For quite some time, I have been checking out and researching other guitar instructors, observing their teaching methods and styles, watching their videos and visiting their websites.
I created this thread, because I am curious as to what other instructors. methods, and/or websites YOU enjoy,,,and more importantly:
WHAT ASPECTS DO YOU ENJOY?
WHAT INTERESTS YOU?
WHAT DON'T YOU LIKE?
I encourage all of you to participate,,,NO HOLDS BARRED!!!
Thank you in advance, and I look forward to YOUR opinions!!!!
Welcome to Forums! I believe that working off of Pebber's Daily Practice Routine is always "a good start." In fact, this is your foundation upon which you will build your guitar-playing knowledge, technique, and chops. To this day, I begin my practice with something from the Daily Practice Routine. Some days, I still run through the entire Routine.
Kudos for using a metronome!!!
I also applaud you for using your time wisely, and dividing up your routine into manageable segments. This will prevent you from becoming complacent, even bored, with practicing, learning, and developing your craft.
Keep in mind, learning guitar is not a race, as there is no "finish line," no "graduation." There is always something to practice and improve upon.
Finally, if you have not already done so, you are strongly encouraged to post a video (or videos) of what you are working on. They do not have to be elaborate, and please do not post 20-minute videos that include things like explanations, tuning, apologies, shuffling papers, "ummms and uhhhh's", etc. Simply title your video "Spider Exercises" and show us a minute or 2 of that, or something like, "X-Patterns at 60 BPM," and show a minute or 2 of that. Same with picking. You get it.
Got to see him here in Chicago on April 25th,,,and Big B was KILLING IT! He hasn't lost a step whatsoever. This time around, I was handed a Star Wars Tie Fighter (last time I got a horror movie DVD and my wife got a mask). Unfortunately, the show was cut short due to technical issues. After handing out the toys, Buckethead went back to start playing, but could not get the amps on. P-Sticks (his tech) dropped one of Bucket's Les Pauls, too.
It was a really uncomfortable way to end the show, but he shook hands with almost everyone up front, and then left.
Hello Everyone! Just a little feedback, based on some of the initial posts, here...
Quote: shotimac wrote in post #2I am really worried because everytime i pinch a PUNCHER with my thumb, index and middle finger and hold the position for about 5to10 seconds, my forearm would start to shake and i feel a little bit of tingling sensation on my wrist. Is there something wrong with my arm? Or its just fatigue? Should i go see a chiropractor?
First of all shotimac, I sincerely hope you are feeling better, my friend! Secondly: Ergonomics, Ergonomics, Ergonomics! I suggest you check out Pebber's free YouTube video on stretching, and incorporate before and after your practice sessions. When in doubt, SHAKE IT OUT,,,meaning that if you feel any type of tingling, numbness, tightness, just shake it out and relax for a minute, or 2. If symptoms persist, stop playing for the day. If symptoms persist daily, give yourself a break and put the guitar down for at least a week (easier said, than done, yes I know). If symptoms worsen or persist for extended periods of time, then I would suggest checking out a chiro who does acupuncture. No harm in getting a licensed professional to take a look.
Quote: aethermachine wrote in post #5I had the same type of injury, though it was work related. Numbness and tingling all over my left arm, weakness in that arm, terrible pain in my shoulder and back. Ended up having to get a surgical fusion done, was not fun. To the poster with the shaking forearm, this is most likely fatigue, especially if you are just starting out. You'd be surprised how much physical strength you need to develop in your hands and forearms before you can really grip hard and fret properly for long periods of times. I have a hand exerciser thingy, whatever the hell they are called, its like a spring, wrestlers and lifters use them to strengthen their hands. Don't over do it though, its easy to injure yourself. Like Adam mentioned, if the pain becomes continuous and serious, don't take chances, get some medical advice from a doctor. Pace yourself!
Wow...aethermachine, I think we can all learn something valuable from your post! I also hope that you are doing well and practicing pain free!
Quote: MatGeorge wrote in post #6this cut i got right at the joint of my index (picking hand) finger has totally messed me up... can;t even keep my picking steady for 4 notes per beat.... and playing heavy on thicker strings causes pain after a bit... Quite a piss off after putting in a lot of effort and then just losing so much progress..
That does sound painful, MatGeorge, but I hope you have healed well! I believe that our friend, aethermachine, in the quote that I am about to post below makes a WONDERFUL point regarding string gauges and types. In the meantime, I empathize with the frustration of "losing progress," but take it from one who speaks from personal experience: NOTHING is worse than trying to come back too quickly, only to have symptoms worsen! Pebber has some excellent cautionary tales about GREAT guitarists (we're talking L.A. session-quality dudes) who have lost it all after trying to come back too quickly. Patience and rest are their own rewards!
Quote: aethermachine wrote in post #7Right now I'm realizing I need some lighter gauge strings for bending, because I've been practicing bending for quite some time now and I have the strength to do it but I constantly tear into my calluses from bending so much, I ordered a few different packs. I've pretty much always used slinky's, and I tried a pack of those new slinky's with a cobalt alloy, and man those things are ridiculous to bend as I am now figuring out. They do have some amazing tone and sustain, but damn.
EXCELLENT points regarding string gauges & types! Another tool I have in my arsenal of guitar goodies is a product called "Fast Fret." It's a mild lubricant that can work wonders for overall playability and comfort. I'm a huge fan of Slinky's, too!
Well, so far this is turning out to be a VERY beneficial thread. Remember, it is perfectly acceptable (and highly recommended) that we "listen" to our bodies. Rest when needed, and seek out a licensed professional to confirm any lagging doubts or nagging symptoms.
WELCOME to the PB Forum! You are in the right place, my friend,,,and your story is no different from many of your fellow Forum Members. Rest assured, your playing will grow by leaps and bounds by incorporating as little as 15-30 minutes of the "Daily Practice Routine," which can be downloaded as a FREE .PDF from Pebber's site.
It's about the "quality" of your practice, not necessarily the "quantity" of your practice,,,but find that balance! Focus, work it out, warm it up, drill a few permutations, a few trills & spiders, incorporate some single-string picking, run some Scaletone Forms against some backing tracks,,,,lather, rinse, and REPEAT AS DESIRED!
Post videos, get involved,,,I think you will find the atmosphere supportive and friendly! I am The Gardener, and the weeds do get pulled, so relax and enjoy, my fellow seeker of musical knowledge!
Most of us who play guitar have experienced some type of playing-related pain at one point in our development. Sure, not every ache and burning sensation turns out to be serious, but I am going to share my personal experience that will definitely open some eyes, hopefully benefit others, and also hopefully encourage others to share their experiences, as well!
I will start off by stating that, in my opinion, any type of recurring pain is cause to stop and evaluate some things. Ideally, the solution may require something as simple as a slight adjustment of technique. On the other hand, it's far better to seek professional advice, as opposed to just guessing and rolling the dice in hopes of a quick fix. Here's my story:
In early 2015, I developed a slight pain and tingling sensation in my right index finger (my picking hand). I ignored it for weeks, until eventually I literally woke up one morning with a shooting pain down my entire right arm and my right index finger completely numb. The sensation in the entire arm would come and go, but the index finger was numb 24-hours-a-day. Even still, I waited a couple of more WEEKS until I finally mentioned this to Pebber.
His advice? STOP PLAYING IMMEDIATELY, AND SEEK OUT A CHIROPRACTOR WHO DOES KINESIOLOGY MUSCLE TESTING AND ACUPUNCTURE. I found such a chiropractor, and within minutes of my very first visit, I was informed that the reason for the pain, tingling, and numbness in my right index finger originated from a disc at the base of my neck, behind my right shoulder! It was this cluster of nerves which were affecting my entire right arm, all the way to the tip of my index finger. I completely stopped playing; never even picked up a guitar, and it took about 4 months of weekly treatment (chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture) before I was able to start playing even the most basic picking and warm-up exercises again. This may seem like a long time to some folks, but it was the BEST advice and one of the BEST decisions I've ever made in my life.
Pebber knows probably hundreds of musicians who have had similar issues, and he is full of cautionary tales about what can happen when seemingly minor pain goes undiagnosed and untreated. He knows guys who have ruined their entire professional careers, because they did not bother to take the time to address such issues, or because they tried to start playing again way too soon!
Obviously, I am not trying to alarm anyone. I am just advising anyone experiencing recurring pain to please go get it checked out professionally.
On a final note: If for some reason you end up seeing a doctor who immediately starts talking "surgery," I would seriously advise you to seek an alternative treatment. Pebber and I have known guitarists who were diagnosed with something like "carpal tunnel syndrome" and told they must have surgery. Yet, these same guitarists sought alternative solutions and were eventually completely cured WITHOUT having to go under the knife.
Again, I hope my experience helps some of you, and I look forward to reading about your experiences!
Welcome to the PB Forum! There have been many of us, myself included, who have had to deal with similar issues. I am actually going to start a "Pain Thread," where I will share my personal experience that will hopefully benefit others and encourage them to share their experiences, as well!
Aside from Pebber, I am not sure if any of you are aware of this, but it was brought to my attention about a week ago that our would-be shredder took his case to the Buckethead forums. Not surprisingly, the majority of the "bots" (a.k.a. fans of Buckethead) actually BELIEVE the videos are legit.
He made sure to ratchet up the drama with a post something to the effect of, "Buckethead's teacher, Pebber Brown, thinks I'm a fraud..." or something like this.
It's just funny to gauge the reaction of real musicians versus fanboys. Now, I am not saying there are not "real musicians" that participate in these forums, because I used to be extremely active on buckethead.tk., and I made some REALLY good friends on that site. However, I assure you that the majority of such forum members know little, or next-to-nothing, about what it means to actually learn and play guitar.
As a serious musician, a friend of Pebber, and an administrator of PB Forum, I always try to keep the mood cordial and polite. Therefore, I guess the only thing I have left to say at this time is, "Good Luck," to our fellow musician. If his skills are truly legit, then we should be seeing him tearing it up on stage any day now, or perhaps starring in his own "Hot Licks" tutorial video (QUICK, somebody call Don Mock!!!), or melting faces at the next NAMM show as a pitchman for any of the newest and hottest gear.
I'll keep my eyes open, but I won't hold my breath.
You are very welcome, and I am more than certain that you can nail those 7's with ease! It is never easy going from triplets, to quarter notes, to 5's, 6's, 7's, etc. every couple of measures, so actually, I tip my cap to you for making it look so effortless. The reason I thought you may be using a GoPro was due to the nice shot looking down towards your guitar. In any case, the quality and sound of both vids are great.
Sorry for the delay, but I will try my best to follow up on your questions:
Quote: shotimac wrote in post #6After learning and memorizing the patterns of the C major scale. What is the next step?? I do not know what to do about these scales.
Here are just a few suggestions on how to take what you've learned, expand on it, and then APPLY IT:
1) With your metronome or backing track: Play one position ascending (low string to high string) then slide up the last note of Position 1 to the last note of Position 3 (for example), and play Position 3 descending (high string to low string). Then slide from the 1st note of Position 3 to the 1st note of Position 5 and play Position 5 ascending,,,then up to Position 7 where you will descend...etc.
2) With your metronome or backing track: Sequences: Play each position in sequences (2's, 3's, 4's, 5's,,etc.). Don't forget to change the order of the notes, as well: (1, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 5, 7, 6, 8, 7), etc.
3) With your backing track: Just play! Use a combination of sequences, bending notes, slides, trills, and change of the length of notes. Hey! You are now creating a melodic solo!!!
4) Same as #3 above, but now try playing with backing tracks in different keys!
Quote: shotimac wrote in post #7In C major scale 14th position system, do i also have 14th major pentatonic scale?
Technically, you can look at this way. After all, each major/minor scale has it's own major/minor pentatonic scale and major/minor arpeggio within. However, I try to keep things a bit more simple when it comes to the pentatonic scale: Personally, I stick to 5 positions - that's it. Now, I like to do things like combine positions, and play scales on single-strings. This is just the style I have developed over the years. This is a good question, so I wonder if some of our other colleagues could chime in on this one.
Welcome to the PB Forum!!! Is that a Parker you are playing? Are you filming with a GoPro? Anyway, I digress:
1) METRONOME! 5-stars right off the bat!
2) LEFT HAND: Looks really good to me!
3) RIGHT HAND: Smooth, even technique! My only "critique" is that those 7's in the "Picking exercises..." video were just slightly off. However, I understand that you were trying to get everything in AND keep the video short and sweet. Based on the ease with which you breezed through all of the other notes-per-beat, I am more than convinced that you've got your 7's down.
SUMMARY: I LOVE IT ALL!!!
Keep up the fantastic work, and I really look forward to more videos!
What a FANTASTIC Thread!!! Will and Heyman, your feedback and videos are PERFECT in relation to aethermachine's topic!
Personally, I cannot think of any better way to work on rhythm than by learning how to "comp" chords in the jazz format. Will, you hit the nail right on the head when it comes to learning inversions and triads! I am basically considered the "Lead Guitarist" in one of the musical projects I am involved with: Chris Ott & The Confidants (or sometimes, just: The Confidants). Chris Ott is the the primary songwriter and lyricist, so he will sketch out a song, send it over to me or just come over and show it to me in person, and IMMEDIATELY, I am looking to "accompany" his playing, not "mimic" it.
Yes, I do learn the exact same chords he is playing, in order to be able to play the basics. However, the very first thing I often do is to start playing triads in an upper register over his chords. I will also alter the length of the notes. For example, if the rhythm consists of strumming a C-Major chord in half-notes, I will play the triad over it using quarter-notes. Another trick I like to do is to arpeggiate an inversion or triad over the basic chords.
Come to think of it, I think I'll demonstrate using Will's and/or Heyman's videos...STAY TUNED!
Welcome to the PB Forum! I cannot tell you how inspiring (and REALISTIC) your post comes across. So many people in the music education field, both would-be "teachers" and students, are constantly espousing, trying to sell, or seeking the latest "QUICK FIX" or "SECRET" to becoming a technically proficient and efficient musician. As Pebber indicated, only the pros and those on their way to becoming a pro truly understand that it takes discipline and perseverance to seriously excel and learning an instrument (or pretty much anything else in life).
I always like to use myself as an example: I first got to know Pebber in 2008, after I had already been playing a little over 20 YEARS. Immediately, I was introduced to the Sarod and Scalpel Picking Techniques. It took me 6 months of daily, disciplined practice before I felt comfortable using this style when playing live on stage. Even to this day, I constantly drill both techniques and have adopted a sort of Sarod/Scalpel Hybrid Technique for the majority of my playing. If you check out some studies from accredited institutions, I believe most experts agree that it takes about 10,000 HOURS of practice and drilling in order to "master" a new technique.
So, what do I mean by "daily, disciplined practice"?:
1) Like you, I would drill each string, 1 hour each.
2) METRONOME (enough said).
3) As Christopher mentioned in his post above: I quite often break down the hour into 15-minute segments of half-notes, quarter-notes, eighth-notes, sixteenth-notes. I sometimes break it down into 3, 5, 6 & 7 notes-per-beat. Also, I will set my metronome to increase by anywhere between 2-5 BPM every 16th measure (or some variation of this), note the point where I "max out," then lower the BPM by about 10-20, and finally plateau for the remainder of the hour. Then, I will try to beat my "max" BPM every few days.
I am so happy to see that you followed the advice of my emails to you! As I previously stated, you are off to a tremendously fantastic start. The simple fact that you use a metronome proves to me that you are on the right track. Here are my thoughts:
SPIDER EXERCISE 60bpm single triplets: Left-hand technique looks great!
130bpm 3perbeat Permutation 1: These are really good permutations!
160bpm TRILL 1st string: I agree with deltadiscos, that the timing on these exercises is off. If you are able to dial down the BPM from 60, take it down to 40 or 50, and find the right tempo. Then build from there. If you cannot go lower than 60 BPM, then try using half-notes, instead of quarter-notes.
105bpm 4pb Permutation 1: The timing is a little off here. Perhaps take it down to 95 - 100 BPM, and then build up from there. Your picking is good.
C MAJOR SCALE 14th position: I would suggest using a metronome, but otherwise, very good job!
160bpm 2perbeat c major scale 14th: It is obvious that you know your patterns, but I would again suggest slowing things down just a little bit. Nice work!
Trill Exercises, in my opinion, are the most difficult exercises, but your playing and your control will become much better, the more you work on your Trill Exercises. This is not a race to see who is fastest. It's about developing a clean, fluid playing style and technique. You can do it!!!
To answer your question: YES! You are definitely on the right track, Mark.
My "better nature" actually prevailed upon posting my initial response. In fact, I actually tried contacting Pebber before leaving my response, because I had a concern about the speed of the video. If you look at the area around his neck and the guitar strap, it totally looks "herky-jerky," if you know what I mean. Regardless, I tried to give this guy the benefit of the doubt.
By the time Pebber got back to me and confirmed my suspicions, I had already posted. Pebber also directed me back to this thread, and I am happy to see I am not alone in my suspicions. Therefore....
Welcome to the FORUM! You are in the right place! Metal has become so diversified with all of the different genres, so your question is a difficult one to answer. Here is what I think:
1) LEARN EVERYTHING. ALL SCALES, ALL MODES.
2) If you are going for an "exotic" feel: Minor, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor,,,,and Pebber's favorite: Hungarian Minor!
3) For that Joe Satriani, Steve Vai feel: Lydian & Mixolydian
4) Of course, some rapid-fire Pentatonics are very "metal," indeed!
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