Tag: pressure control

Day 33. Recording preparations

Today I practiced When I Come Around with the solo played the right way, continued to maintain consistency at 1234s and set up the drums part for the recording.

Pressure control

Now I use this exercise as a kind of warmup. 300 bpm speed is not needed for the finger relaxation so I dropped it down to 240 bpm again.

1234 exercise

Not much excited for 1234s today. Played at the same speed as yesterday without any noticeable progress. And I tried to look away from the fretboard to be able to play without watching my left hand.

1432 on the 5th fret

300 bpm. Still having problems with the pinky.

1423 on the 5th fret

That one was better. 300 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

300 bpm.

1324 on the 5th fret

300 bpm.

1243 on the 5th fret

300 bpm. Still the hardest one to play consistently.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

340 bpm again. Not sure if it’s better than it was yesterday.

When I Come Around

Now the same verse-solo-chorus transition but with the correct solo part.

I couldn’t find the correct bpm value for the song. Seems like it was recorded without the clicking track. So I started to recreate it from scratch. There will be drum and voice parts added with the computer and two guitars with the bass recorded. Today I recorded both guitars and made a drum part. Also I started creating the voice line using synth.

Summary

I didn’t have much desire to play bass today. Need to get into it tomorrow in order to play the whole song by the end of the week.

Day 32. Learning the bass line

Today I continued to make progress in my bass playing skills for When I Come Around and got the 1432 combination sloppy played at 300 bpm.

Pressure control

Still not entirely sure what is the best way to practice it, so I continued to randomly play different variations of 1234 at 300 bpm to then implement pressure control while playing them.

1234 exercise

1432 on the 5th fret

I wanted to start at 240 bpm today but after I tried this combination during the pressure control routine it appeared that I could play it faster. So I started from 260 bpm.

Then I increased the speed to 300 bpm to reach this week’s goal. I played it quite sloppy but there was no need to increase the speed gradually – 300 bpm is not that much of a deal.

1423 on the 5th fret

I continued practicing this combination at 300 bpm.

1324 on the 5th fret

300 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

300 bpm.

1243 on the 5th fret

300 bpm.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

Still was trying to play it at 340 bpm. Not perfect but I’ll get to it eventually.

When I Come Around

Still practice the verse-solo-chorus transition to play it perfectly no matter what.

Then I practiced the bass line for a while.

I watched too many videos of live Green Day performances today trying to see what Mike Dirnt was playing here and there, as all covers I saw was approaching to the bass line differently and I wanted to play it as in original. Finally I sort of found out the fingering and all pull-off/hammer-on actions hopefully. Tomorrow will practice it that way and increase the speed to the original.

Summary

Need to play more bass, the bass line is trickier to play properly than I thought. Will focus on it the following days.

Day 31. The last 1*** combination

Today I practiced When I Come Around a bit more and added 1432 – the last of the remaining finger combinations which are started with the index finger.

Pressure control

I started with a few minutes of pressure control. Not sure if I need to increase the speed but I did it anyway – practiced at 300 bpm. It’s hard to figure out if it starts working out and change something in the way I play, but we’ll see about that.

1234 exercise

Just practicing usual and new combinations and trying to implement pressure control.

1423 on the 5th fret

I needed to get this combination to 300 bpm so I started at it right away. It was sloppy but for the first try it went ok I suppose.

1432 on the 5th fret

It was time to add this combination – the final one before practicing these 6 at the whole fretboard. So I started at 220 bpm. My ring finger stood in the way of the middle one, so there were many half-dead notes played here and there. Need more practice. Also there was left hand pain, which is another sign of practice lacking.

1324 on the 5th fret

Trying to play it more softly left hand wise. It’s one of the easiest combinations yet so I had no problems at all. 300 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

In comparison to the previous one this one is a little harder for me so there was some flaws, but still it was pretty decent.

1243 on the 5th fret

Harder. Combination. Yet. Still can’t play it without left hand pain, will practice pressure control more. Also I definitely need to practice ring-pinky separate movement because now they aren’t move independently from each other and it creates some dead notes.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

After yesterday’s perfect 1234 at 320 bpm I decided to increase the speed to 340 bpm. It went almost well.

When I Come Around

This time I decided to record something from my practice of this song. I really want to did a full cover of it, so today I focused on verse-solo-chorus transitions to make them consistent and get rid of mistakes.

Also I practiced the bass part but my phone ran out of memory again to film it as well.

Summary

I really wanted to sleep the whole day, so when I came home in the evening I had a thought to maybe skip a day of practicing. I’m glad that I found the strength to do it today as well. One skip leads to another one so it’s much better to be fully consistent. It’s been a month now so this routine should have become a habit. I want to maintain it as it is 🙂

Day 30. Perfect 1234

Today I continued practicing When I Come Around and increasing the speed of the 1423 combination.

1234 exercise

1423 on the 5th fret

I started playing at 260 bpm.

In the end of the practice I returned to this exercise and repeated it at 280 bpm. Tomorrow I’ll reach my 300 bpm goal and add the last combination for this week.

1324 on the 5th fret

This is one of the easiest combinations yet. I think it’s because there are no 3-4 fingers playing after each other. Anyway, played it at 300 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

Repeated this combination at 300 bpm as well.

1243 on the 5th fret

I think that my pressure control exercise let me achieve something. Usually my hand gets tired after 1-2 minutes of playing this combination but today I managed to play it for 3 minutes without noticeable pain, which is great. 300 bpm.

1234 on the 1-12 frets

This it the first time when I played the whole cycle without any major mistakes! There was a few semi-dead notes but it was very clean. Played it at 320 bpm as always. Definitely will increase the speed later. The pressure control thing really works.

Pressure control

I continued practicing this exercise. I’m getting closer to the lift-right hand coordination mastery with which I have issues now. I focused on picking loudly with my right hand and pressing the strings softly with my left one. It kinda worked, but still I need to practice more. Today I set the speed for this exercise to 280 bpm.

Summary

I started to relearn the bass part for When I Come Around in order to do it with pull-offs and hammer-ons. Will gradually increase the speed to the original.

Day 29. Pressure control

Last week I closed almost every exercise goal in order to have some time to play When I Come Around this week. The rest routines are mostly 1234 variations, and today I added one of them to the list – 1423.

1234 exercise

1423 on the 5th fret

I started with the new combination at 200 bpm.

After the pressure control exercise I realized that I could play this combination at 240 bpm with no struggle. So I played it at 240 bpm.

1342 on the 5th fret

Repeated this one at 300 bpm.

1324 on the 5th fret

Played this combination at 300 bpm again.

1243 on the 5th fret

Tried to reduce the pressure while playing at 300 bpm. Not quite succeeded in it unfortunately, but still it was ok.

Pressure control

The goal of this exercise was to start playing with the fingers laying on the strings without pressing them down and gradually increase the pressure to find the sweet spot where it doesn’t need much but the notes are still being played.

I confronted an issue here. My left and right hand always seem to play with the same tension. If I start playing louder with a pick my left hand automatically starts to press the strings more and vice versa. Not sure what to do with this yet.

Played it at 240 bpm.

Summary

I practiced When I Come Around for an hour I think. The guitar part is ready to be played and recorded, but the bass part is not quite as playable yet. I decided to lower the bass position so I released the strap a lot and it feels like I need to start over and get used to how it is played on one more time. Above that I want to play the bass part completely as it supposed to be played, and in order to do it I need more pull-offs and hammer-ons practice. Well, I have the whole week for that 🙂