That are some songs you're playing that have really improved your _______?

[britishgeetah]

Yeah name them...
improved your
improv
speed
tapping
phrasing
usage of modes..

etc.

[Jay 77]

Been playing a lot of old Danzig lately. It helps with 'playing with feel' instead of trying to be technical. John Christ's rhythms are tight, and his leads are simplistic but solid. I loved them in high school, and I've reintroduced myself to them.

[Dirtyking]

Been playing a lot of old Danzig lately. It helps with 'playing with feel' instead of trying to be technical. John Christ's rhythms are tight, and his leads are simplistic but solid. I loved them in high school, and I've reintroduced myself to them.

Totally, straight foward rock. I love jammin Danzig. Christ just writes the perfect Dark riffs and solo's. I've been jammin alot of new Danzig that Tommy Victor of Prong played on and it's cool, but nothing like what John Christ did.

I'd say James Hetfield pushed my playing more than anyone. His speed and monster riffs are like steak.

[Gearjoneser]

Learning a lot of Zeppelin acoustic songs has improved my acoustic fingerpicking, especially in DADGAD tuning.

The Hellecasters CD's is a good tutorial in country chicken pickin

Yngwie Malmsteens Rising Force is a good place to start for shred chops.

For slide, the Best of Duane Allman is a good one.

[Markk]

improv - Sisters by Vai
speed - Scuttle Buttin' by SRV
tapping - Not as interested in tapping yet
phrasing - Change the World by Clapton
usage of modes - Can't think of any

[TimmyPage]

I think the thing that improved my phrasing, picking, feel and speed the most has been learning Opeth songs. Especially going through and learning Akerfeldt's solo's note by note.. he has some insane phrasing that I find myself subconsciously using when jamming now.

I'd suggest learning a few Opeth songs like Dirge For November, Deliverance, Drapery Falls, and Godhead's lament just to learn some crazy new chords and phrasing.

That and look up our own Marinblues on youtube, learn some of his chops, they'll whip you into shape.

[britishgeetah]

Thanks guys, can you recommend some good danzig songs?

[Dirtyking]

Thanks guys, can you recommend some good danzig songs?

Godless, Bringer of Death, Dirty Black Summer....everything from the first 4 albums really.

[ImmortalSix]

yeah, Scuttle Buttin' by SRV is definitely a hard exercise! I've been working with this for a few days and he plays it faster than I can think!

For phrasing, I'd refer to the "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" album by Spin Doctors, pick up an axe and try to play along with "Shinbone Alley" and "What Time Is It?"

For "Touch" and "feel" I'd listen to every song on the "Couldn't Stand the Weather" album by SRV, twice.

For shredding I listen to Unearth's "The Oncoming Storm" album.

For rhythm playing, listen to Average White Band's 1976 "Person to Person" live version of "Pick up the Pieces and key in on Onnie McIntyre's HEAVENLY rhythm playing. It's a 19 minute version of the song, definitely not for sallies.

[Stratovarious]

On Fire - Van Halen
Im the One - Van Halen

espescially Im the One, if you dont play it clean it sounds ****, at first it sounds really fast but its not as fast as you think

[Colma]

there are some songs that i am playing that really have improved my.....

playing.

duh.

[Robert Delahunt]

Yeah name them...
improved your
improv
speed
tapping
phrasing
usage of modes..

etc.

In terms of improvising, no specific song improved that, I just played around with stuff on the radio.

In terms of speed, I'd have to say Jazz, although there are songs I've tried to learn with fast lead riffs that also did this because I was trying to learn them. I was never into shred, however, so to me, Jazz is my "shred".

Tapping? I dunno, I just fool around with it. I'm not a good tapper.

Phrasing? Just listening to players who have good phrasing and trying to emphasize specific notes in arpeggios helped me with this.

Modes? I'm not into them. I don't like the cookie-cutter approach to soloing. Sometimes I might pump out a pentatonic, but usually it's only during warmup. I'm more of a Jazz/Blues style lead guitarist anyways, as I love bends and doublestops a lot more than picking a mode and thrashing about the fretboard. It's like speaking: do you like hanging around someone who talks too much? Why would you then do the same basic thing in music? Now tasteful shredding / high-speed stuff I do enjoy. To me, untasteful shredding is when it sounds like the lead guitarist has no ideas or improv's in his head and is just pumping out notes along a mode.

[JeffB]

I think the 2 albums I used to play along with that really made some big improvements in my playing were:

Thin Lizzy: Live and Dangerous

and

Frampton Comes Alive

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Playing J.S. Bach's inventions has really helped me sychronize my picking and fretting hands. It's also great for improving string-skipping technique.

- Keith

[britishgeetah]

ok

[Robert Delahunt]

+1 to the Classical Music as helping technique in terms of string skipping, picking technique, and hand-hand coordination. Things that I play or have played to increase this:

1) "Banish Misfortune" (was in an Acoustic guitar magazine, it's a Celtic tune i think) - Drop D
2) Vocal warmups (their theme) (I'll post a tablature of this in a minute)
3) Fugues and other classical pieces
4) "Preparatory exercises" -- these are for piano, etc, other things, mainly are exercises geared for building certain things, like for piano it was finger-to-finger independence where you'd hold one finger while moving the other four in some pattern, etc. You can do this for guitar, to an extent.

[Robert Delahunt]

Here's an exercise I do with electric guitar. It's basically a different descending pattern to the major scale position I. I find that this helps me with my picking and technique, as you have to make sure your fingers are hitting the string properly, not sloppily. I've gotten pretty fast with it. I usually do it with the neck pickup (mine's a Jazz). Tell me what you guys think! Someone's probably already done this before, so I'm not taking personal credit with it, yet lol

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

I agree with TwinReverb; those are great exercises. One thing I would change in that example: Make the "2" on the D string a "3" to stay in the major key. Then again, the scale you're playing isn't as important as is varying your scales, starting slowly, playing cleanly and practicing with a metronome. Only speed up when you're very comfortable with your current tempo.

That example is a decending exercise using two-note groupings. Also consider three- and four-note groupings in all positions, both ascending and descending, using different scales (e.g., major, minor, lydian, chromatic, harmonic minor, etc.).

- Keith

[Robert Delahunt]

I agree with TwinReverb; those are great exercises. One thing I would change in that example: Make the "2" on the D string a "3" to stay in the major key. Then again, the scale you're playing isn't as important as is varying your scales, starting slowly, playing cleanly and practicing with a metronome. Only speed up when you're very comfortable with your current tempo.

That example is a decending exercise using two-note groupings. Also consider three- and four-note groupings in all positions, both ascending and descending, using different scales (e.g., major, minor, lydian, chromatic, harmonic minor, etc.).

- Keith

LOL oops, I'll edit the file itself in like 5 seconds and fix that, thanks!

[britishgeetah]

nice, but I think that's playing thirds descending from a scale...

good idea for a warm up though