Thanks Craig!
Another one down, Alexis, and sounded great.
You mentioned a lack of skill in one of your replies to replies. I suppose if we compare ourselves to guitar legends then we’ll always have a lack of skill. But if you just step back objectively, you can’t produce all the recordings that you have, playing along with original backing tracks, and claim a lack of skill.
You may not yet be used to playing live with others but as far as I am concerned you have lpenty guitar skills.
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I understand exactly what you mean. My dad plays bas for about 60 years now, is in multiple bands and regularly gigs. He even opened for Tina Turner in his younger days.
Having that “legacy” to live up to causes a lot of stress and one of my worst guitar fears is him hearing me play and finding out how bad I am.
Something worth trying is finding someone actually slightly worse than you, or if they are at your level or better try to figure out something that you can do that they can’t. This way you can teach them something as well.
Random example: My coworker is new to guitar as well but still quite a bit more experienced than I am. One thing I can do that he can’t are pinch harmonics (it was the only thing my muscle memory remembered after not playing for over a decade. I couldn’t riff. I couldn’t play open chords. But I still can pull off pinch harmonics whenever I want to. Makes no sense at all but hey at least I remembered SOMETHING 
). I plan to get together with him sometime and make it more a “teach eachother some things” session than a true jam to get started. If I can show him the pinch harmonic basics it’ll be a victory for me since at least I brought something to the table.
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Another absolute banging Alexis. That did look really difficult with all those breaks in it but you did an excellent job keeping that timing.
I too would like to find some people to jam with but it seems to be a real struggle where I am. I’m off to the music shops in a couple of weeks so I’m going to see if there and any adverts about.
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Terrific long term project Alexis and another notch on the belt (neck ). Well done
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Song 9: Sunshine of your love by Cream
Classic song! I’m reluctant to say that this song is easy (rhythm of course). Instead I’ll say that it’s straightforward, not much to it. I’ll get into the reasons in the techniques portion but suffice it to say, I struggled to get the accuracy perfect. It was an interesting ride that I think had me tightening up my technique in a few areas.
What I’ve learned/techniques:
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D Riff. This was the major hurdle in which all the other parts of this section stem from. The riff uses 2 notes in a D barre chord, I could be wrong but I think this is the first time I played a riff that uses the pieces of chord in that same way. It’s a really cool sound.
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Muting. This is one of the toughest parts because I need only those 2 notes to ring out when playing the riff. I ended trying to use this grip consistently. You can see in the recording that I’m not super accurate with it but the goal was to mute all the strings except the 2 I wanted (shout out to my wife for taking the picture):
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Changes. The 2 hardest changes in the song are the one between the open A power chord → the D riff and the one switching from the G powerchord riff → D riff. I spend many a technique section of my practice schedule really trying to nail those changes. It got to the point where I could hit the changes fast but when I played the song it fell apart. This is the part where I have/had to bridge the gap between the technique and actually performing in a song.
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Vibrato. This is still a struggle for me. Similar to the chord changes, in practice I can do a pretty smooth vibrato but when using it for a song my brain freak out when I have to transition between vibrato and the next note so it ends up being hit or miss. Something I’m continuing to work on as I progress. Justin’s new video on Vibrato for grade 3 helped a lot in contextualizing it though. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated!
Sound:
I used a katana patch from Blues Collection 1 | BOSS TONE CENTRAL called hard drive meant for bluesy rock. As a side note, there are some really good blues tones in there for you katana owners.
grabbed the backing track from: Download your instrumental songs in MP3 format - Custom Backing Tracks - Karaoke Version (karaoke-version.com) .
Alright Sunshine of your love! (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
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Hi Alexis,
Great playing 
I do miss the riff variation every 2nd time like Justin teaches us in lesson are you doing this consciously?.. ( Or does that not belong at all throughout the song? in that case 
) Because with how you play this you could do it easely, and then that gives just a little more variation and becomes even better,but you’re going like a spear
Greetings…
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Thanks Rogier! I I’m using the riffs and variations Justin lays out in his rock songbook. Which is the 2 separate intro variations then the main riff. I usually when I can go with just what the songbook says but I’d love to try different variations. I do remember him saying in the video lesson that’s it’s loose and can be changed throughout.
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Nailed another one, Alexis! 
Such a great song and although you’ve said it’s straightforward (and your confident playing certainly makes it look so), I know it’s not having tried playing this myself in the past! Really well done on a top performance! 
You seemed to be consistently hitting that vibrato and make the change from what I could see, despite the challenges you mentioned, so all that practice certainly paid off. I have no advice there, I think you handled the transitions well from what I could see 
Muting is tough eh?! But looks like you managed it well, the odd minor miss didn’t detract from the performance for me. Your grip seemed to work well and if it’s comfortable to play, then all good!
You’re certainly leading the way on the rock book study, inspiring others to follow and your solid dedication to getting these songs mastered is to be applauded sir!
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Thanks Jeff, for watching and the kind words.
Understatement! 
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Typing as U take a second listen to this. Man, I thought you were going to take off on that lead (at least I was hoping you were). Nonetheless, really good playing and tone. Make sure you post the rhythm and lead together when you get there. I know you will. Well done!
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Thanks for the watch Dave. Haha I’m not quite good enough to break out the solo. I have started learning lead this month so eventually I do want to go back and do the lead. The song after next in the song book (smells like teen spirit) has an easy solo so I think I’m going to try to play the solo as well as the rhythm when I get there.
Nailed it Alexis. Played really tight, and great tone too.
Where can I get some free peanuts? 
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Super stuff Alexis. You said it’s straightforward but I think that’s partly down to how much progress you have made over the last year. You’re inspiring me to put down the acoustic and learn some rock songs.
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An all time classic song Alexis and performed with your usual outstanding quality! Very good quality backing track thank you for sharing the link to that site, could be very useful in the future for me!
Can’t wait for your next rock instalment!! 
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@jkahn @Socio @Notter Thanks so much for the watch guys!
You know, I didn’t read my shirt until I was watching this video while editing, lol. It’s a reference to a character in a book series to I love so when I read it I was like oohh nice.
So funny cause everytime I see your videos I think the same thing about acoustic and blues. I really like this bluesy kind of rock with eric clapton too.
Love that website, you have to purchase the backing tracks but they’re really cheap. I spend as much as that on my coffee in the morning. You can remove specific instruments so I can play the rhythm and keep the lead track on there until I get good enough to play the lead. I can always go back to it since i purchased it too. In a million years from now (lol) when I’m good enough to play the lead track here I’ll download the backing track sans rhythm and lead and play both parts.
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Fantastic job again Alexis. Some really sweet playing there.
With all the techniques you’ve picked up going through the rock book, are you finding you are learning the next song in the book quicker than what you were doing?
Thanks Stefan!
This may sound like a cop out answer but yes and no, lol. Yes, because generally I do feel like I can pick up most songs at the beginner level fairly quickly cause most of these techniques aren’t new to me anymore. No, because there is always something that each of these songs bring that is a little twist of something I’ve done before.
I usually spend the first week on practicing a song really just playing around the different parts seeing where my weaknesses are. Then I spend a couple weeks focusing on those weaknesses. I still have a 10 minute session where I try the whole song a couple times a day, but most of my practice is focusing on what I need to play the song. Example: Right now, I’m learning should I stay or should I go now. Relatively easy song but there are a couple of chord changes that are really really fast so I’m spending a lot of time on chord changes now.
At this point I could probably pick up a simple song with a day of practice but it def won’t be as refined as my post have been. I also force my self to spend at least 3 weeks on a song (for this study I mean) before moving on so that I can suck as much technique out of it as possible.
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Song 10: Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash
This is 100% the most fun song to play out of the 10 from the rock songbook that I’ve covered so far. Pretty simple open chords save for a couple of tricky things that I’ll go over below but I had a blast with this one despite my serious concentration face in the video lol.
What I’ve learned/techniques:
- Double time Rhythm. This was pretty difficult to grasp at first. It gets really fast and had to make sure I had the strumming part right. In the video lesson justin suggests down, down, up, down, up and in the rock sock book he suggests old faithful. I actually use both in the cover.
- E Shaped barre chords. In the video lesson justin basically suggests e shaped barre chords sans the bass notes for the G → F parts but I figured since I was just starting grade 4 that I’d just do the full barre chord for practice. A lot of chord perfect practice to make sure I can do the G and the F and slide between them without it feeling awkward.
- Changes. By far the hardest part of the song was the switch between D → E shaped G barre chord. I had a whole 5 minute section of my practice dedicated to switching between them. It wasn’t until a couple weeks of doing this did I really start to feel comfortable with the change and another incorporating it into the song but I think it was worth it. It’s def not perfect but good enough to play it for sure.
Sound:
I used a patch by Juca Nery that was designed to sound like the song. It sounds exactly like it to my ear but I guess you be the judge.
grabbed the backing track from: The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go - Guitar Backing Track with Vocals - YouTube. Seriously excellent backing track with a great count in which is great cause you have to keep time without drums for the first part which can be difficult.
Annnnd here we go Should I Stay or Should I Go!! (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
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Awesome job Alexis!! The switch to the E barre in the double time section is by no means easy, with the little bit of work I’ve done with this it’s what always catches me out, that was super smooth from you there. And you’re right, it’s a really fun one to play, kind of simple but challenging all at the same time!
The tone / patch you used sounded great to me as well. Another big thumbs up!!
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