Impending Doom

Hi all, so today I have been playing about creating my own music using the drum machine feature on my Digitech RP250 pedal. Improvising is one of my favourite things to do on guitar because it allows me to express myself in ways playing other people music never does. Plus its not as demoralising the i get something wrong.
This is by no means finished and I'm not too keen on the crunchy voice of my guitar, I think it needs something a little heavier and darker but this is what I have so far. I have also written the tab for this so I can remember where I am for next time.
Obviously there is a lot of work for me to do here but it will be  a welcome distraction for when I am finding material given to me by my tutor either too difficult or a little monotonous.

Overrated?

Hi all, following my guitar lesson last night I have been given another grade 3 song to learn called Overrated. I am really pleased with this because even though i know I still have work to do on Fallout and Old Bones Blues I was beginning to find these songs a tedious, not because they are not fun to play but simply I have played and practised them so many times that picking up my guitar to practise them some more was getting a little monotonous.
In general my lesson went a little better this week, my sons bedroom is finished so this meant I had a few days before my lesson to practise and what a difference this practise time made. another few days of playing and I'm sure I will be back on track.
So this is the a video of Overrated I found on youtube being played as it should be played, it is my intention post a video of my progress with this song once I have made some progress on it.
I will of course all be practising the other two grade 3 tracks and will be posting them once polished.

One step forwards, two steps back

As the title suggests things have not gone well since my last post. I have spent the last couple of weeks redecorating my sons bedroom and this in turn has had a severe impact on my practice time, by severe I mean none at all.
Two weeks ago I was able to play Old Bones Blues to a standard I was happy with and now my fingers are really struggling to find the correct strings, its shameful.
On the bright side, my sons bedroom should be finished by the weekend which will mean back to practicing on a regular basis and trying to nail Old Bones Blues and Fallout as well as working to my improvisation and learning some new songs.

On a lighter note, I was recently reintroduced to this video, enjoy.

Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey all, I managed to find a recording of myself from about 6 months ago, not long after I bought my Schecter attempting to play Blitzkrieg Bop.
Its a shame I don't have a back track for this as I am sure I would be able to play this without any issues now.
For the time being though I need to concentrate on my Grade 3 material to improve my playing techniques.

Aside from grade 3 material I am also learning the follow songs.

Ironman by Black Sabbath.
I have most of this song pretty much figured out however I do need to practise this a lot more to the track as I do not know this song as well as I should and occasionally get lost when playing it. I also need to learn either learn the original solo or come up with my own.

Paranoind by Black Sabbath
Pretty much nailed this, a little more practise would be good and as above i need a solo for it.

Working Class Hero - John Lennon
Very much a work in progress. I love this song and wanted to learn something a little less heavy that I could one day play at a party or whatever. I kind of have the strumming pattern but it needs a LOT of work.

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
I am just learning how to play this by picking the chords as apposed to strumming. Lots of work to do here.

9 Months???

Wow! Nine months since my last post, please accept my apologies for not keeping my progress up to date. I suppose one saving grace of leaving it so long between posts is that the blog is not filled with lots of pointless posts.

New Guitar!

 I remember in one of my previous posts stating that i was going to get a Chapman ML1. As you can see I changed my mind and went all in for a Schecter Omen Extreme 6 with a floyd rose special tremalo system. This guitar is seriously amazing compared to my old guitar. Its such a joy to play and though it a lacks a little versatility it more than redeems itself when playing heavier material which is my preference.
I find this guitar much easier to play, the neck feels comfortable and there is plenty of space between the frets for even my clumsy fingers.







Progress - Old Bones Blues

I have been working to this piece on and off for a while now. I made this video yesterday to help me document my learning. Yesterday was the first time I had actually played this piece in a long time and taking this video took more attempts than i care to remember lol.
Though there is much to be improved upon I am pretty pleased with the outcome of this.
The piece is a blues song called "Old Bones Blues" and is/was used for grade 3 guitar exams.




Progress - Fallout

My second grade 3 piece that I am learning is a heavy rock composition called Fallout. I am loving this song and finding it challenging. As you can see from the video I have a great deal of work to do on this, I have yet to learn the second half of the song which is very much evident from the video and I have some timing issues to overcome but hopefully in a few weeks time I will have mastered this piece.

Progress thus far

Okay so you may have read my earlier post on my Rocksmith progression but don't let that fool you into believing that this means i am anywhere near ready to call myself a guitarist because I am not. Learning guitar is possibly the most challenging thing I have ever tried to do. I am still struggling to make my fingers do what I want them to do. I still pluck the wrong string and find the wrong place on the fretboard far too often for comfort. I have most of the basic chords under my belt but switch between them is a slow and arduous process for my dumb fingers.

This is however a thousand times better than it was several months ago and I can honestly say I am happy with my progress, indeed my instructor has even commented that he can tell I am practising a lot at home and thinks that I am making good progress.

My practise time at home usually consist of practising the "A Minor" scale all the way up the fret board and the G Major Scale. This is then followed by trying to get my fingers to shift between various chords. More recently my tutor has asked me to begin learning the intro of ACDC's Highway to Hell this is now proving to be a lot easier than it did in last weeks lesson so I am hoping that by my next lesson I will have it nailed.


I am trying to be a lot stricter with my practise time at home as I have found over the last few weeks that it is easy to become distracted and play things I already know because I find it either easy or fun which in my opinion has not helped my progression. I need to focus to the areas I find more difficult and when I do play for fun find a way to put them into practice.

I want a new guitar!!!

Hi and welcome back to Riffs & Chords.
It has been about a week since my last entry and what a week I have had! I have fallen in love with my next guitar. My current guitar is possibly one of the cheapest money can buy and though during the first few weeks of using it I hadn't noticed any problems with it it is now beginning to show signs of very cheap build quality. Firstly let me say my guitar sounds and plays fine, I have nothing to compare it to and for learning with it is sufficient. However over the past couple of weeks parts of the guitar have worked loose that shouldn't have which in turn has vexed me enough to look at new guitars.

Firstly, about 2 weeks ago before I even started writing this blog I went to plug the jack into the guitar only to find that the nut that holds the socket in place had worked loose and fallen on my bedroom floor this resulted in the socket been pushed inside the guitar when I tried to plug the jack in. On top of this, in the space of just a week the screw that holds the top strap button in place came loose as did one of the screws that holds the humbucker closest to the bridge. Whilst these issues were relatively minor and easy to repair it was enough to make me look at better guitars.

I needed to find a store which stocked a good range of left handed guitars my local shops are pants when it come to us southpaws and after a little time on Google I found Andertons Music Co which when I have finished this post will be added to my list of guitar shops despite not being local.
They have the best range of left handed guitars I have ever seen.

The Schecter Omen Extreme 6 was the first guitar that caught my eye within a sensible price range. In my eyes it is one of the most beautiful guitars I have ever seen and having read many online reviews of the guitar it was very hard to find any negative comments. However, having watched youtube videos of this beast being put through its paces it does seem like it is a little limited in its versatility, this was backed up by my guitar tutor. It is still very tempting but I want my next guitar to offer versatility as I have a very broad taste in music and want to be able to play as much as possible.

After further searches I came across the Chapman ML 1. It just Oozes everything I would want from a guitar. Sure it is not quiet as asphetically pleasing to the eye as the schecter but the range of sounds I have heard coming from this guitar on youtube is mouthwatering. Interestingly every feature on this guitar was voted upon during its design process. Having watched countless videos of this guitar being put through its paces I can safely say that this is going to be my next guitar. Below is a video of this guitar being tested by none other than Rob Chapman himself.