Frank Gambale's Chop Builder

Warren

So, after seeing this video so highly recommended elsewhere on the forum, I picked it up and have started working through it.

If you can get past the hairy shoulders and impossibly cheesy female models (?), this is a great workout for single-note playing. The video is divded up into different "rounds" (like a boxing match), with each round focusing on a certain technique. I'm currently busy learning the stuff for Round 2 and 3.

Definitely not a video for pure beginners though: it's going to take me some time to get up to his speed with the 3-notes-per string scale/mode shapes, but it will certainly be time well invested. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to keep up through the sweep picking section. ?

This was exactly what I'm looking for: a solid, 1 hour or so technique builder that I can run through a couple of times per week. I also have Petrucci's Rock Discipline, which is excellent, and I will work through it slowly on the side.

I really like the fact that the exercises are nice and melodic, and that you can hear the tonality of each scale and mode against the backing music. I find practicing with nothing other than a metronome very dull, yet even a simple backing track makes it feel like music.

One thing is for sure, you can always get better than you are: I have always struggled with 3-note-per-string scale shapes because of the wide streches (especially with harmonic minor / major), but already after some practice I'm adapting and my accuracy is improving rapidly. And if you're wanting to play fast, you need to know those shapes! The video also contains some unusual and tricky pentatonic ideas.

Verdict: very cool, but be aware that it's basically an aerobics video for guitar workouts, and that nothing is actually taught about "what" you're playing, so you will need to read up on whole-tone scales or sweeps (or whatever you're missing) yourself.

evolucian

Enjoy it man... its hectic but in the end its a workout that works. Don't forget the wigs that went with those hairy shoulders.

Warren

evolucian wrote: Enjoy it man... its hectic but in the end its a workout that works. Don't forget the wigs that went with those hairy shoulders.

This is something I was wondering about from other users: did it help your technique? Working through the whole thing?

evolucian

Used it as a warmup for a while (when using Erotomania as a warm up got boring)... it may have helped back then... it won't be evident in my playing at the moment, hehe... too damn lazy to pick the guitar up.

Remember that anything will help if you do it properly. And thats about it. A few days a week will be cool...everyday will be better. When using it everyday, you'll have to get out of the habit of making it mechanical.

Unless you will only be seeing it purely as an exercise to warm up with. You don't want to run the risk of using it in your solo's ala Petrucci

*edit... everyday for a while. Not forever. Your playing will change in that you don't use most of those techniques at all.

Warren

evolucian wrote: Used it as a warmup for a while (when using Erotomania as a warm up got boring)... it may have helped back then... it won't be evident in my playing at the moment, hehe... too damn lazy to pick the guitar up.

Remember that anything will help if you do it properly. And thats about it. A few days a week will be cool...everyday will be better. When using it everyday, you'll have to get out of the habit of making it mechanical.

Unless you will only be seeing it purely as an exercise to warm up with. You don't want to run the risk of using it in your solo's ala Petrucci

*edit... everyday for a while. Not forever. Your playing will change in that you don't use most of those techniques at all.

That sounds good to me. The idea is to use it solely as a fluidity/technique device, either as a stand-alone thing that I can do on a day when there isn't much time or as a warm-up to other things like song practices etc. I certainly don't want to simply employ the same runs verbatim as part of my own solos.

I like the way it starts off slowly, so that you've got some time to get warmed up before you go blistering through scales and other bits. Also, I think the interval exercises will come in handy as I don't practice that stuff at all at the moment.

evolucian

compose using intervals. Two voice compositions work in that you get to see and hear more of the possibilites you may have missed before.

Now I don't mean a whole song... I mean short little 8-16 bar pieces. Create one everyday... ie: just as a mess around to doing intervals. Nothing higher than a 10th, unless its a continuation of a melody leading another chord tone for the next chord.

This really helps.