Gamut

http://i.imgur.com/aVZ7hNG.jpg I had never heard this song before playing it - couldn't believe how well I faired for a sightread! Bruce Dickinson definitely makes for a better Iron Maiden but this guy is okay I guess. The riffs themselves are pretty simple for Advanced, the only tricky part of this song is keeping it together for all eight minutes and not getting thrown off by any of the tempo changes. Oh, and of course the solo. There's always a solo. http://i.imgur.com/5mnBcti.jpg This song is more fun than the Maiden one.

Actually, that was fun, let's do it again! http://i.imgur.com/7HHL1Qg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/j2uxAvG.jpg This song I know because Guitar Hero. Or was it Rock Band? That decade is such a blur to me now. Some of my picking rhythms came back to me from that, because this is not an easy song and is quite a tricky task for an Intermediate player. There are parts of the solo that are really speedy! Good pick though, very fun lead chart. http://i.imgur.com/JzVGEYB.jpg This has nothing to do with anything, I was just on a Blind Guardian kick after last week and I thought this was funny. It'd be perfect if I had scored 0.1% higher. Time to go tune up and shred over eight minutes of Bruce Dickinson telling me where I shouldn't look!

Nice dude. I've been wanting to upgrade my internet so I can stream some of this kind of thing, too.

http://i.imgur.com/XG5tjgN.jpg Got the hang of it by the end of this play. I bet I can clean it up even more!

D'addarios really disappoint me, they were the only strings I used for the first couple years of my guitar career. The tone on them when they're new out of the bag tends to be pretty good, but I kept breaking E strings during big bends around the 2-3 month mark consistently. At first I brushed it off as just playing too brutal with all that metal I put the strings through, but ever since I switched to Elixirs I tend to switch out when I need my tone freshened up, and not because my high E is in two pieces.

http://i.imgur.com/N1O0xUp.jpg Starting to find progress with the solo. The first half I'm finding easy now, but that second ascending bit always makes my fingers want to stop and ask for directions.

http://i.imgur.com/FzcSul2.jpg Thanks @@Teinashu for making a new version. Absolutely loving these new tones. I do miss the bit near the start in the old version where you had to play both rhythm and lead parts at the same time, I spent forever learning how to do that and now I don't have to anymore. :( I know it's more accurate, but it was giving me a scoring edge! Now I have to learn solos if I want to win this week! ;______; *sighs wistfully and enters riff repeater*

Hungover as hell, but let's open 'em up! http://i.imgur.com/5y1EzRn.jpg Hope you guys love this track as much as I do. Lots of variation in riffs and a good balance of simple and complex. http://i.imgur.com/SLbqtSe.jpg I feel like a few months back this would have been something I could get close to 100% on sightread, but I struggled even with that chord and muted E bit. Maybe I'll do better after some rest.

I was pretty spooked doing it, probably took me three times as long as it should, but surgery went off without a hitch! I got even heavier gauge strings this time, so these heads are probably going to live even shorter lives than the first set. :P Having trouble improving this week. Kinda out of practice, I think. I should probably do that Riff Repeater thing...

Gamut still exists?! Sometimes! http://i.imgur.com/dJqI1WZ.jpg Don't get me wrong, I like Tool, and this song is awesome, but this is a scoring nightmare. There's like four minutes of extremely easy riffs before the song even really gets going, and the only riff I struggled on is seven minutes into the nine minute track. I'll play this another 1-2 times max. http://i.imgur.com/7Qe7BFa.jpg First time hearing this, I only really know the title song off this album. Really fun riffs!

Argh, my guitar feels like a car lately - every time I fix it something new goes wrong with it. :( First it was the wiring, then it was the pickup, and now I need machine heads!

Gamut's back, baby! http://i.imgur.com/TqKl4gK.jpg Surprisingly difficult song. Was really surprised to find myself managing the shifting decently, but a bunch of riffs are gonna take work. http://i.imgur.com/6ZeGThM.jpg Love play on Metric. Very easy song but lots of flairs that make it really fun. (Yeah, oops, forgot to screen my streak! I'll do another later.)

@@2groggy et. all: I think doing stuff above your skill level is a really critical part of improving. Not too far ahead, but just enough to spur on "a-ha!" moments. Getting better is all about playing the songs that are a notch or two above where you're at, and figuring out how to close the gap. Of course, there's nothing wrong with playing easy stuff for pleasure, I do that all the time too. But if you're bulking up at the gym, you don't get bigger by doing the same amount every day - the majority of your practice time should be spent pushing your limits.

What kind of pick is that? I've got some bone picks, but my favourite material I've ever used is obsidian. Those suckers are expensive, though.

http://i.imgur.com/jinrcAk.jpg This is coming along. Really fun song to play, lots of little fills make it really hard to keep streak up but slowly getting the knack of them all.

And of course I've gotta play my pick. I used to use this song to psyche myself up in the morning on the walk to high school. Most of it's really playable for me, but then the solo happens. http://i.imgur.com/fOvF2kH.jpg @ No worries dude, just beat me earlier next time so I can riposte! :D

Damn, I totally should have kept my Hazy Shade secrets to myself. :lol: Oh well! Well played Motive, song was tricky. Now this week's advanced is a lot more to my playing style. I love everything Josh Homme does. Used to play the hell out of this in my Rock Band days on the drums, now apparently I can play it pretty convincingly on the axe, too! http://i.imgur.com/YpRHK4g.jpg

@ The speed and skips never stop being hard, but the learning got a lot simpler for me when I realised almost all of the arpeggios follow this picking order: D G B E(/B) D E G E/B That covers 80% of the song. The only part that really takes sitting down with is "springtime of my life", and even that's only a couple extra hand positions and double stops with that same order.

Just a +2 and a +1 for today. http://i.imgur.com/ANor54s.jpg Took me forever to get a run where I didn't choke up on a phrase or two. Managed to keep the flow smooth this run, even when I did drop notes! http://i.imgur.com/81EiUcZ.jpg Screenshotted this a while ago, did a couple more plays but have yet to break 91. Don't see myself getting into the 95+ group, so I'm just gonna call it here. :P

http://i.imgur.com/XYJJbzM.jpg Getting to the point where I could pass this in SA forced me to step my game up a lot. Now if I could just get a play in where I don't trip up and drop 1-2 entire phrases... Stuck at 90 on Orion. I still need to RR it, but I find myself avoiding it just becuase of how bloody long it is. :ph34r:

Improvements! http://i.imgur.com/iUUGh98.jpg Had to turn my guitar volume down to 40% before I could hear the track. :rolleyes: If I put some effort into the shreddier bits, I think I can get to mid 90%, maybe! http://i.imgur.com/4euIDTC.jpg Now I've got the picking patterns wedged firmly in my head, it's just a matter of getting up to the tempo at this point.

I agree that it's nice to hear a little extra of yourself. I dip my music volume a touch so that I can hear what I'm playing better. But that's why the mixer is a thing, so the user can control that and it doesn't need to be done on the tone's end. Customs should be mixed such that they sound even with the default songs in the game if you ask me. Nobody likes having to tweak knobs every time they switch songs!

More scores! http://i.imgur.com/d3fdv7K.jpg Latsch was right, the guitar volume on this track is deafening to the point you can't hear anything else. I feel like I could have managed 90% on this sightread, except I haven't heard this song since I was a wee lad, and trying to figure out what you're playing when you can't hear anything but yourself is hard as hell. http://i.imgur.com/iomoDLC.jpg New beginner track makes me happy. This is my favourite Metric song. Everybody everybody just wanna fall in love~

Okay, I'm finally starting to get this song to come out of my guitar somewhat like it does in the track! After 10 minutes in RR, I've got the hand positions down, but what makes this song tricky is the inconsistent picking patterns that never quite repeat twice. At least it's short, so there's not that much to memorise. ^_^ http://i.imgur.com/RFT18Di.jpg