Feels great to be part of the CTC community!
I have been playing guitar for 25 years, I have also been a guitar teacher for 5 years, but not anymore.
I started out as a 16-year-old kid wanting to play Metallica and Megadeth songs. I was playing 6-8 hrs a day during that time (good old days, but not so happy parents), and I had the luck that I found a guitar teacher that turned me to alternate picking in my second year of playing.
Within a year I could play all the Metallica stuff, including most of Kirk Hammett’s solos, although a bit sloppy and not exactly tight, but still, I felt pretty good about myself as a cocky 17-year old.
However, when I tried to play the Marty Friedman solos, and Di Meola-type acoustic solos, I failed miserably and I was humbled. No matter how long I practiced, I could play some parts, but other parts were completely beyond my abilities and I did not know why. This was before internet and Youtube and all I had were the “original” tabs, but in hindsight these where often wrong and inaccurate in many aspects.
I had never heard of “sweeping”, let alone how to execute it, so that made the Friedman solos pretty much impossible for me to play at tempo, since almost every one of his solos incorporates at least some parts that are either sweeps/economy, or very specific patterns. The Di Meola stuff was also frustrating, because while I “knew” it was alternate picked, I could never reach these speeds no matter what I did, while I could play Slayer songs with 16th notes at 220. I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong.
So I more or less gave up. I decided that Marty (and Di Meola) were just more gifted and more technical guitarists than I was.
Later, when I would learn something new, like sweeping, I would try to play the “Tornado of Souls” solo again, but would fail in certain other parts.
Fortunately, although I liked to play these “shred” solos for fun, my actual music taste was much more simpler rock songs, and I could at least play Slash-like solos, which was good enough for everyone in my band (except me :p).
Even later (for the past years) I started playing more funk/rock material like Rage against the Machine and Red hot chili peppers, but every once in a while I would find a new Youtube video cover of the Tornado solo, and I would try again. I would be able to improve on some parts, but others where still a bottleneck.
One day (about two months ago), I came across the CTC material on Youtube. I saw the videos where Troy talked about spending hours and hours watching the instructional videos, just like I had been doing with Marty’s videos, and it suddenly clicked.
When Troy explained the slanting thing with Eric Johnson and Yngwie, I KNEW that that was the missing link.
Although I already had a slight DWPS and was proficient in alternate picking, these kind of licks always had given me problems, because I did not understand what I was doing wrong. Incorporating the economy thing was also an eye opener.
Thanks to Troy and the community members, suddenly all these unattainable licks and solos became attainable again, or at least, understandable technique-wise, so that I can play the solos accurately, instead of guessing what the player is doing.
It gave me back the fun element in my “shred” playing, where you can just have fun trying to play a difficult lick or solo and learn things you can use in your own playing.
I’m very thankful I came across this material, and although I’m just starting out, I feel that it gives me a high level of confidence that I can now play very difficult parts accurately and more important, in multiple ways.
And now, finally, 25 years later, I can play the Tornado of Souls solo with 95% accuracy and almost at its original tempo, something that was mission impossible only a few months ago.
Long story short, thank you Troy, keep up the good work and looking forward to reading and learning more stuff!