Paul Gilbert is the Man!

I have been wearing out my latest CD. Paul Gilberts "Get out of My Yard". Not your typical Shred Instrumental album. Anyway here are a couple of links to some pretty cool stuff by Paul Gilbert. Check it out :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPGA3vjMLgE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8h0FcxhXvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCojcP_6AkI

absolutely amazing guitarist. i love his stuff, and yea...he never misses a chance to let us all know he's not as stern-faced as his musical tastes may suggest.

Originally Posted by: quickfingersabsolutely amazing guitarist. i love his stuff, and yea...he never misses a chance to let us all know he's not as stern-faced as his musical tastes may suggest.

I bought his latest instructional DVD that covers how to play the songs on his Get out of my yard Cd and it was very typical Paul Gilbert. Lots of fun. He goes out of his way to be goofy and it makes it so much fun. His website is also very cool. Has tons of funny and interesting stuff on it.

Excellent guitarist, actually have selected 'Get out of My Yard' as my next purchase from Guitar9.com!

Yeah, Gilbert is great... saw him at the Ibanez anniversary show, and he made Steve Vai look like a chump... which isn't easy to do.

Playing guitar with a drill? He's your man... I had his instructional videos when I was a kid... just remember the cheerleaders dancing about:

"more..... distortion.... more.... dis.... tortion"... :D

Question 1: How do people like this slip under the radar so easily? :confused: Frankly, I don't think I have ever heard of Paul Gilbert before this thread.. Even Ygnwie is a relatively unknown.. more unknown then say.. Jimi Hendrix, Joe Satriani, Carlos Santana.. Surprisingly, not a lot of non-guitarist have heard of Steve Vai where I come from.. until of course I play them that he played in..

Question 2: How do I get harmonics to play so easily.. especially when barring the fretboard.. On this video you see him teaching a "playing 3rds" technique which he wants to make more usable.. so he does it all as harmonics instead.. When he plays it fast near the end, you can really hear that Van Halen sound coming through... it's so nice. :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGsxjXpFgy0

Question 3: If I practise technique everyday.. properly, correctly and for an adequate amount of time.. is it really possible to get that fast regardless of who you are?.. I've noticed an improvement in speed since I have started practising a lot more lately but I just can't comprehend how to take it to the next level of "fastness". :)

Being able to ascend and descend with Melodic Patterns can help in certain aspects of playing faster, by taking the sequence of notes to the next scale degree and so on.
Here's an example of a Melodic Pattern in C Major.
The Pattern starts on C and then climbs starting next on D.


e-----------------------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------7------------------------7----9--7---------
A---------------7--8--10------10--8--7-------8--10-------------10--8--
E------------8-----------------------------10---------------------------

Try to continue the sequence up each note of the C Major Scale to the Octave; C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
Then Descend back to the Root using the same sequence.
It's more difficult to accomplish, compared to ascending up the scale in triplets, for example.
Should you become lost at a certain point, there are formulas that can be used for the correct sequence, until the ear can develop.
The formula for the above can be converted using Intervals of C Major.
C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7, C=8, D=9, E=10, F=11, G=12, A=13, B=14 (it's easier counting up 2 Octaves).
Now convert the Fretted number notes to it's Interval notes;
Example; E---------8= the C note=(1);;; and A--------------7= E note=(3)
So, the order to the sequence of notes would be;
C-E-F-G-A-G-F-E---1-3-4-5-6-5-4-3.
D-F-G-A-B-A-G-F---2-4-5-6-7-6-5-4. Interval numbers of C Major.

The Intervals go up by adding 1 to the previous Intervals;
1-3-4-5-6-5-4-3
2-4-5-6-7-6-5-4
3-5-6-7-8-7-6-5
4-6-7-8-9-8-7-6
ETC,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So,
7-9-10-11-12-11-10-9. are the notes B-D-E-F-G-F-E-D

there are countless Melodic patterns.