@V8 Yeah I'm so with you. Can play it very comfortably at slower speeds but Monday is coming 'round fast and I'm not at album tempo at all.

Couldn't practise at all last night. So just had a meaningless "quickie" practice session in the morning. Maybe that's good coz my calluses (and blister, yes blister—it's been that long) might heal a bit better which could help me pick up some speed.

So apart from the deadline whooshing towards us, there's the other issue of when to record this thing. Do we do it Sunday evening after some practise or Monday morning, in the rush before work? One will work, the other won't. Maybe recording on Monday morning gives us that extra bit of time to practise. Maybe recording on Sunday afternoon means we can be relaxed and unrushed and without the pressure of work looming over us.

Anyway, that's what's on my mind today.

NorioDS How about doing a monday 23h59m deadline? It did cross my mind that 2 weeks would make it due on Sunday (14 daze from Monday start), but I think that's neither here nor there...though don't ask me where it should be!

For this one, I'm going to TRY not to be overly tight arse about recording it perfect. As long as it has some feel and the majority can hear it's scuttle buttin, albeit slower - I'll be satisfied.

Yeah I'm with you. I'll try my best at full speed but if it's not working, then buggerit. It'll be done slower ?

And if I ever reach full speed (without swallowing notes by playing all sloppy-like) then I'll post that just for kicks.

I dig the 23:59 deadline. Gives us the choice of submitting Sunday afternoon or Monday after work. At least that's less of a rush.

Take all the time you need to perfect it, but, really, will I hear the difference if you leave out some notes? No. I thought music was all about interpretation. Which means, I might make it sound familiar, but it's my own bad design. OK, for this type of challenge, we require a video of notes played, and a cross-reference track to the original. But, maybe, the "interpretation" by two players on different equipment might make good listening too?

As for the next challenge, I read somewhere one of you has a JS100. OK, so, guitar in hand, do a Satriani song? After this here effort, something slow, like "Always with me, Always with you" (of which I cannot even get the intro...) After that, you can get into speed and noise again?

@modulator I'll happily do Always with me, Always with you. @V8 you keen? I learned the first 10 notes around 10 years ago so I think it's still pretty fair ?

Update on practising... I realised that I completely hate Jazz III and Jazz II picks. My big, fat thumb is too big too hold them so it keeps muting the strings I'm playing. I'm either muting the string or I've got pinch harmonics EVERY bloody where!

So right now I'm trying a "Strings and Beyond" pick. The "H" one which is the hardest they have.

Lesson? Picks make a difference. If you have huge thumbs like me, try a bigger pick ?

Day 11 : 1x10m. Started at 130bpm, worked up to 145bpm. But it's getting sloppier as the bpm goes upward. I'm rushing at 135+bpm and can't really correct mistakes on the fly, it's just - go,go,go and rely on muscle memory.

Heish, I'm getting bored with running the same lick over and over again though. So it's a mission to concentrate on this for more than 5-10m.

NorioDS Update on practising... I realised that I completely hate Jazz III and Jazz II picks.

Yeah...I like the pointy tip and the stiffness - but the size doesn't work for me. There's a trick to holding these, which is technically/anatomically correct - especially useful if you are playing a lot of technically demanding, fast pieces.

But my gripe is that, for my sloppier style, I can't get enough thumb behind the pick to apply the kind of attack that I'm used to. If I had to choose speed over dynamics, I'll pick dynamics (unintentional pun) - every single time.

I did try a jazz III during the week - just reminded me how much I dislike not being able to really pick through the string instead of tickling it with the tip of the jazz III. Which <> speed. Hmm.

So, a few days ago I grabbed a jazz III and traced the point onto my well used 'favourite' pick (It's my last one!). 5mins filing/sanding later, I've a rather lovely feeling pick that just fits. I've been using this D'andrea Progrip 1.21mm pick since forever (23+yrs) so I'm very,very used to it. Adding the sharper point did help, not a huge amount - but I'm feeeling a little bit more precise with targeting treble strings.

NorioDS @modulator I'll happily do Always with me, Always with you. @V8 you keen? I learned the first 10 notes around 10 years ago so I think it's still pretty fair

@NorioDS Ummm...errr......it's a ballad. Is a good song, but I've my heart set on some pointly guitar riffage.

modulator fter that, you can get into speed and noise again?

But, but, but....I wanna do that NOW ?

Day 12 : 0m! Couldn't get into yesterday, really was not feeling the guitar. But I ripped into the bass (first time playing since we started this duel) like it was biltong...much happier playing on the fatter strings. Reminded me how out of touch I'm feeling on those puny treble guitar strings ?

Yesterday was awful for me too. I'm always doooog-tired on a Friday night. Couldn't convince myself to play and kept looking at the time.

Eventually I dialled back the tempo MUCH further back than I normally practise and I added my own groove to it. Didn't hate that and it got me tapping my foot and enjoying it again. Slowly increased the tempo until I got to my current practising speed.

This duel has been incredibly useful for learning how to focus my practise. I figure this is the "right" way to do things. Pick one thing and hammer it dead. Make sure you have fun in-between but don't go off learning something else. Deadlines are great too.

Hopefully this is the start of many a "chops building" challenge / duel!

Day 13 : 0m...again. The sun was shining and it was a rather out n about day. Gotta get some time in today or I'm toast ?

V8 I'll be submitting two things tonite - 1xvideo, as fast as I can go. 1xaudio trying to dial in a decent tone at more reasonable speed.

Wish us luck, we'll definitely need it.

I like that idea. I think I'll do the bloody same. I was mulling over submitting something more "reasonable" this whole morning. I nearly broke every bloody thing in the room.

There's so much of this right now: ?

I reckon 1 or 2 weeks more and maybe I'd get there but, bloody hell, this has been painful! ?

So yeah, one fast-as-we-can-go-video and then something tasteful ? Thanks @V8. You may have saved me from trashing my office!

NorioDS So yeah, one fast-as-we-can-go-video and then something tasteful ? Thanks @V8. You may have saved me from trashing my office!

LOLOL, I was just being lazy again. I didn't feel like splitting the signal - too much like hard work ?

IMHO, your's is sounding quite legit, can tell you've spent a goodly amount of time on this. There's some feel in your lick, I'm not hearing in mine ?

I think YOURS is fantastic. Mine is sooo dirty. Maybe I'll clean it up for the final submission (if I'm not too tired tonight!)

If anyone's wondering what we're talking about, we've posted some progress vids on the WhatsApp group. If you weren't on there, sorry for you ?

By the way, anyone following this thread should know... using Rocksmith to learn a song or a lick can be good (for seeing all the notes on your screen and being able to slow it down) but also bad... because their 95/100 speed is MUCH slower than you think.

All this time, I figured I was playing at a decent speed when I practised at around 90% or 95%... turns out it was slower than 145bpm. The song is in 160bpm.

Today I practised with a metronome and that really helped me pick up some speed (although I swallowed a LOT of notes at speed and eventually gave up ?) Too little too late but I won't make the mistake twice.

So my advice to you is:

Use Rocksmith to learn the song but once you get to 85% or so, ADD in a metronome to your practice.

That way you can also push past the tempo (I went up to 175bpm) as it will make the normal tempo feel way easier.

But, most importantly, you can know your real tempo and slowly bring it up to the album version. It also makes you pay far more attention to the notes and timing. Again, I learned this all too late. (Not that I feel I had a chance at beating @V8 after hearing his clip on the WhatsApp group! The chap can play ?)

I'm just glad I had an awesome excuse to pick up my axe every day (most days twice a day) for 2 weeks!

i hate you both. seriously.

Gents, this has been an inspiring read! Thank you for sharing your trials. I have not listened to the final entries yet, gonna do it now, but I have to say I believe this is what makes the forum great. Well done to you both!! And I agree with @domhatch . I envy the time you have had to do this. Again. Thank you

wern101 Gents, this has been an inspiring read! Thank you for sharing your trials.

Thanks @Wern and @domhatch - It was fun to g-blog the process. Kept me honest ? I really didn't want to spend too much time on this - around 15m/day was what I was aiming at. I think I averaged 17.5m over 15 daze (+/- 260m in total), including the recording(s).

What I did try and do was keep that time focussed by practicing things that would help me get the lick flowing - did I manage, not quite. Do I feel like I developed during those two weeks - yes!

Was it time well spent...well if I had just done the practice I'd not have managed to string together two weeks - but the duel with @NorioDS meant I was presenting something and that was a great motivator. Doubt I'd have done nearly as much non-noodley playing otherwise.

V8 Totally agree with about 99.999% of this ?

The deadline and the public "shaming" really made me focus on this. And although I didn't reach "perfection" in playing this lick, I picked up my guitar today and jammed it and that was fun.

Hopefully I can start adding my own stuff into it and eventually turn it into my own thing.

The biggest thing I can say I gained from this is the rhythm playing. Although it's a tiny part of the whole challenge, I've never practised rhythm. Only soloing and melody. So that has really started influencing my jamming already and I love it.

Time to learn some triads and jam some more like that!