Looking for best online guitar instruction to improve technique

Yes; a list of exercises is helpful but I need more than that.
The first place to start is to analyze your technique.
Meaning are you holding the pick correctly?
Are you using your wrist and not your elbow?
Is your left hand thumb behind the neck except for bending and chords where you use your thumb?
If your not then train your self to do it without thinking.
It’s no more difficult than learning a new technique such as finger picking or Travis picking.
Just practice correctly at whatever turtle speed you have to for 5-10min each day. Eventually you will switch over to it all the time as it will be easier to play correctly at some point.
 
You mentioned "especially alternate picking".
That immediately made me think of Al Dimeola. I learned a massive amount from that tutorial back in the day, and it stuck.
there's a vhs tape floating around of Al Dimeola on alternate picking, and i think it might even be able to be found on youtube or elsewhere.
Just a fragment of what you're looking for , but hope its something
I modeled my right hand playing off Al and my left hand and guitar position off classical guitar.
The issue I had with Al’s book is it seems to say alternate pick everything. So that’s what I learned to do arpeggios and all. But it didn’t always sound right.
When I saw him play on the internet decades later it was clear he wasn’t alternate picking everything. such as the arpeggios in Mediterranean Sundance where it’s downstrokes ascending.
These days I combine alternate picking with sweep picking and legato to get the phrasing and dynamics I think is best for whatever I’m playing.
So the best of Al Dimeola, Frank Gambale, and Alan Holdsworth.
 
As of yesterday the OL and I are empty nesters. I have the need, motivation, and--at last--the time to bring much-needed improvement to my playing skills. There does not seem to be a teacher around who's available when I need them to be, so I think I'm stuck with virtual instruction. I have a number of
Truefire courses, but they're mostly to do with theory, which is fine, but I'm really looking for solid instruction on technique, especially alternate picking, etc. Random youtube videos just aren't going to cut it. I'm really hoping for some format that allows for feedback from an instructor.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Karsten

I joined truefire. First signed in for free and then waited for a good offer. I paid 99 dollars for a year. Great stuff
 
Hey there,

The one that worked for me is the "Rock discipline" video and tabs from John Petrucci. Its old, but the workouts in the vid helped me to get my hands in sync and how to build on technique . I had a fast learning curve, just by exactly following the instructions.

Now for technique, imho knowing some theory is the key to build and use technique.
Learning to read starts with a single alphabet letter. Letters create words. Words can have a powerfull message. A note is the same. Combining notes can send a powerfull message. I find that the technique is just the tool to pronounce the musical words.

Like if you can type words on a keyboard with two hands without looking at it, you can look anywhere and still type exact words (fast). The same is my goal with playing the guitar. Theory and technique make it possible to do exactly that.
Rock discipline got me there to reach my goal. Not that i am there yet, but still making progress.

Hope this helps

Cheers
 
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Hey there,

The one that worked for me is the "Rock discipline" video and tabs from John Petrucci. Its old, but the workouts in the vid helped me to get my hands in sync and how to build on technique . I had a fast learning curve, just by exactly following the instructions.

Now for technique, imho knowing some theory is the key to build and use technique.
Learning to read starts with a single alphabet letter. Letters create words. Words can have a powerfull message. A note is the same. Combining notes can send a powerfull message. I find that the technique is just the tool to pronounce the musical words.

Like if you can type words on a keyboard with two hands without looking at it, you can look anywhere and still type exact words (fast). The same is my goal with playing the guitar. Theory and technique make it possible to do exactly that.
Rock discipline got me there to reach my goal. Not that i am there yet, but still making progress.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Funny enough I bought that DVD almost 20 years ago when I started to play, but--career and family--never had the time to devote to it. Might be worth another look....
 
Funny enough I bought that DVD almost 20 years ago when I started to play, but--career and family--never had the time to devote to it. Might be worth another look....
I agree it's good stuff. Personally, I go a bit deeper, and work out parts of Dream Theater songs (with the stuff JP taught in the instruction video in mind) to build my repertoire. Legato fragments, like the ones he shows in the book only take you so far. But learning one from one of his solos ties it into how the notes work over the chords. Yes, he has some melody-based lessons later in the book too, but I still have a dream of one day actually being able to play an entire DT song up to speed, accurately! Plus, he has so much stuff in his music, everything from blues-based licks, to odd meters, to augmented & harmonic minor licks, to the ubiquitous blazing 3-note-per-string, 16th-note triplet runs, and beyond. For me, it's like learning stuff that builds technique, but in context.

And definitely lots of good ideas here, but you've got a good goal in mind, what with wanting to have someone giving you feedback. Bad habits will hold you back, especially if they're not corrected, and correcting bad habits takes longer than learning correct ones (not implying you're a beginner, of course. Just sayin.)
 
Funny I was thinking the same thing, time to woodshed and actually learn something. The band I been playing with the past four years decided it was time to retire it, they had been playing under the same name for 14 years. Figured ok cool I can get into a learning curve so I bought a Music Man Majesty for the job at hand. Naturally a week later I get a call from a previous singer one thats doing pretty well in two tribute bands that have management asking if I'm ready to do it again. LOL Actually I'm surprised because I am hard to work with and kind of burned that bridge a few years back. So here we go again!
 
I agree it's good stuff. Personally, I go a bit deeper, and work out parts of Dream Theater songs (with the stuff JP taught in the instruction video in mind) to build my repertoire. Legato fragments, like the ones he shows in the book only take you so far. But learning one from one of his solos ties it into how the notes work over the chords. Yes, he has some melody-based lessons later in the book too, but I still have a dream of one day actually being able to play an entire DT song up to speed, accurately! Plus, he has so much stuff in his music, everything from blues-based licks, to odd meters, to augmented & harmonic minor licks, to the ubiquitous blazing 3-note-per-string, 16th-note triplet runs, and beyond. For me, it's like learning stuff that builds technique, but in context.

And definitely lots of good ideas here, but you've got a good goal in mind, what with wanting to have someone giving you feedback. Bad habits will hold you back, especially if they're not corrected, and correcting bad habits takes longer than learning correct ones (not implying you're a beginner, of course. Just sayin.)
I like to think I'm an intermediate guitarist with a beginner's skills....
 
Hell yeah!! That's gorgeous! (I got the Majesty in my pic from Willcutt.)
That's where I go to window shop for PRS, so I think you might wanna check that guitar for drool, because I'm pretty sure that's one I looked at. :tearsofjoy:I still love gawking at the beauty of PRS guitars. Plus I kinda feel connected to them, since I know 4 guys who work/have worked there, I once was lent a gorgeous SC Tiger Eye 10 top from a guy who used to head up artist relations (shh), and their factory is only a half hour away.
I can't keep track of the various models though. Which one is that?
 
One thing that helped me with fretting finger discipline was to practice with my fretting hand close to a wall.

If my fingers started not wanting to keep close to the fretboard, touching the wall would remind me, "Hey dummy, your fingers are freaking out again!" After a bit of practice, your hands are trained by that barrier to keep close without always having to do that.
 
A fellow musician friend (speaking of unique technique-building tricks), back when we were in our 20's, purposely cut his first finger on his fretting hand.
 
Strictly technique? Andy James Academy really got me up and running fast after some nerve damage.
Did you do the 12-week course? It looks legit but the site doesn’t indicate when the next course (supposedly limited to 30 students) begins.

If it is as described I’m very interested.
 
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