A Thought to Keep in Mind When Soloing/Improvising

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey there everyone! There’s something I’d like to discuss with everyone. This is something I feel very passionate about, as it’s something I see too many players fall to, and it can ruin an otherwise talented player.
Shredding is great. Playing 64th notes at 280 BPM is amazing. Doing sixlet arpeggio sweeps at 260 BPMs is just as incredible. But as I search through the riff page, I see a lot of players that are missing bends, playing out of key, playing off time, and struggle with a vibrato. But these same players are SERIOUS SHREDDERS of full- throttle speed. I’d like to encourage the students on this school to practice everything equally, and never to let touch and melody be sacrificed for speed.
I’m always one for tough love. But it’s only because I want EVERYONE on this school to become better players, regardless of style or approach. Even the most ridiculously fast shredders like Syu of Galneryus can play melodically.
So my little tough love for the week is this…
If you struggle with something and it’s not your strong point, practice it. If you are weak and off pitch with bends but are solid with vibratos, practice your bends! If you are amazing with melodic phrasing but struggle with speed picking, practice it! Or it can be something as simple as struggling with hearing and tuning your guitar to a perfect pitch or getting your perfect tone with your amp… Practice it!
Let’s all be very mindful of what we should improve on and make ourselves the best we can be!!!
Have an awesome week, everyone!!

 

[Ed Seith]

I live in opposite world. I got bend and vibrato for days, but my speed comes from a strange place, so I am focusing on strict alternate picking right now. Syn’s Etude #1. It’s a great way to force you to break up picking into different numbers of notes per beat, too. Interestingly enough, an odd economy picking evolved in my style organically – I’ll be going back and working on that correctly, too, but after alternate proper.
Listen to Jak – she knows her shit, she’s cool as hell, and she’s the Syn Whisperer.

 

[Daniel Bernard]

Well said

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Lol @Ed the $yn whisperer

 

[Dan Shipway]

I am with Ed, Soloing with bends and vibrato isn’t a struggle but shred is, for me, realising what the problems are and finding ways to sort them out makes it seem less daunting and more achievable.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Very true, Dan!

 

[Richard O'connor]

This is why i have never been regimented when it comes to practising with a metronome. Don’t get me wrong i understand the importance of doing so and you would be daft not to do so, but i think its about finding the balance. In my experience, and this maybe not be everyones, i have found that those who are monster shredders, and have spent hours practising along to a metronome lack feel. There are very few people out there that can melt your face off but also have that feel, the feel of a blues player. They lack a solid vibrato, and the intonation in their bends can be off, this is just to name a few. I think its a hard skill to have playing with feel. Maybe its not a skill and its something within you? I don’t know. I cant imagine someone like slash or BB King practised along to a metronome and yet they have incredible skills.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Richard, you and I think a lot alike! Every single time somebody has asked me for tips about improving speed I actually never encourage metronome usage. The reason why, is that everybody spends too much time raising the metronome instead of actually feeling out with their fingers are doing. For example, there are many scale patterns that I have problems with but only in certain areas. If I play with a metronome, all I’m doing is continually stumbling over that one part. So I try to practice the parts as efficiently as I can that I’m good with, and then when it comes time for that transition part that I struggle with, I allow myself to slow down. I think metronome practicing is great if you want to go into the studio. But I wish in a way I could talk to Synyster Gates about his usage of the metronome. Because if you dissect his solos, I don’t think that some of those were written to a metronome. There is almost a sense of rhythmic instability in them. It’s a LOT of feel. On solos like for “Scream” I’m sure there was metronome practice. Since you do play some of his stuff very well, I’m sure you can relate. I sometimes feel that using a metronome is only a way to gauge how fast you can play, and to decipher a good tempo for a song for the band to stay consistent. But ultimately, if you have a metronome, unless you have a fancy program to change your time signature or a shuffle feel or whatever, ultimately all you’re doing is playing to a Beat. I actually talked about this in my guitar tips video.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

For me it’s just a thing of what I am doing. Until now I was in a stage where I was more as happy to get the notes and more or less the speed down for a solo. And it of course then depends what I am playing because you can’t eg practice bends in every solo. Because playing guitar is about fun and not too much about exercise (until now for me at least!) that was the way I approached things.
But now starting on theory, having created my first own riff, the first thing I might work on is timing. I always struggle with the exaxt timing between notes in “not shredding” solos. You can clearly see that in my first “Buried Alive” Intro approaches.
So I definetly see you point Jak, but I think it is kinda a matter where you stand regarding your skill and knowledge

 

[Richard O'connor]

i have to be honest. ive been playing guitar 20 years now, and only since learning with the school have i used a metronome. But as has already been said, ive used it to build up chops nothing more

 

[Ed Seith]

I would say that playing to a metronome is a very important *part* of *practice*. Learning a brand new part, it’s important to play each bit as slowly as you need to – repeatedly – to get it comfortably under your fingers. Once there, you start playing it along to a metronome at a stupefyingly slow pace, and only increase slowly to the point where you’re nearing your limit on the hardest part of the piece. Work from there.
I’d also say that my favorite solos tend to be a mix of pre-written parts and off-the-cuff wingdings to keep it interesting.

 

[Dan Shipway]

^This. To paraphrase what Ed said, Get to the point where your hands forget how to hand and at that point keep practising until you get more comfortable until the movement is fluid and feels more natural. Remember to keep the practising fluid. DON’T CHEAT YOURSELF, If it is not clean don’t get faster, be brutally honest with yourself and ask “Is this the cleanest i can play?” If not then its not the right time to increase your speed.
Hope this helps in any way \M/

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Definitely do agree. I should have said that metronome work should be a part of practice. But I think what I was getting at is that so many people only focus on playing scales with a metronome to see how fast they can get them. And I was just trying to Simply encourage people to not rely on the metronome for your only sake of seeing and gauging your improvement

 

[idssdi]

You shouldn’t really rely on the metronome to keep time ino the first place. In a band situation or when you’re jamming with another guitar player you usually don’t have one.
You are absolutely right btw. Just shredding up and down a scale is incredibly boring to listen to. The most important thing in the end is creating melodies and having the right feel for the music. Take David Gilmour for example he is amazing but he usually doesn’t shred. Just melodies and amazing bends.
Good advice Jak!

 

[Dan Shipway]

The way I look at it is speed is something that is good to have but not necessary for being a good guitar player