One year of Metal Method

[SonicRider]

Well, I started in August 2016, but later I had several long breaks due to family and health issues. So, it is roughly one year net time. I tried to practice 1 to 1,5 hours at least 5 times a week but I did not always meet this goal.

In the beginning I progressed rather quickly up to the intermediate section of the Complete Guitar Course but then I realized that I had moved too quickly. There were too many exercises that I had skipped or could not play at speed or which sounded terribly. Consequently, in the intermediate section I failed miserably.

So I went back and took my time.

I purchased also the 2007 version of the course and worked through the stages 1 to 3. I think this helped me a lot. Currently I am working on bringing the stage 3 lead up to speed (and of course making it sound good). Afterwards I intend to go through the 2017 course again for a couple of days or weeks. Then I think I will be *really* ready for the intermediate section.

In general, I think when you are starting to feel really confident with a certain exercise then it is time for a new challenge. But you must not betray yourself.

Some specifics:

Barre chords have improved considerably but still require some work. E shape major chords (e.g. F chord) are quite fine but all the others still have some strings ringing not properly from time to time. Of course, on my acoustic it is far worse than on my electric.

Quick changes between barre chords and open chords are still difficult. While I can change between many open chords blindly now, this is certainly not true for barre chords.

Speed for the (up and down) scale exercises is now at 60 to 75 bpm for 16th notes, depending on the position.

My improvisation skills are still poor, but I haven’t tried too hard yet. At least I know theroretically now what can be done to make it sound interesting. I will give it another try from time to time.

Same is true for vibrato. I haven’t practiced it until recently. I am going to do it as I know it is important.

One thing I found really difficult in the beginning was hammers and pulls. It took me far more than a couple of weeks to get it properly. Riff “Aces High” from week 11 was one of the most challenging exercises for me, still challenging today at speed.

Due to time constraints I had to ignore most of Doug’s top 10 tips. But these are great tips anyway. At least I am aware of what I am missing. The biggest omission might be that I have not learned many songs so far, but I have started to change it recently.

I have also started using Guitar Pro more actively, first by amending and expanding some exercises, then by entering my own tabs for riffs and songs. I think even the mere entering of an existing printed tab into the program provides some valuable insight.

Finally, I agree with Doug and many others that teaming up with some others to form a band is probably going to boost my progress by a factor 10 or so. As of now I would not be able to adhere to fixed schedule, so it would make no sense. But I hope that I can realize this in a year or two, when my two kids are a bit older.

Uploading a video of my playing is still on my todo list. I know, I have announced such almost a year ago, so you better not bet on this soon, but it will be done eventually.

That’s it so far, looking forward to the intermediate section…

[superblonde]

The Stage 3 solo of the old course is Week 32 (!) “Moving On” of the new course.

I also still find “Aces High” from Week 11 to take a bit of warming up. Not because of the H/P but because switching from fingering the notes, to fingering the chords, has to be fast. There’s another early week that I find much more challenging, to play the ‘as written’ timing, I think it was Week 14, altho playing a little sloppy was okay.

The intermediate weeks don’t really need a lot of speed because the first chunk of it is learning a new scale and learning the modes. Although the lick exercises get tougher pretty rapidly.

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.

[MotleyCrue81]

Just keep on practicing man, you’ve come a long ways since beginning, think of how much better you’ll be after another year. As long as you’re progressing, whether it’s slowly or quickly, that’s a good thing. As long as you’re determined and put in the time, you’ll meet your goals and hopefully even exceed them. Practice practice practice!

Bring hair metal back!

[superblonde]

In retrospect I’m not sure if the band helped me or hurt me in total. Playing technique-wise, it hurt, because I was ignoring technique in order to just play the songs by whatever means necessary. It helped in that I was able to get over the stage stuff much earlier, so I feel good about that now. It’s not some scary thing because I already did it. It was motivational only because of the pressure to perform, that’s more like, playing for life or death, and all my priorities got adjusted, in order to meet those “or else” playing goals. Also it got me kind of addicted to playing in front of people, so that’s great, and I ended up getting paid a couple times (that’s pretty cool, in terms of the ego). I definitely could have done without playing with a “I’m going to hit as loud as I can because I love this song” drummer and a “I don’t think its too loud” bassist and vocalist.

As for networking with local musicians by being in a band, I don’t think that’s a huge advantage of the band either, since what has helped me more than the band itself, silly enough, is letting my hair grow as long as possible, and wearing black logo tshirts. I cant go anywhere where there is music nowadays without someone asking me, “so, what do you play”, or even better, guys who really are in bands, asking, “so where do you play”. Well, maybe not everyone has this change of lifestyle, but, I was a cubicle dwelling corporate looking type before this. Ohhhh how metal method has corrupted me. haha!

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.

[SonicRider]

superblonde wrote:

The Stage 3 solo of the old course is Week 32 (!) “Moving On” of the new course.

Interesting! I already noticed that most of the material from stages 1 to 3 and even parts from stage 4 (i.e. more than a half) of the old course are covered in the beginner section (i.e. first third) of the new course.

 

[Curt Kingston]

Just stick with it bud, you will only get better. It’s practice and more practice then more practice. It’s tough to find time to do everything you want, I know. Life gets in the way more than you can imagine. I haven’t touched my guitar since last Saturday night because things got nuts here in Vegas. I’m okay, my wife is okay but a friend of a friend is in hospital recovering. Just do what you can when you can.

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[BigW]

@sonicrider I get a chuckle every time I come back to the forum that there is never a need for me to start a post as my story is constantly told by someone else lol.

All I can tell you is to keep at it. Although my progress is very slow due to having started and stopped this course more than I care to admit, I do get better every time I come back.  Even after very long periods of not playing I find I can pick up close to where I have left off (recording yourself helps with this).

Keep rock’n!

 

 

Big W

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