jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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Your left hand movement is nothing short of miraculous!! I gotta say Loraine, the thing that kept me engaged was your right hand skills. It was one of those things that I hear and go, Huh!…what is going on there and can I do it. Keep on keepin’ on.
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I like how you got to the essential question! It took me a while to even figure that out. : )
The answer is acutally both and yes. What ever it was that kept you playing yesterday, capture it and bring it with you today and hopefully you will have something left so you can bring it tomorrow too. There are no prerequesites or qualification for any of the lessons. The beauty of music is the most comlex things can be parsed and simplified. It is not easy to see at first. The distraction of the whole concept would keep me from seeing even the first part of it. If you find yourself totally engaged in a 5 day challenge, mission accomplished. If you are enaged in one module of the 5 day and you are engaged and on fire for your alotted time (newly centered around an old habit), mission accomplished. Here is the caveat: too much time spent trying to do something your body has not wired itself for either metally or physically is going to lead to stagnation. It is really difficult to see at first when progress stops on the account of force. It is why doing the challenge on a layer where you will find success is the fastest way to progress. It is also where observations of small wins are honed. I paid Tony to be my teacher for two years and I was still trying to teach myself. When I started doing it the way Tony suggested my progress ramped up. Once I figured that out, the whole thing got easier. Not that it was easy but it was easier. The other suggestion I have and you will get tired of me saying it soon….slow down. One beat every two seconds. Play as though you are playing in super slow motion to get your brain to rewire. It is rub your head and pat your belly all over again. You cant chase speed but you can sneak up on it.
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seems reasonable to me. Especially if it sounds good and you like it!
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My favorite pick is a 2.0mm made out of Snakewood that I have put a speed bevel on. The best pick for the money is the Dunlop Ultex 2.0mm. I do like thick picks. I find the thick pick offers more dynamic possiblities without the slapping plastic sound of the thinner pick on the strings. With a thin pick when I dig in it gets more string to pick sound but not much more volume for the additional effort. When I first started I favored a very thin pick because they felt more forgiving…over time the desire to control sound become greater than my need for a forgiving pick. With these Thicker picks I can get a wood tone to ring out without any string noise. It is a cool effect.
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There is only one thing that worked for me to smooths out transitions: slow way way down and think flow. When I get down to 30 to 60 bpm (beats per minute) I move in this flourished, over exaggerated way but in slow motion. Dunno why but it worked. Once relaxed and precisely accurate, start boosting the speed on a metronome. I was always surprised how fast I could get up to speed once I slowed down and snuck up on it. Hard to chase but easy to sneak up on. The other thing is to play smaller chords. depending on how you are strumming you can play the 3strings bass side, low half, of the chords or the treble high side of the chords high side 3 strings. The chords become one finger chords except for the D, gotta use all the fingers for D.
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I have to split in the middle. On the one hand it is a challenge, giving me the opportunity to stretch and flex the digits in ways they have not moved before. On the other hand finding workarounds is also a skill. In the end economy of motion is the goal for playing, however you settle upon that end is golden. There is no wrong. If you find a way that works now and then as you speed up you find you need a different way you will know how to do that too.
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I remember when I could not keep the pick from moving around in my fingers. It would spin out of position. Do not worry! This stops after you find balance. Think of the pick as being balanced on your finger. Grip it as lightly as you possibly can. Contact the strings as lightly as you can….notice at this level of effort how little effort it actually takes to change the volume of sound with the tinyest bit of additional force. The other tip is go more slowly. I found it necessary to go even slower than the slowest setting on the video. I had to buy a metronome to do this. It did work though. My left and right hands synched up. The key was to stop chasing speed. I had to sneak up on it a few beats per minute at a time. You can do this. Relax and let the creative precise part of you brain take over.
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It happens next week. All five days next week will break down the essential skills used in playing that song.
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I have been working on palm muting too. I have a calibration point. It is the bridge itself. I will lay my hand on the bridge just behind the strings (on top of the bridge pins) then strum softly. I am trying to get control of the pick moving between strings with equal dynamics (loudness, softness) at the same time I am limiting my hand motion by keeping it on the bridge, then when I am relaxed I take my hand that was on the bridge and start sneaking it up past the saddle. This is how I discovered the harmonic clarity palm muting offers. Just a light touch with the side of my strum hand. The bass strings are more forgiving than the trebles, just a fact I keep in the back of my head. It is a practice for sure that seems to get better the more that it is done. I can do it, but I do not have it locked in to the intuitive control section of my guitar tools.
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What Gary says here bears repeating, we all tend to press too hard when we barre more than one string. This was my key to getting my bar chords to ring. I found I was pressing strings too hard that were already covered and this took the wind out of the precision pressure needed for clear bars. That advice on pressing as lightly as possible to make your bar ring clearly is Solid Gold
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Epic! If it ever becomes to much, close your eyes and follow the G tone. It will lead you home.
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Looks like you made it back! Did you bring water or did you find some down there.
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the spinning wheel keeps on turning… : )
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Both, maybe? I don’t remember there being a specific “intro to” in TAC but there has been a ton of discussion in the forum about it. It is a wheel with the chords and arranged in an order to identify them in relation to themselves.
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+1 on getting familiar with the circle of fifths. In fact anyone wondering what to do when TAC has “off” days and repetitive exercise is crushing your mind…….search info for circle of 5ths. Bring a flashlight that rabbit hole goes on a ways.