jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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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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the Daily Challenges are circular in nature. There is no beginning or end you just jump in. The info presented has many layers. Try and focus on just one thing at a time. For instance, today’s challenge is Drop Cloth. If you can figure out the bass note and the first note and learn to pedal those two notes back and forth I would say this session has been productive. Small bites worked better for me than big. It took me a long time to figure that out. Even today when I am working out a difficult new ear worm, it takes me several thousand repetitions to lock it down. It seems like a lot but at 100 beats per minute that is only 20 minutes of real time. Think of initial/introductory learning/playing as playing through the view of a magnifying glass. Some times I slow down to 30 bpm (beats per minute) and that is the Microscope phase. Later comes the Binoculars. Santana, Clapton, Tommy Emmanuel, those guys can see infinity through telescopes. : )
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60 to 80 BPM is fine with me, any faster and I have to just call it double time. (see what I did there)
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Okay @mdrichman62gmail-com here is my secret: go slow, even slower, nope still too fast, go more slowly. I had to litteraly imagine myself moving in slow motion while making my hand and fingers do the same. I am talking comically slow. Exaggerate the finger motions off of the guitar (air guitar style) before putting them on the guitar. At that speed I found I could will myself to do it and then my brain clicks and up to speed we go. The other thing is to mute the strings while learning new rhythmic patterns. Not sure why, but this helped me a ton.
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One of my guitar heros and a continual source if inspirtation in spirit was/is a fingerstyle player named Pete Huttlinger. Tony did a great interview with him before he passed. He too suffered a stroke but his living was earned by playing. He too had to learn guitar twice and the tale is worth a listen.
Frustration will hamstring your progress. As the most frustrated learner in the history of guitar, recovered, what every help you might need in eliminating it, I am with you. I wish you godspeed in your recovery. Every now is new. -
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.
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one thing about the struggle bus….after the first year I renamed the struggle bus the freedom bus. You can do this….take small bites. Celebrate digesting those small bites and jettison how you feel about what you don’t know unless it is excitement at becoming the player you intend to be. ETA to a destination will only cramp your progress. The more you do this the more awareness you gain that your playing IS your personal collection of digested tiny bites. Most can be gained in 10min or less. Not the whole thing but a bite of it. As in (general, not a specific example) you might not get the whole scale but you will gain knowledge of the key note and one or two additional notes.
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I can confirm: this also happens with me. I will work on something that Is driving me nuts because I am so close but not close enough and when I come back the groove that evaded me locks in and like riding a bike, once felt, I don’t need to relearn.
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\m/
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Hey @petelanger : I was thinking about what you said….I may have learned as much in the chats as I did from Tony…..the chats worked out and directly supported the meat of the challenge material. 50/50 split…maybe….close anyways.
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I much prefer to be tangled up in blue than anchored with expectation. : )