27/04/15) I continued working on the song vibe tech today focussing more on the time signature and rhythm of the song because it is such a strange sounding song and is really complicated to count the times. I am starting to feel the grove of the song and be able to play it fluently with fewer mistakes.
13/04/15) In my practise today i started learning the song 'Vibetech' by the marmozets because it is in the Drop C tuning. I also chose this song because there are no lessons online for how to play it or any tabs for it. So i started learning the song by ear to improve my ear for music.
6/04/15) Today i started playing around with the drop C tuning, this is the same as the drop D tuning but two semitones down this tuning is commonly used in the metal genre.
16/03/15) Today i started writing my own song, i have started with a strange chord which i learnt from the song under the bridge and then developed it from there. I believe the chord is an Emaj7 i played this chord but arpeggiated it then played Eb#5#11 the next chord is a F#m7 and then an Am6. I never knew what these chords were, i was just messing around with different chord shapes until i found something that sounded good to me. Then afterwards i figured out their actual names.
9/03/15) I practiced playing guitar whilst standing up today, most guitarists wouldn't consider doing this. I sometimes find it difficult to play certain songs whilst standing up especially Under the bridge the song i played for my BIMM audition. I usually practice sat down so i decided to change it up, when i perform i usually have my guitar strap so that my guitar sits really low down because for some reason i think it looks better, This puts my wrist at a strange angle so logically i decided to set my guitar to the same height it would be when i am sat down this simple change made playing guitar standing up a whole lot easier and i'm surprised i hadn't thought of it earlier.
16/02/15) Recently i was sent an email from BIMM in Brighton saying that they would like to give me an audition for their professional musicianship course for guitar. This involves playing an improvised piece and knowing chord shapes, and also i have to perform one song of my choice. I had to think very wisely about which song i should perform and in the end i settled on 'under the bridge' by the Red hot chili peppers. My reasons for choosing this are because it uses a lot of chords and techniques that i am not very good at so it is a great opportunity to improve on those and become a better guitarist all round. The song uses hybrid picking and requires me to use my little finger a lot which is something i've always struggled with. Also it uses the C major bar chord shape which i find difficult.
26/01/15) Today i revisited the legato exercise i practiced a while ago, i did this because i wanted to start using my little finger more when playing guitar because if i do it will allow me to play a lot more fluently and faster.
19/01/15) I've always wanted to set up some guitar pedals because it open up so many more opportunities when playing guitar. Today i went out and bought a power supply and some patch cables for the pedals i already own. I have a Boss chromatic tuner and a Boss noise gate to cancel out any of the buzzing noises i get from other pedals. I also have a cry baby wah-wah pedal and a Blackstar LT metal pedal. I did some research and figured out which order would be best to have the pedals in. In the future i look to get more pedals because then i can easily access lots of different tones and sounds.
05/01/15) Today i went to Gig-gear a guitar shop in Harlow, i purchased some new thicker guitar strings for my second guitar. The thickness of each string is as follows: 56,44,32,24,16,12. This will allow me to use much lower guitar tunings often found in metal music. Instead of the standard tuning which is EADGBE i tuned my guitar down to drop B which is B,F#,B,E,G#,C#. I haven't really had time to learn any songs in this tuning yet or even come up with any of my own ideas. But having a guitar in a different tuning opens up so many different opportunities.
15/12/14) To tie into the maintenance side of this unit i decided to try and set up my guitar at home. Firstly i used wire cutters to remove all my old guitar strings. Then i cleaned the frets pickups and scratch plate with specialised guitar cleaners and polishes. Then i adjusted the action on my guitar and made it as low as possible which is how i prefer to play. Then afterwards i put new strings on and it had a considerable positive effect on my guitars playability and tone.
08/12/14) I started learning one of the most difficult guitar techniques i could think of a little while ago, this is called sweep picking. This is when you play an arpeggio very quickly by lightly dragging your guitar pick up and down each string. When you do this you also need to mute each note as fast as you can using your palm. At first i found this technique almost impossible but after a few days of practicing i could do three strings sweeps at a decent speed.
24/11/14) Today i revisited the CAGED system because i struggled to play the C, G and D bar chords. I practiced this by switching between each shape to a metronome which i gradually increased the speed of. I am still finding it difficult to play the C and D shapes but i have definitely made a good improvement.
17/11/14) Legato means 'tied together' in Italian, so in context to the guitar legato would mean a series of notes played in succession very smoothly. To practice this i was playing an exercise that i learnt in college.
G ---5h4h2----------5h4h2---------|
D-------------5h4h2---------5h4h2-|
Above is the exercise that i practiced.
10/11/14) Today i decided to learn different shapes for the pentatonic scale because playing in the same shape all the time can prove to be very boring and produces very unoriginal ideas, I have always improvised using the first shape but now i have learnt the third and fifth shape to try and vary my ideas a bit more. In the future i will learn the other two shapes.
3/11/14) In my practice i learnt about the CAGED system, this is a way of learning all the major chord shaped and being able to play them at any position on the guitars fretboard. How it works is if you are playing an open C chord then the next shape up the fretboard will be the A major bar chord shape and then the G shape, until it eventually spells out 'CAGED'. I can't remember the exact frets for each chord but with a bit of trial and error i can get it within a few seconds. I will probably end up revisiting this concept because i find it very difficult to play the C, G and D bar chord shapes.
20/10/14) Whilst practising today i started to use a metronome to try and improve the speed of my playing.
I used a free online metronome and started at 60bpm then i simply played up and down the natural minor scale until i was comfortable then upped the tempo, i did this until i could play it as fast as i possibly could and it definitely helped me improve playing speed.
13/10/14) Today i started learning the natural minor scale, also known as the aeolian mode. To start with i just played up and down the scale just to memorise it and be able to recognise it when i hear it. I practised playing up and down the scale slowly and gradually as i got used to the shape i could play it faster and start coming up with my own riffs and ideas. Once i was completely comfortable playing the scale i tried improvising to the song 'Since I've been loving you' by Led Zeppelin. The C natural minor scale fits this song perfectly and it was really fun being able to play in something other than just the pentatonic scale.
06/10/14) In my practice today i started using a guitar pick for the first time properly. When i started playing guitar i had lessons on playing classically so this involved different techniques for finger picking, and although ineffective i transferred this skill onto the electric guitar. But unfortunately there is only so much i can play without a guitar pick as it is preventing me from utilizing so many different guitar techniques such as pinch harmonics, sweep picking and hybrid picking. I practiced using a pick by playing songs i already knew and it proved quite tricky at first, but after an hour or so it made playing a whole lot easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment