Home Forums Guitar Instructor Doug Marks CGC Students 48 Week Journey

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    • #21021
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Greetings! I’m going to use this area to record my CGC weekly journey. I’m not a complete beginner but I’m going to work through the course from beginning to end as described exactly by Doug spending one week on each lesson. My goal is to comit 30 min per day to practice CGC lessons.

      I’m in the process of downloading all the lessons and getting the materials set up to work through the course. My first advice to others is to note that downloading these lessons takes a bit of time so prepare yourself for it and be patient. Read Dougs Info Page Before You Begin the Downloads.

      My week will begin each Saturday. My thought is that I can use the extra weekend time to watch through the new lesson and get the logistics all set up to better use my valuable 30 min of practice time practicing.

      In addition to posting feedback I will also record and post links to my progress with the course. I hope it will serve as a measuring tool as to where I started and where I end up 48 weeks from now. I welcome and encourage any and all feedback and I hope someone finds this helpful.

      Rock On!

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21024
      Doug Marks
      Keymaster

      I find it helpful!  This is great.  I hope that this encourages others to do the same.  Be sure that you include brief videos as you master each technique.  Brief is the keyword.  I seldom have time to review entire exercises but I’ve always got 30 seconds to look over something.  Also, even if it’s a long video I’ll still only look over the first part of it and my evaluation might not be accurate.  Good luck and thanks for doing this.

       

      Metal Method Guitar Instructor

    • #21025
      BigW
      Participant

      I am not sure this is thread to say this but I have seen a lot new people or at least new to the Metal Method way but I wanted to share something from my experience. I have a very similar background to many of the students here where I bought a guitar a long time ago and tried to learn but became frustrated by lack of knowledge/direction on how to practice until I found Metal Method. I do have to give props to Doug and the rest of them team on the latest revision of the complete coarse (its awesome) and I don’t mean to take away from the direction given in the week to week lessons as this may have only be reflective of my  own personal experience and not beneficial to others.

      What I found is that even though there is great material in all the lessons I have purchased here and I do recommend them to all that I come across with the interest in learning guitar, the real game changing moment for me is when I hard stopped all lessons and focused on the speed and accuracy challenge for 30 days. The benefit of having the dexterity and synchronization with my fingers and picking hand for me made the completion of lesson material/learning and being able to play song that I enjoy the most exciting and biggest step change I’ve had in my journey to this point.

      Like I said before certainly and not trying challenge any of the teaching progression that Doug has laid out as this may be only my experience and not correct for others but I would be curious if anyone else has felt this or if this would be good for others.  Simply put the feeling I get is that the benefit after the 30 days of the speed and accuracy challenge is that I am able to really attack the lesson materials as my fingers actually do what they are supposed to do and now allows me the capability utilizing the knowledge and direction provided here.

      I hope this is not inappropriate but helpful

      Big W

      Big W

      • #21026
        superblonde
        Keymaster

        Speed & Accuracy is in the new course too, starting week 33. There’s some weeks that can take more than a week and that seems be ok. The classic licks start at week 37 and for sure because there’s so many, it could take longer than a week (thats an understatement ;-D ).

        I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
        And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21086
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Getting Started:

      Alrighty then.  I spent this week getting all of the downloads set up and organized.  I have already been a GP user and a huge fan of it so…I’m good to go with that. I was prepared to approach the course only working through 1 week at a time but after watching the first 4 video lessons I realize that the first few weeks of the course will be quite a review for me so with that in mind I’m going to move through them and as long as I can play the examples at the speed that is laid out I will move on to the next week material.  I’m sure as I get into the intermediate level stuff and the advanced lesson I’ll probably have to adjust and maybe spend more than a week on some topics.  My plan is to not overcomplicate things and I’m going to try to not delay my progress expecting perfection on every lesson before moving on.  Those lessons I need work on will simply become part of my review work.   I’m keeping a notebook journal as I watch the lessons and I’m making notes of things that are important to me and items that I want to remember where they are so I can easily review.  With that being said I’m up to week 4 in my lessons and here is my brief re-cap of 1-3.

      Week 1:

      I enjoyed watching this and there is a lot really of important items that are covered.  I love how Doug get’s right to the point and teaches the first shape of the pentatonic minor scale and power chords.

      Week 2:

      Pentatonic minor pattern 2 is covered and I enjoyed using it and pattern one played over the Almost There song.  I’m printing the PDF of the Note Names, and the chart of all the pentatonic shapes for future reference.

      Week 3:

      Pentatonic minor shape 3 is checked off and I’m playing it along with shapes 1 and 2.

      I like Doug’s suggestions on Goals and being realistic with yourself.  I’m a hobbyist guitar player with about an hour per day to practice.  My goal is to learn how to play for fun, improvise rock and blues solo’s when needed, and just play cover tunes with friends someday.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21141
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Week 4:

      Pentatonic Minor Pattern 4 is covered here as well as some juicy AM licks and riffs.  I used the “Almost There” track and came up with an arrangement using the Licks covered played exactly like Doug covers here.  The only thing I did different was moved the Pattern 4 Lick Down an Octave so that it would better fit with the track for my ears.  This was great practice and a lot of fun.  I hope you dig it!

      https://www.dropbox.com/s/kf1ujzscypo9134/Week%204%20AM%20Jam%20-%204%3A5%3A17%2C%2010.27%20AM.mp3?dl=0

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21190
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Week 5

      Pentatonic shape 5 covered here.  I’m spending about 5 minutes before every session running through all 5 shapes as well as applying the sequence that Doug taught in a previous lesson.

       

      Week 6

      Good review of Rhythmic Notation.  Doug also covers the importance of playing with others in this lesson which I have to admit kind of bums me out a bit.  I know it would do my playing a lot of good to get with others and jam but as an adult student this is extremely difficult.  I really don’t know very many people locally that play guitar and would be interested in jamming with a 40 year old rookie.  I’m hoping that learning songs along to backing tracks will suffice for now.  Ex 4 is a fun riff that I’m enjoying.  I’ve added songs to my practice as well:  Back In Black, You Shook Me All Night Long, and Sweet Child O’ Mine are the three I’m starting with.  I’ll record a vid once I learn them.

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21203
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      I agree with the difficulty of finding newbie adults. Just tonight at a show I was talking to a middle aged guy who said hes played on & off with small cover bands in the midwest, his comment is so typical, “yeah I mean we just mess around really, usually just some friends playing our favorite songs in my basement, I got started late in life with guitar, like I only started playing when I was 18.” (insert me rolling my eyes here, about 18 being “so late” in life). The majority of newbie adults I have met, have also been playing since 18 and they’re still no good, hah (something clearly wrong there, like, they should have bought the cbc ;-D ).

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21243
      Sonic
      Participant

      Doug also covers the importance of playing with others in this lesson which I have to admit kind of bums me out a bit. I know it would do my playing a lot of good to get with others and jam but as an adult student this is extremely difficult. I really don’t know very many people locally that play guitar and would be interested in jamming with a 40 year old rookie. I’m hoping that learning songs along to backing tracks will suffice for now.

      I really understand your concerns (myself born 1970). On the other hand, the more I play the more I feel the urge to jam with a band at some point.  At the moment I cannot reliably schedule practice sessions due to family (2 young kids). Hence I have to save it for some later time, maybe in two years or so. Just like you I don’t have a clue yet how to arrange it. But apparently there are so many adults sitting in their room learning to play an instrument. Look at all those guitar websites and forums. If only 5% of them are willing to get their ass off, then it must be possible to start an adult band.

    • #21278
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Week 7

      Learned about Drop D tuning and 1,4,5 progressions.  I had fun playing the Molen Metal Track although I really am only practicing in the standard tuning mode…I get the idea and what Doug is trying to teach here.  I’m moving on to week 8 today.  I’ve also spent some time trying to learn to record and video myself playing using GarageBand and my Mustang 3 Amp.   Here is my very brief video of me playing the Week 6 Exercise “ACDC Thing.   Let me know what you think.

      https://youtu.be/91l5f9lACMo

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21279
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      excellent acdc thing.. I went a bit over the top with the muting myself, smacking the strings to get a percussive sound. yours sounds great from my perspective.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #21283
      CWG1972
      Participant

      Thanks SB! I appreciate your feedback and checking out my vid. Yeah..sometimes I can go a little crazy on the strings too…especially along to the fun Rhythm tracks in the course. A lot of fun!

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

    • #21432
      CWG1972
      Participant

      It’s Saturday…. time for a CGC update…

      Molten Metal track from Week 7 !

      https://youtu.be/VQTlGPqdtMw

      Completed Week 8, 9, and 10.  Pretty much still a review for me but really good.  I need all the practice I can get.  I’m liking the speed and accuracy exercises and the tips to be a great guitarist.  Here are a few exercise vid’s for your review.

      Week 8

      Speed & Accuracy WS-HS & E Shape Barre Chords

      https://youtu.be/4KZhlPFUviQ

      Week 9

      0,2,1,3,2,4,3,2 exercise thingy!

      https://youtu.be/gNdK_7w4zCI

      Week 10

      5 String Barre Chords & Speed and Accuracy WS-WS

      https://youtu.be/uHwwYNsP7sQ

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      "For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

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