Great job! Dusty Hill would be proud, God rest his soul. Let me know when you do “I Thank You” and I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide." Two of my absolute favorites.
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That’s a fact. I remember botching hard on this track in Guitar Hero 3, never attempted it on a real guitar. Congratulations on your results!
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Haha, me too man! I remember eventually getting really good at guitar hero, now if only I could transfer those skills and play through the fire and flames on my real guitar… 
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Song 5: In Bloom by Nirvana
Nirvana is one of my favorite bands so I was really excited to get into this one. I played it a lot during grade 2 and wanted to get to be able to play it from start to finish. This song is interesting because there’s not much new material in the song for me, but I still make a ton of mistakes while playing this. That’s a good thing though because it makes it clear what I need to work on going into grade 3.
P.S. I opted to use my mustang style guitar to get closer to what Kurt used.
What I’ve learned:
- Jumping around the fret board. I’ve played a lot of power chords during consolidation, but not jumping around like this. This song taught me that I need to work on accuracy when jumping around the fretboard.
- There’s a fast single notes part that you’ll see I pretty much mess up every time! I practiced it for hours and I just could not get it there. I need work on speed, not quite sure on how to do that yet.
- Switching using my foot switch. I opted to use my katana instead of using Tonelib (what I’ve been using a lot lately). Cause I wanted to get some experience using my foot switch. I’ve learned that adding a new thing to pay attention to makes me fumble lol!
Sound:
I used my katana to get both of the sounds used. It was just me messing around with the settings. I’m not quite happy with either sound, especially the one with the chorus effect, but I feel like they were good enough for the song.
grabbed the backing track from: Nirvana - In Bloom (Guitar - Backing Track) w/ Vocals - YouTube
Here’s In Bloom: (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
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That was great Alexis loved your cover and I am a big Nirvana fan myself so this tells you a lot! some good points you observed and you know your strengths and weaknesses which will help you a lot in the future what to focus on and how to improve.
I would perhaps apply a bit more reverb/delay to your main sound, it was too dry if that makes sense, whenever you stopped playing sound was stopping abruptly, I think reverb would fix that.
Just slow down to whatever pace you feel good at and then increase it every few days or even weeks if needed. That’s the best way to nail it down as with anything more complicated really.
Overall very well executed job and well done deserved!
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Loved it Alex!
I love Nirvana, was obsessed with them as a teenager and know most of the words to all their songs still.
This is one that’s on my list to learn. Such an awesome tune. Well played dude.
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Congrats on completing the next song in the project, Alex. Beyond me to offer any feedback on the playing or production.
@adi_mrok already said what I planned to say on the process to master a tricky part. All I’d add is to make sure that you focus on the difficult part and dedicate more practice time to it. Some people learn by playing through from start to finish, which is not the recommended approach. I’d call that rehearsal and there is a place for it in the process, but it’s not the ideal delibrate practice approach that would focus time on the difficult bits, breaking things down and over time stringing sections together. But I suspect I am probably preaching to a convert.
Look forward to the next song.
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Great work, Alexis, well played. You’re doing superb with your rock study. You’ve got some great advice from @adi_mrok and @DavidP. Looking forward to the next installment.
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Hi Alexis, such a great project - your rock song study 
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And this song really sounds great. It‘s far beyond my level, and I can just say ‚Wow!‘ how you mastered the big jumps on the fretboard 
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I‘m very much looking forward to your next song .
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@adi_mrok thanks, really great advice! I didn’t think about adding delay but that and a little reverb is exactly what’s missing. It’s funny I was racking my brain about it and it didn’t even cross my mind.
I think next time I’ll spend more time slowing the hard parts down.
@DavidP thanks David, yeah I did spend a lot more time on that part than the others but I think I could have spent more time. The other parts are so much fun though, lol!
@jkahn @Socio @NicoleKKB thanks!
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Hi Alexis,
You go at a nice pace,…nice and heavy 
Greetings…
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Very well done Alexis, that was great. There was some fair travelling up and down that fretboard and I couldn’t tell that your accuracy was off. Loved it!
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Song 6: Rock and Roll All Nite by KISS
This song is sooo much fun to play. I learned the song both with Eb tuning and open G tuning (A first for me!). At first I was going to record it using both ways one with my new Gibson and one with my LP Studio but after hearing them both together I preferred how it sounded with one guitar. I still listed under things I learned.
P.S. I’m renaming the what I’ve learned section in future threads. As I get further in guitar playing I’m finding less new things but deeper more difficult version of techniques I’m already familiar with. To reflect this I’m going to be changing the name to just techniques. Doing this study has changed the way I learn songs. Now the first thing I do with a new song is dissect it into sections and techniques. I find it more efficient to learn and practice songs since I focus on each section/technique for 5 minute intervals.
What I’ve learned/techniques:
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6th comping. I believe this is the right term. I’m not a theory expert but from the research I’ve done: Major chords are the root, 3rd, and 5th of a chord. Power chord remove the 3rd and just have the root and the 5th (thus E power chord is called E5). With 6th comping I’m switching between and 5th and the 6th (E5 to E6, A5 to A6, etc) to get that classic rock and roll sound. Really common rock and roll/blues technique. I hope that’s right, theory experts please correct me if anything I said there is wrong. This makes the song sound great!
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Push rhythm. The chords are pushed in this song so the changes occur an 8th note faster than normal (the ‘and’ after 4). This was actually not too hard, just playing the song (with the record on youtube) I got the feel for it and naturally would change when my foot was in the air.
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Tail. I don’t know the proper name for this technique but Justin calls it a tail in the video lesson for rock and roll all nite. In the pre-chorus I’m playing the G5 and when I’m done don’t just let it go, I drag my finger back lower as I’m loosening them. Has a really cool sound. Someone who know better please tell me the proper name of the technique if there is one, lol.
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Open G tuning. In the vid I’m only playing open chords with Eb tuning, but I learned it both ways justin taught it. I just didn’t like the sound with both my guitars playing at the same time. Playing it open G is actually much easier though since you’re playing the same shape up and down the neck!
Sound:
I used tonelib gfx preset called rock N roll party. Don’t know if it’s suppose to emulate the sound of this KISS song but the name sounded appropriate (lol) and it sounded pretty good to my ear.
grabbed the backing track from: Download your instrumental songs in MP3 format - Custom Backing Tracks - Karaoke Version (karaoke-version.com). not a fan of the vocals at all in this one, but the band is way better than any of the ones I saw on youtube.
Here’s Rock and roll all nite! (Advice and feedback always appreciated and welcome!)
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That was great, Alexis. Beyond me to offer more than just admiration for the project and appreciation for the songs.
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Another feather in your cap Alex. Bravo.
Given the pushed nature and pauses your timing was good, you were nicely locked in with the drummer. Impressive control and strength in your little finger. My one thought to make your playing snappier, tighter, grittier … aim for less up and down movement with your strumming arm. Keep the arc shallow and hold your hand closer, incorporate palm muting to make the sound much more punchy bang bang bang bang.
Check Justin’s lesson again and only concentrate on his strumming hand. You know the chords, you know what his fretting hand is doing. Check his strum / muting and listen for the effect on the sound it has. https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/kiss-rock-and-roll-all-nite-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-sb-309
I’m being picky only to give you even more scope to improve and develop. You’re doing great as is.
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That was great Alexis. Bravo. You’re certainly capable of rockin’ n rollin’ all night every day. Now when are you joining a rock band? I’m looking forward to your upcoming performance of ‘there she goes’. I do hope all the others going through the beginners course are digesting the words of your write ups as there are a lot of good points and tips you sharing. Well done.
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Thank y’all.
@Richard_close2u thanks for the great advice Richard. I went ahead and rewatched Justin’s cover at the beginning of that video and thought “Justin is sooo good!”. there’s an effortlessness to his playing that’s truly something to aspire to. I’ll definitely work on that oft neglected strumming hand. I have this compulsion to move it away from the strings especially when there’s a break or a rest. Complete control with that hand is long term goal of mine.
@Socio Thanks for the kind words James. My philosophy with my write ups is to give each song a proper post mortem like I would do with any project at work. It helps me put a bow at the end of it and really reinforce what I’ve learned, what went really well, what didn’t, and the techniques used. If they help anybody else along when they are doing these songs that’s an added bonus and I’d be humbled if that were the case.
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Hi Alexis,
Bravo again,… 
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No idea if you’re still in procces stretching your fingers further and it’s normally completely “good”, but your pinky could/should be closer to the fret, I wouldn’t hear the difference, but I can’t think of anything else ,…I think it’s fantastic what you do,
Greetings,Rogier
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Thanks Rogier! I’m actually currently working on this right now! I started to incorporate Justin’s Finger stretch exercise from grade 1 but starting at the 1st fret instead of the 5th to really get my hands stretching. I’m working on another song that uses 6th comping but there’s a part in this one that goes a little further and adds a D7 with the D5 and the D6. A crazy stretch for me, lol. Hopefully I can get it.
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