jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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Way good @paul0r , I am not surprised that everyone enjoyed your music. I enjoyed listening to you even years ago. How were you on the inside as this was happening? Were you the focus of attention or was stuff going on around à la lounge playing? Did you have songsheets or were you rote and ready? 12 string? Details, looking for the details😊
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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by jumpinjeff.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by
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Hi @BigMoge , fantastic recount of your struggle and finding the solution. I read a ton of determination in there between the lines. I am a huge fan of determination. Hat’s off to you and solution based journeying. I want to put another therapy tool on your radar, just in case you have not seen it. Its use has become a super advantageous part of my routine. It is Theragun. It is a percussive massage tool. I use it for my hands and forearms and the results are dramatic and welcome. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more tales from the Journey of BigMoge.
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Happy 4th TACiversary @Marty69 It has been so cool seeing how you have developed over the years. As DeeDee says Strums and Smiles Brother, Fast easy progress always. I like the goals for next year at this time too. Have we talked about Sebastien and Backing tracks?
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Hi @Dirk_R , consider as well what you are trying t to achieve with your bar. As mentioned getting you arch higher will contribute to chord clarity. @Loraine is spot on with the palm advise. Focus on trying to get your finger to contact the strings in a perpendicular manner so that the last phalanges is 90°<strong style=”font-weight: bold;”> to the fret board. Mine never quite get 90 but close enough for good sound. The next part is thinking about what your barred finger is actually doing. For that Fm it is only effecting sound on two strings A and high E strings, you can use the tip of you index to mute the low E. Sometimes by releasing pressure and focusing your bar with a bit more of a curve so the focus of pressure is on only those two strings (your other fingers are covering the DGB strings, so it is not really and equal pressure bar like a capo would be) You can use less tension to create a clear chord sound. That is my chord hack, doesn’t work for all bar chords but A shape bars for sure.
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Hi @Danny75 , frustration was my biggest obstacle I had to address in order for me to progress on my guitar journey. You said you were not making any progress. Is that an accurate observation? or do you know more today than when you started? Are you actually making progress, slowly, little bits at a time? You have begun a training regiment of both mind and body. These two things do not always progress equally and simultaneously. If we take out the notion of how it “should” go and focus and analyse how it “is” most off the frustration will dissipate. If at the end of each session you can analyse what you have accomplished during the lesson, even if it is just time on the strings, you will advantage yourself for faster improvement. Hats off to you for coming to the forum with the roadblock! It is an important part of the process as well. It is essential to have goals but it is also imperative to not overestimate your learning curve with out really knowing what it is. Now that you have a couple of weeks down, you can compare week one to week four, etc. Improvements can be very small at times but recognizing these small improvements is how we become the player of our desire. For me this did not happen over night but rather over time. Relax, have some fun every time you pick up you guitar. Even if it is only playing one chord to your liking, or making one (chord) change accurately and precisely , or three notes perfectly to you liking.
That is the general: now to specifics. What exactly are you working on? What is your specific physical (or mental) hurdle you are working through at the moment? Knowing this we may be able to find some solutions to get you down the path on this amazing journey we call learning to play. -
Congratulations @Mike58 That feeling of being shocked I could to something that had been previously unreachable is still happening to me 6 1/2 years later. It is why I stick around and keep going. That feeling is powerful motivation. Wishing you an upcoming year of fast progress toward your goals.
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Hi @mkjohnsons , I am grateful to read your in depth self analysis. How much skill do I need? Fantastic question and I find it is as much as I can stand. I notice in your personal assessment of Fridays lesson you characterized your result as “(badly)”. I have to ask: as compared to what? If you ended up worse than before you started we need to explore that. Did you improve at all after the 3 or 4, 10 minute sessions? Where those sessions all in one day or over the course of 3 or 4 days? The Idea of “heck with it” would be counter productive for me but perhaps is a motivator for you? The feeling of “lost” happens to me every time begin to compare myself to “X”. Lost happens when I look to far into the future and leave the present moment. I am never lost in the present moment. I can make adjustments in the present moment. I can manage tension in the present moment. I can feel the vibrations of the strings in the present moment. I have joy in the present moment. My future does not create my present but my present creates my future. So getting present, we can address the sound you are producing, adjust, make a change find the sound you want and after adjusting, revel in the bliss of the new sound 1000 or so times, or what ever it takes for it to become intuitive. Bottom line is just keep going.
Remember just because something is eluding you now doesn’t mean it will elude you forever. The more effort you put in (not just physical but metal focus of eyes on the prize), combined with direction, and thoughtful analysis, the faster the progress will be. This make it easier to just keep going
I have been where you are. There are millions who have been where you are. Only thousands find a way to move beyond and continue. Millions hang it up. You are a player Mark you have made it this far. Marshall your determination, have confidence in the process (Tony’s method works but you gotta keep playing for it to work). Sometimes putting your head down and doing the next thing is all that it takes. Even if you loose your map the direction is there. It is okay to table things for now and revisit later. Break those chord shapes into their scales. Learn the individual notes of the triad, etc. The times when I have miraculous breakthroughs is right when I think I can’t stand it anymore and push just a little more and bam! the locked door opens. Just keep going.
As for the bar chords specifically? Do you need it? no. So many ways to skin a cat. How long is your thumb. Thinking what bar chords do: if your thumb can wrap the neck and get to the E and A strings you never have to bar with your index. The longer you play and explore the more you may find yourself wanting the options. There is nothing wrong with letting your necessity be the mother of your invention. You got this, just keep going. Wow that was long sorry. Oh one last thing….just keep going.
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Lovin It @MikeGaurnier . You get a gold medal for determination and sticking with it until you found the solution. Epic Win!
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Good going Rando. Frustration was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome before my progress got turbo charged. I got lots of help figuring it out right here in these forums. The hardest one is done as long as you keep going. Some days will be great and others not so great but no matter what there is the lesson tomorrow. Even on the rough ones try to end on a high note however you can. it makes tomorrow’s lesson ever so much easier to get to.
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Hi @Gonzalli@msn.com , sorry to hear about your finger. Where are you in your guitar journey. Lots can still be done without the ring finger but recommendations greatly depend on where you are in your journey. Hope it heals fast without too much discomfort!
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Cool @Danny75 I hear what your saying for sure. Lets take the notion of simple and discard it….and start framing guitar things into ; I’d like to do it, I am working on it, I do it reflexively. By adopting this mindframe the ticking of the clock is removed and in doing so frustration, and foxhole mentality that prevents the full bloom of the creative mind gets put away. Now for the physical training of the fingers. Slow way down. Your observation regarding the continued use of those muscles tendon and ligaments is 100% spot on. Slowing down to a point where your mind and your muscle connect… to the point of precise execution….. is where your sweet spot is. I have had to go as slow as 30 bpm at times in order to get my fingers and brain to align. That is one beat (1/4 note, the down stroke) every 2 seconds or 1/8 note every 1 second (the up strokes too). If you get to this place of precision then you can work on accuracy. Accuracy involves repeating over and over so that the sound is the same. Without precision, I found myself chasing accuracy and never being able to catch it. Once you have nailed down precision and accuracy at a given speed that is when the exercise of increasing speed begins. In the beginning you are learning how hard you need to press the strings to make the sound you desire. It is why the slower speed is so important. (This is the phase where you get to explore and manage your physical and mental tension. It is something everyone has and the more you manage your playing away from it the faster you will progress.) This is one of the first skills that became intuitive for me, but only after I had figured out how to calibrate fingers and brain through the above process. By employing this method I was able to progress at a pace that surprised me. Without it I would work for months to get a song in the midst of frustration. When I started to slow down and go through it first for Precision, then Accuracy, then Speed I was rewarded with a most satisfying progress. Hopefully you can put some of this to use and find the same. Give it a shot and let us (forum folks) know how/if it helps or not.
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Why? another great question. Variation. Really within musical context everything needed is between the C on the third fret of the A string and the C on the first fret of the B string. There lies one octave no need for E strings at all. Add in multiple octaves and potential for sonic variation increases. If the sound you hear in your head is one you can achieve with two octaves or so no need worry about the upper frets. Just know they are there in case the sound in your head evolves (seems to be constant evolution for me). The way I developed as a player I got the horizontal plane before the vertical plane made sense in my head. It was the way my wiring got connected. A fascinating aspect of guitar is it gives us the opportunity to advantage both vertical and horizontal or one or the other. Now I get up way high and run outta space (wishing I had more) thinking “Uh Oh” how the heck do I get back down and another adventure begins.
Your goal and mine are almost identical. “…ability to be able to pick up a guitar and be able to competently “play along” quickly and easily, by ear. Maybe be able to transfer the music I hear in my head instantly to my guitar”. I am not a gifted musician (not tone deaf either but lets just say tone confused) I have been playing as much as I can for 6 1/2 years and only now am I getting to the place where the mind and fingers can instantly connect in an intuitive way. Not meant as a comparison rather my personal recognition of how I woefully underestimated my time to get to this place. When I started I was thinking a year maybe two at most. Hehehe. Those were my dark days. I figure I am about as fluent on guitar as a Six year old kid might be in their native language. Some of those kids talk a lot and some pretty eloquently but most either way can get their point across.
Last thought. It is way easier to bend strings around the neighborhood of the 12 fret. String bending is part of my head sound and is done more easily up there.
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So looking forward this my friend. Long time coming. So glad now is here.
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@Gonzalli@msn.com , hopefully you caught today’s improve lesson? I you look, the first six string ascent does not use the ring finger at all…really good news right. Tony goes up the fretboard to do the second part but you could go down the fretboard and utilize the open strings and not need your ring finger at all. The C pentatonic utilizing open strings is super friendly to Index and Middle finger execution.
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Very nice, Have you introduce yourself to the concept of scales yet? And if no yeah! with no ring finger to use, the Am/ Cmaj pentatonic scale would be an excellent place to start. The open position scale allows you to utilize the open notes while engaging your index finger and middle fingers exclusively. Also if you are working on songs you can play any GCD chord song by using your index and middle fingers for the top half of the G chord (triad meaning three notes) drop down a set of strings and you have the top half of C chord (triad). To make the D chord bar the three highest pitch strings (GBE strings) with your index of fret 2 and put your middle on the B string fret 3. Lemme know if that makes sense to you. Best of all your ring finger gets to rest.