I’m happy to be here! I was an “80’s” kid who idolized metal and hard rock guitar players. Somewhere along the line, I imagined that it must be an awesome feeling to be standing up on a podium in an arena packed full of fans, with the spotlight on you as you’re playing a solo.
My dad bought me a MIM Strat and Gorilla amp when I was 9 or so, but I didn’t get any formal lessons, didn’t know how to read tab or notation, and honestly didn’t even know how to even use the amp’s controls to make a distorted sound. I soon grew tired of non-sensical noodling and put the Strat away. My dad ended up selling the guitar, and that was that for my childhood playing…although I continued to be a music fanatic.
In 2002 (now in my 20’s), a friend of mine told me he was selling his electric guitar because he never played it, nor did he learn to play it. I of course bought it, and taught myself how to read tab. I really admired players that were able to improvise, as well as those who were extremely technical. Their skills seemed so unobtainable, yet they seemed to move about the fretboard seemingly effortlessly.
In 2004, I made it a point to teach myself music theory via use of books and the internet, as well as trying to practice everyday as much as my schedule would allow. I learned chord and arpeggio structures, 3 nps patterns, and the modes. This new found information enabled me to be able to improvise over backing tracks and write my own songs. For technique practice, I bought Speed Mechanics by Troy Stetina, the MAB Speed Kills DVD, and John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline. I was focused on attaining blazing speed on alternate picked scalar-based runs, and also sweep picked arpeggios.
I became a slave to my metronome, but also unbeknownst to me, tension and horrible picking and fretting hand technique. My fretting hand used to ache so much, but I gaffed it off as just being that my fingers were sore much like other body parts when thoroughly exercised, and they were obviously getting stronger. I was so wrong!!! I started waking up with my fretting hand being almost in a claw shape, and required several minutes under warm water in the sink to loosen them up. It got to a point where the pain wasn’t leaving my fingers even after taking several weeks off, and often times took multiple hours of playing to get warmed up to where I could play to my normal potential of speed and technique. It was hard, but I knew I had to put the guitar down and heal. I truly thought I wasn’t destined to play guitar, so I sold my gear in fear of giving myself permanent damage to my hand/fingers. That was back in 2007.
Fast forward to 2014. I missed playing guitar so much, and dreampt that I was playing everything I wanted to play effortlessly. When I woke up, I looked on Craigslist and found an Ibanez RG570 (just like the one I sold, and same color). I contacted the seller, and later that day was on my home with a new guitar. I scoured the internet and YouTube for how to play with proper posture and fret hand technique…mostly adopted from classical players. I also did much research on proper tension control, as well as stretching before, in between, and after practicing. The last key to this transformation was the actual picking mechanics/motions. Thank goodness for finding @Troy and the CtC series, as well as @milehighshred and his series!!!
After having to start from the ground up with everything aside from theory, this past year I finally surpassed my old capabilities, and continue to make progress. I’m fascinated with TWPS, although I’m possibly doing more of a cross picking mechanic. Chunking has really helped my picking take off. I practice 4 and 9 note “Gilbert“ style scale patterns primarily, and practice them ascending and descending, and practicing each beginning with upstrokes and downstrokes.
Another thing that has really helped my picking speed increase is practicing my gallop and reverse gallop rhythms. My take on that is because it increases my stamina in my picking hand, and also ensures I clear the string without swiping it.
Anyway, I didn’t realize I was going to write a novel. I’m very excited to be here, look forward to being part of this amazing community!!!
