master the guitar

A rather stimulating read by master guitarist, guitar teacher and genius, Ney Mello. I haven’t read it for a long time and wish to review it soon. Viz.:

http://neymello.com/news.shtml

Speaking of Ney… I was also happy to hear Ney tell me personally that my picking appeared to be better than 80 percent of that of his students’ from a video I shared about two years ago. I am on track.

Measure 26 – use full barre on last chord position in this measure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNymb3TbRWg

Yesterday I purchased Xuefei Yang’s incredible rendition of “Sevilla”. I love it. The playing and the recording quality are both excellent. I have loved this piece since I first heard it when I was about fifteen and I subsequently felt that I would have to learn it some day! I have found a tab in Guitar Pro 5 for it that appears to be accurate – and so when I get a classical guitar and have more room in my daily routine, I shall verily be learning it.

Using only good picks for practice I have found does make a great difference in terms of facility vis-à-vis using picks that are even slightly worn down. You may not even be able to see that it is worn down much, but I myself can definitely feel the difference. I am thinking by the New Year when I start consistently practicing 12 hours a day, that it may become necessary that I change to a new pick after even every day of practice. Maybe my Jim Dunlop 1.5mm picks will last longer for practice on electric guitar as most of my practice will be done on an electro-acoustic guitar on which I use Jazz III picks.

Article by Jamie Andreas:

http://www.guitarprinciples.com/Essays/essay23.htm

can one ever master the guitar?

On fast passages it is probably best to increase the angle of the thumb pick in relation to the string for facility of motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuadh1o0yC8

I have liked Derek Trucks’ guitar playing for years. In fact, this video is the first I had heard of him and from that point on, needless to say, I was hooked. He manages to convey so much expression through slide guitar and I love his phrasing.

For those interested, Yngwie Malmsteen’s Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb Minor: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3965765080439249160#