That was pretty impressive! It’s obvious that your dedicated and structured practice time is paying off. I thought you were already doing impressively well at just 3 months in, keeping a steady beat, and making smooth chord changes. What struck me about your current piece in particular was your accuracy hitting single notes, and you really do shine rhythmically. Keep having fun playing!!
Thanks!
Like many other things in life, I’ve found that the more I get into the guitar the more I realize how much I don’t know about it and how many different paths I can take.
So far, I still feel like there is so much more I can learn following rock and metal that I think I’m going to be sticking to that for a while. There’s 1 more song in troy’s Vol. 1 rhythm book then he has a vol. 2 for rhythm (6 more songs), a primer + 2 volumes for lead playing (12 solos) and a book with 21 original songs like this one that go from easy to difficult designed as a supplement for both rhythm and lead. And that’s just Troy!
I still have about 8 beginner songs left for Justin’s Rock songbook and after that I plan on taking a break from the study and start learning my favorite AC/DC and Foo Fighters songs while I go through the Intermediate method. I purchased a year of Justinguitar TAB subscription just for this purpose.
One of these days I’ll get bored of learning rock but luckily, I like all types of music. I want to buy a classical guitar and learn some of my favorite video game music which would require learning finger style. So that’s probably where I’ll go if I want a break from rock/metal. The possibilities are endless!
Thanks Mari, I spend a lot of time on trying to get the rhythm right. I’ll give credit to both Justin and Troy for being great teachers and emphasizing the importance of rhythm early on in both their methods.
I remember watching a video where Troy talks about his metal rhythm method (where this song comes from). He said something like “it doesn’t matter that you can play the song. If you aren’t able to play it while tapping your foot, then you aren’t really following the method. Rhythm is the basis on which the entire method was created”. That stuck with me so I’m glad that at least shows a little.
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Alexis, congratulations on your 1 year guitar learning anniversary. You must be very proud of how far you have come in that first year. As others have said this recording is a great example of how much progress you have made due to your dedication and determination. Well done.
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Happy first anniversary, you have made great and impressive progress in that time.
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That’s amazing progress Alexis! It’s very encouraging to hear about the success people have with structured practice.
Have you set goals for 2023 yet? I’m looking forward to seeing your progress video in a year’s time!
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Congratulations Alexis,
Sounds great and what a progress in one year.
Keep up the good work.
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Congrats on a spectatcular first year, Alexis. I loved the celebratory video. I confess it was not what I expected, coming from Troy based on my recollection of others you’ve shared. That sounded to me very much AC/DC style. So not only could I appreciate your playing but loved the song as well. Wish you well for the coming year and look forward to more rocking videos from you.
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Yeah, it’s definitely not metal. It even uses a more crunch tone rather than a gain heavy metal tone. His rhythm books were written in the mid 80’s and I think updated in the 90’s so the definition of metal was very different. It’s why I think he changed the name from Heavy Metal Rhythm guitar Vol. 1 & 2 to just Metal Rhythm guitar Vol. 1 & 2 for the update. The songs in both books vary a lot in the “Rock” spectrum. One song in Vol. 2 for example is called “Nervosa” which is clearly a grunge tune with Nirvana inspired riffs. It’s why I always encourage anyone who wants to learn rock in general to supplement Justin’s course with Troy’s stuff as I think they mesh well together, and Troy’s is very rock focused.
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We had an interesting discussion along those lines at some point. Clearly the term ‘metal’ and ‘heavy metal’ have evolved over time and can then be applied retrospectively. The trigger was, I think, my thought that I didn’t consider Black Sabbath to be ‘metal’ but certainly a fore-runner, and one of the original influences of what would come. I found this on Wikipedia to be interesting, maybe you will too. But maybe I am getting old and you were already part of that conversation 
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Admirable discipline, and great 1 year milestone! Congrats!
Congrats on your 1 year anniversary Alexis.
That was pretty damn awesome playing there. Really interesting to see how much you have come on in the past year. I hope you are proud of where you are at at the moment. Bravo!
Congrats on your anniversary Alexis! Great progress.
That was awesome. I forget it was your video. I thought it was my playlist. I was wondering why the next song didn’t play.
Awesome documentation of your guitar journey. I’m a month behind you and I don’t sound as good as that.
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That’s some serious progress in a year Alexis. I am an acoustic player so can’t offer you any advice on playing electric but I don’t think you need my advice anyway. Keep doing what you are doing!
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The final song in Metal Rhythm Guitar Vol. 1! What a song to end on too, it’s a metallica inspired tune (main riff sounds familiar hmmmm). Perfect capstone for the first rhythm book because the rhythm is pushed so there are a ton of upbeat accents and the like. Some really really fun and awesome sounding riffs in the blues scale too.
I used one of Juca Nery’s awesome katana patches. The metallica one of course worked perfect for the song.
Now off to Rhythm Vol. 2 and Lead Primer!
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Lovely and skilled playing.
I am enjoying the beat and the vibe!
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Thanks Rene! I really like the vibe too, very 80’s metal. I particularly like the blues scale riff that starts around 1:48 cause it sounds so cool to me plus really fun to play around with. Switching from A to E was tricky at first, making sure I hit the right strings. Vibrato also felt really tough to nail at 126 BPM but I think my fingers started to cooperate around 3 weeks into practice. Overall happy with how it turned out.
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Nice Alexis, very much vibes of Enter Sandman in that!
Great chugging rhythm and infills for the solo, all in all it’s a great effort!
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Thanks Darrell! Heavy enter sandman vibes for sure lol.