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Recently started EP-436 Practicing Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales. It could be AGES before I get fast enough to match Brian’s practice audios! Questions: How to practice these and learn more without becoming bored / discouraged by the time it’s taking to “get up to speed?” i.e., is it best to keep listening to the next lessons and practicing the licks I like best? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated…
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Hello Robert. Many of us can’t play at the same speed as Brian. I would suggest you keep moving forward with the next lesson so you avoid boredom. The speed will come over time.
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge -
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Don’t those first blues licks feel and sound great to play! Especially if they contain a bend or slide 🙂.
I expect if you asked this to 10 people, you will get 10 different views 😄 so exactly how you go about this is going to be largely up to you.The first thing I’d say is don’t worry about speed. Most of us will struggle to reach warp factor Brian but it couldn’t matter less unless speed is your goal.
Most of Brian’s lessons sound just as good slowed down, some even sound better and many have slow jam tracks to practice with. Just concentrate on making those licks sound great at whatever speed
You can play them. Making a blues lick sound great is all about the subtle nuances in the attack, the timing, the bends the dynamics etc, all those things and you have to practice them slowly for that.Second, I wouldn’t be too concerned about building up a large vocabulary of licks as fast as you can. The chances are you will forget most of them except maybe in the one context or lesson that you learned them. When you learn a lick, try instead to use it in different lessons as your own extension or when jamming alone. Learn how you can make subtle variations to it in timing or notes and anchor in your mind where to play it by chord positions it’s related to and if it’s specific to the 1 4 or 5 chord. That will help you retain it alot better. It can really take a while to get a lick into the subconscious.
If that’s sounds disheartening, don’t be. You can do an awful lot with very little. You can play an entire blues with just a few licks and notes (it’s good practice to try that too) and it’s much better to play a few things well, than a lot mediocre. I can barely remember 10 licks verbatim but that 10 changes over time and I’m happy to noodle around variations on them.
You’ll find that Brian re purposes licks all the time across his lessons so as you progress you’ll come across old friends and new licks so you can let your vocabulary grow organically. Even if you learn just on lick per lesson that’s great.
So the last part of this long response (apologies!) is what lessons. I wouldn’t try to keep up with Brian’s output and learn every lesson. Maybe instead, pick the ones you like the sound of and want to learn, that will keep you interested and they all have licks worthy of learning. (That said, there is a little mini course that might be worth working through EP311-313)
The main thing is have fun with it!
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Hi,
The tempo of the backing tracks in lesson EP436 is actually fairly moderate…If you are a beginner, working specifically on speed is a very bad idea. You risk taking very bad habits and also getting physical injuries. As Joe suggested, keep playing at your own pace, varying the lessons and gradually develop fluency. You should be able to naturally get at the tempo of EP436 without specific workout.
As an additional general remark, I’d would like to add that I disagree with the majority of scale-oriented speed exercises you will find all over YouTube, for the simple reason that guitarists actually don’t normally play a lot of scales!
The problem of not being able to play (very) fast is usually a lack of right- an left hand synchronization; playing scales will barely help with that because scales imply utterly predictable movements (particularly the scales build around the CAGED patterns). There are excellent (and very difficult) synchronization exercises, but as said above, it’s probably too early to work on them.Good luck! And remember: Rome wasn’t build in one day…
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Andy N reminded me, I am currently working through EP311-EP313 which is a great course to learn some blues licks. EP311 is fairly easy but sounds great at fast or slow speed (I think the slower c=version sounds better). I’m just beginning EP312 now but it looks a little more difficult but not out of reach.
Joe
The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge -
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How to practice without getting bored:
1. Work on multiple lessons/styles/techniques at once. I am still working on things I started 30 years ago.
2. Remember, there is no easy way to learn the guitar. It takes work.
3. Listen, to what it is you are trying to learn. Before you can play something to tempo, you need to have the melody ingrained into your memory. For example, you could probably pick out the melody to “Happy Birthday” almost instantaneously to a quick tempo. Why? It’s ingrained into your psyche.
4. Learn complete lessons from start to finish. Learn rhythms and leads. Learning licks without “context” is pointless.
5. Play along with backing tracks. Pick some of Brian’s. He makes some of the best tracks out there. If you learn to apply a major, minor or pentatonic scale to a backing track, you will have fun making music. Good luck. -
Apparently, I have not quite learned how to REPLY! Does this go out to all who have replied to my post? Please let me know!… So much for an old dude trying to figure out technology!
Thank you to all who have generously given me your input…it is making a big difference!
Wish you all the best,
Robert A.-
Indeed it does 👍.
All posts are visible to everyone.
If you “reply” to a post by selecting the “reply” button on a particular post, then the reply will be placed beneath that post and indented, ie making it look like a reply. But they’re still visible to everyone too.
Once you’ve done it a few times it will all make sense.🙂
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