Idea for a group effort:

[Danster]

I really like your idea James. I might participate, but I dunno if I can really commit to it, as my job situation is very hectic right now, and therefore I’m currently devoting less time to practicing than I ever have in my 2.5 years of playing. Anyhoo, thanks for taking the initiative here, seems like a really useful way of collaborating on our efforts to improve. I really want to see this work.

[Cuno]

Originally posted by szulc
The "Ibreathe Of Life" Jam had only three official entries one was mine I think Captian Carma and LoveGuitar were the others.

Just for the record, i was one of the three participants.

I like the idea, it's just too bad i'm using a Mac so i can't look at the powertabs... someone really should write a powertab viewer for us poor macintrashers. I'll see if i got the guts to fire up my pc tonight.

[szulc]

Sorry,
Cuno you're right CC did do a cool trial though.
I can print these to pdf if you need them to be

[Cuno]

Originally posted by szulc
Sorry,
Cuno you're right CC did do a cool trial though.
I can print these to pdf if you need them to be

No worries! About the pdf -- thanks, but i think i'll better watch them on the pc tonight so i can listen to them.

Cheers

[forgottenking2]

I think it's a great idea. I had also thought "Hey this is just like triplets in 3/4" and I was gonna comment on it but I saw that you guys already had gone over that... I'm in... although I'm not sure if I'll be able to really participate... I still have no internet at home (BUMMER!)... but I guess I could bring the sound files to work... let's see how it works.

[Unhorizon]

...I'm in.

Just 2 questions

Where do I get powertab?

What's your e-mail szulc?

[sewerhobo]

Looks like I'll join in too. I've really just started working on my alternate picking so I'm not too incredibly fast yet.

[EricV]

James, I absolutely understand what you intended this to be... motivation instead of competition. That´s clear.
We´ll see, if this works out, maybe we can do some others like it with different exercises, different techniques, different levels etc.
But let´s see how this goes
Eric

NP: Paul Gilbert - Acoustic Samurai

[Carvinite]

I am in...i might not get to work on them that much but hey ill still try

[szulc]

http://www.power-tab.net/downloads.php

Click my username to e-mail me.

[szulc]

The reason I have chosen these particular exercises is that for AP playing in odd grouping on each string on odd groups of strings, is one of the more challenging things, since you are starting each set with a different picking stroke. My appraoch in the past to picking exercises was more complicated, this gives nice structure to play a certain picking pattern and be able to repeat it all over.
The patterns are pretty easy and will help those trying to learn 3nps patterns all over the neck.
It might be too easy for those who into 3nps stuff and the PG/SM school.
I think good improvement can be made with these because of the above reasons.
I am also curious how everyone will respond to this type of training. In other words will some people find this really easy, or really difficult?

I would like to encourage participation by everyone no matter how skilled, from the begginer to the shredders. If we want to have non- strictly AP entries we should identiy them as so and the person making the submission should provide powertab of his particular economy approach to the given exercise.
BPM logs should be maintained weekly and AP separately from EP, lets compare apples to apples.

Some of the exercises I wrote about at the beggining of this thread would benefit for a slide (non-picked note) between the iterations of the motive. If we get enough participation and people want to add these other exercises, I will tab them out with the appropriate picking.

[Bongo Boy]

Okay so I have the exercises printed and sitting on my music stand. Besides attempting to play them, what is it that I'm supposed to do?

[szulc]

Learn them so you don't need to read the tab or staff. Then get to where you can play them in time at some specific BPM (as triplets in 3/4 or 1/8ths in 9/8). Record you best performance BPM in a log book (my guess is you will use Excel). Practice the exercise daily, but only record your BPM once a week. Use strict AP. Try to increase you maximum BPM throughout each week. Only record the BPM for the exercise if you can execute it cleanly at the stated BPM (also note whether you are playing it as 3/4 or 9/8 time). Do this for 3 months (13 weeks).
The intent is to publish each persons BPM weekly. Later we can ask those who are making the most improvement what they are doing that is working for them. If their claims of improvement are ridiculous get them to submit an MP3 to demonstrate their current BPM claim, which will be scrutinized to determine fraud.
Give evey one praise for participating. Learn from those who are really progressing.
You will learn the C Major scale in three note per string forms all over the fingerboard (if you don't already know them). These particular types of exercises are difficult to execute with clean AP once the tempo get high, so it gives everyone a chance to be challenged.

[szulc]

These exercises are going to be boring for many people, but the idea is to improve the execution, and to gain some metrics from this.

[Bongo Boy]

I think it sounds like fun--I'm all over it!