Practising Tips # 2 (Metronome)

While this may not be essential for beginners, practising on a metronome is a must for anyone who has got familiar with the instrument. Some argue that, and they're probably right , bull's eye accuracy is not that important while playing live. The vimto second delays are usually noticed only by musicians, so from the standpoint of music players who like to play live just to have fun, it ain't a big deal.

However, for someone who wants to play perfectly and, more importantly, record; there is no escape. In fact, I noticed that I couldn't improve my speed while playing scales without paying too much attention to the tempo of the song or the exercise. Paying enough attention to the metronome forces you to sync your picking with your fretting. Of course, learning alternate picking (Up, down motion) is a must before going about improving that aspect of guitar playing.

My favourite warm up and practise riff is from master of puppets (MetallicA)

It goes like this


D----------------------------------0-2-4-5-------------------------------
A----------------------------0-2-3---------3~~----3-3-3-2-3-5-3-2------
E-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--0-2-3-----------------------------------------3-2--

Tabbed By: Nick Zivtins (Aka SadbutDime and Shredder) from http://www.911tabs.com/

If you don't have a metronome, you could actually use one online! Go to http://www.metronomeonline.com/! It's very light and easy to use. My only complaint is that the clicks are sometimes hard to hear without increasing the PC volume significantly.

I am sure that you'll find a way to make use of practising like this in other fields of life, not just music. For example, perfecting a turbo start in Mario Kart! It works almost every time!

Check this video out!



Good luck and enjoy! =)

Writing a new song! (Chapter 1)

It's been quite a while since I've written a complete track for Enraged. I've been having a writer's block for a while, actually. What mostly happens is that I have an idea for a riff or a certain mood and after spending hours trying to develop it into a song, it doesn't click with me and I leave it at that stage. I think at them moment I have not less than 20 undeveloped ideas and compilation of riffs which is a shame really.

To solve that problem I've decided to give myself a break for a while and try to listen to different songs and music to be inspired and focus more on developing my technique, which is a good thing to do anyway. It wasn't long though until I've felt an urge to write something. I actually feel quite excited about it, which is a sensation that I've lacked lately. I am thinking to myself that instead of worrying about "thinking outside the box", I should just worry about letting the ideas flow without thinking too much on how they should fit or how I want the song to be like. I guess that sometimes thinking outside the box becomes, in reality, a prison on its own.

I've already come up with a basic melody and a couple of riffs, and I am planning to keep it straight forward for the now being. I'll update the blog as I go about the process and hopefully upload a sample of the work I am doing in the future.

Practising Tips #1 (Follow up)

This is a follow up to the post I've made earlier. I've uploaded an audio file (with a couple of pics for extra entertainment =D ) to Youtube. The sample is recorded entirely by Audacity. As you could probably hear for yourself, the quality is decent (given that it is a light and free software).

The music and lyrics written by Wael Ossama. Originally entiteled "Tribute to the Fallen", the track was never performed live or recorded fully. The pictures are taken in El Sawy Culturewheel mainly + our logo and crest for 2007-2008.


Now connect your guitar and rock on!

Practising Tips #1 (Recording)

Whether you're a guitarist, vocalist or a drummer, one useful practising tip that could be generalized over all these roles, and more, is to record your playing and listen to it. The point of doing that is to be able to assess your performance objectively and more importantly have a record of how you play and sound prior to a training program you're starting so that you could keep track of your progress. Even if you're not starting a specific training program and you're simply trying to learn riffs off your favourite song or a lick from a solo, it's useful that you try to make a recording every now and then.

That being said; there's an important concept that I'd recommend you keep in mind while going about this whole process. Don't be afraid to go out of your comfort zone (techniques you've mastered, songs you play well etc...) or to see (or hear in that case) your shortcomings and flaws of your playing. Practising is mainly about improving your skills rather than testing them. There are no guitar genes (as far as I know); so pretty much like everything else, don't be afraid to "suck" when you're practising. You're supposed to find some difficulties, otherwise, what would be the point of practising?

I recommend using Audacity to record your playing. All you need is a shield and a converter to connect your guitar to your sound card, and you're set to go. Audacity is free, light and easy to use. You can also save your recordings as MP3 and upload it on your mp3 player.

If you can't connect your instrument or device to your PC you won't be able to record your playing using Audacity, obviously. In this case you might want to try using an old fashioned Cassette or if you could afford a couple of hundred pounds, a Zen Mozaic.

Zen Mozaic is an mp3 player produced by Creative that besides playing music also has some other cool features such as a photo viewer, video player, built in FM tuner and a voice recorder. The voice recorder doesn't endure much decibels before distorting the sound but it does fairly okay for recording vocals and/or an instrument or two. You could buy a new 2GB version for around 300 pounds, and it's worth every piaster.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to upload a sample of my recording on Audacity but I will soon. In the meanwhile, happy recording and good luck! Most importantly, enjoy!

Update (4th of April, 09): Our good friend Eslam Salem was asking if this tip applies on bass guitars and I thought it was important to answer this question. It is, of course possible to record bass tracks using Audacity but be very very careful to use headphones (cheap ones that you don't mind getting screwed) as sound output. The reason I say that is because your laptop speakers, Sub Woofer or whichever output source you may be using is not designed to amplify bass sounds and probably won't last long if you decide to use it anyway. I learned it the hard way, so don't blame me now that you are warned =P !

Enraged's Blogspot Launch

Greetings everyone and welcome to Enraged's all new blogspot. If you're a fan of Enraged, you'd probably know that we have our own website now. If not, then shame on you!! =P Go there now so you could stream some of our music, browse photos and get updates.

So, anyway, what is the purpose of this blogspot if we already have a website? Well it's basically to create some kind of a memoire of what happens behind the scenes. Performing live or releasing a song is the final product of a long process that often involves a lot of interesting situations that we'd like to remember and I'd like to share with you. I am probably going to post pictures, reviews, clips, diaries and almost anything that has to do with our experience of being a metal band in Egypt.

So visit us regularly and feel free to leave a comment or two if you want =)

Cheers