What ya learning?

mike_l

After a chat with @viz the other evening, I'm learning this, solo's and warts and all. (at least I will be when my shoulder's fixed)


What's everyone else working on?

octatonic

This, on drums.

viz

mike_l said:

After a chat with @viz the other evening, I'm learning this, solo's and warts and all. (at least I will be when my shoulder's fixed)


What's everyone else working on?

You'll need to get your wah out! I'm learning a whole lot of Duran Duran. 

mike_l

viz said:

You'll need to get your wah out! I'm learning a whole lot of Duran Duran. 

My wah's already out....

bingefeller

Loudness - Red Light Shooter. Just need to tidy up some solo sections then work the speed up a bit.  

UFO - Out In The Street.  I can play ithe whole song at 90%, including the solo, so just work the speed up.  

Michael Schenker - Armed and Ready.  Again, just working the solo up to speed.  

imalrightjack

More Megadeth songs and dabbling with Guns 'N' Roses Appetite for Destruction.

octatonic

This, on drums.

Maynehead

Couple of easy ones for a change...

Nikko

Learning this at the moment. Not difficult for most of you on here, but that intro is a bit of a killer for a relative beginner like me

Freebird

I'm busy learning my latest composition. I rarely play other peoples music, although I do sometimes pedal through a few tabs if I want to see how somebody did a particular part. Mostly I prefer theoretical analysis, for which I find HookTheory quite useful.

paul_c2

I took up the electric guitar around 6 weeks ago. I had previously played for around 6 months, but that was 30 years ago. And also I play bass guitar. So I know the basics already, like popular open chord shapes, what notes sound on what strings/fingers (so I'm able to work out, for example, how to alter an A open chord into A6, Am, A7, etc) and bar chords. I also figured out a major scale (which turned out to be in the E position) and had previous experience of the minor pentatonic scale.

Initially my fingers were very erroneous and loads of mistakes with the right hand picking, but I've improved my control a lot here simply through repeated practice. I found some online stuff (Rob Chapman) but to be honest the stuff was almost useless, he'd show something then go off on one and twiddle/shred up somewhere else on the fretboard instead. So I stopped taking him seriously.

I found a local guitar teacher, for two reasons really. Firstly to just check that my phsical technique wasn't wrong, I didn't want to start off with bad habits. And secondly to give a bit of inspiration in what direction I should progress in. He identified a few "gaps" in my knowledge and with the oversight, and a bunch of reading around, I can fill these gaps. Also he was able to direct what I should be doing in practising, and offer a bunch of tips in other areas (like string bending, etc) and as part of the lessons he has a large amount of written material which explains things. So now I'm at the stage where I've learnt 3/5 patterns and understand the CAGED system, and also able to think more clearly/analyse chord shapes.

I've not been particularly interested in learning to copy how to play songs, or playing along with songs. Partly this is because of a frustration with the quality of guitar tab music - almost all of it has no rhythm on it; a lot of it has too little information on the structure of the song (they seem to expect you to listen to the record and suss out the rhythm and structure yourself) and also continuously tuning the guitar to match records is a PITA. But I've a few little tunes I like and occasionally visit on the guitar.

In addition I've found, and also found out how to construct my own, what I call "abstract" exercises such as 1-2-3-4 on each string as an almost chromatic scale/picking exercise; or sweep picking, or sounding 2 strings at a time etc etc and I'll spend a bit of time doing that too. If there's something I can't do I'll focus on it and practice over and over until its a non-issue. Other than that, I've just noodled around on the fretboard while watching telly, trying novel things out to make unusual sounds etc, just for fun.

xSkarloey

Trying for the umpteenth time to nail the solo at the end of Black Rose by Thin Lizzy. I don't especially like it (love the rest of the song) but it's an addictive little reel and I feel I ought to keep going.

Driving me up the soddin wall.

I'll get there... Grrrrr.

Elx

this...not easy

Blueingreen

I've been working through Jacob Wise's Jazz Etudes for guitar.  Basically he's written out 2 solos each for 50 jazz standards (including F blues, Bb Blues, Minor Blues etc).  I've learned both solos for a handful and one solo for another handful so far.

I'd say the standard is intermediate, a really good player could sight read a lot of this stuff but I'm not in that bracket (mainly for technical rather than reading reasons - I can read a lot of this stuff quickly enough but I need time to work out how I'm going to finger it, partly because I have some minor hand issues that prevent me from orthodox fingering).

The quality of the ideas is variable as you'd expect and stylistically it goes from bop to more modern concepts.  There are some really nice ideas in there though, and the solos are fun to play.

Not totally sure exactly what I'm getting out of this.  It's working on reading skills, forcing my ears into some unfamiliar territory and because the melodic ideas aren't guitaristic providing a fair challenge to my fingering technique (there are a lot of fourth intervals, which I'm sure is deliberate).  In the long run hopefully it expands my vocabulary, not just for jazz.

If this sounds interesting to anyone else, you can google it and the pdf is available for free download. You can make a voluntary contribution if you feel inclined, Wise suggests $10, but there's no pressure.

viz

^ awse. 

Roland

Yesterday I worked out an arrangement for Dancing Queen. Our keyboard player doesn't transcribe, so I've done his parts, and let lead guitar play the orchestral parts. 

This is morning it was transcribing the violin parts from "You Wear It Well". There's loads of performances on YouTube. Rod likes to appear on stage with female violinists. They all play it differently, so it's really a case of making up something which sounds right on guitar.

It's ages since I did anything to further my guitar playing capabilities, so I feel a bit feeble compared with you lot.

viz

Bravo! I like playing voilin parts on the guitar, they certainly give your hands a stretch.