X-rated Bob wrote
Maybe to your own style you will be lead. Then a jedi you will be.
I think I missed the target by miles and overestimated my ability, but I had to figure out a new (to me) lick and I learned a little about tension and release.
The real value of the GFSA competition is that it puts your playing to the test and it encourages you to extend yourself. You have to come up with the composition as well. I've been quite surprised by some of what I've come up with. It's quite illuminating.
Hopefully ? I agree with my guitar teacher when he says that studying specific songs or styles note for note is a great way to get your fingers doing things they would otherwise never do. I guess that's also what makes it tough: I play nothing like Richie Blackmore, so trying to copy the Smoke on the Water solo proves difficult because he chooses "weird" notes. Another, ostensibly simple riff - the opening one from Black Dog, gives me hassles because of the way Page hits the "E" note on the "A" string again after his little chromatic run...my fingers just don't like doing that. Curable with practice, and I guess becomes more "natural" over time to the point where you wonder what the fuss was all about.
I had to use two new licks this week myself: both simple repeating phrases, but because of my unfamiliarity with them (have to play them fast too) I made a bit of a timing mess. ? Listeners can judge for themselves. But maybe now those licks can more easily find their way into my own playing.
+1 on the composition. This week I wanted to use the harmonic minor scale because I wanted that particular flavour, but needed to do some work to figure out what sort of progression would sound good with it. Ended up using a combination of the Aeolian mode, harmonic minor and the good ol' minor pentatonic, which was exactly what I wanted to do.
On top of that, while recording the bass and synth for the track on my keyboard, I accidentally transposed the thing down into F# (was meaning to do it in D) and had to shift my mental image of the fingering around. Was all good as a learning experience!
