Slo Bones

Perfect "timing' for this video! Improving my timing has been a priority for me lately and this is a great exercise.

Great area of focus! Timing is critical. I have the same focus. I'm working on timing exercises for lead and rhythm. It's funny how a simple scale becomes more difficult when playing it strict to a metronome. My other focus for next year is to become proficient in all modes while focusing on intervals. Good luck with your study! Cheers.

I found an interesting article from Guitar World which lays out a different approach to learning modes. It changes the order of the modes so that you build off each previous mode by changing just one interval at a time. Here's a link to the article: https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/guitar-modes-learn-all-7-major-modes-the-easy-way I am adding these exercises to the other HP exercises I'm already working on. I am committed to conquering the fretboard. I have put the key points into a pdf document for easy study. I have attached the study to this post. Hopefully others will find this helpful. Easy Mode Study.pdf

A quick update on my scales/modes study. Many years ago I bought this Scales & Modes book... Very dry. I couldn't make it through three pages without falling asleep. Needless to say my modal development is quite lacking. But, using the new approach to study these concepts I am already starting to see how they were derived and how they relate to each other. I mean it's a low bar as (I'm embarrassed to admit) I didn't even know what the term diatonic meant. I had to look it up! So, basically if pentatonic means a 5 note scale, diatonic is a sequence of intervals consisting of 5 whole steps and 2 half steps. So the major and minor pentatonic scales become full diatonic major and minor scales by adding the two half intervals to each. Just that little bit of knowledge was a major breakthrough for me. https://www.hanspeterkruesi.com/members/files/file/4-technical-exercises-chords-modes-patterns-major-scales/ The harmonic and melodic minor pentatonics are interesting, but I don't see how they necessarily relate to the major diatonics... and I guess that's the point? By definition they are not diatonic since they only have one half step each? I assume there is a word which defines scales with 6 whole steps and one half step? Interesting stuff. I have decided I want to memorize each mode interval sequence before learning the full position on the fretboard. For example I am only studying each mode from "I" on the low E string through "I" on the D string. Once I have memorized the intervals for each I will expand through the full position. I am excited to finally be learning this theory. I know that if I would have had more time with Pat, he would have made sure I mastered all of this years ago. But, unfortunately he had to fulfill a promise to his father. His father supported his pursuit in music and sent him to Berkley so he could learn his craft. But, in exchange, Pat had to promise that if he didn't make it as a Rock star by the time he was 30 he had to go back to school and become a pharmacist. Pat was true to his word and left for school only a few months after we started working together. I have never been able to track him down since. I'm enjoying being reacquainted with my guitar and I feel like learning the theory is satisfying my own promise that I made to myself many years ago. Cheers!

One piece of advice my old coach, Pat, gave me was to pick a key, figure out a chord progression and record it (30 years ago that would be on an analog tape player ). Then practice playing whatever scales I'm working on over that progression. With today's technology, that is soooo much easier to accomplish. I'm playing some chords over a drum track on my loop pedal and practicing my lead/solo stuff. Works great! Approach: In the past I would just play the major and sometimes minor pentatonic scales and target the root notes at the chord changes. Then around the time I stopped playing (almost 15 years ago), I was starting to experiment with playing a different (usually minor) pentatonic scale over each chord. I know there are many approaches to this and eventually my goal is to have the fretboard freedom to easily navigate through chord changes. My question: what is your best advice for an easy plan to approach playing over changes? Change scales to match the chord? Target notes? I've heard some lead players use a diotonic approach, but I don't understand the modes well enough yet. Hoping you maybe have a video on this that I haven't found yet? Cheers.

Good point on string durability. If the strings start dulling or breaking early, I will definitive go back to the 10s.

Per HP's advice I have gone back to the woodshed (as Pat used to say) and been focusing on Rhythm exercises while also working on the prescribed scales. I already have a pretty good grasp of the minor pentatonic scale shapes across the fretboard as well as the 1st position major pentatonic shapes. But, I have never really focused on studying the intervals as I would work through the various scales. If anything, I would practice saying the notes, but typically I would just grind away at a full scale, spend hours trying to ingrain the patterns and eventually quit when it just became to overwhelming. It was just easier and more fun to noodle in the patterns I was familiar with. But now I am really enjoying the approach presented in the lessons. Starting small with the pentatonics while really studying the intervals... I have had a number of 'light bulb' moments understanding where things fit together. I already understood where the I, IV and V intervals were, but that's about it. I think it helps that I at least have some familiarity if not competence in these areas. I'm looking forward to starting to work on the diotonic exercises once I have a decent grasp on these 1st scales. A big distraction for me lately has been in working on my tone. I have completely set-up my guitar three times in just the past week. Every time I think I have it dialed in, I wake up the next morning and find it too bright or too think an start tinkering with the pickups. Then I get so far out of whack I just start over again. lol. Anyway, I have always been very particular with my tone, so I know from experience that I will never be completely satisfied. I did recently switch to lighter strings. I have always used 10's, but I recently saw a convincing youtube video where some professional players and guitar techs tested out various gauge strings and everyone agreed that 09's were easier to play and sounded as good or better than the 10's or 11's. If I can't get my tone dialed in, I might throw some 10's back on. Anyway, I'm thankful to have found this site and community and look forward to hearing more about everyone else's guitar journeys.

Thanks HP! This will be enough to keep me busy for a long time. I'll document my progress as I go and can't wait to see where it takes my playing over the next several months.

This is exactly what I needed. Although it is technically quite easy to play, staying tight with the timing and within the form is something I have always struggled with. This is another fantastic warmup exercise. Thanks for posting this!

It’s hard to believe that in my last post I said I started playing 20+ years ago… I just realized it was actually THIRTY plus years ago way back in 1991!!! Yeah, HP, girls can make us do crazy things, especially when we are young. But, I believe everything works out and happens for a reason. Today I would like to discuss my practice routine. I am attaching pictures of the practice routine prescribed by Pat over 30 years ago. I haven’t formalized a current routine yet, but it will likely be something similar. I will definitely have more chord/rhythm work but I’m not sure how best to organize it. Before I can decide on a structured routine, I have to ask myself; “what are my goals? What do I hope to accomplish?” I am beyond the age of dreaming to become a big international rock star, but I would like to get back to playing publicly. In the past it was somewhat difficult to get gigs, but as I now own my own restaurant/bar with a stage, I can book myself anytime I like.. as long as I get good enough. I have high standards on who I allow to play on my stage, after all. In my previous blues/classic rock band I was a poor to mediocre lead player. I will give more details later, but here is how the band started. Twenty-two years ago, I was in a serious car accident and had to have my strumming (left) hand basically re-attached to my arm. As I was recovering, I couldn’t even rotate my hand enough to face the strings. Playing guitar became therapy for me. And eventually I was able to regain a great deal of my range of motion. The doctor who performed the surgery is still amazed to this day at how well I am doing. It all started when A buddy of mine decided he wanted to start playing guitar. We would pick some songs to learn and get together to jam for hours at a time after work or on the weekends. Eventually our wives would come down and sing along. Then one day a co-worker, who turned out to be a very good drummer, approached us and suggested that he comes over and plays with us. We started sounding better, but we really needed a bass player. So, I bought my wife a bass guitar, taught her how to play the root notes of our song progressions along with a few bass riffs… and voila we had a band. Cool stuff! But, if I’m being honest, we weren’t all that good (other than the drummer and some of the vocals). Somehow, we convinced people to let us play some park concerts, festivals and a couple of bar gigs. Some people actually seemed to enjoy us and we were having an absolute blast! Then about 14 years ago my wife became pregnant with our twins and the band soon after broke up. My gear has been gathering dust ever since. My buddy, who was our rhythm guitar player and main vocalist, has recently been urging me to start playing again. Apparently, he has been go at it pretty hard and has even started playing drums (which he claims has greatly helped him with his guitar playing). It took a while, but I finally caved in and started playing again. I got tired of wrestling with my old tube amp and at the suggestion of one of the blues performers at my club I bought a Boss Katana 100-watt combo. I love it! It is so easy to dial in any tone I need. I then bought a loop pedal with drum machine and my old cluttered pedal board has been almost completely replaced! Anyway, I have gotten way off topic. Here are my current blues/classic rock guitar goals: 1. Become a better lead player by becoming a better rhythm player. a. Pat used to tell me that I will never be a good lead player until I understand and can play the rhythm of the song. 2. Improve my timing. 3. Improve note and chord accuracy. 4. Explore the world of triads and arpeggios. 5. Expand beyond minor pentatonic and blues scales. 6. Apply these to specific songs on our play list. Any suggestions on how to approach this next phase in my journey would be greatly appreciated. I want to be ready when my buddy and I start jamming again!

It’s hard to believe that I can now count my journey in decades rather than years! Twenty-two years ago, the girl who I thought was the love of my life called off our engagement and walked out the door. I was understandably devastated and needed an outlet. I felt like I was living the blues… so, I decided to buy a guitar and sort out my emotions through music. I wandered into a local guitar store and bought the cheapest beginner guitar I could find. I signed up for lessons with an instructor at the shop. He was a great guy and gave me some absolute basics to get me started, but we spent way too much time playing ,Johnny Row Your Boat Ashore, to satisfy my pent up grief. So, I politely moved on. A Buddy of mine recommended I see his guitar coach, Pat… a local rock legend! Pat was classically trained at Berklee and was a true musical genius. He spent time touring nationally, opening for bands like RUN DMC and Aerosmith. His band won our state’s best rock band awards multiple years in a row. Pat was the real deal… he even had the long hair rocker look! So, I started lessons with Pat and we hit it off immediately! I’ll discuss more about our lessons in future posts, but Pat did a great job of setting the tone for my journey. He stressed combing technique, theory and (most importantly) having fun in my daily training routine. I still keep my original lesson book on my music stand (even though the cover is about to fall off). I will share more experiences as I reflect in future posts, and I look forward to hearing the origin stories from other members. Pat once told me that learning guitar as an adult is like learning a language. “You can still learn to speak proficiently, but you will probably always have an accent... and that’s cool, because you got to be you.”

Thanks for welcome! Yeah I play guitar lefty. I'll check out the blogs. Definitely looks like a good place to record and track my progress. Cheers!

Hello... I'm new to the community. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years. I briefly had lessons when I first started, but have been self-taught since. I mostly always played blues, but never got very good (despite playing in a band for a few years). I am just now getting back into playing after taking about 14 years off. I am amazed at all of the content that is now available online. I wish I had these resources when I first started. I decided that I want to take a plunge into classic rock style guitar and came across your videos online. GREAT STUFF! I work on your lessons every day. Eventually, I found my way to this forum and have become a premium member. All of the lessons have been great. This particular one, Rock Guitar Timing Bootcamp, has become a fantastic warmup exercise. Thank you for all the great content! Regards, Jim