Blues Speed Building Blocks

[GnLguy]

I know that this is a very very new course but just wondering if anyone has bought this one yet??

I would imagine that everyone on this forum has stacks of instructional material that they haven't worked on - I know that I do. I find myself getting to a point in a course whether its one of Griff's or one of his competitors and I can't progress any further due to lack of speed & dexterity.

Having said that, I'm considering trying this course - just wondering if there is any feedback on it yet?

 

[Iheartbacon]

I have it through the all access pass.

BSB has what I would break down into 2 (or 4) pieces.

1 is some hand stretching exercises (Yikes!)
2a, 2b, and 2c, are a series of licks

The first set of licks are the most straight forward. The next two get progressively more involved. In each set, the licks start short and then they build up and get added together into longer phrases.

The course includes 3 different speed sets, each with three different speeds. So for the first set, you play the licks 8-10 times at 60 bpm, then 8-10 times at 70 bpm, then again at 80 bpm. Then it goes to the next lick until you finish them all. At level two it is the same except 90, 100 and 110 bpm and the third set is 120, 130, and 140 bpm. (I think, going off of fuzzy memory).

Going through the course it should vary between pretty easy to extremely challenging as you progress. The top speeds are near impossible on some of them although Griff doesn’t seem to be breaking a sweat. (Camera tricks? )

I think once you are at a medium level and find yourself plateauing or physically limited, this is an EXCELLENT place to go to break out. To get the most out of it I would suggest setting aside 45-60 minutes every night for a few weeks or more if at all possible. This course is all about repetition, and taking more than a day off will set you back a bit. As you get faster, the time needed will go down, or you can get through more in a night. If you keep up with it, your speed, timing, and accuracy will improve. You will also master a bunch of cool and very usable licks and phrases.

 

[Jim_Schmidt]

I also have this via all access, and I think it's great. While I agree that daily practice would be best, I've been returning to it off and on, and I still see results. I actually wish more stuff here (or elsewhere) was like this: i.e. here it is slow and then progressively faster. There's all sorts of stuff I can play at 60 bpm, but 120? And it's that I lose the subtleties of timing, not the whole thing. So building up slowly is great. Obviously, you can do this yourself with a metronome, but it's not the same as playing it along with Griff and hearing whether you did it right or not.

 

[GnLguy]

re: Iheartbacon
Thank you for the extensive write up for this course; this was the info that I was looking for and I appreciate you taking the time to go in to the details that you did. It sounds like a course that one could go thru more than once and continue to improve his/her playing speed & techniques.
I'm no longer working so I have the time to easily work on this course an hour a day. I've come to the realization that I need something like this in order to get out of that mid-intermediate/late intermediate stage of my playing

re:Jim_Schmidt
One thought comes to mind about more material being available. I use the VLC player and it can be set up to increase/decrease the tempo in 1% increments. One could use this feature to practice with any backing track or video example in Griff's courses. I can post the steps of setting up the VLC player to do this

 

[GnLguy]

OK - next question; How does Blues Speed Building differ from Classic Rock Speed Building??

My goal is to get to the point that I can begin a study of the playing of Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band and Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown. There are others that I want to study but these are my 2 primary players that I want to start with.
There is a 4 way tie for who is my favorite player: Duane Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers, Alvin Lee of Ten Years After and Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown
Not too many will acquire the speed of Alvin Lee and that isn't one of my priorities. All 4 of these players were/are great improvisers and play very melodically. Dickey has written some amazing instrumentals over the years and his lead work isn't flashy at all - just sweet melodic lines. If you aren't familiar, Kim Simmonds is one of the most prolific guitarists that was part of the British Blues Invasion and its a shame that he hasn't gotten more recognition.
Alvin Lee and Duane Allman??? What can be said about these 2?? Duane was one of the greatest slide players of all times but also a magnificent lead player and session man.
Alvin? I'll take some flack on this one but on the American side of the pond was Jimi Hendrix; on the British side was Alvin Lee. Who was better?? Flip a coin. And I have to throw Ritchie Blackmore in that group as well. Ritchie was classically trained whereas Alvin had an amazing foundation of blues and jazz.

I mentioned all of this b/c I'm not chasing after being able to play every song on classic rock radio. These are the 4 players that I've set my sights on.

Would Classic Rock Speed Building be of benefit for me?

 

[Jim_Schmidt]

VLC player? Sure, that would be helpful. After posting what I did, I realized that the player in the AAP stuff can be speeded up or slowed down, but I tend to forget such things. I like the discipline of BSBB.

Don't know about the CRSB. Haven't tried it yet. But for the people you mentioned, I'd wager BSBB will get you a ways there.

 

[Paleo]

How does Blues Speed Building differ from Classic Rock Speed Building??

Blues Speed is triplet based (Blues), Classic Rock is "straight" Rock.

Different "feels" rather than strictly different genres.

Beat divided by 3 (1 and uh) vs. divided by 2 (1 and)........regardless of the tempo.

 

[Iheartbacon]

BSBB is definitely a course worth owning and worth coming back to.

I would suggest trying to dedicate yourself to it hard core for something like 4 weeks, 30 days, whatever. Force yourself to work at it for that time as a personal challenge. Then maybe take a break and go back to something else.

After a while you can return to BSBB either for another four weeks or maybe just for a few days or whatever works for you. By that time you will remember most of the licks or pick them back up quickly, and you will be able to skip the slowest speeds and go right to speed group 2 or maybe even 3. Lather, rinse and repeat. My plan is to try to do at least 2 weeks of BSBB every 2 months until I can play all of the licks at 140 bpm, no matter how many years that takes. Even if I never “finish” that goal, I think that approach will help me stay in shape and keep improving and avoid skill erosion.

I recently used a golden ticket to get the classic rock speed building course. Honestly, I haven’t even looked at it yet, but the plan is to work that into my schedule when I am not doing BSBB. Treating those as physical conditioning and “how to play,” I will intersperse those with less repetitive “what to play” courses.

For the guys you mentioned, BSBB will be great. It’s not going to teach you many Dickie or Dwayne licks, but it will help you get your fingers moving and moving to an internal clock. With those elements on autopilot, you can then focus your brain on learning the licks, solos and style elements you want to.

 

[Iheartbacon]

One more post...

I just checked out the Classic Rock Speed Building Blocks.

I would DEFINITELY suggest doing the BSBB course first and maybe second and third before going to the CRSBB. The CR licks are longer runs with significantly more notes per lick. And smokin’ fast at the top levels.

 

[Mr.Scary]

I would suggest not skimping on the counting of each lick and solo. I didnt do this with this course but did on the BSBB course. could play the level 2 solos but now I started all over and I'm starting to count on this course of which Griff is very adamant about.

 

[Wstorey45]

I know that this is a very very new course but just wondering if anyone has bought this one yet??

I would imagine that everyone on this forum has stacks of instructional material that they haven't worked on - I know that I do. I find myself getting to a point in a course whether its one of Griff's or one of his competitors and I can't progress any further due to lack of speed & dexterity.

Having said that, I'm considering trying this course - just wondering if there is any feedback on it yet?

 

[Wstorey45]

I acquired the course about 3 weeks ago. It brings together a whole lot of topics Griff talks about in his free forum posts. Counting, where to start the solo, what scales/boxes are used, and of course incremental speed progression.

In 3 weeks, I can play groups 1 and 2 readily at 120 and can even get through them at 140! A "Must Have" course in my opinion