You only get one instructional

General Music Discussion
#21

Well Claus had to grow on me a bit because in a lot of his vids he plays some simple blues licks at the beginning and im thinking “is dude really any good??”…but now I see that dude can shred pretty good!

pretty shreddy IMO

In any case the logic of the mindset stuff shines through and I see why I havent yet gotten where I want to be. Too many hangups and mental traps like “those guys started really young” or “youll never be THAT good” or “just keep plugging away” (meanwhile changing focus constantly)

of course in my own defense, I have also done BMX racing, powerlifting, competitive chess, golf etc. But in a way thats a larger example of “no focus”…though I have learned many lessons about competition etc

2 Likes
#22

I watch clause sometimes when I need someone to berate me. Lol
He is a charmer.
And very good.

I want an instructional so its all compiled in 1 menu.
No need to get online and suffer the wrath of my connection or get sidetracked by all the good porn.

Also im just weird like that

2 Likes
#23

chapter 2 and 3 of the Volcano seminar does a pretty good job of laying out a sequence to follow

a week or two solid focus on that chapter 2 lick might be super beneficial depending on where you currently are etc. Then chapter 3 has you switching strings and you are off to the races

1 Like
#24

Spent allot of time with volcano fours
Still only half as fast as i want to be but its coming along.

1 Like
#25

Great stuff guys. Very helpful.

Complete Technique for Modern Guitar: Over 200 Fast-Working Exercises with Audio Examples (Guitar Technique Book 5) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B88K4D6/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_DXqpCb3YMEJ1Q

1 Like
#26

I just bought this along with the Chris Brooks stuff… excellent

2 Likes
#27

I think it’s pretty relevant that you pointed out the mindset VS mechanical awareness concept. Nobody is that exited about doing fast arpeggios on piano because all average 11 year old player can do them. Maybe it will be the same for guitar after the CtC era, when most motions will be know. If the mystery and urban-legend behind it all is one of the reason young player dedicated so much time practicing guitar, maybe we’ll see less interest toward guitar.

Personally, I never succeeded giving advice about mindset. People might think you’re just differently wired, and that they’re stuck with their way of thinking. However as @JonJon said, one has to work on their mechanics and also their mental barrier. And it 's an all different thing to teach (and it would make a good thread for the teacher’s lounge).

I rarely, if ever, get someone exited about the CtC stuff, despite of my immense enthusiasm. It’s like you have to be the kind of guy who naturally like to dissect things down to their very atoms and think through every pick-stroke of a lick, which many G’s I’ve met absolutely hate to do.

1 Like
#28

There already is. Have you heard about the financial troubles of companies like Gibson, Marshall and Guitar Center? The reason for it is guitar driven music is listened to less by the younger generation than any other generation since the electric guitar was invented. We were born too late.

#29

Thanks to all who recommended Claus, because I think it’s the missing link for me and my ADD brain.

I’ve always felt intrinsically that the way to mastery is the sole focus on one thing… guitar and other areas.

Now what I struggle with, and this may be wrong thinking on my part, is the application of this.
If I devout the majority of my practice and playing time to ONE solitary aspect of guitar, what about the other areas? What about the songs and solos I want to learn, or the theory, improvising, even bending and vibrato.

If I take the 6 note single string ynqwie pattern and master it in 6-8 months. …

What will I accomplish as a whole?

Does Claus go into this ?

What do u think ? How are you integrating this knowledge in your daily playing?

Thanks

1 Like
#30

I’m really familiar with his stuff and I can say from my experience of picking one thing - tremolo picking - and taking it to elite levels of speed, every other area of my playing got better as a result. Claus calls this “The Mastery Effect”. Picture a sheet of ice, now imagine hitting that sheet of ice as hard as possible in one little spot. The ice won’t just break where you hit it, but it will “spider” off into little cracks across the entire sheet of ice. Or, another analogy is putting a tent up with one stake. The stake might rise the tent up slightly in one corner, but as you add more stakes the tent gets higher and higher.

The advice that people give about varying your practice routine is true in part, but it’s only in part that it’s true. You probably shouldn’t play the exact same exercise over and over and over again because it’s not the best idea for growth, and research does support this. For whatever reason the human CNS enjoys variation and seems to learn faster with varied input for the same core skill. As a result Claus does recommend variation; for example, different combinations of left hand fingers for sextuplets could work if you’re training single-string picking.

I’ve probably watched literally every video he has released on YouTube for 2.5 years now and I can say with absolute certainty that his principles are dead-on, but there is a bit more nuance to what he says which I feel Troy does a better job of explaining. You’re going to want that variation Troy has talked about quite a bit on here and that Claus, presumably due to English being his second language, has a hard time describing.

I don’t think the “gym split” suggestion of doing economy picking one day, alternate picking the next, sweeping the next day after that is any good. Honest to god I think it’s in the pantheon of “worst guitar advice ever” along with using a metronome to build speed. You need to pick something, drill it, and avoid boredom by understanding how to vary the exercises to still work on your core skill.

Some thoughts for you to mull over:

  1. What one core skill would benefit your playing the most for the style(s) you play in? Maybe you play thrash metal, so downpicking could be that skill. Or tremolo picking if you’re into flamenco.
  2. What licks or exercises give you that “Christmas morning” feeling when you think of sitting down and finally mastering them? In other words, if you could pick any core skill and be able to play any lick that reflects it/gets you fired up, what would it be?

By answering these questions and practicing accordingly you’ll accomplish a new sense of confidence and an innate understanding that 99% of this stuff is mechanics in the human body. You’ll get the know-how you need to tackle other difficult things with the sentiment of “It’s only a matter of time until I get this.” In a way, building speed becomes predictable and routine. Ironically enough speed will reveal itself to you as such a small part of guitar playing, and arguably the easiest and most rote aspect of it as a whole. But to get to this you need to master something, whatever that is.

1 Like
#31

Claus is indeed great. His ability to continually generate compelling content is probably his greatest skill.

1 Like
#32

he suggests something like an 80/20 split. 80% of time on that one thing, 20% on other stuff.

ive only thought on it for about a week now. Its actually hard to implement because deeply ingrained habits die hard lol. Even before I ever heard of Claus or Troy id say “screw it, im going to find 5 licks and master them!” So then it was like “ok, lemme find a good first lick to dedicate to”. But 3 hrs later I realize im just noodling again lol.

I think a good way to go about it is to pick something really specific, but to also be aware of what overall category the lick is in.

lets say u pick this lick:

e---------------5–7--5--------
b----5–6--8-------------8–6-

ok its a 2way 16th note lick, so to me you could do other closely related licks without spreading yourself to thin.

for instance if you are working on 2way stuff then IMO these 2 ALWAYS fit in:

e---------5-----5
b------5-----5 starting on down so its outside picking

then

e----5-----5-----
b--------5-----5 starting on down so its inside picking

Also of course vary the note order for some variation

e-----7–5------------------5
b-----------8–6--5–6--8— etc

then maybe double up the string crosses…or anything else you can do to make it actually harder than the goal lick etc

e---------------5------5—7–5------5--------
b----5–6--8------8--------------8-------8–6-

but stuff like legato, sweeping, economy stuff is too far removed so leave it for the 20% etc

What do you gain? Highly increased mastery of 2 way alt picking is a pretty nice skill to have. Obviously once you have this one lick mastered it will be much easier to start expanding on it

Another possible approach if you want to plan out 3-6ish months would be to pick a solo, say a nice Paul Gilbert RacerX solo…“learn it” from tab or whatever, even if u cant play it yet. Then break down the required skills or sub portions of the licks etc and drill down on them with focus. Then eventually put it together for the whole solo. Heck, even if it took a year, at the end of it you are playing at Pauls level for that solo.

Naturally after u learn one of his solos you have an open door to most of his other solos etc

#33

Eric Johnson stuff.

Probably, the first one.

1 Like
#34

This place, without question. In particular, Volcano and Cascade (the two of which in and of themselves are more than enough to be the basis for an awesome style).

Prior to CTC, I spent hours pouring over instructional content that contradicted itself in the advice that was given. For example, some would be proponents of alternate picking, whereas others would swear that economy picking was vastly superior. All the while, the information provided and reasoning to support it was astonishingly vague.

The content from this place was the first time that I had an a-ha moment sufficient enough to see what I needed to be focusing on. The difference is that now, I know what my next 2-3 years of practice is going to look like and what I will focus on. Previously, I didn’t have a clue. I’d just anxiously bounce from one thing to the next.

One last thing and I’ll shut up!

…The other difference is that I now practice way, way more in relation to what I watch. I’ll check out interviews because they’re fascinating, but I’m under no illusions (for the time being at least) that I’m actually going to spend any length of time trying to learn from it.

I’ve watched Volcano and Cascade once each and reference them only when I need to jog my memory on something in particular.

Anyway, sorry for the long post! Peace.

1 Like
#35

As I get older I enjoy intriguing statements like this one…please elaborate! lol

  1. what do you find deficient in their techniques??

  2. if they dont cut it, who does???

#36

I meant in their teaching, NOT their playing techniques. They are two of my favorite alternate pickers, but because they are naturals I don’t think they’ve really ever explained the mechanics behind it all.

2 Likes
#37

Just out of curiously, what’s the reason for that?

#38

yeah back in those days the most youd get was stuff like "try your licks starting on both upstrokes and downstrokes’

Greg Howe touched on it a bit in his DVD where he mentioned preferring to go to a new string with a downstroke

didnt Robert Fripp have a whole cult, err, “school” based around him? I wonder if he mentioned picking in CTC level depth

1 Like
#39

Yeah, Guitarcraft or something. Years ago some guy kept a journal of the experience and it was a fascinating read. Fripp is intense.

1 Like
#40

“Cult” is actually pretty accurate.

(just kidding) :wink:

1 Like