I didn’t manage to keep a daily Diary, strumming practice has been absorbing a lot of my energy lately, but this doesn’t mean I neglected practicing Dee on the Classical Guitar. I think I’ve been a bit creative in varying the practice sessions in order to make the due countless repetitions a bit less boring so that to make each day different. Here are the “learning strategies” I applied, as they come to my mind :
one day I worked with a timer and methodically spend 2 focussed minutes on each bar+the change to the next bar, stopping on beat 1; often I repeated the practice on the same passage for 2*X times, then moved to the next one, taking a few short breaks now and then, up to bar 21. I did this for 45 minutes at the end of which I was so happy with myself that I treated myself with a cup of thick hot chocolate:)
another day I did something really fun: I listened to Justin’s playing for just one or a couple of phrases, stopped the recording and tried to imitate it and get as much close as I could to the original recording, then listen back, compare, try again, move on to the next phrase and do the same procedure
you’ll be glad to read that on same days I also practiced the way I guess we’re supposed to: nice and slow, aiming for clean notes and more clarity; timing surely sucked, I just tried not to rush the changes but being relaxed and be as much accurate as I was able to (not enough lol).
one Sunday morning, I needed to be quiet because my husband was still sleeping, I practiced only the fretting hand, without using the right one, just focusing on smooth slow movements, making the hammer-ons strong, while singing it slowly and keeping time in my head, without the concrete sound. I enjoyed this kind of practice too.
Ooops…not to say about the following bars…those hammer-ons and flick-offs are so challenging! I recorded only up to bar 21, like in the former video…because from that point on I really lose control…I will have to
practice more
aim for less
I knew this was too much for me, but so far it gave me a real sense of achievement, it was good practice…now it starts giving me a real sense of frustration.
I’m going to learn the last couple of phrases and see if I’ll be able to make it fall into place or just be content because this was great practice for me to gradually achieve more control over my fingers.
I’m ready to restart working on this with renewed focus
I’ll update here daily or almost so that it keeps me accounted, on track and motivatited. The challenge is big so reflecting on my practice will be super helpful.
and zoomed on Justin’s fretting hand, listened and observed several times. Then I tried to do the same (the slow one only) and I have 2 observations:
it’s a good idea for me to put down the two fingers together (not sure how correct it is but makes things a bit easier) and I can work on it “as if it were a chord change”
I need to control the direction of my fingers for the flick-offs to prevent them to sound so clumsy and loud as they presently sound.
I’m working with a 2 minutes timer on the single elements of bar 21
G String
first hammer-on: I can make it strong
hammer-on+first flick-off: it doesn’t sound terrible
second flick-off: exploring it on its own trying to observe what makes me produce the right sound, not too soft, not too loud…but I’m not able to tell yet…I can produce it though.
Changes between the strings
at the end of the 2 minutes I realised the wrist was hurting and I had to correct the angle and repeated for another 2 minutes - I tapped my foot on the beat and used i and p on the right hand as it should be (a quick check on the clip confirmed my angle was wrong).
This really is solid commitment Silvia!
Your self analysis and note taking is so advanced, as well as the level of concentration to put into your practice. It shows too with your playing and how you’re progressing.
I love to read through your notes but I’m still at a loss as how to do anything that comes close. It’s amazing
Thanks so much Jason and Jasmine @Ontime@Avalon426 for your encouringing words and Lisa too for your support! I was panicking a bit about this…but now I’m right back on track!
It’s about going slow enough so that you can observe yourself, I’m sure Justin mentions this in one of his lessons. Like ridiculously slow.
This is what I was missing lately, because I was feeling overwhelmed…but a little break and some reflection and I now feel I regained the right focus!
I set a 15 minutes timer with the explicit goal to avoid overdoing…overdoing is bad! I was guilty of it and I can say it’s really really bad for learning!
I thought I would just explore bar 21 freely and first of all I checked the position of the arm, wrist, hand and fingers.
The principle I have to follow to make decent flick-off I was soon able to explicit: the movement of my finger needs to be delicate. I was happy with the sound of most my flick-offs, some were too quiet and only a few were too loud.
I also spent a couple of minutes to change between the strings landing on the open D; I bothered about timing only for this exercise.
I was focussed, it’s been good practice
I’ll be back here tomorrow.
I played my Beginner Carcassi Waltz to warm up my fingers and then I set a 15 minutes timer. I zoomed again on Justin’s hand to observe it.
I practiced the flicks-off with ring finger on the 4th fret and then the flick-offs on the second fret in isolation.
A few observations:
I need to be always aware to put down the fingers in a way that the wrist is positioned correctly and can support the fingers’ work: without a good position of the whole hand the flick-offs with ring finger are impossible.
the fingers need to be well alligned on the frets so that the wrist doesn’t bend too much, ideally it shouldn’t bend at all I guess, but just a tiny little bit maybe it won’t be the end of the world.
Use a 5 minutes timer for each of the following exercises:
changing between strings
flick-offs on the 2nd fret
flick-offs on the 4th fret
slowly play the all sequence
I need to:
check and make sure of the position of the wrist and fingers at each exercise
get up and have a very short break at the end of each exercise (take a breath in the balcony, a glass of water, neck and shoulders exercises to contrast tension…)
Today I practiced exactly as I planned yesterday and it went well; it’ll be worth tomorrow to repeat the same exercises + 1.
In fact I added a 10 minutes to revisit bars 1-20: I went slow, doing a silent counting and tapping my foot…because they both make me feel more in control, and I much need this kind of feeling.
I’m happy to say I felt more in control over my flick-offs as well.
+1 = positioning correctly the hand after the harmonics on bar 20 (12th fret) so that this sequence of flick-offs on bar 21 becomes easier; this means a steady thumb behind the neck right were the third fret is and a good angle of the wrist.
Today’s practice went reasonably well. I feel I don’t need to practice the flick-offs on their own anymore; I feel ready to practice the whole sequence from the harmonics on the 12th fret to the open D…BUT …it seems a good idea to develop to it like this:
5mins for changing from the harmonics to a good positioned steady thumb and index finger on the g string/2nd fret (keep in mind ring finger needs to be ready to hammer-on)
5mins repeating the previous and add the changing between the strings
5mins repeating the previous and add all the notes, the hammer-ons and all the flick-offs.
THE COUNTING/TAPPING is crucial: it gives me all the time I need to position the thumb steadily behind the neck without panicking! And it keeps bar 21 1e+a2tri-plet3trip-let1 really nicely consistent.
ADD A 5MINS BAR 20 TO BAR 21 CHANGE