General Music Chat

Hey guys, I made this topic because I got a bit of an issue with my guitar playing. There are a couple of things I need to improve upon being that I play heavy metal. So, if any of you have an recommendations on the following topics, I would be grateful:

1. Sweep picking (I can do 4 string sweeps fairly well, but once I progress to 5-6, I have a lot of trouble, plus I still cannot figure out how to reduce the noisiness when sweeping with distortion).
2. I am not fast enough, I cannot get my speed up.
3. I am not good at making solos (I am studying music theory a lot lately, but still no luck).

If any of you could give me some tips on these subjects, I would be very grateful (Sorry if I am repetitive). Also, if you have any generalized tips that have nothing to do with what I am talking about, please state them.

Peace out guys, GuitarAnatomy.

I can't help with the sweeping or solo's.
The age old method (that a lot of people don't want to hear) to build speed..."slow down"...yep, you read right.

Slow down, most of what us fretboard users do comes from 'muscle memory'; you need to lock it into your fingers so they become automatic (useful for singing and playing at the same time also); then any new movements/passages become an extention of what you automatically know. It speeds up not only your fingering, but reduces learning time as you're not fumbling around on the strings...your technique has cleaned up in the process.
Listening should also be incorporated in this "slower is faster" process, listening to what the intervals sound like against each other.

For improving your improvisation skills on your own, try this..

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/ ... loing.html

and apply it by downloading a free backing track from here, and jamming along..

http://www.datamusic.org/members/6/audio.php


That's what I did, and I just took it from there.

Take a listen to the track on my profile for an example, it's really basic but it will give you an idea of whats possible after just a little practise.

Franny,

Yeah, I hate that method, lol. It is such a pain in the ass, they tell you to do it when sweep picking also. I am very impatient with those kinds of things, but I will suffer and force myself to slow down. Thanks for the tip man.

Blondie,

Thank you for the websites. I see what the soloing article is saying, I will keep its words in mind. I will also try and use the back-tracking music on the other website. What I tend to do now is take real songs, like Metallica's Fade to Black, and then improvise a solo over them. I am not bad at that shockingly, however, when I play I do not think of the scale I am in. I just play from either the root note of the song or just from the heart, so to speak.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy

Franny,

Yeah, I hate that method, lol. It is such a pain in the ass, they tell you to do it when sweep picking also. I am very impatient with those kinds of things, but I will suffer and force myself to slow down. Thanks for the tip man.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on that one.
It's tough enough to say it, let alone do it; but i can't argue with something that works.
Not only will it improve 'muscle memory' it increases accuracy, summed up; it allows you to attain that blazing speed.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on that one.
It's tough enough to say it, let alone do it; but i can't argue with something that works.
Not only will it improve 'muscle memory' it increases accuracy, summed up; it allows you to attain that blazing speed.

Yes, but if it does not work I am going to hold it against you for making me sit there and play a scale at 40 beats a minute, lmao. Just kidding. Thanks man.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Check out the scale lessons on that site aswell, they've got pretty much everything on there, although it's all done by the users so you might have to hunt through to find the lessons that are right for you.

I'm glad that helps =)

Check out the scale lessons on that site aswell, they've got pretty much everything on there, although it's all done by the users so you might have to hunt through to find the lessons that are right for you.

I'm glad that helps =)

Ultimate-Guitar is like my source book, lol. I use it all the time. They have tons of lessons on there, I have looked over many of them. I have never seen the one you showed me with the blues soloing, but yeah. I am always going there for a tab (I am too lazy to do things by ear, though I end up doing it when their tabs are wrong).

On the contrary though, with my diverse taste in music, I wind up going to many sites to find what I need.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

GA, you said, ". . . I am too lazy to do things by ear . . ."
. . . hmmmm . . .

Man I wish they had all these tabs back when I was starting out.

I remember listening to Zeps Heartbreaker solo a bazillion times and I still sucked at it.

These days a kid can learn it mistakes and all in a matter of minutes.

Up above the key is to slow down to go fast. I race MX also and the same is true, slow down to go fast. You basically condition yourself to a reflex. Watch any player pick up a guitar and they will go thru some kind of little exercise to warm up. A friend of mine pointed this out to me recently, I hadnt played with him in 15 years and he said you still do that little thing the same as when you were a teenager. Its so ingrained in my system that I dint even realize it til he pointed it out.

GA, you said, ". . . I am too lazy to do things by ear . . ."
. . . hmmmm . . .

?????? I am sorry, I am lost (I can be dense at times, so bare with me).

Yeah, the internet can be confusing . . .
I guess I was thinking more along the lines of what I'd had said in a face to face conversation . . . acknowledging where you're coming from . . .
I guess, in my 1st year or 2 of playing, that I also used a lot of tabs to discover the world of music, too . . .
.
That is, until I learned a few songs from the tabs, and went to play along with the song, to find that it sounded all wrong.
Or, even worse, the tabs were in the wrong key . . .
Then I had to 'play by ear' to correct the screwed up tabs . . .
The guys who write the tabs get it wrong, sometimes.
You should see some of my old music books; they're loaded with my cross-outs and corrections . . .
Like, for example, they may write down a standard open 'E,' when the actual song plays the 'E' on the 7th fret, with 3 fingers . . .
. . . well, it's actually an 'E5th' . . .
An 'E' fits, theoretically . . .
But it sounds different.
And, what's with all those tabs that show the 'E' on the 4th fret? Nobody uses that 'E' . . . geeez . . . watch the videos . . . or, just listen to the song - you can hear the difference . . .
That's why I play by ear, now . . . I can hear the difference, and I can find the right chord . . .
.
But, now, - I'm applying my 'ear' to the music I hear in my head, and writing originals . . .
It's great when you hear an 'A' and you have, like, 40 variations of 'A' to chose from . . .
Stick with it and you'll get there . . .
Maybe in 5 - 10 years, if you're still playing, you'll be doing the same . . .

Yeah, the internet can be confusing . . .
I guess I was thinking more along the lines of what I'd had said in a face to face conversation . . . acknowledging where you're coming from . . .
I guess, in my 1st year or 2 of playing, that I also used a lot of tabs to discover the world of music, too . . .
.
That is, until I learned a few songs from the tabs, and went to play along with the song, to find that it sounded all wrong.
Or, even worse, the tabs were in the wrong key . . .
Then I had to 'play by ear' to correct the screwed up tabs . . .
The guys who write the tabs get it wrong, sometimes.
You should see some of my old music books; they're loaded with my cross-outs and corrections . . .
Like, for example, they may write down a standard open 'E,' when the actual song plays the 'E' on the 7th fret, with 3 fingers . . .
. . . well, it's actually an 'E5th' . . .
An 'E' fits, theoretically . . .
But it sounds different.
And, what's with all those tabs that show the 'E' on the 4th fret? Nobody uses that 'E' . . . geeez . . . watch the videos . . . or, just listen to the song - you can hear the difference . . .
That's why I play by ear, now . . . I can hear the difference, and I can find the right chord . . .
.
But, now, - I'm applying my 'ear' to the music I hear in my head, and writing originals . . .
It's great when you hear an 'A' and you have, like, 40 variations of 'A' to chose from . . .
Stick with it and you'll get there . . .
Maybe in 5 - 10 years, if you're still playing, you'll be doing the same . . .

Thanks RhythmMan. Yes, I understand what you mean. I see that alot, but I never realized the tab books could be wrong until two things happened, first I saw it for myself when playing Metallica, second you just verified it. It is a pain. I expect there to be inaccuracies with the tabs online, but in a book, dang. I use my ear for anything the tab does not show. Here, good example, I just learned Nickelback's Never Again and Too Bad. I looked at the tabs, I did not like them 100%, so I changed some stuff around, and bingo I have the right tab. I have tabbed by ear some Clapton stuff, tends to get hard though. I like his vibrato, it is a very wide one, makes a great pitch. Getting back on track though, I know what you are talking about. Even though it may be the same note, not always is it the same, so to speak. You can take a simple open E and palm mute it, thinking that it is right, when in fact it is wrong. That is when I realize it is an E5, that chord seems to be easy for people to mess up.

But, anyhow, errors are part of the learning process in my opinion. I will keep playing and hopefully I will be very good within the next couple of years (As opposed to 5-10 years, too long, lol). I am still working on the whole patience thing in life, thus it is hard for me learning anything.

Thanks for the encouraging words man, it helps.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I agree on both counts. I learned to solo by copying leads in 60's and 70's rock songs (including Heartbreaker) one note at a time. It's tedious and frustrating, but once you can play it perfect slow, gradually speed it up and before long you can play it at the right speed.

I also found out long ago the "tabs" I could find were in the wrong key half the time, and I know very little about tabs anyway. But when I first started to look into tabs, (early 70's) I happened to find a couple for songs I already played and thought that would be great to find out what chords they actually used instead of whatever I could get to come close. So I looked up one for a song and found out it was in E as I played it right off the original record, but the tab said it was in D...Tried D and it didn't sound even remotely right, an open D and an open E sound entirely different. I knew right away whoever did the tab didn;t play it right to begin with.

So as far as advice for your original question, start by slowing way down, even to the point of picking a passage out note by note, then gradually speed up. And take tabs with a grain of salt...I never look at them any more, I just learn it by ear.

When constructing solos hear it in your mind first. Listen to the solo section you are going to play over and just hear the solo in your mind, or what it is you would like to play. Feel it. Feel the piece and the mood you want to set. A solo should set a mood. Take the listener some where, not just be a bunch of notes. At first keep it simple, as if you were going to compose a vocal melody, and then try to play it on guitar. Once you get a basic idea down, then add to it. Build it in stages. Start there.

Using this technique will drastically improve your skills because eventually you will hear things in your mind you can't play. You improve by learning to play what you hear in your mind.

The abilitiy of the mind is unlimited so your skills will have to catch up and have no choice but to improve.

I have been working on a classical piece to put up since I have been runnig my mouth about studying classical that I conceived in my mind a month before I was able to play it. It is still not polished enough for me to put up and it is not that difficult.

Here is a link to one of the best solos I have ever done. It is because I felt the mood of the tune and played it accordingly. I didn't write the tune thus probably why the solo is good. The solo is at the end of the tune.

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1059962&t=9232