LR for Thursday July 28th

[sirmyghin]

Well continuing my absurdly late sleeping of the week ,today break fast was some nice french toast. The wife is on vacation and I find the days slipping away. I am more productive at night either way. Lunch will likely be a sandwich of the leftover chicken.


G&L topic of the day:

I think G&L could do with a little contouring or updating to their body shapes, to make the upper fret access easier. On an ASAT the lower horn is absolutely killer for me, it is the tightest lower horn I have ever played on and I rap my knuckles on it a fair deal. The heels don't bother me in the slightest, I am used to that type of thing but horns always get in my way when they are tight. I can get around it, but it is a conscious effort and an odd movement of my hand, restricts what I can do a bit. Any changes to the body you would like to see on G&Ls to make them more comfortable?


Practicing and you:

I know some of us here are not really woodshedders, but we definitely have a few. What is the most important part of practicing is your mind set. If you are not focussed, you aren't practicing. Goes for about anything really. I figured I would share some tips and observations I have attained, please share your own.

The best practice is generally writing outside your limits, you will really want to learn that. This can help break out of some pretty deep ruts.

When you see someone playing with a fair amount of speed, seemingly off the cuff, it is important to remember those runs are rehearsed, practiced and perfected. They are licks, they are not note for note choices. If you haven't built a library of them into muscle memory, your improv is likely going to fall a little flat if you want a bit of flash here or there. If you want to go full out now and then, like many fusion players for example, you better be ready to have a good roadmap for yourself.

Understand what is going on. This is a sure fire way to alter, improve, or just solidify a lick in your brain. If it is a run in E lydian Dominant, you better recognize that when you sit down with it. This kind of clarity is very useful as your mind can lock in.

Lastly be consistant with your learning, don't take a, for example, an exercise from Gilbert, and exercise from Yngwie, and an exercise from Gatton and expect to pull them all off flawlessly. These are largely based on the players individual style which is compounded by their body shape, hands, etc. They work FOR them. You will need to go through great lengths ti make exercises that will suit your abilities, what you do well, opposed to what they do well. This can be as simple as rearranging it to play your strengths, they all play theirs afterall. An example would be Satriani, when you hear him ripping really hard, it is almost always legato. Holdsworth uses a lot of legato too, but he doesn't use pulloffs he uses hammer ons that are well timed (this is very useful for touch style also, gives consistancy of attack). No two great players are alike, and there is a very good reason for that.




Kyle

[willross]

I hear you about the contouring. Caparison guitars have that scoop in the back. That would be great on G&L's Invader models...


Cheers,

Will

[sickbutnottired]

I haven't got on board much this week.

I am really in a chunky guitar phase, so I really like the ASAT as it is. It is more difficult to reach upper frets than some more modern shapes...but I get by.


I agree with your practice tips by and large. I tried for a long time to make up to much during improv, and have really improved sense I 'gave up' and learned some better licks pat.

A note for earlier LR this week, to Darwin: I am working on finger picking, too! Driven by my new found slide madness! I am finding the disassociation between my thumb and fingers is taking time, but I am making steady progress. Really working on playing steady rhythms with my thumb and playing both on the beat and in the cracks with my fingers.

And to tie it back to todays LR, the above drill goes way better with fingerings I am familiar with from flat picking that it does with the slide.

Cheers All.

[stagecoach]

I don't know much about contouring, but I don't go up that far as it can be difficult. How about a 2 octave neck (24 frets)?

I must admit since having kids I find it difficult to practice like I use to. I may do it once a week, go through all the intro's and breaks of the 100 songs i do, plus generally running through some scales. Every now and then I put http://www.jango.com/ on and jam away to what ever comes up on my list. I find that gives me inspiration. And then a few times a year I will get out some CD's of stuff I learned years ago and try and play them and relearn the licks i use to do as well (eg Shadows and Ventures instrumentals)

[blargfromouterspace]

Sorry for my absence, I've had a busy week so far and today I've woken up almost dead - damn influenza!

I don't play all that far up the neck so haven't had a lot of issues with access, though I'll admit that perhaps the reason I don't play up there is because I can't get to it. I don't think I'd like any extra contours on the ASAT shape, it'd look weird.

Totally agree with you with the licks. Every now and then I'll attempt something I hear in my head for the first time whilst on stage and it rarely ends well, but when it does you know you're going to have a good night.

For you guys tackling fingerpickin' - good luck! I learned it years ago and have kept it up playing classical guitar. Chet Atkins will provide you with some great material to learn.

[sirmyghin]

To all you aspiring finger pickers, good luck. I do it a bit, when I am playing a classical piece (playing you say, more like butchering) but the attack on my thumb is the biggest issue. I have no real motivation to correct it though, as stated, most of the time I play pick and finger, or strictly alternate picking. I can get 4 note rolls and triple stops with my pinky in a pinch either way, so I have 4 attacks, good enough for this guy. If I need more it is time to start tapping, then I have 8 attacks, or 7 if I am holding a pick. I found a book last week that destroyed my tapping chops and built them 3 times as far in this little time alone. It is giving me some good legato too, as I do it all on my bass (the book is for a bass, but that is rather irrelevant).

Blarg - You got it dude, if your head is coming out your guitar you are on that night/day.

[Boogie Bill]

As far as access goes, I guess that's one of the reasons I like the Legacy body better than the ASAT design. LP's are even tougher up there than the ASAT, btw.

Hey I'm lost after the 5th fret anyway, so what do I know!

Good points on practicing!

Bill