That's great! Definitely try it at much slower tempo and make it sound tight & groovy. That's a great exercise. 

You could also try adding some gain to your tone, because it's easier to get sustain and I think the notes sound less choppy. 

Thanks, Clayton and Robert, I will take your suggestions into account during practicing 👍. 

Birgit

I’m currently working once again on one of my particular weaknesses, namely the double stops.

For this I chose Robert’s « Jingle Bells Blues », since the chorus is packed with double stops. It’s such a driving rhythm, I love it.

And in addition I have a song I can practice for Christmas.

I was inspired by Ron’s great recording of chorus and verse. And I also know from him, how difficult it is to prepare in time for a Christmas song.

Let’s see, it’s still a few months ……

Birgit

@bluesiline I love that project- lots of guitar parts, driving rhythm and great lessons.

Hope this one is useful for you as well! 

https://www.masterguitaracademy.com/lesson/yl39-6-ways-to-play-double-stops/

Yes indeed, Robert, «6 ways to play double stops – YL39» is a great lesson I worked with a year ago. Highly recommended 👍. 

Unfortunately I didn’t pay enough attention to the double stops in the meantime.

Good that you remember this lesson, because I can take it as a very useful refresher on how to position my right hand correctly (anchored over the bridge and the bottom strings) to make it easier, as you say in the video, to strike the adjacent strings properly.

I will keep that in mind while practicing the Jingle Bells Blues.

Thanks a lot,

Birgit

Jingle Bells Blues – what a fantastic arrangement you’ve made, Robert, I love it. It’s quite challenging, but I‘ll try to play it well until Christmas.

I made the two video recordings today, without a metronome, just listening to the tap of my foot. It's all very rudimentary, I just wanted to get a feel for the rhythm and the melody.

I work a lot with the Soundslice version. Helps a lot!

And, yes, I know, way too much distortion! But I allowed myself that.

And now I start to work out the song very seriously and slowly and step by step. I promise.

Birgit

@bluesiline good stuff, I am particularly impressed with your timekeeping over the duration of two challenging parts.  You demonstrate the knowledge and skills of the value of internalizing and keeping time in your feet, hands, etc.  

And wow, I was ready for you to hit that next set of double stops on that solo video.  You had some nice legato moves.

It is a high value lesson that pays off in so many ways.  Bravo!

Thank you Clayton for your comment, it puts a smile on my face 😊.

I always use my foot to set the beat in the early stages to see how far I've got the rhythm and melody down. That's incredibly important for me because I have to push myself and not let the metronome push me forward to hear how well I've internalized the rhythm and melody and what I still need to work on.

That in turn helps me tremendously later when playing over a backing track.

I just posted these videos so you can see me practicing in the beginning stages, while I don't want to present the finished song with backing track until Christmas.

At this point I have to emphasize once again that I can only manage all this because I have received so much support from Robert and you over the past years and can always work on weaknesses.

Posted by: @clayton

↑

It is a high value lesson that pays off in so many ways.  Bravo!

And yes, this song is predestined to work on my weaknesses, but with such a tremendous joy that I can hardly express 😊.

Birgit

@bluesiline Load the Jingle Bells drum and bass track into a DAW and try recording each guitar part- it's a big medicine show and you'll really jump forward!

Before I do that, Clayton, I'm going to concentrate on playing the double stops cleanly and smoothly.

Then I'm really looking forward to looping Robert's Soundslice version and playing along with it. It's something I'm really benefiting from. If I get out of time or play the wrong notes, I can always reconnect. And getting into the song at different points helps me build confidence in my playing.

After that I’ll be ready for a recording session with the Jingle Bells drum and bass track to check my improvements (hopefully!) and will tackle your suggestion 👍.

Thanks a lot,

Birgit

@bluesiline That's what I'm saying, too- with a loop record option you can practice and practice and practice  each part AND record at the same time.  Then you can listen back to your practice and progress.  Don't wait until you are ready to record to start recording.  😀

That's so awesome, Birgit. Keep working on it and you'll improve for sure.

I do recommend trying to play the melody with the metronome, even at a slow tempo. Once you know the melody, I'm sure you will be doing that. 

Recording as Clayton says is the ticket to mastery. Highly beneficial!

Robert, thank you so much for your encouraging words. I will consider all tips from Clayton and you!

Maybe you can also give me a tip regarding the sound.

So far I‘ve only had an overdrive pedal, now I have upgraded and also have a compressor, distortion and reverb. Oh, I should have done this much earlier!

I'm experimenting with my pedals, makes a lot of fun, and have chosen the neck pickup on my strat.

Is there anything else I should pay attention to when choosing the sound for the Jingle Bells Blues?

Birgit

For tone, it's always a subjective thing. First of all, what amp are you using and how clean/overdriven is the tone without any pedal?

Put the reverb last in the chain. If you use overdrive/distortion, you will not need a compressor at all (in most cases). Experiment with tone/gain/level on the pedal. Try volume up/gain low as well as gain high/volume lower and see what happens. Then try volume up/gain low/tone up and see what that sounds like. Record a bit of each setting and listen back to it and evaluate!

This could be a good topic for a live stream.