Peter L – 1st Benchmark Bill Withers "Ain't No Sunshine"

[outdoorgator]

@langerking Great job! I remember when I told myself I was going to put my flat pic down and learn how to finger pic. This was the first song for me on finger picking. From day one, coming out of my 30 day challenge cocoon, I always used a flat pic. Now I’m loving both flat pic and finger picking. That’s what makes TAC so powerful. Putting yourself out of your comfort zone and always striving to improve. This TAC technique is so valuable, helps you stay out of the guitar rut. Way to go! Great job! The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Momentum over mastering, always have patience and trust the process!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  outdoorgator.

[petelanger]

Appreciate your encouragement!

[petelanger]

My notes from the “Ain’t No Sunshine” Benchmark Week:

Monday “Cloudy Day”:

Love this! I’ve been wanting to understand percussive playing because this adds so much to your sound. I spent a little extra time today to get this under my fingers. I don’t have it fully down but I got much further along than I expected when Tony first played through! WIN!

I learned that I am muting alternately with the picking hand and the fretting hand:

the AND of the 2 beat (G str X) is muted by lifting up on the fretting hand. Then push down again on the 3 beat as the A str sounds followed by DGB pluck. *

The last 4 measures are the hardest to get the timing down for. Struggling with the two 16th note muted plucks(muted by fretting hand’s pinky while holding the Am chord which is needed for the very next 8th note). I can actually do it isolated if I start on the 2nd beat of the last measure. Posted a Benchmark Video in the forum on this.

I know,*the mute is actually done with the pinky of the fretting hand. Tony doesn’t mention this but you clearly see he’s doing it.

Tuesday “Gone Too Long”:

I can (sort-of) do this thing but I’m still kind of operating the guitar (trying to press the right buttons at the right time) and not playing music through the guitar. Yes, I realize it’s decidedly too soon, less than 9 months since I first had the thought that I would finally begin to learn guitar. But I want so badly to feel the music and be able to express it.

Even though I know the note progression (of the first 2 bars) I am not able to consistently play it without error. And it’s hard to remember the entire riff, tend to lose it by the 6th or 7th measure and that’s because I’m not feeling it! I am just rote learning the positions and trying to rattle them off. Typically I’ll leave out a note or finger the wrong string. The open strings pose a bit of a problem too: I feel I need to mute them before playing the next note, while a fretted note automatically stops ringing once you lift off the fret. If I don’t mute then it seems like an odd sound, so this adds another thing to think about while playing the riff.

Wednesday “I know, I know, I know”:
Amazingly it seemed I did better with these scales. Was able to remember the top 3 (33 notes) in about 20 minutes or so, whereas I could not get the first 7 notes right in that amount of time. I practiced it for hours and still was making mistakes even today as I go back I will flub those first 7 notes somewhere and the second line of the TAB is still very elusive.

Thursday “Wither Away”:
&
Friday “Every Time She Goes Away”:
I’m not really able to play these because the chords are changing too rapidly.
Have to work on the Chord Progression, Am, Em (for one beat), G (for one beat), then back to Am.
So for the remainder of the week I’m just practicing the first 3 challenges of the week.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  petelanger.

[frugality-queenprotonmail-com]

I like the idea of recording the lesson. Good for you!