I think he's a good teacher as well even tho I don't see a lot of likes, but I bet people don't see the entire video and only here the jokes. by the way the jokes are funny
Before I even read this, I was going to send you the same message: You are an excellent teacher. I teach Language Arts to middle and high school, and I see you organizing your lesson the same way somebody with a master's in education would. Good-on-ya.
Bold statement but I don't care. This is the best lesson on RUclips. Period. I've been practicing scales to a metronome for years and could never break into the "shred" realm of speed. Any time I'd get close my brain would start to become overwhelmed and my coordination got worse and worse the longer I practiced. At 100bpm, I'm running pentatonic boxes perfectly with ease, move up to 120, and it falls apart. Go back to 100 and it's still falling apart. It's like my brain crashed. Chunking is the golden ticket of advice. This finally clicked for me. Thanks so much Ben.
Ben Eller did you ever have an alternate version of this lesson that put some time on playing descending? I'm going nuts trying to find it. Seems like you were using a triplet in the lesson, and it had a lot to do with chunking, but more to do with getting the muscle memory for playing descending runs with articulation.
This changed my life. I’ve been playing for 30 years. I’ve never been able to break through the “speed barrier” even after countless hours on a metronome. I literally went to bed with tears of joy. I can’t thank you enough. Every beginner should have to watch this video. I really really appreciate it. I am a subscriber for life now. Take care Ben. 🙏👍🤘
I dont understand, one day I can play perfectly, beautiful. And the next be completely out of sync. I don't know why. Going to try this and hope for the best! Glad it helped you!
@@adamx9987 I’m the same exact way! If I don’t have the metronome, I’m out of synch. However, if I make it a point to play to the metronome each day even for just 5 mins I’m ok. Makes me respect these guys even more. Hang in there brother!🤘👍🤘👍
@@adamx9987 You got this brother!!! Failure is not an option. Just make sure that index finger is never “late” on the beat. The rest of the fingers will fall in line exactly like he said so. Trust me. Hang in there and rock on!!!🤘👍🤘👍
@@adamx9987 yeah this happens to me as well. Some days I play 10 times better it seems with more creativity on top of the better playing. I think that’s just how it goes. It depends on how much your enjoying it, sleep and just your mood in general. Just my thoughts
Ben is the only person in the world who can tell me I suck at something without making me immediately call him a name and lose interest. And that is a talent in and of itself
This is gonna seem really, really dumb, but this made me realise the real reason I suck is that I wasn't even practicing with a metronome. Fuck my life.
I can’t believe this video was that long ago. I’ve been watching Ben since he was almost a kid. It’s amazing to have watched what a great guitarist he has become.
Absolutely - I can't stand this type of playing in general (apart from Metallica) but I watched this to the end because he explained things really well. A very good teacher.
Why are you the only person to mention this and yet you described my problem perfectly. I tried doubling the damage inc riff and the pick strokes weren't lining up between the 2 takes because my picking is at the same volume and I kept getting lost. Now I shall practice what I've learned
I don't even play guitar; I ended up here by going down some RUclips rabbit hole... but this is awesome! I love your style! (both your humor and your playing) You rock! 🎸
@@michaelolzyeah me too… I own a Epiphone Les Paul special ii and just bought a new Fender Player Plus Strat in the last 6/months. Found a co worker that plays bass and another that plays drums and bam 💥 we’re a 3/piece 🤘
Based on the number of views you got-and are still getting-I'd say that you're not only helping to get lots of guitarists to stop sucking, but you're also saving many marriages! But honestly, rhythm is _so important,_ and it's one of the most overlooked aspects of playing. If more beginner and intermediate level guitarists put rhythm first, they'd progress faster and sound much better.
Great video. As a lead guitarist who does alot of recording. I would say this is one of the most important things you can learn on guitar. I never called it "chunking" but I practice my leads using the larger beat to count the 8th, 16, 32 & triplets. It is the only way to get it down and it also enforces swing. Everything we learn well we learn by "chunking". Awesome Job!!!
The most pertinent, important, and useful guitar lesson on RUclips. Where were you 45 years ago? No, seriously. Where? I'll tell you EXACTLY why I suck at guitar...because you weren't there for me 45 years ago. You let me down man.
*Here is a great tip:* Another approach to this concept is, rather than focusing on only the 1st note of the 16th note phrase try focusing on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th. (Ex: *1* e & a, 2 *e* & a, 3 e *&* a, 4 e & *a* ) This improves your undrestanding of off beat timing dramaticly while helping you with hand sync.
Just like fasteddievh2072 i have been playing guitar for 30+ years and never been able to pick up the speed and sync with my 2 hands. After watching your video i have been practicing your technique and it "works"! Even years after you've published your video your still helping us old dudes. Very helpfull and fun to watch. You've got new subsciber and a new fan! Keep up the good work uncle Ben. 👍
I rarely, if ever comment on any youtube videos, but I gots to give it up to you, couldn't not do it. I'm an 80's shredder and ya know, once in a while the concept of "chunking" used to pass through my head on days when it felt like my hands just wouldn't do as I commanded them and I'd try different philosophies to whip 'em into shape. Now that I've actually heard that concept, thought out and presented in a comprehensive manner, it's actually opened doors today when I picked up my guitar. Awesome video, you're a funny dude, I don't know if some of these folks get your sense of humor, they seem to be a little, deficient, if you will, but I "lol"ed when you said your index finger had a curfew during the Paul Gilbert lick (which, by the way, I resent you for being able to play that bastard so well, it's a bitch). Awesome, I gotta check out the rest of your stuff and I'm not just some douchebag poser laying all this praise on you, I can actually play! :)
I was glad to give them. So many people feel the need to complain when they don't like something, but I like to go the other way too and tell someone if they've made an impact or said something that influenced me. I really did like the chunking concept and I'm still thinking about it. Like, if I do a three-note-per-string run all the way across, from low to high, I now see it as three chunks, making the focal point the accent of low E, D, and B strings, and it doesn't seem like running up such a steep mountain anymore. Do you have any other advanced type concepts that are similar? A new or different perception can really make all the difference in the world. Can make a person "get it". I used to teach too. I just didn't have the patience. Maybe if I could yell at the little fuckers...Anyway, I'm sure you get a lot of messages so I won't expect to hear back from you or be offended if I don't. The mere fact that you responded was good enough for me.
Dude, this series is an absolute gem for any self-taught guitarist like myself. There's some stuff I thought I had figured out, like progressive muting and vibrato, but your awesome and thorough tips improved my technique greatly. And then you showed me stuff I never knew existed, like swipe-picking. Only discovered your channel today, and that's the largest amount of knowledge and skill I've ever gained within the span of a single evening. I rate this particular video 5/10: not enough innuendo. (jk lol, stay awesome) What I suck at is adjusting the intonation on my Ibanez rg550xh. The cavities on some of the screws on the bridge got completely rounded somehow, can't screw them in, can't screw them out, an allen wrench simply spins inside them. Gonna be taking that bitch to a guitar shop for some TLC in a couple of days. Do you think there's something I could have done to prevent this from happening? Or is Ibanez just using really shitty screws nowadays?
Dude thanks a ton!!! Sounds like someone used an incorrectly sized Allen key to loosen and tighten those bolts, dude. Get a new set off of eBay or Ibanez Rules, and ALWAYS use the correct wrench!!!!
That spider was priceless haha. Great job on what you’re doing man, great teaching and really easy to understand, would be great to have you as a personal guitar teacher, think I’d be shredding in no time. Thanks for all what you are doing on RUclips.
This is so STUPID SIMPLE! I can’t believe I never thought about playing this way I literally tense up trying to count every note like you said definitely gonna try to think of only the first note in each pattern from now on, thanks for this!
Man I've been playing guitar for 14 years and I mostly play riff guitar and never any solo. I just tried your lesson for 15 minutes and I'm nailing it man. I feel like a word of opportunities just opened to me. Thx so much! It's like I know how to approach a tab now. It used to be scary with all those notes but it got a lot more simple since I can cut 3/4 of em now.
after playing guitar for a long time, I've finally taken an interest in some shreddy stuff and have been absolutely lost as to how to learn it, what I did to learn anything else just didn't work. This was a huge help, thank you for sharing this with the internet!
This is how I learned it: A is for Apple B is for Banana C is for CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ D is for DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ E is for EFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ F is for FGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ G is for GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ H is for HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ I is for IJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ J is for JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ K is for KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ L is for LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ M is for MNOPQRSTUVWXYZ N is for NOPQRSTUVWXYZ O is for OPQRSTUVWXYZ P is for PQRSTUVWXYZ Q is for QRSTUVWXYZ R is for RSTUVWXYZ S is for STUVWXYZ T is for TUVWXYZ U is for UVWXYZ V is for VWXYZ W is for WXYZ X is for XYZ Y is for YZ Z is for Z
I believe he left out the "P" letter. An old grade school joke. Where's the P? Running down your leg. I wonder if he did this on purpose? He is a sarcastic kind guy. I like the guys style.
And then there's the MOST important thing for 2 hand synchronization: START SLOW and gradually increase the speed. If you don't get it right slow, you will never get it right fast!
@@lynes3751 What kind of a comment is that? This has to be done gradually. Any mistakes made slow will be amplified when playing fast. But playing slow perfectly does not guarantee you can play it perfectly fast. In fact, there is ALWAYS a limit - I don't care if you were Dimebag on steroids - everyone has a limit. You gain speed through practicing. But if you only practice fast, you will never play fast with accuracy.
Its a joke from a video where musicians react to "fastest" violin player who says "If you can play it slow you can play it fast." Then continues to be really inaccurate
Holy crap, that spider just f***d me right up! I've had that happen and it ruined the entire jam for me. Uncle Ben though, he just calmly says "that's a spider" and deals. Light Bulb! - Maybe that's the key to being a great player - not being ridiculously startled and put off by spiders! Thanks to Ben for being a great teacher, and for not being afraid of spiders. :)
Me too. It's made a huge difference in my arm hand coordination. My head brain can actually make sense of playing leads and rythms that are designed for eachother now.
I was watching an old Stevie T video and he brought up metronome. The last time I played was like 4-5 years ago and I remember getting pretty good. For the past couple weeks, I'm dicking around and feeling pathetic. I suddenly remember, or rather rediscover, I used a metronome app back then. Started using it a few days ago and the upward progress over a few days has been surprising. Stupid, dumb brain forgot to keep the damn beat. Shit comes together with a MeNome.
@@NobodyCaresALot I've been playing drums for a few months now. I still play guitar and bass and I plan to make some actual music. Playing drums has really brought some things to light. I've been downloading drumless tracks from RUclips. Some of them are from "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" but some were uploaded by people who were cool enough to use an app to pull the drum frequencies out. Anyway... Pre-computer age metal is hard as hell to keep time with because many of them didn't use a metronome and parts of the songs are slower than others and not on purpose. Iron Maiden "Infinite Dreams" is a great example. I love the song and I love Niko, but damnit, coming out of the chorus back into the versus, I get lost because it's almost like he plays slower and slowly speeds back up. A couple of Boston songs are like that to, like "More than a Feeling" the slow break after the chorus, right before "I see my Maryanne walking away" the timing is of enough that I had to learn how to pause so I didn't get ahead of the guitars. Nowadays you don't have that because in the studio the manipulate the drums and line all the beats up electronically. In fact, I was very impressed with Def leppard's "Photograph", then I found out that was one of the first songs to use programmed drums. The drummer didn't even play the song in the studio version, the Producer was messing around with programmable drum machines and decided to use it in that song. Sorry I bored you with all this crap. It's just interesting stuff.
@@kschantz yeah man, I'm not bored by that all. That's a bunch really cool shit wrapped in advanced comprehension. For novice players though, a metronome is going to take them a long way. Probably only so far as they (I) can get to the point where down strokes lead into the second chorus. A metronome is not a crutch but a guideline for playing on time.
Uncle Ben….best teacher ever!!! This is real tutorials. I’ve learned more from Ben than any other instructors on RUclips. I’ve been playing over 20 years and Uncle Ben still taking me to school.
Great video, Ben. I just ran into this video today even though it's already 5 years old.. That said, this is one of the most helpful videos I've ever seen. A breakthrough moment for sure. Never thought about breaking runs into chunks. Damn helpful for sure! Thanks for what you do.
When I think back about what has improved my playing the most, Id say it was learning the notes all the way up the neck, the 1-4-5 cord progression that every song in the world has to follow and now chunking. Great vid man, thank you!
Chheaah. Yet another video I see you on. I guess both being guitarists and into metal makes sense. Gotta get those guitar ropes. see u on the next one.
Then you’ve done it again. Breaking down a complex pattern into easy focus points they can be remembered practiced and duplicated for great result. Thank you. You’re an awesome teacher. And a great guitarist.
I've been fiddling with guitar for years and I can't believe I'm just now hearing this... makes total sense...I would try to count every note in my head, and I just figured I wasn't as sharp as the guys who could play really fast!!
I took some music theory courses to improve my playing, there is always room for improvement no matter what your level is, and they used this same technique! One of my favorite lessons they gave us was if you played guitar and not piano, you had to compose an entire page of sheet music on piano. Really ingrained a lot of info which translated well to soloing on guitar as well as chord progressions etc. You turned it in and the teacher would play it for the class. Didnt matter if it was a good song, just had to have the right progressions/notes.
It think it happens to everyone all the time, some time we catch it but mostly we don't realize it. For me my best guitar is when i relax a bit and have fun, once i start to really focus its easy try to hard and stress.
No one teaches the guitar as well as my biological step dad. Yes, Justin and Marty are also really good but good old uncle Ben takes it with his humour and level of detail. Thanks uncle Ben :)
"Nailed it!" - No you didn't. = EXCELLENT! 3 generations of high school kids think the greatest guitarist is the one how drops the most notes without getting caught!
Oh my god I am so glad I stumbled on this. I practice for around 2 hours each day for the last year and my alternate picking runs have been stuck at 100bpm. Tried this today for the first time and I immediately jumped up to 130bpm with ease. Also, I loved your explanation of rhythmic timings lol. I can’t imagine what this will do for my playing after I’ve implemented into my practice routine for a few weeks. Honestly I can’t thank you enough I was getting so frustrated with my playing. THANK YOU!!!
I think my left hand rhythm is better than my right. The way I thought myself to play I pretty much hammer on and pull off everything. Trying to pick every note in a run, my left hand always plays everything perfect but my right will add in extra strums or skip them over, so I've got multiple strums on one fret and a hammer on the next, while I'm going for one strum each. It seems like it's a really hard thing to work through.
as a guy who has a good grasp on both music and guitar playing for over 20 years of experience. I could not understand why you had so much subs. but turns out you have a really good way of teaching things. top notch teaching. top notch playing also.
Its incredible and a testament to how great this channel is that I can watch pretty much any video on here and learn something. Man I can do ascending well at all lol
Thank you! The chunking concept is what allowed me to increase speed from 100 to 150bpm in literally 40 minutes. I was never able to hit even three notes consistently, and now I can do up to 6 notes at 140+ with huge pauses between chunks. Right now I'm learning how to connect chunks of 3-4 notes I've learned to play fast. Another aspect I'm trying to figure out is how to loop the piece I've learned without stopping, so that I can develop this new "sense" of playing fast. I picked up guitar about 12 years ago, played it actively for first 4 years, and then kinda hit that 100 bpm plateau without any improvements to hand synchronization. There's obviously still a lot of work to make it as comfortable as playing 100bpm but at least I can now work on it!
So here's an update from me: I'm now able to pick at 160 bpm 16th. Not everything but lots of phrases I have considered impossible for myself. Whenever I see an interesting song I'd like to play but there's some fast parts I'm now confident I could do it if I spend some time practicing. My hand sync and just confidence playing increased greatly over last 3 years, without even playing every single day. Because of this, I'm planning to open up another channel where I'd post some covers for video game OSTs and maybe some original work. Back to music! Again, thank you for the chunking advice!
Great tips! Been playing for a decade and just now seriously trying to get good at Metal. Feels like I'm starting all over again. It really is a different animal.
Best instructor on youtube...hands down!..Who else can attract spiders while doing spiderwalk style picking exersises..I learned my picking from Intense Rock by Gilbert years ago but you explain it even more in detail..Very cool Ben!
Thank you, I'm a player who's just graduating into moderate....and the beginning helped me think about my fingers......it got me thinking... thank you....
So I'm playing for 24 years and really don't know what is holding me back until now. I would consider myself an intermediate but I really struggle with faster and accurate playing. I just practiced your left hand only lesson and it became clear that my left hand is terrible at temporal accuracy! Everything beyond 16th notes at 90 bpm gets washy. I really thank you for that trick and now Inow what I have to practice to get better.
Dude. Your seriously the best guitar teacher ever. The way you explain stuff is super easy to digest.
Thanks a lot brother!!!
+Ben Eller I agree.. somehow you're an amazing teacher..
I think he's a good teacher as well even tho I don't see a lot of likes, but I bet people don't see the entire video and only here the jokes. by the way the jokes are funny
Before I even read this, I was going to send you the same message: You are an excellent teacher. I teach Language Arts to middle and high school, and I see you organizing your lesson the same way somebody with a master's in education would. Good-on-ya.
" setting this hand to frappe ". Hehe
Bold statement but I don't care. This is the best lesson on RUclips. Period. I've been practicing scales to a metronome for years and could never break into the "shred" realm of speed. Any time I'd get close my brain would start to become overwhelmed and my coordination got worse and worse the longer I practiced. At 100bpm, I'm running pentatonic boxes perfectly with ease, move up to 120, and it falls apart. Go back to 100 and it's still falling apart. It's like my brain crashed. Chunking is the golden ticket of advice. This finally clicked for me. Thanks so much Ben.
Rockitout32 thanks a lot, man!!!
Yup...definitely great stuff.
Just keep practicing. It comes with time.soon you’ll be ripping with face crushing speed without thinking
Ben Eller did you ever have an alternate version of this lesson that put some time on playing descending? I'm going nuts trying to find it. Seems like you were using a triplet in the lesson, and it had a lot to do with chunking, but more to do with getting the muscle memory for playing descending runs with articulation.
Learn songs too. Learn other guitarists solo. It helps with breaking into shredding.
This changed my life. I’ve been playing for 30 years. I’ve never been able to break through the “speed barrier” even after countless hours on a metronome. I literally went to bed with tears of joy. I can’t thank you enough. Every beginner should have to watch this video. I really really appreciate it. I am a subscriber for life now. Take care Ben. 🙏👍🤘
I dont understand, one day I can play perfectly, beautiful. And the next be completely out of sync. I don't know why. Going to try this and hope for the best! Glad it helped you!
@@adamx9987 I’m the same exact way! If I don’t have the metronome, I’m out of synch. However, if I make it a point to play to the metronome each day even for just 5 mins I’m ok. Makes me respect these guys even more. Hang in there brother!🤘👍🤘👍
@@fasteddievh2072 thanks for the encouragement! I'm going to keep practicing until I get it! You do the same! Stay safe and keep at it!
@@adamx9987 You got this brother!!! Failure is not an option. Just make sure that index finger is never “late” on the beat. The rest of the fingers will fall in line exactly like he said so. Trust me. Hang in there and rock on!!!🤘👍🤘👍
@@adamx9987 yeah this happens to me as well. Some days I play 10 times better it seems with more creativity on top of the better playing. I think that’s just how it goes. It depends on how much your enjoying it, sleep and just your mood in general. Just my thoughts
your biological step-dad, uncle ben.
that's an insta sub
HAHAHAHA
Lol 😂 biological step nephew aunt frank
An Antasub
Just, like, all of that, makes no sense to me, but in a comedic sense, it's so fucking funny!
Shit was too funny!!!
Ben is the only person in the world who can tell me I suck at something without making me immediately call him a name and lose interest. And that is a talent in and of itself
Chunking is why I thought elemenopy was one letter until I was like 6 years old.
h, i, j, k, elemenopy! 🤣🤣🤣
i thought eleventeen was a number until i turned 11
Ahahahahaha #Brendan
@@karll3119 lol thanks that's gonna give me a good day knowing someone finds me funny, thanks man
@@jaylonwilliams8964 or according to Ben, elemenoR!
Of course the spider decends during a chromatic scale
didn't get this comment until i reached that part of the video... of course it does !!
Ikr, that was trippy man
RUclips
@gheddi
Or summons a cold brew by opening up the re-phrigean scale.
🙈
it was trying to let us know about the spider walk exercise... which has greatly improved my hand sync
This IS why I suck at guitar!
Gear Gods but I wasn’t talking about you!!!
Ben Eller yeah you were talking about me!
I’m left handed and my left hand is always wide open and throws off my tempo.
lol imagine Trey thinking he sucks at guitar :FACEPALM: haha
This is gonna seem really, really dumb, but this made me realise the real reason I suck is that I wasn't even practicing with a metronome. Fuck my life.
Ah ha man...
I can’t believe this video was that long ago. I’ve been watching Ben since he was almost a kid. It’s amazing to have watched what a great guitarist he has become.
It looks like he turned all of Batman's enemies into guitars and hung them on his wall.
Hilarious
Somebody please tell me that's all just photoshop.
Sipderman as well 12:32
For someone who can play so well he has terrible taste in guitars.
And he is playing the one he made it from batman
The way the spider stops when you stop playing is wonderful.
Time-code?
LOL! 😂 The musical part fits to the spider's appearance so perfect. And it's like: "Hello there!". It looks like it was staged. 😂
I'd crash if I saw you at the lights
Jesus Christ you two are ridiculous lmao
LOL! Spidey's like, "wait... couldnt see what fret you were on..."
Been having a hard time doing 16th notes at 100bpm. I'm now at 110 bpm thanks to this video. You're my favorite uncle.
-Nailded it!
-No, you didn't!
LMAO
suka
cyka*
Kirimiddo Нет. "Suka"
Poison Heart It's written as cyka but pronounced suka.
***** in russian - is correct
"Сука"
What an excellent communicator - a sense of humour and knows what he's talking about. I'm not a fan of Metal but I know a good teacher when I see one.
Totally. Skilled teachers who can also crack a joke make learning so much more fun.
Absolutely - I can't stand this type of playing in general (apart from Metallica) but I watched this to the end because he explained things really well. A very good teacher.
eh yeh the sexist humour gets old tho
@gheddi calm down mate
@@elzibabmorac3553 where the hell is the sexist humour?
Why are you the only person to mention this and yet you described my problem perfectly. I tried doubling the damage inc riff and the pick strokes weren't lining up between the 2 takes because my picking is at the same volume and I kept getting lost. Now I shall practice what I've learned
I don't even play guitar; I ended up here by going down some RUclips rabbit hole... but this is awesome! I love your style! (both your humor and your playing) You rock! 🎸
Maybe this is your calling to play guitar
Jimmy Bare it's 100% a sign
I have to agree. The bug bit me HARD watching videos like this. Grab an axe and give it a try!
@@michaelolzyeah me too… I own a Epiphone Les Paul special ii and just bought a new Fender Player Plus Strat in the last 6/months. Found a co worker that plays bass and another that plays drums and bam 💥 we’re a 3/piece 🤘
Based on the number of views you got-and are still getting-I'd say that you're not only helping to get lots of guitarists to stop sucking, but you're also saving many marriages!
But honestly, rhythm is _so important,_ and it's one of the most overlooked aspects of playing. If more beginner and intermediate level guitarists put rhythm first, they'd progress faster and sound much better.
agree, i've accepted i will never be able to shred due to some deficiencies in dexterity. but precision can always be improved.
Great video. As a lead guitarist who does alot of recording. I would say this is one of the most important things you can learn on guitar. I never called it "chunking" but I practice my leads using the larger beat to count the 8th, 16, 32 & triplets. It is the only way to get it down and it also enforces swing. Everything we learn well we learn by "chunking". Awesome Job!!!
"a b c d e f g, h i j k l m n o ......... R, q r s t u v, w x y z" NAILED IT !!!
No you didn't....lol
Lmao
a b c d e f g, h i j k l m n o ......... R, q r s t u v, WTF? !!!
LOL Outstanding troll
"That's a spider."......Fucking hilarious! Dude you crack me up...enjoy ur videos too man,ur a great teacher as well
Dude that spider coming down during then video was serendipitous to the scale and tone, lol....i love your content! Medley, medley, medley... -Doma
Thanks Ben, especially for leaving these older videos up. This definitely will help with my progress and learning.
The most pertinent, important, and useful guitar lesson on RUclips. Where were you 45 years ago?
No, seriously. Where?
I'll tell you EXACTLY why I suck at guitar...because you weren't there for me 45 years ago.
You let me down man.
Never trust a guy who doesn't know the alphabet
My thoughts exactly lol
Oh, he knows it. You're probably not familiar with the "where's the p" joke. :)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@ enlighten us
Johnny X No ocifer. We're not brinking deer. We're buffing fuckolo.
*Here is a great tip:*
Another approach to this concept is, rather than focusing on only the 1st note of the 16th note phrase try focusing on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th. (Ex: *1* e & a, 2 *e* & a, 3 e *&* a, 4 e & *a* )
This improves your undrestanding of off beat timing dramaticly while helping you with hand sync.
That's how I learned to say it from my drum teacher.
Just like fasteddievh2072 i have been playing guitar for 30+ years and never been able to pick up the speed and sync with my 2 hands. After watching your video i have been practicing your technique and it "works"!
Even years after you've published your video your still helping us old dudes.
Very helpfull and fun to watch.
You've got new subsciber and a new fan!
Keep up the good work uncle Ben. 👍
My wife once said to me, "Sounds like you're playing Italian music again."
I said, "What do you mean?"
She said, "ITALY ITALY ITALY ITALY!"
Good one!
shes a kepper
XD
Bobby, your playing on Death's Symbolic album is amazing!
*happy Italian noises*
I rarely, if ever comment on any youtube videos, but I gots to give it up to you, couldn't not do it. I'm an 80's shredder and ya know, once in a while the concept of "chunking" used to pass through my head on days when it felt like my hands just wouldn't do as I commanded them and I'd try different philosophies to whip 'em into shape. Now that I've actually heard that concept, thought out and presented in a comprehensive manner, it's actually opened doors today when I picked up my guitar. Awesome video, you're a funny dude, I don't know if some of these folks get your sense of humor, they seem to be a little, deficient, if you will, but I "lol"ed when you said your index finger had a curfew during the Paul Gilbert lick (which, by the way, I resent you for being able to play that bastard so well, it's a bitch). Awesome, I gotta check out the rest of your stuff and I'm not just some douchebag poser laying all this praise on you, I can actually play! :)
Hey thanks a ton!!! I'm really glad to help, I appreciate the kind words!
I was glad to give them. So many people feel the need to complain when they don't like something, but I like to go the other way too and tell someone if they've made an impact or said something that influenced me. I really did like the chunking concept and I'm still thinking about it. Like, if I do a three-note-per-string run all the way across, from low to high, I now see it as three chunks, making the focal point the accent of low E, D, and B strings, and it doesn't seem like running up such a steep mountain anymore. Do you have any other advanced type concepts that are similar? A new or different perception can really make all the difference in the world. Can make a person "get it". I used to teach too. I just didn't have the patience. Maybe if I could yell at the little fuckers...Anyway, I'm sure you get a lot of messages so I won't expect to hear back from you or be offended if I don't. The mere fact that you responded was good enough for me.
@@BenEller What he said ^ I concur
Dude you can't just go around giving it up to just anyone, that's another way you get diseases.
“Vibrate your arm by setting it to frappe...” - pure poetry, Ben. You are a wordsmith extraordinaire in addition to a guitar hero.
Yes. I’m serious. 🤨
Dude, this series is an absolute gem for any self-taught guitarist like myself. There's some stuff I thought I had figured out, like progressive muting and vibrato, but your awesome and thorough tips improved my technique greatly. And then you showed me stuff I never knew existed, like swipe-picking. Only discovered your channel today, and that's the largest amount of knowledge and skill I've ever gained within the span of a single evening.
I rate this particular video 5/10: not enough innuendo.
(jk lol, stay awesome)
What I suck at is adjusting the intonation on my Ibanez rg550xh. The cavities on some of the screws on the bridge got completely rounded somehow, can't screw them in, can't screw them out, an allen wrench simply spins inside them. Gonna be taking that bitch to a guitar shop for some TLC in a couple of days. Do you think there's something I could have done to prevent this from happening? Or is Ibanez just using really shitty screws nowadays?
Dude thanks a ton!!! Sounds like someone used an incorrectly sized Allen key to loosen and tighten those bolts, dude. Get a new set off of eBay or Ibanez Rules, and ALWAYS use the correct wrench!!!!
RockMedved Let's Vibrat together like GE.
Ben Eller I get my Allen Wrenches at Walmart for cheaper price.
How is your guitar playing now?
That spider was priceless haha. Great job on what you’re doing man, great teaching and really easy to understand, would be great to have you as a personal guitar teacher, think I’d be shredding in no time. Thanks for all what you are doing on RUclips.
This is so STUPID SIMPLE! I can’t believe I never thought about playing this way I literally tense up trying to count every note like you said definitely gonna try to think of only the first note in each pattern from now on, thanks for this!
Man I've been playing guitar for 14 years and I mostly play riff guitar and never any solo. I just tried your lesson for 15 minutes and I'm nailing it man. I feel like a word of opportunities just opened to me. Thx so much! It's like I know how to approach a tab now. It used to be scary with all those notes but it got a lot more simple since I can cut 3/4 of em now.
i honestly love a teacher thats says "you suck!! but........ I'm here to change that"
after playing guitar for a long time, I've finally taken an interest in some shreddy stuff and have been absolutely lost as to how to learn it, what I did to learn anything else just didn't work. This was a huge help, thank you for sharing this with the internet!
Make an alphabet tutorial next please
This is how I learned it:
A is for Apple
B is for Banana
C is for CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
D is for DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
E is for EFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
F is for FGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
G is for GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
H is for HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
I is for IJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
J is for JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
K is for KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
L is for LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
M is for MNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
N is for NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
O is for OPQRSTUVWXYZ
P is for PQRSTUVWXYZ
Q is for QRSTUVWXYZ
R is for RSTUVWXYZ
S is for STUVWXYZ
T is for TUVWXYZ
U is for UVWXYZ
V is for VWXYZ
W is for WXYZ
X is for XYZ
Y is for YZ
Z is for Z
Gave you a like just for how long I think you took to type this
DrugBustin Cat look it up, you can find it on Google, then copy and paste it. Take all your likes back! Lol jk
I believe he left out the "P" letter. An old grade school joke. Where's the P? Running down your leg. I wonder if he did this on purpose? He is a sarcastic kind guy. I like the guys style.
Last year i've watched this vid and learning / practices the exercise he gave. Now my hand synchronization is good. Worth to watch this i tell yaaa
And then there's the MOST important thing for 2 hand synchronization: START SLOW and gradually increase the speed. If you don't get it right slow, you will never get it right fast!
If you could play it slow you can play it fast.
@@lynes3751 What kind of a comment is that? This has to be done gradually. Any mistakes made slow will be amplified when playing fast. But playing slow perfectly does not guarantee you can play it perfectly fast. In fact, there is ALWAYS a limit - I don't care if you were Dimebag on steroids - everyone has a limit. You gain speed through practicing. But if you only practice fast, you will never play fast with accuracy.
Its a joke from a video where musicians react to "fastest" violin player who says "If you can play it slow you can play it fast." Then continues to be really inaccurate
@@axe2grind911a .
@@lynes3751 ok, was outta the loop...
what i learned today: I can play fast AND I suck!
Holy crap, that spider just f***d me right up! I've had that happen and it ruined the entire jam for me. Uncle Ben though, he just calmly says "that's a spider" and deals. Light Bulb! - Maybe that's the key to being a great player - not being ridiculously startled and put off by spiders! Thanks to Ben for being a great teacher, and for not being afraid of spiders. :)
After about 20 years of playing, I just used my arm-hands to pull my head-brain out of my ass-butt and bought a metronome.
🤣 ...I needed that comment.
Me too. It's made a huge difference in my arm hand coordination. My head brain can actually make sense of playing leads and rythms that are designed for eachother now.
I was watching an old Stevie T video and he brought up metronome. The last time I played was like 4-5 years ago and I remember getting pretty good.
For the past couple weeks, I'm dicking around and feeling pathetic. I suddenly remember, or rather rediscover, I used a metronome app back then. Started using it a few days ago and the upward progress over a few days has been surprising. Stupid, dumb brain forgot to keep the damn beat. Shit comes together with a MeNome.
@@NobodyCaresALot I've been playing drums for a few months now. I still play guitar and bass and I plan to make some actual music. Playing drums has really brought some things to light. I've been downloading drumless tracks from RUclips. Some of them are from "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" but some were uploaded by people who were cool enough to use an app to pull the drum frequencies out. Anyway... Pre-computer age metal is hard as hell to keep time with because many of them didn't use a metronome and parts of the songs are slower than others and not on purpose. Iron Maiden "Infinite Dreams" is a great example. I love the song and I love Niko, but damnit, coming out of the chorus back into the versus, I get lost because it's almost like he plays slower and slowly speeds back up. A couple of Boston songs are like that to, like "More than a Feeling" the slow break after the chorus, right before "I see my Maryanne walking away" the timing is of enough that I had to learn how to pause so I didn't get ahead of the guitars. Nowadays you don't have that because in the studio the manipulate the drums and line all the beats up electronically. In fact, I was very impressed with Def leppard's "Photograph", then I found out that was one of the first songs to use programmed drums. The drummer didn't even play the song in the studio version, the Producer was messing around with programmable drum machines and decided to use it in that song. Sorry I bored you with all this crap. It's just interesting stuff.
@@kschantz yeah man, I'm not bored by that all. That's a bunch really cool shit wrapped in advanced comprehension. For novice players though, a metronome is going to take them a long way. Probably only so far as they (I) can get to the point where down strokes lead into the second chorus. A metronome is not a crutch but a guideline for playing on time.
The spider came for the meedlys
I was sure he would be going for some Megadeth riffing :D
VortechBand Dave’s spider technique approaching.
Uncle Ben….best teacher ever!!! This is real tutorials. I’ve learned more from Ben than any other instructors on RUclips. I’ve been playing over 20 years and Uncle Ben still taking me to school.
Great video, Ben. I just ran into this video today even though it's already 5 years old.. That said, this is one of the most helpful videos I've ever seen. A breakthrough moment for sure. Never thought about breaking runs into chunks. Damn helpful for sure! Thanks for what you do.
I bet you do a killer Matthew McConaughey impression. Killer lesson too
Tyler Pratt know what I love about youtube comments on older videos? Y’all keep gettin older, I stay the same age. Alright alright alright!
@@BenEller MY MAN.
When I think back about what has improved my playing the most, Id say it was learning the notes all the way up the neck, the 1-4-5 cord progression that every song in the world has to follow and now chunking. Great vid man, thank you!
I'm watching this right now on its 4 year anniversary Jan 1, 2020.
You call Twitter Twatter like I do, subscribed
lol thanks my man!!!
bakerXderek cheahhh
Chheaah. Yet another video I see you on. I guess both being guitarists and into metal makes sense. Gotta get those guitar ropes. see u on the next one.
Chhhheeeeeaaah
CHEEEAAAAAHH
Then you’ve done it again. Breaking down a complex pattern into easy focus points they can be remembered practiced and duplicated for great result. Thank you. You’re an awesome teacher. And a great guitarist.
"Your mind brain." "Your hand fingers." Ben has an interesting vernacular.
lol
Dont forget "Your arm hands"
@@maddump5812 my fav
I can't believe my face eyes
This man has big groin pp
LMAO at 12:34
“That’s a spider...”
shocked Pikachu face
This wisdom of "Chunking" has been out here for over 6 years and I'm finding it out just now 🥺🙏
such a simple yet mind-blowing lesson. You, sir, may have helped a bajillion guitar players with out of synch hands
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, R
Sounds like a Kazakhstani bar maid I once knew.
Cool. Canadian is better tho: ruclips.net/video/tSTWw6-ueIs/видео.html
I noticed that too, why no p
No P...No Q....do we not like them? Lol.
Once you become a musician, you realize you don’t need any of the letters beyond G sharp. With time they start to fade from memory
:3
@@alonsomiranda2598 running down his legs! :)
I've been fiddling with guitar for years and I can't believe I'm just now hearing this... makes total sense...I would try to count every note in my head, and I just figured I wasn't as sharp as the guys who could play really fast!!
"Biological step-dad." HAHA!
It always amazes me how some great players are crap teachers and I'm not saying you're not a great player Ben but you're a brilliant teacher mate!
I took some music theory courses to improve my playing, there is always room for improvement no matter what your level is, and they used this same technique! One of my favorite lessons they gave us was if you played guitar and not piano, you had to compose an entire page of sheet music on piano. Really ingrained a lot of info which translated well to soloing on guitar as well as chord progressions etc.
You turned it in and the teacher would play it for the class. Didnt matter if it was a good song, just had to have the right progressions/notes.
I'm pretty sure I've given at least several dozen kids ebola from poor hand synchronization with Megadeth's "Hangar 18." :-(
8:45
This guy is so fast that I couldn't even see him tie his hair up!! Daaaang.
This is by far the best instructional guitar channel I have ever seen!
You know it's coronavirus time, when you read it as "Your Hand SANITIZATION sucks"...
When he say ''I put a curfew on this one... '' I legit had a panic attack about of another curfew haha fuck this pandemic
"Nailed it!"
"No you didnt" gets me everytime
Thank you so much Uncle Ben！
Never realized just how much my mind was getting in the way. Thanks!
It think it happens to everyone all the time, some time we catch it but mostly we don't realize it. For me my best guitar is when i relax a bit and have fun, once i start to really focus its easy try to hard and stress.
No one teaches the guitar as well as my biological step dad. Yes, Justin and Marty are also really good but good old uncle Ben takes it with his humour and level of detail. Thanks uncle Ben :)
Apex Window Cleaning Services biological step dad? Ahh the MILKMAN , with you !
Yeah what exactly is a"Biological Stepdad"? Maybe a contradiction of terms, like "Military Intelligence", "Corrupt FBI", "Crooked Lawyer"?
The intro of this video is one of my favorite things in all of RUclips
Ben You are THE MAN! this helped alot.
"Nailed it!" - No you didn't. = EXCELLENT! 3 generations of high school kids think the greatest guitarist is the one how drops the most notes without getting caught!
Oh my god I am so glad I stumbled on this. I practice for around 2 hours each day for the last year and my alternate picking runs have been stuck at 100bpm. Tried this today for the first time and I immediately jumped up to 130bpm with ease. Also, I loved your explanation of rhythmic timings lol. I can’t imagine what this will do for my playing after I’ve implemented into my practice routine for a few weeks. Honestly I can’t thank you enough I was getting so frustrated with my playing. THANK YOU!!!
"Chunking" the alphabet as a kid led me to believe that "Elameno" was a letter name.
(...H I J K...ELAMENO...P...)
:'(
My 2 year old just says Elmo pee
@@Bad.Rabbit 🤣👍
Yeah, my son did the same thing. Took some convincing to make him see the individual letters eventually :)
Just finally conquered this with my 4 yr old
abcdefg ... hijklmnor ... Now you're just messing with me. Could have sworn there was a
"p" in there somewhere ...
Thinking the same exact thing lmfao
What about q?
It's joke little kids tell. It supposed to make you ask them, "where's the p?" and the punch line is "running down my leg" or "running down your leg"
..i dont get the joke, care to explain? :p
Sebastian Viuf P stands for "penis" apparently.
Had a stroke and just watching helps my playing and so inspiring. Eliminates having to pay for lessons.
I think my left hand rhythm is better than my right. The way I thought myself to play I pretty much hammer on and pull off everything. Trying to pick every note in a run, my left hand always plays everything perfect but my right will add in extra strums or skip them over, so I've got multiple strums on one fret and a hammer on the next, while I'm going for one strum each. It seems like it's a really hard thing to work through.
Eye of the tiger sped up is second heartbeat
as a guy who has a good grasp on both music and guitar playing for over 20 years of experience. I could not understand why you had so much subs. but turns out you have a really good way of teaching things. top notch teaching. top notch playing also.
"L M N O R" Cool
Did anyone else replay the spider scene more than 5 times?
Its incredible and a testament to how great this channel is that I can watch pretty much any video on here and learn something. Man I can do ascending well at all lol
update the letter p has been removed from the alphabet.
Mr. Ben Eller
a peculiar “feller,”
gave his guitar a play;
Down came a spider, next to the “feller,”
and frightened Ben Eller away.
😂
Dude your the best teacher that just took my guitar playing up a step thank you so much
Luckily that spider didn't kill you
I don't like spiders
+Cameron Myers you and me both
LMNO...R?
+Ruli Gonzalez aaayyyy lmnor
+Ruli Gonzalez xd
+Ruli Gonzalez lol I heard that too and was like, lemme see if anyone mentioned this yet.
Thank you!
The chunking concept is what allowed me to increase speed from 100 to 150bpm in literally 40 minutes. I was never able to hit even three notes consistently, and now I can do up to 6 notes at 140+ with huge pauses between chunks. Right now I'm learning how to connect chunks of 3-4 notes I've learned to play fast. Another aspect I'm trying to figure out is how to loop the piece I've learned without stopping, so that I can develop this new "sense" of playing fast.
I picked up guitar about 12 years ago, played it actively for first 4 years, and then kinda hit that 100 bpm plateau without any improvements to hand synchronization.
There's obviously still a lot of work to make it as comfortable as playing 100bpm but at least I can now work on it!
So here's an update from me: I'm now able to pick at 160 bpm 16th.
Not everything but lots of phrases I have considered impossible for myself.
Whenever I see an interesting song I'd like to play but there's some fast parts I'm now confident I could do it if I spend some time practicing.
My hand sync and just confidence playing increased greatly over last 3 years, without even playing every single day.
Because of this, I'm planning to open up another channel where I'd post some covers for video game OSTs and maybe some original work.
Back to music!
Again, thank you for the chunking advice!
John Petrucci: Ha. Mortals.
Lol! I swear to god I thought Ben was saying with your 'Porno Finger'. POINTING FINGER! Got it, great lesson.
I thought I was alone
He would have simply said "the teaser".
Great tips! Been playing for a decade and just now seriously trying to get good at Metal. Feels like I'm starting all over again. It really is a different animal.
I want to play every single guitar that's behind him
Asked to Chunk: Did the Truffle Shuffle.
Twas an awkward wedding.
This post is over 5 years old, and I just saw this. Great analogy, Ben. Nailed it. Helped me see it.
spiderbro just hanging out.
Cheeky Kent hahaha he was trying to chill!
Oh there are a lot more than 11 reasons that I suck at guitar.
Great series!
Best instructor on youtube...hands down!..Who else can attract spiders while doing spiderwalk style picking exersises..I learned my picking from Intense Rock by Gilbert years ago but you explain it even more in detail..Very cool Ben!
LOL the spider wanted QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Playing loud metal guitar? That spider don't give a damn, he just wants to get closer to the stage. He must be your biggest fan.
Thank you, I'm a player who's just graduating into moderate....and the beginning helped me think about my fingers......it got me thinking... thank you....
Good stuff as usual! :D
Jens!
+Jens Larsen thanks Jens!!
12:25 - Summon the dark one....
So I'm playing for 24 years and really don't know what is holding me back until now. I would consider myself an intermediate but I really struggle with faster and accurate playing. I just practiced your left hand only lesson and it became clear that my left hand is terrible at temporal accuracy! Everything beyond 16th notes at 90 bpm gets washy. I really thank you for that trick and now Inow what I have to practice to get better.