jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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Nicely done. And to think, it keeps getting better and better! Most of the time : )
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Hi Barbara, The softest sounding pick, on the thin side, is the Jim Dunlop Nylon, .60. The sound of thin picks (to my ears) include a lot of sound from the slap of the pick on the string. Your discovery of playing softly is part of this equation. Thin picks give up tone as you demand volume or maybe not give up tone but you hear the sound of the pick contacting the string more and more as volume is increased. A thin pick delivers amazing tone but at low volume.
Are you holding your pick between thumb and index? There is a little trick in here that is slight of hand (takes forever to learn but when your get it,…magic) the place my index finger touches the pick has gotten smaller and smaller over time. As my precision increased the amount of contact between my index decreased. The point is….try playing as lightly as you possibly can…barely any sound…the hidden volume button is precision not force. Check it out and lemme know what you find. The best pick I found to get the hang of thicker picks was Dunlop Ultex 2.0. I love the thick Blue Chips picks but price of admission makes the risk reward ratio unfavorable. The risk is I loose and 80.00 pick vs. the reward: a cool sound and feel. Nothing like the sound of Santa Cruz strings and a Blue Chip Pick but I have bought whole guitars for less. : ) -
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 hear you Pete. Leave it to me to get in my own way with this “one great idea”. You would be amazed at how many times I did this in my early TAC days. I learned.
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Perfect position holding the pick. It is like I hold too. Imagine, instead of squeezing the pick to hold it, try and touch the pick with as little skin as possible touching the pick. Imagine only one square mm of skin on both your index and thumb touching the pick. It is more but the mental exercise is that. It forces you to jettison absolutely all of your tension…you cant touch it that lightly and make sound if you have tension. I think @Skyman911 makes an excellent point about too much digging in with the tip. The stiffer pick does not allow for that. It flips out of your fingers. The thin pick bend forgivingly but give you that sound. The sound of the thin pick is not softer but rather it is more forgiving causing what you described as the chain saw on metal post sound. (love that BTW : ) ) I know exactly what you mean too. To get rid of that effect, less tip contact. To produce that sweet sound with a thin pick you ultimately give way to some of the volume the guitar is capable of producing or use amplification were volume can be controlled with electronics. Speaking of the chainsaw…there is a cool effect where you intentionally use that thin pick to get the snaredrum sound, kinda?
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bingo!!
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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… : )