silent_shady: mmmm good question. j/k. yeah today I busted my knee wide open, so I think that maybe tomorrow it is my dads turn. lol j/k.

Kayla: you love everything Joe related don't you? I bet your favorite movie is the same as Joes favorite movie.

alex: yes I love everything Joe related. I cant help it though. :)

I am out to so I will catch you peeps tomorrow. Bye.

Les Paul is God

Jellythings:Zen,in no way whatsoever i mean to push you to the side regarding your music or me playing on it friend.Ronnie controls what i do with music now,he calls the shots,its in no way reflective on your ideas of music bro,its just more of i need to move on,i know y understand.My time for being free to do whatever i want in music is ending eg:Recording with whoever i care.I must think pro from now,a little sad,a little happy On a better note so to speak,we must talk on how we get to your abode,mail me soon bro on directions.eg Do we go by train or should we hire a car etc

Adios for now poet of the blues

Stevee T:Ahoy der captin,should have ye ol flash t listen the clips on site,around 2 weeks,if y have quicktime or windows media 10 you can listen.Cant believe it,25 years of blood,sweat & tears in around 40 mins,but it was worth every second.......A personal achievement,one which in no way shape or form could be done without Ronnie,hes playing a blinder

js_js - I thought that Petrucci honed his skills at one of the big famous music schools like Berkely or MIT or something like that....

I think I recall - but I'm not 100% sure - that DT all met at that college.. a bunch of pals playing Rush covers and that sort of thing.. and then they evolved into DT, got famous, got rich, and lived happily ever after

but I don't think Satch had anything to do with it....

One thing I'm pretty sure about is that Petrucci does not even list Satch as a major influence..
his influences are - in his own words - "are all Steve's and Al's"...

Steve Howe, Steve Hacket, Steve Vai
Alan Holdsworth, Alex Lifeson, Al Di'Miola

I didn't play for around 4 days - I started goin' cold turkey.. lol..

wow... shit..... I dunno what to say to that.... jeez....

you just blew me away...

if you need to play two notes on the same string when starting the sweep then picking it will have better definition than hammering on / pulling off..
example -
you're sweeping Em using the 'barre Am' fingering - barre at the 7th fret
the 1st two notes are E and G, and they are both on the 5th string....
you could start the sweep with a downstroke, hammer-on the G, and then continue the sweep across the rest of the strings...
the difficulty here is getting the timing right as the picking hand has to wait for the hammer-on before continuing with the sweep... not easy...
the penalty is most often poor synchronisation - resulting in a scruffy sweep...
alternatively, pick both notes at the start so that the picking hand is in constant motion - this eliminates the "wait" caused by the hammer-on and means that synchronisation occurs right from the start of the lick...
"but Clarky, the sweep is one long downstroke so how do I pick two notes on the same string??.." I hear you shout..

you start with an upstroke for the E, then sweep with a down stroke from the G......

now if you gently palm-mute you'll get a very nice little side effect...
nice solid, thumping definition from the wrapped strings - which does not ome out so well if you hammer-on...

you can use this in reverse too with down-sweeps
although I tend to pull-off more in this direction because I prefer the tone...

another important element is using the thumb of your fretting hand as a pivot... your knuckles will move in a timed "rolling" movement so that you are only holding down a single note at a time - unlike playing a regular chord
your picking hand synchronises with this rolling movement..

jeez this is difficult to describe and I'm not sure that I'm doing it well....
this is one of those things that I could show you and within 20 seconds you'll be like "oh yeah.... cool... is that all it is??"

one last little thing about sweeping....
it's one of those very strange techniques [just like legato and tapping] where playing slowly is actually more difficult than playing quickly....
however, you have to practice slowly to get the mechanical feeling of the synchronisation and muting right...
once you sound pretty reasonable at pretty slow tempi, you'll find that you can pile on the tempo and get this up to speed very quickly... [just like when you learned tapping]

So Clarky you must be mighty impressed then that Stevee T will drive twice as far to see lil ol you than he is willing to drive for lessons with...........Greg friggin Howe!!!!!!

Hello Wonderful friends, good morning everyone :-)) !!!

I`ve been working for the Gonçalo Pereira Workshop this weekend here in my city. Many things to do, uff, i`m tired :-).

I`m pretty cool and it´s nice to see many good friends on the new T2J cd :-)). Congratulations to all contributors :-)).

PHRYDOM; OCPS470, DCK - Any ideas for the cover of the cd? I can`t wait to see that :-)). ECHO is a really good name. Regards for all of you and good weekend :-).

OCPS470 - Next week i will send you the cd, regards for you bro and thanks :-).

STEEVE T - Thank you bro :-).

MARISRV SEA EYES :-) - I miss you too baby and all of you but recently the life has been crazy, never stoped :-)). Many kisses for you :-).

OVATION1 - News coming soon bro, i will write you soon. Warm regards Mikeyson :-).

MICHELLE - Hello baby, hope everyone is ok include the cats :-)). Kisses for you sweetheart :-).

JOE - I miss you bro. This morning i was watching the G3 dvd and it´s so cool whatching that but see you live is an amazing experience, i miss you bro :-). Where are the dates to Europe ;-) ? Have a good time, sending good vibes for you and i can`t wait to see you over here in Portugal, a beautiful sunshine and crowd is wating for you :-)). Greetings to all family :-)).

WEBMASTER - Hope everything is ok with you and family as well, how is going the new baby? Hope very well :-)). All the best :-).

REGARDS TO ALL MY FRIENDS, SEEE YOU LATER

estrela...thank you!

Clarky...I'm an all or nothin' kinda guy, and it may be our best chance at an eye to eye...

mikesb...music is my passion, and I indulge it!

Slansh...cheers to the effort...tells when the clips are up in 2 weeks!

SteveT - "all or nothing".... hahaaa... me too....

if you're going to do something... then give it everything...
then at least if things don't work out you know that you could have done no more....

giant respect to yer bro.......

SteveeT - no date just yet....

first I need to complete the 'house work' on the tracks

then I need to make the arrangements and stuff for the studio in Cleve's

SteveeT - so where about are you from????