Improvement Over 9 Months

Today I recorded a cover I had already "tried" once before, Purple Haze. It's a simple song, but I kinda suck, so it's still a bit beyond me. Anyway, I was pretty happy to hear the improvements over the last time I recorded it, about nine months ago.

Here is the newest version:




Here is the same thing, about nine months ago:

Slide Guitar

I purchased a brass slide, tuned the resonator to open D, watched a youtube video and went to town. Man, playing slide is really soulful, though I doubt my attempt here demonstrates such.

Guitar Exercises

One of the things I've been doing on my quest to become a better guitar player is to spend more time playing scales and exercises. Here is one that I've put together from learning the major scale. What you do is play the major scale in one key in one position, but in three different fingers. Then, slide up a half note and repeat the process.

A couple of things to keep in mind. First, no legato...pick everything. Also, use alternate picking (up and down, not just down strokes). Also, pick each note cleanly, let it ring. Speed is not as important here as one might think. I know I didn't play this on a clean channel or play it flawlessly, but that's what's best.

One surprising benefit has been an increase in ability to hear the difference in notes that are close together! That's some sweet action right there!

Here is the tab for the three patterns in A. Play all three patterns simultaneously without pause. And remember, after playing all three you slide your hand up one fret, and repeat the whole thing.

Pattern 1:

--------------------------2-4-5--5-4-2----------------------------------------
----------------------3-5--------------5-3--------------------------------------
----------------2-4-6----------------------6-4-2------------------------------
----------2-4-6---------------------------------6-4-2-------------------------
----2-4-5--------------------------------------------5-4-2--------------------
--5----------------------------------------------------------5-------------------

Pattern 2:

----------------------------4-5-7--7-5-4-------------------------------------
------------------------5-3--------------5-3---------------------------------
------------------4-6-7----------------------7-6-4---------------------------
------------4-6-7----------------------------------7-6-4---------------------
------4-5-7----------------------------------------------7-5-4---------------
--5-7----------------------------------------------------------7-5-----------

Pattern 3:

--------------------------------7-8-10--10-8-7-------------------------------
-------------------------7-8-10----------------10-8-7------------------------
-------------------6-7-9------------------------------9-7-6------------------
-------------6-7-9------------------------------------------9-7-6------------
-------5-7-9------------------------------------------------------9-7-5------
-5-7-9------------------------------------------------------------------9-7-5

Here's the video:

Latency

I've been having some problems with recording. Turns out that the external sound card I was using caused some problems. Unbelievably frustrating, especially when I never suspected the recording as being wrong. I thought I played it that bad and just didn't hear it at the time of the recording!

Anyhow, this is a piece called Texas Swing and it's from Robert Calva's "Blues/Rock, Soloing for Guitar" book. It's the first song out of the book I've tried and I really like it. I think I'll continue to learn these songs.

Anyhow, below are two recordings on two days of the same song. The first recording is with the latency problem. The second is without.