J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
First of all, I can’t even begin to describe the overwhelming support and positive feedback I’ve received on the video. I simply meant for it to be encouraging to those who were struggling with it like I did for oh I dunno, two years? I thought because I could relate to those who struggled I was able to offer some insight on how to overcome the similar difficulties. Of course, the kind comments from Papa Gates always put a smile on my face, and naturally the epic shoutout from Syn made me overly wired with excitement I thought my head was gonna burst, but the BIGGEST compliment I could receive was the messages and comments about how it actually HELPED many other guitar players. That’s all I wanted. To see people writing me and saying “I tried that for years and couldn’t do it until I saw your video” made me feel so happy because that’s what I feel like with this school. There were so many things I just couldn’t get because of so many factors.
But one thing I noticed is that I keep getting a lot of questions about “How did you learn that? What can I do to strengthen my pinky? My fingers won’t cooperate, what do I do?”
First off, I’m by no means an expert. I flubbed in that video quite a bit. But I’d like to take this time to tell people it’s okay to flub and mess up, because I’ve seen a lot of comments on Syn’s page about how people feel they’re not good enough to play but they want to. I’d like to encourage these people by telling them, you’re never going to be ‘good enough’ for everyone so you may as well improve yourself, FOR YOURSELF, the best that you can. There’s always going to be one person to bash you down and the worse thing you can do for your passion or future music career is to beat yourself down before you even start or continue
Secondly, everything you could ever need to know to learn any Avenged Sevenfold song and any song for that matter can be found right here in this school. When I watched A7X live, when Syn would play I wouldn’t actually watch him but I would watch the zoomed in camera footage of him on the stage that showed his fingers. I would watch Youtube videos and look up tabs, but ultimately a lot of things were wrong. When you learn how to PLAY the guitar and not just songs, you learn a whole bag of tricks that makes your possibilities endless. This school has been amazing for that. I’m finding myself using my Amazing Slow Downer program more and this school and actually figuring things out on my own. Your ear also becomes trained to hear things like “I can clearly tell that’s a wrong note” and it helps you make your own smart choices. It’s a lot of deductive reasoning and a whole lot of “what the hells?” but in the end it’s worth it!
Thirdly, the finger dexterity and pinky strength really comes from focusing on what you’re actually doing. Don’t just speed up the metronome and try to play fast. Try to play accurately, deliberately and passionately. Turn off the metronome sometimes and play with FEELING so that you’re not rushing against the beat. This allows you to relax and actually feel out what you’re doing instead of just paying attention to staying on time. This is how I was able to determine I’m terrible with descending patterns and I’m not gripping bends properly. Plus, you can also damage your wrists and fingers that way. Stretch them out individually, play on an acoustic more often for strength, and do these lessons in here. There’s a LOT that will work these problems out if you spend enough time on them
Lastly, post up your videos on here! So many people have been showcasing that they feel embarrassed to do it. Don’t! This community is great and you can only improve if you show what you need help with or are improving on. Papa Gates and Syn (among everyone else) are so supportive in helping. Don’t be afraid! Even if you just post up a video that you learned how to hold a guitar, that’s a great start because so many people learn bad posture in the beginning and end up with shoulder and neck problems and even carpal tunnel later on. Remember, you’re doing this for you and no one else
I hope this helps. If anyone wants me to, I can post some more videos of my chromatic exercises I developed based off of the beginner lessons. I really believe chromatics are excellent in training hand-to-hand coordination, string accuracy and more and they’re often overlooked. You all are so great and so many people on here have helped me sooooo drastically; I hope I can do the same in return….
Keep rockin’!
But one thing I noticed is that I keep getting a lot of questions about “How did you learn that? What can I do to strengthen my pinky? My fingers won’t cooperate, what do I do?”
First off, I’m by no means an expert. I flubbed in that video quite a bit. But I’d like to take this time to tell people it’s okay to flub and mess up, because I’ve seen a lot of comments on Syn’s page about how people feel they’re not good enough to play but they want to. I’d like to encourage these people by telling them, you’re never going to be ‘good enough’ for everyone so you may as well improve yourself, FOR YOURSELF, the best that you can. There’s always going to be one person to bash you down and the worse thing you can do for your passion or future music career is to beat yourself down before you even start or continue
Secondly, everything you could ever need to know to learn any Avenged Sevenfold song and any song for that matter can be found right here in this school. When I watched A7X live, when Syn would play I wouldn’t actually watch him but I would watch the zoomed in camera footage of him on the stage that showed his fingers. I would watch Youtube videos and look up tabs, but ultimately a lot of things were wrong. When you learn how to PLAY the guitar and not just songs, you learn a whole bag of tricks that makes your possibilities endless. This school has been amazing for that. I’m finding myself using my Amazing Slow Downer program more and this school and actually figuring things out on my own. Your ear also becomes trained to hear things like “I can clearly tell that’s a wrong note” and it helps you make your own smart choices. It’s a lot of deductive reasoning and a whole lot of “what the hells?” but in the end it’s worth it!
Thirdly, the finger dexterity and pinky strength really comes from focusing on what you’re actually doing. Don’t just speed up the metronome and try to play fast. Try to play accurately, deliberately and passionately. Turn off the metronome sometimes and play with FEELING so that you’re not rushing against the beat. This allows you to relax and actually feel out what you’re doing instead of just paying attention to staying on time. This is how I was able to determine I’m terrible with descending patterns and I’m not gripping bends properly. Plus, you can also damage your wrists and fingers that way. Stretch them out individually, play on an acoustic more often for strength, and do these lessons in here. There’s a LOT that will work these problems out if you spend enough time on them
Lastly, post up your videos on here! So many people have been showcasing that they feel embarrassed to do it. Don’t!
This community is great and you can only improve if you show what you need help with or are improving on. Papa Gates and Syn (among everyone else) are so supportive in helping. Don’t be afraid! Even if you just post up a video that you learned how to hold a guitar, that’s a great start because so many people learn bad posture in the beginning and end up with shoulder and neck problems and even carpal tunnel later on. Remember, you’re doing this for you and no one else I hope this helps. If anyone wants me to, I can post some more videos of my chromatic exercises I developed based off of the beginner lessons. I really believe chromatics are excellent in training hand-to-hand coordination, string accuracy and more and they’re often overlooked. You all are so great and so many people on here have helped me sooooo drastically; I hope I can do the same in return….
Keep rockin’!
