Hi! My name is Ross. I grew up in Scotland in the 70s/80s and now live in Australia. I will be 49 next week!
Where are you in your guitar journey?
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How many years have you been playing?
I started playing on the 11th of June, 1988 so 32 yrs ago today!( I just realised as I was typing. And yes, I remember the exact date because it was 7 days from my birthday and I’d just got my first guitar and shitty amp!) -
What musical genres are you interested in?
Mostly instrumental: Satch, Vai, Eric Johnson but also love blues and orchestral stuff. So a few more would be SRV, Floyd, Led Zep, Iron Maiden, Hans Zimmer…
- Particular things you’re excited to learn / talk about here?
Well, that’s a big question. Mostly, improving my picking technique, which I had already realised was very sloppy and undisciplined and I struggle with speed. I can play with great feeling and vibrato, but I struggle past a certain speed, hard to describe but I’m hoping I can crack it (pun intended) by being here!
How have you gone about learning guitar so far?
- Self-taught? Regular lessons with a teacher? Both?
Self-taught all by ear. back in the day I’d wear cassette tapes out by rewinding over and over just to get a lick. At one point I played 12 hours a day learning most of the Flying in a Blue dream and Extremist album (badly). I have delved into theory a bit and grasp beyond the basics but I’m not AMAZING. I took a break from playing for many years, and became very rusty. Now I feel like I’m learning all over again. I can play better now, just not fast at all.
- Have you spent much time on technique before finding our stuff?
Yes, but not enough!
- What Cracking the Code material have you watched?
I watched all available videos on youtube. I binged the lot of them! Which led me to sign up here. So far on the site I’ve watched the introductory videos and the first couple of malmsteen primers.
- Can you comfortably play a scale? At roughly what speed?
Comfortably…not really and not very fast. I’d have to check tempo, but I do have a good vibrato but past maybe 120bpm I struggle immensely and also suffer from pain in my joints (old age lol) - Any particular things you find yourself stuck on?
Yes, unlearning all my bad habits!
I always played by feel and learned great technique through doing this, but I realise now I have much to learn and I could never do ANY form of sweeping at all. I really need a lot of practice and help. I hope to video soon so I can get some pointers. I feel like it’s my left/right hand synchronization that’s off, but after watching CTC vids, I think it’s a lot more my right hand that’s doing it all wrong!
Cheers!