My E Minor Pentatonic Speed For Review

[Ted]

2:44 of building up to max speed on E Minor Pentatonic Scale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1L8GQNI ... e=youtu.be

[Jamie]

Hey Ted, again, that was great! You don't have a problem here.

Both hands look fantastic, I really like that elbow movement in the pick hand even at high speeds. And the left hand is very relaxed and well behaved.

I would definitely get a recorder that plays back at half speed to check yourself on each repetition if you are going to work for more speed. If you are going for more speed, that will be taking you out of the "blues/rock" world and more into the speed metal, fusion, etc. world of virtuoso speed playing. For that, you want to study Ney Mello' s teachings, and perhaps with Ney himself, since he is a master of that style of playing.

I am only interested in getting students up to 120 in 16ths, with strong technique and the possibility for further growth if they want it...and you are already there. So, I am not sure what your goals are, but you really want to focus on the musical parts of the style now..the other scales with their idiomatic licks, good bends and vibrato, improv....etc,

Speed, apparently, is not going to be an issue for you!

[Ted]

Thanks for the comments and the encouragement, Jamie. My fingers are finally "well behaved" - thanks to "The Principles". Before that, my thumb and fingers were flying all over the place!

It was tough over the last few days to transform my playing of that scale. I had always done that scale with the use of my 4th finger! I had done it for so long, that while I was trying to work up using the 3rd finger instead, as your course suggests, my poor little pinky found himself out of a job and kept wanting to jump back in there and get to work. There was a lot of infighting and squabbling, especially between #3 and #4. I thought they were going to kill each other! I assured Pinky however that there will be plenty of other jobs for him to do, but for now he can just take it easy and not have to think about doing that particular job. He learned to keep out of the way... for now.

My Goals.
I have always played guitar by ear and have always just picked it up and made it say what the Muse wanted me to say. I have never really been technical about it. I want to change all that. I want to have both the technical and creative aspects under my belt. I am learning more and more about music theory and I am taking your rock and blues course to understand more about what I am doing with the guitar, to clean up bad habits (like using pinky improperly, ect.) and be more professional about what I am doing. I have created some really cool songs and riffs and things that I would like to record. Who knows, perhaps I could go into teaching the guitar and passing music on to others? I love teaching and I do have a lot of patience with that sort of thing, and I love being in the studio, studying and practicing, and I am self-motivated. Lots of newbies could stop in and benefit from what little I do know -- for a fee of course!...

Which brings me to another thought... I don't know anything about the music business. I am learning as I go along.

I need to find out where I am at. That is my main goal right now. I need to assess my skills, find out where I need to improve and find out where I am good to go. I need to get rid of things I don't need and start doing things I do need to be doing -- but first I have to find out what those things are!

Thanks for mentioning Ney's speed course. I have read much about that and seen some video. I am intrigued and I have decided that I very likely will take that course once other matters I am concerned about are properly addressed.

As you can see, I've got a lot of stuff going on here!

On that note, I am going back to the rock and blues course to move on to the next lesson and back to my Mel Bay books to learn some more theory -- and to keep reading "The Principles" -- of course!

[jules]

Hi Ted,

Your pentatonics look very good indeed.

I would consider also posting some example videos of your legato (hammers and pulls) technique and string bending / vibrato for us to check out too.

Going forward I think a lesson with Ney (via webcam or even telephone to begin with) would be highly beneficial in answering those questions you mention.

Good luck

Jules.