Thanks mark and feedback is always welcomed 
I chose the delay cause the original has a ton of layered guitars so it sounds better over all than just a plain ol clean sound. I think I do see what you mean about it sounding a little off during the intro sequence. Maybe next time I’ll do a straight clean in the beginning and use a foot switch to switch to the delay in further parts.
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You are doing a fantastic job with all of these from the rock book Alexis and I always look forward to watching what you have been working on.
Half way through the book now and the big question is…what will you do when you come to the end of it? 
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That sounded great, Alexis. That song always reminds me of ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’. Well done on playing the riff consistently throughout rather than taking a short cut and using a looper as well as dealing with the variations that Justin doesn’t cover in the song lesson. Impressive work make, well done.
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Thanks!
Not sure, the book actually has 50 songs but the next batch of 15 songs is at an intermediate level and are much harder. The plan for now is to take a couple months to learn some of the intermediate techniques before even attempting them.
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High quality stuff Alexis,
that catchy riff was really well played and nicely put together with the rhythm playing too. Very enjoyable tune mate.
Song 8: Self Esteem by The Offspring
Pretty great power chord practice song, a lot of sliding and jumping across a bunch of the fretboard. Would totally recommend to any one wanting to practice their power chords cause it’s also a super fun song!
What I’ve learned/techniques:
- Power Chords. Like I said, lots of jumping around the fretboard. I decided to using 2 finger power chords, not sure why it just felt the most natural with this song.
- Muting. some palm muting with the strumming hand and parts where you have to mute with your fretting hand to get that scraping sound. Really awesome sounding.
- Timing and Rhythm. This is the hardest part of the song. There’s a lot breaks where I had to make sure I knew where the count was in the song so I knew when my cue was to continue playing. I feel like I’m usually good with rhythm and timing but I def struggled with it here whenever I didn’t have the metronome on. Most of the song is fine but you’ll see there are some parts where I’m a little off.
Sound:
I used a tonelib gfx preset called hot for teacher lol, I thought it was perfect for this song.
grabbed the backing track from: Download your instrumental songs in MP3 format - Custom Backing Tracks - Karaoke Version (karaoke-version.com) .
Here we go: Self Esteem by The Offspring! (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
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That was really great Alexis especially loved this hot teacher of yours (as in tone ofc)! yes songs with irregular timing are definitely a pig, but I think most of the track you were in time and doing great. Keep up the good work!
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Great stuff, Alexis! You played that super well and tone matched perfectly 
Such a cool tune! That album was by far The Offspring’s best IMO. Great tracks with chunky guitar and still had humour, just more understated than what they did later which was a bit too cheesy for me.
Palm muting sounded good and your precision on hitting those power chords was spot on. I struggle a lot with timing, so thought you did great given the large breaks in this one.
I did notice you shaking out your left hand/wrist a couple of times during the breaks, has it been aching/hurting a bit? Your left hand and forearm are at what appears to be quite an acute angle so was wondering if it might be adding some unnecessary tension which could cause problems down the track. Is that something you’ve looked at? In saying that, I’m not an expert on technique so your hand positioning could be correct for all I know! 
Just an observation in case it’s useful in helping to prevent any strain or injury 
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Sounded awesome man. Love that song. And like @nzmetal says the whole album is awesome. Although I don’t mind a bit of their later stuff (gone away, the kids aren’t alright etc), but there is some super cheese stuff as well. He asked for a 13 but they drew a 31… 
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Yup, part of it is that I played the song a bunch as practice before I recorded but I’ve recently noticed that my wrist might be at too much of an angle lately. Specifically when I watched Justin’s lesson on E shaped barre chords he mentions wrist angle and that really got me looking into it. Right now it feels like my wrist can’t say straight no matter how much I try.
Thanks JK, I’m not huge into the offspring but this song I remember being played a ton on the radio when I was growing up. It’s a great song, I’m def going to check out their other stuff now.
I think it’s suppose to sound like that Van Halen song, Hot For Teacher. I’m not sure how accurate that is but that’s the only reason I could think that they named the preset that lol.
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Thought that was probably likely! Those heavy repetitions when recording can be brutal! 
Hmm interesting… Your technique is effective, you’re hitting the power chords with speed and precision however I thought I’d remembered Justin talking about using a straighter wrist. I have my thumb much higher on the back of the neck, coming over at times to help mute the 6th string on 5th string PCs. That pulls my palm up to the fret board and straightens my wrist. I then tend to have my index finger flat-ish for string muting and my ring finger a little more curled, although sometimes I use my pinky finger for the 5th on the wider lower frets when just playing two finger PCs (although that’s probably not the best technique! 
) . So perhaps try bringing your thumb up to a higher position if you haven’t experimented with that already? 
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He indeed did. I tried straightening out this morning during practice, but for some reason I can’t get my wrist to go straight. It could be my anatomy or just really bad habits on my end prevented me from straightening up. I want to work on it though cause ever since I read your response my wrist has ached. Maybe I injured myself while recording this and didn’t realize it until you pointed it out.
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That sounded great Alexis. You’re making great progress with your rock study. You must be well pleased with the progress you are making mate. Now when are you starting a band?
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Yeah that’s totally possible, all our hands are different so could be a consideration. I feel my hands are probably fairly standard sized, my fingers aren’t either overly short or long, but I’m sure hand structure would play a significant part in how this would work. I do need to make a correction to what I said above after picking up my guitar, my thumb doesn’t fully come over to mute the 6th string (the tip of my index and my middle finger do that) but it does poke over the top on 5th string PCs and close to the top on 6th string ones.
Sorry about that! 
It’s funny how things can hurt more once we notice them eh?! I hope it comes right soon. Remember to do your stretches and give it a rest (working on the new song might help with that if you’re spending more time figuring things out rather than playing). I’ll have a deeper think on this and see what other things spring to mind. Justin may also have a more detailed lesson on this technique somewhere. I’ll see if I track anything down 
I wanna hear more of your metal shredding!
Yeah this has got to be coming soon right, Alexis??!! 
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I feel like I’m definitely doing something wrong. @Socio sent me a cool technique tutorial/video designed specifically to ensure proper hand placement. I’m going to try and incorporate it into my practice for a couple of weeks and see what happens.
Who has the time?! Seriously though, I really would love to play with other musicians. I feel like my technique would progress much faster if only because I’d put myself in more playing situations. Finding like-minded people to jam with, who are around my level, and I won’t feel embarrassed to play with (because my lack of skill) feels insurmountable right now though. I’m also super nervous when I play on camera, let alone in front of others. Hopefully one day.
One of the reasons I post all of my recordings is so people can give me advice and point out things like what you pointed out. Having that in real time feels like It would be super valuable.
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Loving the cover, the offspring was one of my favorite bands growing up.
Is it possible that the backing track is pitch shifted a bit? Something sounds slightly different to me.
Could you send me that video as well? Wrist position is something I’m really paranoid about
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Sent via message, I’d post it here but I’m not sure what the rules are on posting non-Justin related instructional videos? I assume that’s why @Socio sent it to me via message as well?
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Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s just that it’s not the original band. The singer sounds very different from the original vocalist which is probably what you’re hearing. The key is the same as the original according to the website.
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100% agree with you on this! To find some people (or even a person!) who are interested in playing music, at or about the same level and don’t have lots of other life priorities ahead of music is virtually impossible it seems! The (very!) small number of people I have come across who seem somewhat interested either say “yeah I’m interested but don’t really have time” or “yeah that will be great, let’s do it” but never actually do 
Perhaps I just need to get out more into the scene…
I’m definitely with you on that too buddy! 
Top job on this, Alexis 
Killer tone and what a power chord workout!
Smash was one of the few ‘new punk’ records that I enjoyed. There was just a freshness about it.
I had great fun entering one of Justin’s earlier monthly competitions playing this on ukulele 
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