What has benefited you most in this course?

Tell me what lesson or area of the course that you feel has been most beneficial to you. I’m interested in knowing what others considered to be their biggest weaknesses and how you feel it’s helping you improve.
For me, I have gotten the most benefit out of the alternate picking exercises. I can hear that I’m getting cleaner and my speed is improving. It’s a work in progress, to me all aspects of my playing always will be, but it feels rewarding when you can actually tell you’re making progress.

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Great topic, for me it’s having a consistent and regular practice routine. I used to play a lot of my own stuff and solo over backing tracks and do the occasional exercise from youtube.
But now with Kiko’s method, planning my guitar workout everyday and separating playing from practicing really help me make progress, especially on sweep picking.

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Hello !
It helps me having a routine. There are so much different exercices to do and available on internet youtube… i was lost : one day do one thing, the other day another thing, it was a bit messy… now I know what to do exactly !
and after taking that time I can start playing new songs, try to improvise, compose learn new scales arpeggios…
If I have only time for one hour to play, I practise 30minutes kikos courses and 30minutes other stuffs, if I have 2hours, 1hour kikos courses and 1 hour other stuffs :smile:

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For me the thing that I got the most out of in this course was learning to play slow and controlled and really work on my muting especially with arpeggios. I would always rush them before. The course helped me to slow down and play them cleanly and to the rhythm of the metronome. I also learned some new techniques which are great building blocks and ideas for making music.

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Totaly right ! Same for me ! :+1::+1:

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Probably the most helpful has been the alternative picking sections. However, the biggest value is just having something planned out for each day so I don’t waffle around. Additionally learning how to tackle other books and concepts has been enlightening.

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So far the one thing I’ve benefited most from was his “playing effortlessly” video. Up until now i never realized how hard I finger those frets – like I’m trying to strangle it. Just lightening up a little has helped a lot with my control and intonation.

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For me its been four things:

  1. attention to control with every detail. Breaking and parts down into little peices.
  2. Having confidence. We are all at different places and with practice we unlock the next level.
  3. New way of thinking about sweep picking.
  4. The collaborate nature of this class. E.g. discussion forums and kikos live/replay sessions on youtube. Many online courses are just videos online whereas this one makes me feel connected and like I’m on a journey with others.
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for me accuracy and consistency, most of all at high speed!

and, of course, relaxing myself during playing

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For me, the biggest benefit has been the structure of the exercises, starting with fundamentals, moving into musical phrases, and then out of the plateau, and out of the box.
This is similar to my classical guitar training when I was a teenager.
Funny how you re-learn things from the past.
Louie

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An approach to practise, guided instruction, an enthusiastic teacher.

Alternate picking was a challenge for me. And I have much more work to do. I am enjoying sweep picking at the moment, but find myself reflecting on the first few weeks and how satisfying it is to have made even the slightest progress.

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for me it was KL GXP, he didn’t care much about the time, he just really wanted the students to hear the difference in tonality, He is humble and a great down to earth guy, Dave Mustaine is lucky to have found Kiko…

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I would have to say what benefited for me is having a strict routine, not jumping from one thing to a completely different practice the next day and so forth, understanding to pause and think where your fingers are going to be making sure you execute those notes correctly, and giving us the last 10 min of practice just noodling all over the fret on whatever technique you did that day so you can hear the different sounds on your guitar making you familiar with it.

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I’m still fairly new to applying techniques and theory presented on the site, but I can say joining the site has lit a fire under me. Every time I login I get inspired. Honestly the best thing is I have hope. I been trying to learn for over 20 years but the direct approach with this site is really what I needed.

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I had a great afternoon yesterday. After going through the “stop on triad notes” routine I thought that since only my cat was home and he is extremely tolerant of my wankery that I call “playing” I will try som improvisation stuff using yutoob backing tracks. This chord tone targeting made all the difference in the world. I was slow, had to stop thinking, missed notes, played wrong notes, all the growing pains you can expect BUT! When I settled in and paid attention, it worked. Phrygian sounded like, well, Phrygian. Straight from a camel’s back in the middle of a sandstorm in the Sahara. And Dorian? I swear Santana was in the room. Of course it wasn’t fluid and complex and whatnot, I did not suddenly turn into Kiko or Guthrie, but the sound of the mode was there, unlike before. And the most baffling of all is that I already had a pretty OK grasp of the concept of modes and how targeting chord tones will make everything more melodic, but I just failed to connect the dots. And for me, this is what makes a genius teacher. Knowing all the textbooks and being able to regurgitate them is one thing. That’s a scholar. But being able to find and devise ways to make others understand your knowledge is a whole different level. That’s where the genius of a true teacher lies.

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Ya its like an ipiphany when it starts to make sense. Like you I thought I knew more than I really did about the modes. Had all the literature and stuff but wasn’t really making the right connections. Kiko explains it well and after practicing as he recommends i am starting to connect the dots and hearing the sounds and emotions they conjure. Congrats on your progress, makes you want to pick it up all the time. Keep chuggin :metal::metal:

I feel the same way! Have also been playing over 20 years but have only recently realized I missed so much while learning. Never once did I say (in my head), let me stop and make sure my pick is alternating haha. Every little detail matters and coming topics is simply efficient.

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I’ve only been here for two weeks.
But I’m already starting to see that some exercises bring more benefits to my playing than others…
The first week was really trying to figure out how to go about the courses (especially as I was having trouble with exercise 3,4 and 6 from phase 1, day one of the Alternate picking section). But since then, I’ve started alterning this lesson with day one, phase 1 of the Sweep picking section. Practicing each lesson every other day…
And now I 'm really starting to see the benefits in my playing.

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