The Things I've Learned and A New Philosphy I've Adapted

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey everyone!
Another heart-to-heart thing for the guitarists on here. It’s something that I have found that has seriously helped break me away from the ball and chains of practicing and has helped advance my playing so quickly. And the simply philosophy is this: Learn to use and then use to learn.
I found myself practicing scale patterns for HOURS with sequences and stuff. And I’ve been taking these lessons VERY seriously from the beginning with theory. However, I have started really liking Bebop jazz (thanks Syn for all those Instagram videos!) and so I decided to try to put my knowledge to the test. And I COULDN’T EVEN START! I had NO idea what I was doing! It turns out, that I’ve been spending so much time trying to get my scales faster, that I was ignoring how to actually USE them. So I like to encourage everyone by saying this- Learn something, and immediately USE it. And then the more you USE it, your instincts will naturally allow you to become better overtime and LEARN how to actually do it. Don’t sit there and practice scale runs all day. You will get faster and more proficient and actually be able to utilize them if you learn, then use immediately.
Final thought…
I had a huge eureka moment when I finally got the Hail To The King solo up at full speed yesterday. I chimed in to an AMAZING guitarist named Achim Kohl on youtube, and I tried to mock things that he, Syn and PG always do. Believe it or not, performing complex chords and different scales and jumping back and forth between a Dm7 chord and then immediately doing licks over it, helped me relax my hand to where doing the arpeggios in the solo came more naturally. So in conclusion, if you want to play metal or any song, I really truly believe that when you break away from the monotony of practicing just ONE thing and you learn other styles and stuff, it can open up your abilities to do other things far easier.
I hope this helps and I sure would love feedback on your progressions so far! Keep it up everyone!
*Head up, boots on, march forth!*

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

This is a very useful advice. Thanks Jak. I also found this out recently. I was learning some arpeggios from the lessons here. The moment I started applying them,it felt like a childish happiness. Like finding a new toy and then immediately finding out what it does. I have one question though,In hail to the King solo, towards the end, a reverse sweep pattern comes. is it possible to do it with alternate picking?

 

[Jak Angelescu]

That is awesome!!! I’m so happy for you! Truthfully I tried this with alternate picking for 2 years. You really are going to be better off doing it with economy Style. For one it gets that more fluid flowing sound that is required in that part. Alternate picking might make it sound too choppy. Every guitar player has their own individual style and approach to the guitar and you are more than free to try it with alternate picking if you wish. But ultimately I think you’re going to save yourself a hell of a lot of grief if you do it economy Style. I was actually very close to giving up on the solo until I zoomed in on one of my video footage is of Syn playing it live from a concert I went to and saw he wasn’t playing at the same way I was. Ever since then it’s been pretty much smooth sailing of just improving the speed and learning it.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

Cool. Thanks.

 

[idssdi]

You’re absolutely right on this! The reason i’very barely ever done exercises in my life is because I consider them boring. Pretty much all the stuff I know ow comes from learning other people’s songs and analyze what’s going on so I can kinda steal/apply similar stuff to my own songs! Listening to the same patterns and only scale runs is actually boring g to my ear and I never want to play stuff that I consider boring (I try to really listen to my own playing while i’masturbated playig and check to make sure what i’m playing is actually to my liking

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Umm, Ids… I think your autocorrect got the best of you buddy

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I still think learning exercises and technique is crucial. But right after you’ve learned it I think it’s immediately time to apply it j you see for me, learning these kinds of things first actually helps me learn other people songs really quickly. But I guess for you as the other way around

 

[idssdi]

I’m starting to get why I turned it off. And it annoYing the shit out of me. Obviously I meant to write I’m

 

[Jak Angelescu]

It’s ok… In my last comment mine made me say “I’m juicy for you”

 

[idssdi]

I kinda consider each little lick In a solo as an exercise but learning other people’s solos also immediately gives me context of why it works and stuff like that

 

[Dan Shipway]

I tend to do that as well, the way I learned to sweep pick worked like that.
I used 2 runs in the beast and the harlot chorus and hammered on 1&1/2 tones higher
so you play
E———-12-15-12——–
B——-13———-13—–
G—-12—————12—
D-14——————–14-
and then repeat at the 12th fret and It has helped hugely with technique and it is fun to be able to take something from a song and turn it into an exercise because its the best of both so there is a good balance between songs and skills.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

THE IMPROV CHALLENGE IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THIS. Ids challenged us to do a lesson I didn’t do, and within two days I had two seperate patterns down for the scale he challenged us to do for the video. And there’s a new part this week to do too, as I have to remap out the Caged system for two completely different chords. Good times lol.