In my quest to get my playing back up to where it was, I have gone back to an old faithful. This book WILL MAKE YOU TECHNICALLY BETTER. that doesn’t mean you will be a better musician, but anyways….

30-Day Guitar Workout

This is not an affiliate review type thing. I genuinely think that all guitarists should own this book. It will not teach you a thing about theory or and chops or licks, but it will make you change the way you look at what your hands do. I’ve used this book to great success in the past and hopefully I will again.

Basically, it’s an exercise program for you hands. It will help you with your hand strength, stamina, and best of all, a thing they call “finger independence”. Right from the first warm up exercise you will begin to use your left hand differently, and trust me, for most of us that is a good thing.

So see if you can get yourself a copy of this book. You will not regret it.

Wow, what a few weeks. So busy and no time for anything. At least I got my new web site design solution business up and running with a snazzy new website (and if that sentence looked weird, I was dropping keywords for you net SEO savvy people). So after some delay I’m back with some guitar stuff.

As mentioned in a past post about learning my favourite guitar songs, I’ve hit a snag and had a rething. One song I cannot find a tab for, the other is in an open tuning and I would rather stick with standard for now, and the other is possibly a bit ahead of myself. So I’m changing the tracks. I’m still using the same guitarists.

Slash : was Paradise City, now Sweet Child O’ Mine.
I love Paradise City, but this is such a memorable solo, I really just want to learn it.

Gary Moore : was midnight Blues, now Still Got The Blues
Again, an obvious choice, but for the same reasons as above

Rich Robinson : was Sting Me, now Hard To Handle
I can already play Hard To Handle, but I usually ad lib the solo with some references to the original. It’s time I learned the way the solo should be played.

So there is the new list. I got my trusty GuitarPro fired up and ready to go. Now the fun begins. I’ve just got some new audio software so as I progress I’ll record the improvements.

Here it is, the next step in my plan for fretboard domination!!!

Except I need your help.

Now for getting out of the box, I’m looking for a good DVD or book on pentatonic / blues scales and licks. I know the theory, and I’m not completely in the box, but my ideas are stale. What I need is some good material that shows how all of it can be put together, so as to effortless and smoothly move around the entire fretboard. I’m open for suggestions here as I have not found a thing yet to help me with this. I’ll just start getting the muscle memory happening by playing the scales but any guidance is appreciated.

Has anyone got any suggestions on material that is really good here?

Last time I talked about what I was going to do on my journey of guitar self discovery. For my favourites, that is easy. Picking the songs was not so easy though. The songs I have picked are probably not necessarily my favourites, but I think have some of the best playing by that artist and are most indicative of their style. So what songs are they?

Slash - Paradise City
Sure, the obvious choice was Sweet Child, but c’mon!!!!! Slash just rocks and Paradise City has all the little intricate fills and a killer, KILLER end solo that is some of the Great One’s finest work.

Gary Moore - Midnight Blues
As far as I know this is a covr and I’m not sure who it was originally by, but Gary has done this now on two albums, and the version I want to do is the second one from his 2006 album Old New Ballads Blues. This is the slower version of the song and some some beautiful slow blues guitar that I feel Mr. Moore is very under rated. One of the best parts about this song, and gary’s playing in general, is the use of dynamics. Changing guitar setting while playing something I have only recently started doing and this song is full of subtle changes.

Rich Robinson - Sting Me
It was this or Remedy. I love the Black Crowes and gain the obvious choice was Conspiracy or Hard To Handle. But this song has got some great guitar lines weaving in and out of the chord progression and has everything in it a blues track should have.

I’ve got these songs and now just to find some tabs. Next stop, breaking out of the box.

I’m in the process of getting a new band together. It’s been a while since Sledge finished up and I want to get back in the game. Unfortunately, with full time work and getting my own business off the ground, as well as some other projects I have found my chops to be severely lacking. Not that they were brilliant to begin with, but I got by. Lets just say I was better than the average Joe.

Anyway, I need to get back there, and I want to be better than ever. Call it an ego thing, but my fellow guitarist in this band is a natural player. A pure ear player who can hear anything and work it out almost note for note. I’ve always been more of a feel player and that is why we have always complimented each other’s playing. What I want to do is make this a genuine two guitar line up even if I am handling the singing duties.

To that affect I am developing my own goals for getting back up to scratch and beyond, and have developed a plan to get there. Hopefully showing you how I am going to approach this will help you with planning your own regime, or you may see some serious flaws with mine and point me in a better direction. With a busy schedule (fiancé / full time work / part time business work / gym) I need to find some quick drills that I can do that I know will help.

Before planning your practice tasks you need to know when you can play. During the week I know I can squeeze in at least 30 minutes a day for basic exercises. That doesn’t mean only 30 minutes, it’s a minimum. Three night a week I go to the gym now, so the other two nights I can basically play for as long as I want. But 30 minute drills are the goal for my schedule.

So what do I want to learn. That my friends is the question. You will have your own mission, but mine was clear:

1. Get out of the box - lets finally use the entire fretboard
2. Learn from the greats - Pick three of my favourite guitarists and learn a song from each that best sums up what I like about their style
3. Left hand wizardry - get my left hand working the way it used to

Now I just have to find the tools to unleash the guitar monster within. I’m going to tackle these objectives in reverse order, so next time I’ll share with you my personal guitar idols and what songs I have picked.

Image from : idiotjenn