I was near the end of BG3 when I started BLIM last year. I didn’t know a single blues lick except the one from the blues lick-and-riff class in Grade 3, but that was in E, and I had no idea how to adapt it to the key of A used in BLIM, and for this before video. So, I tried to play along to the feel and rhythm of the track with whatever pentatonic pattern 1 notes appealed in the moment.
And this is my ‘after’ video. After a few takes where I tried to be ‘as good as I can be right now’ and stopped after a mistake, I realized I was just stressing myself out and it was enough to record my ‘current baseline’ on this long guitar journey and tried to maneuver around and past mistakes.
Let me know what you think!
BLIM was awesome. If you like the blues or blues adjacent music, do check it out, it’s definitely worth the investment of time and money!
Hi Ashu ,
What a wonderful change you have gone through , it is a difference between day and night…Blim has brought you a lot, what a good foundation to build on…congratulations
A few seagulls still need to be shot here and there, but celebrate what you have already achieved in that short time …
That is such a great improvement, Ashu. From playing few same notes in the scale to using a language in 6 months. It is not perfect yet, but you are speaking Blues now. Well done.
It’s great stuff your fantastic keep going both are good but obviously the 2nd one has much more confidence and improved performance so just keep it going-
The after-video is a great improvement. It sounds like you’re speaking the blues, rather than being musical with a scale now. As Phil said, it’s not easy to keep improvising for over 5 minutes and sound good. The ending was mostly sweet, except for the last note, but you still turned it into something good with a smile. Great job.
Thank you Kamil! Pity about that last note, I was so happy I made it through the 5 minutes, I wanted to end with a flourish, haha.
I bought the ES-335 halfway through Unit 2 - bending my Strat was challenging enough that it was going to hold me back until technique and strength caught up. And that’s my story and I’m sticking with it
I do like it a lot - it’s a very different sound and feel to my Strat.
I have continued to review and slowly consolidate BLIM and am currently on Unit 3. I think I’ve made progress in some areas, and I know I’ve got more to do in many others.
Here’s my BLIM course “6m later” improvisation over the same backing track. Let me know what you think!
Hi Ashu,
I have looked back at previous videos and I can clearly hear the progress, so that is great, keep it up , when I look at the bending it must be a completely different move, now you push the strings up and no(good) pivot point and the arm…wrist is used pushing up and not the small movement side ways as indicated in the lesson, take an closer look at that and look for the difference … ( Hi, I know that it is now clear (after our conversation elsewhere), but I will also clarify myself a little here so that fellow readers are not unnecessarily confused… )
and every time I see that guitar body I get the feeling that there is something missing from the wall here
Well done Ashu, the progress is very visible. I remember some of your first videos, this far, far better. You look relaxed as well. Keep going, I look forward to seeing more.
A very impressive improv: you seemed to be finding lots of slightly different licks that held together really well; made the piece interesting, attention grabbing. A couple of additional variations that might add even more colour to the piece: some more obvious changes from sustained notes and phrases to a sharper, staccato style; variations from loud to soft. Very well played.
Like I said earlier in this thread, I decided to ‘repeat’ BLIM this year, on my own - two months per unit, per the suggestion at the end of Unit 6. I am glad I invested the time - its helped more of the content ‘stick’, and I am more comfortable with many of the techniques.
Here’s my BLIM course ‘1y later’ improvisation over the same backing track.
My goals were:
More variations of a few licks, some ‘made up on the spot’ sections, rather than trying to get a lot of different licks into the same solo. (This might seem obvious but it took me a while to realize I needed to stop regurgitating ‘medley fragments’ and linking them via some scaley bits.)
Not start on the ‘1’ each time, feel comfortable starting a lick in the middle of a bar, end in the middle of another, and then ‘find the next 1, and remember what chord it is’
To have a couple motifs, repeat / revisit them, and perhaps create a thread.
What I learnt while recording this:
Despite my best intentions, I haven’t been recording myself often enough to get rid of the ‘red button panic’! It’s not as bad as before, but it hasn’t gone yet.
Its fine to capture my ‘average’ solo rather than recording several takes, hoping to capture a moment of inspired playing. This is just a new baseline on a long journey!
Recording multiple takes just tires out my brain and my fingers, and bends start to get a bit dodgy, and I compensate by playing licks with less bends.
My vibrato needs more work - there are points where my fingers are doing a lot of work but the string isn’t moving up and down very much. Perhaps I don’t get my hand in the right position to lever off the bottom of the fretboard… or I move the string up and back, rather than down and back.
I have got better at ‘feeling’ the changes / judging when the chords are going to change, but I still lose track every now and then.
I need to find some licks that let me practice the use of hammer-ons, flick-offs and rolls to add more rhythmic variations.
Hi Ashu, good six months progress from June. You look more comfortable and more relaxed. You sound less like medleys. There are still few places where phrasing is identical, but significantly less than your previous upload here. Bending improved, but you could use it more often.
5 mins is long for experienced players to improvise, especially with only few licks. Repeating and using small number of licks differently is fine, but you will need more to fill 5 minutes, I think. You will also need some greater variations of the same lick. I am trying to say that there is definitely too much repetitions and too little variations to my ears in your playing.
Great insights regarding your vibrato. Practice slow and wide ones to improve this. Also, add some gain / distortion to your tone. That will help with sustain and you would hear better vibrato. Bending would be easier as well. Your tone is super clean to the point it dials down almost immediately as you play a note.
Very nice playing Ashu, in all the recordings to be honest, while re-listening to the last one I can clearly hear and appreciate how much you’ ve been growing in terms of confidence and surely more which my lack of knowledge doesn’t allow me to name.
Thanks for sharing your progress, it is much inspiring!
and it was enough to record my ‘current baseline’ on this long guitar journey and tried to maneuver around and past mistakes.
, it is a difference between day and night…Blim has brought you a lot, what a good foundation to build on…congratulations 
but celebrate what you have already achieved in that short time … 
, when I look at the bending it must be a completely different move, now you push the strings up and no(good) pivot point and the arm…wrist is used pushing up and not the small movement side ways as indicated in the lesson, take an closer look at that and look for the difference … ( Hi, I know that it is now clear (after our conversation elsewhere), but I will also clarify myself a little here so that fellow readers are not unnecessarily confused… 
)
