What are you learning / practicing today?

MikeM · 2013-06-27T11:52:46+00:00

It's easy to forget what we're all setting out to achieve. With so much gear that needs to be fiddled with, there's little time left over for us to try and hone our skills. What are you doing today that'll make you a better guitarist / musician? Don't be afraid to post exercises, extracts or even youtube links of songs you're practicing ?

Squonk

working on my Set for the Show on Sunday " For the Love of Guitar" at Rumours.

The nerves are starting......

It's going to be good stuff

Psean

Squonk wrote working on my Set for the Show on Sunday " For the Love of Guitar" at Rumours.

The nerves are starting......

It's going to be good stuff

Here too.

Arno-West

Worked out all the parts for Van Halen's "Seventh Seal" (opening track of their "Balance" album) and then promptly proceeded to record a 9 minute arrangement of the song..........been a good day.

Stoffeltoo

Squonk wrote working on my Set for the Show on Sunday " For the Love of Guitar" at Rumours.

The nerves are starting......

It's going to be good stuff

Our set was decided three weeks ago, rehearsals not always going as planned. Final group rehearsal done yesterday. Still doing rehearsal on individual parts.
The nerves are starting as well.

To the rest, break them legs!

Looking forward to present a good set and believe there is a heaps of inspiration and learning from the other sets

Bob-Dubery

PeteM wrote Which chord are you battling with?

As I see it three chords only. Dm, Bb and Am.

Hmm... I got those but it didn't seem right somehow. I'll give it another bash. Thanks.

Bob-Dubery

X-rated Bob wrote
PeteM wrote Which chord are you battling with?

As I see it three chords only. Dm, Bb and Am.
Hmm... I got those but it didn't seem right somehow. I'll give it another bash. Thanks.

Hang on! Different keys. you're playing it starting on Dm - which I think is the key of F. I'm trying yo play in C to make it easier for me to sing. So Am, F and Em seems to be the way to go.

PeteM

Squonk wrote working on my Set for the Show on Sunday " For the Love of Guitar" at Rumours.

The nerves are starting......

It's going to be good stuff

My dilemma is "What to play?"
Do I choose numbers across several genres or do I stick to just one genre?

Keira-WitherKay

looking forward to sunday too ... will be there with my trio for a set

but hey no pressure just a roomful of guitarists .......... :goodtimes:

evolucian

Keira - the quartal harmony, are you applying it in any way like Bill Evans? He had some very interesting ways of playing - I prefer his stuff to Chick Corea's but thats just personal taste and never putting those two head to head.

On the technique front, i'm trying a minimalist approach to soloing with more focus on feel & timing and how many ways i attack/approach a note.

Now that's what I love to see Arjun - I've found this a personal favourite.

I'm just working on throwing "outside chords" into the mix. Even though "outside" doesn't really exist (as all 12 are fair game) but it is fun and goosebumpy at times.

Keira-WitherKay

evolucian wrote Keira - the quartal harmony, are you applying it in any way like Bill Evans? He had some very interesting ways of playing - I prefer his stuff to Chick Corea's but thats just personal taste and never putting those two head to head.

as for quartal harmony ... i like the way Miles uses it ... the chords in "so what" after the riff is classic use of quartal harmony ....and Herbie Hancock does some fine work with quartals too.. it's interesting indeed ...

my focus is applying "diatonic quartal harmony" rather than "pure quartal harmony" ... but thats just my personal preference ....

we must hook up and chat music again sometime soon....

Jayhell

I'm learning to manage my time so I actually have time to learn something new.

[deleted]

been practicing the Major scales in all positions on the fret board for the passed few days.

someoneelse

Been practising my own tunes, as always.

Figured out a few Gnarls Barkley tunes to cover and realised I'm not quite used to Gm as key, especially with vocal bits...

And also been practising mini arpeggios with the dumber right hand on the piano ?

Ibanezguy

When I started playing my dad gave me one piece of advice- practice the major scale till you can play it from an string and play it in 2 octaves at least, after that start playing it from the second note etc etc. It was probably a decade later that I opened a book on MODES and realized I'd been playing them for years and here I thought I'd found something new and cool LOL.

One thing I have done lately is I have a directory full of classical music which I browse through now and again and find interesting melodies in compositions and play the hooks or best parts of the melodies as exercises. I do not have the attention span to learn a whole piece. What will greatly improve your playing is that once you have that melody firmly in your head then play it from another string and then another. The benefit of this is that that damn B string (in standard tuning) interval can be tackled because the "shape" or pattern you are playing changes when that fkr is involved. If you find an interesting 2 or 3 string riff or melody play it from other strings. One should not be limited to only being able to play a melody from one particular fret or string, it keeps you in box and that suffocating. If a melody of a song pops in your head, that you've never played before, try to play as much of it in one go without learning it. This comes easier the more you work those modes which sub consciously programme your ears and fingers.

Most of all never make this a competition, its art and if your soul isn't in it and only your ego you will miss the best part of music. Scientific studies show that to play a piece slower and more accurately uses more brain processing power than running a shredding riff. True story, and I do love them shredding riffs LOL

RickyWicky

I tend mostly to practice my own solos and making them more dynamic, getting the right tone based on the music that plays under it etc. I have been practicing a lot more the last few months, about 3-5 hours a day. Playing guitar is pretty much all I do when I come home from work :-[ . Pros of being single, I suppose.

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