GT Solo Assignment: September '07

hi all,
Superhuman, was some good stuff in there man the main theme was a little ethnic for me but that dosent retract from the playing a few items rushed in some areas but you know where I dont have to point them out

equator, author of backing track how long have you practiced those arpeggio's in the intro? :confused: Very well used I am not a big fan of them but when used right they're great,well used there.further into the track you seem to be lacking a theme and it got a bit in and out of key and just drifted about a bit.

dethmetal, Your got some nice little licks and runs happening through out its a bit mish mashed but if if you strung the good stuff together and held it you'd have some killer stuff in time with practice it will come .I could understand the opening licks and theme would be good to develop.

I am a bit guilty of getting frustrated this month with the track and it shows I should have left it and came back.also I find what ever I am practicing that month seems to dictate what I play...does it happen to you? Thanx 4 comments. ;)

Hey guys, thanks for the comments.
Looks like my guitar went a tad out of tune after I used the whammy bar in the intro. (especially the D string) Hopefully I won’t have that problem again; once I get my Floyd Rose equipped guitar back together. Right now it is primed and I’ll be painting it next week ( I’ll post pics for you to see )

seazer - Loved your tone choices man. Do you mind telling us about your rig?
I liked your licks. Phrasing wasn’t so good though this month, and maybe that is way some passages sounded like if you were running up and down the scale. But it is a nice take overall.

Superhuman - I liked your approach to this track. Very melodic and expressive. I enjoyed those neoclassical licks, especially the section from 1:00 to 1:08 sounded like something Yngwie would play.
Maybe I am hearing things, but sounded like the bend at the 1:39 mark was a little off. Not a big deal though.

dethm3tal - Nice opening and good phrases the first part of the solo, some nice licks here and there.
Minor timing issues but you did a great job overall.

Oh…about the sweeps: I used to practice to a metronome, but it helped me a lot to write them down in standard notation and try different groupings of notes. I.e. Triplets, 5:3 or 6:4

5:3 is when you play 5 notes in the time of 3 notes.
6:4 is when you play 6 notes in the time of 4 notes, etc.

It worked for me but it may or may not work for you. Try it.
Anyways, great stuff guys, keep rocking.


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Ok here is my track so far. Needs work and I hope to get something better by the end of the month. It's down the page a few songs.

Bar Chord Nick

Very nice take Nick, some lovely phrasings in there!Clean tone gives a different edge, good job.

Originally Posted by: Bar Chord NickOk here is my track so far. Needs work and I hope to get something better by the end of the month. It's down the page a few songs.

Bar Chord Nick

Nice job Nick.
I like your clean tone and the good phrasing. The mixing job is spot on as well.

BCNick:

Great tone and smooth playing as always man! I found it very easy to lose myself in your track, it all flows pretty nicely and you made the switches in key really well and whatnot; Overall nice track, there was really nothing wrong with the track that I could see. I was hoping to see you break a little from your usual style, but I suppose if the light bulb isn't dead you don't have to change it...er...Wow that sounded lame as all hell -_-

But yeah nice track dude, nice tracks everybody!

MKylman

I've just started work on my solo for the first time this month.. I have a callous on the index finger on my picking hand from doing so much finger tapping, and I've come up with my own sort of appregio thing. I'm really happy with my progress because I am starting to break out of my Pentatonic Minor cage. On that note, no pun intended, I have to say that my submission this month may not sound as great as I would have liked but I am pushing the envelope so it's ok.. though I still have a week or so left to work on it, which may allow me to get it exactly how I can hear it in my head. I've also been studying a lot of theory over the last few weeks, and I can see it is starting to yield some fruit in the form of the appregio and moving up and down the neck to compliment or counterpoint the bass line.

UPDATE: So now I have bruised my forefinger on picking hand from so much tapping.. haha.. I have come up with an awesome tapping solo.. I am so proud of myself at this point. It's been a lot of hard work studying theory and practising scales and I have finally had a moment of clarity in it all. If my finger wasn't so sore I would be recording the tapping solo right now.. I think I am using the B Phrygian in my tapping solo but I am still learning all the modes properly so it could actually be a B Lydian as far as I know.

B-C-D-E-F#-G-A are the notes in the scale.. not sure what that is.

Here's what I have recorded so far.. remember that my finger is bruised so I was unable to do exactly what I wanted.. I'm hoping to make a MUCH MUCH better recording over the next couple of days. This is NOT my final submission but I am just so excited with what I have been able to learn in the last few weeks that I couldn't resist uploading a rough edit.


REMOVED LINK TO OLD FILE

Hey light, some nice tapping progessions there. Once you start tapping arpeggios you will be at them for a long time. It take a lot of practice but eventually you will be all over the fretboard multi string tapping;-)

I just updated my submission, there were a few timing issues in the last one. This is my final take, there are a few mistakes and bits I would have liked to redo but I just don't have the time. I'm happy with it anyway.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=285164

The most difficult part was the section from 0.50 to the 1 min mark - the arpeggio runs followed by the irregular sweep pattern was particularly challenging (never used those shapes before). My favourite part though is the last solo starting at 1.28, not too difficult but mostly jammed out, had a nice feel to it.

Superhuman I am aching to hear your replaying of this solo for this month but sadly I'm at school right now so not much I can do right now -_- maybe at lunch I can sneak a listen, but I'm not sure

Looking forward to it however ^_^

Mkylman

Great solo Superhuman.. I wish I could play half as good as that.. anyway, I did notice one little thing that didn't sound quite right.. the bit between 1:58 and 2:01.. yes I know it's only 3 seconds but it makes that section of the track sound awkward to my ears. Other than that, I am really liking everything I am hearing..

EDIT: Hrmm.. on closer inspection it is actually between 1:56 and 2:01 where the awkwardness is.

Ugh... 2 days left to finalise my solo.. I've been practising it everyday and now I have a solid callus on my tapping finger of the right hand.. I now know what the structure of the solo is going to be, I'm just having trouble doing it perfectly in one single take... I have considering using the recording software to edit the takes and put the bits that sound good together but that would be cheat, right?

Originally Posted by: light487Ugh... 2 days left to finalise my solo.. I've been practising it everyday and now I have a solid callus on my tapping finger of the right hand.. I now know what the structure of the solo is going to be, I'm just having trouble doing it perfectly in one single take... I have considering using the recording software to edit the takes and put the bits that sound good together but that would be cheat, right?

nah I've done that before. I remember one of CW14s solos from last year that won was done like that.

Hi.. well I have just spent the last day playing and recording music. I have come with the best mix as I had the time available for... I could have spent a lot longer with this piece but I think I have done it justice.. I have also learnt a lot more about different styles of playing.. especially finger tapping. Other than the standard 1-3-5 tapping, this is the first time I have really found a use for tapping.. If only I could sweep-pick properly, I think I could filled in a lot of that middle section with some other cool stuff too.. I had the idea for some sweep-picking stuff but just couldn't pull it off. I decided instead for a lower range section where it emphasises the B, A and F#..

It's been fun! :)

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=737179

Much improved over the initial version. Liked the tapping, made a nice hook for opening and ending. Liked the little change in tapping at the end too. Good to see a nice structure from start through to finish, well thought out piece. Well done, good job!

Thanks for the positive feedback Superhuman. I really enjoyed the song myself which you can probably hear from the performance but what I am really proud of is not the actual music itself but that I pushed the envelope in regards to my creativity... something I haven't done for probably 6 years or so.. If you listen to the GT August solo I did.. it's not until about 1:30 that it starts to sound near decent.. and then I go back to the same boring thing again. Then switch to the September one.. there's just no comparison really. Some people at work still don't really believe it's me.. well they do.. but they have just never really seen (or in this case heard) that side of me before... That's how amazing/special this particular track is to me. It's one of those tracks I'll keep forever as a cornerstone marker of my playing. lol :D I have another one.. but that sucks.. lol.. and it's kinda personal.. lol.. anyway yeh.. :o