[RudyB]

Yup, it does seep in and being able to see progress does help you to keep on practicing — even when things don’t go as well on some days. 🙂

[RudyB]

That’s for sure, Loraine. When you can see a difference, it helps a lot for the days when things don’t go as well, so you will continue to practice and not give up. 🙂

[RudyB]

Thanks, @Michelle-PSL. It doesn’t happen very often, and it’s a win anytime it does. 🙂

[RudyB]

Thanks, @stevieblues. It is a rare situation for me to be able to play anything at 120. There are plenty of days when I can barely make it through some of the exercises one time in 10 minutes, and I still have lots of “fumble-finger” days when I can’t get even close to the slow speed. We have to take the “small wins” whenever and however we can get them! 🙂

[RudyB]

Thanks, @Loraine. Good to see you have been posting during the week too, so I can “see” a familiar face! I still have “demented” fingers, but at least I am playing most days!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by  RudyB. Reason: Forgot to add the @ before the person's user name. 🙁

[RudyB]

Thank you! I know it just takes lots of practice, and I am trying to be consistent in my routine & be patient — I’m a slow learner anyway. 😉 It seems several of us like the drop D. Good to have company with techniques that we all enjoy. 🙂

[RudyB]

I had a lot of fun with the drop d tuning — has a really cool sound. I have 2 guitars — keeping my really old one (about 30 – 35 years ancient) in the banjo tuning, but I have to make other tunings, like the drop d, on my Taylor GS mini — which is more the size I need to play after shoulder surgery in 2019. Maybe we will get luck & “win” a lottery and be able to afford a Guitarsenal some day so we can have enough guitars for any of the alternate tunings we need!! 😉 (We can only hope!)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  RudyB.

[RudyB]

Thanks for the encouragement, Lorraine. Glad you also had a great week. I will be waiting (anxiously 😉 ) for when muscle memory actually “kicks-in” on my old & very “demented” fingers! 🙂

[RudyB]

I totally “get” the need for practice and am really trying to get it in every day. Just turned 70 this week, so I understand “why” my fingers are having a hard time “learning” where to go — as old people take longer to learn new skills! 😉 There are just days, however, when it’s not happening — too many “life” interruptions. Doing multiple drop D’s at a time is a “plus” so you don’t have to keep retuning the E to the D. Have fun with the drop D lessons. They do have a really cool sound.

[RudyB]

Thank you for your kind and encouraging post.

I was feeling really pressured on speed at first, but I let that go. I just play the lessons at a speed that I can do — not necessarily any particular speed.

I have also been playing each string in chords — just to make sure I can getting clear tone, and I have to agree with you, that playing slower can really let you hear the tone from your instrument. I guess that’s one of the reasons I really like the lessons where you do lots of individual strings — so I can hear the tones and know that I am getting it right.

Just starting from scratch last fall — when I didn’t even know the names of the 6 strings, I am really happy that I can look at the tab sheet and recognize which string is which. It’s a really small “win,” but I will take every one that I can get! 😉

[RudyB]

I admire your persistence on the full barres, and you are definitely waaaay ahead of me. I also struggle with transitions, but I am continuing to practice a variety of chords I have memorized — pretty much every practice session to try to help with my transitions, and that’s the real key to transitions from what I see.

I do resort to the minis just to be able to play some lessons all the way through when I can’t get the full barre to work, plus a bunch of the full barres give me some major cramping in my wrist and hand if I play them too long.

I am definitely a slow-poke on the lessons most of the time — not playing anywhere near the speeds indicated for the tab, but I figure if I can make it through the lesson (at any speed I can manage) is a “win” for me, and I can play some of the material faster than when I started a few months ago.

As long as we are sticking with practice and learning a little bit at a time — we are definitely “winning” in the long run! 😊

[RudyB]

I can do the F mini pretty well most of the time — not fast, but I am beginning to get it. The full barre F — like all of the barre chords that require a finger to cover all 6 strings across the neck — I just have not been able to get any of them yet. I can get get some at 4 strings and occasionally a 5 string barre (if the other fingers aren’t too contorted), but the full 6-strings are totally not happening. 6 strings on my index finger is over half-way between the 2nd joint and the knuckle. I just haven’t been able to get enough leverage to hold all 6 strings at once — no matter how hard I press down — getting lots of “thuds” on the G, D, & He strings — and I get cramps in my hand and wrist when I work on them or more than a just a couple of minutes. 😜

Hope the mini chords will work for you. I definitely do better at them, but I am still trying to work on the full barres a bit at a time. 😉

[RudyB]

Seems that either end of the scale – large or small – has more problems with the barre chords. You have to “fit” yours in, and I have to adjust to make mine try to reach the required span! 😆 This is where the “average” size probably has the advantage! 😊

[RudyB]

@Ronlad – I guess everyone pretty much has some type of “finger” problem. I have small hands and short fingers, so I guess my problem is the opposite of yours. Some of the reaches are really hard with the pinky. I pretty much have to shift my hand position to get it to reach. Tony is sooooo smooth on his fingering–able to reach all the spans in one position, it just kills me. I know he has had years to get that way, but my fingers just flat can’t reach some of the spans without a hand-position shift, so I just do it the best way I can figure out with the short-finger problem. I am working on how to get my fingers to hold all the strings down on barre chords. I know they are more difficult chord shapes, so I will just keep on with my “snail-pace” chord changes to get them right. 😉

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  RudyB.

[RudyB]

Thanks @johnny67. I agree — having fun with it is really important. There are way too many things in life that you HAVE to do that aren’t fun, so it’s great to have something that IS fun!