Quite few coincidences in this the thread and your post Toby for me
I am just trying to work through Justin’s lesson on strumming and picking, far from perfect but just getting to the stage of changing chords. But like you Michael I do don’t have a good feel of where the strings are, Lee @LeeMB called it “proprioception” the ability of the body to perceive its own position in space.
So a couple of weeks ago I started to look around for some practice lessons and came across the website you mentioned Toby, and intend to have a go with those patterns when I have cracked Justin’s
Michael
PS I like the look of your practice sequence Toby.
Its from a book I picked up when I started in 96, what it was or who it was by is long gone. But it came to mind when I started the Module 17 lesson. There will be a whole host of stuff from back then that could emerge when prompted.
Plenty of good advice so far so I’ll just pick two specifics that I found helpful
learning solos and licks - I can’t seem to keep ‘exercises’ up consistently (they are just a bit dull) but leaning licks and lead lines has helped my fingers learn where each of the strings are.
Slow it right down - for tricky bits and lines that I mess up regularly, I will slow things right down (to a painful pace) and redo the tricky transition over and over. It does help, think of the one minute changes from earlier on in the process. Some lines I must concede, however, do need to ‘flow’ as one sort of move. Let me know if you find a trick for those ones.
Don’t despair, the better we get, the more we notice and can be quite hard on ourselves as a result. For the casual listener the mistakes won’t be that obvious. And yes, it will all get better with time.
PS: I don’t mind ‘cheating’ if a move or chord is too much I’ll just replace it with an alternative.
Good discussion. Seems we’re all swimming in the same sea of imperfection - but still afloat! @jkahn described what I am trying to do now: Hard “anchoring” wasn’t working, and neither was completely floating (a real mess), but slowly with this just-touching, it started to work.
Like Justin, I have a really short pinky finger, so hard anchoring scrunches my fingers too close to the strings to play. Sometimes I touch my palm to the bridge, sometimes it’s just my forearm lightly pressing the body. It takes conscious effort, but makes a difference.
Hi Shane - If you have an example to highlight, that would be nice. When I sit down to practice a scale, using it as “target practice” for picking and timing, I get sleepy. I’ve been thinking that arpeggiated song segments might be useful. For example the beginning of ‘Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress’.
That’s due to this problem.
I only had one in the riff/lick thread a few months ago. Thanks for slapping me with my own complaint when helping - the need to see what’s going on. I’ll see if I can make a video that captures the problem at its worst.
I have been through the individual notes lesson. I tried it for 3-4 weeks with poor success and postponed it thinking I had a more fundamental problem to fix. I’ll re-examine that one.
I took a look at the Slash video you posted and may need to ask you more. He really does go back to the same place consistently. I need to figure this out.
The old problem of hurrying? Probably. I really try not to. I can usually get good pick accuracy at about 40-50bpm. The problem changes to timing sync or mind drift at that pace, bit it is quite acceptable though.
This is what I think is missing. It sure seems like it should come from playing, but it hasn’t for me. I’ll try to avoid sleep by doing this first thing in the morning. yes… I have fallen asleep with my guitar in my lap. Wife hasn’t taken any pictures I know of, so I haven’t been caught yet!
I was thinking just this as I was reading through the comments. I think this will be a practice item - more of a mind/motion practice than anything directly playing.
Thanks for the ideas. The only one I dread is Toby’s!
I do not set up video because it is a pain to do, so I need to figure out a way to video my time regularly. I get 10-15 min in several times a day, so setting up for 15 min means I don’t pick up the guitar at that time. I need to find some way to keep the setup in place. I do think a video will help me as well as give y’all something known to comment on.
Off to make breakfast, then try out that horrible practice I’ll get to the others as the day progresses.
Try playing w/o playing along with anything. Just you playing.
This will surely bring and deficiency’s to light. Then you work on what needs more effort.
Kinda simplistic, but this is what I do. If I want anything to sound just this way, any backup only covers up the errors of my ways. I easy find what I need to work on this way. Then I go work (and it may take much work too) on playing what I think I’m doing poorly on.
No its definitely from the mist of time as it was certainly E to e to E. Watching that video just now rang some vague bells, so I’ll be giving that a go as well. As Tesco says/said, every little helps.
Just watched that whole lesson again, as there are some good patterns to master.
I then searched through Grades 4 to 7 and then did a search and there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent lesson following everything being rewritten. Could be just my bad search skills but a valuable lesson for all players.
Here is a video of me goofing up the I’m Tore Down rhythm part I mentioned in the first post.
I played this at about 75% tempo. I have some trouble with muting string 6 today that I hadn’t noticed before. I did notice it while playing, but it really stands out in the recording. There are a few light mistakes until the end which is where things go very wrong. I usually recover on the next bar, but I need to fix this because it is my primary cause for learning limitations.
I’m not familiar with making recordings, so if you notice something I need to fix there, go ahead and comment on that so I can fix it for future recordings.
The exercises in these books are largely built around melodic lines using the major/ minor scales, and are specifically designed to teach/develop a particular skill. eg string skipping, inside/ outside picking etc. So for structured, focused I’ve stuck very close to these.
Outside of this, one great example of say, string skipping, is the opening few bars/ intro of Sweet Home Alabama. In fact, I’ve found this song is a goldmine for all sorts of technique/ skill development.
My $0.02 is to practice isolation. Your brain is not good at learning more than one thing at a time. Just forget your fretting hand and just focus on your picking hand.
I practice picking for 5 mins every day with nothing fretted. I go through several patterns, and vary which one each day, for example to day was alternate strings (i.e. skipping a string in between the two I’m picking) and I practiced down-down, down-up, up-down, and up-up for each string duo. I use a metronome and play eighth notes at 100bpm (started 3 months ago at 60 bpm). Tomorrow will be adjacent strings so I will do E-A, A-D, D-G, G-B, B-E with each of the 4 picking patterns.
The key is isolation, only work in the picking hand, and consistency. If you make mistakes, then slow it down until you don’t make any then increase the speed.
Focusing on individual skills like this translates directly into better performance when playing songs.
I’ve been thinking that arpeggiated song segments might be useful. For example the beginning of ‘
Wife hasn’t taken any pictures I know of, so I haven’t been caught yet!
I’ll get to the others as the day progresses.
