Got a full run of my Cherry Wine practice so far. Trying to remember the variations between the sections and the connecting runs, and trying to consistently get my fingers on the right strings.
I should slow down my practice speed for them, however I find it difficult to practice the hammer-ons and pull-offs with reasonably consistent timing if it’s too slow - especially the hammer-on where the bass is strummed with the hammer-on and not the first plucking of the string. I can make it ring out okay without the bass involved but almost never once I incorporate the beat. I do break down the bits I’m having trouble with and focus on them for a while.
I’m going to work on keeping my fingers closer to the strings, should solve some of the missing issues. Also, I think slouching as I practice probably changes my angle of attack and affects consistency and proprioception.
Anyway, I did a couple hours on this again today, stopped when I realised I was just getting worse with each pass. Got my wrist in a brace because I was focussing so hard I wasn’t paying attention to how it felt. 
I am absolutely gonna get this under my fingers before next year is over, I am determined. I go to sleep thinking about playing it and wake up thinking about it so I don’t think I can start on Jolene yet as I can’t shake the singular focus I have going on lol.
In weather news, it was 9% humidity today. 
But, we’re getting rain on the weekend!
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O what are there are some difficult things in there 
, but it’s already so good to hear that it will sound great one day… and then it is so great to see this archive again 
…
Ps: I have mastered Jolene and I think it will be a lot raelly a lot easier than this ,Although it was a riff on speed for many, many months and perhaps a year + (many breaks), but well before the speed it already sounds 100% finished 
Greetings
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Well, I learned a new word today 
Proprioception - awareness of the position and movement of the body!!
I’ve been doing a bit of reading on practice methods recently and one common theme seems to be breaking things down into chunks and then doing repetitions of these chunks. Most sources say that amateur musicians don’t break things down into small enough pieces and don’t identify their problem spots - you don’t appear to have that problem. They also recommend that you practice each chunk until you get 3 correct repetitions in a row (they can be slower tempo, they just need to be correct and in a row, not just 3 reps in total), then move on. They also say that if you get to around 15-20 repetitions and still haven’t got your 3 in a row, then you should also move on to the next problem spot and come back to the ‘failed’ one later in the day or in your next practice session. They say, as you seem to have discovered yourself, that beyond a certain point more repetitions don’t actually help and can harm, both your music and your body.
The ‘chunk’ might be just a couple of notes with a tricky transition but is rarely more than a couple of bars.
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Thanks for this Stuart, I’ll aim for the three successes in a row as a goal. I have video of myself working different parts to review and sort out the obvious issues, but my goal has always been ‘get it working’ and once I got it working I moved on to the next section. Having a specific concept of ‘working’ and a goal for repeated success seems very sensible. I’m kind of annoyed I didn’t think of it myself to be honest…
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you’re really aiming at tough songs to practice on , don’t be hard on yourself , what you re trying to learn aint easy , its gonna take time
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@ConstanceClaire In doing my research over the past few weeks I’ve had quite a few “why didn’t I think of that, it seems so obvious now” moments
The book that’s changed the way I practice is Dr Molly Gebrian’s book “Learn Faster, Perform Better” as it has really simple ideas that are relatively easy to include in your practice if you commit to them. Well worth the money IMHO and I’ve seen a noticeable difference in my ability to remember things and avoid aimless noodling in just a couple of weeks.
I did a review of it on my Learning Log a little while ago here Ziggys Learning Log - #57 by ziggysden if you think you might be interested.
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Feeling a little low both physically and spiritually, so I thought I’dcheck out the Christmas songs and have a go at some strumming stuff, since it’s been a while. Settled on Silent Night because it’s three chords and I mostly know it, thought ‘oh, I’ll upload a Chrissy carol to my learning log, might as well’ and now I’m ‘learning the lyrics’ and wondering who wrote them. It’s a Christian song, and as a rule I’m not into any sort of worship music lyrically, butI’m neither here nor there about this one, (probably due to hearing it every year since I was born, and the roots of Christmas etc). Radiant beams from thy heavenly face is a strange turn of phrase. I thought I’d learn the lyrics in 60 seconds or so but it’s such an unnatural way of phrasing a thing.
Also, I keep accidentally singing glories scream from heaven afar. If I do so in my final take, let’s just all agree to assume the glories are birds doing their end-of-day flyover. They do be screamin’.
(I’m going to have to read the lyrics of other background carols that I’ve never paid full attention to, now. Just to see.)
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Hey CC,
Do you know the story behind “Silent Night”?
It was written in Germany long ago because the church organ was broken & the congregation wouldn’t have any music on Christmas Eve… they had a guitar so the song was written to play on guitar! (I think there’s more to the story but that’s all I remember)
Tod
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Hmm, it would make sense that a translation would have some slightly odd phrasing to fit the metre and rhyme, then. But English was a Germanic language before it became what it is today, so you’d think we’d be able to translate it a little more smoothly. It is a very pleasing chord progression, though, and allows for some great harmonies. I wonder what it’s like to be able to come up with a song from scratch so quickly and have it become so iconic? Even if the goal was to worship, I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to help feeling a bit proud of yourself.
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Got a bit distracted by dishes. Here’s a quick go at Silent Night. Dry throat this arvo but it all came together in the end. Almost forgot a lyric, even with them giant in a word doc on my screen!
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Well played and beautifully sung, nothing much else to say! 
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 
It’s almost December so we’ll forgive you CC.
Well done, that was well played and sung.
Now, where did I put my Justin’s Christmas song book?
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Nice playing and beautiful voice, Constance!
I’m German and this song is a fixed component in our familie’s christmas repertoir.
It’s always a point where we all have to fight against a fit of laughter. My dad, very seriously playing the harp, the rest singing, one part of the familiy starting to low, the other too high in pitch. Ended always a bit funny! We’ve butchered that song for decades! Btw, the text is a bit weird in German too…
I’m currently practicing Justin’s fingerstyle version to save us from singing .
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well done !
You have a beautiful voice 
I really wonder how you can sing and play at the same time !!!
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@roger_holland I’m surprised to hear that the English versions of songs are played rather than the Dutch ones. Is English more commonly spoken than Dutch where you are? Or is it the ever-insidious creep of English-language culture into every corner of the world? 
Can you recommend any original Dutch carols? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Dutch being spoken, actually.
@sairfingers In my defence, half the street has decorations up and carols are playing in every store.
@Helen0609 Sounds like the Happy Birthday situation, everybody starts their own tune 
A harp though, that sounds magical…
@MacOneill I had the lyrics on-screen in a large font and still got mixed up! It’s such a familiar tune that I didn’t have to think too hard, the singing honestly helped my get the chords right, like cues for what to change to. Haven’t really embarked on singing while playing anything complex. I’ve tried a bit when learning new songs and it does throw me off.
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take all the consonants and make a sentence ! also works for welsh
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Ha ha, Dutch is the absolute main/spoken language but full of English words and corrupted (?) with English words (much to the annoyance of many, but changes in language are just the way it is with living languages and that’s good in my opinion as long as people don’t use English words to be considered interesting/smart)
But when it comes to music, the majority of what we hear is absolutely in English… in recent years there has been a lot more attention for Dutch-language music, which is super good, and no, that doesn’t include many Christmas songs, but there are some that are very nice because of the lyrics. (and as I type this I think of a few, but they are not derivatives of traditional Christmas songs)
One of my good friends plays in a great band and gives a great Christmas performance (more about that later I hope), but also in English with ripping saxophone and amazing guitars and contabass…
Greetings and i come back with some Dutch stuff ( well…music then )
Edit: I was clicking arround andOoo I’ll stop my search now…I’ve heard more te@$rrrbeeeep 
music than my head can handle for a month, what an awful lot of bad music has been made …
If I accidentally hear a good one I’ll look it up and post it (I know there are a few out there)…
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Constance
You played and sang that really well. You became really relaxed about 2 minutes in and you were performing with obvious confidence.
Brian
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I wonder, does this make Dutch the opposite of French? 
I once read an anecdote about a man who went to France and was horrified to discover how they pronounced his written name, Hugh. 
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Good writting 
… the big advantage is that it is in a different language and it comes in my mind much less …chrissy … 
and strange lyrics