JJ, Song: Hollow Years (Dream Theater)

Hi all,

JJ asked me recently how to improve his timing. I suggested to him what I've done when I younger and had lots of time in secondary school...

Playing along with a song.

This may seem kinda duh but it's extrememly important and often overlooked in my opinion. Sometimes we learn and song and start playing it by ourselves. While this is fine if you're only concern about getting certain techniques right, it doesn't force you to keep to the actualy rythym of the music. With the wealth of internet and personal computing, one can easily learn how to play a song without actually referring to the song itself. The result is often that one might get the general feel of the song but never really got it "spot on". I'll illustrate with the following example.

I asked JJ to play along with the song Hollow Years by Dream Theater which he already knows how to play and the result is as the videos below.


JJ playing Hollow Years (verse & chorus)


JJ playing Hollow Years (solo)

As you can see in the video, JJ did an excellent job playing the song, except that his playing is abit out of sync with the song at times. So I ask him to keep practising the song with the original track till he's able to execute the chords, notes & groove well.

This practice is even more important if you want to play the song in a band. There needs to a point of reference in a band setting and the cd or mp3 of the song is a good place to start. The idea is if everybody can follow closely to the cd/mp3 in their playing their instrument of choice, then it's just a matter of locking everybody together to the drummer to make the band sound tight. I would suggest that most audience subconsciously gravitates towards rythymic tightness of a band more than getting the right notes all the time.

So don't just practice hard, practice smart! With your cd that is...

Jason Ho, Lesson 3: Power chords

Hi all,

It is essential to get the fundamentals right. Once the fundamentals are established, it is easier for a player to soar like an eagle withina short period of time. This week I've focused on a rather fundamental subject of Power Chords. This is a technique of playing chords that electric guitarist use to play chords that are clean with a cutting sound. Looks kinda cool when played in a progression too :)

Here's a short video of myself explaining to my student about the 4 ways to play an A5 power chord.

Enjoy!


4 ways to play an A5 power chord

Things to note:
- an important ingredient to a clean power chord sound is the muting of the unwanted strings. Do check out how I employed my index finger to do just that.

Zahid, Lesson 2: Pentatonic Scales

Hi all,

Taught my student Zahid the pentatonic scale. Found a video of my ever so hardworking student JJ playing the Em pentatonic somewhere in my vault and thought it might serve as a great example of how to practice the pentatonic scale.


JJ playing the Em pentatonic scale

There are 5 shapes that JJ played in total which will span 12 frets in total. They are movable to get the particular key that you want to play the scale in. I'm not gonna go into the details of how to apply the scale as I've got to be fair to my students but hope anybody who sees this will spend some time to go find the 5 patterns on the internet and memorise them.

Enjoy & practice hard!

Jason Ho, Lesson 2: Palm Muting part 2

Hi all,

Palm muting's bread & butter in guitar playing so it pays to master it. I've learnt the technique the hard way. The reason that I say that is becoz back when I started learning it, I didn't had the luxury of a good guitar with a fat distortion. My Vantage amp then had this puny overdrive so I had to maximize every single stroke to get a decent crunch befitting of Metallica songs...

Here's a demo of what my student Jason Ho mastered over last 2 lessons. Not bad! Jason, you just have to practice some more and you'll be Iron Maidening in no time! :)


Jason Ho giving palm mute a shot!

Here are some points that was given during the last lesson. Enjoy!


Palm muting: footnotes

Points to note:

- Don't grab onto the pick too tightly. A properly held pick does not require much strength and stays in position.

- Experiment around with where the palm touches the string to bring out maximum crunch in your palm mute.

- Don't rest your fingers on the strings or scratchguard so as to give your wrist freedom of movement.

- Relax, relax, relax! If you find your fingers and wrist tensed up then you've probably held the pick incorrectly.

- Enjoy and have fun! Don't worry if you don't get it perfect the first few times. Things will fall in place in time thru practice. :)

JJ, Song: Another Day (Dream Theater)

Hi all,

My very hardworking student JJ requested to learn "Another Day" by Dream Theater just for the fun of it. Wow... Anyway it's one of DT's easier songs. Nice intro solo. Sounds easy but as JJ & I discovered when analyzing it, the timing of the notes are pretty intricate. Need to develope a good sense of rythym to execute it well. Think this applies to DT's songs in general.

Enjoy!



Another Day (Dream Theater) part 1

Things to note:

- I've played the song in Key of Am although it's in Bbm in the record.

- Use natural minor scale (A minor) to execute the notes in the intro solo.

- The chords for verse are,

• Am, Amadd#5, Am, G
• F, C, Bb, G
• Am, Amadd#5, Am, G
• F, C, Bb, F/A

- The power chords for chorus are,

• C5, Bb5, A5, G5, F5
• There are actually some embellishments on top of these basic power chords in my video.

Jason Ho, Lesson 1 & 2: Palm Muting

Things to take note


Demo: Wasted Years (Iron Maiden) riff
Video's abit dark coz light source was behind me. Will take that in mind next time. More important to get the idea rather than the visual details though. Enjoy! :)

Points covered:

- Holding of pick
- Placement of palm
- Attack of pick