2016 challenge

Ugh. Gonna take a guitar swing at this.

In the last year or two, the only guitar stuff I tried to learn were the song and lead breaks in Priest's "Riding on the Wind." I had a friggin blast doing it and learned a bunch from it, so I'll try something a little less speedy, (since i am NOT a speed guy.)

Preist was always my hugest influence, but I was floored with the phrasing and seat-of your-pants vibe, when I started listening to Ty Tabor, so I'm gonna try something I hope is manageable-- the lead in a live version of "Power of Love." Different than the studio version (I like the updated approach to the vocal way better than the original as well.)

https://youtu.be/_fGxRW1TY_0?t=2m6s

He tends to usually improvise around themes of the original solos, which I respect immensely-- and there's a ton of tasty licks to steal in this little bit, and it's cleanly played and it's gonna be harder than I think to really pull it off with any kind of control. Looking forward to pulling some hair out over it, lol. and fumbling through the fast little run at the end /emoticons/default_smile.png

Really looking forward to hearing what everyone does!

 
Crap. I guess I'm in too.

I've been thinking about Eat 'Em And Smile lately. That album came out when I was 14 and barely graduating from pentatonic boxes. I didn't understand what the hell Vai was even playing most of the time, but I knew it was crazy awesome. Unfortunately, there was not a single teacher in my town that could explain Vai's approach. So it was me and various guitar magazines....and a rewind button. By the time I was 18 and developing some modest chops, I was on to different albums. Revisting that album, I can't believe what damn monster lurks beneath DLR's antics.

Do note for note solos count? Cuz if they do, I'm probably setting my self up for failure. /emoticons/default_wacko.png

I'd love to try Big Trouble or Ladies Night In Buffalo. But parts of those solos are unassailable for someone with atrophied skills and concentration. I think I can try Yankee Rose....it's got minimal wackiness from Mr. Vai....hmmmmmm.....

 
FrettyMcgee said:
Crap. I guess I'm in too.

I've been thinking about Eat 'Em And Smile lately. That album came out when I was 14 and barely graduating from pentatonic boxes. I didn't understand what the hell Vai was even playing most of the time, but I knew it was crazy awesome. Unfortunately, there was not a single teacher in my town that could explain Vai's approach. So it was me and various guitar magazines....and a rewind button. By the time I was 18 and developing some modest chops, I was on to different albums. Revisting that album, I can't believe what damn monster lurks beneath DLR's antics.

Do note for note solos count? Cuz if they do, I'm probably setting my self up for failure. /emoticons/default_wacko.png

I'd love to try Big Trouble or Ladies Night In Buffalo. But parts of those solos are unassailable for someone with atrophied skills and concentration. I think I can try Yankee Rose....it's got minimal wackiness from Mr. Vai....hmmmmmm.....
Click to expand...
Yankee Rose would be cool.....I am old-school so the only one I learned properly off that album was Tobacco Road!

 
Two things:

For guitar,

And since we bought a weighted-key electric piano for all the little Toadrollers this Christmas, I've been tackling this twenty minutes at a time armed with only the sheet music and knowledge of which piano key is which note. I hope to achieve similar skill levels:

http://youtu.be/rb9UfGNuiSU

 
FrettyMcgee said:
Crap. I guess I'm in too.

I've been thinking about Eat 'Em And Smile lately. That album came out when I was 14 and barely graduating from pentatonic boxes. I didn't understand what the hell Vai was even playing most of the time, but I knew it was crazy awesome. Unfortunately, there was not a single teacher in my town that could explain Vai's approach. So it was me and various guitar magazines....and a rewind button. By the time I was 18 and developing some modest chops, I was on to different albums. Revisting that album, I can't believe what damn monster lurks beneath DLR's antics.

Do note for note solos count? Cuz if they do, I'm probably setting my self up for failure. /emoticons/default_wacko.png

I'd love to try Big Trouble or Ladies Night In Buffalo. But parts of those solos are unassailable for someone with atrophied skills and concentration. I think I can try Yankee Rose....it's got minimal wackiness from Mr. Vai....hmmmmmm.....
Click to expand...
Of course 😀

 
FrettyMcgee said:
Crap. I guess I'm in too.

I've been thinking about Eat 'Em And Smile lately. That album came out when I was 14 and barely graduating from pentatonic boxes. I didn't understand what the hell Vai was even playing most of the time, but I knew it was crazy awesome. Unfortunately, there was not a single teacher in my town that could explain Vai's approach. So it was me and various guitar magazines....and a rewind button. By the time I was 18 and developing some modest chops, I was on to different albums. Revisting that album, I can't believe what damn monster lurks beneath DLR's antics.

Do note for note solos count? Cuz if they do, I'm probably setting my self up for failure. /emoticons/default_wacko.png

I'd love to try Big Trouble or Ladies Night In Buffalo. But parts of those solos are unassailable for someone with atrophied skills and concentration. I think I can try Yankee Rose....it's got minimal wackiness from Mr. Vai....hmmmmmm.....
Click to expand...
Bands I was in back then played Ladies' Night. If I could play it, you could play it.

 
I need to write some country stuff so... I guess my challenge is getting one song down, in the bag & recorded in the next two weeks.

I've got a decent start so, that is a good sign. /emoticons/default_smile.png

 
So, I've decided to do a grail song. Something I always wanted to learn many years ago. Aqualung

 
I pitched this to the band at rehearsal. They liked it, but we'll see if they bite...

 
I've been on the lookout for a couple of weeks and finally found a solo really worth spending my very scarce free time to learn. I wasn't sure if this belonged in this thread or the "majestic solo" thread (probably both). I only discovered Jonathan Kreisberg recently, through my jazz guitar sensei. In the last 30 years I went through a handful of periods where I said "I just want to play like this guy" and it was a very short list: Randy Rhoades, then Yngwie, then Al DiMeola, then Frank Gambale, Alex Hutchings (but I wasnt going to mess wit my standard tuning), then Jimmy Bruno, and now it's Kreisberg. I already started transcribing this solo and hope to have it down within the next month.

 
So I've really bit off more than I can chew here.  Way above my paygrade so to speak. Still, dammit, I am going to get it down.  Soon.  Real soon. ( I hope...)

Anyway.  I picked out the acoustic parts but decided to just play along rather than take the time to replace the tracks.  I did remove all the electric guitar parts and replace them with my playing.  Two tracks of the opening riff with the change in chording that occurs halfway in.

My vocals with a "radio" effect for part.

drums, piano, acoustic, and bass are the original tracks.

The lead isn't complete.  I still make mistakes and two licks at the end I need to work on.

Still listen if you wish.

The whole song.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkplead.mp3

Just the lead if you don't want to listen to all of it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkpjustlead.mp3

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

;-)

View attachment Aqualungkpjustlead.mp3

 
Last edited by a moderator:
mathman said:
So I've really bit off more than I can chew here.  Way above my paygrade so to speak. Still, dammit, I am going to get it down.  Soon.  Real soon. ( I hope...)

Anyway.  I picked out the acoustic parts but decided to just play along rather than take the time to replace the tracks.  I did remove all the electric guitar parts and replace them with my playing.  Two tracks of the opening riff with the change in chording that occurs halfway in.

My vocals with a "radio" effect for part.

drums, piano, acoustic, and bass are the original tracks.

The lead isn't complete.  I still make mistakes and two licks at the end I need to work on.

Still listen if you wish.

The whole song.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkplead.mp3

Just the lead if you don't want to listen to all of it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkpjustlead.mp3

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

;-)

View attachment 10708
Click to expand...
Your guitar tones are pretty much spot on for this tune! Up until the boo-boos, I thought I was listening to a studio outtake! Very impressive!

 
mathman said:
So I've really bit off more than I can chew here.  Way above my paygrade so to speak. Still, dammit, I am going to get it down.  Soon.  Real soon. ( I hope...)

Anyway.  I picked out the acoustic parts but decided to just play along rather than take the time to replace the tracks.  I did remove all the electric guitar parts and replace them with my playing.  Two tracks of the opening riff with the change in chording that occurs halfway in.

My vocals with a "radio" effect for part.

drums, piano, acoustic, and bass are the original tracks.

The lead isn't complete.  I still make mistakes and two licks at the end I need to work on.

Still listen if you wish.

The whole song.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkplead.mp3

Just the lead if you don't want to listen to all of it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88221982/Aqualungkpjustlead.mp3

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

I will get it down sometime this year....

;-)

View attachment 10708
Click to expand...
This is a 2016 Challenge, not a January 2016 Challenge.

you are doing fine!  Just keep at it, and it will become second nature for you.

ive made some good progress on my first tune. I was just running song 4-5 times every night until I left on vacation last week. I went from only being able to do 60% at two levels of VLC Player slowdown, to being able to play nearly 80% at full speed. There are still a few stumbles, and at least 2 places I always get surprised by, but I'm pretty confident I can get it up to speed by 1 March.  If not, then 99% certain by 1 April.  It isn't beyond my skills, it is just beyond my skills temporarily.

 
Glad to see so many taking part 😀 I'm up to 100 Bpm on my queen solo, only 20 to go. Great thing is it's basically scale work picked a specific way so to keep it fresh I can change the scale but keep the picking pattern the same.

Geoff

 
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