jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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Congratulations PJDevlin! I can guarantee year 2 is 10x better than year 1! All that is necessary to enjoy the magic is to keep playing EVERY day.
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I found Interval focus to be key for my playing…..I have always said there is only one scale that changes pitch when we move location (all my playing friends just collectively rolled their eyes). Everything is variation on this. Over time doing anything is more important than doing nothing but it takes a while to understand how that works. It I why I looked everywhere for a good teacher and settled here.
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Aint No Sunshine starts 1/19 in the daily challenges. That Monday’s Challenge is called Cloudy Day. Just hit “start challenge” button on that Monday and away we go.
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Congrats on the anniversary Marty! I have recieved countless hours of inspiration from your playing. Feel better!
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Fantastic Terry. You have my admiration measured through inspiration. Today I can play a bit longer thanks to you!!! Glad to see you mending and your displayed persistence through you healing process is noted. (see what I did there.) Thanks!
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Thank you Barbara for sharing your journey here. I know it helps me. Congratulations on two years of persistent consistent playing. The rewards are big!!! and you exemplify them.
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I do what @petelanger does but…I turn the volume down to a level of what I estimate is backround connversation. I move between the two focus points. I get myself going in the music and then allow the backround to infiltrate and then pull my focus back to the music. I have been able to split my attention between the two, simultainiously….it reminded me of when I first balanced on a 2 wheel bicycle, I couldn’t do it and then suddendly after a good deal of trying I could.
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Hi @KnottyJim : out of curiousity how is your playing going?
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The best guitar is the guitar you love. If you don’t love one, pick the cheapest you can find with a sound you like and start dating other guitars. If you don’t know why you should love one, stick around, keep playing your inexpensive one and you will begin to develop preferences.
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I feel one thing when I play now…..I feel free. When I play I am exploring infinity in a seemingly finite way. Many years of daily effort where itegral to this process. I started getting flashes and glimmers along the way that always kept me chasing the next challenge. I had a mentor who used to tell me that at some point I would not have to think about what the next note is…I would just intuitively play it. I thought he was patronizing me and I was not one of those people….I was dead wrong. It has come to pass. Just in case anyone who reads this may think they are not one of those people who can just play: I have no innate musical talent, what I did get in abundance at birth was determination…..what is the difference between the two? the musically gifted get the freedom in a tenth of the time. Can anyone get this? Yes!! But if you have no innate talent only determination will take you there over time. So much so that time itself becomes just a marker and not a goal.
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and that is just the launch pad into the fractile!
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That old F shape is a tricky one. I had to sneak up on it, barred the two high strings only (at first) and focused on getting them to ring out, then added the G and contorted around until those three all rang and then added the D. This allowed me to dial in the pressure I needed to make it ring. I found I was trying to use too much brute force and became aware of the importance of precise placement of the fretting fingers. As you go through the contortion motions don’t forget to consider your elbow and shoulder as points of rotation not just wrist and fingers.
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Hi @KnottyJim , sorry for the delayed response, I have been on the road, holidays and all. There are two things that may be holding you back. Daily playing: I grossly underestimated the importance of this one practice for the first years of my playing only to become a strict devotee of the practice once I saw the results. I was able to do this by raising the level of importance of the daily playing. It was difficult to convince those around me of my sincerity and my personal need for this carve out. Their perspective was based on what they heard and not what was in my heart. Gaining this understanding was in itself a small win. It also bolstered my determination. When my mother died, I played. When my grandson was born I played. When I travel I play. After spine surgery I played. After shoulder surgery I played. This was and integral part of becoming the player of my desire. The second thing is unemotional analysis of progress. Are you actually not progressing or are you not progressing as fast as you would like to progress, or are you progressing so slowly it is hard to tell? The subject is a heavy one. Once identified the good news is you get to optimize progress based on your own analysis. I leaned heavily on the forums for the first few years to accomplish this. Putting my struggles down and reading solutions with open-minded curiosity was almost as frequent as my playing sessions themselves. You have made progress just to get to this cross roads, just keep going and keep playing everyday, no matter what. The rest we can fix all together.
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@petelanger , @terry-stewart-azgmail-com : Pete once again I read what you have experieced and it is also my experience. It is still this way 10.5 years into my journey…I will work at a challenge work it, work it, work it, and when I am sure I cant get it this time, I move on to something else. Often when I get back to it, the previous effort mixed with time to marinate (in the gray matter) I find I can unlock the new technique or skill. Somewhere in the 1000 rep is what it takes for me to effort my way to getting it under my fingers…1000 seems like a lot but it only take 10 min to do 1000 reps on a string but depending on the complexity of what is going on 30 min may be required to hit the mark where I start to smooth out. Time is reletive and I still work at 60 bmp when I am embarking on something new and unfamiliar or if the complexity of sequence leaves me lagging behind or flustered or sometimes both. Why 60 bpm? why so slow?….I learned I cant chase speed, ever! But I can sneak up on it in short order. Stopping now before I achieve TLDR status. : )
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Now we have something to work with!! What is currently preventing you from picking a 4 chord song and playing it? You have that desire, you have some experience, what is blocking your path, as it were. I’ll go first: the biggest thing blocking my progress was my own expectation. I have a list of 4 but will leave you with just the one…no need to put yours in the Forum it is mostly rhetorical. If you can suss out what is blocking you, then we can get you fast tracked to your desired outcome. You have good things going on. Your song list is cool. You have developed your habit. You are slowly increasing your playing times. These are all key components to sustained improvement. Thumbs up there. How are you doing with the fun component?