1. Define Mea Culpa

I'm a classical guitarist. The skills don't really transfer well. I mean, I learned shredding 100% from metal, but my stance, hand positioning, and pinky use were all skills that I learned from classical guitar.

About File Formats. MP3 is a digital audio format without digital rights management (DRM) technology. Because our MP3s have no DRM, you can play it on any device that supports MP3, even on your iPod!

Also, the picking hand is useless for the first couple years of practice, because my version of tremolo was index+middle+ring+pinky alternating as fast as I could. I think that was the biggest issue for me. Although the difference between AJ and myself is how many hours of practice a day I gave. I've been playing guitar for almost 6 years now, and on 2 hours of practice a week I have finally managed to learn all of Crossing the Rubicon (except the solo, I can only do that at like 90% speed, it's waaaaay too hard) If I practiced 2+ hours a day like he did, I'd have definitely reached that goal a lot earlier. So I don't really think that being a classical guitarist really changes much here.

Sorry for my story, I'm bored and I don't really have anyone to talk about music with, so I take whatever opportunity I can get haha. Interesting, I guess it's a 'Your mileage may vary kind of situation'. My parents stuck me in classical guitar lessons starting at 5 and I didn't have an electric guitar until I was 13 or so (wasn't allowed, lol) but was quite the shredder even at that age. I'm 21 now and don't have much trouble with most THA licks with the absolute exception of mostly anything involving sweeping (story later). Fuck sweeping. It may just be the years of scales, building up the muscle memory, efficiency of movement, technique relaxation.

But I find myself at the very least given a significant advantage over self-taught and electric only guitarists. This is not to say that classical technique is superior to electric (even though it is) as adhering to a rigid practice/study curriculum will undoubtedly make you better.

I'm definitely not trying to detract from AJ's talent though, he's a beast and a pretty nice guy. Big ups on Crossing the Rubicon. I feel you, recently started working on a degree and lost contact with all of my music buddies. Story time (excuse the fanboy): I briefly mentioned this in another THA post, but I'll go into more detail now that I have someone listening.

I was in high school, really into THA along with a close friend who was also a gifted guitarist. We've been to two of their shows, right against the stage every time and we're both surprised that AJ's as short as we are (5'10 or so). A few months after they last toured I get a message from said friend on facebook; he had apparently been stalking my sister and saw a comment on her wall from AJ Minette, turns out to be the man himself. My sister was working on a Masters in flute performance t USC and had apparently played in ensembles with him. I freaked the fuck out when I found out. My sister said she would have told me but she didn't know that THA was 'big'. I was already booked to fly to LA to visit my sister as well as have a couple of lessons with Scott Tennant (USC professor, LA Guitar Quartet, one of AJ's teachers) so I asked my sister if she could get me a lesson with AJ.

It worked out and I met with him on two other occasions.working primarily on sweeping). I learned a lot, still suck at sweeping, but it was way way cool. I also got a copy of Nocturne signed by AJ and Dean.

Re-reading this I sound like I'm full of shit, but I assure you I am fortunate enough to be thoroughly satisfied with my real life without the need to supplement it with online fantasies. It's worked far better for me than only practicing sweeping ever did, but admittedly that is purely anecdotal.

It's also vastly improved my picking accuracy, string skipping, and all-around note clarity. Ultimately, it's all extremely subjective. I've found that his techniques work for me because I have a similar picking style to him. IMO, picking technique is the single most important factor in determining how you practice, what exercises you need to focus on, and also most weaknesses in your playing. Alt-picking arpeggios has forced me to concentrate on giving each note equal attention, even at the cost of having to start out at a REALLY slow tempo.

Additionally, most of the monster sweepers are able to alt-pick their arpeggios (besides Richardson, Cooley and Petrucci come to mind), so I think there is definitely something to be said for that particular method of learning them, even if it might not work for every player. Just my two cents! That's killer!

If there were one musician I'd love to meet, AJ would be the man. He seems like a genuinely awesome guy! There's no reason not to believe you, because there's no reason to lie about something like that. Quick tip with sweeping (because I'm quite good at it) is to practice what you want to do slowly. I know it's a dumb tip and you've probably already done this, but you'd be surprised with how many people don't do this. Don't change the speed until you can play it 100% perfectly at the speed that you have it set.

Also, technique is huge here, but you already have that since you're a classical guitarist. So you study guitar in school? That's awesome! I wanted to, but I didn't have the drive to practice for hours a day. You see, I should have stuck with my lessons.

Define Mea Culpa

I started playing guitar at 16, stopped taking lessons at 19, and then at 21 now (22 this year) I've just been playing guitar and practicing songs on my own. I've been playing a lot over the past year though, and I think a good 25% of my total advancement as a guitarist came in 2015. But like I said, I started using a pick a lot later in my guitar career and I had to fix my technique three times (the importance of lessons, folks) as I was doing it incorrectly. Music is fun though, I love playing guitar!

Mar 31, 2015. Attach the serial end of the converter to your computer's port and wait for your computer to detect it and install the necessary drivers. If your converter is simply a cable or some sort of simple device with just a USB receiver on one end and a serial connector on the other, then you might not have to wait for. Connect usb device to serial computer cable.