No Matter What Everyday i have theBlues

Hey Mike! It was a lots of fun and a great lesson putting the guitar parts together to play as one in ''No matter what''. My question today is, can you tell me why i need to work on scales.I know its all important but i feel i get the same benefit from working on songs. I'm questioning my approach again because i'm trying to step up a notch in skill level songs. I've been working on BB King,and so far its good challenge for me. So i'm wondering how to get up to that level. I know i'm ramblin' a bit but i guess i just want to feel i'm making more progress.... Thanks Mike talk at ya later!

Hi Steven - yes great question!!!

I always recommend drilling scales in your practice routine because it's important for guitarists to keep working on your basic picking mechanics - strength, dexterity, and sense of timing - just like an athelete runs drills over and over in practice. Work with a metronome and the process is easily trackable -- you always want 5 or 10 minutes of repetition, running through your scales, at a tempo where you are executing everything perfectly. Always try and bump up the tempo and see if you can increase the bpm over time - this builds your overall speed, dexterity, and timing!

That said, of course, working through songs is also incredibly helpful - so yes, continue to do so! Just remember when you encounter difficult material to isolate the phrase/riff, slow it way down, make sure you learn how to play it correctly at the slow speed, then repeat, repeat, repeat to program it all into your hands and fingers!

Hope this helps! Let me know how it's going!

Mike

Hey Mike, Thanks so much for the response, that hit home once again. I will try harder to infuse some scale work and drills into my practices. By the way tonight while practicing the BB King tune, even though i was only at 75% speed, I closed my eyes felt the music and played the intro pretty close to perfect i think. That felt pretty amazing to me.I think i've told you before that i want desprately to get to a point where i feel good enough to play publicly. I don't care where, garage band, party, festival, club, church. I'm not even sure i will do it, i just want to feel like i've gotten to that level...Thanks so much for your readiness to help, It's greatly appreciated!

Excellent Steven!! Keep at it and you'll get there!

Mike