Finally getting back into motion

Im starting to practice guitar regularly again. My fingertips hurt like hell because my callouses wore away, but its fun. I dont know why, I like to feel the strings ripping through my flesh. I also upgraded to thicker strings so its even more of a challenge, AND im in E standard instead of D. So lots more tension but man my strings sound great and the sustain is long. I love them.

I havent sorted out a definite practice routine quite yet, but will work on that as I go along. One thing Ive noticed is that Ive been practicing in shorter time frames. I used to always practice for an hour at a time. Now Im doing 20-30 minutes at a time. My hands need the stretch and then I dunno I just want a mental break. It might be because I havent played in a while and my job requires a lot of concentration.

Im starting to find some more interesting death metal songs to learn. Looking for stuff thats tuned to standard preferably but if not ill learn it anyway. Right now Im learning some theory in practice and will probablytry some atheist soon.

Working on some ambient/black metal songs that will be released on a split. My friend Thiago knows some dude whose starting a label or something and will release about 50-100 copies of our cd, more details on this later

So i decided to drop classical guitar

as well as viola. My problem with classical guitar is the whole growing my nails out. I cant stand it, ive tried for months at a time and its the most uncomfortable thing ever. Also, classical guitar is like a whole new instrument nearly. I dont play it how i play electric guitar. Since the frets are wider I use my fingers differently when playing up on the neck. I dont like the overall feel of it, and practicing that doesnt really help for practicing electric guitar. Also I stopped playing the viola. Its too hard to get comfortable with. I had the same problem ever since I started. There was something that always felt awkward, plus its waaaay too small for me.

The other day I tried playing the cello. I did a few years ago and it was too big for me then. When I tried it again, I already felt much better on it than I did the viola. I have a feeling if I pick this up, it will come more naturally to me. So I decided I am going to buy one once I have the money. I definitely want to explore another instrument, and there's something about the cello that I really like. Plus I will already have a teacher to teach me so that will work out well. Anyway, I'll end it here, I think there was something else I wanted to post about, but I don't have the time.

Filling my head with creative ideas instead of...

practicing. I havent felt motivated to practice at all. Ive been doing a little more with theory, but more importantly exploring more music. Jazz in particular. Miles davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk are all amazing. Every other time ive tried to listen to jazz it felt like random notes and structures or lack there of. I didnt get it, i thought it was cool because i didnt hear it a lot, but i didnt understand anything of it. I was first introduced to a video of Miles Davis playing Bitches Brew. Since then, ive come to understand what i was hearing a little more. Today I took some cds out at the library. I took out one by Miles and popped it in my stereo. From this point on I have figured out what the problem was. Im finding with jazz especially the focus is not on the specific note. What i try to do is focus on the expression of the music. Thats what makes it interesting. Yea theres a melody of course, but how does the artist express that melody? That is what is important, that is what gives the music its own sound and emotion. I never was much of a fan of horns but after hearing Miles play, man I love trumpets. He plays the trumpet like a guitar. Thats how I looked at it. Jazz can many times be simple in terms of technical ability, and then it makes up for it in rhythm and ornamentation. Not only did I decide to listen to the way the music is expressed more, but also how the artist moves from one note to another (not necessarily consecutive).

Anyway this new insight is what I want to incorporate into death metal. I want to have it reflect jazz somewhat. Not in just playing all these weird chords and melodies/harmonies that youd expect from a modern band who claims theyre influenced by jazz. I would like to specifically concentrate on dynamics , space between notes, rhythms, improvisation, and how to express the musical melodies. Also i want less repition. These are what I want to incorporate but its not like im going to limit myself to these. I think the way to make death metal less stale and more interesting is to vary the elements used within the music. Specifically im talking about repition.

In death metal, as well as general metal a riff is a musical phrase that gets repeated. THe whole thing. May be sometimes there are alternate endings. Aside from that the whole thing is basically repeated with no variation. It is repeated between 2-8 times generally. That can be good, but what happens if its a boring riff? You have to sit through that boring riff over and over. I think it would be a good idea to take a little section or part, or melody or what have you, from the riff you are working on and repeat that so the listener remembers it, and feels that it is important. From there you vary everything else that was originally in the riff. I guess that would sort of be like a riff/variation kind of thing. In my opinion metal needs that consistency, so I dont want to make something that just sounds like a blur of notes without a common ground. I think i want to structure songs keeping that in mind. I want to bring "sections" into death metal as opposed to riffs.

Why am I choosing to do this with death metal and not just make jazz of my own or something else, why death metal? Well what I like about death metal that i do not see in any other genre is the intensity and energy. Its a constant flow through out the whole song. I often dont feel that in classical music, jazz, and any other genres. Its heavy. I want to create heavy/intense music that is very well thought out. Energetic music is the best because it moves me the most. If i can make music that is both moving and well thought out, then I have filled two gaps. Death metal isnt 100% stale, but if you look at it every band has the same sort of formula. Repeated riffs, no variation on expression, etc etc. Music to me is more than just playing with feeling. Its more than just listening to the melodies. Its everything in between. More than what you hear. Its what is physically there. What im trying to say is, Music is a reflection of how I feel with an intellectual process of expressing it. Meaning that it is a combination of feeling and choosing how to express that feeling by thinking and planning rather than just playing stuff and say "oh!" that sounds cool. Thus I am figuring out more and more what I want to achieve.




So back to the original topic of the thread. This is why i havent been practicing, I am not sure 100% where I want to take my music. I want to play fresh again instead of doing the same old routines. So im taking a bit of a break. Im afraid to take too long of a break for my skill level will definitely decrease, but i just need to clear my mind and stop being so biased of how i play.

Figured something out

I figured the main reason i lose motivation to practice is because i dont vary what i practice enough. Just as school ended i wrote out new things to practice, and i practiced them sooooo much, 6 hours + per day. THen i slowed down. Now im trying to figure out what to practice and how.

Im trying to work on some more theory. I wont be going to school for approximately a year, so i will buy a textbook or two soon and work on that and that will be how i practice. Not everything needs to focus on physical technique.

That being said ive been working more with jazz and trying to learn what the hell a I iv V progression is. I know what it is, but i dont understand specifically how you choose which chords work and which ones dont. Right now my guess is to choose a specific chord, ex. C7 and move that exact chord up to the 4th and 5th step of the scale. Then what happens when you want to move out of that? Im trying to learn the rules for that.

Pretty close to haveing the circle of major and minor fifths down cold. I am getting much better at knowing the frets on the guitar as letters and not numbers. I can play in the key of G very easily and fluently. My next goal is to be able to do that with every other key. I will try a minor key next. I want to pick something with a lot of accidentals because i can refer more easily to stuff that doesnt have that many.

I started teaching Ricky, my student some basic theory, and thats when i realized how well i understand it at this point. Im really happy that it has clicked strongly with me.

So what I will be working on for a while is learning different jazz chords, how theyre constructed, and multiple voicings. Then i will start learning progressions. I will work on I iv V in the key of C, and then move that to different keys. Soon i will refresh my theory knowledge from where i left off in school and continue on at my own pace. Hopefully by the time i go to a new school i will be able to take more advanced theory classes, that is my ultimate goal. Also, I want to start being to easily count up major/minor 3rds, and perfect fifths in every key. It is easy to play, but the more fluent and fast i am at recognizing intervals by myself the quicker i will be able to learn and analyze music.
-one more thing in addition to the jazz chords, i want to learn different jazz rhythms and stuff like that. Hopefully my book will explain that.

I think I will focus more on playing slowly, rather than always stressing for speed. At the beginning of the summer i did a great deal of playing slowly but also a great deal of playing fast. Im going to take a break from death metal playing and work a lot on jazz/classical music/random progressive music. I dont need to be playing super fast all the time. Plus i want to develop an even stronger foundation. The way i see it thus far is, the stronger the foundation, the easier it will be to play fast. So far it has proved true.

One other thing i am learning is that you can apply nearly everything to music, its really cool to see the different connections.


Im starving so im going to end my post here. I may have a band in the works very soon ill keep updating about that. Right now im gong to eat and start looking for some new jazz theory stuff to have ingrained in my head

Lots of updating

Ok so i lost motivation for this because stuff like that happens. But now it has come back.

To finish off what i started, my last few classical gutiar lessons were all about playing slowly with a metronome.After months of practicing electric guitar like that, I have noticed how much it helps
Playing slowly is essential for everything. It helps you get way more accurate, find mistakes, and play faster. That is what boggles my mind. Playing slower will make you able to play faster. It is such a great technique, I could write a fuckin 5 page paper on it but now is not the time.

So over the summer, now that summer is just about over i focused a ton on electric guitar. I was just totally unmotivated to play classical guitar. I hated growing my nails and still do, but im finally parting with that. I practiced 6 hours per day with a metronome using a variety of exercises. Those boosted my skill level so much. I shall go more in depth on this later on.

Ive taught some people how to play guitar, and my friend Ricky has improved greatly. Not only can i hear it, but he has noticed it too. ALl thanks to a metronome and the art of playing slowly. I need to thank my guitar teacher Harris Becker for just talking to me about playing slowly. One quote which ill never forget is that the key to playing fast is to be able to relax quickly. Its 100% true. The way you get to relax quickly is by playing slowly and gradually building up speed. What hasppens is, you effortlessly play something, then stop/rest after each stroke. Eventually that rest comes quicker and quicker as you get more used to it. He also told me that once you play something so slowly many times over, and then you perform it, it will feel that it is going in slow motion. That was also true. I experienced that with my frist piece i learned. It was such a cool feeling.

I will post some practice samples later on and talk about teaching, but for now I want to fast forward to today.

Today I saw my brother perform in two orchestras. The first one was ok, nothing too remarkable honestly. THe second however was truely amazing. It was so inspiring and motivating that it got me thinking more and more about going back to classical guitar. It has given me a whole new outlook on classical music. My teacher gave me a bunch of stuff to work on over the summer, and i havent touched a single bit of it until today. I used to struggle with reading music, but its coming a lot easier to me now strangely. Im so glad. I plan to be practicing a lot everyday. I want it to seem like i practiced throughout the whole summer. Ive gotten through a decent portion of the stuff he gave me considering today was the first day i looked at it. So who knows how far ill be in a week. That being said i only have two weeks (well probably three) to get this stuff down. Its coming along very well now though, and i can only see myself getting better at it considering i know better practicing methods.

Im so glad this day happened and wish it happened sooner

So im going to have my first student to teach

Yup, my friend Ricky. Im going to give him a lesson or two over spring break. He offered to pay me, but i wont really charge him too much since itll be my first time teaching. Then Ill be teaching him in the summer as well and asked him to tell his friends if they wanted lessons too. Ill most likely be giving my brother lessons too, so hopefully i can get paid for that, but we'll see

classical guitar lesson 4 and viola lesson 3

Ok i barely practiced since last time, well the stuff that i was supposed to. I think he got a bit mad cause i didnt really know any of the scales anyway for next time i pretty much need to be able to play all the scales. There are specific patterns for different ones so i pretty much just need to memorize those. then he had me play some basic chromatic slurs, which i had gotten much better at. he said for me to just practice them slowly.then i showed him how far i went with music reading, which wasnt much. I read this waltz piece pretty slowly, but it was definitely an improvement from last time. Now, though I can just about read it up to speed which is really cool. What i find very intriguing is that the more you read one piece of music the waaaaaaaaay easier it becomes.

Other than that im finding that I like playing death metal/my own thing more than anything else. I do however enjoy playing classical music very much. Im working on this waltz piece and it sounds pretty sad, atleast to me, and when i play it i feel so much emotion in it, its really cool.





Ill quickly describe my viola lesson here.
Basically she showed me third position, which is placing your palm right where the fingerboard touches with the body. The first note is supposed to be right across from my my thumb and it pretty much fits perfectly. So she showed me how to get into that position, and its pretty easy for me. Then we worked on more bowing, which im still having a lot of trouble with. Pretty much the thing i need to work on is not keeping my elbow too high or too low and to bow parallel to the bridge...

Im getting tired of writing these, but ill keep it going, sorry if theyre getting a bit boring