Again, I agree with Scott. Scott is on a roll today!

Learn some songs and practice them to the backing tracks and then post a video. Maybe something like Crazy Train by Ozzy. Find the backing track. Learn the song and the solo. Maybe learn Randy's solo note for note and maybe toss in your interpretation but don't just totally fly off the cuff. Cuz the point is to learn Randy's licks and his phrasing and get it up to tempo and then be able to nail it with the backing track.

The band I am in right now wants to do Bark At The Moon from the Jake E Lee era Ozzy. So I have done the same thing. Learned the song and the solos. Practiced them. Play them to backing tracks. I've probably played Bark At The Moon from start to finish at least 200-300 times in the past 2 weeks. Just getting it down and refining it and bringing it up to speed and also working on the feel and phrasing. I've watched hundreds of live versions and other guys covering it. Really dissecting it and taking it apart and picking up bits and pieces here and there.

Anyway, I would do that. Scott had a great point. Go out, learn some solos and be influenced!

lol Sometimes I get on a roll. Other times I just eat them. hahaha

Jake E. Lee is, in my humble opinion one of THE most underrated guitarists out there. Really innovative, and a very, very strong songwriter to boot. I think that you can't go wrong learning ANYTHING by Jake, his Badlands stuff is wicked also...
Same with Randy Rhoads, the guy is awesome. Maybe even some Dio-era Rainbow? Ritchie Blackmore's stuff is a bit on the primitive side of Yngwie-esque playing, but it IS where neoclassical-ish stuff kinda got started, plus it's really fun to play! Ummm Uli Roth-era Scorpions? Kinda dated, but fun to play... (And you really see where Malmsteen came from!)
Rush? King Crimson? Foo Fighters? Motorhead? lol All good.

Aww you are lucky, one of the the bands I sit in with is having me play "Jolene" by Dolly Parton... it's cool, but just not the same...

Totally man, Jake E is great! Love the Badlands stuff as well. I don't do any sit in gigs really. I just teach and play in my band Jet Set Babylon which I've had going off and on for a few years now. We do classic hard rock and heavy metal and originals. But hey, Jolene isn't that bad of a tune!

Oh man, I do almost only sit-in stuff. It can be very stressful hahaha All those ear-training classes and sight-reading labs pay off, though. They pay very well and I live in Northern Canada where it's all about Trucks, Beer, Oil, and Snow...

Audience wants, audience gets... hahaha

Its always good to practice technique, Damon. But, don't forget to have fun.

I agree with Scott and Ursin. Find songs you like. They don't have to be jazz. I noticed that both Scott and Ursin mentioned Crazy Train. I think that would be a good tune to learn (I think I mentioned that tune in an email to you as well). I think I still remember the lead riff. Its a great song with plenty of drama to it.

If you were just to draw up a lead sheet just to outline the changes you would see how it works, musically.

Cool intro with drums (kinda minory F#)
verse has the driving A chord type riff (kinda happy-major)
chorus minory (F#minory with some cool harmonic squeals)
bridge is minory heavy rhythms
solo minory changes
back to the top
vamp out

This is a bullshit 2 second breakdown. I'm sure you can do a better one.

I like the outtro. You could probably take it and loop it to solo over for fun. I know I use to do this with Jeff Beck's tune "Led Boots". Thats a great tune to jam to.

I also like classic rock tunes like "Sunshine of your Love". Great riff. Pick a Hendrix tune like "Hey Joe"...etc. Its all good stuff.

So, what I get from your post is that you want to compose and that's what interests you in learning more about chords and progressions. I think thats a good thing. To add to that is learning tunes. When you memorize them, kinda like what Ursin was saying, playing them over and over till you forget it, it somehow stays with you and you get a different understanding of whats going on.

Let me know what tunes you are learning right now. I'd like to know. Maybe I'll try to learn some myself... :D

Thanks John. And don't worry, I have plenty of fun!

Well, I sort of learn 20+ tunes all at the same time. I either practice using Pebber's technique exercises or I sit in front of guitar pro, mute the guitar tracks, and play along. When I do the latter, I typically do 1 or 2 passes at a single song and move on. Sometimes I'll play easy songs that I just like. Sometimes I'll play stuff out of reach to try to test/push myself. I'll go for several hours like that and this is great fun. I have hundreds, if not thousands, of GP files that run the gamut from crappy to excellent. As I type this it's pretty obvious why I have memorization problems...

I'll see if I can try to be more focused. If I can dial-in a good Ozzy tone I'll give Crazy Train a stab. I'd like to take a crack at Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover too. I still don't think I can play his intro to speed, so I might treat that as optional. If you want a better idea on who is influencing me, these artists are currently in my Pandora mix: SRV, Satriani, Vai, Zappa, Rush, Beck, Gilbert, Phish, Yes, McLaughlin, Yngwie, Saraceno & Zeppelin. SRV & Satriani got me to buy a guitar, all the others came later. I'm still VERY new to jazz, but it is growing on me. I find I prefer the uptempo styles (swing? bebop? I don't even know what to call it).

Speaking of Satch, I came across this vid a few weeks ago and I watched it all the way through the first time. I think Satch gives some sage advice here. Worth everyone's time.



On a sort of similar note, this is a short Paul Gilbert lesson that is a few years old. Nevertheless he discusses something we talked about in an earlier thread...the Shawn Lane so-called "snap picking." The pattern Gilbert shows is an 11 note grouping, but he slowly builds you up to that point. Buckethead constantly does variations of this sort of idea. I think it's something good to work on to get out of the "everything needs to be picked" or "everything needs to be legato" mind set as this is kind of a best of both worlds idea.

thank you