Gabrielthorn progress thread

Cool… very cool.

Just out of interest how long did it take to get that last fast section down?
Also when you do it are you very conscious of whether to start on a downstroke or is it something you find natural now with certain patterns and phrases.

I just use chunks I combine very often for the fast run, it took 5 seconds to get that down. I spent a few hours on the other bits today and just recorded it.

I got used to how to start specific patterns so I’m not really thinking about them anymore to be honest.

Still far from my dreams, but surely closer than a few months ago :slight_smile: I hope my elbow will serve me well on my journey and won’t get stuck forever around the 200-220 mark.

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Cool that’s what I thought as it looks very natural.

That is an important thing for all players, to build up a ‘catalogue’ of phrases and chunks that you can play very well and use them in different modes and combinations and patterns.

The best guitarists do that for sure. I could go on about Vai’s lick and phrases catalogue or Yngwies or PGs, or Slash, they all use phrases that have specific picking patterns or specific tapping patterns etc.

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I think I’d die sooner than I could read through all the licks Vai is using for example. Those players have an insane vocabulary.

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Quick admin note: I decided to move this to Show and Tell and change the title for better “findability”.

I know he does not believe this, but @gabrielthorn has really come a long way since his opening post and I think it can be instructive/inspirational for many others to look at how this happened.

From great piano composer to top guitar shredder, what will be next in Gabriel’s journey? :slight_smile:

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I myself started a progress thread last weekend, inspired on this one!

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Yesterday I started practicing the Play with me solo by Extreme and … I am devastated. I know Nuno is using a lot of legato stuff, muted and his amp setup helps him to make that everything-sounds-picked sound. I have no problem with that, it sounds OK when I play it, I have other problems :smiley:

When I try to play any of the arpeggio figures without stopping for extended periods (let’s say a minute or two without stopping), I fail miserably, I feel like my left hand is a three legged horse. I get tired very, very quickly and without picking most of the notes I can’t play the arpeggios any faster than 135 bpm (both the triplets and the 16th ones).

I gave an attempt and I could play the solo at 175 bpm, expect the final arpeggio, but it’s far from perfect.

Also, the beginning tremolo part (which only has 2 pickstrokes for 4 notes) is also tripping me over above 175 bpm… This will be a monster solo to tame, despite being relatively easy for the right hand.

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I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking Nunu is a terribly underrated player. I’d put him against anyone (not that this is a competition :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:)

His stuff can be every bit as difficult as plenty of solos by Yngwie, Vai or Satriani.

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Not to mention his rhythm playing … amazing guitarist, I could recognize his playing instantly.

Nuno is a legend !
His multi string tapped arpeggios opened up a whole new world for me.

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That solo is killer, as is Nuno in general. Post a video! I keep meaning to record a video of it, I remember I changed a fingering or two. I might have some videos actually…

First question that comes to mind:

does the solo actually require you to play legato for so long? If not, why would you do it? :slight_smile: IIRC there’s quite a lot of stretching involved so I would not start doing huge reps if said stretches don’t feel comfortable.

More generally, probably worth revising some of @Tom_Gilroy 's videos on the fretting hand posture. It may be that you can find a different setup which makes the stretches less uncomfortable

PS: I’m pretty sure you are sounding amazing already :smiley:

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I just watched a live recording of it:

I’ve never understood how Nuno gets any stretches going with his guitar hanging below his manhood. Looks comfortable and effortless though.

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Believe me when I say it sounds awful at the moment :smiley: And it’s nowhere near the original tempo. I’ll spend some time today watching Tom’s videos. Know I have to face the fact that my picking hand with it’s moderate speed is way ahead of my fretting hand, I simply can’t play these legato arpeggios even at mid-tempos.

Also, does anyone have any clue how Nuno would pick the part starting at 0:40 here?

It sounds like this to me, pick strokes will work for your DSX:

------------12-15-p-12-
-13-12-h-13------------
 U  D        U  D
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I came to a similar conclusion except that I can hear only one pickstroke on the lower string. Who knows, it’s really hard to understand his picking patterns without actually seeing him playing his stuff because of the heavy muting and percussive tone.

I know what you mean. Not sure what your transcribing method is, but I’ve been doing this non stop lately:

When I use that approach and loop it on those six notes pretty slowly I’m pretty sure I hear 2 pick strokes per string. That could be that I want to hear 2 pick strokes though because it makes for a really nice repeatable pattern lol! Oh, and also, Nuno is sorta sloppy on the first few notes. Hearing things like that always make me feel better about my own playing lol!

Nuno is probably so busy with all the other things he’s awesome at (arranging, writing, killer vocal harmony parts, looking like a badass) that I doubt he spent as much time thinking about that part as I just did figuring it out haha!

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Yeah, the first couple of notes are sloppy there but the rest … dear god. Tempo is also killer, it’s not a short run at all and it’s around 146 bpm 6s.

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Yeah…he’s such a ridiculous player. I saw Extreme live around 2010 or 2011 and there’s no “recording magic” with them. They are the real deal. It was probably one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. I’m actually more interested in vocal harmonies than I am in guitar playing, and theirs were SO good. Both the chord voicings (the writing/arranging) and their live performance of it. His playing was phenomenal too.

I heard a couple of guys in the restroom at the venue just gushing over Nuno’s playing. One of them said (and I’ll never forget this) “Nuno is Eddie Van Halen multiplied by Brian May”.

I don’t think that math quite checks out, because an action like that would have caused the earth to implode…but I take the gentleman’s point :slight_smile: Nuno is one badass player.

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