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Spotlight Student: Chris Johnston

Hey everyone!

So we got your feedback and you guys wanted us to be LOUDER about giving these sort of news...
Well we heard ya and so we decided to name @Chris Johnston as our spotlight student!!!

Chris has been part of this community for a while now and the thing that I love most about him is that he always shows up with a great vibe and attitude. Also, I see him very often going and answering people's question about guitar, theory or whatever anyone needs and always does it out of generosity.

I see you Chris and it's now my turn to say THANK YOU. We all really appreciate you and we wish to see you here for many many years to come.

Cheers to you!

- Rad :rock-hand:

The Real Slim Shady

Whats up dudes, thought I would hop over here since I thought I would give some background on myself. Ive been here for a while but who doesn't love to ramble.

If you dont know me, first of all, you are lucky, believe me there are people I have met just begging to be in your shoes.😂

My name is Dan (Slim Shady is my name after a bank accounts worth of Jack D has gone down the hatch and i'm rambling the lyrics to Without Me in a drunken slur) and I am a guitarist and rec/mixing engineer with a bit of songwriting work on the side too.

Im from the land of drinking tea, being fucking miserable about everything and worshipping Sabbath, RULE BRITANNIA! I started getting into music massively from an old cassette of yellow submarine that my mum used to have with the vocals in one ear and the entire rest of the mix in the other. *Insert boomer joke here*

Needless to say I listened to that on repeat and i mean REPEAT that shit was damn good. It wasn't really until 2008 when I started really listening to music.

I was and still am a HUGE themepark enthusiast and Disney played a huge part in that so you can imagine when I heard there was a ride about a band I was all over it.
Parents not so much, I don't think listening to Steven Tyler talking about shagging in an elevator was in the best taste for a 6 year old.

I started playing guitar at age 9 when lesson flyers came through my school and I was like "Fuck yeah I'm getting all the chicks with this, music's cool too" (chicks dont dig diminished sweeps and I learned that very quickly).

Most of my inspiration for years came from Zakk Wylde and blues rock with a metric fuck ton of it still featured in my playing. Later on came guitarists like Syn and Petrucci and that got me to where I am today, some dude floating around the ether with a guitar style resembling that of Zakk Wylde playing prog after doing lines with Ozzy.

And finally, the mix engineer shit. I study SEP ( Sound Engineering and Production) at university since i knew it would be financially mre stable and it would help me produce my own work to a higher quality.

Im currently doing voluntary work at my local conservatoire (uni owned) which is where Im doing a work placement in recording live and studio music on big SSL desks.

Ok, that's the TED talk, concessions are on your left as you exit and as Ron Burgundy would say "Go fuck yourself"

Love you guys

Hello! I signed up last week.

Hi everyone! My name is Lizzie and I joined last week. I don’t have much guitar experience so I figured if anyone could teach me, it’s Papa Gates!
I am a classically trained violinist and I still love to play my violin, but I wanted to learn something new and enjoy creating music from a different angle. I’ve never been able to do the rock n roll thing as an orchestral violinist but I’ve always wanted to, so I’m here to learn! 🤘

  • Question
Question for people who completed all lessons on synner...

Hi, I'm currently on the beginner lessons in synner. I'm not a beginner because I've been playing for almost 2 years and on this site I've seen lessons about technique and there's Syn's etudes as well. For now, I wanna play guitar for fun and to be able to play the songs I like. So I'm feeling like I should skip the theory lessons right now and watch the technique lessons to improve my technique but I will get back to the theory lessons later. My question is for someone who's completed all synner lessons, if i go straight into the technique lessons will Papa gates be talking about theory because I will get confused then as I skipped theory lessons and in the theory lessons are there any important technique tips because then I will make sure to watch that. Thanks :)
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Reactions: Ye Lwin Aung

Memory and discomfort

This is a post I feel like I should've probably made a while ago but better late than never.

Recently in conjunction with learning and improving my technique I have been trying to learn more theory. Through the time I have been playing I have mainly been learning songs so never grasped basic theory like fretboard layout or the CAGED system and major shapes.

I have been struggling a bit and It seems like a lot of it goes in one ear and out the other or the other scenario is I learn shapes but then when put into practice my knowledge falls apart as im not focusing on playing the scale and learning it. I was hoping someone might be able to share advice on how they practice theory and how they remember it all since I feel like lot of the reason it doesn't stay with me is due to not having the right practice methods in place


The other two points I was going to make surrounded muscle memory and pain coming from practice.

The first point is to do with muscle memory. Im usually quite good at muscle memory but I can at times switch my brain on and start overthinking and I was curious to know how people deal with this as it often makes me trip up when im trying to play but hands and head start to go out of sync

Lastly and I feel this is a point which is important to bring up before I start doing more physically demanding exercises, when is pain/discomfort coming from poor technique and when does it come from muscles being trained to work in a new way? I have been working on middle, ring and pinky finger strength and I get strain when I try to control them and limit "flail" but I wasn't sure if it was down to poor technique or a lack of muscle in the fingers?

Thanks guys!

Something with the app

HHey guys!
I downloaded the app finally and it looks like it would be a great app except I have to use accessibility features for blindness. My TalkBack or voice assistant does not work in the app. I've tried refreshing it and I've tried updating all applications on my phone and it doesn't seem to work. When I click on anything it just doesn't read it. I've had this issue with other applications that are not accessibility friendly. I don't mean to be a pain, I really don't and perhaps I can just continue to use the website if I have to on my phone. I just noticed something with it and wanted to go ahead and put it out there. If anybody has solutions to that I'd be happy and open to hearing it. Other than that, the app seems like it would be a great app! p

Drummers enter the chat 🤘🏻

Hi everyone!

I've been looking at the syn gates school activity since it started but only decided to join yesterday after the hype of the nft launch! A little about myself, I am from Australia and have been playing percussion/drums for 16 years (started age 9), studied all the way through to my Bachelor Degree of Music which I completed in 2015. Since then I started to have some hearing issues and stopped playing shows/performing, but dedicated my time to teaching others. Since then I have grown my own music teaching business to have nearly 30 regular students a week and wanting to eventually open up my own music school. I figured what better way to share my knowledge than with a project from my favourite band/guitarist. I have also been playing guitar for many years and teach beginner, intermediate however my main teaching skills are in drumming. I have extensive knowledge in drumming techniques, styles, skills, as well as guitar and general music theory/songwriting. Whether that is all too much info for a thread I have no idea, but the devil is the detail right? 😂 Hoping I can help as much as I can and also learn more myself from this rad place!

Thanks!

Pain in fretting hand wrist + picking consistency at higher speeds

Hey guys, as a few of you will have probably seen, I have been on a quest to improve all the little faults in my technique to become a cleaner player. One of the areas which I felt was super important to address was finger strength. It was something that became apparent when playing riffs like Metalingus by AB. I did a number of exercises making sure that my 3rd and 4th finger (weakest fingers) were doing all the heavy work but I noticed that when I was getting to the lower frets I started to get pain in my wrist.

The pain I am almost certain is from a mix of my picking hand angle to the fretboard and the distance my pinky has to travel to hit the strings (due to it being smaller than the rest of my fingers) and the neck being thicker.

Has anyone got tips for reducing the tension and pain when trying to use my pinky?

If anyone also has tips for picking consistency at high speed too that would be great as it feels like instead of a decline between clean consistent picking and sloppy "clunkers" its one extreme or the other.

Thanks in advance!
  • Love
Reactions: TheRedMageGuitarist

What new (to you) artists did you discover this year?

With it being the Spotify Wrapped time of year again, I always like to see how my music listening habits changed from the last year. In that same vein I thought it would be interesting to look at what new artists I have 'discovered' over the past year (and actually enjoyed listening to more than once). These aren't necessarily artists that came out with new stuff recently, but they are new to me. My top discoveries of 2021 are:
  • Black Honey
  • Organ Freeman
  • Vulfpeck
  • Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
  • The Dead Pirates
Of course now I also wanna know which artists you 'discovered' (Columbussed, if you will) this year. Again, doesn't actually have to be new material, just something you started listening to for the first time this year :geek:

Tremelo picking and sudden starts

Ive been trying to work on my alternate picking technique but I cant get a consistent controlled result at high speeds. The big problem is I cant figure out what feels natural. Ive been playing for 11 years and it still feels alien. I cant find a hand position that allows for for relaxed yet small movements, the low E is the worst because I cant find a fixed pivot point so im making the alternate picking motion but the notes aren't sounding consistent.

I was also struggling with exercises at higher BPMs because I cant seem to go from 0- 70 bpm in the flick of a switch, it makes trying to practice scales also impossible, does anyone have tips for these issues?

  • Article
Everyone can be a Synner!

Hey everyone!

So I wanted to share with you some slight changes we've made to the ''school'' section of the forums! As you all know, Synner is expanding it's scope. Music remains in the core DNA of Synner and so in an effort to welcome more people to come share their love, knowledge and experience of music, we've made these little adjustments.

First of all, we changed the name from: ''Guitars, Hardware and Setup, & Troubleshooting'' to ''Instruments, Hardware and Setup, & Troubleshooting''
This was done in an effort to make people come here an talk about the cool stuff that they have. Going from different types of drums and cymbals to Violin and Cellos... hell, I wanna hear about some fancy kazoo someone might have!

Screen Shot 2021-12-13 at 12.49.21 PM.png


Next up, we added prefixes (see image below) to the thread creation in that section so that people can come and talk about what they are more knowledgeable and experienced about OR alternatively to ask question about that specific topic and invite experienced people to come and help!

Screen Shot 2021-12-13 at 12.50.40 PM.png


For a start, we decided to go with Guitar (of course), Bass (FINALLY), Vocals, Classical instruments and drums. More can and will be added as we expand even further!

These little changes have been made in an effort to really welcome everyone in this beautiful family. I believe I can now say affirmatively that we have grown past being a guitar exclusive forum and now instead focus on sharing experiences, knowledge and lessons that go above and beyond our wildest ambitions. This will I believe open doors for all of you to gain tools to reach YOUR goal.

Everyone can be a Synner!

- Rad :rock-hand:

  • Article
The Synner App is Here!

Hi everyone, the app is now live on the App Store and Google Play Store!

App Store
Google Play

With the app you can:
  • Watch lessons
  • Create threads and post in other student's threads
  • Ask questions and get community support
  • Post riffs
  • Access SynTV
  • Start conversations with others
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of everything you can do on the app and there's much more you'll be able to see! We really appreciate everyone's help in making this happen and a big thanks to the beta team for their help. We'll be rolling out an update soon to fix some minor bugs and we are aware of a few more bugs that are still being worked on to get resolved. If you see any issue with the app, please post them here and we hope you guys love the app as much as we do!

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