The 1-to-1 Sessions

Richard_close2u · December 27, 2021, 1:54pm

@balamuthiahv on March 02, 2019

Balamuthiahv:

Hey all, Wow Brian… reading your experience made me realize the exact feelings I had going into my skype lesson. You put it in beautiful sentences.
I had my session yesterday. I’ve got to admit that it was close to impossible to come up with a list of questions to ask Justin during the one shot opportunity. However, I did come up with a list that I had sent him earlier this month before I came to Japan. Embarrassingly enough, a busy week in Japan, led to a lack of preparation and I forgot the things I wanted to ask him.
I had setup my audio interface and everything so that Justin would be able to hear my voice as well as my guitar. The session began with Justin not being able to hear my voice however (Another embarrassing moment). But he helped me figure that out and we began talking about what I do and what I’m doing in Japan. Justin is an amazingly warm/cool guy and he helped me settle in quite well.
Then he pulled up the list I had sent him and we began with blues soloing. After that he asked me to do an improv solo. He said that I’m able to play but the most important thing that I need to work on is having a “central idea” and linking the other licks with this idea using “threads”. He suggested that I need to explore the guitar more and learn new licks, for you can’t get fluent in a language if you only know a few words and sentences that you repeat (How true is that considering that’s my skill with Japanese). He also talked about how the flavor of the solos is reflected by the kind of music we listen to. Then he suggested that I should try to transcribe more solos and went as far as challenging me to transcribe 5 solos before the end of this year. This, I gladly accepted!
The next thing I wanted to ask him was tips on how to improve the recording and production process. After listening to my song (her light) quickly, he said that I was actually doing good on the production side but suggested that I work on tightening my bass playing which he said was “wobbly” at times. He said that’s probably the one thing producers would want to be improved in the song. Then he spoke about what software he uses to produce his songs and also gave me a run through of the softwares available and a little bit of an insight of which would be suitable for me.
Sadly enough that’s all we did talk about and the things I forgot to ask him were about how to use and target chord notes while soloing, combining rhythm and lead and lead fills. There were a lot of awkward moments of silence from me due to my lack of preparation (and partly due to the fact that I’m actually talking to Justin!). But Justin was a really cool guy and made the session an enjoyable experience.
The one good thing I did do was to properly thank him for the wonderful website and the community and how it had changed my life for the good in the last few years, particularly the last 6-7 months. I was motivated into doing competitions only for this chance of getting face to face with Justin and it did prove to be a wonderful experience. As for the questions I have unanswered… probably will have to wait until my next win It’s not going to be easy, but I’m motivated! Got to work on the transcribe challenge before that though! Thank you all in this forum. You all have been amazing to me and everyone! And thank you Brian for your efforts in the setup as well as the maintenance of the community.
Bala