My New Practice Regimen And Dropping Covers

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey there guys and dolls! I have been really bugging out about my musical progress as of late. Another student named Alex had a really inspiring post about finally taking this school seriously. And I’ve been telling myself over and over again that “Today is the day I start actually doing the lessons to the fullest extent” and I keep not holding myself accountable. I think because this isn’t an actual school where you HAVE to show up for class and you HAVE to make a good grade, it’s too easy to fall by the wayside because we often just get lazy. I’m glad the school is not like that, but I’ve been stepping up my own game these last few days and WOW. The other day, my dad was SO impressed with me playing Nightmare and Hail To The King, he said “I’ve got a song I’m recording that I think sweeps would sound good on. Do you think you can play some sweeps out of the key of G major?” I….literally….froze…..UP. First of all, I didn’t even know the notes off the top of my head in a G major key. I also didn’t even know where to find them on the neck!
Enter the devil’s advocate.
I had spent SO much time on learning these covers, that ultimately as a musician, it doesn’t get me anywhere. I can’t go fill in with a jazz band on a Friday night at the drop of a hat. I can’t go fill in at the spur of the moment for an 80’s tribute band who needs a shredder because I can only play two ‘shreddy’ solos but I don’t really know how to “shred”. Does that make sense? I can’t go into my local family cafe, plug in a small Marshall amp and say “Y’all ready to hear some God Hates Us by Avenged Sevenfold?” I also am still struggling with writing my own solos.
So going on, I tried to write a new practice regimen that would fit a good chunk of time in for the school, plus some theory, my classical studies, and my originals. At first I had included time for these covers to still work on them. But I can’t do it. I simply don’t have enough time. So I thought to myself, “If I take the school seriously and I start advancing, solos like Nightmare and Hail To The King will eventually come more naturally to me. All I’ll have to do is LEARN them, but i won’t have to necessarily spend 5 months PRACTICING them.” It’s a concept I preached about a long time ago but eventually failed to take my own advice. I spoke with Hector, and it took him 4 months to LEARN Exist. That’s fairly quick for that kind of song! But he didn’t have to sit there and bash his head in for 10 hours a day even trying to get it 50% speed, he already could mostly PLAY like that, he just had to learn the song.
So I’m applying that to my own repertoire. I’m dropping covers and hoping that by taking the school itself more seriously, I’ll advance enough to truly grow as a musician instead of spending 2 hours a day on covers only to not really know what I’m doing. That way, like Hector, I could learn the entire A7X/Judas Priest/Testament/Skid Row/Guns N’ Roses or Pantera catalogue in a month if I wanted to. BUT, I could also easily write my own solos and gladly fill in on other’s music if asked. Speaking with my dad, the forum topic from Alex, and speaking with Hector all had a BIG awakening for me. So I love you ALL for this VERY VERY much!!!
Happy Practicing!

 

[Hector Trejo]

Jak!! I’m so glad our conversation has struck inspiration with both of us! Yes covers are fun and all, but when you start really analyzing what’s happening in the music, you’ll reach a greater understanding of how it was constructed and you can use that to improvise and write! It is a super tedious process at first because it does take longer to learn songs when you’re really trying to understand what’s going on as opposed to just being satisfied with learning the song for the sake of playing it.
For example: what makes the solo from Hail to the King sound so “majestically evil” and “Egyptian-like”? Well it’s super heavily based on minor 9 arpeggios. I didn’t know that when I learned the solo. I just really liked the sound of it so I spent hours figuring out what Syn was doing until it struck me “Hey this is just a minor arpeggio with an extra note! That extra note gives it that extra flavor!” I then found out that extra note was the second scale degree (aka the 9th) of the scale so I looked up “minor 9 arpeggio” on YouTube and turns out that it’s heavily used in Gypsy jazz!
Also he uses a lot of altered dominant arpeggios in that solo! Again, I had no idea what that was at first. The second to last lick sounded so cool to me and I was like “What is this based off of?! I need to know” so after messing with it for a few hours, I found out it was just a major arpeggio with an added b7 and b2.
Now I use both of these things like crazy in my improv!
So when I was learning Exist, the very first arpeggio I heard was a minor 9th. I messed with Hail to the King so much that the “Egyptian” sound of the scale was embedded in my head. So instead of learning the intro note for note, I learned it arpeggio for arpeggio. And the next arpeggio is a diminished one a half step below. Again, I didn’t need to learn it note for note. I have messed with these so much that I already recognized the sound, shape, and pattern of it!
So yeah, this super long message was pretty much to show everyone that you have a solid point! Learning songs are fun and all and I 100% recommend to do so! But what will take your playing to the next level is to analyze the songs. Find out what exactly creates the sound that you love. Then you can add it to your toolbox!
Best of luck to everyone!
-Hector

 

[Guest]

Great advice to the both of you and I totally agree. Covers are fun to play because the audience immediately recognizes what you’re playing. But if we dive deeper into the songs we’re learning, the gates open up with angels singing in the background…and…VOILA! You figured out the Da Vinci Code. Then you just insert arpeggio here and sprinkle a little major note there and you’re jamming with the best of them.
Don’t quite remember the point I was trying to make, but it made sense in my lost mind.

 

[AGA]

You are so right Hector! I have heard many guitarists say that “one song” taught them how to play,
and I would think “How can you learn how to play off of ONE song?” But then I started doing it myself, I would learn phrase by phrase, try to recognize the particular scale, the landing notes, how different notes sound against different chords, timing, rhythm, etc.
Deconstruct and then create my own variations that I could use in my improv. ONE song can teach you SO MUCH!

 

[idssdi]

You don’t nescecarily have to drop covers all together. Covers are kind of my fun place I mess around with for a bit to just have fun when I come back from lectures or have just finished practicing something. Also analysing what is going on in the covers can really help you a lot with writing your own solos(structure, licks etc.). Maybe try to do what I do and learn the solos kind of half assed like I do and just have fun with them and not beat yourself up so much when you don’t play it exactly like the artist you’re covering. It can really save you a lot of time spend on learning them. You don’t know them precisely like the original artist but it can give you a great sense of what works and what doesn’t.
I wouldn’t have mind if this would be a class where you have to show up and do homework every week btw, it’s fun!

 

[AGA]

Lol, I agree Ids. I kinda like the idea of doing “guitar homework” and uploading “projects”.
That’s what I do on my own to oversee my progress and organize my practices, even if it’s not official.
I also have an app to track my practices and write down what I did that day, or what I think I should work on next.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

When we first started. We were doing the weekly improv videos and you said “maybe it’s time to focus on one.” I did personally. And I’m glad I did. When I went back to the other scales.. it was easier to see the patterns. I have no doubts that you’ll get the other scales down faster the you ever thought.
This is another reason I skip out on covers a lot. It’s nice to play them.. but why not learn the scale to the song.. before learning the song I itself. I think were at that point. Where we gotta start looking into other scales. Or.. the pentatonic.. etc.so many patterns to learn.

 

[Evan Cosman]

Ailee that sounds like such a good idea to write down what you worked on and need to work on, may I ask what app you use?

 

[Joey C]

Thanks… that really hit home lol. No for real, I’m right there with you. I have been playing for going on 17 years. Just like you though, you can name any song by a7x and countless other bands and I can play them all. Of course though, I can’t play like every solo but I got a pretty good chance to. I never focused on learning chords and scales and the notes. Only recently have I started to learn it all. I always thought that it wasn’t what I needed to know. I always thought that these guitarist just picked up the guitar and shreded what ever came to their mind. What I didn’t understand was they where able to do so because they knew all those scales and what not. They knew that “algorithm” and I just knew how to play what they are playing. I thought that if I knew how to play what they were, I was gonna be a great guitarist too. What I didn’t know was yeah, that would make sound like a good guitarist but what was going to turn me from a good guitarist to a great one would be learning how they came up with it, and why.
So thats what im struggling with even today. Because like I said, I have been playing for 17 years and I am still baffled and lost in the beginner lessons on here. I definitely had to lose my ego (it hurt lol) and really sit down and go through EVERY lesson. So far I’m back down to beginner again (went through it once) and I have taken notes in this huge notebook, on everything that papa gates has said and taught us. So far I’m seeing small progress but its better than none.
I’m a very open person, this goes for anyone, if you want to study together on here or talk about anything, yall can always hit me up. But cheers, and shred on!!

 

[AGA]

Sure @evan ! I use an app called “HabitBull”. I use it to track my guitar and voice practices by writing how much time I spent on them that day and writing down what I did on my notes. Really, any “habit tracker” app could work for this, I just picked this one cause it had a “Notes” section.

 

[AGA]

@joey , for me it’s the exact opposite. I have quite a solid knowledge of theory and a fairly good understanding of how it can be applied to the guitar. It was more my technique that was hindering me, though I am noticing great progress with focused daily practice. Where I was frustrated was, I understood the concept but I wasn’t able to put it in practice.
I would highly recommend to you a series of books called “Fretboard Logic” by Bill Edwards.
Possibly the best guitar book I have ever encountered, it guides you through making sense of the fretboard and it ties in with the content that we are learning on this school. So that would be a great supplement.

 

[Joey C]

Ailee, I see. Lol it sucks for me but I’ve been studying my ass off for it all. But it really sucks when I can sit down and shred up a solo and I’ll just be like ” HOW in THE WORLD did they come up with this?!?!?!” haha I will get there sometime in the future, I’m just hoping something clicks with it soon.

 

[AGA]

No doubt about it! It will come together little by little. I’m happy to help if you have any questions.