Welcome! Introduce yourself here!

Thank you so much for your kind words, Giorgio.

Yes, I have seen the video :smiley: I have already been implementing that soft touch, good stuff.

I like Kiko a lot! I hope soon we start getting a little bit of theory from him :smiley: .

Here is my Mayones! https://i.imgur.com/yEKxenq.jpg

I seriously love that guitar. There is a lot of pride in its build.

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Wuddup Guitar People!

I’m Jackson from Denver, CO and I just started using Kiko’s 1 Hour Practice Routine about a week ago, and I gotta say, I think I’ve improved quite a bit! I saw an ad for Guitar Hacks, and I remembered how impressed I was with Kiko’s playing when I saw him with Megadeth a few years back and decided to check it out. I found his two videos on guitarhacks to be super straight forward and easy to follow, and the techniques he suggests for efficient practice are pure rocket sauce! :metal:t3:

I play guitar and other instruments in a few original bands and a few cover bands around town, but guitar is my main squeeze for sure. Been playing for 18 years. I am into many different styles of music, and I play lots of stuff, but I’m probably most into funk, psych rock and metal at the moment. I want to combine the metal shred with a jazz improv style in my soloing, so any suggestions of players/practice resources in that vein that anybody has is accepted with open arms! Overall, I want to be a well rounded guitar player for almost all guitar styles, so that I can be good enough to be a session/studio guitar player, but also to be able to take those skills wherever I want creatively.

Top 3 peices of gear: Modified '98 Fender Powerhouse Strat, '07 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Mesa Boogie Dual Rec Roadster

Something random most people don’t know about me is I come from a family of farmers out in Eastern Colorado, but I’m not much of a farmer myself :joy:

I’m really looking forward to using and adding to the guitar practice resources here to improve my skills and lift others up with me. When we work together we can acheive more than what you or I could do alone! Let’s join the shred club!! :metal:t3:

– Jackson

EDIT: Anyone know where can I find new licks/practice resources here or elsewhere for specific techniques? (i.e: tapping, legato, hybrid picking, altered scale, etc.) I know, I could scour YouTube for more, but it could be cool to have a bunch of awesome practice material for techniques and theory here in one place?

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Hi Jackson, welcome to the shred club indeed :slight_smile: and thanks for this detailed introduction!
I am intrigued by your idea of metal shred with jazz improv, if you have any video or audio to share, please do :+1:

About the licks/practice resources, Kiko has a course where he goes through techniques and exercises that fit into his hour of practice routine.

Registration for the course is currently closed but it will re-open probably at the end of August/Early September.

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Hi to all! My name is Ariel and I’m from Chile.

I’ve been playing on and off since 2013 and just this year I encouraged myself to learn solos and learn those difficult songs I always dreamt of playing. I practice almost 2 hourse everyday (1 in the morning, 1 at night) where I apply what Kiko says in his videos.
For instance, in January I started practicing the Crazy train’s solo and after 5 months I could do it.
Also, in that month, I started practicing the deceived solos from Trivium. The sweep was hard, but after 6 months I could play it.

My gear is a cheap Scorpion guitar imitating an LP and it’s really uncomfortable to play hahaha
I don’t have an amp; I use Bias FX and I have a Scarlett Solo.

Something people might not know is that music saved my life basically. It got me through dark times. Now I’m happy, everything’s ok, and playing guitar brings me so much bliss, though I see music as a mere hobby.

P.S I want to thank Kiko for his videos. There are a plethora of guitar videos and tutorials on Youtube, but some of them just don’t go straight to the point. Kiko makes them easy to follow and straight to the point. That has made me improve so much.

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@Ariel, it’s awesome that Guitar allowed to go through dark times in your life, welcome to the forum!

I am sakib From Bangladesh.
My gears : Carvin DC 200, Musicman Luke, Processor : Gt 100, Amp :Boss Katana

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Welcome Sakib! Is that DC200 the Jason Becker model?

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Hi all …Steve Austin from Vancouver ,Canada I am 63 and have been practising for two years.I was diagnosed with cancer just after getting into guitars also just after meeting Kiko in a clinic.

I am cancer free but still on medical leave until the pandemic sorts itself as I am declared high risk.
So I spend my time working out 5 X a week at the gym,competetion pistol shooting, archery and guitars
I have always practiced 1.5 to 2 hours every day.For a occupation I am a Senior Submersible Engineer and usually work overseas on a 5 wk on/off rotation…have worked in 54 countries with my favorite being Brazil.
I love old school rock/metal and most inspired bySteve Gai,Nita Strauss and Kiko.

My fav gear is my JVM 410 SA /4X12 1960 Marshall and my Gibson Les Pauls…a Custom and R9.Recently just included Ibanez Steve Via PIA.
As my health gets better the faster I practise.
Looking forward to meeting all on this journey…Bring It!

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Glad to hear you are cancer free!! Sounds like you got some fun things to keep you occupied during the pandemic.

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Hi @steveaustin, thanks for sharing your story! I glad to hear you’re cancer free as well and that you’re using this time to work on your passions.

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Hi and greetings to everyone! my name is Daniel I am 39 and live in Stockholm Sweden.

I started to play guitar when I was 19, after a few years playing pretty much every day, I had to focus on other things and ended almost not playing at all… Was until a year ago when I discovered that Kiko has a Youtube channel ( I been a fan since 1994 when a friend made me listen to Angra Angels Cry album) after see him playing and making those great videos that I got again the need of play guitar every day!

So last Christmas I gift myself an Ibanez Kiko200, bought some pedals and as soon I got to know about Guitar Hacks I got into it, so here I am now!

Here is my lovely guitar.


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Hi Sakib,
That is some nice gear you have. I have a Carvin DC125c that I had custom made for me in 1986. Carvin/Keisel are great guitars.
I don’t own a Luke but I have played them and they are fantastic.

Welcome! That is a beautiful guitar. I’ve been looking at them and may have to get one.

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Hi @daniel.aravena.c and welcome to the forum! Great looking guitar :wink:

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That’s beautiful! Does a chorus of angels sing every time you open the case?

A killer guitar !!! Niarkniarkniark :+1:t2::metal::blush:

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Hi everyone!

My name is Jaume and I live in NYC, although I’m originally from Valencia, Spain. I love all kinds of metal and some of my guitar heroes include Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tony MacAlpine, Marty Friedman, Gus G., Andy James, Nina Strauss, Angel Vivaldi, and of course, Kiko. I’ve been playing guitar for about 15 years, but thanks to this course I’m learning how to slow down and practice with purpose, instead of just improvising over a song or a backing track. This course is also teaching me to think about what I’m playing, understand what I’m doing wrong, and gain control over everything I play. The course has also inspired me to start composing a few new instrumental songs, which I’d love to share with all of you once I record them, if you guys are interested.

Cheers!
Jaume

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Welcome @jaumeantu ! Thanks for sharing. Yes, we’re looking forward to listen to your songs!

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Hi everyone!

I am Valerio, 32 years old, and I live in Colleferro (near Rome), Italy.

I started playing guitar when I was 14. I started to study alone, then I took lessons from local music teachers for several years. I love to play music and I love to listen it: I love metal, especially thrash, death and some black metal, but not only. I obviously love to see lives: I guard well Kiko’s pick that I collected the last time Megadeth played in Rome (under the rain, big night!).

When I finished university fortunately I found a job, but I had less and less time to play guitar; however in the last months, also because of the lockdown, I had much more time to “stay” with my guitars.
So, here I am!

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Hi All,

35, from Budapest, Hungary. Don’t know where to start, really, I’m kinda intimidated… :slight_smile:

Been around guitars since 15, but unfortunately in the middle of it all was a 9 year awful period in my life where I only regressed due to erroneously shifting my priorities and thus losing a huge amount of precious time.

Some personal rock-bottom moments led me back to guitar and music in general, so in the last 3 years or so I’ve decided that even though the career I chose does not make happy at all and would chose music or lutherie if I had the chance to re-do things, I can still become a cool player - work is only 8 hours, so there’s 16 left each day to do things that matter to me and make happy. My biggest obstacle is myself: OCDish attude (“Why bother moving on when I still don’t have xy technique down to 120%?” etc) and overall bad practice habits due to wanting to improve so badly, not to mention extreme lack of confidence when it comes to my playing. The latter is particularly mind boggling, because I know that if I could listen to myself playing like 5 years ago and today, I’d say that the two players are at least two leagues apart, yet I still feel ashamed when making mistakes.

Also, it took quite some time to realize how many and how huge holes I have in my fundamentals and it was extremely hard to admit that there are things that I cannot shun and despite being able to play some cool(ish) stuff, I need to (re)learn stuff the proper way, completely deconstruct my playing, go back to almost ground zero and build it up again. Not to mention ear training and theory… I was always fascinated by music, but when I wanted to learn, most everybody told me that I shouldn’t , because I “don’t have ears for it” and as a kid I believed them and kept thinking that those who can play an instrument or understand theory are of some alien breed. In reality it was just a case of not being exposed to proper stimuli. No bodybuilder gained muscle without pumping iron, right? Now I know that those ears can be trained and work on it every day.

I feel like this program finds me in the right mindset and look forward to defeating myself and becoming a “cool player”.

Music wise, my taste is quite broad, from Bill Evans to Black Metal. While I love many players like Kiko, Friedman, J.Becker and countless others, my latest and actual obsession is Dave Davidson from Revocation. In my eyes he is the archetype of a modern, metal oriented all around player.

Sorry for talking too much…

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