Bill1am
Forum Replies Created
-
Thank you!
-
Thank you so much! The singing often crashes my rhythm, I know what you mean!
-
Sounds great, and you have a powerful voice, lots of range. I really enjoyed this, thank you and keep it up!
-
On the surface, fretboard wizard is a very basic course on scales, chord theory, and the CAGED mnemonic/paradigm. Valuable, but similar to other platform’s “CAGED” courses. I finished my first pass, and it was good, but I questioned whether it was worth it. I’m not questioning that any more, though. In the couple weeks since, I’ve noticed some other things falling into place. Tony gives you a few tools that have the potential to unlock whole other levels of understanding here: mostly, the ear training lessons. There is one on using major scale shapes to find the key of a song, one on finding chord progressions, and one on finding the melody of a song. These are not easy, and you won’t nail them on the first pass, but along with the so-called chord matrix, there is a box of tools here to tear apart any song, melody, or tune without tab and break it down into our five pieces. I did not “do well” on these lessons (I.e. I didn’t get the example questions right on the first try) but I have been able to figure out lead lines in 3 different songs I love just by following Tony’s procedures. I’ll be making my second pass on fretboard wizard in a couple weeks and I anticipate getting even more out of it.
-
This reply was modified 9 months ago by Bill1am.
-
This reply was modified 9 months ago by
-
Still experimenting with strings! My favorites so far:
1) the Martin monel retro strings, sound amazing. I put a set on one normal, regular scale acoustic and I did have an A string just “pop” before it was even at tension, which was disappointing, but I’m not sure was martins fault. I replaced it with an extra Ernie ball earthwound I had in my string box, which is how I know knits how different they sound. Something full and ancient sounding about them.
2) the Ernie ball “bell-bronze” strings endorsed by john Mayer, just hit shelves a couple months back, these also sound full and rich, I went with 10s (maybe 10.5??) in these for fingerstyle stuff, I prefer 12s in most cases, but they are beautiful for single notes and still sound great strummed. The real magic happens when you “pinch” a base not with a higher note, it’s almost like you are using a slight reverb effect, they sing together for just an I stand longer into the next 16th note!
3) Santa Cruz parabolic low tension, 11s. These don’t sound special or magical, but they sound good and balanced, they hold tune well, and they have lasted as long as elixirs do and feel better to boot.
Full disclosure, I’m a bit neurotic about string changes, I keep a spreadsheet of what was changed when and probably change more that I really need to.
-
Sounding good! I need to figure out some recording process other than my phone camera and mic. Impressed that you’ve figured that out! Any resources you could recommend?
-
That’s awesome! Trust me, it takes a bit (took me two months) but you reach a point where you will need willpower to stop playing most days! Good work! Hang in there!
-
Welcome aboard! Do your best every day, don’t expect perfection, and stick with it! The wins will come, often in unexpected ways. You may have a frustrating day where you feel like you aren’t making music and then suddenly find yourself using a hammer on or chord embellishment or something you couldn’t do before in a song you are just strumming after practice. Favorite the lessons that really click for you, and come back to them. Favorite the ones you just can’t do at all and revisit them after a couple weeks when you have some extra time. Stick with it and have fun!
-
Yes, to echo what everyone seems to be saying, I started really floppy and the longer I play, the thicker and stiffer I like my picks. I go bigger and sometimes softer for strumming, stiffer and smaller for lead stuff. I also feel day-to-day changes. Some days, it’s harder to relax my picking arm and I need to go more flexible with the pick. Sometimes if I’m not getting a riff, switching picks will reset my muscle memory and I can break out of a mistake I keep repeating. Picks are cheap enough that it’s easy to experiment. Don’t neglect playing without one sometimes too! Sometimes I’ll use a stiffer pick to make myself relax if I’m too tight, and sometimes if my strumming feels timid I’ll go floppier to force myself to be more aggressive. It’s the cheapest, easiest thing you can change to vary tone and feel, so use that to your advantage. My current fave overall are the golden gate rainbow (clown vomit) rounded triangle picks. Pretty stiff but not too sharp, easy to hold, and a good in between size for both strums and individual strings. I always have one in the watch pocket of my pants
-
Thank you! It’s been a great journey so far!
-
Thank you so much!
-
Thank you for listening, Philb! Appreciate it!