Hi Paul,
As promised please see below for the videos of the grade 1 pieces. The audio seems to be really quiet for some reason i can't understand but it is there. Also I've t had the provisional date for the exam which is the 27'th of July.
Sunshine of your love
ICAUFO
Dakota
Best,
Doug
Hey Paul,
Thanks for looking at it and giving the feedback, i'm really looking forward to dissecting it with you tomorrow!
Sounding pretty good and ready to start polishing, now it's up to speed! I'm hearing a tendency to "rush" in places and though it isn't knocking you off hitting the "One beat" strongly each bar, warrants some attention. Here's a single bar snap-shotted to show something that's happening regularly throughout:
The note on the "and" (3rd part) of beat three is played pretty early here and takes the edge off the groove of things. Seeing it like this (if that makes sense?) should help visualise where we'll be aiming to nail it! It's the standard issue with offbeats as it's our old friend "KNEE and" in disguise! Shouldn't take long to tighten up!
Hey Paul,
Here's the first version of the last time at 100%!
Sounding grand Doug. Keep 'em coming!
Hey Paul,
Here's sitting on the dock of the bay a week on, it's definitely getting stronger.
The grind pays off again 😉... eminently listenable. Sounds great and nothing jumps out that won't smooth out with a little more bedding-in. How about adding in a 120% speed version next time you record it?
Hey Paul, here's the video for sittin on the dock of the bay at 100% speed. It definitely still needs some work in the middle section and towards the end but i thought it would be good to have a warts and all version.
Right on the button from start to finish. Superb stuff!!!
Hey Paul,
thanks for posting the above, i'll definitely start working through the scales later this week.
Additionally here's a version of me playing lonely boy at 100% speed now!
The tough way to learn them is to repeat them as written until they stick. It usually works but never seems to stick for long and isn't much fun to learn. The "trick" is to turn them into music. The first two on the list are "diatonic" (seven note) scales. If we shape the notes into a rhythm it can then be played as music and top speed can be measured to show progress (increased ease of playing). Here's a sheet showing that but with the C major scale (same as the G major scale on your sheet but played starting at fret 8 rather than fret 3):
Each bar has the rhythm "Egg Chicken Chicken Chicken" and begins on the root note C. Pick directions should follow the 8th note foot tap meaning a ghost pick on the "and" of beat 1. 1) Take the two bars outlined in green and get them looping. This gives the lower octave (8 notes) of the scale. 2) Do the same with the bars outlined in grey. This gives the upper octave. 3) Once each loop is familiar, playing through the full 4 bars as laid out then gives both octaves as written in your grade book. Can you see why it's referred to as the "E shape" C major scale? The following should help if not:
This idea works for any diatonic scale. The next on your list is the A minor scale which also has 7 notes so the same system will work there too. Try drawing it out as I've done with the C major scale. For each of the pentatonics we can use the same idea but applied to a 5 note scale. I cover that in this article: https://www.taplature.com/single-post/2019/09/04/better-public-speaking-on-guitar-turning-scales-into-music-1 As ever, monitoring progress with a metronome lets you see improvement as the shapes sink in and once learned this way they should stick forever!
Hey Paul,
Here are the scales that i've got to learn.
Hey Paul,
Here is The Last Time played to the backing track, it's currently at 75% speed.
So that's all 3 pieces for grade 3 that i just need to build the speed up on over the next few weeks. I've got some scales to learn too of course, but should be ready to book the next exam soon!
Great stuff and without the safety net of metronome giving the triplet count too! Sounds spot on!
That's a big chunk of the song learned, and probably the toughest bit. Is there a set solo to go with that one?
Hi Paul,
Here the practice of The Last Time at 84bpm. I think the cat was trying to doing the vocals!
Sounding good and the full speed (and higher) shouldn't be too far off! All I'd pick up on that needs a look are the grace note hammers which are starting early (on the last semiquaver of the previous beats).
Comparing these two beats should yield some insight along with this video I did on grace notes a while back in the predecessor to the Taplature forum!
Hi Paul,
Here is the latest version of me actually playing to the backing track, this is currently at 75% speed, so a little ways to go still.
Hats off to you! I know there's a lot of grind gone into that one ... warrants a better backing. Do you have Chordpulse Lite installed? Wouldn't take long to knock one up in that!
Hi Paul,
Finally got around to recording the first go at sitting on the dock of the bay (or at least 3/4's of it!).
Wow ... possibly as good an advert as could be for the power of nailing something at a slow speed before building up! Great crunchy tone and the groove is right in the pocket pretty much throughout. A joy to my ears!!!
Hi Paul,
Jumping back to lonely boy again, here is the recording of me playing the guitar to the backing track at 90% (150 bpm) of the speed needed! Definitely getting there now.
Festive greetings Doug. All sounds in good order and the new guitar looks just the job! I'll post the Taplature we drew up (for anyone interested) and you'll note I've added one little tweak to act as a (tiny) point of interest on the final beat of the page. Think of it as a baby drum-roll pushing us back to the top!
Will look forward to a demo of the new egg-slicer on Saturday and to see what you've made of the chorus!
Hi Paul,
I hope you are well and had a great Christmas. I thought i'd take the opportunity to post a video using the new acoustic. This is the progress so far for zombie which we started looking at last week.
Hi Paul,
Thought it was about time that i recorded a version of lonely boy all the way through. This is at 83bpm so 50% speed.
Nice going Doug ... quite a jump there from the previous video and I imagine your thought process now with this one feels very different to a few weeks ago! Although it might seem like a backwards step ... how does the same section work if you instead use fingers 1, 2 & 3 for the G chord? As the semiquaver section is on your to-do list we could tie in practising the alternate G fingering to that since you'll likely be slowed down somewhat (to begin) by the 16th notes anyway.
Hey Paul, time for a progress update. I think the first time is 90 bpm, then 104 bpm, then 115 bpm and finally 130bpm.
Excellent .. your marker is down! It looks to me like the biggest bottleneck is getting between the C & G chords. Pulling that out as a small loop should yield some quick improvement. Applying the LIFT, AIM, FIRE! approach gives:
Try the above with the different ways of fingering your G chord. Though we began looking at it as you're fingering above, the original is played using finger 2 rather than 3 on the bottom string which allows that slightly smoother transition up to the Em shape at fret 7 (both fingers 1&3 then stay on their respective strings and keep the same shape albeit slightly compressed!).
Practising the loop I've drawn up above at micro-speeds will allow you to make sure the fingers are aimed perfectly for the next chord before continuing and firing it to the fretboard. It's often worth stopping dead and holding in any awkward positions to get a feel for which muscles are involved and to get them to stretch out a little further than they want to go. Measuring as ever should allow you to see progress (or otherwise) and there's probably merit in examining "changing" the G to itself. Record speed is 103bpm so we'll be aiming to get this to 120+bpm (as well as this next level 16th note section of course!)
Getting that C to G change worked up to target speed should make a good bite-sized first challenge and may even warrant another video itself!
Hey Paul, following on from last lesson here is the part that we were going through from Fast Car done at different speeds until it starts to fall over.
I think the speeds are 40bpb, 60bpm, 70bpm and then it starts to fall over at 80bpm.
Fingers crossed by out next lesson it will be up to the target speed of 100bpm for this part.
Best,
Doug
Superb stuff with a very pleasantly ear-bleeding sound! Next level is getting it with a metronome (which may slow you down slightly to get a perfect run-through). Recording beyond the "perfect" speed will introduce more mistakes the higher you push it and can be very useful for highlighting weak spots. A montage showing deterioration as the tempo increases makes a great addition to the collection. I've done a few in the past; here's one of them falling apart ...
Watching 3 Days Grace live shows the open D on the end of the opening lick that we ditched due to your tab saying fret 6. I've lined up a close-up here:
Might be worth re-investigating as the way he does it requires a bit less hand movement. The pick pattern he's using is eye=catching, including two ups on the same string in quick succession at the end of the lick. That I wouldn't recommend changing to!
Hi Paul, as promised please see below for the latest video of Never Too Late by 3 Days Grace.
Still a ways to go, but it's definitely getting there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn6mLIEmUs&feature=youtu.be
Best,
Doug
Nailed it!!!
There we go!
Let's see the goods or it didn't happen! 😉
Apologies I meant to post this sooner but as ever life got in the way.
I have now had the results back from the grade 1 exam and can confirm that I passed with a distinction.
Nice one Doug. Will look forward to the official verdict!
Would keeping your next (and future) grade's progress on this thread make for a better catalogue of progress? I think you can change the title of the thread easily enough.
Hi Paul,
I hope you are well.
I thought i'd post on here again as I had my grade 1 exam on Monday. Everything went well so we will just wait and see what the results are.
The examiners aren't allowed to tell you how you did on the day, but he did say that I shouldn't be worried about passing so i'm taking that as a good sign that it's either a distinction or high merit.
So now it's onto grade 2, which i'll start a new thread for when i'm ready to record some video.
Best,
Doug
All taking shape nicely and each is definitely a jump ahead of the previous recordings to my ear. Next level for each I'd propose: 1) Sunshine of Your Love The next big difference will come from hitting the power chords like a kid does with a tennis racket. We looked at the muting and I'll bet you're not far off with it now. Ditch the open A in that section for a beefy 3 string power chord too! It's also not to late to think about moving up to the 10th fret:
Not too much changes but doing so would open the door for some probable brownie points. 2) ICAUFO All sounding good and smooth with the C chord no longer standing out as being awkward. How do your measurements on that look? We could make the picking a bit easier; one likely useful addition being the use of "rest strokes" (click here for an example) when picking patterns that move across the strings one at a time. Will elaborate on those on Saturday. Elsewhere I'll bet a few "woodpeckers" would fit the bill well to replace (or assist) your palm-mutes. Experiment with using the right hand fingers (as well as the pick) to kill the sound when "pecking". 3) Dakota
Holding the chord down on the intro is a plus to me and allows as a possibility hitting more than one string for added sound. There's nothing there that stands out as being problematic but as ever we can always find ways to add a little something! Here's some possible icing for the cake in a small loop with a twist or two!
A fair bit of food for thought Anything I haven't mentioned you'd like to zoom in on?
Hi Paul,
I hope you're well.
As promised please see below for the updated performances almost 2 weeks on.
Sunshine of your love
ICAUFO
Dakota
Best,
Doug
Great stuff! There's enough there to pass if you had to take the exam tomorrow but of course we're aiming for a distinction! Hats off for posting and I've issued you your Founder Member's badge as one of the first 10 to do so here! I've watched each through a few times and spotted a few things that are easy targets:
1) In Sunshine of Your Love the note on beat 3 of the second line here is getting chopped short ... practising with the foot tap (and count) and making sure it rings until you tap beat 4 should cure that quickly.
2) In ICAUFO (from 44s) when the change from melody to chords hits looks like a bottleneck. Getting better at forming the C chord mid-air (on the off-beat/up-foot) is the cure and the easiest way to do that is to improve changing your C chord to itself!
Shout out your current top speed here to put a marker down to work against!
3) There are a few timing issues in Dakota which will be transformed once we've tied it down to a foot tap. On the physical side finger preparation (same idea as for chords) should help ... eg. you can have the first fingered note AIMED and ready to FIRE to the fretboard while playing the initial open strings (which eliminates the need to change hand position there). HOWEVER ... All the notes in the intro are from an E chord. Try it with a full open E chord held down throughout (even though you won't be playing all the fingered strings; there's no need to move the left hand at all now. Pick-wise the intro should also smooth out quickly by practising following a strict alternating pattern (down-up) tied to the foot. Will look forward to seeing what you make of that lot on Saturday (when power chords will be on the menu)!