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This after spending a couple weeks in Chicago, part of which at Chicago Music Exchange, The Music Gallery in Highland Park, Goodtime Music, Streamwood, IL, and others!!!!🙄

Sorry for the delay, here is this month's challenge! This month's theme is courtesy of @Nutty 1. Spring will be here soon (hopefully) so love is in the air! Theme: Love and relationships Description: "Love and relationships" Any type of love or relationship/partnership. Deadline: 11:59 PM PST April 30, 2019 1- @mark_h - Sabor a mi 2- @Wim VD1 - Whatever you want 3- @WATSON43 - Shower the people 4- @Texaspackerfan - Break up in the end ------------------< RULES >------------------------- SUBMITTING: To complete the challenge, record an eligible song and reply to this thread with your your direct-linked or embedded track (Soundcloud's great) before the end of the month. GUITAR REQUIREMENT: You must play at least one real guitar track heard in the mix. GEAR: All content must be recorded with your home studio equipment. You may use BIAS or loops as long as you play the majority of the song with your real guitar. This is a guitar playing challenge not a sampling/recording challenge so keep that in mind. TIME: A recording made at any time before the entry deadline counts, but do not enter a recording in more than one challenge. ONE ENTRY per person or collaboration. But, I doubt anybody will complain if you want to share another on-theme track too. NEXT THEME: The person to choose next month's theme will be chosen randomly from those who complete this challenge. ----------------------------------------------------- Have fun, try something new, and give us something to listen to!

THIS is how you learn the PENTATONICS A different practice method.

I bought this the other day and had high hopes it would be a decent way to play with good sounds into my Mac to just record some ideas and have fun. Basically, what it is, is an interface that lets you use all the presets from any of the Zoom multi-effects pedal units available. Plug your guitar into the interface, interface into your Mac/PC, use the free downloadable software to manipulate the presets/effects, and use headphones to play. For $100, I figured I would give it a try. Now something I only considered after the fact, was that I was coming from an Axe Fx II, although I wasn't expecting close to that quality of presets. I was expecting it to be usable, though. I plugged it in and tried about 200 different presets, and couldn't find not even one that was pleasing to my ears. Very digital sounding, and even the clean presets were clipping all over the place. It sounded like the noise gates and compression of each preset were waaaaay off. One reason for this is that these presets are really meant to be used in a live setting, out of speakers. Listening in headphones is another sound altogether. I learned that very early in my digital gear days. You can't create a preset for live settings and expect to sound amazing in headphones. It just doesn't work that way. You always have to tweak things to get it to sound right. I didn't really buy the unit to spend ages tweaking each preset to make them workable. That's my fault, but jeez, the presets were TERRIBLE. I would have had to really go into the complex settings to "fix" them and make them workable. Sadly, it's going back. I'm quite disappointed as I've had great luck with Zoom products way back when, but this little unit is really not worth the effort. My Sweetwater rep recommended I try the Helix Stomp, but at $599, I wasn't spending that just to noodle around. My work around will be to record into my phone from the speaker on my little 15W practice amp when an idea strikes. I have my on little studio, so don't have to worry about recording silently much. Live and learn!

Welcome back to the course @pkotof! Keep us posted of your progress!

Hi All, It's been two years since my first attempt stopped at the session 4 "wall." It was overload trying to learn all the positions at once. This time I set guitar practice as a top priority and after tuning my guitar I do all the exercises in Session 1 as a warm up. It has taken 20 plus minutes and has been tedious at times. As my speed increased, I added new requirements, constantly working on my sound: finger placement, picking and fret/pick timing. Now I am comfortable with the sounds and the corresponding feel of my hand and finger position. I usually do all this with my eyes closed now to help focus on the sound and feeling. The difference in my course work is amazing. Now I'm having a lot of fun, although (I'm thinking of the chords right now) some things have improved at a glacial pace. When I got to lesson 3 the fretting and picking was a non-issue. Of course I'm fumbling a bit, but I know where each sound is by feel. It's a matter of matching labels with sound/feeling, rather than the "lost in space" experience of my first attempt. I have pitched a tent at Session 3, investigating chords and bringing them up more--thanks for the barre chord Steve, the "F". I laughed when I noticed that. I'm checking ahead to make sure I'm not practicing bad habits before I get to new material. This time I noticed Steve's off hand comment about if you want to work on the chords, great. This time I took that to mean: If you'd like to avoid another wall, play over here a bit. From the sound of it, I may have to rent an apartment in Session 4!

The videos for the Song Hits are broken up into. Introduction, Lesson, Performance. Steve talks about the full versions in the Introduction of those songs.

Ha! Yeah. When I opened the book I saw the full version, then when I woke up and was able to steady my legs again I saw the short version.

@Jkindgren note on You Got It" by Roy Orbison and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar Steve had to put the full versions with his Session 1 versions otherwise he'd have to pay royalties twice. In Session 1 Song Hits just work on the short version. Long versions for like session 11 or 13

Hey Sandy, Thanks for the information and encouragement! I will definitely enjoy the journey. My home life is pretty busy, so my guitar time is my "me" time to relax and do something I enjoy. I really like the videos with Steve. He makes it seem so personable. Like I'm actually taking a lesson from him. Well I guess I am, but you know what I mean. I also like this guitar gathering site. It is so great to know that there is a whole community on her that is ready and eager to help if I have questions or problems. Thank you to you, Steve, and everyone on her that makes this such a wonderful learning experience and environment. Maybe I'll update you a once and a while on my progress. Still fiddling around in session 1. I bought the hit songs book and Cd's also. I can play (the term play used very loosely) "You Got It" by Roy Orbison and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar. Anyway, I'm having a great time. Jeff