hi guys, after becoming disenfranchised and bored with playing exercises during my practice sessions ive decided to improve my technique by learning some songs but i was wondering which i should learn first. So far im torn between learning some randy rhoads songs from the first two ozzy albums(bark at the moon seems to call my name also), eugenes trick bag(steve vai), or maybe something from the joe satriani album "crystal planet". i know that the decision is up to me but any reccomendations boys? any other cool song ideas would be cool but i need to stay away from things with too much whammy bar stuff( i dont have one)

Well, John Petrucci doesn't use whammy too much. You should check out some Dream Theater - that's what I play nowadays (along with Arcturus).

I started off with Beatles and Nirvana...... then moved onto Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin..... then I went to Van Halen, which was a long apprenticeship but served me very well..... Then moved onto Dimebag Darrell.... Then Malmsteen, then Vai, and now Fredrik Thordendal. You can learn much from playing other guys stuff, just try and take the best parts of all of them and make your own style.

recommendation from a girl - learn both

http://www.stevemorse.com

theres some proper lessons and tabs, no whammy

i started on eugenes trick bag last night but i think i might divide my time and work on two. the last post reminded me that i got a steve morse book at home so i might take a look at stressfest or something. any recommendations?

they are both good for alternate picking, you're fine, take your metronome and get started!

havent heard stressfest before but the music tab looks promising. whats the song like and does anyone on site have tips for learning eruption which ill probably learn after eugenes trick bag. ive got a simplified tab of it from a guitar one mag which should be easier to work from than all the over transcribed versions of it that are out there but it still looks pretty challenging.

Eugene's Trick Bag requires some fast position changes, which will take a while, and your alternate picking will have to be up to scratch too, but it is a good tune to learn to up the chops level. If you're into that sorta thing then Eruption does pretty well also, it's practically a primer on how to do cool sounding arpeggios.

Another nifty trick - do transcriptions of your own. It trains your ear up nicely and gets you playing weird shit that tab is either obscure or nonexistant for. I learn more these days from playing along with John Coltrane's crazy saxophone than playing along with guitarists. His phrasing and note choice is always immaculate, and has shown me better ways around the same scales I was already using. Apparently he learned alot of that stuff from doing the same with Billie Holliday rather than just copping other saxophonists.

I've found learning other peoples songs to be incredibly helpful, and I have made a noticable improvement since I started doing this. I havnt been playing that long though so i cant learn anything to difficult. I do know Seek and Destroy all the way through (rhythm only. im afraid i dont do lead very well at all!) and plenty of other stuff i can play along to the cd with. Another thing I have found to help is when I have nailed a riff nearly perfect I start playing it at double speed and play it like that till I can play it just as well as I could normal speed. Its helped my accuracy and speed in general no end!