V8 .I can envisage a acoustic singer/songwriter battle being a whole lot of entertainment
Come to think about it... may not be such a bad idea. I've wondered about @domhatch guitar sounds for a while now and, he is a writer by trade so, this may be very interesting.
When I mentioned this to my wife last night she said she'll help me write.... ? 
So I've started wading through the deep waters of playing speedy SRV...
Day 1 : 3x10min practice sessions. Watched a video & stared at some tab. Managed to get the notes of the rhythm lick & chords into my head, but they have zero feel. I just can't hear the feel of the lick at full speed. Even 1/2 speed isn't helping. Getting nervous...
Day 2 : 2x30m slogs. Literally chained myself to a chair and grinded out some practice. First I sat and watched/listened to the live SRV clip at 1/2 speed - reallly checking out his fretting hand and trying to get the lick into my head. A struggle! But SRV is a BOSS - watching him live at 1/2 speed shows so much of his stagecraft and how ludicrously tight drums and bass are behind him. Everyone is there on the one, perfectly, everytime!
Frustrated, I did 5mins of note division practice - as if I was back on bass. Reminded me of the feel the 1/4, 1/8, triplet and 16th's. Was almost fun. @NorioDS is gonna get stomped a real bad in the pointy side of the challenge... ?
Then I grabbed my old friend "slowmp3.jar" loaded up a mp3 of Scuttle Buttin, slowed it ALLLLL the way down (33%?) and used the handy transpose feature to bump the tuning from Eb to E standard. And then I sat and tried to jam along. Operative word being tried.
But, eventually - and it took at least 10mins - I started to get the feel of the lick at 1/3 speed. Can't jam it to drums yet though, dropping into the chordy bits ain't happening yet. I think that the lick starts on a 'and' leading into the 'one' - which I'm finding fiendishly tricky.
V8 Sounds like you're making good progress!
I got the lick under my fingers but nowhere near full speed. Rocksmith has been helpful in slowing down the song and I ended up just tuning down to Eb. (Rocksmith won't have it any other way so ? )
Every now and again, I accidentally get "most" of the lick at some decent speed. But there were some errors in how I played it at a slower tempo that don't translate well to the higher tempos.
It's a fun lick to play at like 25% speed ? Then I play back the song at 100% and just think, "What the hell have I signed up for?!" ?
V8 Whenever I went back to 100%...I just thought so that's what "cocaine" must be like. ?
BRILLIANT! There's no other explanation, is there? It's just not natural ?
Well, on the plus side, if either one of us gets this right, we'll have some serious "showing off" chops to annoy everyone with ?
NorioDS Well, on the plus side, if either one of us gets this right, we'll have some serious "showing off" chops to annoy everyone with
I hope I can get it flowing seamlessly in 2 weeks - not at 160bpm though! Eventually....maybe. I do hang onto licks I like and keep running them until they feel natural. That tired ol' 10000 hours 'rule'.
wern101 Well, I guess I'm game. I just need to get a pickup installed. At the moment domhatch's guitar sounds a little, well, unplugged. Proper-like. Time to get advice on a decent pickup... Gear thread, here I come...
But be warned, I actually went through a whole bunch of my unused lyrics last night.
Man. Do they suck!
← Don't forget to practice the SRV face. Getting the face down is a prerequisite for nailing those licks at full speed.
domhatch I don't have a pickup in my acoustic either so, we seem to be on level terrain. As for lyrics, mine also suck, but, once someone else listens you get another opinion and it aint so bad after all. We seem to be very critical of ourselves.
A new song on radio currently has the lyrics: "we've not thrown up in so long, how we have grown"
If those lyrics can get radio play, then you and I are fine...I'm sure.
@NorioDS @V8 I enjoy reading about your different approaches to this whole thing. Two completely different ways to practice and the realism of struggling. We tend to think that some people just grab the guitar and start shredding. The reality being 10 000 hours...
Thanks for sharing the journey. Quite inspiring and motivating.
ChrisDanger ? ? ?
I think it happens of it's own accord - it's much like riding a scary rollercoaster, which was the feeling I was getting from most of the tutorials, guys just managing to hang on at ludicrous speed.
SRV on the other hand... is a BOSS munching on a pipe rocking a even faster live version.
wern101 I enjoy reading about your different approaches to this whole thing. Two completely different ways to practice and the realism of struggling. We tend to think that some people just grab the guitar and start shredding. The reality being 10 000 hours...
Thanks for sharing the journey. Quite inspiring and motivating.
Glad you're enjoying! Yeah it's lots of fun seeing the different approaches. Sometimes you find a lesson for a song and it just doesn't "suit" your style of learning or playing.
Maybe we should keep this challenges thing going beyond "pointy vs paddle" as a way of collectively learning a song using different methods.
For me, Rocksmith definitely is helping me pick out some of the "hidden" notes of the song. Some notes are just completely missing from the lessons out there. That being said, I doubt I'll fit all the notes in myself ? The song's just too damn fast!
One issue I'm having with Rocksmith is that I really couldn't care for their fingering of the chords. For this song, in particular, I find myself barring across the 2nd fret for the Ab7 instead of their overly convoluted fingering. (It's totally fine when you're going slow but not when you're trying to add speed to it!)
NorioDS I find myself barring across the 2nd fret for the Ab7 i
I'm doing the same - if you check the SRV live video (slowed waaayy down), you'll see he does much the same. Though all the tabs/tutorials I've seen only really show him playing the bottom two strings for the chords - I'm also going for fuller voicings - it seems to be how he does it? I've seen multiple versions of this tune and they pretty much all differ (mostly in subtle ways), which is something that isn't too surprising - SRV did play it slightly differently live/studio.
I used the tab/tutorials to get into the ballpark of where my hand needs to be and now using ears and eyes to figure out how he got those notes to sound and flow into the tune.
That said, I only put in 10mins yesterday - fretting hand took some pain from the previous day's slog. Gotta warm up a little - this tune is just too fast to drop into "cold".
V8 That said, I only put in 10mins yesterday - fretting hand took some pain from the previous day's slog. Gotta warm up a little - this tune is just too fast to drop into "cold".
Ja I'm losing skin on the tips of my fingers ? After a while of not playing, I normally take a few days to slowly build up my calluses. This has been NOTHING like that ?
Definitely having fun with this challenge. It's way outside what I'd normally end up doing on the guitar — in a very positive way — coz I don't normally play much in the way of chords, rhythm or fast licks. And the deadline is really keeping me focused.
NorioDS And the deadline is really keeping me focused.
Me too! I figure a little everyday work is the only way to get this up to speed. Trying to cram it all into a few days just won't work if you are not used to this. And I'm not!
Luckily I've some serious calluses from the bass playing I've still been doing - but forearm and wrist took a beating trying to slide and then grab the chords fast. I'm overplaying and gripping too hard - basically tensing up - when uping the speed.
NorioDS One issue I'm having with Rocksmith is that I really couldn't care for their fingering of the chords
I love Playing Rocksmith.. and WAS using it too learn playing guitar... which is not all that great.. for the simple reason that rock smith doesn't show you easy to use shapes, when playing arpeggios. ect
you guys must have fun in this challenge , its keeping us entertained.
Tuckstir I love Playing Rocksmith.. and WAS using it too learn playing guitar... which is not all that great.. for the simple reason that rock smith doesn't show you easy to use shapes, when playing arpeggios. ect
Yep there are definitely limitations. I used it to start playing bass without an issue but I'm sure a bass teacher would send me back to school ?
Rocksmith doesn't really teach much theory. They have the videos and that's great but it's no replacement for a teacher.
One feature I only just now found (3 years later) is that when you have a song open, you can see all the chords in the song. That's a very handy feature because getting the chord shapes under your fingers can help you with a) some of the licks that are formed from the chords and, more importantly b) familiarising yourself with song structures, which chords go well together, which chords you enjoy the sound of, etc.
Only parrot-learning with Rocksmith —or any other method— is the devil! You'll lose whatever you learn as soon as you stop. (Which is what happened with me. I got Rocksmith to play more but, as every time I took a break for a few weeks, I had to almost start over.)
