It's a mental game too. - improves your playing instantly!

[chilln2music]

Just a thought...

I'm use to sitting with a metronome playing through a clean amp being a slave to awful dreaded exercises and scales. Well I find out this is all wrong. At least for me. I was concentrating too much on my technique. Every single nuance or string noise I would look at as a mistake and start over or play the exercise longer.

Then one day...
I plug through my rig and just jammed for a while...I do this often but then...I starting running through scales melodically ...with structure and making it musical like a true musical exercise. Then all of a sudden I ripped a sequence I never thought of being able to play. It was incredible.

I guess the point is when your mind is set on playing the exercise "accurately" you actually play worse. You have to play almost naturally. Thats not to say don't ever practice with a metronome it just means for me...that when I do sit down with that damn clicking box that I think of the music I'm going to play and not worry so much about the mechanics. I know I'm going to have my set backs downfalls and plateaus (sp?) but I can always relax and enjoy the music I'm making right now.

ok you guys are probably thinking I'm really crazy but I don't care. Maybe this will help someone exceed their current abilities as it has done wonders for me.

[Vai is God]

That's excellent! Finding inspiration is a wonderful thing.

It's great to practice technique with excercises that have musical value. The other reason, IMO, that you were able to rip through that sequence was because you loosened up!

When you do need to do some exercises, relax, chew gum, put your feet up. It sounds to me from your email, and this, that you tense up when you play excerises and scales. The reason you were able to play so much better is because you loosened up and let the musical ideas flow without being so critical of every little portion of your technique. If you apply this carefree, loose approach when you play exercises you'll be able to play them faster and cleaner. Have confidence in your playing.

Once again, I've never seen or heard you play so this is all based on assumption and for all I know I could be completely off.

Keep me updated on Berlkee, I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

[Carlo]

Cool, i'm glad I'm not the only one. *Lately, I've also become less and less obssessed about technique. *I remember my old practice regime consisting mainly of alternate picking sequences and metronome exercises. *I would do it for hours each day until my hands couldn't take it anymore. *I became so ****
about it. *

My moment of revelation came after many improvising sessions,where I would be playing over couple of jam tracks. *Each time, i would pull off these uninsipiring scalar runs, I ended up sounding really lame, repetitious, and mechanical. *To put it simply, my phrasing sucked big time! *I was definitely in a musical rut.

After that moment of epiphany, I tried restructuring my whole practice method, as well as, my approach to guitar. *I remember buying Paul Gilbert's Intense Rock II video, that vid changed my life because in the last, but the most important, segment of that video he talks about a "whole new method of practicing" ("....it's the new hip thing....metronome is history..." ) *For those who have watched this video, you know what I'm talking about ....so i'm not going to bother explaining it *

Anyways, I took heed of his words and practiced it accordingly. *I never felt so liberated. *I learned a new way to practice my phrasing, *where I tried to let my brain instead of my fingers do all of the talking, while becoming less obssessed about technique and metronoming. *Approaching guitar playing that way certainly felt more natural to me. *My phrasing has been improving ever since. *

Andrew, i don't think you're crazy at all. *You raised a very excellent point IMHO. *Music is not all just about technique, it is also about rhythmic feel and dynamics.

[Mirrored CAT]

Quote: from Carlo de Dios on 2:12 am on July 27, 2001
After that moment of epiphany, I tried restructuring my whole practice method, as well as, my approach to guitar. *I remember buying Paul Gilbert's Intense Rock II video, that vid changed my life because in the last, but the most important, segment of that video he talks about a "whole new method of practicing" ("....it's the new hip thing....metronome is history..." ) *For those who have watched this video, you know what I'm talking about ....so i'm not going to bother explaining it

Do you mind explaining it for me?

[Vai is God]

Yes, please explain.

[Carlo]

Pretty much, this method is rather simple and obvious. *But I totally overlooked it. *Here's the gist of it:

Paul said that one of the keys to better soloing and phrasing is by learning how to break things down into a purely ryhtmic form. *

For example, take any riff that you're trying to solo over. *Just don't look at the riff in terms of notes but also look at it in terms of rhythmic structure. * He says, try mimicing the riff solely in terms of beats and rhythms by tapping your foot or clapping your hands. Use that as a backbone or your reference point for your soloing, instead of the repetitious beat of the metronome. *Then add the notes and dynamics to it, while using the riff to help keep you in time.

I don't know if the concept is new to you guys but it was somewhat a striking revelation for me because I too was a slave to metronome drilling. *But, thanks to the video, my focus has now changed. *I think breaking it down in the way Paul described would be a good way to improve. *I also realized that memorizing billions of other people's licks and patterns were not going to help my soloing any if I didn't know how to apply them in the right rhythmic context first.

I hope i'm making sense here.

Oh yeah, by the way, I just got Paul's "Guitars from Mars 2(rock)" video a couple of days ago. *Great vid....I highly recommend it, if you are looking to improve your blues/ rock playing a bit

[chilln2music]

Sam...yea I realized that loosening up and not concentrating strictly on the technique helped tremendously...thanks. I totally agree confidence is a big part of your performance. Like I said... it's a mental game.

Word from Berklee is I have to call the school on the 6th of August and see if there were any cancellations (I'm sure there has to be right?). I have up to 2 days before for people to cancel. I hope things work out because I waited till my senior year in high school to do this and now I may not ...oh well...I'll go someday for sure.

[Vai is God]

I'm sure someone will cancel, do you know how far up you are on the waiting list? You should be pretty far considering how they totally screwed you over.

[Mr Orange]

Hey Andrew, what's the Berklee story?
Are you on waiting list for a room or is it admission that it's about? Did they mess everything up there?

[chilln2music]

Waiting list for a room...I applied for the summer guitar sessions before July 27th (July 23 to be exact) which they suggested and said housing is available until the 27th ...after which you need to call to make sure it can be arranged.

Well...they processed my application anyway but said housing isn't available! I was soo mad so I had my mom call and bitch them out. They didn't do a whole lot (and it took them 3 days to tell us this...talk about unprofessional as they didn't call back when they said they would). Just said I should call back on on the 6th or 7th and ask if anyone cancelled leaving a room available.

Overall I feel Berklee handled this situation poorly. They should have advertised that housing "could possibly fill up earlier" or something. I was under the impression that if I applied before the 27th it wouldnt be a problem. What sucks is I now have round trip plane tickets to Boston as I purchased them right before sending in the app. Oh well...I just hope I'm not on the stink list when I do end up going there

[Vai is God]

Ohhh, I thought they told you there was housing availible and then called you and said there was none later. I sent in my application in April.

They can't guarantee that people won't fill it up before a certain date. Still, I"m sure someone will cancel.

[Vai is God]

Well, are you able to go? My plane leaves tommorow morning, and I hope to see you at Berklee.

[chilln2music]

No * *this totally stinks...I waited till my senior year in high school to go....oh well

Ya know...out of all this I learned one lesson. Don't procrastinate!

Oh hey...try to hook up with my friend, Robby Lapp. He's leaving tomorrow as well, I was suppose to be on the same flight with him but aaah...well you know my story. Anyway I showed him your clip of flight. He plays a USA Jackson with that cool erie dess swril. Anyway have fun bro and tell me all about it!!! I'm goin next year for sure!!!!!

[Vai is God]

That really sucks.

I wrote his name down and I'll look him up when I get there. I'll also make sure to tell you if it's all it's cracked up to be when I get back.

Also, I'll try to absorb (and maybe write down) every thing I can learn and emal it (and/or post it) to you if I can.

There's always next year!

Oh yeah, and I'd still really like to hear some of you're playing!

[Jay Satriani]

(Edited by Jay Satriani at 8:21 pm on Aug. 21, 2001)