Mission of the month!

Originally Posted by: frankhtOk, even though I'm late I'm in. My goal is to be able play a bar chord. My issue is I can't get the b string to ring because my index finger seems to bend right at that string. I know there's a way to get it done, I never thought I could get the F major chord to work but finally one day I figured it out and haven't looked back since. Once I can get the bar chord down I will have finished fundamentals 2 and I can move on.

first just practise holding all the strings down dont worry about chords, use two fingers if it is 2 hard...
1st bar chord i ever was Gmajor/ bar 3rd fret and do a Emajor shape

A fellow forum member here Slipin Lizard suggested a book by Barrett Tagliarino to learn the fretboard cold with the goal of improving improvisation and getting out of the pentatonic rut. The book is called "Guitar Fretboard Workbook". Already on chapter 2 it is presenting the material in a way that I have never seen helping you identify root notes up the fretboard.

So, my mission for the next month is to work though the chapters and exercises spending at least 15 min. per day.

It will be interesting to see where this leads... I'm excited because this is an approach I haven't seen.

From reviews on this book, it seems to lend itself well to visual learners...of which I am one. The author also states that these books target audience are people like me - people with some skill on the guitar but get stuck because what they are doing is by wrote.

So for now, my focus will be on this book and I will go through song tutorials here on Guitar Tricks to keep things interesting.

I'll report back sometime in January with my impression of this method.

one of my goals are to learn all the notes on the fretboard.i have a goog way of doin it,its just a matter of doin it.i already know were all the ,c,d and e notes are.
and my other goal is strummin,i need to work on my strummin patterns.im not good at strummin fast,or even slow,when u have a pattern ddudu ect.and whats akward for me is when you have to keep ur hand moveing up and down when ur not to hit strings u do that just to keep the even flow up.there gotta be a lesson on strummin.HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL ..HO HO HO ,GO SHOVEL MY SNOW...LOL

Hey Axe2.
Try doing your ghost strum with your palm heal muting on or close to the bridge. Also mute all the string with left hand so you are not worrying about the chord clarity. Kept your wrist relaxed. You can start with a just muted strum, then work in clean strum. One measure mute another measure clean, the work into what ever strum pattern your working on.
Strum patterns you don't even need a guitar to practice.. Belly guitar as my wife just name it.
hope this helps

Goals are such a great idea. If set realistic they can focus, motivate and draw you closer every day to where you want to be in life. Regardless of it being musical or anything else for that matter.

This month’s goal for me is to:

Finish my demos! : )

My mission for the rest of the year and January will be to learn to play the rhythms for a variety of songs to a point where it's supposed to be recognizable, but not perfect, as well as learning to play the solo to "Don't Cry" and play the parts I know of "Sweet Child O' Mine" more fluently. Should be manageable...

I'm quite good at learning tabs off by heart, but getting them to sound something like the original artists' versions is a challenge, so that's my mission over the coming few months.
It's often said that it doesn't really matter and you should develop your own style, but it helps if they are at least recognisable! :confused:

Originally Posted by: rumbled
It's often said that it doesn't really matter and you should develop your own style, but it helps if they are at least recognisable! :confused:

I know exactly what you mean. I think its really important to understand WHY you are learning someone else's song so that you can then best decide how to approach it. Seems like there are three levels of learning someone else's song:

-tribute band: this is where you are going to pride yourselves on playing the music exactly as it was recorded, or exactly as whatever version of the song you have chosen to play. Here, you need to be really precise, not just with your playing, but with your tone too.

-cover band: it needs to be close, but not perfect. Not mistakes mind you, but if you digress a little from the original in an appropriate way, it shouldn't be a problem.

-personal enjoyment: take as little or a much of it as you like... whatever makes you happy. If you're finding you are putting your guitar down in frustration because you can't "nail" a specific part, modify it so you can play it well, and don't worry about getting it exact.

I find it odd that so many cover guitarists both on-line and guys I've met in person will argue about the tinniest little variation in playing a song, when the artist themselves are known to have played it with variations many times when playing live. It also good to be aware there's a huge difference in being influenced by someone's playing, and copying it note for note. It all depends on your goals... if your goal IS to play the song note for note, there's nothing wrong with that at all. It really comes down to what you enjoy. If you find you're forcing yourself to work on things you don't enjoy that much, be careful... its a good way to get you giving up on playing when instead you could be really enjoying it.

I really, really, struggle learning covers. I've written my own songs and my own solos, and can improvise melodically, but a lot of times when I'm trying to learn someone else's song, it feels like I'm battling against my own instincts and creativity, almost training my own style out of myself if that makes any sense. However, I feel that learning a few covers would be good for me, if only to know how challenging it can be! What I do is work on them one small section at a time (a tip Maggior gave me), in very short bursts . I also make sure I work on my own style and ideas so that the cover tune isn't the only thing I play during a practice session. It comes slowly, but I get there bit by bit. I think its really important though to still play confident, strong, and clean, rather than "pushing through" difficult parts with really rough playing. Otherwise, you're kind of telling yourself its ok to play sloppy, and really, going backwards in terms of progressing. You're always far better off to play something simple really well, than something really hard poorly.

I have to say that when I listen to a band cover a song, I'm always most impressed when they hit it note for note and have the tone down. That goes for bands playing their own music live too! Though it is nice when they mix things up a little. David Gilmour played a nice extended variation of the Money solo in Pink Floyd concerts.

My goal is to get as close as I can.

The value I see in learning songs that you enjoy, think are cool, or appeal to you for some reason is you will pick up some techniques, phrasing, or note combinations that you would never think of. Since you enjoy the song to begin with, you'll likely stick with it.

And yes, sometimes it means taking it a measure at a time. Eventually you'll get there :-). This is my new mantra to myself, because slow and steady wins the race.

So, to tie it back to this thread - my missions are:
- Learn the acoustic part of Let it Be
- Learn the rhythm part and solo for Day Tripper
(yeah, I'm a beatles fan :-).
- Start a regular routine with "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" to learn the fretboard cold.
- Pick a song to work on from one of my new "play along" tab book/CD combos I got. That will be a challenge since the books I got are Rush, Aerosmith (old classic stuff), and Pink Floyd. I want to get more proficient with tab.
- Start recording my progress playing over backing tracks. I already did this with the Let it Be solo and the results were VERY motivating for me.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

So after floundering around with various things over the past year, I've decided for the new year to put a plan together and get some organization to my efforts. I'm pretty charged up about the progress I've made in the past year and I want to capitalize on it and "ride the wave".

My problem has been trying to run before I could walk. I don't have the foundation I should have for what I ultimately want to do and I've been reaching for what I can't do rather than utilize what I can do. My dedicated practice area was also a bit of a mess and made it too easy to say "eh, I don't feel like it" when it came time to practice.

Step 1 was to organize my practice area and make it rediculously easy for me to practice. I bought a new PC dedicated to my practice/recording area. I have a better desk with lots of desktop space. I have a guitar stand that lives there. These sound like little things, but they make a big difference. Rather than grab my guitar, grab my laptop, clear off some space, grab my guitar stand...you get the picture... I grab my guitar, head downstairs, power up my equipment and off I go. Only because it's in the basement which can be damp and cold I don't keep my guitars there.

Step 2 was to get my multi track software and direct input equipment working with my new PC. Unexpectedly my G5 works very well as a direct in and monitoring device in conjuntion with my amp, so I'm going with that. My Yamaha USB audio device will be used to drive my studio monitors and record vocals (assuming I can pursuade my daughter to do it). I've already made a couple of recordings successfully, so this is working well.

Step 3 was to put together a reasonable plan. My plan lists songs I want to learn, songs I want master, and skills I want to gain and improve. It may be aggressive, but I chose 12 songs thinking on average I should be able to learn a song each month. From this, I'll put together monthly goals.

One my goals is to learn the fretboard cold to help me accomplish another goal of learing the chord tone soloing technique. I'm on my way with this using the Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino.


This thread is "Mission of the Month", sooooo by the middle of February, I plan to:
- be able to play Blackbird by the Beatles all of the way through cleanly.
- be able to name any note on the fretboard "quickly"
- be able to draw out and play the major scale in any key anywhere on the
neck

The fretboard work may sound agressive, but the plan laid out in the book I'm using makes this seem very attainable. I've already mastered the "5 root shapes" skill quickly, so I seem to be on my way. They key to all of this seems to be spending a short amount of focused time on it on a daily basis and I'm prepared to do that.

Originally Posted by: maggiorMy problem has been trying to run before I could walk. I don't have the foundation I should have for what I ultimately want to do and I've been reaching for what I can't do rather than utilize what I can do. My dedicated practice area was also a bit of a mess and made it too easy to say "eh, I don't feel like it" when it came time to practice.

Step 1 was to organize my practice area and make it rediculously easy for me to practice. I bought a new PC dedicated to my practice/recording area. I have a better desk with lots of desktop space. I have a guitar stand that lives there. These sound like little things, but they make a big difference. Rather than grab my guitar, grab my laptop, clear off some space, grab my guitar stand...you get the picture... I grab my guitar, head downstairs, power up my equipment and off I go. Only because it's in the basement which can be damp and cold I don't keep my guitars there.

Step 2 was to get my multi track software and direct input equipment working with my new PC. Unexpectedly my G5 works very well as a direct in and monitoring device in conjuntion with my amp, so I'm going with that. My Yamaha USB audio device will be used to drive my studio monitors and record vocals (assuming I can pursuade my daughter to do it). I've already made a couple of recordings successfully, so this is working well.

Step 3 was to put together a reasonable plan. My plan lists songs I want to learn, songs I want master, and skills I want to gain and improve. It may be aggressive, but I chose 12 songs thinking on average I should be able to learn a song each month. From this, I'll put together monthly goals.

I can only get behind this. Very good idea to organize your practice-space. I did the same thing with my own practice space last month (although I'm not quite done, in my own opinion...). Used to be one hell of a mess, but not anymore! There's still some stuff that needs to be removed, when the rightful owner comes and picks it up, but it looks a lot more inspiring now than it used to. I've moved my sister's piano in there, since she doesn't use it and she kinda needed a place to store it (and it gives me an excuse for studying Music Theory, learning to play Piano as well, and writing music that needs both guitar and piano...). I've also found a book on fundamental Music Theory, which I've already read through, but I'm going to study it more properly. I'm going to see if I can get any books on Music Theory, Rock/Blues Lead Guitar-playing, and some Tab-books with songs I want to learn.

My amp lives in the room, along with my Les Paul, so it's easier for me to just grab the guitar and play away. I also have two binders there, one for keeping Tabs for songs I want to learn in, and one with lots (and I mean LOTS!) of blank sheets of paper for writing lyric ideas and empty sheets for writing notes and tablature on. Of course, I also keep a pen in the room, since otherwise there'd be no point in having the paper there to begin with. I've found it helps a lot to be able to write down ideas as they come.

I've considered moving one of my unused desktop computers into my practice-dungeon as well, so I have a computer that can be hooked up to my amp, stand ready for use 24/7 and that I can attempt some recording on. It doesn't have to be a particularly good computer, as long as it can run some good recording software and is compatible with the driver for my Amp (and it must be able to run Fender FUSE, so I can change all the settings on my amp).

I think it's a good idea to have a list of songs you want to learn (I have a sizable list of songs myself, so...). I've already decided which songs I'm going to focus on for the rest of this month and which ones to focus on for February, though. Since I have already completed one of my goals for this month, I've decided to revise them.

1: Learn the solo to "Don't Cry" (I can play one of the licks perfectly from memory!)
2: Be able to play the Rhythm Guitar part of "Whole Lotta Rosie" fluently (almost there)

And something that might take a bit longer:
3: Study a lot of Music Theory and find out exactly what effect each different note on the overall effect of a melody/solo. I know the 3rd decides whether a chord is Major or Minor, but that's it.

I also have a full-year goal, which is actually more of a New-Year Resolution, since I made it on New Year's Eve:

Every week, I have to find at least 1 new band I like (and by "new band" I mean "band I don't listen to). So far, I'm doing pretty good on that :)

Interesting that you did the same thing making your practice space more organized and welcoming. It really makes a big difference. I like your idea of keeping binders to organize your stuff. I make copies of the worksheets in the book I'm working with so I can redo them numerous times and not have to mess up the book erasing. I'll have to get a binder to keep that stuff in. I have tabs all over the place too - they should be orgnaized in binders.

Your idea of discovering at least one new (to you) band each week is a good one. With the internet radio services available today, it so easy to do. It would have been so cool to have had this available to me when I was a kid. "Back in the day" we did this by listening to the radio and swapping records.

At first I thought wow, 52 bands, that might be tough. But the more I thought about it, it won't be. Good new year's resolution!

Originally Posted by: maggiorYour idea of discovering at least one new (to you) band each week is a good one. With the internet radio services available today, it so easy to do. It would have been so cool to have had this available to me when I was a kid. "Back in the day" we did this by listening to the radio and swapping records.

At first I thought wow, 52 bands, that might be tough. But the more I thought about it, it won't be. Good new year's resolution!

Yeah, I know it sounds like a lot, but considering that in the last 8 days, I've already found at least 4 new artists (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Jeff Beck and Alice Cooper), I'm off to a pretty good start! And there are still hundreds, if not thousands of artists for me to discover. I usually just use YouTube, though. Find a song I already like, then look through the recommended videos for songs by other bands and I keep going until I'm satisfied. I just get the feeling that it'll become harder to find more bands as the year goes on. But when that happens, there's still venues with up-coming bands. I've never stated that my rule is that the bands I find must be successful and have released albums. They just have to be bands I don't listen to right now (and I can support fellow musicians by paying to see them play live).