What are you currently practising?

[wheresthefbomb]

Keeping it simple as I'm still recovering from a hand injury. I've been able to pick back up my trem picking practice, working on eighth notes around 88 BPM, trying to really focus on making both strokes sound identical and hit right on the beat. I will usually do a minute of 8th notes, a minute of 16th notes, and then 30 seconds of 8th notes, 30 seconds 16th notes. Sometimes I'll even do quarter notes at this tempo.

In my actual playing I trem pick a fair bit faster than that, but I've found focusing on the movements at lower BPMs really helps when I go to play "for real." My strokes are more consistent and I'm able to keep time much more accurately rather than just spraying notes all over the place. I don't do crazy deathmetal stuff, more like brooding post-rock style trem lines. I just want things to sound as tidy as possible.

 

[PuckishGuitar]

I put a hold on my arpeggios and sweeps and started working on some Ted Greene arrangements of Christmas songs to play for family and friends when they visit over the next couple of weeks. Between the fingerstyle playing and jazz chords, it's quite a bit different than what I normally play and learning some nice voicings and progressions. Also after playing to a metronome so much, it's fun to be loose on the tempo for a solo arrangement.

 

[Wiltonauer]

I’ve been practicing watching my bends on a chromatic tuner and trying to hit the right pitch.

 

[ExMachina]

3nps sequences, all keys, all modes, all scales. Some spawn riffs, some archspire riffs.

 

[Emperoff]

I try to cycle stuff to not get burned quickly. Right now I'm refreshing songs and practicing the difficult solos for an upcoming new year's eve gig.

Other than that, I'm geting back into the "metronome woodshedding" thing. Learning some cool licks from Jake Willson at JTC to spice things up, and lately some occasional Dorian jamming over bossa nova backing tracks (which is lots of fun).

 

[putrid.stewing.mass]

The solo on Pull the Plug by Death. Hell for someone without a whammy bar and poor shred skills. Such is the plight of the rhythm guitarist. Other than that I'm not really working on anything specific. There's too many good songs to choose from, and when I do start on one I end up getting to a really hard part and just stop most of the time. It's a bad habit I've got to kick. The farthest I've got on any individual song in a while is I Cum Blood by Cannibal Corpse, I've only got the solo at the end left.

 

[Nicki]

I've moved on from practicing bends. It's not perfect, but I definitely have a better understanding of how far you need to bend that bloody string to get it to pitch correctly. Almost as if having to try to grab that much string and move it that far is an argument in favour of switching to .11s. Yeesh.

So now I'm working on root positions and how they fit into the 5 patterns of the pentatonic scale. It's a really good exercise to be able to begin to map out the fretboard.

 

[Drew]

Been working on "Technical Difficulties," picked it up here and there for years, but after going through the Cracking the Code stuff, I have a much better idea of what I'm doing and why. It's not quite there, but I'm at least at tempo and only butcher it in a few spots now, and can clean it only little off tempo, with a cleaner tone than Paul recorded it..

That, and vibrato. Been thinking about that a lot more lately.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Working on Santo & Johnny - Sleep Walk

Fairly simple tune, but definitely outside of my comfort zone, and thusly a welcome challenge.

 

[narad]

Working on Santo & Johnny - Sleep Walk

Fairly simple tune, but definitely outside of my comfort zone, and thusly a welcome challenge.

Have you ever heard the Wes Hauch version?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Have you ever heard the Wes Hauch version?

lol and here I am struggling with the original version. The vapor trail sounds really nice.

I dig that he did a heavier part, once I feel comfortable with the original I'm going to give it the ol' fuzz'n'reverb

 

[CanserDYI]

Graves of the Fathers by Cryptopsy. People who shit on power chords saying they're easy need to try to learn this song. Jeez. In theory, its a really simple song, but in practice and playing it, jesus christ my arm hurts at the end.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Nothing ☹️ I am making synth songs and singer songwriter alt rock with power chords and trying to get better at singing.

 

[Emperoff]

I've moved on from practicing bends. It's not perfect, but I definitely have a better understanding of how far you need to bend that bloody string to get it to pitch correctly. Almost as if having to try to grab that much string and move it that far is an argument in favour of switching to .11s. Yeesh.

Try this as a fun experiment. When I want to exclusively practice bendings and vibrato I play standing up in front of a mirror. This way you can look up at your reflection instead of your hands and really see what's going on.

Sounds silly but really helps to pick up bad technique habits, which in bendings are very important as it's one of the most physically stressful parts of lead playing.