What is everyone working on guitar-wise?

[Bruiser Brody]

I'm working alot on timbre, utilizing the right thickness and thin-ness tones of notes and passages. Also working on throwing phrases in at the right time live in-the-pocket. We do some songs where I do pedal steelish licks and don't really play the rhythm guitar parts. So far, so good (so what). I'm also working on hammer/picking passages ie; hammering the B string phrase and alternate picking the high E string in the same pattern if that makes sense.

Anyone else? What are you guys grinding out these days?

[ford]

For the album my band is recording in July, I really simplified the guitar parts and worked on not overplaying. I write or wrote most of the songs and then get input from the band. I'm trying to leave plenty of space for the other instruments. The songs are very poprock and I'm keeping the arrangements simple and to the point. We'll pick some parts to jam on live, but for the cd we are just keeping the hooks going with a few nice and simple solos thrown in where they fit. I'm going to be doing a lot more background vocals and a few lead vocal parts live, so the easier to play guitar parts are going to help. I'm very, very excited and ready. In my not as humble as usual opinion, I think it's going to turn out great.

rock

bford

[tafkathundernotes]

I finally got the sound I want out of my 12-string bass, so I'm playing that as much as I can on live gigs. That's about one set right now. At home, I'm working mostly on being able to play only the bass strings without hitting the octaves if that's the sound I want.

And I'm playing a lot of acoustic guitar too

[ctrixie]

And I'm playing a lot of acoustic guitar too

Yeah, that plus accuracy on any riffs I'm playing. I COULD be working on my intonation, but ya know what that's for...

[bruce919]

Been doing alot more Acoustic the last few weeks , Working on some DBT songs.

I have been learning some Chuck Berry tunes on the electric & bought this book about a year back & strarted working thru it most days. "10 min. guitar workout"

I have stop watching so much TV & started playing more. Its a great stress relief.

[Steve Haynie]

I just need to practice. Period. I have not felt like picking up a guitar and seriously playing for several months. When I do get around to playing, articulating the feel of what is played will be more important than anything else. Playing a phrase versus making the guitar "speak" is something that has bothered me for a long time.

[silentman]

I have flawless technique.

[MCChris]

Playing bass more, at least once per session. I got three now, might as well put 'em to use:

[Monacosis]

working on the same old stuff here: playing over changes.

mike

[Hackubus]

I'm working more on my phrasing. More melody, less wheedly wheedly SQUEEL!

[tomteriffic]

Holding onto a pick is the current project

I got me a skin condition that leaves my hands as a mixture of thick, slick callus or raw hamburger. So I can't hold on to a flatpick and fingerpicking could get flat-out ugly. Without Gorilla Snot I'd be up a creek. Beyond that, playing over changes, running scales, playing changes and melodies simultaneously.

[shredmeister]

I am working with moving in and out of the box - that is using notes that are not part of the scale I am in.

I play lead. When I solo I combine a number of scales into one solo. Typically the scales I will use when I solo are the major/minor, harmonic minor, minor blues, major blues, diminished, pentatonic and chromatic.

I use notes and phrases from each scale for example often in one solo. What I work on is differrent combinations that won't clash with the chords and will resolve smoothly.

I also will also switch scales in a song. For example whatever key I am in if we are on the Em chord for example you can use an Em scale or an E pentatonic scale or E major / minor blues scale etc...

Or take a blues progression for example. Instead of sticking with one key you can switch to a pentatonic scale for each chord at their root position. Lets say you start with an E then A then B. Instead of playing the whole song in an E blues scale you can use an E pentatonic or blues scale followed by an A pentatonic or blues scale and then the B scales. And then I go in and out of the box.

[Matt Mattson]

I'm working on the knocking technique and watching all the R.L. Burnside 1 finger mash wup wup doeee I can. Between the two I might finally be playing the damned thing. Chuck Berry does the 1 finger mash stuff a lot as well.

[anotherfreak2]

I'm working on my "john mayer face" AND singing/playing at the same time

looks like I'm going to be doing a bunch of solo sets this summer, so I'm taking a break from ii-V-I's and just learning a crapload of tunes from Harry Connick/John Pizzarelli to Jack Johnson.

I'm also locking myself in a studio once or twice a week to write! I'm most excited about that!

[ET_KenW]

Like Steve, I need to work on getting back into a guitar routine. There's really no excuse except I've been really lazy lately.

[Hamerhack]

As a theory-lacking hack, I've lately been doing a few things:

Turning on the radio (oldies stuff) and trying to play along with whatever is on.

Learning a few Beatles songs a week. (I know plenty, but should know 'em all)

Trying to get some Mick Taylor-esque Get Yer Ya-Ya's legato technique.

[BadgerDave]

I'm working almost exclusively on bass.

The goal is to stop playing bass like a guitar player and start playing more like Paul McCartney and, ultimately James Jamerson.

[FunkyE9th]

I'm currently not in a band, so I'm working on learning solo arrangements of songs. I picked up a Brazilian guitar book and currently learning a solo arrangement of "Meditation" by Jobim. Also working on the other songs that I already know, but paying more attention to the details of how I'm playing (e.g. my tone). I'm having wrist and pinky issues, so progress has been slow.

I'm also trying to get better at doing my own arrangements, so I'm learning more about chord substitutions. Still haven't finished any arrangements of my own. Got bits and pieces but nothing complete.

My soloing is for the most part scalar... find the key center of the song and away I go with the solo. So to get out of that mode, I've been tryiing to add more arpeggios in my soloing. It's frustraiung, 'coz now I have to think instead of feel and it tends to sounds like an exercise, or too planned. I have to really track the chord changes and I tend to get lost and revert back to my scalar ways. Hopefully I'll get to a point where I don't have to think.

-FunkyE9th

[Stokesdead]

...SLIDE...

[cmatthes]

Oddly enough, I'm also going back to a lot of Beatles stuff and really listening to the parts - nice deep listening - and then relearning some of the things I've been playing correctly/incorrectly for almost 30 years...

Spending more time on listening to the McCartney lines especially.

[pesocaster]

Finger picking ala Jeff Beck.....

[kizanski]

Smoke on the Water.

[darc]

Quit both bands, sorta backed away from the Guitar Craft thing, started really questioning guitar and music in my life in general. Total system reset. Just recently started taking informal lessons with a jazz pianist, exploring some new improv and writing concepts, but really I have no idea where I'm headed.

Interesting to see this question pop up just now.

[Devnor]

Trying to sort thru the mess in Molly's control cavity and installing pickups in other guitars too.

If I can find the time to practice then it's sweep picking. My brain & fingers aren't connecting with this technique.

[savethematches]

Satch Boogie