Fade to black - Metallica

Today, I decided to learn a different song to widen and improve my range of techniques. The song opens with an acoustic riff, which is all picked - the only thing thing I struggled with was the speed and getting used to the awkward finger position movement because sometimes I would accidentally touch and then mute another string and then the next string would not sound because it's muted. To practice this, I done it very slowly and focussed on bending my fingers enough so I don't end up accidentally muting other strings, then I sped up and I became much more comfortable with the finger positions.

The next part is a lead solo part whilst being accompanied by the acoustic riff which underscores the solo. This is an extremely challenging part because it is filled with awkward finger positions, difficult techniques and fast licks. See vlog for further analysis.

Jesus of suburbia - 'III. I don't care' singing and playing

This part of the song is quite hard to sing and play at the same time because the strumming pattern is quite fast and inconsistent, which sometimes throws me off my singing because they are in time to each other. Vocally, the only challenging part is the words because it is quite wordy, and I need to work on my articulation because sometimes when I'm singing I slur my words and this is made even worse by the fact that it is very wordy. I also need to work on my breath control, for one particular part in this sub-song is very quick vocally and wordy, also with fast and aggressive guitar strum at the end of ever two bars - I think to work on this, I just need to practice it, just vocals first slowly then focus on articulating properly and increasing the stamina of my voice in terms of breath control and oxygen intake. The guitar is fairly simple for this part so I won't need to practice it on it's own therefore I will just put them both together and start slowly, and gradually build up in tempo so I can get used to focussing on my articulation and musical stamina at the same time. The next part is a challenge too, the strumming pattern is very fast and inconsistent, and it doesn't match the beat of the vocal melody so it is hard to sing and play this part. So to practice this, I simply played it slowly to get used to and comfortable with the strumming pattern, and then I put the vocals over the top, layering it bit by bit. This way helped me to feel more confident with playing and singing simultaneously. I think me breath control was no problem here, possibly because it is not as wordy nor vocally quick so it did not pose a challenge to me.

Improvisation in scales, and chord progressions

In today's lesson, we focused on improving in certain scales to different chord progressions; the scales we focused on were D blues minor/pentatonic, B natural minor/blues minor and C natural minor. My teacher played the chord progression from the book in D blues minor and I improvised using the scale, and I think I did it quite well. Barry said that I played very confidently using a variety of tones and licks, various techniques like tone bends, hammer ons and pull offs and slides. He then taught be about a second position in which the scale can be played in, so when using this second position as well as the first when improvising, you can get a bigger variety of tones and expand your lick arsenal. He then taught me the same thing for the other two scales, so I could practice using both positions straight away. With the second chord progression, Barry said that since I'm using the B natural minor and blues minor, I should switch back and forth between natural minor melodic licks to blues minor 'bluesy' licks to get a variety of different sounds. I think I did this quite well - I used both scale positions confidentially and had a even mix of the two, and had an even mix of two scales.
When it came to playing the chord progressions, I think I did this quite well because I had done them before with my previous teacher, but I still need to revise all the different chords and become more confident with them - the chords include (using C for example) Cmaj, Cm, C5, C7, C, Cdm7, Cag7, and Csus4.

Jesus of suburbia - III. I Don't Care

Today I started to learn the next sub song 'III. I don't care' which is probably the hardest out of the 3 so far because it quite a substantial tempo change, and the strumming pattern is almost like it doesn't follow the 4/4 time signature that the song is in, but it does - it just throws me off a little bit. It starts with a short guitar solo which is quite easy, there is one slide from 2nd fret to 7th fret which is hard because it's such a big gap and it's hard to make sure I slide to right fret as it is quite quick - but I practiced this by just educating my finger on how far to slide, and then practiced it slowly and gradually increased the speed. When it comes out of the interlude, the power chord part with the funny strumming pattern is hard mainly because of the strumming pattern (as mentioned above) but also the strumming is all down strums and it's very quick so it's quite hard to keep up. To practice this, I did a guitar warm up exercise (see warm up video) and really focused on my wrist off my strumming hand to loosen it up and increase my strumming speed and fluency. This really helped because I felt a lot more comfortable when doing the fast strumming, and my wrist wasn't aching like before. Also, for some reason there are no tabs for this part of the song, so I had to kind of play by ear to get the notation right.

All along the watchtower - second lead solo

The 2nd lead solo is probably the hardest part in the song because, like the first solo, it is heavily dominated by tone bends but here you have to hold another note on another string and the same time and bend the B string to match 9th fret on the high E string (for example). And this is done few times in lots of different positions, and I find it hard to bend to exact correct pitch and also making sure that I don't the release of the bend, and I also find that when I move up to the next position it throws me off a bit. The bends get harder as you progress up the fret board because they are quicker changes and quicker releases to bends. To practice this, I listened to this part of the track over and over to make sure I was 100% confident with the timings, and then I practiced it very slowly bend by bend, really making sure I was bending it to the correct pitch and not sounding the down bend/release. I think in the end, I got it fairly well - I am more confident with bend to particular pitches, however I really need to work on the transitions because they don't sound smooth or natural that much

Vocal lesson - basic singing technique

In my first vocal lesson with Mr Quinn, and he taught us the basic techniques of singing - this includes posture, breathing and supporting. He said that for posture, our heads should just facing outwards but help up high, shoulders relaxed, legs bendy not locked, feet firmly on the ground and about shoulder width apart - this is all to help open up the lungs and provide a more healthier and unstrained sound. He then said for breathing, we need to breathe from the bottom of the lungs using the diaphragm, an we should feel the muscles of the lower back expand and the stomach would expand when you inhale, and then they relax when you exhale. For supporting, he taught to fill up our stomachs full of air, and when we go to sing we have to squeeze our stomach muscles to push the air out from our stomachs using our diaphragm and stomach muscles. I think I did this well, the techniques made the vocals sound a lot stronger and thicker, and gave a lot life to the vocals.

Guitar lesson - sweet child of mine

In my guitar lesson today, we looked at the song 'Sweet child of mine' by Guns n Roses which is part of the grade 5 song library. When I played the opening riff (an arpeggio figure), my guitar teacher, Barry, said that I play the right notes, but I don't play it right; I use barring a lot in this riff, as a result it sound like the notes bleed into each other which doesn't sound right. He said to not bar it and play the notes individually but still make sure it flows well and is it staccato; he showed me which fingers to use on which notes and I practised it slowly a couple times, and already it sounded a lot better. The very last lick in the riff just before the first kicks in, is very hard because it uses pedal notes (where you keep going back to the same note) - I found it hard because again I needed to play the notes individually - no barring - and still have that nice flow to the play. It was really just a case of educating my fingers and trying to lock it into my muscle memory. The first solo I found very hard because it is heavily dependent on tone bends (including pre bends) and i find tone bends as difficult as it is let alone pre bends. I first became familiar with how the solo goes before I started to worry about the tone bends and educated my fingers of where they need to go throughout the solo. When it came to learning the bends (note they are all full tone bends, so a whole step up, as a pose to a semi tone) I figured out the position of the string during the bends so that for the pre bends, I knew where to bend the string to because obviously I can't sound the bending upwards (hence why it's called a pre bend). I practiced the solo slowly and gradually got a bit faster, but I still need to continue to practice it because I'm still not very comfortable with doing it. 

All along the watchtower - Verse 2

Today, my aim was to learn the second verse and the second chorus/lead solo - the verse isn't too bad in the sense that I'm already familiar and comfortable with the chord changes and shapes, but the strings are individually plucked for two beats then an upstrum on the third, then a one beat rest; this wasn't too hard, just took me a while to get used to and memorise - so I just practiced it slowly bit  by bit until I was confident and comfortable with playing it. I think I played this well n the end, my chord transitions are still smooth, and the plucking was smooth and consistent throughout, however I do need to work on my chord shapes because sometimes I get a muffles sound from the upstrum because I'm pushing down on the fret board hard enough. .

All Along the Watchtower - verse 1 and chorus

In today's practice, I was learning the first verse of the song. Throughout the verse and chorus, it is the same chords repeated (C#m, B, A), just sometimes played in a different way. At the verse, the chords are just simply strummed for one beat and a rest/mute for another, then after the A there is a hammer on to pull of which I pluck with my finger to get more of a harsh sounding staccato sound.
Then chorus is the same chords in the same time signature and positioning of chords and strums, but they are strummed twice for two beats, then an upstum/downstrum chuck/tassel is added on the offbeat after each chord.
I found the verse very easy straight away as it is just simply chord changes, all on the same route string (A string) so switching between chords was easy because I just had to slide down the fretboard with a couple minor finger position changes. However in the chorus, the addition of chucks/tassels took me a while to get used to because they are on the off beat so it threw me off a bit, and also made the chord changes quite hard because had to move my fingers completely to cover over all the strings.

Jesus of suburbia: Guitar - 'I. Jesus of suburbia and II. City of the damned' keeping correct tempo 23/09/16

In today's practice I learnt the first two 'sub songs' 'I. Jesus of suburbia' and 'II. City of the damned' and I learnt them both by using tabs with the music score and notation above the tab. Both are quite easy and not very challenging, as it is mainly just using different power chords. The only challenging part about both is the strumming pattern at some points, because when I read what the pattern is, it is different to how I thought it would be from just listening to the track - for example there are up strums where I thought they were down strums, and sometimes there are more strums in a bar than I thought. This threw me off a bit because it is obviously different to what I am used to. I practiced this by playing it slowly to get used to it, and I got faster and faster then eventually played along with the track. I eventually got the strumming pattern, and I now find it easy because I have practiced it a lot. One thing I do need to work on is switching between the bar chords - I have never really felt very comfortable doing bar chords, and in City of damned there is lots of switching between just normal 5 chords (power chords) and bar chords. I practiced this by getting familiar with the bar chord shape and working out the easiest way to switch to them from the power chords. Once I had done this, again I practiced it slowly and got faster and faster to get used to the switch, and I eventually got it however I still find it hard so I do need to keep practicing.

Jesus of suburbia: Vocals - supporting vocals with diaphragm, breath control 28/09/16

In today's practice, I was working on the vocals for this song. I had a vocal run through of the song from start to finish just to get a feel of the pitch, dynamics and general tone of the vocals and so I know what to work on. In terms of pitch, it generally isn't too challenging however at points it does jump quite high. I feel I need to work on these points because when it does go high, my voice sounds quite weak and I feel the strain within my vocal chords. To work on this, I really practiced tensing and squeezing my diaphragm to really push the sound out from my stomach/diaphragm area rather than my throat. Once I practiced it this way, I found that my voice sounded a lot stronger and supported, and I was able to hit the higher pitched notes easier - however I still need to work on/practice this technique because it very hard to get the hang of, and sometimes I don't realise I am singing from my throat. Another aspect I focused on was my breath control; at some points in the song, there are long lines of lyrics with no breathing time, and a few long held notes. I think I covered this quite well as I have had previous practice of breath control and I feel quite confident in holding long notes and controlling my breathing. To practice this, I did a breath control exercise called 'bowman on horse back'. This is where you breathe in as much as possible and hold it, then do a movement, then breathe back out forcefully and quickly from your stomach, making a loud 'boom' sound as you do. This helps to increase your oxygen capacity in your stomach per inhale. I did this a few times to just warm up my diaphragm and practice breath control, then when I applied the technique to the song, I took deep breathes from my stomach and up through my chest - inhaling as much oxygen as possible - before I start to sing so that I can easily hold long notes and/or take less quick grasp of air throughout the song so that the vocals have more flow to them. For my next vocal practice, I need to work on my diction and articulation as sometimes I tend to slur my words when singing. I am also going to focus on the dynamics of my voice, looking at when to increase and decrease my volume depending on the lyrics, dynamics of the music, or whether the music is soft or heavy.

All along the watchtower reheasal log 17/09/16

Today I started to learn my second song choice, All along the watchtower by Jimi Hendrix; this song is a lot more complicated than Jesus of suburbia so I started straight away with the tab notation sheet music. Today I just worked on the opening chord riff, then the first lead solo. The opening riff is very easy, just 3 chords, 2 of which are major and 1 is minor. The lead part however, is rather challenging because it is heavily dominated by tone bends, so it is hard to make sure I bend them to the correct pitch, most of the bends are whole step bends. There are a couple of hammer ons and pull offs which are normally easy but because in this song they are done quite fast, it took me a while to get but eventually I got it. I just kept practicing it slowly in small chunks instead of all together and at the original tempo, and once I got it all, I practiced it all together repeatedly, increasing the tempo each time.

Jesus of Suburbia: Guitar - learning the song 16/09/16

Today I started to learn my first song choice, Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day. I know this song very well (not on guitar) so it shouldn't very hard to learn when it comes to reading the notations.To start with, I listened to the song a few times and learnt the key is in G#m, and from there I learnt chords to the first few sub-songs (the song is a 10 minute track full of 5 'sub-songs'; this I will use this to my advantage when it comes to future rehearsals because I can set myself the goal of learning one sub song each rehearsal). I learnt these chords just by ear just to get the basics down, however next rehearsal I will have the tab notation so I can lean it properly with each technique. I didn't really use any techniques in this rehearsal, because I just learnt the basic chords by ear.