Double Stops - Day 3

1)  The audio is my most recent attempt, fingers crossed it's sounding a least a little better.  Gorgeous strumming from the man himself once again of course.  At least I think so!

​2) The most boring video is on it's way!  Uploading it now haha!  10 hours of practice sped up to 5 minutes.  I'll do a double post today and stick it up then, I'm warning you it's really really really boring but it is funny - at least to me and at one point you can see I'm having some serious fun on the drums!!!

Back to today's post!

What can I say? - Patience is not a virtue I possess, luckily stubbornness is and I NEED every drop with this.  I'm finding it so alien.  Tom does it and this beautiful sound comes out, I try and it sounds like someone mutilated my poor guitar.

Today I've been trying a few new things.  I've taken that backing track I soloed over and I'm using that to try and combine both normal soloing and double stops but with finger picking - it sounds god awful every time but there are glimpses in there.  I thought it might help me hear a bit better what's working and what's not because I'm used to soloing over that.  One thing for sure is when I get it right the double stops sound really fantastic - I just don't get it right often!

One problem I'm having with this (one of many) is that it's hard to find a double stop that sounds really nice, then it's hard to change it up with a close note then it's even harder to harmonise it with another double stop, then you have to put a few notes in and find the next harmony over the next bit of track.  It's so hard without having experience to find a combination that's right in the millions that are available.  And that's the main area I'm struggling right now.  Then add on to that rhythm, timing and dynamics and the fact I'm not used to playing finger style and it really is causing me problems.

I'm chipping away though, play, record, listen, learn, play, record ... wait till you see the video you'll see (well you'll see the back of my head but you'll get the gist).

I think one important thing is intervals, learning how they sound instinctively and then choosing a bass note and harmonising it via the right interval.   That's exactly what's happening here (duh) but it's funny when that ding moment happens and you realise why you need to learn certain things.  See I told you knowing and understanding are two very different things for me.  I've known about intervals for ages and their purpose in soloing but the ding moment had to happen for me to really understand.

I'm absolutely certain now that a combination of this funky, rhythmic and melodic playing with Zaks cool licks is going to sound HOT!  - When I can actually play that is :)

Truthfully - THIS IS GOING TO TAKE - F O R E V E R!