Need some guitar playing advice...

[htismaqe]

I've been playing for almost 30 years now and have never really developed any "chops". Some of it is a lack of ambition...well, most of it is a lack of ambition...and some of it is just a natural lack of manual dexterity (I think).

I'm kind of stuck in a rut and I want to learn how to really play lead guitar - I'm not talking about Yngwie Malmsteen/Marty Friedman/Joe Satriani shit, but I would like to learn to play lead well enough that I could play some Dio songs or whatever.

So for somebody with my background and 3 decades worth of bad habits, what's the quickest way to do it? Private lessons? Books? Youtube?

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Yeah, I know quite a few scales. But they all end up sounding like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" because I can't just rip through them like I want.

speed will come. slow equals smooth. smooth equals fast.
and, tryr the legatto technique too.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Dayze

try to legatto your way through a scale. so 1 pick per string, then hammer on through the rest of the notes on that string, and do the same thing on the next string etc.; return with 1 pick strick an used pull offs.

a lot of speed comes with that technique. ie, not picking every single note etc.

learn Hot For Teacher intro.
even theh rythym has a cool legatto to it.

Flying in a Blue Dream by Satriani has some good challenges, but not impossible.

I can play the intro to Hot for Teacher, but then again, I'm not wanting to necessarily learn how to finger tap or anything like that.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Dayze

speed will come. slow equals smooth. smooth equals fast.
and, tryr the legatto technique too.

Yeah, the problem is that I've been playing for 30 years. I've developed a lot of muscle memory, most of it bad.

I think I need professional 1-on-1 lessons.

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Yeah, the problem is that I've been playing for 30 years. I've developed a lot of muscle memory, most of it bad.

I think I need professional 1-on-1 lessons.

they'll probbaly tell you some similar. Speed, truly comes with a shit ton of repetition. Even the non-Malmsteen/Lynch/Petrucci requires a lot of time committment. like probably 3 hours a day if you truly want to rip.

The professional could you get you some great theory that could probably help a bit with the speed, but it still comes down to repetition.

when I was in the navy, it was in the middle of nowhere, so all I did was practice since I didn't have a TV and was poor. I got to where I was getting really fast. could play alot of Satriani, EVH, Metallica, Zakk Wylde solos etc. and that was playing about 3-4 hours a night on the weekdays and probably 5 or more on a weekend.

my speed has dropped off significanly; at least in terms of being able to rip through that stuff like I used to .

My $.02

[Dayze]

just as reference, I've been playing since 1992.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Dayze

they'll probbaly tell you some similar. Speed, truly comes with a shit ton of repetition. Even the non-Malmsteen/Lynch/Petrucci requires a lot of time committment. like probably 3 hours a day if you truly want to rip.

The professional could you get you some great theory that could probably help a bit with the speed, but it still comes down to repetition.

when I was in the navy, it was in the middle of nowhere, so all I did was practice since I didn't have a TV and was poor. I got to where I was getting really fast. could play alot of Satriani, EVH, Metallica, Zakk Wylde solos etc. and that was playing about 3-4 hours a night on the weekdays and probably 5 or more on a weekend.

my speed has dropped off significanly; at least in terms of being able to rip through that stuff like I used to .

My $.02

My problem is that I don't know what to REPEAT. I don't have the right connections between the right hand and left hand to know which patterns to work on and which ones will lead to a dead end. Does that make sense?

[tmh]

Sounds a lot like I am playing Guitar. I am terribly lazy with leads. 15 years ago a roommate and I started a band. I taught myself to play. Never one lesson. But a strong background in music percussion.

With no theory
background playing lead becomes problematic at best. I would learn different scales but after the first measure starting the lead, making the next few measures never clicked. Basically could never make the fingers do what i heard in my head. Soon after our first few gigs our bass player couldn't devote the time needed to practice 3 times a week and do a gig, so I took bass duties and put guitar up.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by tmh

Sounds a lot like I am playing Guitar. I am terribly lazy with leads. 15 years ago a roommate and I started a band. I taught myself to play. Never one lesson. But a strong background in music percussion.

With no theory
background playing lead becomes problematic at best. I would learn different scales but after the first measure starting the lead, making the next few measures never clicked. Basically could never make the fingers do what i heard in my head. Soon after our first few gigs our bass player couldn't devote the time needed to practice 3 times a week and do a gig, so I took bass duties and put guitar up.

Other than putting the guitar away (I've taken up bass but actively play both now) sounds just like me.

[Molitoth]

Play along to some Pink Floyd? May as well mimic the best. =P

That's hows a buddy of mine got started and he is a solo machine. Can pretty much cover any Widespread Panic solo.

[Demonpenz]

Grinding hard work to break through to the next level? I honestly don't like to think that there is a barrier that you can't bring with hard work, but I was never able to get past chords.

[Demonpenz]

1 on 1 might be a good challenege and it couldn't hurt.

[MahiMike]

I get my tabs off of Ultimate Guitar. But I have the most fun with my Fender G-DEC. It has background tracks you can play along to.

I like Blues the most so I learned how to play pentatonic scales over any key. You just ad lib so it sounds great and it's easy.

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

My problem is that I don't know what to REPEAT. I don't have the right connections between the right hand and left hand to know which patterns to work on and which ones will lead to a dead end. Does that make sense?

sounds stupid.....but sometimes when I'm looking at tab, I see the solos / non chords as 'pictures'....

...probalby stupid, but maybe it 'll help.


time baby....you'll get it.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by MahiMike

I get my tabs off of Ultimate Guitar. But I have the most fun with my Fender G-DEC. It has background tracks you can play along to.

I like Blues the most so I learned how to play pentatonic scales over any key. You just ad lib so it sounds great and it's easy.

I can play "blues" like SRV and stuff like that. It's when it gets a bit faster that I get lost.

I guess what I want is to be able to play 80's style solos, like Warren DeMartini in "Round and Round", I want to learn that solo.

[Dayze]

dude; if you have the technique to play SRV's rythym / circle chop and bridges etc, you can do Ratt, etc. It seriously is just a matter of repetition.

For me, I found my 'favorite' solo I wanted to learn in terms of guitar etc, and I Just ****ing killed it. playedd the **** out of it.
another thing too is, to listen to the song over and over and over and over. You might think you 'know it' etc, but until you start listening from a 'guitar' perspective, you haven't listened enough.

kill that shit bitch.

check out some Poison solos....sounds ghey, but they are fun to play. same with Skid Row.