Magnit

I usually go for more modern designs, but this one caught my eyes. It had such a wonderful neck, much more mass and volume than I'm used to. My other guitars have much slimmer necks and I haven't really known there were options out there. Granted it's noticeably more difficult to bend notes compared to my Parker Fly Deluxe due to the "round" fretboard, but playing chords feel much more natural instead. Especially since I'm mostly playing barré chords nowadays. What kind of pickups are on this? The neck one is very mellow and the bridge pickup is angled giving the high pitched string a "twangy" sound (I think). Both are single coil I assume, but they sound so different compared to each other. All in all a chunky and simple guitar. Just look what a beast it is compared to my other guitars. I played it for hours yesterday and today my hands ache.

I had a Boss RC1 and upgraded to a BOSS RC300. The difference dedicated buttons do can't be overstated. I barely used my RC1, but my RC300 almost gets daily use.

Granted I’ve only heard carbon fibre acoustics on Youtube. Buying one would be on faith as they’re not sold anywhere near where I live.

Thanks. If I go for it I’ll go for the Emerald X20 or X30 or whatever exists if I’m still gassing by the time I can afford one.

I’ve been gassing for one for a long time. Emerald guitars seem to offer what I want. Emerald X30 Where I live winters are cold (-20 deg C) and air humidity drop to 20% on our top floor and below 10% in the basement. I find the whole humidify process a pain. Problem is that they don’t come cheap (€2500-ish) and the used marked is non existant. Also, my current acoustic is really nice, do I really need another? ?

I love guitars with necks that merges with the body like that. Only high end Parkers come to mind and now Solar with a much lower price point.

I struggled a lot with LMG. I don't know if it's because of how the course is laid out or if I just sucked. It became a lot easier when I added three additional courses. Together they filled in gaps and added points of view that made it possible for me to wrap it up. I started L&M Guitar in 2009 and finished it in 2015. Granted I used other learning materials* on my journey, but still six years... * Erich Andreas' - Your Guitar Sage * Justing Sandercoe - Justing Guitar * Michael Palmisano - Guitargate

Thanks for the pointers and you’re spot on. Since asking the question I’ve added phrases to the mix and instead of traversing the scales with single notes I try to chain phrases together. Using only a few and repeating them sounds the best to be. Also playing over chords instead of the key is also helping, but I need more practice with that. Targeting chord tones is harder than I thought, I usually need to think the progression through before I start nailing it. I’m far from being able to play over chords on songs I’m unfamiliar with.

I don’t know how well known these guys are over on your side of the pond, but I really enjoyed hearing these virtuosis talk about their relationship and history with the guitar. https://youtu.be/jWVtGK5RQ3A

An alternative to BiaB and Trio+ is iReal Pro. It lacks features compared to BiaB, but could be good enough if you just want to jam. https://irealpro.com/

Thanks for the tip. I’m currently practicing traversing mode scales in larger interval steps to get away from the regular scale run trap. I’ve also gotten much better at bending. With the added skill of bending my playing got a lot more interesting. Next is arpeggios.

I don’t know if they are, probably not. I view(ed) arpeggios as a fallback when a song has chords where the mode scale won’t sound ”right”.

Thanks for the input and congratulations. I picked up a guitar for the first time in 2009 and bought Steve's course a couple of months later. I've been playing regularly (almost daily) since and even had some gigs with fellow musicians. I feel that I've moved past the intermediate bed room guitarist stage, but I still have gaps to fill. These come to mind. * Bends and vibrato (Need to get a lot better at it) * Music notation. I *can* read music, I'm just not good at it. * Certain chord changes. While I don't really struggle with chords anymore, there are still changes that stump me. Especially now that I've moved past the majors, minors, 7ths and susses. * Rhythm. One can always improve one's rhythmic skills. * The subject of this thread. *edit* Paul David's tips are relevant too. I haven't seen these before. https://youtu.be/tYZqMy2E_MA

I've been working on this for what feels like an eternity (a couple of years to and from). I know my modes. Ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, lycrian and their sub (pentatonic) forms and how they fit over chords in different keys. I've started dabbing in adding blue notes to the pentatonics and winging it from there. I'm trying to incorporate bends, slurs and slides in my playing. I'm just not feeling that I'm creating anything interesting. It just sounds so mundane and boring. The best I can accomplish is a tasty (simple) melodic lick to go with a song I hear on Spotify. The latter is nice, but it's more useful in song writing than what I'm trying to achieve (play by ear and improvise). I know the notes on the fret board. Maybe delve into arpeggios? But as I see it that will mostly help with chords that are outside the key. And I already have some skills in that area. I'm just afraid it will be another skill that I won't know how to wield. Learn loads of licks by heart? So, how do you guys do it?

Thanks for the welcome and answers. :) After work I'll test the scale against a chord progression on my looper starting and ending on Am7.

Modes. I can't recall if Steve mentions this in the LMG course that I finished years ago. For instance A dorian contains the same notes as G major, but with A as the root. How do I make it, not sound G major? Starting and ending on A isn't enough.