T O P I C R E V I E W |
CPPJames |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 1:42:01 PM I'm trying to really start practicing for a couple hours each day and I currently have the following problem. I can sit there and play open chords, barre chords, basically anything with chords...just fine. I rarely have any problems unless it's a really unfamiliar chord. When I finger pick, some songs I'm fine on...others I'm horrible.
If anyone's familiar with the Stone by Dave, I use a pick and I'm fine except for the quick up/down stroke on the D note on the A string. Half the time I get it, half the time I only hit it once. Anyone know how I can improve my technique for that? I'm really looking for things to practice to get my technique down. A lot of times I'll hit the wrong string entirely and I can mute it quickly enough, but it's really a pain. I need some confidence builders I suppose =). Any suggestions would be great. |
8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
Arthen |
Posted - 04/29/2003 : 5:59:47 PM Thanks again! |
Poparad |
Posted - 04/29/2003 : 4:16:48 PM Learning "Flight of the Bumblebee" did a lot for my fretting hand/picking hand synching. MyGuitarSolo.com appears to be offline now but luckily I saved a copy. I'll put up the arrangment on my website for now:
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jjp14/bumblebee.html
I played a few of the lines on different strings than the arrangement suggests but the notes are all there for your discresion. |
Arthen |
Posted - 04/29/2003 : 2:49:26 PM I don't think you did. That practice riff is great! Thanks a million do you have any more like it? You know, speed building, accuracy building, etc? |
Poparad |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 8:25:29 PM Methinks I went a little overboard in my post... If you're having trouble with the strings ringing in The Stone, make sure you *are* muting them. I naturally let my fingers lay a little flatter when playing single note lines in order to stop the open strings from ringing from a previous note. Like, say I was playing an open D, then went down to a C and a B or whatever on the A string, I'd lay my fretting hand fingers over the D string a bit to stop it from ringing. It isn't all that necessary when playing things that aren't in open position, but definately when dealing with open strings. |
CPPJames |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 7:38:17 PM quote: Originally posted by hukkanen
I wish that I could help you, but I have the same problem. I read that you just need to mute all other strings and just STRUM?!? I've tried but to no avail. I think that I may just switch to fingerpicking it, just for no reason other than I can't pick it.
The strumming I get...it makes sense, but it doesn't sound exact. I've seen tons of videos of him playing it and it doesn't appear that he's muting, he can just hit it without running into other strings. I can't tell if it's hurting me that I'm using a thin pick or not. I'd think it would harder with a heavier pick. |
Poparad |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 6:09:40 PM Heh, I was just thinking through my jazz guitar jury next week and this Pat Martino lick just popped into my head. Just a chromatic scale, but the notes are displaced by octaves:
E-12----------9---------------------------14---------- B-----------------13-----11--------------------------- G-------------------------------------12------10--9--- D---------12----------9------------------------------- A----------------------------12--11------------------- E-----11---------------------------------------------- |
Poparad |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 6:02:52 PM I remember learning the stone a few years ago and it was a trickly little thing to play the way Tim does. Tim doubles up the notes to sixteenth notes on that and I just buckled down and practiced that till I got it. Another Tim lick that I kept at was the chromatic triplet thing in "Too Much" right after one of the choruses. I also kept at Stream for 9 months, 2-3 hours a day until I could play the thing and it's made a world of difference. When it comes to technique I'm fairly set now, so my advice is to stick at it for around 2 hours (more if you can) per day and it'll just sort of come together. Kind of like making Jello. It's just this liquid for a while but after it settles for an hour or so it's a nice, solid chuck of gelatin. As for specific exercises, there's one I like to do alot for repeated picking on a single string and a Steve Vai one that's great for string skipping. Here are the two tabbed for 1st position (use strickly alternate picking).
E-1-2-3-4----------------------------------------- B---------1-2-3-4--------------------------------- G-----------------1-2-3-4------------------------- D-------------------------1-2-3-4----------------- A---------------------------------1-2-3-4--------- E-----------------------------------------1-2-3-4-
E-1-2---3-----4----------------------------------------------- B-----1---2-----3-----1-2---3-----4--------------------------- G-----------1-----2-------1---2-----3-----1-2---3-----4------- D-------------------1-----------1-----2-------1---2-----3----- A---------------------------------------1-----------1-----2--- E-----------------------------------------------------------1-
Take that and move it up the neck a fret at a time. make sure you also use a metronome to ensure you're playing with good time which is essential to good technique. Also, start out really slow, like set the quarter note to 55-60 beats per minute and make sure you can play it accurately at that tempo as either sixteenth notes or even harder as eight notes. Then work it up from there. I also like to play the patterns backwards:
E-4-3-2-1-------------- B---------4-3-2-1------ G------------------etc- D---------------------- A---------------------- E----------------------
E-------------------------- B-------------------------- G-------4-----3---2-1--etc- D-----3-----2---1---------- A---2-----1---------------- E-1------------------------ |
hukkanen |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 5:46:15 PM I wish that I could help you, but I have the same problem. I read that you just need to mute all other strings and just STRUM?!? I've tried but to no avail. I think that I may just switch to fingerpicking it, just for no reason other than I can't pick it. |