notes.

So I've been taking it really slow at first, counting it as triplets, and when I pick up the guitar to practice it, I set the starting tempo a bit higher each time. Today I started high enough to start counting it as sextuplets, really focusing on landing each downbeat note.

Got it up to 80 bpm, where it really starts to sound cool! Especially when I can keep every note even, timing-wise.

Here's that run, where you can see the challenge to keep to the downbeat:

It's this part at the end of the solo, and of course, brutally fast.



Actually, there's a shitload of good stuff within this song that's great for improving your playing! But it is among JP's most difficult material, since he was really on fire during this time!

Oh, and someone updated this run on songsterr, so this one probably isn't quite right, but it's how I learned, I'll never get it up to tempo anyway, so who cares? Plus the more recent version is harder to finger. Yeah.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Whew! I actually worked up a sweat. Went thru the handful of solo practice licks I'm working on that are the fastest shred parts that I've had my sights set on for the past few years, and I did what Petrucci said to do in one section of his instructional video- "Just kill yourself."

Set the metronome to 165 (the tempo I can barely even pick a single note by itself continuously), and went for it. I almost made it through the Home riff at that tempo, but still, it's better than I've ever been able to do it, so I'm still improving, but very slowly. I feel like I'm just about at my limit, but then again, I've been saying that for a couple of years, so maybe I'll get this riff one of these days.

But when I slowed it to 150, it was nearly perfect, which I couldn't do a year ago. Yeah, I'm a bit obsessed.

This lick is 26 years old, and I'm quite sure when JP wrote it, it wasn't even the most difficult thing he played at the time. But it sure is for me!

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

An excerpt from Chopin Nocturne in Eb arranged for guitar, pages 54-55 in Noel Johnston's Creative Guitar Fundamentals. The book, which only came out within the last couple months, is incredible, Highly recommend.

All of Noel’s stuff is off the charts!!!

 

[Jarick]

Stumbled across this recommendation and started working through these videos last night. It's really interesting to me, probably because I have no good foundational theory knowledge on guitar.

At least so far it's all about moving major triads around the neck in different positions and different keys of the G major scale. But there's a ton to be learned just in that limited application.

 

[bukowski]

Diminished chords and using them. Also Locrian---

Forcing myself to really dig in with them to make music.

I've dodged the 7th degree too long and am curious where it will take me... So far, all my songs sound like something from a horror movie.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I learned these "raking sweeps" a long time ago from Babe I'm Gonna Leave You:

I wanted to expand on those, and of course Petrucci has a few in 2 songs I'm aware of, In The Arms of Morpheus from their new album Parasomnia,

and 5 from the solo in Breaking All Illusions:

They're fast as shit, but I figured if I could get the simpler ones, these others just add 1 note, so it's just a matter of practice.

 

[TSJMajesty]

This riff from Panic Attack has a lot of technique-building aspects to it. It repeats several times in different positions as the chords change, and it's played as 16th notes and also triplets, so you get to practice placing the accents differently.

The main challenge I like about it is all the string changes, and skips. You have to quickly change your pick-slants. Really fun to play too. You also have to do some finger position "trades", like piano players have to do. I almost have it up to tempo, which as 16th notes is 126 bpm! The tempo increases for the triplets, but it's played at the exact same speed, notewise.

Dream Theater, er, Portnoy, does this a lot, where they'll take a bar of 12 notes, and bounce it between groups of 4, and groups of 3 (or 6), because, you know, maths.

Oh, and it's played in A# std on a Baritone, so it's heavy. The Pitch Block Virtual Capo in the Axe III handles the down-6 semitones quite well in this example. As in, it's too fast to hear any weird artifacts at all. Or maybe they're just not there. Either way, I love it! GREAT for your chops.