That shredding stuff is fun but a pretty deep rabbit hole. :) It's a lot of work for very little return. It's not very practical for most music. But if you want to have that skill or tool at your disposal then, the material in those lesson will show you the path. The hard part is the time involved in getting that stuff in your fingers. Sometimes that's time better spent learning songs or other more practical skills.

Originally Posted by: Poundhound

"First, it is important to realize that playing fast - or "shredding" - should not be merely a flailing, spastic, haphazard jumble of notes or "stuff" you play as fast as you can. "

Lol. That almost sums up my technique.[/quote]

LOL. Yeah, I've seen that so many times over the years that it's become my standard reply when students or other guitarists mention it. That is of course why I mention it in the tutorial.

It's an interesting & surprising effect when you actually get some of that stuff up to speed. The more you get it down, the easier it gets to hear other faster phrases. And it doesn't seem so incredibly fast any longer! Once you can hear & do that kind of thing it actually makes musical sense & it's easier to grasp. It doesn't seem so impossibly fast as it did when you first encounter it.

Originally Posted by: PoundhoundI also received good news today. We're getting that detached house way out on a reasonably isolated region on the West coast of Scotland.[/quote]

Outstanding! Best of success with that!

[quote=Poundhound]Not moving until June, but hopefully I can pick up a Katana or a Code soon after. I'd be interested to hear your take on each, if you can.

I'm not familar with the Code, but I did a whole series of demos with the Katana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifc_Xk5-Nrk&list=PLLlnl5iWw43icBvpfQQUpzkOKfLncd-bL

The Boss Katana 50 is an outstanding amp & value for the price. It's the one digital amp that I've been able to use as is & put pedals in front of. I used it in a couple of gigs & dialed a clean loud tone with a little gain (edge of breakup), then I plugged in my normal pedal board (Boss SD1, Zoom MS50, Chorus). Worked great!

[quote=Poundhound]For the immediate future I'm going to step away from the EJ lessons. They're holding me back, I think and I'd like to get back to learning things at a better pace.

Good deal! Enjoy whatever you are working on.