I get a lot of unwanted noise when I'm soloing. Probably because I'm not good enough at muting the strings which are note picked:)
Any good tips for this other than practice of course.

Any suggestions as to the action of the strings? I have pretty low action (slight buzzing), and that works to my advantage when string skipping etc, but maybe that's not the best thing when it comes to playing a solo "clean"?

I play through a Line 6 POD, and wanted to get some new settings. Does anyone know of a site with settings, or does anyone have a setting they use that you would like to share.

I had the day off work yesterday and since my wife and young boy were out for the day I decided to do some major scale practice. I kind of lost track of time and 9 hours later I turned off the metronome and put down the guitar. It was great and I got a bunch of stuff done, although my fingers are a little sore this morning.

That was easily the longest I have ever *practiced*. Anyone else done marathon practice sessions in the past?

Every guitar player I come accross has one sweep picking lick that they do more than any other, so lets start a list of all our favorite sweeps, so maybe it can help people (like me) get better at it and not play the same ones so many times.

My Favorite:

Major Minor Diminished
e--7--11--7 e----6--11--6---- e---7--11--7---
b-8---------8 b--8-----------8-- b--9----------9--
g7-----------7 g 7--------------7- g 7-------------7
d-------------- d ------------------ d-----------------
a-------------- a------------------- a-----------------
E-------------- E------------------- E-----------------

I've been playing guitar since December 08 and been trying to self teach myself. I'm having a hard time learning from the books so I have decided to try DVDs. I decided to go with DVDs lessons by Doug Marks. I will blog here on my progress so you all can keep up with me and see how these DVDs work. If your interested to know more about the DVDs go here http://www.metalmethod.com/basic-guitar-lessons.htm

I like the ideas of DVDs so it gives me a chance to learn at my own pace and not have to pay for a teacher that I can't afford right now.

I've already done the first two lessons so I will make post about those lessons and start lesson 3 soon. I do a lesson a week, this is a 6 month course to complete.

so ive been playing guitar for about 5 years now, and can play pretty much ANYTHING out there. but the problem that im noticing is when switching from finger pattern 1-2-3 [index middle ring] to 1-3-4 [index ring pinky] is that its alot slower than any other pattern that i do. im very strong with my pinky, its likely my strongest finger cause i practiced hard to get used to using it, but when it comes to using my ring finger and pinky at the same time, i just slow down a ton. is this common or just coincidence?

Being over here I've not had a lot of time but used what time I've had playing the hell out of that Ibenhad (which I absolutely LOATHE, I need POINTY!!!) and a Rogue 12 string which I pretty much taught myself how to tune and string etc.

A very easy song for the budding young lead guitarist I would say would be a simplistic masterpiece by Norse Metal Gods Amon Amarth entitled Under the Northern Star, which goes something like this:

G--6--7-6--7-9-6-----
D--------------------7-6 X2

Then (all on bottom string, tuned to std)

e----5--5--5p4h5-5/10-9~/5-5/4-4--2-4--5-4~/7-5~5/4/2p0h2

Does this 4X

I think listening to this song and playing along with it will truly help you get some nuances of timing and styling/phrasing and sliding which will only enhance your playing.

I will continue this lesson should anyone be interested in learning more of this great (albeit VERY simple) song

write a song rhythms, get lyrics and that involved, and just let your fingers find the solos? Just "feel" your way through? That's how I tend to do things when I write songs, just play what feels right, and if I find a turd note (or a dozen) I erase those, keep the concept, and find notes that work.
Anyone else do this?