Yet another newbie

Allow me to introduce myself... my name is Don Caballero de Todo Antes El Noble El Viento de la Espada Montollamas del Fuego Ligero Rodriguez de Montolla Dinero Juarez, and I only answer to my full name.

And now that we're past my moment of weirdness, and all know that isn't my real name...

I've played keys for since I was 6, guitar since I was 18, and pro starting at 15 (music director jobs, writing and performing for a living, etc). I've played contemporary to soundtracks, acoustic rock, hardcore, progressive, and everything in between. I wish I could say that I'm wonderful, but I still feel like a novice on guitar. I've walked away from a record deal before everyone else got screwed, and I've had life push me away from being in a band (which I'm finally recovering from). I ran a recording studio for about 8 years, still work some as an engineer, and also advise musicians in mindset, image, and business. Man, I'm starting to feel old after writing all of that.

I love meeting other musicians, and gleening from them. I also love to help wherever I can. I hope to make this forum one of my few music homesteads... and possibly get some tips to make my guitar playing better.

wow i wish i could say ive done all that.


one thing for you that i think might help you become a much better guitat player is to start at the very begining (you know holding the pick and the guitar the right way) through the theory and intermediate stuff all the way to mode systhisys (look up vai on the net and you might find more about this) and all the other flashy stuff. one thing playes (even me) ignore is the fundimentals, as you get to be a better player having the best grasp of the basic will help out the most even if you just review them once in a while.

just my two cents

Thanks BrokenJera.

I recently went back tot the basics. Learning piano first helped me to know a lot of theory, but for years I held the pick wrong, strummed like a mad devil, and never learned leads or how to play very clean. Recording my own stuff now has made me really feel the pain of it all. I'm finally holding the pick correctly, and that's a start. I've also picked up as many tips as I can from a massive amount of guitar students of Tom Hess. That's helped tremendously as well. One thing that will help is if I can break the habit of reaching for my acoustic when I write or play around, and instead make a habit of plugging in my electric.

Yo man! I know you!

Hey Mike! That's seems to happen a lot lately :) Explorers Unite! ...okay, that didn't really make sense.

Welcome to GT. That's quite a resume Draven. Great to have you on GT.

Draven, Mike imagine running into you here. Draven thanks for all the advice on the new Studio Lee and I are building. We loaded Pro Logic today on the new Mac. That was really cool. Threw in the demo DVD that came with it and got a taste of whats to come. We'll post more pics on our Web site soon (www.akamp.biz). Thanks again, Bill

Awesome, Bill. I'm sure you guys won't be disappointed. I'm glad I could help.

Also (and I know you've heard this before), check out www.macprovideo.com for some great tutorials on Logic (and a few other things if you want). They have bundled videos as well.

Wow, u sound interesting.

Welcome to GT mate!