Hey i am new to this forum. And since this is a more metal based forum, i just wanted to get your comments on some recordings of me. One is of Jason Becker's Serrana, which i am sure you have heard like a million amateur renditions of, but just tell me how you like mine. I have a recording of Scarified with my band. And i made this challenge up, that i posted in another forum. It was to any guitarist, and it was basically just some sweeping but with the twist of a four finger tap at the top, which is tricky to sweep back down and tap with four fingers. I just want some comments though, i take guitar real serious, and like to hear others critique me. So here is my purevolume:

http://www.purevolume.com/markcerenzia

Tell me what you all think.

Edit: And also, in the Scarified recording, i am the Second solo, and i did a improv. on it, so tell me if you liked my solo in that song. Thanks again.

not bad. just work on making it cleaner (more up to speed).
ur racer X cover was great. j/w is that a humbucker from hell? u would make paul gilbert happy.

cant wait to hear some of ur stuff in the offical recordings/licks formum.

sounds good

You have talent.

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Especially since you have only being playing for a year!
Bastard, I've been playing for a year...

Just kiddin, you kick as man! Cant wait to hear more once you get that studio goin.

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Thanks for liking it, yeah i need to get that studio going, its going to be like a few more weeks before i get everything all together, like mic's and programs. Then i got to work on getting the stuff i made, and making a demo.
And also, i had a metronome with me, and i have serrana about as fast has that recording at the live clinic, but i dont have it as fast as that live cacophony solo, and for those of you who know what i am talking about, that version is crazy fast.

yea i love that yo-yo shit he does. truly a modern mozart

Yeah hes probably my favorite shredder, after perpetual burn, he just had this passion on there that not too many shredders, especially today have. Young Yngwie too, his rising force album is rediculous, just alot of feel and dynamics, but i know you may not like this, but hes too fat and obnoxious for me now, i dont like him really anymore. His young stuff is rippin though.

yea, i have that.

(UNDERSTATEMENT) Jason is a genius. (/UNDERSTATEMENT)

the crabcakes got to his head. perpetual burn is my fav of becker besides his newest albulm. that song altitudes changed my life forever.
his stuff now is even more impressive, knowing the way he has to work

That's great. You've definitely got the technical stuff down.

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Sounds great man, those sweeps sound sick. Pretty close rendition. I love Beckers' "air." Prettiest shit ever...

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Man you kick ass dude, what are the specs on that sweet carvin of yours?

Damm I wan't to get one myself now but the recordings were excellent you've only been playing 1 year, were you playing 90% of the time as you are very very good...

Ozz

that was kick ass shit! i loved the Racer X cover, did you tab it all out yourself or did you find it on the web somewhere?

how long have you been playing? whats your set up (guitars/amps etc)?

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u must practice alot. well practice makes perfect.i like to practice alot too.
j/w is that a humbucker from hell at the bridge, if so it really shows in the racer X cover

That was intense. great job!

im tryin to learn jason beckers end of the beging right now.
that song never gets old

No me and my friend got a tab for it, but it was so bad, we pretty much tabbed it out ourselves. Alot of timing issues in the tabs, and fingerings and what not.
Ive been playing for 1 year, and i have a TSL 100 Marshall Half Stack which i just bought and have been saving up for. I have two Carvin's of the DC series, And one is this alder body with a ebony fretboard, which i scalloped, and the other, is an all natural mahogany body and neck, and its weird, cause it has a birdeye maple/abalone dot fretboard. And that Humbucker was a Seymour Duncan Distortion and the other humbucker of the other guitar was a Dimarzio Air zone, or something like that.
Its funny, i am glad all of you liked the Scarified, but my friend didnt know the solo that well, and the end arpeggio part at all, i dont even think he really plays it at all on the recording, because he hadnt learned it yet. So it was just me playin it, and i didnt think you guys would like that, but thanks for liking it.

I just listened to the Racer X cover, and it sounds great. You're quite far ahead of you're friend in terms of improvising.

Next recording: Speed Metal Symphony!

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Serrana sounded a bit rough, but it was good.

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Ok, im gonna try and learn Serrana, is my personal challenge (now that i've heard that ). What are peoples opinions on the best way to tackle something like that, learn a little phrase and then get it upto speed, or try and learn the whole song slow and then speed it up?

Congrats madtrixcerenzia, some good work there!

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i suggest going every 5-6 mesures. play them over and over. then move on to the next and then try and play them together several times. u get the idea. serrana is playable just u need to make time for it. cuz it takes time to learn.

Indeed it was, I'll try and learn it too. Oh and as for learning song, I just split them into different parts, and master one part after the other until I get the whole song.

hahaha, this serena is really impressive. jesus

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wow dude, only one year?? ive been playing for 2 and i doubt i can play that at all. then again, i never really practiced much until about two months ago. how old are you? youve got some major talent... congrats lol

Holy Shit! That was so good I wish I could play like that.

just wondering, what kinda stuff did u play when u first started??
did u start of right away with becker stuff etc??

i think that would make a huge difference when u start playing, say some guy starts playing guitar, and begins learnign guitar with necrophagist, in 1 year time hes mostlikely going to shred.


good stuff though man, keep it up

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Damn, you rule. I've been playing for a year and I haven't gotten to soloing like that yet. And I'm quite ahead of my peers who have been playing for a year.

yeah i can tell you my whole cycle of songs all the way to Serrana, even the months because it was not that long ago.

Started Guitar - May - Learned Daytripper, blackbird, and started/finished Stairway Solo in a week because everyone said it was too hard and i would never play it, so i spent hours on it. (Thats actually what started me out, i was real real into piano, and a kid said i would never be better than him at guitar, and i am just like that where if people challenge me, i always take it up.)

Summer - I would just fool around with different songs, but nothing like i went crazy about. I then made it something to learn the Solo to crazy train. I learned that in July. Then the greatest thing happened to me, i met Rick Mals. Name half the people you see on tv, or great guitarists, he would seriously own them, in theory especially. Buy his cd if you can, Rhythm Museum, its awesome. He was the up and coming guitarist in Pittsburgh. He taught me all the modes in our first lesson, and its like everyweek, he just teaches me more theory and playing. (Its stupid to have your teacher to be paid for just to tab out songs)

August - September = Had this fire to learn Eruption, PERFECT, and completed that, and my teacher finally showed me the guitar virtuoso genre, first artist being none other than Jason Becker's Perpetual Burn. He wrote down every single shape of sweeping for major and minor, and i practiced my ass off. There was one night at my brother's dorm where i sweeped for 6 hours straight starting at midnight. He was having a party and it was too loud to sleep. (I really dont know many songs, even now, i just like making my own, i always feel if i get sucked into a certain genre and play only that style, my music won't be innovative enough, so i always listen to EVERYTHING)

October - Had a good feel for sweeping, and as i looked into all these guitarists, like Jason Becker, i found Serrana, and decided it would be a perfect song to learn and test my sweeping skills. i perfected it by the end of November, and never really touched it till mid-June, and decided to play it and make that recording that you guys all know. I seriously hadnt played the song in ever, and just relearned it the night before, and decided to record it to show progress, cause i have recordings of the piece from back in November, and there is a substantial increase in quality.

I know the recordings are scratchy, but thats cause we always have been using a little computer mic, but next week or two, i will have an appropriate studio room. Then hopefully i can make a demo of all my ideas, and ive been talking to a guy from Carvin, and maybe get some real audio equipment, and make a full length solo cd, like my teacher. So i suppose thats my story.

(Sorry for the super long post, it wont happen again :behead

Edit: I also need to get you guys another recording of Scarified, this one was made probably 3 weeks before the show, and there were tons more rehearsels up until the show.

scarified

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A year?
You're terrific. Best of luck to you. You sound like you really have fun with music, too, which is wonderful.
And your long post was very informative to me at least so don't apoligize. It's encouraging to others to see things like that.

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i wanna do the same. i need some real gear. mine is ok but its not lettin me get to my full potential. if u know what i mean. if u dont practice ur butt off in the virtuoso genre ur gonna hurt urself. i know, for ex. this kid was tryin to learn arpeggios from hell i was teachin and he pretty much broke his wrist. he had to wear a cast and everyone at school said "if u tap it more than once ur playin with it." i offically have been playing for 2 years now and self taught. plenty of practice a day. no one here plays guitar besides me, its really gay.

dont we all love a good challenge. i made a couple duel tracks. one with malmsteen, one with myself, one with the bassist, and tryin to get one with satch but the pro tools is screwin up.

besides piano and guitar do u have any other insturments under ur belt?
cuz i do. ive been first chair trumpet and used to be trombone at my school out of 10-13. and i can play piano pretty good, as well as a bunch of other insturments.

Yeah your right, I had a friend who had been playing for 2 years but mainly stuck to Tool, placebo ect. So i learnt those things too. Then I started learning Opeth and pushing myself, and i could play harder things than he could in 6 months.
You just need to keep doing things you dont think you can, like last week i looked at necrophagists sweeps and was like , but once i actually sat down and memorised some of them i can sweep pretty well already.

You can tell madtrixcerenzia has been pushing himself the whole time hes been guitaring.

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this is very true. you cant progress unless you play things outside of your 'comfort zone'. like... i played my first 6 months on crap like nirvana and thrice, etc. and then i was like, screw it, im learning something hard. i learned 3 or 4 songs by Between The Buried and Me ( i know a lot of you hate metalcore, but this is a very creative and original band), and within a month i was nearly twice as good as i was before i learned that stuff. but anyways.. i still havent put many hours into guitar, but i'm practicing quite a bit now

No, but like piano was it when i was a kid. I wanted to go to Julliard (not saying i was going there, i just had dreams) and just took it super serious. There was a local piano store, and i was friends with the owner, and my mom would drop me off there, and the only thing i could do was play piano. That really helped out. But i got into sports and working out, and i just slowly stopped playing. But i think i chose guitar because it just had more energy than the piano, not to say some of the Liszt stuff i got into didnt have alot of energy and were fun.
(Now i just have dreams to go to Berklee, and im like 99% sure im going there already, anybody else going there, tell me)

yea i wanna go to berklee too. i almost got sucked into marching band. but i told my teacher that i was better at guitar and he totally fliped.(happend today) i think i should quit band all together. though its fun to play stuff u composed in school.if i stay in band im done for, cuz i havent practiced scence 2 months ago . the assholes wont take no for an answer. ill figure somthing out

Man just forget about band, just get super serious about guitar, and just go and get all the things nessesary for it. Just get theory books, ear trainers, and write write write. You would be wasting time if you stayed in band, no offense, just think about it. You wont continue it, or at least it doesnt sound like you will after high school, might as well put all that time into guitar. I used to play tennis super serious (dont make fun of me) and i used to play tournaments, and it was my life. I spent countless dollars on it in lessons and equipment, but i just made the executive decision last month to stop, and everyone was stunned, and gave me the same stuff. Didnt want me to quit, but they finally all cooled down, and i was able to put that money towards guitar camp, and this studio i am working on.
You could be rippin, but this goes for anyone, and especially myself, just write write write, thats why we are in music to begin with. I am not saying any of you dont, but i am more so just saying this to myself, cause i am now putting all my efforts in guitar into writing, and its weird how much stuff you come up with when you put alot of time into it.

(Again, sorry for the long post, damnit)

lol its ok that u post long, u dont ramble about shit lol.

Its good to see that you play guitar and not tennis, your much cooler now.

I would say that guitaring has the potential to take you further than tennis, PLUS you dont have to go to training, or games, or anywhere to do it. Guitaring is when you feel like it (which is always coz its awesome).

I want to get lessons some day, not knowing theory is a big gap in my playing.
Its the same with the band thing, do what YOU want, and tell anyone who makes a big deal about it to fuck off. Its your life man.

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i think i should post my version of no boundaries. what do u think?

http://www.angelfire.com/music6/yjm043/no_boundries.mp3
well here it is. i even put in the slap happy shit. enjoy

its not bad. but i did hear a fair amount of mistakes. I'm studying this song right now in guitar lessons, and i can assure you, you did the neo classical part semi wrong. but you did good. I just need to memorize it all, and set me up a good guitar in standard tuning, so i can play it properly.

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Holy shit that was awesome both of you. Playing No Boundaries like that is so fucking awesome, especially since you are like 13.

I've been playing for 7 years and i've barely got anything to show for it. If I had practised more I could be way better than I am now. My guitar is barely going anywhere and I hope my classical lessons in the fall get me going again. So the lesson here is: Don't end up like shred, he's a fucking failure.

Jesus, are you fucking kidding me? Yeah there were mistakes, but that was friggin insane for his age, almost perfect. The tone was really close to Batio's also.

damn...ive been playing guitar (lazily) for three years and i can barely do 3 string sweeps... well i started by playing the offspring (big challenge there). diddnt even try metal for while. i can play guitar, bass, piano, tuba, baritone, and drums (ok) .

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yeah, it was good, just I've been really getting in depth with this song, and I happen to have noticed a few mistakes.

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I think one of the girls from my other hangout has gone there and she's going down to San Diego next. I'll ask her about it. She's into acting. singing, and plays a bit of guitar.
PM me if there's anything specific you want me to ask her about it.

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Hmm, No boundaries was very good, especially since your only thirteen.

I started with some Bodom, and now i'm trying to give marcel coenen riffs a shot, i'm at a good difficulty level with it. It's definitely not too easy to progress, heh heh.

he's 14 now, i think
anyways, yes it was good, just I like your other music better.

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14!!! YOU ASSHOLES

my b-day was the 1st.

Well, she said she's going to UC San Diego. But she said --"I did however visit and get to know Berkeley....it was too frantic and academic heavy an atmosphere for me. It's really not like the Berkeley that everyone pictures......kind of sad."

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