How long have you been playing for dude?
What did you study in terms of scales? Did you study with Pebber?
You are good man.

Thanks so much my friend. I just improvised this in one take. Silly of me. I should have spent A LOT more time constructing it. But thank you for the kind words.

I started playing when I was 11. Always wanted to play so mom purchased me a cheap guitar and amp and away I went.

As far as studying goes, I never thought about it. Let's see.

Age 11-12 I studied with Dr. Kevin Andry who was a French horn player by trade. Not much of a guitarist I'm sure he would admit. He showed me basic chords and how to read basic notation.

Age 12-13 I studied with John Plauche. He was more of a rock/fusion type player and all around working musician. I think he toured in the 70's with a fairly popular funk or disco band. The name escapes me now. Studied more reading with him. I think he lives in Las Vegas now and teaches at a university there and plays in those Las Vegas strip show tune bands.

Age 13-17 I studied with Bill Kimbrell who spent some time at GIT. He was a jazz/fusion/rock player. Learned the 5 position system from him. He turned me on to Holdsworth, McLaughlin, Zappa, and all that kind of stuff. He was trying to get me gigs when I was 14 or 15 and telling me "Don't go to this gig and try and play like Allan Holdsworth ok? Just stick to pentatonic." HAHA! Great times. He showed me how to follow chord charts, playing "Autumn Leaves"...stuff like that. Bill is Pebber's age and one of my dreams is to get them in the same room because they remind me so much of each other. Not playing, but personality. I will do it one day! And I want to record it and make an instructional video. Bill is still playing with his jazz trio. You can find him on facebook.

Age 17-19 I studied with Hank Mackie who is probably one of the most respected guitar teachers in the state of Louisiana, USA. A Joe Pass type player. Lots of chord melody. He was the first person to address my picking technique and help me clean that up and address my left hand and playing with dynamics. Besides that, we did a lot of music reading out of the Berklee series guitar books.

I also took "informal" composition lessons from the American composer Stephen Suber and the Polish composer Wieslaw Rentowski. I stopped "practicing" guitar 8 hours a day and started focusing on orchestral composition for a couple of years. Very influenced by the 20th century masters Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Elliot Carter, Conlon Nancarrow, Zappa, Varese, George Crumb (who taught at Pennsylvania University. I was always trying to call him on the phone! His piece "Black Angels" is AMAZING and something you need to hear!!!!) John Cage, and the American composer David Behrman who I spoke with on the phone when I was a teenager and he wanted me to move to New York City. !!!!!! Scary... I couldn't muster the courage for that at the time. And of course my favorite of all time Arnold Schoenberg...and JS Bach..and CPE Bach...so many greats can't list them all.

Age 21-31 Did not study with anyone. Practiced guitar varying degrees over this period. sometimes 8 hours a day. sometimes not at all. Played in several bands trying to "make it big." That whole thing. Lots of things happened during this period. But no formal study.

Then I met Pebber.

hudsontoronto, you are on the right track. I usually set very unrealistic goals for myself. I never compared myself to the kid down the street. I compared myself to Holdsworth. And it kept me up at night. I entered a severe depression in my late teens/early 20's due to this. I took myself very very seriously and I took music very very seriously. Too the point where it was not fun for me anymore. And I am always going back and forth on this. But that is the nature of it. Struggle.

Do not take yourself seriously. That's a good lesson to learn.

Point is, you have to make a choice. "Do I want to be someone who dabbles in guitar? Or do I want to be a serious guitarist?" Because it takes a lot of work. A lot of very hard work. Very very hard work. Very hard. day in and day out.

To answer your question about what I have studied or what to study, I would say I have always tried to study music. Not just guitar, but music in general.

Something very good for you. Get a Bach score. Buy it or I'm sure they have some at the library. Get the sheet music and the audio. Start the music playing and try to follow along with the score. Not that easy? Keep trying to follow it. You'll get it. Look at the music. I hate to sound all Hindu/hippie...but it's all there. It's all right there. Everything you need to study is right there.

I tried to find your guitar teacher Bill on Facebook I I couldnt.
Can u send a link? Link to a video or Facebook ?

Don't think he has any videos up. But he may in the future.


http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000297736426

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-Kimbr...io/146965432504

When you improvise what are you thinking??? Are you thinking about scales? Arpeggios? Licks?
I guess my question to you is, to became a good soloist, improviser is is important to study scales ? Arpeggios? Licks? All at the same time?
Wich one do you think more while improvising?
Cheers,
Hudson.

Most of the great improvisers usually say they don't think about any of that stuff when they are playing.

Ursin,,,I watched all of your videos. You fucking rock !! And you lend people your ideas and insight,,,,,and that is very cool!