Setting a Goal

[marnold***]

Well, I feel that basically I've been in a rut in my playing for a long time, so I decided that I needed to set a goal. I wanted to learn a more serious solo, but the problem is that unless I really like the song I have a hard time finding the motivation to sit down and learn it. Since I always wanted to play George Lynch's solo in Dokken's "In My Dreams" (and I consider it one of the finest solos of the 80s), I set that as my goal. I'm typing this so that I can be ridiculed and shamed should I fail.

In order to reach the goal I have done the following:
1) I broke the solo down into a series of licks, saved as separate MP3s.
2) I slowed the licks down 40% in Audacity and corrected the pitch to make it closer to 440 (The song is almost tuned down 1/2 step on the CD, although they play it in standard tuning live. I assume this was some twiddling done in the studio.)
3) I've already got a backing track and the tab from an old guitar magazine.
4) I decided I will play the fast tapping part with two hands instead of one like George does it. When I get the whole thing to speed, I'll start working on doing it one-handed.

In order to reach the goal I will do the following:
1) I will practice some part of the solo every day. I'm going to work through it sequentially since the hardest stuff comes toward the end.
2) I have several dexterity exercises that I will also practice every day to help get my chops up to snuff.
3) I will work on my bending so that the whole step bends in the solo, of which there are several, will be whole step bends and not 0.9 step or 1.1 step bends.
4) Every pinch harmonic, of which there are several, will scream like Mariah Carey caught in a bear trap. For me that is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Lynch's style.

After I reach the goal I will do the following:
1) I will record myself playing all guitar and bass parts using the backing track I already have.
2) I will work on a suitable Krashpad-esque guitar face to use whilst playing.
3) I will reward myself in some small way for the accomplishment. I'm thinking something along the lines of getting a good fuzz pedal or maybe a ZYS. As a matter of fact, I will buy no gear other than possibly strings (although I've got some spare sets already) or picks until I reach this goal.
4) I will commence working on my next goal: the "Crazy Train" solo.

It is my goal to have the solo learned by my 41st birthday: February 10.

[Katastrophe]

You mean... this?



You'll get nothing but positive encouragement from me...no shame or ridcule here.

Good luck, man! With practice and determination, I know you can do it.

I don't know this solo, but here's a George trademark on those 1 step + bends that he does.

Bend the string until you get to it's next lowest neighbor (example: bending the B string up until you touch the G string). Shift your fretting finger slightly to fret the G string while hitting a pinch harmonic. Depress ye olde Floyd to get that trademark Lynch groan. It takes a ton of gain to do, and it sounds more difficult than it is in practice.

[Robert****]

I'm putting into my reminders a note to have a listen at Marnold's solo on February.



Looking forward to hearing you ripping it up! Because you'll HAVE to make a clip available for us, you know.

[Andy]

I admire your drive , go for it. even if you don't nail it the path to learning it should definately be rewarding.
One of my youtube friends has a short vid on it , mabey it can help out a bit.
he does the same thing, listens at half speed and works with the tab than posts the results. it's not perfect , Lynch is hard to emulate.

[marnold***]

Yep, Kat, that's the solo. The part right after the one-hand tapping bit is actually more intimidating. Andy, in that vid he takes a few liberties with the solo, which is cool in its own right.

However, I am not going to play the solo out in the rain whilst wearing copious amounts of fringe. I'd love to be able to play it on one of those ESP Lynch Kamikazes.

[Andy]

oh yeah ! the Kamikazi is an icon!

the only thing I don't like about them is Lynch likes a suprisingly fat neck. it's very different from the typical esp super thin neck, but I wouldn't turn one down if I could afford it!

[R_of_G]

Good luck Marnold!

I think if you stick to your practice regimen with your goal in mind you should be able to achieve it. I look forward to hearing the results.

[sunvalleylaw]

Sounds great! I like goals, but without some outside deadline or pressure, often fail at reaching them. In fact, I have a practice goal thread here somewhere that I have not nearly fully achieved. Kinda like running, it is easier to get in shape if I have a race to train for. In guitar, performance goals work for me. I don't know if you have the opportunity to play this with some others, but if you did, I bet it would help. I look forward to listening to your progress. Rawk on Rev!

[marnold***]

Well, I kept to my word today: two days in a row--whee! Anyway, I got the second lick under my fingers finally. What I mean by that is that I've got the notes and the timing. I just have to build up a bit of speed. I had to listen to one part over and over because I just wasn't getting the cadence right. I also worked on the tapping a bit. I don't think it will be hard to get that part up to speed two-handed. I don't even want to think about it one-handed. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos of people trying to play that and those who play it one-handed also pick it which is NOT the same thing. That's much easier than hammer-ons and pull-offs and it doesn't sound the same.

[Andy]

Marnold , I'm not sure I agree on the legato(hammer on- pull off) vs alternate picking complexity.
obviously legato allows for much faster runs because your not picking each note so I imagine playing at the same thing and actually picking each note, that requires a lightning fast picking hand.

It sounds like you are making your way thru the exercise at a good pace,
You have spurred me to order a used Dokken cd, I want to learn the solo from The Hunter.(all of my Dokken is on the ancient lp format).

when I get my Pandora -xmas gift ! I will post it, once I figure out how to do that,( In a seperate post) In fact It's the main reason I bought it, because of the usb connection and software.

George Lynch was always an inspiration to me, Mr. Scary:

[marnold***]

It sounds like you are making your way thru the exercise at a good pace,
You have spurred me to order a used Dokken cd, I want to learn the solo from The Hunter.(all of my Dokken is on the ancient lp format).

Sweet! That's another one of my favorite songs. Actually, I had put that down as my favorite song when I was a senior in high school.

[marnold***]

Marnold , I'm not sure I agree on the legato(hammer on- pull off) vs alternate picking complexity.
obviously legato allows for much faster runs because your not picking each note so I imagine playing at the same thing and actually picking each note, that requires a lightning fast picking hand.

I guess in the example I'm referring to, I believe that picking would be easier. In that lick, it's a series of 32nd notes. He hammers on and pulls off the 15th fret to the 12th fret with his middle finger and then repeats the same thing on the 19th (and later the 20th) fret with his pinkie. IMO, it would be much easier to alternate/tremolo pick that and just fret the 15th and 19th/20th frets without having to worry about making the 12th ring cleanly on the pull-off.

The way I'm going to do it initially is even easier. Instead of hammering on the 19th/20th frets with my left hand pinkie, I'm going to tap it with my right hand. Obviously doing it Lynch's way is a much cooler party trick.

[ShortBuSX]

After I reach the goal I will do the following:

3) I will reward myself in some small way for the accomplishment. I'm thinking something along the lines of getting a good fuzz pedal or maybe a ZYS.

Dude, Im thinking...new guitar day!:
Very disciplined of you...you can just tell how determined you are.

Aside from your discipline, Ive made it my goal to learn Claptons version of Key To The Highway, Im taking similar steps as you on learning it.
Ive been at it for awhile, learning other versions of the song, but I just recently got Claptons transcription and have been breaking it down into palatable chunks, both on my looper and in study. If I get stuck I just move onto another part and then get back to it.

Im impressed with you determination, but almost even more impressed that you put it all in writing for the world to see...you are a sick sick man.:

[Andy]

that goes for both of you :

[marnold***]

Im impressed with you determination, but almost even more impressed that you put it all in writing for the world to see...you are a sick sick man.:

Well, in no small part the original post was to help make sure I go through with it. Otherwise it never gets beyond the "I really should do this one of these days" thing.

FWIW, the dexterity exercises I've been doing are pretty simple, but seem rather effective. I do one that I got from Metal Method called "02132432" That's the fret order when you start. After that you go to "03243543" and so on up the neck. It's easier to do than to describe.

Another is going 1234, 2345, etc., alternating between the E and A strings and then the reverse on the way back down the neck.

Another is sliding up and down one string like this: 1234 5432 3456 7654, etc. Once again, easier to do than to write.

I like playing these while watching T.V. or some clip on YouTube since they are pretty mindless. The key is playing them cleanly. As dopey as these are, they do seem to help.

*Update* Give it up for day three! Anyway, I have the first lick down pat (I consider the first lick to by 2:09-2:16 of the official video above. I can play it cleanly at 100 bps and pretty decently at 120 bps (aka full speed). I know seven seconds doesn't sound like much, but it's seven more seconds than I knew before! And since the solo is 30 seconds long, I suppose I'm almost 1/4 way there! Of course, the hard stuff hasn't started yet.

Audacity has been a big help. I took the pitch-corrected version of the solo and hacked that first lick off and slowed it to approximately 100 bps (technically it was 99.6 if you want to be pedantic). I looped it over and over in Amarok (my media player) until I nailed it. Very handy tool--and you can't beat free.

[Jimi75]

Go for it! I'm sure you can nail it if you have enough patience to invest a certain amount of time in practicing that one solo! Practicing the techniques of the single parts is a very good idea. Copying a solo is like taking a picture, it is just a shot of a moment, nothing more. Knowing the techniques behind certain chops makes the picture a movie and you'll be the main actor ;-)

Good luck!

[Kazz]

Sounds like you are on track to give yourself a great 41st birthday present Matt.

I can't wait to hear your recorded version of this song.

[marnold***]

Rather than bore you with my day-to-day progress, I decided to revive my blog for this purpose. I thought it might be interesting to keep track of days when I make big improvements/breakthroughs and days that I can't seem to do anything right (yesterday was one of those days).

[marnold***]

Just a quick update. As of today I can basically play the first half of the solo at 100 bps. It's a little rough, but it's there. I listened to it at full speed and thought to myself, "I can do that." I'm pretty excited. Now it's a matter of cleaning things up and getting that last bit of speed (in that order). Then I can tackle the crazy last 1/2 of the solo. If I faithfully work on this every day, I'm pretty convinced I'll have the solo down by my birthday. I'd add "if not sooner" but I know that the second half of the solo will not be as easy.

I'm also remembering why I like my Showmaster so much. What a fun guitar to play!