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Cool stuff HP!

Here I show you the basics of the octave technique which was invented by Wes Montgomery in combination with a turnaround in F : F7 / D7 / Gm7 / C7 Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

This one will be the next tutorial in the Jazz department. I love this version most.

Here I show you a cool high energy shuffle blues guitar riff. The riff itself is something you might already know but you need to know the tricks to play it on 150 or more bpm. Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

updated based on last online lesson Time Management 45 minutes daily ( at least ) 1 hours on weekends Current level Can play a handful of songs that I have learned over the years alone and in pick-up bands Basic soloing; Advanced rhythm guitar Goals short term : Advance my soloing technique; increase my library of muscle-memorized chords; begin to map music theory to my playing long term : be flexible on any speed and any form of blues; jazz or blues-rock and have a freedom on improvisation over the whole fretboard 45 Minute lesson will look like: 10 min: Soloing speed practice: start using Chromatik lesson 10 min: Diatonic chord progressions in FMaj. 5 min: rest 10 min: Current practice song 10 min: FMaj scale modes Hour lesson will look like: 20 min: Diatonic chord progressions in FMaj. 5 min: rest 10 min: Soloing speed practice 10 min: Current practice song 5 min: rest 15 min: FMaj scale modes d

Your plan looks very good - I have only one suggestion or advice since I know how you are playing. I would not spend too much time on technical issues because your technique is very developed for your current playing and knowledge level - Probably I would skip 5 minutes of technical practice and add it to the fun part. HP

hi dana, this is brilliant! remember, you get out what you put in. i like the adding of fun and rest. don't forget to stretch. a point i stress of most importance. aggressive stretching (especially if you've never done it) can do damage so just a light stretch before and after until you find what works for you. this plan is excellent! stay with it. peace... stevo (ts)

Greetings to all... I'm kinda out of action as far as practicing with hands on the guitar for now and will post about this in another area. I would like to take a moment to reflect on what one does when he/she sets up a practice plan. It is good to, let's say, set up to practice starting with 1/2 hour a day and work my way to, say, 2 hours. Every day. You design your stretch time warm up (chromatics what ever) work scales, then chord progressions then play or continue writing a song. What did you accomplish? do you know what you accomplished? Along with your routine it (in my humble opinion) would be essential to set a goal. This goal could be for each practice (short term) or each week or month/year (long term). Something to do with what it is you are practicing and where you want to go with your music (what ever level you want to achieve. Weather it be to play a scale in all positions continuous with out stopping. To play coils at a certain tempo with your metronome, or bring a lick into a song you are writing which comes from a scale you are practicing. You can rack up time and say "I've practiced for 1 hour today, 7 hours this week, 30+ hours for the month", and do the math from there for the amount of hours you put in for the year or your lifetime. But, what did you get out of it and what were you trying to achieve? My recommendation, start short term and easy. Bring yourself up and really think about what you would like to achieve. Especially with self motivated study, you need to set goals to push yourself to the next level. Get with Hans for advice on where it is you think you are. He is more than happy to listen to short clips of your current playing ability. A private lesson with HP is Highly advised. Post a question to HP or to your peers here at the school. Keep yourself and others pumped! This is a good thing... There are many tools here to help you motivate and grow, not only in the school but for personal gratification. Stay focused and work your plan and create goals. Peace To All... TS...

This is probably one of the most important parts of your "Hands On Study"... Athletes stretch before every workout so they do not pull or tare muscles and ligaments. Some of us get into Guitar Gymnastics... At any level, at any time you are going to play your guitar, it is imperative you stretch. There are many methods to stretching and depending on you, and what it is you would like to do, it is a very good idea to make stretching a part of your daily practice routine.. Here is a few examples... http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...?showtopic=1065 Remember, just like playing go into your stretch, slow, learn and know your body... Be Great! Peace.. TS

Practice / Study Practice is, pretty much, the result of what you study. We Study then put into practice the various themes and movements in what ever it is we study. In this case, it is music. Even deeper in relevance, we are studying guitar. This paper will be in many parts. Posting all of them at the same time would be, well, like something I would do. So if it does you good Great. If you disagree then we can only perfect this paper and that is the purpose of it all isn't it? So If you disagree we will change where everyone sees fit. In essence, it will bring you to one end... Practice, Study and Play! So far I have this broken down into almost 20 posts. We shall see how it goes... With HP's help we will be able to really dial this in for everyone to benefit. Practicing the Guitar! So ya wanna play guitar? Or, you wanna get better. Wanna Shred, wanna play each note, PERFECT, down to the last beat. There is only one we to do this. Practice! In this forum, we have a teacher that brings the study to us and this brings us to practice what he is teaching. In this paper Practice and Study are the same thing. Level? If you have never played an instrument then you are pretty much a Beginner. Other than that how, do you tell what level you are? Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced? What makes you a Beginner, this is kind of self explanatory... New to the instrument, new to music, or have a little knowledge. This is where it all begins and where the "Foundation" is set. (there will be much on foundation). Intermediate/Advanced? HP help us out here. What constitutes these levels? Getting into what to practice at what level comes next By the way. I left out Professional because I've known intermediate at best, playing for money. This is what a Professional is. A person that works for money. So we'll just leave that out. What ever level you are you can play for money... This is the first of many for practicing plans... We are all different but there is one foundation to follow in order to achieve the next level. You will have to practice practice practice.... The Study is in between... Next will be Beginner level practice plan possibilities. When this is all said and done, there will be a download-able "novel" for all to use as a plan for growth.. Peace... TS

Hi This My take for now... As most know I injured my Elbow and Wrist in a fall. I'm still healing but am able to play. However, I'm only able to play for about 20 mins a day. I have not really been able to pick up my guitar for about two months! This really suk'd more than you know. I did take this time to practice one handed touch on the upper frets, as well as theory. This was a great time to get into it with a little midi controller the theory that is here at the school and a lil book called "Music Theory for Dummy's"... So in this time of recovery I'm doing this... 10 to 15 mins of stretching. 10 mins of teaching my hand take a different grip (my old grip is painful), while playing 5 positions of pentatonic scales in a few different keys. I may throw a few different positions of the Ionian scale. about 5 mins playing just chords that are easy to grab, like, the E7-5 Hendrix (which is a cool movable chord) and D7-5 then about 5 to ten mins of just playing around with all to the about slowly for fun... then back to a light stretching. I'll start to mix it up a bit and add more as my arm will let me... I'm starting with basics as I have to revamp my entire playing style due to this injury. It's all good! I will emerge from this a stronger player... I know it! Peace... OBTW... Starching should be a part of your practice regiment. I'll be writing another article on this soon as well as how I work the online guitar school for maximum potential. This is a slow road... Worth it... Never put it down! it will never put you down for sure! Peace... TS...

Your crazy I love it

I've been working a hectic schedule at work only just to be there in body. I finished all the spreadsheets weeks ago but I have to be there to work those that have no clue about entry. so I've spent much time at work cruising the net on issues down these lines also studying... Pretty cool. I'm editing one now, mostly to keep it simple and where to break it up. don't think it's good to post 20 pages all at one time... Hope all is well. I'm going for rest... Off for the next three days.. ahhhh... nice... peace... TS...

Hey Stevo, your practice and recouvery plan sound just perfect. Just keep it going like this and don't try to force things and then you will recover without even noticing it. And this is how it should be. I am lookinf forward to your article you are planing. HP

OK, here's my take on practicing. I don't know how anyone can only practice for 30 minutes to an hour a day and not get totally frustrated/bored with the rate of progression that their making. When I actually sat down about a year ago and laid out on paper my practice routine, I finally realized how much time was needed to actually progress, at what I consider, would be a "decent" rate of progression. 20-30/min Chromatics moving up in half steps. 20-30/min on MODES: go through all seven modes 2-3 times with a metronome. 15-20/min A Bb Phrygian lick that I like. 15-20/min Just the Lydian mode moving up in half steps frets 1-5 (Good for stretching) 30-60/min Barre chords !! Could really spend 2 hours a day on just these. 20-30/min chord progressions with open chords and barre chords and combining them also. 20-30/min Finger picking. 20-30/min Minor pentatonics in all 5 positions 30-60/min Scales; Major, Minor and Blues all positions 1 hour Practice 1 or 2 songs that I am trying to learn. then spending some time just playing, could be 1-2 hours of just having fun So as you can see, that's about 4-6 hours of practice without even including the "fun time" ...all that doesn't even include practicing things like bends, vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, tapping, etc etc. Never mind the time it takes if you actually want to learn a favorite solo that you like which takes a lot of time as some of you know. And lets not even talk about finding certain tones of favorite songs. Finding good tones takes an enormous amount of time with all the different effects and all the parameters for each one. You could spend hours/week just learning, delay settings, reverb, EQ, Chorus settings, plus your guitar volume/tone/pick-up selector settings and how they effect your tone.....it's just endless........and let's not even get into mixing and recording!!! And then what about all the reading on forums and books, and watching videos etc etc When I first started playing, I was putting in 30 to 50 hours A WEEK. When I first posted my song "Influenced" on JS Forums, people where amazed that I had only been playing for just over a year. They said I showed the experience of someone that has been playing for 3-4 years or more because of my phrasing, the accuracy of my bends, my timing etc ....and the funny thing is I still think I suck as far as skills. If I only played for 30/min a day, I really don't think I would have stayed with it at all.

Hey Mr. get on the stick and get unstuck... I dig Lucky Man! I saw ELP At Cal Jam 1 Back in the 70's. they did that and most of Brain Salad Surgery. Nice... It's all good brother... get it when ya can. At least you haven't done what I've seen alot do. Winding up in the closet only to see their way to ebay or something... I've gone back to basics... Next msg... Peace Bro! steve...

Yes you made one of the major mistakes a lot of students are doing. You wanted to go through everything too fast - like discribed in my article http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=178 - the marathon part Your goals where not realistic on the long term, but still you did not do wrong since you have reached a lot in the time you already played, but you have to avoid the deadliest thing that can happen that you stop regularity after the first motivation run. Better take a total break of a few weeks and then reconsider your schedules and get that regularity into your daily schedules with work and familly. If you don't have that much time - then it would be better just to play a few songs and add some practice goals like 5 - 10 min daily. This should keep it up.

ok let me better explain this. I gues it came across like I have been doing this for ever but I haven't!! When I was first practicing 30+ hours a week, it was basically open chords, strumming, fretboard, etc. I only worked on this schedule for 6-7 weeks "after" a year or so of just noodling and messing around, reading, research, new gear, tone searching...etc, not really "practicing" daily on this or any schedule for that matter. That's when I wrote this schedule out. Then I stopped practicing new stuff for months and months, so I never really progressed any further, with ANY of these techniques I can't play barre chords well enough at all and I definitely cannot switch between open and barre chords fluently. As far as the modes, they ARE ALL 3 note per string, but I am still probably around 80-90 bpm clean, so I really haven't progressed there either. Chord progressions are still tough for me because I lack the theory side of music. So although I can play "fairly" well, I haven't really stuck to this schedule after that 6-7 week period. If I did, I probably would be light years ahead of where I am now I still need to work on timing and left/right hand coordination, that's why I still need to work on chromatics and stuff. That's the thing, I can't because I never stuck to this or any schedule. I lost some motivation along the way! Family, work etc ...... And lately, past 4-5 months, I'm lucky if I played 1-2 hours a week, sometimes going 5-6 days without even picking up the guitar at all......so all-in-all, I have a LOT to work on still. But I do understand what your saying if I get back to practicing regularly, which I hope will be soon On a good note though, I learned an old Emerson Lake & Palmer tune, "Lucky Man" yesterday....didn't realize how easy it was:D Verse: G-D Chorus: Am-Em-D with some Dsus2 and Dsus4's in there. What I would love is a bunch of songs that use open chords that I can learn so at least I can start to put together a song list....right now its only 3

Your week must have something like 200 hours In generall you are spending too much time on exercises which only on topic. 3 repeats would be OK. Once you can play the exercises properly in a good tempo you can start to select something else to get more input but still working on the technique. As an example : You are playing 3 years now I guess so you can skip the chromatic exercises to more advanced stuff where you can use all fingers. Maybe you check out the 3 note - per - string scales or scales in generall in different positions. Barré Chords : You are advanced enough to go a step further. Work on more complex chords maybe the basic jazz chords. Even when you don't want to play jazz you can learn a lot from the stuff and maybe it gives you more inspiration. Modes : Why not playing a mode a week. You can swith between lydian and Ionian from one week to an other. They are related - learn the theoretical difference between them and the other modes and learn those interval steps which define a mode by heart and on the fretboard. The rest looks good so far.

Practice plans I have created this section that you can post your practice plans and workouts in order to compare them with other students and to get some workout and practice tips from me. The practicing is very important to keep your guitarplaying going - so please take some time to read my article about practicing http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=178 After that try to create your own practice plan which fits into your daily schedules to create the regularity which is required that you make progress on your guitarplaying. If you are a beginner or nearly a pro - the practicing process never stops and always has to be adapted to your current level and your timemanagement and your short - and long term goals you have. How do you create a practice plan ? 1 . Open a new topic. 2 . Check how much time you can invest in a regular manner. Best would be daily, but if this is not possible try to make a plan to create that regularity. 3 . Define your short and long term goal in guitarplaying and write it down. Find out what is required to reach your goals. If you don't know it you can ask for advice in your pratice plan. I will give you some tips, add links and give you a honest opinion. 4 . If you think that you can manage the entire practice plan on the long term - you can start with your practicing. If not you have to reconfigure your goals and your practice plan. Therefore you can ask for my advice or discuss this with other students. Here's now an example how a practice plan might look : My tips : technical : Build up speed on soloing : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...hp?showtopic=29 Learn all pentatonic patterns : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=325 // http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=326 Work on your sound : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=977 Learn alternatve picking properly : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=460 creativity : Learn the basic & advanced improvisation conzepts : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=908 // http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...p?showtopic=907 Learn all kind of licks and examples : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...hp?showforum=55 // http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschoo...hp?showforum=62

Done !

To keep the overview .... everybody open up a new own topic and write it down ( or copy paste it ) - this way we can keep things together. HP

I shall... I think it should be a major part of our agenda... Being a big Covey fan, I think planning is most important to success. With planning there is focus or F.O.C.U.S. "Follow On Course Until Successful". Pretty cool eh... anyway, This well be the mainstay of my "focus" for sure... Be great! peace.. TS

Spread the word

Hi all together, to make progress on guitarplaying it is very important that you practice regulary on the guitar. It makes more sense to play 10 minutes daily then playing 5 hours only on a rainy sunday. But in fact that doesn't mean that you should not practice 5 hours on special occasions. It also makes a difference whether you practice concentrated your exercises of if you just play the guitar. To practice means that you really pay attention to what your teacher or your guitar-book has told you to do. Playing means that you just play the guitar and enjoy it. The optimal mixuture in practicing is first to work on the stuff you really have to work on and then to play and maybe trying to let the new things into your playing style. It is clear that such a disciplin can to be held over the full timerange and that the motivation to grab the guitar should be that you love to do it and that you really enjoy playing. I have started a poll so that you can see how long other members of this board practice daily to get a impression. During my music-studies I used to practice 10 - 16 hours a day. But now since I don't need to practice that much anymore I practice or play about 3-4 hours daily. My focus now is on really getting everything played on the guitar on a emotional and a subliminal level. I don't want to think during playing what to play. I just want to let the music flow out of me. Therefore I do special exercises to get at that point. Greetings HP

Thanks To get your practice plan online ... open an new topic and write it down the way I made an example. HP

I think I'm going to try to count just how many lessons, vids, tabs are on this site. There has to be 1000's is seems. Every time I look I find something new and most helpful in what I'm working on. I love this place!!! Peace... TS

This is a brilliant Article. A must read! Still healing from an injury, my practice Plan is modified. However I subscribe to the, 20 min. practice / 5 pause / 20 min. practice / 5 pause / 20 min. practice / 15 min. pause - then start from the beginning. At this time, I can only do 15 mins / 5 pause / 15mins then off for at least an hour. With light work. Have to focus on light touch and position of my arm, wrist and pressure being used. Getting better everday, but one must be very cautious when playing while recovering from an injury. Peace... TS

And here you find the pentatonics I was talking about. Minor Pentatonics Major Pentatonics and here you find some technical exercises which help you - check the chromatic exercises first to get your fingers a bit trained and then the pentatonic exercieses. http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschool/index.php?showtopic=29 The root note I am talking about is important for the orientation on the fretboard and to start with the basic improvisation concept : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschool/index.php?showtopic=908

Here I talk about some basic picking techniques either with pick or the fingers or with a clean or distorted guitarsound. If you want to leanr rock riffs with distorted guitarsounds you might check out the " rock riff's tutorial " Additional I talk about regularity in your practice routines. They are very important that you keep your training and practicing up to gain your progress and keep you going. Here you find 2 articles how you should schedule your regular practice : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschool/index.php?showtopic=104 http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschool/index.php?showtopic=178 If you want a professional review of your practice plans go here : http://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/guitarschool/index.php?showforum=74 At the end I give you some tips how to tune your guitar. The best way is to buy a tuner and work on a combination of tuning by ear and with the tuner.

To get your practicing optimized please read my article about motivation and pracitce schedules : http://www.hpcrazy.com/guitarschool/index.php?showtopic=178