Your learning techniques and methods of training

Well people...please discuss how you started out....what you practiced...you know...all them scales over and over....or the tricks...

I want to learn some new things...i have the heart...i just for some reason dont know where to start as far as tricks/sequences/and scales to use...

Anything will help =)

I pray for Jason. He´s the best shredder ever ´cause despite his young age, he have made him self as a legend after only 4 yrs. in bussines. I don´t think that any of shredder around inl. Yngwie, Gilbert, Vai, Petrucci...you name it, could play all that stuff Jason did when he was like 17-18 yrs. old. It was during his Cacaphony era and that´s some amazing guitar work. Jason is the god and it´s sad that he had to leave the scene so damn early. He had so much much more to offer.

About your thred than:

I devide my training scheduele in two days wich I repeat over and over again. Here is it:

Day 1: Sweeping (2-3-4-5-6 strings) 45-60 min.
Pure Legato 15-20 min.
16 notes patterns 45-60 min.
3 note per string scales and licks (pure shredding)45 min.
Repeating all ready learned solos and stuff 30 min.
Learning new stuff (no time limit)

Day 2: Alternate picking sweeping patterns/arpegios 60 min.
Strig skipping a la Paul Gilbert (pure shred) 45 min.
Chromatic scale and licks a la Bumblebee (pure shred) 40 m.
Repeating al ready learned solos and stuff 30 min.
Learning new stuff (n. t. l.)

I usualy play 4 hrs/ day and always cover these stuff. I usualy throw in new lick and sort them in techniques that suits them best.

When it comes to solo stuff, I usualy warm up with Metallica/Maiden/Guns solos. Another more advanced guitar solos that i like to play is Malmsteen stuff, little Satriani and Vai, and a lot Dream Theater.

Check out Petruccis rock discipline video. That one have really helped me to get into more adavenced guitar playng.

PS. metronome is a must and don´t get frustrated if you can´t play somthing. Just don´t give up and you´ll get the result soner and later.

Practice on man and you might become new Jason who knows.

a little of topic but in responce to the Jason becker story. My band is in the process of polishing up one of his songs called air. We're doing an original version of it and a heavy metalized version of it as a tribute to him. We're gonna record them, then send it to him along with some money to help with his medical treatments.

Well the reason why I devide it in two days is to make sure too not play much monotomt (spelling?) It can be bad for fingers and arms. And it could get boring too playn´ same stuff evry day over and over again. But playn´ same stuff avry other day works very fine for me. The gap insn´t big but enough for me. It can vary from person to person but I love my way and been doing like that for long time now.

While we´re on chromatic stuff, my metronome goes up to 250 and I can reach it after some warm up. I usuly play the chromatic lick from Petruccis video but I start at 180 and than go up to 250. I increase the metronome by 10 beats. After that I play Bumblebee (Petruccis live verision) and go from 200-250. From the beginig I used to start from 130 our somthing but didn´t do that for a very long time now and now I find it harder to play it at 150 than 220. It sick but it´s true. So when I´m very hot and been playn fast for like 20 min., I can´t synchronize (spelling) my hands as well as when playn´ fast. But I don´t find it as a problem really. When coming to chromatic licks, they suck when are played slow but when played fast, they are awsome.

For sweeping Aiwass, get Yngwie Malmsteens Play Load 2. I remember when I started to sweep, I found some licks on the net but couldn´t get it right and tight at all but than I borrowed my Yngwies video from a friend and I learned pretty quick after that one. Licks are great incl. the 2 string sweeping part from Rising Force (very cool and yet easy), some three string sweeps patterns from songs like Never Die and Deamon Driver and a couple 5 and 6 string sweeps wich Yngwie prefers. He also like 2,3 and 5 string sweeps most and he don´t use 6 and 4 much.

However 4 string sweeps is somthing that Petrucci likes incl. that little sweep from Under A Glass mon and and check out the sweeping sequence from Beyond this life.

PS. Beyond this life is a pretty simple solo. Check it out.

Man Air kicks ass. Amazing tune but I guess that he had it hard to preform it live ´cause there are like 6 guitars there.

My fav. song by Jason is the closing song on Perpetual Burn called Opus Pocus. That one is just perfect and I adore evry part in that one. Serrana arpeggios are amazing too.

Hey thanks to you all for replying...that really helps me out a lot....Like i said i really do have the heart..and occasionaly the time to practice...i'm only 16 and i have been playing for about 1.5 year....I guess i have progressed good...but now i want to get really into it and play a lot...

I just gotta get some tools and excersices and tricks to practice...

I know patience and lots and lots of practice is they key to it all...playing it slow and over and over until it gets fast....

The heart is a big part....but practice to me is just ......Fun..actually......there is that dieing need inside me that just thinks about playing the guitar all day when i'm in school....

Thanks for all your help...anything else you all have to offfer would be nice...thanks again

`Tim Anderson

so obviously you go home right away and type messages on Guitar Tricks to fulfill your dying need to play guitar :D.

Only asking for advice bud :)...I need something new and i dont want to buy a book or video...*although i probably should.*

I figure communication like this is very effective..i could take someone's advice and still contact them and ask them for advice :)...

I like this method...Do you have any advice?

since you guys were talking a little about the john petrucci - flight of the bumblebee song (rock on!@!) where do you get the tabs for it?? i found 2 but they're pretty incorrect. also what's the whole story on jason becker? i saw his video of black star and i was like holy sh*t!@! he could really play that kinda stuff when he only played for 4 years?? and also is he like dying or something b/c i don't really know anything about him. i would love to know a lot about him.

I downloaded the Bumblebee tab from Dream Theater´s official homepage http://www.dreamtheater.net You can also download it from http://www.mysongbook.com

When it comes to J.Becker, he´s got ASL-desise wich mean that he has no power in his muscles and he had it since he was 21 our somthing. Now the situation is really bad. All he can move is his eyes and nothing more. He´s breadin´ through a machine wich is atached to his body. Doctors said to him (after he got ASL) that he should live 5-6 years more but fortunatly they were wrong but the question is how long will he live ´cause he´s situation is only goin´ worse.

I actually first found out about Jason Becker through his website..i stumbled upon it one night.

I read basically everything about him that was on there. He is diagnosed with ASL / Louh Gerags *spelling..i know who he was but i dont know how to spell his name...the baseball player who gave that big speech...* he is dieng of the same disease that man did.

Jason was only supposed to live for 5 - 6 years..but he has made it roughly 10...

In some weird way he still gets his thoughts out musically....of course he doesn't play them....but he has this whole contraption that allows him to layout his ideas still. That is obvoiusly someone who loves music.

I dont know if it was him personally....but you can email him...at his website. A month or two after that...he/someone replied to me...because i live in montana...it was amazing to get mail from him...somewhat of a star ....and an amazing inspiration to me..

I have a mom who has been sick all my life...i am only 16.....and Jason's story has helped because his friends and family rally behind him as well...He has a lot of interesting words to give...i suggest checking out his website.

It´s true man. Evrones goal should be to play own music and even own style of music wich is very hard to achive and it takes a lot of experience. I kind of feel, whta do we got to come up with today when there are millions of music styles all ready. But I know there´s lot of stuff but it´s just seems impossible.

However when it comes to guitarplayng and especially shred, evryone plays pretty same stuff. But pure shred can be fun first years (right now I think it´s amazingly cool) but as I grow as a musican (I really hope) my style will change a lot. I don´t think I´ll ever get away from shred but maby add somthing more in it besides classical influences would be cool.

John Petrucci once said, the best thing about music is that you just don´t know where the music road is leading you. It´s like faith, like the future.

But most important thing is play what YOU like and nevermind the trends. If you have a real big hit goin´ on but you just hate it and on the other side you got a song wich is strange but you really like it, fu*ck the hit song and go for what you like.

Famous music today is nothing but rip off. There are som exceptions but most of it sucks. And what I mean with famous music is the music wich is played over and over on radio waves.

I agree with everything as far as trying to bring out your own style. I know i have my own style...rip offs annoy me...but sometimes you just have to practice "techniques" and "styles of music" to improve yours. But beleive me i will do exactly what you said when it comes to playing what "feels good" :)

I asked for a practice schedule/line up because in order to "bring out" this musical emmotion to its full capability, i need to be able to do a lot more things. With my talent right now i have written many many songs, now i want to get a lot better at the guitar and make even better songs. So if i practice some techniques *like everyone has to* to get BETTER at the guitar, then sooner or later my true style and emmotion will come out of the guitar.

If that all made sense :)

And for the person who said they listened to underground/slightly above ground music...have you heard of Dredg?

Dredg are honestly the most musically creative type rock band i have heard in a long time. I love those guys, they are really changing a lot of ways as far as music....its beautiful.

And again thank you to everyone for your inputs!

ps...i had always wondered what would happen if you were isolated from every form of music/radio...

say in the middle of some forest...

and you were there for a couple of years....i wonder what kind of creativity you could come up with...

I think it would be something pretty special.

I, too, thought about that...and what i came up with was that even though your style would be creative, it wouldn't be 'that' good, since you wouldn't have been communicating wiht other musicians at all, during those years. just a thought.

I also as Pony One said didn't care about sredding and theory at all in the past 2-3 years. When I was 14 when i started playing electric guitar I started playng Metallica and Guns right at the beggining because I had played classical guitar before and I just grabbed the pick and started to play. Then as my musical tastes evolved from that heavy metal stage I started digging into alternative music and all my practice would consisst of composing riffs and songs eventually.
At some point I felt that I should have some lessons in electric guitar and I had some private instructions from one of the best teachers in Bulgaria. There however I was surrounded by a gang of sredders and I felt kind of a looser there because I had not done any sredding before and stillat that time I had had 8 years of playing. And I could have acheived some decent level of sredding but that is not what music is about. Anyway I put some effort in learning some shredding just to have some experience and to put a solo or two here or there.
i agree that it is better to learn theory when you have some experience -- you get much clearer picture of what you have been doing by following your instinct. For example I figured out that I was using quite frequently mixoladian before even knowing what mixoladian is.
also i think that sredding has no place in contemporary music. The easiest way to sound banal is to start shredding in the middle of the song -- the best possible result would be that you would sound as a copy of Ynguie, Vai or somebody else, we just have such a wide variety of big names that chances are that you will sound quite closely to somebody else. This doesn't mean that you should not at all, what I mean is that you should try to be as diverse as possible because you know what happens you are doin only one-finger-Dropped D riffs. I am far from giving advice here, just sharing some thoughts.

And i thank you for your input :)

I have been playing for a little less then two years....i know i have the creativity and art inside me to play how i feel...to create something unique and different.

I want to learn as many styles as i can...but metal and classical apeal to me mostly.

I want to learn all those arpeggios, sweep picking...shredding, fingerfretting...everything.

I know i could practice and practice...cause i love it that damn much :).. i love acheiving something through hard work...the reward..the feeling....its priceless.

I just need advice, on where to go to get these tools...

an instructor to teach me these things seems to be the number one suggestion.

But the instructor *and ONLY instructor here* isn't really a shredder or any of that. I am sure i could find somebody on the college campus if i looked hard enough....but i'm only 16 and i would feel outta place looking for someone.

Anyway...i was wondering how i should go about doing this *getting where i want to be*...and what kinds of things i should practice a lot in order to get where i want to...any advice...suggestions...and comments you want to send out are greatly appreciated :)...i cant find direct and detailed information as far as "sweep picking" or any of those tricks...i want to make sure i'm doing it right so i dont crreate bad habits...thats why i am asking for help and kind of a layout of things to practice.

I am hear to learn...and an amazing percentage of people on this board are 5 times the guitar player i am...so getting advice from you guys is really beneficial to me

Thank you again and sorry for the long post that is basically just a repeat ;)

[Edited by frettycrouger on 11-04-2002 at 12:09 AM]

That is definately correct, and one thing is that everyone has to have their own creative style...

**** i had to rehearse with this kid who played bass...and he'd alway stop during play and ask "what notes are you playing" so he could play the bass line for them..

I wanted to scream and just say "play what you feel damnit!"

but i withdrew because he was the only bass player my age that i could find and wanted to Jam :)....me and my drummer though...oh boy we connect....its so fun.