Decided to deconstruct my playing. Back to start.

[GuitarIv]

Thanks guys. As said I can do fancy stuff like sweeping but there are a lot of other areas I'd like to improve, my alternate picking being priority number one. Learn some more music theory, work on my cleanliness for recording, broaden my horizon to open up new ways to improvising and songwriting.

Richard, I'm not the kinda guy who tries to sound like every other guitar player, in fact I hate the uniformity most people seem to have nowadays, I always try to give my personal touch to whatever I'm playing. I just want to acquire more techniques so I can actually play what I want to play and transfer my ideas out of my head straight to the fretboard. Coming originally from a blues background where I started doing everything with the pentatonic minor scale I always have some blues even in the metal I do and I don't wanna lose that. It's hard to explain, i just feel I need to load up some guns regarding my technique if that makes some sense. :)

[JDC]

That's some nice sweeping, I used jazz III XLs for a long time too then a million other picks, still going to suggest you try a dunlop sharp 1.5mm

One exercise I'll suggest that I've never seen anywhere is alt picking an open string then switching palm muting and not palm muting ie

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That and trying to play meshuggah riffs to meshuggah tracks will make you really tight too

PS I have Per Nilson's Scar Guitar, bought it from the Scar Symmetry tour ;)

[GuitarIv]

Thanks, will incorporate that into my practice routine. And regarding the Meshuggah stuff: a good friend of mine might be selling his 7 String Schecter for peanuts. Although I always despised guitars with more than 6 strings, it might help quite a deal to practice Bleed on it xD

Hows the DVD? And how much difference do the Dunlop Sharp Picks make compared to the Jazz XLs?

Cheers

[richard]

How's your improvisation ? Can you play over a 12 bar shuffle for 2 or 3 minutes without running out of ideas ?

[JDC]

I originally learnt most Meshuggah riffs on a 6, to be fair I didn't bother retuning for the songs but you can easily use a capo and play a 5th or octave above.

Paid Ģ15 for the DVD at the gig because buying online had some daft shipping price. Jazz III XL has a curve on either side of the point so it's more forgiving, dunlop sharp has almost no curve either side of the point, completely unforgiving, first time I used it I just couldn't play with the thing as my hands were out of sync, kept trying it on and off, fine tuned my technique more. Basically if you can play bleed with it you're tighter than a badger's chuff.

[GuitarIv]

Richard: I can pretty much, although I must confess I have to learn more licks from other players to incorporate them into my own playing. I know the notes and scales I can use and have "stolen" quite an amount of licks, however I'm practicing right now on the "less notes, more impact" approach, to let everything breath, more feeling less thinking. One thing I'd really like to learn is how to switch keys so I can solo on my own and the listener hears the shift from say A to D then to E back to A without a second guitar that's playing the chords for me. But I guess I will need to consult a teacher for this.

JDC: Thanks a ton mate, I will certainly order those. I like to use unforgiving equipment as well as to sweep on my bridge pickup so I clean up my playing, certainly helps you to benefit even more from "cheats" like a rubber band on the guitar to mute strings or the neck pickup for fluid stuff. Regarding the Meshuggah stuff, I guess I could use Guitar Pro as well to retune the song to my 6 String and practice speed.

Thanks, you all have been very helpful so far to push my ideas, cheers! :D

[dave_mc]

alternate picking is just practice, really (do as i say, not as i do :lol: ). if you had the discipline to get as good as that at sweeping i don't see why you couldn't do the same for alternate picking (unless you just had more interest in sweeping).

i pretty much always have some blues in my playing, too. :lol:

[Kiichi]

Even though this may not be too contructive here I feel I wanne throw in something Steve Vai said (donīt recall the exact wording, but it was pretty close): "I donīt work on my weaknesses, only on my strengths."

Now while you should of course learn new things and improve on things you wanne, but I felt this always a handy thing to keep in mind.

[Lezard]

I always insert "after you have mastered the fundamentals" to that in my mind.

[Kiichi]

I always insert "after you have mastered the fundamentals" to that in my mind.

Yes that makes sense, I agree.

Though there are also sometime varietys of the fundamentals. Best example is vibrato. You absolutly gotta be able to do a vibrato well. Thing it there a different types. I can think of 4 of the top of my hat:
1. The classical vibrato where you move the finger horizontaly, not bending the string, but changing the pull and therefore pitch. Very subtle  and sweet variant which works much easier on nylon strings, but I for one enjoy it a lot on electric too. Lacks for fast stuff though.
2. The normal we all know which essentially is a fast bending out of a hand motion. There are sub categories on this one too, but we all know what this is. I have only recently started to like / use this / be able to do it when it just started coming naturally.
3. The clapton where you basecally move the guitar and not the string by rocking the entire neck.
4. The Vai which is a combination of the classical and the normal (1 and 2) where he moves his finger in an eliptical motion. Strange stuff.

So while you are right, the rule also somewhat works with the basics imho. Yeah, you should be able to do a proper vibrato, but I think there is not a special one you should know, just at least one that suits you.
I am happy with my classical style so I hardly work on my normal and while I slowly improve on it too I actually try to make myself only use it very rarely.

[GuitarIv]

Sweeping always felt more natural to me, although that maybe doesn't make sense. Alternate picking has always been hard to control when reaching a certain speed limit, but then again the sweeps worked out the moment I started relaxing and not thinking "holy mother of jesus this is way too fast what am I doing". Maybe the same will work for alternate picking, as soon as I relax and try not to overthink it, or rather think "this is doable" and not "this is so fast I'll never make it", it could work. It's a lot more of a thinking problem than something your hands can't do. That's at least what I gathered so far from my experience.

I progress faster with my left hand than with my right one so synchronization is a must for me. I guess I have to work on tension releasment as well. :)

[JimmyMoorby]

There are no rights and wrongs as such you'll get where you want to or close to it if you put your mind to it but what you MUST do is play with other musicians or join a band or some thing.

If you are going to learn exercises or scales make sure they sound good or it's absolutely pointless.  The greatest myth in learning music is that you have to learn shiteeeety things to be a better player.  If youre naturally good at sweep picking embrace it.  I never saw Jason Becker or Frank Gambale deviating from it much and no one criticized them for it still I know eactly where you're coming from you just want to learn as much as possible.

Also just listening and reading what musicians or guitarists have to say helps me a lot like say Steve Vai's quotes above.  Dave Mustaine's 'Scales are for fish' comment always amused me!
Type in your favourite guitarists in youtube and see what they have to say for themselves.  Some are full of it but some are obviously still down to earth and tell it like it is.

[dave_mc]

I always insert "after you have mastered the fundamentals" to that in my mind.

agreed. if you can't play power chords (and you're a rock player), you'd better work on those even if they're not your strengths. But there comes a point where wasting tons of time on an arguably "optional" technique (say, sweep picking or something like that) which you're just not getting might be better spent getting really good at the stuff you're already pretty good at.

and going back to the vai thing- obviously I'm not suggesting that you don't practise or anything like that, but any time you get down, it's worth remembering that virtually all famous guitar players are playing the stuff they're good at, at least most of the time. they're getting to pick what you get to hear. they may well be not so hot at some techniques, but they never use them.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I personally have lots of problems playing with other people and find them annoying most of the time, it's not worth playing with other people just for the sake of it. They need to respect you and it can be a big problem, if you aren't on the same wavelength or have the same goals from the start then it's pointless. You should give bands a try but from my experience it's never easy.

[JimmyMoorby]

I personally have lots of problems playing with other people and find them annoying most of the time, it's not worth playing with other people just for the sake of it. They need to respect you and it can be a big problem, if you aren't on the same wavelength or have the same goals from the start then it's pointless. You should give bands a try but from my experience it's never easy.

Mate....... thats just far too negative!