First song to a backing track. There's a few riffs I need to nail down and get the timing on but the main riffs are there I think. Hoping to have it perfect with some more practice. Posting as starting point.
Thanks Paul, I've now got 160BPM smooth but struggling to keep up with my foot past this, will post 200BPM when I've got it. It's getting there though.
Nice one Seb! For the reader's benefit that's up from 100bpm on Wednesday evening.My prescription for the fastest run to 200bpm would be to limit all movement in the body to the foot or maybe even just the toes! That should allow you to keep everything more robotic which will etch the pattern clearer and deeper.Will look forward to the next update!
Thanks Swanner, much appreciated - I did have it on those settings but couldn't hear the click very well. Think I need to start below 30bpm so will try that.
I noticed I've not put any full songs up to speed, here's Holy Mountain, the first song I posted at full speed (100bpm). No backing track so I'm playing the track through my headphones and started it at the same time as the metronome, might be a millisecond off but I'm sure you'll pick up on that ;)
Yo Seb!One way is to use the default setting on the excellent free web metronome Drummer's Pulse ...
This gives 4 clicks and the first one has a higher pitch than the other 3. Using one click for each part of the beat means we're using four beats to represent one. In this case, although the metronome reads 60bpm we'd only actually be running the pattern at 15bpm (60/4 = 15).To set up Drummer's Pulse to count the 16th notes for us we can pull up the sliders at the bottom for 8th and 16th notes ...
I've also clicked on the "Sounds" option until the setting changes to "Voice". Now the metronome will count for us; "One click AND click ... TWO click AND click etc.". The clicks are the "uh" and the "a" of our 16th note count.If it's tough to get going at the lowest setting (30bpm) then you can use the first method above to access slower speeds. Once you've reached 120bpm with the first method, that's the same as playing at 30bpm using the second method.How much sense does all that make?
We've a couple of stripped down 7th chords (with the 5th in the bass) fingered 2,1,3 from low to high and muting all unused strings to allow us to strum all 6.The rests are usually indicators of some sort of mute which I've included as full strums with all 6 strings muted (the squiggly arrows). Had to have a quick go ...
First attempt at playing with a backing track here, definitely not all in time but some bits felt right haha but should be a good starting point to build on in the future.
Thought I'd use the hickory dickory rhyme to tighten up the triplets, learnt part of the sabbath warning solo, will put this to the metronome in the near future I think and see If I can get a backing track for it.
Big sound ... a 3 layer stack my word!A bit of a gear change as you move from the chords to the single note stuff ... expect the metronome to slow you down a bit to get that transitioning smoothly but shouldn't take long to work the speed back up once that's accomplished!Will look forward to the version under "lab conditions" 😉.
That should break the barrier and let you push the speed up a fair bit now.One bottleneck might be showing up here ... I've snapped a screenshot of your position before playing the last note.
Ideally by this time we'd want finger 3 to be pointing where it's needed next (aiming it *as* you play the index finger note) but you can see it's actually aimed a fret behind the one where it will be required. That then involves more movement than would suffice if you can stretch out finger 3 in preparation (and may even create a gap between the two notes which will become more obvious as you get faster). Django only used 2 fingers though for this though so you still have it easier than him. 😋Nice one ... onwards and upwards!
Thanks Paul, this is my better 60BPM version I've just done which sounds better already. Will try get to 100BPM but will likely get stopped by the foot tap getting too fast again.
Definitely better but still some minor timing issues in there (listening in at 0.25 speed should show where). For me it's those imperfections that will limit your top speed rather than the foot tap.The prescription is still to get a version nailed down 100% tight (however slow that needs to be and maybe with the out loud count too). Once that's achieved it's a straight path upward!!
Ok ... needs some extra mental strength I'd say! The cure?1) Listen in to your recording at 0.5 or 0.25 speed using the YouTube gear icon at the bottom. That should highlight what needs tweaking.2) Bring us another recording that you *know* is perfect ... however slow that needs to be! It's the perfect version we need to bring up through the speeds so first requirement is to get that working!Forgetting the guitar and just counting "One Trip- let-and" out loud (to an "Egg Egg Chicken" feel) along with the swing foot tap should help with feeling that rhythm stronger. A quick fix I'll wager!
Back home after Christmas and on my own PC again! Here's that suggested loop with the notes included. Getting this nailed down should translate easily into a stronger version of the full bar.
That's the trick ... the less foot movements involved to keep time, the stronger the underlying structure needs to be. You'll be proving that structure is getting stronger when your top speed goes up so be sure to measure regularly; it can go up fast since it's mostly in the brain ... as long as your practice is good!
Thanks for taking the time to make a video Paul, I did try taking the triplet count off but my foot tap just turns to straight so I think i'll just have to put the guitar away and practice the swing foot tap without the triplet count first.
I've gotten to 90 bpm on the taplature we went through during our lesson but I'm getting held back by the speed of the foot tap and the metronome going crazy, any advice to set up for 200 bpm?
Timing's bang on! All that's missing are the rests, which I'd be viewing as "woodpeckers".Nice work ... rhythms don't get a lot more complex than that!
I've prepared some taplature for bars 18 and 19 of minor swing, please could you 'fact' check it before I put it to the metronome when possible? I couldn't figure it out at first but read that in swing the first eighth note is twice as long as the following which seems to fit. Let me know what you think!
This is where I've got to so far and have tabbed it below. Might need to delve into a bit of theory as I started trying to figure out the notes but just ended up putting it all in eighths, hopefully I got it right that its in swing atleast. Also might have cheated on parts and looked at someone's cover.
"Also might have cheated on parts and looked at someone's cover."It's all fair game and all helps develop the skill."hopefully I got it right that its in swing at least."It could be viewed as swing if zoomed in on a smaller scale but I'd just view it as a straight "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" count where the fast trills to begin are in sextuplets (3 notes on the beat and 3 on the offbeat). It could be viewed as swing I guess if zoomed in on a smaller scale but would make it tougher to count.
"any tips on how to do this"No substitute for in at the deep end! Pick a lick and see how you get on!There's not much I put into the "keep doing it and you'll get better" bucket but this is one of those things. The count will be key of course. Try playing the video at half-speed (or slower) for any bits that are elusive. In the old days we played our 33rpm vinyl albums at 16rpm to hear better!Drawing out what you think is right and trying to play back what you've written the next day is great for shaping things. You can't mess anything up by getting it wrong and you'll definitely learn quickly by your mistakes.Will email to reschedule Sunday!
Looking to take on a new project of attempting to learn a solo by ear, any tips on how to do this or is the main one just trial and error? Its a length one, i've linked the starting point. @50.30
On a side note, would it be possible to rearrange my lesson this Sunday a bit earlier? Will be going up Scafell Pike in the afternoon! Let me know if possible.
Looking to take on a new project of attempting to learn a solo by ear, any tips on how to do this or is the main one just trial and error? Its a length one, i've linked the starting point.
On a side note, would it be possible to rearrange my lesson this Sunday a bit earlier? Will be going up Scafell Pike in the afternoon! Let me know if possible.
Last exams ever, I wish haha. I'm studying professional examinations for tax, 4 more to go for this qualification, 10 more if I want to go for another haha, painful stuff.
Starting point for the snakes for the divine solo, probably only half complete and haven't fully memorised the tabs so some parts not very accurate let alone the right timings.
New lick from snakes of the divine, planning on learning the whole thing over the coming months. Exams out the way now so looking forward to getting plenty of practice in.
Yo Seb. Sorry slow reply ... been on duty with my 7 year old.A bit of a change of scene for you (are you in standard tuning for this one??) but you'll never go wrong with a bit of BB.Here's what I make of that second lick:
Probably missing a couple of points of finesse but the guts of it is there. With stuff like this it pays to get a version working and then see how close it is to the original before considering tweaks.Will look forward to seeing what you make of it!
Just been looking at the intro solo for B.B King's Lucille but can't seem to grasp what lick 2 looks like in taplature? Any ideas? I've posted the video and tab below.
Nice one Seb! Live without a net. 😉It looks like you've got the gist of things generally for drawing things out in Taplature; watch out for the different note lengths and grace notes, for example in bar 7:
... the smaller notes are "grace notes" which don't last long enough to really be heard and are just used to colour the note they precede (or to allow an easier way to play something). Beats one and three of the bar don't have "tails" drawn on them in the top line so those notes ring for the full 3 parts of the beat.
Here I've simplified things by ditching the grace notes. When adding the grace notes back in things shouldn't sound any different other than those tiny bits of colour they add.
Hi Paul, this is my attempt at taplature, don't worry if you don't have the time to look at it. We can go through it on Sundays lesson. I forgot to account for the rests in the first bar and couldn't be arsed moving all the other lines down so i'll just have to picture that one in my head.
It's all in swing rhythm I think. At the start of the piece you'll see this instruction ...
... which is the way swing rhythm is often indicated. It's saying that for each beat we'll have three notes where two would normally fit. Each bar drops nicely into place on a standard line of Taplature drawn up for swing and a "translation" sheet like this can be handy:
This file should help with the translation, particularly with respect to the many "rests" on show.
... which drops onto a beat of Taplature like this giving us what I'd call a "Chicken Egg Egg" rhythm on the 3 parts of the swing foot tap:
Not been able to find one for the main song, only a jam track for the solo which i'll try.
I'm going to see if I can put this solo into taplature but i'm struggling a bit on what rhythm it is, do you have any ideas? I'm thinking swing but could be wrong.
2nd attempt at playing along to the song, lots of timing issues but think I'll get them sorted soon as I practice a bit more. Never really tried playing a lot to a song in the background.
All stock pentatonic stuff by the looks ... I notice he demonstrates nicely what we looked at earlier about sliding down into the lower position and back up again:https://youtu.be/Z6ibptXhsrQ?t=728See what you make of his demo in terms of understanding the timings on display. Any lick of particular interest would certainly make a good topic to raise here.Pick directions may come into things as we dig but are not too important to begin with. Experimenting with them is never a bad thing though!
I've found what I was looking for and from what I can see, you were right and it is literally just the johnny winter lick I think. He plays it here. https://youtu.be/Z6ibptXhsrQ?t=703
It looks like he is sweep picking it though for the speed, is this something that would be worth looking into? I don't really know many picking techniques and can barely alternate pick.
Any sections that feel elusive will make excellent candidates for a Taplature breakdown right here! Not sure if I fancy de-tuning the Blueshawk that far but should be able to make good sense of them with a fret adjustment!Bring us your worst! 😎
Thanks Paul, there shouldn't be any problems with that no. I gave it a bit of a go today but still need to get timings right on the riffs. I'm not planning on learning the studio version note for note since they play it different every time, the goal is to learn different bits so I can jam in the middle of it.
Welcome Seb! I've pinned you with a "Founder Member" badge!I've had a listen to the original. Let's just say I wouldn't fancy trying to learn that one for a gig next weekend 😁! If I had to then I'd be using this to get going:
(File playable in the free program Tuxguitar, avalable to download here)Stage one is to tie what you've learned to the backing track. You can mute out the guitar parts in Tuxguitar leaving just bass and drums.My question: Does having to do that throw up any problems?
Hi Paul
Hope you're enjoying your time away.
First song to a backing track. There's a few riffs I need to nail down and get the timing on but the main riffs are there I think. Hoping to have it perfect with some more practice. Posting as starting point.
Need to work on riffs at 3:10 and 0:41.
Came across this today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7T7FTaWr8 A bit of foot tapping inspiration in a style you may appreciate!
Thanks Paul, I've now got 160BPM smooth but struggling to keep up with my foot past this, will post 200BPM when I've got it. It's getting there though.
120BPM as promised, will continue to push to 200BPM. A couple of late ands in there but didn't want to upload a new vid.
Thanks Swanner, much appreciated - I did have it on those settings but couldn't hear the click very well. Think I need to start below 30bpm so will try that.
I noticed I've not put any full songs up to speed, here's Holy Mountain, the first song I posted at full speed (100bpm). No backing track so I'm playing the track through my headphones and started it at the same time as the metronome, might be a millisecond off but I'm sure you'll pick up on that ;)
Hi Paul, I'm struggling to get this with the metronome, any idea how I can set up the metronome and get it looping?
Thanks, Seb
Improv I did earlier which I was really happy with until I realised I fcked up the camera angle and couldn't replicate 😂
Thanks Paul much appreciated, for some reason the video is showing as unavailable though? I will put it to the metronome
Im also having a crack at the minor swing chords, does this look right in taplature? It's bar 80 on this link. https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/django-reinhardt-minor-swing-tab-s16533
Cheers Paul
Hi Paul, hope alls good with you
First attempt at playing with a backing track here, definitely not all in time but some bits felt right haha but should be a good starting point to build on in the future.
Thought I'd use the hickory dickory rhyme to tighten up the triplets, learnt part of the sabbath warning solo, will put this to the metronome in the near future I think and see If I can get a backing track for it.
Jamming with the metronome @ 60BPM as promised!
Happy new year Paul!
Progress update: I think I've nailed this on 70BPM now.
New year new amp! I may have given myself tinnitus playing through this.
Thanks Paul, this is my better 60BPM version I've just done which sounds better already. Will try get to 100BPM but will likely get stopped by the foot tap getting too fast again.
Best attempt at 60BPM, have to admit this one is a struggle for some reason.
That's the trick ... the less foot movements involved to keep time, the stronger the underlying structure needs to be. You'll be proving that structure is getting stronger when your top speed goes up so be sure to measure regularly; it can go up fast since it's mostly in the brain ... as long as your practice is good!
Thanks for taking the time to make a video Paul, I did try taking the triplet count off but my foot tap just turns to straight so I think i'll just have to put the guitar away and practice the swing foot tap without the triplet count first.
Hi Seb, Here's the section under consideration ...
and hopefully this helps:
Hi Paul,
I've gotten to 90 bpm on the taplature we went through during our lesson but I'm getting held back by the speed of the foot tap and the metronome going crazy, any advice to set up for 200 bpm?
Timing's bang on! All that's missing are the rests, which I'd be viewing as "woodpeckers". Nice work ... rhythms don't get a lot more complex than that!
Hi Paul,
I've prepared some taplature for bars 18 and 19 of minor swing, please could you 'fact' check it before I put it to the metronome when possible? I couldn't figure it out at first but read that in swing the first eighth note is twice as long as the following which seems to fit. Let me know what you think!
https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/django-reinhardt-minor-swing-tab-s16533
Attempt at a song using some of last lessons ideas!
Snakes for the divine 80% complete I'd say.
This is where I've got to so far and have tabbed it below. Might need to delve into a bit of theory as I started trying to figure out the notes but just ended up putting it all in eighths, hopefully I got it right that its in swing atleast. Also might have cheated on parts and looked at someone's cover.
"any tips on how to do this" No substitute for in at the deep end! Pick a lick and see how you get on! There's not much I put into the "keep doing it and you'll get better" bucket but this is one of those things. The count will be key of course. Try playing the video at half-speed (or slower) for any bits that are elusive. In the old days we played our 33rpm vinyl albums at 16rpm to hear better! Drawing out what you think is right and trying to play back what you've written the next day is great for shaping things. You can't mess anything up by getting it wrong and you'll definitely learn quickly by your mistakes. Will email to reschedule Sunday!
Hi Paul
Looking to take on a new project of attempting to learn a solo by ear, any tips on how to do this or is the main one just trial and error? Its a length one, i've linked the starting point. @50.30
On a side note, would it be possible to rearrange my lesson this Sunday a bit earlier? Will be going up Scafell Pike in the afternoon! Let me know if possible.
Thanks
Seb
Hi Paul
Looking to take on a new project of attempting to learn a solo by ear, any tips on how to do this or is the main one just trial and error? Its a length one, i've linked the starting point.
On a side note, would it be possible to rearrange my lesson this Sunday a bit earlier? Will be going up Scafell Pike in the afternoon! Let me know if possible.
Thanks
Seb
Last exams ever, I wish haha. I'm studying professional examinations for tax, 4 more to go for this qualification, 10 more if I want to go for another haha, painful stuff.
Fingers flying nicely. Are they your last ever exams finished now? I've never asked ... what's subject are you studying?
Starting point for the snakes for the divine solo, probably only half complete and haven't fully memorised the tabs so some parts not very accurate let alone the right timings.
New lick from snakes of the divine, planning on learning the whole thing over the coming months. Exams out the way now so looking forward to getting plenty of practice in.
Wow ... smoothing out nice. 1:26 onwards !!!
Update for the practice log.
Yo Seb. Sorry slow reply ... been on duty with my 7 year old. A bit of a change of scene for you (are you in standard tuning for this one??) but you'll never go wrong with a bit of BB. Here's what I make of that second lick:
Probably missing a couple of points of finesse but the guts of it is there. With stuff like this it pays to get a version working and then see how close it is to the original before considering tweaks. Will look forward to seeing what you make of it!
Hi Paul,
Just been looking at the intro solo for B.B King's Lucille but can't seem to grasp what lick 2 looks like in taplature? Any ideas? I've posted the video and tab below.
https://www.facebook.com/MyersMusicUK/photos/a.1134463730017043.1073741829.169156649881094/1134463733350376/?type=3&theater
No worries if you are busy, we can look at this in our lesson on Sunday!
Hope you have a nice weekend,
Seb
Nice one Seb! Live without a net. 😉 It looks like you've got the gist of things generally for drawing things out in Taplature; watch out for the different note lengths and grace notes, for example in bar 7:
... the smaller notes are "grace notes" which don't last long enough to really be heard and are just used to colour the note they precede (or to allow an easier way to play something). Beats one and three of the bar don't have "tails" drawn on them in the top line so those notes ring for the full 3 parts of the beat.
Here I've simplified things by ditching the grace notes. When adding the grace notes back in things shouldn't sound any different other than those tiny bits of colour they add.
More on grace notes here:
Hopefully that all makes sense!
Update for the log:
Hi Paul, this is my attempt at taplature, don't worry if you don't have the time to look at it. We can go through it on Sundays lesson. I forgot to account for the rests in the first bar and couldn't be arsed moving all the other lines down so i'll just have to picture that one in my head.
I use MS Publisher but OpenOffice Draw is a similar program for free.
It's all in swing rhythm I think. At the start of the piece you'll see this instruction ...
... which is the way swing rhythm is often indicated. It's saying that for each beat we'll have three notes where two would normally fit. Each bar drops nicely into place on a standard line of Taplature drawn up for swing and a "translation" sheet like this can be handy:
This file should help with the translation, particularly with respect to the many "rests" on show.
... which drops onto a beat of Taplature like this giving us what I'd call a "Chicken Egg Egg" rhythm on the 3 parts of the swing foot tap:
See what you make of that lot!
Not been able to find one for the main song, only a jam track for the solo which i'll try.
I'm going to see if I can put this solo into taplature but i'm struggling a bit on what rhythm it is, do you have any ideas? I'm thinking swing but could be wrong.
https://youtu.be/F-x6qqNy0mo?t=36
How about one with just the backing track? Playing with the record can be deceptive and it's often hard to tell what's what.
2nd attempt at playing along to the song, lots of timing issues but think I'll get them sorted soon as I practice a bit more. Never really tried playing a lot to a song in the background.
All stock pentatonic stuff by the looks ... I notice he demonstrates nicely what we looked at earlier about sliding down into the lower position and back up again: https://youtu.be/Z6ibptXhsrQ?t=728 See what you make of his demo in terms of understanding the timings on display. Any lick of particular interest would certainly make a good topic to raise here. Pick directions may come into things as we dig but are not too important to begin with. Experimenting with them is never a bad thing though!
Hi Paul,
I've found what I was looking for and from what I can see, you were right and it is literally just the johnny winter lick I think. He plays it here. https://youtu.be/Z6ibptXhsrQ?t=703
It looks like he is sweep picking it though for the speed, is this something that would be worth looking into? I don't really know many picking techniques and can barely alternate pick.
Solos been cleaned up a bit with a few bits added. Not much progress on the main riffs as I've been side tracked by learning a few sabbath songs.
Any sections that feel elusive will make excellent candidates for a Taplature breakdown right here! Not sure if I fancy de-tuning the Blueshawk that far but should be able to make good sense of them with a fret adjustment! Bring us your worst! 😎
Thanks Paul, there shouldn't be any problems with that no. I gave it a bit of a go today but still need to get timings right on the riffs. I'm not planning on learning the studio version note for note since they play it different every time, the goal is to learn different bits so I can jam in the middle of it.
Welcome Seb! I've pinned you with a "Founder Member" badge! I've had a listen to the original. Let's just say I wouldn't fancy trying to learn that one for a gig next weekend 😁! If I had to then I'd be using this to get going:
Urgh ... can't seem to upload the .gp5 file here ... it's from this page toward the bottom (Download Guitar Pro file): https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/sleep/holy-mountain-guitar-pro-1471656
(File playable in the free program Tuxguitar, avalable to download here) Stage one is to tie what you've learned to the backing track. You can mute out the guitar parts in Tuxguitar leaving just bass and drums. My question: Does having to do that throw up any problems?