Don't have a recording yet, but...

[MarkDyson]

Working on solo 1.

I kept bouncing around with the more general course material until I reminded myself I do best in a mission-focused mindset. Just do it, first, then let the "why" flow from the fingers into my thick skull.

Griff's discussion about how the major and minor "BB Box" or "house shape" work together around the root note probably repeats stuff I've encountered elsewhere, but for some reason this time it's making sense: why you usually bend the note you do on the major side of the boxes, how it all fits into the pentatonic...all that theory yadda that could be painfully tedious if I weren't directly applying it to getting some licks down. This is also how I'm memorizing the notes on the fretboard: by using them, not those "start with all the positions of C" type exercises. Give me a BB Box that I can move around the neck and I'll learn those in groups of five first, fill in the gaps around them later.

I was "that guy" in engineering math courses who'd ask the professor to go back and put some numbers into those elegant equations they were so proud of knowing, so we could see examples of why we care. I was not popular with the faculty.

Right now I'm just having fun expanding the licks from the first eight bars or so and coming up with variations on them. I know the hardest part will be applying them using the right timing in the context of the backing track but right now I'm just enjoying the (focused) noodling around and feeling the groove and letting my fingers get better at expressing rather than pressing and plucking.

Loving this stuff.

 

[WindInTrees]

Focus is good, just remember that it is “playing” not “working”.
I look forward to hearing you play one of the 5ebs solos.

 

[MarkDyson]

Focus is good, just remember that it is “playing” not “working”.
I look forward to hearing you play one of the 5ebs solos.

That's great advice, and thank you. One of the hardest things for me in my 50s when I transitioned from military life was understanding there are things worth doing that aren't a balls-breaking mission order. Heh. I'm working on it, man.

 

[JPsuff]

This is the difference between intellectual learning and "seat-of-the-pants" learning.

I learned blues soloing completely by ear. To borrow an analogy from typing, it was more "hunt and peck" than knowing a box or a note.
I'd move my fingers around and play with different strings until I heard something that sounded good and then I went on from there.

As a result, I probably play differently than many may think is "correct". For instance, the way I play has me using my ring finger for vibrato most of the time while many players I've seen tend to use their index finger. I guess it depends upon where one starts and it may be that I start and finish at points which are certainly "boxes" but are probably not boxes that correspond with lesson techniques.
In fact, it wasn't until months later that I even understood what a Pentatonic scale was or what "boxes" were and once I understood those things I realized that I had been borrowing from various boxes from the beginning without realizing it.
If I sat down with someone who learned a particular solo from one of Griff's courses and we played opposite each other, it's, likely that both of us would be wondering what the other is doing. Even though the notes sound the same, the fingering and positioning would be different.

For instance there are certain scales (or modes or whatever they're called) that on paper require a considerable stretch (like five frets) to play according to how they're portrayed in various boxes. Now, I don't have the longest fingers in the world so some of those patterns I simply can't play comfortably and so I don't try. Instead I look for a workaround (there's always a workaround) that would allow me to play the same notes only more comfortably but to an observer may seem incorrect given my starting point (say, a sixth-string root).
I believe that my ability to quickly and comfortably adapt to such workarounds goes back to my never having learned from boxes but rather by learning by feel or sound and perhaps if I had learned the "correct" way I might not be as inclined to explore or deviate from an accepted method, or would do so grudgingly.

That said, I have since learned quite a bit more about boxes and patterns and I do use that knowledge whenever I find it useful but I see it more as additional information rather than as "correct" or "proper". I'm not suggesting that one is better than another -- just different -- sort of like two different languages expressing the same thought.

It reminds me of an article I once read in Modern Drummer about Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick who couldn't read or write a drum chart and said that he would translate whatever he played into what he referred to as "Bun E drum language" so that he could reference something for future use. It probably looked like Greek to any drummer who could read charts, but for him it worked and that's all that matters, right?

I guess this all ties in to the notion of "playing not working" as was mentioned above and maybe I focus too much on the playing part and may indeed benefit from a bit more work. But I suppose that will come with time and as I feel the need.
But for now, I'm quite content with just playing.

Maybe a good tagline for it might be "Heart versus Chart".

Cheers!

 

[MarkDyson]

Love it, JP. Preach it, Brothah!

When I share my recording of the first part of solo1 I promise it won't be a carbon copy of Griff's version. Love you, mang, but when the rubber meets the ramp I'm going to play what my heart sings. Some of the course challenges me, some of it sounds, well, too simple. Sugar, baby. Griff, you mention that many times and that talks to me. I'm you're sugar daddy, or your Huckleberry, or whatever you need from me that involves me getting to play whatever the eff I want.

I'm a dewy-eyed n00b at this, but I'm also a cranky old curmudgeon with 50-plus years of life experience behind me and, by damn, you're gonna hear Blooze the way I want to play it. So there.

 

[Silicon Valley Tom]

That's great advice, and thank you. One of the hardest things for me in my 50s when I transitioned from military life was understanding there are things worth doing that aren't a balls-breaking mission order. Heh. I'm working on it, man.

From my Air Force days:
OK boy! On the double, with a lot of noise! Hit it!

What's a matter boy? You need some ExLax?

From my brothers Marine Corp days:
Sergeant to his squad: "Take that hill boys"! "Yeah serg, which one"?


Take your time and enjoy the ride!

Tom

 

[Paleo]

There is nothing about learning to play the guitar that is the correct or proper or right or wrong way to learn it.

But there are "traditional" ways of teaching.

If you learn from someone else it's pretty obvious you are taught it "their way". Do you have to play it their way? No.

If you learn by yourself, without any outside input, you will discover your own way.

If you want to communicate with others, i.e. talk about it, you'll have to find some kind of common ground.

If you communicate only through your music, you don't need to talk about it.

 

[HotLks]

There is nothing about learning to play the guitar that is the correct or proper or right or wrong way to learn it.

But there are "traditional" ways of teaching.

If you learn from someone else it's pretty obvious you are taught it "their way". Do you have to play it their way? No.

If you learn by yourself, without any outside input, you will discover your own way.

If you want to communicate with others, i.e. talk about it, you'll have to find some kind of common ground.

If you communicate only through your music, you don't need to talk about it.

Nicely said. Oh, to arrive at the point of communicating through my music. It's what keeps me going.

See you down the road!