Been a while since I posted. Retirement, grandchildren and life in general. But that hasn’t stopped me from playing guitar daily.
I came to this community after buying Justin’s SOS rhythm course and posted questions about timing, etc, and feeling somewhat lost.
I realized I had to go back to the basics. Bought the Justin timer app – fantastic – and literally went all the way back to beginner. That meant tapping with my left foot heel. Made me realize I had been playing out of time for quite some time – yes intentional joke.
I have several electric guitars and in the past I would put on some jam track on G for example, and then use the scale patterns I learned from Justin’s intermediate course. I “fooled” myself. I sounded OK because I had a band behind me.
I decided that my true passion was acoustic guitar. I wanted to play and sing – if you can call it that – cover songs. I sold a very nice Fender Strat, saved up and used the money to buy a very nice Gibson acoustic .
A lesson here from Justin’s courses – learn what you need to learn for you. I don’t need to learn every esoteric scale pattern out there. For what I play, and want to play, the major scale – and really understanding – it is perfect.
There is no hiding with an acoustic. I struggled. I had to be the “band”
The most glaring weakness was my absolute lack of sense about timing.
Out comes the Justin timing app. I had to set it at 50 BPM and that was difficult. Working on the different patterns, realizing what bar I was on.
I posted on here months ago when I had trouble playing a cover song in time. Just was not happening. I was lost.
I stuck with it.
Now, the update:
On the songs I know by memory – up to 15 now – I know longer “think” about the timing or even the pattern. It is in time, and I may vary what I play from day to day depending on what I feel when I play. I can even improvise, in a sense, not playing the same pattern in the song. Using those ghost strums Justin talked about. Or adding a note here and there from the scale I know.
I still go back to timer app, using the function where I set for a random beat to drop out. I sometimes mess up, but keep going and I see the improvement.
Progress comes by doing the work.
It is important that we – in this community – acknowledge Justin – and each other.
I received so much encouragement from all of you.
Sorry for the long post
The other wonderful thing you shared is that progress does come. It seems slow to us, the players. But when you describe the progress you’ve made over just a few months, I think - wow, that’s fast!
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