[DavidScoggins]

Thanks @Cadgirl, glad you enjoyed it. Strumming is an area I’ve worked on a lot, but even more important is having a solid feel for timing. Playing regularly with a metronome really makes a difference with this.

[DavidScoggins]

Nice one @rick91k. It’s a great feeling when you find a guitar that you feel a rapport with instantly. Have fun!

[DavidScoggins]

Cheers @riverjordan_61 and @Charlie_d. Have a great weekend too.

[DavidScoggins]

Thanks everyone for your kind and encouraging comments, glad yous enjoyed it, but you’ve gotta love some Neil Young, right?

[DavidScoggins]

Thanks @Niels. 🙂

[DavidScoggins]

Also, a #smallwin, this was the first improv. I’ve posted in at least two months.

[DavidScoggins]

Nicely played @charlie_d , very smooth, and a tip of the hat to the great Dusty Hill.

[DavidScoggins]

Very melodic and I like that for want of a better description, your improvisation has direction to it, it’s not just noodling around.

[DavidScoggins]

@Alisa barre chords like many things which are difficult at first often get a bad rap. My advice for them, and this certainly worked for me, is to do the following to build up strength and technique in your index finger:

1. Practice barring the highest three strings (G, B and high E) only and pick each of those strings making sure you get a clean tone from each. Then strum the 3 strings in unison. Do this on the 5th fret where tension is lower than at frets 1-3.

2. Release the pressure and then move up to the 6th fret and repeat. Repeat on frets 7 and 8.

3. Do this whole exercise for a couple of minutes at most, and be sure to release the pressure each time you move to a new fret, this will help prevent your finger cramping.

4. Once you’re (more) comfortable with doing this on the 3 highest strings, repeat the process by barring the 4 highest strings (high D, G, B and high E). Rinse and repeat with barring 5 strings and then all six.

5. Make sure you watch Tony’s video lesson on barre chords as well. https://tonypolecastro.com/courses/better-barre-chords/#learndash-course-content 🙂

[DavidScoggins]

Cheers @guitargeezer. I have three dogs and they all seem to tolerate my playing and signing, which is a relief! 🙂

[DavidScoggins]

Thanks Terry. There are good lessons from Justin Sandercoe on Heroes and Only Love Can Break Your Heart on his YouTube channel and website.

[DavidScoggins]

What ever works for you, do that. Something I would add is that one good way of using a metronome is to focus on strumming and smooth chord changes. For example, set your desired BPM and decide on a chord progression, you could the one from the Friday key chord changes for example, and play a bar of one chord with alternate 8th note strumming then a bar of the next chord and so on. For a i, iv, v progression in A minor that would be:

1 bar of Am

1 bar of Dm

1 bar of Em then repeat.

Focus on accuracy above speed, and if you need to go pretty slow to begin with, no problem. As an alternative to 8th note strumming, try just strumming on the beats, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 16th note strumming: 1e&a 2e&a 3e&a 4e&a.

For more of a challenge accent some of the beats in each bar while maintaining alternate 8th note strumming, e.g. beats 2 and 4. This gives the progression a driving rhythm and is used quite commonly, David Bowie’s Heroes is a good example. Here’s my effort at this track from a VOM earlier this year, not perfect by any means but it hopefully illustrates my point.

https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/heroes-saturday-night-vom-performance/#post-2089444

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

[DavidScoggins]

Wow, thank you so much Marisa, you are far too kind. Any way, glad you enjoyed it.

[DavidScoggins]

Cheers for listening and commenting @Bill_Brown. I think you hit the nail on the head, the first take in particular meanders and lacks direction, which is quite a common feature of my improv. playing at the moment.

[DavidScoggins]

Thanks @Lange22. Yeah, the consensus seems to be in favour of the second take.