Skippygirl - When I was learning to play bass, slides gave me more trouble than anything else. I don't know what makes them tough for you, but I was always too quick with them. It took a while to get that down but now they're one of the easiest things to do...so, stick with it.

The anti-Hall of Fame voices have gotten louder in recent years and, well, I think you'll appreciate what James Hetfield said during Metallica's acceptance speech:

"Dream big and dare to fail, because this is living proof that it is possible to make a dream come true," said frontman-guitarist James Hetfield, who then rattled off a long list of hard-rocking bands he feels deserve induction.

"Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Iron Maiden, Motorhead. We'd like to invite them through the door," said Hetfield, who concluded his remarks by wrapping Ulrich in a bear hug.

I'm not much of a Metallica fan (I know they're influential and I appreciate what they've done, but I personally don't really like their music), but I'm so glad James spoke up about this...it's about time someone did.

Thanks cosmic-ape, burly, scuby and Do The Stu for your feedback.

burly - hmmmm the DW lessons look interesting!

Do The Stu - having not ever actually been shown how to slide, I just try to follow the guy on the YT vid. I worked out it seems to be like this - pick the string, slide to destination fret, and then possibly pick the string again, depends (can't see the guy's right hand). So, provided I wait for the true note on the original string/fret, THEN slide, I can hear the additional new note which comes from the finger passing over the intervening fret/s.

The best ones are the ones I do with the 3rd finger, the worst are with the 1st finger, and where you do a 180 i.e. 5th to 7th fret then immediately back 7th to 5th.

But overall I am pleased that it sounds something like Ten Words so far! :0)

Austin-Someone once told me that Tom Petty mentioned Rush in his speech.

Austin- I did not see the show this year but am glad to see an inductee speak up for these bands who are such a viable part of music history.

I was never a big fan of "Pre-Black Album" Metallica, I did like the Black Album and some of the material thereafter (not all).

Scuba- I am curious about the Mac version I think it's icam,..is that right? If I were to participate in any lesson, I would want it to be theory driven and not based on a song. That is what 99.9% of music students want is to be able to play a song right from the start, and I understand why.

Skippy- My honest opinion is that is a new student will spend the time to learn the notes and where they are on the neck, they can better utilize a quality teacher. I will not spend the money on my daughter until I am sure she knows them cold. She can already play songs by learning a few basic chords and then learned more complicated chords by learning to read tabs. She is considered a good guitar player by her peers even though I know of at least 1 one other kid who is really good, and I suspect he knows quite a bit about theory. The notes and exercises that help teach you the notes are boring and time consuming but will be worth taking the time. Hang in there. I am 43 and it is more difficult to learn new things than if was 14 again.I fell into a rut afteer learning how to get around in the minor pentatonic scales, with a little Dorian and Lydian mixed in. ( I just didn't know I was dabbling in the modes, I had picked them up by accident.) I learned how to get around in these pretty good and could play some stuff very well, but when it came to different styles of music I was pretty much dead in the water. I wish I had been more disciplined in learning more about theory, intervals, scales and modes etc.back when my mind was young. But I am learning. It just takes longer. You can do it too.

My daughter showed up last semester for Jazz band tryouts with her guitar and was very nervous about making it. There were probably 8-10 other kids who showed up with their guitars which further intimidated her. The next week she was the only 1 there because all the other kids were too intimidated and I am guessing that they didn't have someone pushing them to try.

The teacher gave them all a couple of sheets of jazz chords to learn which was intimidating to me as well but knew it was doable. She would have quit if I hadn't encouraged her. Unfortunately the teachers are not really "guitar savvy".

Turns out she was already in Jazz band because of her trumpet ability. She hates the trumpet and will not practice unless she has to.

In the past there have been jazz band guitar players in the program but have pretty much had to take it upon themselves to work it out, which I have encouraged.

"im never drinking again" Alan McKenna--Your 4 words stand out to me......You have the desire and let's see ya put this into practice....I BELIEVE.....Joe said we can change anything!

SkippyGirl---Getting that quiet time to practice guitar is very difficult when I need to give my time and attention to my Steve who asks me why his life is so difficult.....he works at Home Depot and has super co-workers who help him take breaks when he needs them......and has so many simple partial seizures.....takes a medication to stop them.......he says taking meds works for a short time and then he has to take the stuff again.......auugghh!....asking why doesn't work......I'm here and I care does. I'm glad for any time I have to practice, even if it's only 15 min. to 1/2 hour. I just do what is possible.

Guitarvibes--I love the Dutch attitude......democracy and capitalism with compassion and a comfortable, clean, honest living......not extravagant......sustainable......music (the arts)being a necessity for our collective health! I'm loving reading the M Resch book!

DotheStu--Your sharing is priceless......I'm enjoying the pictures.

E minor is a beautiful chord......I hope the Moody Blues found that "Lost Chord" from their album.."In Search of the Lost Chord"......LOL! ;-)

Mornin' everyone----It's coffee time!

Ahh man, I think Joe needs to come play in Boston real soon. Maybe at like the Berklee performance center or something. Last year I saw Steve there, so there's pretty much only one other guitarist I could want to see after that.

I just wanna rock!

Skippygirl - You should only be picking one note per slide. So pick at the 5th fret, slide up to the 7th fret, and hold the note. If it doesn't ring out strongly enough after the slide there's probably something in your technique that's incorrect. Maybe another finger is touching the string, or you aren't passing over the frets smoothly...?

It helped me initially to think of slides as separate two notes, instead of one action (I think of them as one action now, but it might be easier to learn as two).

It's boring to just sit there and do exercises that are mechanical...it helps if you can find a song that's all about what you want. So instead of just practicing slides, learn the bass part to U2's With Or Without You. It's all eighth notes, and you can play them all on the 6th string. It's four notes...play eight of each before sliding up or down a few frets to the next one. The notes are D, A, B, and G.

You probably know the song so I bet you can figure it out from there, but let me know if you have any questions... The part is such a simple one; you can turn it into exercise. Play through the line three times sliding with your first finger, then three times sliding with your second, then your third, and then your fourth...

It's funny that you ask about me playing bass. I just stumbled across some old (5+ years) audio clips of me playing bass...the sound quality is horrible, as they were only recorded with a cheap computer microphone, but maybe I'll post one of 'em online somewhere.

The difference, though, is that this is where it'd end for me. But the Hall will look at it as "Run DMC is there, so we need Public Enemy, and the Wu-Tang Clan, and Eminem, and..."

They see "rock and roll" as a synonym for "music", and that's so wrong.

Austin- Great advice for Skippy, that would take the boredom out of it.

DWs lessons are very reasonable, Scott, the guy I posted the link to Friday took lessons in 1979 @ $120.00/ hr. They were great lessons from a really great teacher, problem is you can't find that good around here anymore without driving to Memphis (1hr 45 min.).

Here are two videos from the jam after the Hall of Fame ceremony...check 'em out (you too, Joe, if you didn't catch the ceremony on TV):

Beck's Bolero / Immigrant Song (Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcVHtz56Psk

Train Kept A Rollin' (Metallica, Beck, Page, Joe Perry, Ron Wood, Flea):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HnEPqk1PnQ

Hey joe

Your one of my bigger influences in my playing i was wondering if you could give me some advice about my playing....

Austin, just watched the Train Kept a' Rollin' vid. Beck gets a giant FAIL for his solo IMO. Hammett showed him how it's done, then Perry followed nicely behind him. Is this going to be on TV or was it and I missed it? As for the streets being blocked off for filming - it was filmed at the top of a mountain, and since it's not really a main traffic route, there was no real need for peeps to get excited.

I was just at the grocery store and my keys fell out of my pocket and my G3 key chain broke in half and the picture fell out. *makes boo-boo face*