Originally Posted by: maggiorThat's funny because I'd never call Knopfler an influence if somebody asked me. He has that thing where he will play quiet and calmly and build it up until you are blown over. I definitely incorporate that into my playing - still working toward the "blown over" part though :-). Telegraph Road is a perfect example of that. Huh!

He also does the country picking hammer on/pull off thing that has been sneaking into my playing. That just came to me one day as a way to add some speed.

I'd love to listen to anything you can record. Everybody here I'm sure would be interested! You've been practicing, so I'm sure you've improved.

Thanks. I'll try and work out the tempo for two of my riffs that I think would go well together. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out the tempo, so I'll try and do it whenever I have the time and opportunity to sit with my guitar and computer. I've got plenty of riffs and ideas, so if I can just figure out the right tempos, I'll have enough material to jam away for hours. Obviously, some of them sound cooler than others, so those will probably be recorded first (heck, I might even just record them without caring about tempo for now, just to get them down for future reference)...

Funny thing is, since my last recording, I've focused a lot more on improving my bends, and for some reason, they're more accurate when I don't look at the guitar than when I do look. When I look at the guitar, I automatically pay attention to where the string is bent to, but when I don't look, I have to hit the right note spot on, which somehow becomes easier... Weird...

You know, this is not much different than my little conversation with that Blues Guitarist/Singer I talked to last Saturday. His band was actually pretty awesome, although they lean more on Blues and Country than most bands I listen to... Well, always nice with some variation :)