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Anyone used Tom Hess' Practice Generator?


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I need to focus my practice and since a good teacher isn't really available to me, I was thinking this might be useful. The only problem is that I'm not sure exactly what it does besides organize a practice. I know the stats from Hess' page, but does it actually provide exercises to improve in the areas you choose? Does it make goal suggestions? Is there a pleasant GUI?

 

I'm hesitant to try it out without a demo or even screenshots to go from. Any additional information about this program would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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Partly location. My town is large enough to have several teachers, but probably not of the quality I require at my level of experience. The biggest problem is finding a teacher that is suited to my style. I want to develop as a metal guitarist and I've hit a wall. Unfortunately there is literally no metal community in town, so the teachers are very difficult to find. I have a few more places to try, but my expectations are low.

 

So I haven't written off finding a teacher quite yet, but I'm looking for ways to get by on my own as best as I can in the mean time.

 

BTW, if anyone knows a great teacher in State College, PA, I'd appreciate the recommendation.

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Oh I see. Have you considered taking correspondence lessons from Tom Hess? He teaches metal also. And he has helped many students reach their goals so I feel you may want to consider contacting him regarding lessons. And he is surely qualified to help you.

 

 

 

 

Emmanuel Chan

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How much would you be willing to pay for a guitar lesson? His lessons are about $55 each. But you do not have to take lessons as often as he can give, which is 2 weeks. You could also take them every 3 weeks - 6 weeks. I think most guitar teachers in US charge about $30 if I'm not wrong.

 

So if we have lessons every week we spend $60 in 2 weeks. Which is slightly more than having a lesson with Tom every 2 weeks. But Tom isn't just the average teacher as we can see that many of his students are reaching their goals and being very good at what they do. Each lesson is created to take us closer to our goals and we work on what we have to know.

 

 

Emmanuel Chan

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I need to focus my practice and since a good teacher isn't really available to me, I was thinking this might be useful. The only problem is that I'm not sure exactly what it does besides organize a practice. I know the stats from Hess' page, but does it actually provide exercises to improve in the areas you choose? Does it make goal suggestions? Is there a pleasant GUI?


I'm hesitant to try it out without a demo or even screenshots to go from. Any additional information about this program would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

I use a good practice tool that shows you how to play some of those complex leads in slow motion and you can view how it's played from any angle you want. It costs about $19.95 a month or $199.95 a year and you can get it here:

 

http://guitarschool.net/page.asp?id=16710&utm_source=app&utm_medium=logon

 

It's called IPerform 3D. It will help you break some new ground on learning leads and teaches metal, blues, country, and jazz styles on intermediate and advanced levels...Give it a try...

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  • 4 months later...
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People ask about playing real fast; I point 'em to Tom Hess. They can sort it out for themselves. I think though that Hess's music is comically mechanical. So if you just want bionic chops, go.

EVERYTHING ELSE about music, involves some kind of music. You learn to operate your instrument so you can play it - music that is. What kind of material do you do? Gigs? What's your default performance level? If you have any of these concerns, forget Hess.

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People ask about playing real fast; I point 'em to Tom Hess. They can sort it out for themselves. I think though that Hess's music is comically mechanical. So if you just want bionic chops, go.

EVERYTHING ELSE about music, involves some kind of music. You learn to operate your instrument so you can play it - music that is. What kind of material do you do? Gigs? What's your default performance level? If you have any of these concerns, forget Hess.

 

 

When you have chops like that, its all in how YOU wish to use it. No one says you have to eschew your blues chops as a result of the lessons. The lessons give you the ability. Tom wishes to be a neoclassical fusion shredder. Someone else may just want to be able to whip those fast runs out as a "Wow" Factor in a solo.

 

Guitar teachers aren't there to teach you creativity. They are there to give you the tools to fuel YOUR creativity.

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  • 6 months later...
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yeah this guy is like a pyramid scheme guy or something. I gave my email for a free audio thing, which to be honest was alright, and now I get at least one email a day. His website has those really long sales pitches that go on and on and scroll down the page. It's real classic web marketing stuff.

 

Anyway, I'm sure he's good at getting people to learn stuff, but to be honest I checked out all his students playing and it was all pretty horrible music. Like if you grated cheese all over a drum machine and then overbaked it in the oven. Personally I like guitar that sounds like a guitar, - he doesn't seem to cater for this and to be honest I think he'd find it hard to teach anything but 'chops' and economy styles by correspondence.

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Hess really knows how to market I will give him that. But he really is a shred only kind of teacher.

 

My favourite "Hess moment" is on one of his YouTube clips where he has a student with him and he asks the kids "who is your favourite guitarist? (kid) John Frusciante! (hess) chuckles arrogantly then says "no ... someone (actually) good"

 

John Frusciante made more meaningful actual music in his first year than Hess has in a lifetime. Brutal response.

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That's because Frusciante is god.

 

I once told a friend who is into metal music that I wanted to play like Frusciante and he told me "Frusciante sucks, if you like the RHCP you should try something like Dave Navarro". The conversation ended there.

 

I mean, he's not bad, but there is no comparison.

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I always struggle when some people seem to put no emphasis on creativity. There are tons of guys (like Hess) who can shred like mad but have very little in the way of originality. Chops alone do not a player make!

 

I am not saying for one second that Frusiante is a monster technique guy - hes not - but he is damn creative and I were allowed to choose I would choose creativity over chops in a heartbeat.

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That's because Frusciante can say more with a 3 note fill than most shredders do with a 100 note scale run/sweep picking solo.

 

Frusciante has some cool things. He did a lot of blues/funk music at the beginning of his career and still does sometimes with the RHCP but his solo albums are a completely different thing. He explores so much sounds and different styles that he'd never try with his band.

 

Also in some of his solos he tries NOT to put emphasys on the beats and thus sounding much more differently that we use to hear in rock most of the time.

 

Sorry for the offtopic :D

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Anyway, I'm sure he's good at getting people to learn stuff, but to be honest I checked out all his students playing and it was all pretty horrible music.
Like if you grated cheese all over a drum machine and then overbaked it in the oven.
Personally I like guitar that sounds like a guitar, - he doesn't seem to cater for this and to be honest I think he'd find it hard to teach anything but 'chops' and economy styles by correspondence.

 

 

Luke,

 

That's the funniest thing I read or heard in days. And I mean that as in sincerely, genuinely funny. Thank you for the good, hearty laugh. I needed it, even if Hess didn't.

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I draw the line when "good web marketting" becomes misleading.

 

For example, if I get an email from someone I gave my email address to, talking about their product, I don't really mind. If you sign up with Tom Hess you will get emails often. You can unsubscribe, so it's not spam.

 

What I object to is when the emails lie. For example, they say "click on this link for information about " and in fact the link always takes you to the same long web page that the last one took you to, which contains no information about the lesson at all.

 

if were allowed to choose I would choose creativity over chops in a heartbeat.

 

Yeah. Man I'd love some creativity lessons.

 

Does anyone recall the movie "Amadeus", where Salieri present to the sponsor (king? ruler? rich dude?) a piece that he has slaved over all week.

Mozart grabs the score and renders the hopelessly staid piece on a nearby keyboard. The improvises the hell out of it on the spot. Salieri ends up in the lunatic asylum, consumed with jealousy. :eek:

 

From time to time my own little diddles bring this to mind...

 

GaJ

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Does anyone recall the movie "Amadeus", where Salieri present to the sponsor (king? ruler? rich dude?) a piece that he has slaved over all week.

Mozart grabs the score and renders the hopelessly staid piece on a nearby keyboard. The improvises the hell out of it on the spot. Salieri ends up in the lunatic asylum, consumed with jealousy.
:eek:

From time to time my own little diddles bring this to mind...


GaJ

 

 

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yeah this guy is like a pyramid scheme guy or something. I gave my email for a free audio thing, which to be honest was alright, and now I get at least one email a day. His website has those really long sales pitches that go on and on and scroll down the page. It's real classic web marketing stuff.


Anyway, I'm sure he's good at getting people to learn stuff, but to be honest I checked out all his students playing and it was all pretty horrible music. Like if you grated cheese all over a drum machine and then overbaked it in the oven. Personally I like guitar that sounds like a guitar, - he doesn't seem to cater for this and to be honest I think he'd find it hard to teach anything but 'chops' and economy styles by correspondence.

 

Tom ain't running a pyramid scheme, it just looks like that way from the outside. He's actually a really good teacher, but he sells it like snake oil, which is what sets of peoples' BS detectors. I was every bit as weary about it as anyone here, but it turns out the guy has a lot of good, specific advice that you generally just don't get from books. Some of it you kinda have to filter out, though. There's one lesson where he tells you to spent some time (like 15 min.) playing everything with upstrokes in order to fully develop that technique (his reasoning being you use downstrokes much more often, so your upstrokes aren't as well defined). I skipped that--it seemed like a waste of time.

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I always struggle when some people seem to put no emphasis on creativity. There are tons of guys (like Hess) who can shred like mad but have very little in the way of originality. Chops alone do not a player make!


I am not saying for one second that Frusiante is a monster technique guy - hes not - but he is damn creative and I were allowed to choose I would choose creativity over chops in a heartbeat.

 

Sorry, but you don't know Tom very well. He's quite creative, and a very good composer/guitarist. Perhaps you don't like it (it being neo-classical metal), but it's actually quite musical, as opposed to wankers like Rusty Cooley. Moreover, Tom has an excellent grasp of musical theory and it's clear from his videos that he is intimately familiar with the notes he uses and why he uses them.

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I am sure he is very knowledgeable and has great chops. But ripping Frusiante is bush league. For the record I am not really even a peppers fan. He has written nothing even close to the vacinity of JF in terms of musical importance or originality. Until he does comments like those do nothing to improve his credibility. If he is so great he should understand this. Does Andy Summers suck too? Or for that matter Buddy Guy? I guess George Harrison was pretty crap too cause he can't sweep pick a minor seven arp at 200bpm

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