I took a month off from guitar for personal reasons and I have been back with it for about 2 weeks now. Before my "break" I started working on the Crazy Train intro by Randy Rhoads. I just wasn't working out. I tried it again when I started up again and it's like I have always known it! I just need to smooth it out a bit. I am now working on the main rhythm riff that repeats throughout the song and you first hear in the intro.
I am having problems transitioning from soloing (I guess the intro is considered a solo?) to chord based rhythms and back. I know practice is part of the equation as all things are but is there something I should do to make the transition easier? I always have to stop and think where my fingers go for the first chord and I "stumble" until I can regroup. The rhythm isn't that hard to play (I am not up to speed yet but it's recognizable) so I know it's not above my ability level. I have always had difficulties switching from single note playing to chords and back.
Thanks
Fixed it :D Thats a really hard piece of music to play. I would spend a little time on it each day. This may take a long time to learn so don't expect to learn it quickly :D Good luck--the dog
Mike, I've taken a few days off before and noticed I seemed to play "better" when I started back up as well. I think sometimes we over think stuff which messes us up. A small break loosens us up and voila.
As for the switch, the only advice I have is to think ahead. I'll try to plan out my change prior to making it. In other words, I'm thinking about the next few notes before I've even made it to that point in the song. It helps me because I still have a delay between chord changes, but the delay isn't as bad if I'm thinking ahead.
That probably makes no sense, but that's one thing I do to help myself.
Jason
"Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution"
Fixed it :D Thats a really hard piece of music to play. I would spend a little time on it each day. This may take a long time to learn so don't expect to learn it quickly :D Good luck--the dog
Actually the fingering is coming quickly for me as long as I play the sections seperately. Here is a clip I did 2 days ago. Since then I tweaked the tone a bit and even ordered a Danelectro Fish-n-Chips EQ pedal and a Danelectro FAB Chorus pedal (the V-Amp's chorus isn't very good). This is only after 2 days practice about 1 hour each day.
I am also learning Paranoid by Black Sabbath thanks to Vic's Easy Song Lesson. However I can't get the right tone for the life of me but it's easy to learn.
Thanks smokedog & crank for your advice.
Metronomes always help. Set it @ half speed and practice the transitions you talked about (or the whole song for that matter). Developing a groove helps immeasureably. Doing it slow puts the information into your muscle memory which, over time, helps you to retain accuracy @ higher speeds while staying relaxed. Thats why playing anythig hard slowly at first is so important.
Like they said above, be prepared to put a fair amount of time and patience into anything
:D
Hows Pride and Joy coming? I remember you were working on that was well
"Contrary to popular belief, Clapton is NOT God. The prospect that he is God probably had a large hand in driving him to drugs and booze. Thanks everyone."
-Guitar World :lol:
Mike, when you're practicing the transition, are going doing the whole riff part and then going into the solo, or are you doing just the very end of the riff and then the very beginning of the solo? If you're not and you're playing the different sections as a whole, you might try just doing the 'actual' transition over and over again. It might not be very musical, but the idea is to cut everything else out but 'The Spot" and work only on it. Every song as "The Spot" or "The Section" which take the most amount of work, but since the thing in this case is the actual transition, don't play anything else but it, over and over again. Slow it way down without even a metronome, and let your fingers go from one place to the other, then back again. Your picking hand will also probably move, so be aware of that movement as well.
Then when that little half-second movement is done, go back and play each part all the way through.
Hope this helps.
Do you have a delay? I'll try to explain it so you can understand how I create time. So I can change between rhythum and lead effortlessly. With a delay set at a certain ms will allow time for the transition between the two. The amount you would use will take time and practice to figure out how much is needed for the song.
Joe
Thanks for the responses everyone...I'll try to reply where I can...
Matt, I have been playing this slowly and I can do it but it just feels awkward. I have been using the video that came with the Guitar World issue. It slows each section down with a close-up on the fret hand. Very nicely done video. As for Pride and Joy, like I mentioned above I took almost 2 months off (actually I said one month but it was around a month and a half) so I stopped that. I got the basic rhythm down but to realy be able to play that song you need to be more advanced than I am. However, I always go back to a song after time and find that it's easier the second (or third) time around.
DemoEtc, If I understand you correctly I am learning the song in sections as the video breaks it down. I am NOT doing the solo. I just called it a solo. It is the INTRO of the song then transitioning into the main rhythm riff.
forrok_star, I am using a delay for effect so as to get Randy's tone (along with chorus and some compression) but I don't understand how that will help me to learn the transition?
Thanks again everyone!
