Best posts made by emilernebro

@steviepee
Hi Steve!
So great to hear that you're working on the Banjo Rolls lesson! It's a big lesson with lots of information and the level of the examples are advanced. When it comes to the bpm, and when you can move to the next example;

For me, I've always thought of it like this: If I want to learn how to play something really fast, then I need to practice it slow for a long time first until it's in my fingers and I don't have to think about it anymore. Then increase the tempo. BUT, in a lesson like this the most important thing is to keep things interesting to yourself - in other words - staying for too long on one example can be quite boring, and to be able to learn something new, we have to stay inspired. I'd definitely move on to new examples even if you don't feel like you can play an example up to speed yet. You can always come back later! And when you practice the more difficult examples, it will "level up" your technique and the more simple examples will be even easier.

In the video, I say something like this: "play slow until you're comfortable, and then move on to the next example.."
But, you don't have to master each example up to speed before you move on. Stay inspired - cause that will make you want to practice!

I don't have a certain bpm goal that you should reach before moving on. I just suggest you to keep playing and have fun! :)
Thanks for watching the lesson Stevie, and have a wonderful day! Kind regards/E

@dpmcleod
Hi Dan!
Thank you for your question!

This is a very common thing that most of us can identify with.

It definitely takes time and lots of practice to be able to hear what you want to play, like Joe said. But it's definitely not impossible to achieve.

Overthinking is something that most of us do from time to time, and I think the more I've practiced soloing over common progression the less I have to think when I play. I try to simplify things as well, for instance, the ii V I progression that happens in (almost) all jazz standards as well as in the Jazz Blues. I often times don't think too much about the ii chord. (Dm7 in your example). Joe Pass said once that he completely disregard the ii chord in a ii V I progression in the blues. He's thinking V I.. that ii chord is just "something that comes with it"... a suspended V chord, in a way. So you could use all the "tools" shown in the "Jazz Blues" lesson, and start playing the diminished (for instance) already when the ii chord comes up.. cause it goes by so quick and we actually just hear that V chord being altered in some way, we don't think about the clashes that may happen when playing altered scale over the ii V or even the diminished scale.
But that was just a side note.

The difficult part can be to learn to resolve the line on the next chord. It's important to land on a good note and I think this is very good to practice. That's when we hear the changes, when resolved in a good way. If you add some practice time where you only focus on playing simple ideas that resolve in the right place. Maybe play a line and resolve on the 3rd of the chord, 5th of the chord or something.. that helps a lot for me. So maybe play a simple line over G7 (like an ascending G7(b9) arpeggio starting on the note B, (major third) over the G7 chord and then resolving on the major third of the C chord.. for instance note choice could be: B, D, F, Ab then down a half step to G, then F, and then D, D# to E, in a chromatic way to resolve on that E.. Difficult to explain in text, but Maybe you can try a simple lick like that and really really nail the resolution and use it in different places in the jazz blues when playing on a chord that leads a 5th up like G7 --> C or E7 --> Am.. (but then resolve on the minor third of the A chord obviously)

You'll be able to hear more of the lines the more you practice and get comfortable with the changes.

Hope this helps a little and let me know if you have more questions! The "JAZZ LINES" (vol 1) lesson about the ii V I can be a good video to watch for you I think!
Kind regards/Emil

@al_tennant Hi man! I asked a really good friend of mine who knows a LOT about this.. Here's his response.

Lots of changes.. before I tell you all the changes ,, I will say .this..is 90 percent in your hands.. but some things hold true about the construction
54 were usually one piece ash.. good tone wood.. and then sprayed or painted with a natural lacquer.. by late 60s they would chop down young "green" still moisture in it.. trees glue then to get her and spray polyurethane on them.. (plastic"
The pickups changed dramatically using inferior white and parts...any little difference to save money... shape of the neck.. even some of teh routes were different...

Through the 60s they basically left the design alone.. into the 70s ..just like cars here in the usa.. they started trying for a higher profit margin.. one way by making with cheaper components.. the general result was a heavy, non resonant shiney guitar....but having said that. Jimi Hendrix made so early 70 s guitars sound pretty good........

I'm happy to be part of ProGuitar! This will be fun!

@Fabian-Leandro Welcome Fabian!
Just saw your jazz blues take in Bb! Happy to see you here on the site!
Kind regards /Emil

@rghammond
Hi Richard! Great to see you here on the site! I'm glad you liked the rendition of Jingle Bells! It's a fun arrangement for sure! Welcome to ProGuitar! /Emil

@FlorianFaber That's awesome!! Thank you for playing it.. more fun stuff will be available as we begin to build this website more and more!

Nice playing Florian! Welcome to this forum, looking forward to hang out! /Emil

WELCOME! :) /Emil

Really cool to see you here Eigi!! Looking forward to hang out! Kind regards/Emil Ernebro

@Jjamison110 Welcome to the ProGuitar site!

@Hudson_Dean Hey man! Great question! I think I can add something to this thread. I really love that Fingerstyle Guitar always is changing, and I discover new ways of playing all the time! If you look at the "Boom Chick" Chet Atkins Style, there's many players playing in this style - but there are some significant differences between say Merle Travis and Chets playing! Chet played the bass notes very articulated and usually have the same picking pattern for the right hand thumb. For instance, if he'd play a regular C chord in the open position, he'd play the A string first, then the D string, then the E string, and back to the D string. That's in 4/4. Merle on the other hand would kind of "strum" and strike several bass-notes at the same time using the thumb pick. Starting on the A string, and then kind of strum the D, G and even the B string at once, and then play the low E string and then strum those 3 strings again! Similar to Chet but still way different! :) There are so many things that I could add to this topic but for now I'll let someone else take over, and I'll be back!! :) Looking forward to reading more from you Hudson! Kind regards/Emil

@dpmcleod Hi there Dan!
Thanks for asking! I don't actually stretch my hands at all, but I do sometimes warm up playing a few exercises, or songs. Nowadays, having a family, two small kids, I sometimes don't find the time to pick up the guitar, so I take a day off from the guitar sometimes because of that. But I used to play at least 6 hours/day every day of the year :) Hope you have a great day Dan! Kind regards/E

@Kiki
Hi there!
Thanks for asking!

I have the neck on the guitars very straight, and I give it to my luthier for saddle/nut adjustments. Usually he does a fret job on it to make it not buzz too much even though the neck is straight.

I have the action set low, and I use D'Addario strings, phosphor bronze 12-53 (although I use a 14 on my high E string to get a bigger tone on the high E string. I rarely bend more than a whole step on that string anyways, so I can have a thicker string there.. Learned that from Joe Robinson :) )

Let me know if you have any other questions!
Kind regards/Emil from ProGuitar.com

@brock.sirko
Hi there!
It's definitely possible to do!
But I'd say that it's far more important to know the relationship between the notes and intervals instead of the actual note name. So instead of putting too much time into learning the note names in the key of Db for example, focus on learning the intervals and how they sound relative to a specific note - because that's what you're going to use when you're playing and listening. And it's the same for all keys.. I mean, a #5 note relative to the note C gives you a SOUND. When you play a #5 relative to the note Bb, it's the SAME sound, although it's another key. A great thing to do is to connect the sounds you hear from chords (and intervals) to an emotion. This minor third interval makes me "feel" like this etc... this b9 interval makes me "feel" like this... That will help you to "remember" different qualities of chords etc.

For example - this is very important to learn: play a C note in the bass, and then just play any other note around that note.. it could be any note on the fretboard. You should be able to say what INTERVAL (not note name necessarily) that is relative to the C note. If you play a G note, you should be able to hear that it's the 5th of C. It's more important to know that it's the 5th, rather than knowing it's a G note, because when you're in any other key, you can use the same concept and hear the relationship. You never think about note names when you're improvising. You're thinking of the sound.. the choice of notes played on top of the chords played in the back ground.

Let me know if I can help in any way! Thank you for being part of the ProGuitar website!
Kind regards/Emil

@kraut
Thanks Daniel for the comment! And I'm really glad you like the lessons!
Yes, the Improv level 2 has been "delayed" since I've tried to add lessons to the site that people have asked for the most. I hope to make a lvl 2 video on that topic as soon as I can, but there's a few other videos that will be posted before that. If you haven't already checked out the "Jazz Up Your Blues" lesson, I'd strongly suggest you look into that one. It might be a bit more advanced (maybe level 3 improv level), but I'm sure you'll find some tools and ideas to work with on that lesson! It's one of my favourite lessons :) Have a great day Daniel and thanks for reaching out! Kind regards/ Emil at ProGuitar

Hi Fabian!
Thanks for your message and great suggestion.

We've actually talked about making a "practice-session lesson", but in what form we haven't really decided yet. I was thinking it might be cool to add a series of lessons called "Practice with Emil" or something similar, where I talk about and show the different ways on how I practice, and how I learn and remember. I'll definitely do lessons on this topic, just gotta find the time to squeeze it in! :) Thanks so much for the suggestion - stay tune my friend!
Kind regards/E

@Fabs

Thank you so much Fabian for the positive response on our lessons! :) Happy to hear that you're learning from our videos!

Ang. "För kärlekens skull" så håller jag med! Fantastisk melodi (kanske Håkan Hellström lånade lite av melodin i "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg" eller var tror du? :) Säkert omedvetet dock!)
Jag spelar den låten då och då, och tycker mycket om den. Som du säger så kan det bli lite svårt för oss att släppa lektion på den under närmsta tiden pga copyright, men vi jobbar på att framöver kanske hitta en lösning som möjliggör att vi kan släppa låtar som är skyddade utan att gå utanför några ramar! Vi är noga med att göra det på rätt sätt, så att royalties hamnar rätt etc! Tack för tips dock, och hoppas kunna erbjuda låten som lektion i framtiden!
Önskar dig en fin Jul Fabian! :)
MVH/Emil

@Fabs
TRUE!
I could do a lesson on my song "Reed it" without any licensing issues! Good idea, I'll add it to what we have in the pipeline! :)
Have a great day!! Soliga hälsningar från GBG! /E

@kreal Hey Kirill! Thank you so much for your message, and I'll do my best to answer your question! :)

Cool that you're using thumb+index to play your single note lines. Not many people do this, but it can be really effective! Examples of players who do this are Jim Nichols from San Fransisco (great jazz guitarist) and Brent Mason also does this sometimes (although he is using is middle finger a lot as well). I use this technique a lot for single lines.

When it comes to arpeggios, I actually use thumb+index as well, but I also do a lot of hammer-ons, slides etc. The "string-skipping" can be real difficult, but on the other hand, it can be real difficult using any right hand technique! :) I'd suggest that you try practice a few arps, like Dmaj7, Dm7, D7 trying different ways of playing them. Sometimes you'll find that it's possible to play them like a roll, using thumb, then index, then middle and then end with the thumb again. (Kind of like I did in that "Triplet Lick over A minor"!)
But also, try using hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. There's so many ways to do it, and the difficult part is to find YOUR way. No way is wrong, it's all about finding what you're comfortable with.

Let me know if you have more questions! Thanks for joining us at Pro Guitar!
Kind regards/Emil