LunaRocket's Learning Log

[roger_holland]

Hi Rebecca,
I just pulled up your listening statistics and looked at and heard everything well I decide for myself whether I watch everything completely

Playing a song for so long is a super good exercise and is an achievement in itself,especially in front of a camera you have already indicated what needs to be improved so it will “automatically” work out in time… try to relax ( and move your strumming arm more like you think that It doesn’t matter if you hit everything correctly occasionally) and then see how you feel about it … if possible
You were my first and my last this morning (I think) and I’m going to start playing now with a smile
Bye

[LunaRocket]

Thanks David, I shall work on my poker face. (along with chords, of course)

[LunaRocket]

Well thanks for listening, Rogier!

Relaxation was definitely a problem on those 11 takes! Later that night I realized my wrist, elbow and my upper arm on my fretting hand were achy. Yesterday I couldn’t even play the F barre or mini F without pain so I iced my arm which really helped and avoided any more F chord practice or songs with F for the rest of the day.

I also discovered the stuck 3/4 chords hurt my wrist as well, but not A, D, C, E or G! So, I tried some other songs I hadn’t before and found, hey, I can already play them at 70% speed!

Today, the F barre chords still hurt but not the Fmajor7 so I tried another song and then discovered my changes between C and Fmaj7 was baaaaad, so I’m going to add that chord change to my practice routine. Ah, and the other songs are already up to 80% speed.

The new songs I’m going to continue playing, because they’re fun, and easy! (never thought I would be saying that 2-3 months ago!), are:

As Tears Go By - Rolling Stones
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

Down on the Corner - Creedance Clearwater Revival (the one with F/C changes).

I shall ice my wrist some more this evening.

[sclay]

Hello Rebecca,

Coming along pretty well. As you keep at it the chord changes will become more fluid, and the strumming hand loosen up a bit more. Going well though, and admire your dedication.

One thing I did notice was your guitar is positioned pretty much on your hip. Have you experimented with positioning? I think you may you benefit by bringing that guitar more around to the front.
It will naturally bring your shoulder around a bit further and reset your strumming arc to a more efficient position. Of course, its just my perspective, but it just seems your strumming setup is functioning at an oblique angle to the guitar.

Cheers, Shane

[roger_holland]

@LunaRocket

I shall ice my wrist some more

Ooo, I’m probably saying it redundantly, but be careful and try to avoid this next time.

@LunaRocket

, because they’re fun, and easy! (never thought I would be saying that 2-3 months ago!)

That is a perfect and very nice feeling and a nice milestone

Greetings and a little kiss on your arm,

[LunaRocket]

@sclay

One thing I did notice was your guitar is positioned pretty much on your hip. Have you experimented with positioning?

The first 3 months and occasionally still, I was constantly adjusting the position of my guitar. Nothing felt natural or right for the longest time. I use a strap while sitting because the dang thing still tries to slide forward on my leg and tilt backward which was sort of fine in the beginning as I could see the fretboard, but I don’t need to see it so much anymore (YAY ME) and it’s annoying. Sort of velcroing it to my pants or learning to play standing up, where I have it seems to work best. But thanks for the suggestions, I’m always up for trying new things.

[LunaRocket]

Well, after a couple months and in the middle of Module 10 I am going back to mod 8’s 3/4 stuck chords because my Em7, A7sus4 and the Dadd11/F# (which was recommended for Wonderwall) are not so hot. My 3rd and 4th fingers want to slide up toward the 2nd fret and more often than not and sometimes my hand just cramps from the effort. So, I’m just going to practice going between them several times a day (while watching TV last night, un-amped) till it feels better and slow down the speed on Wonderwall again whenever I practice it.

At least my wrist no longer aches.

It’s rather frustrating going back even a couple modules but it’s better than ingraining bad habits! Besides, I need that Em7 and the A7sus4 for the Wish You Were Here riff, and that is very important to me! (More so than Wonderwall )

I’ve added the Phil Collins song In the Air Tonight to my song practice, and I’m really enjoying learning this one, not too fast, I know the words mostly by heart, I just have to figure out if/how I’m going to yell/wail, the end part when the singer gets a little crazy. I’m a bit of an introvert so that will be interesting.

As to the rest of Module 10, my changes to the various F chords are improving slowly, still can barely do the 50% speed from D to mini-F in House of the Rising Sun, my alternate picking for C major is going okay, I’m using the weak finger G in Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, I’ve practiced the One Finger A I’ve tried a few times but haven’t added to my practice routine yet, I’m really taking Grade 2 rather slow, there is so much to learn!

Incidentally, the husband and I are going on vacation at the end of October for the first time in 7 years (since we started building our retirement home). He’s going off into the wilds of Maine with a bunch of guys while I hang about with my 2 sisters in Massachusetts. I’m bringing my Squier Bullet and a micro amp and headphones so I can keep practicing. My sister’s internet is lousy, so I’ll mainly be using the App for lessons. Hopefully my cell phone data plan has enough data in it so I can check in on the Community now and then.

Packing the car for a 750 mile road trip with all his stuff, my stuff and our smaller dog, Ziggy, is going to be like playing Tetris. Poor Kaylee is staying with a friend and his dogs, there is no way she’s going to fit, too. At least she loves John and his dogs!

Okay, time to go practice.

[DavidP]

@LunaRocket

It’s rather frustrating going back even a couple modules but it’s better than ingraining bad habits!

Well said, Rebecca!

Enjoy the vacation, travel safely!

[LunaRocket]

Well, the other day I managed to speed House of the Rising Sun up to 60% except today it was the worst 9 minutes of practice on that, ever! Nothing was going right though I had done really great sounding F barre and F mini barre chords only an hour earlier!

Perhaps I should not have finished the housework in between, my mojo went no-go.

Although, it could be that I tried to play along with the singer, and as that was awful, switched to the band track which was barely better. I ended up going back to just the practice track with the piano and while that was a little better, I was already so messed up, it was an abject failure.

Also, I don’t know if it’s just this particular song, or what, but my fretting arm really starts to ache lately while playing it. I think I am just tensing up too much, have a death grip on my pic, or something. And of course, my guitar is sliding out from under me again, I probably need to work on getting the strap shortened yet again, or lengthened?! Sometimes it seems I will never get totally comfortable with my guitar.

Okay enough bitching.

But I am very glad I got my other song practice done earlier this afternoon. That was fun!

[jkahn]

@LunaRocket

And of course, my guitar is sliding out from under me again

Hmm, something doesn’t sound right with that. Acoustic or electric, seated or standing?

[LunaRocket]

Seated, haven’t tried standing, not sure how my bad back would take it. Electric.

[jkahn]

Okay, then you need to fix how you hold the guitar. It should not slide out.

I had a skim through your learning log and found the video of you practicing HOTR a month ago to have a look at how you’re holding it. And strumming.

I want you to compare it to this video of me holding my electric seated playing Sunshine of Your Love. I use a video of me as I know how I hold it…

Of course we’ll have to imagine a bit about what’s happening out of frame, but we can make assumptions based on what we see

Things to check:

Seat should be low enough so that leg is roughly flat - it’s OK if it goes down a bit.

Sitting up straight. slightly forward is OK, slightly back is not OK.

On the vertical plane, the guitar should be roughly straight up and down. It’s OK if there is a slight tilt backwards to it.

It looks like the guitar is right in front of you. I assume your legs might be too, based on where your guitar is. Your legs should be pointed in the direction of the headstock, so the guitar is against the side of your stomach, not the front. This would mean your torso would be ever-so-slightly twisted towards the guitar, with the legs the other way.

This has the effect of bringing the body of the guitar further across the front of your body. Your strumming arm is then not as far to the side, it can be more relaxed. Compare your videos and mine - my guitar is more across the front of my body, yours is sticking out the side of your strumming arm. It’s subtle, but it makes a big difference.

Once the guitar is in the right place, you should be able to anchor it in place with the upper part of your forearm. Look at my video and see the upper part of my forearm. That’s holding the guitar in place. I’m not pressing it there hard, it’s relaxed, but it is there. You can see it stays anchored when strumming as well - I move a bit but can both strum and pick from that position.

It’s really hard to get this right unless the guitar is in the right place. If that guitar is not in the right spot, your right arm will be too far back, and you’ll get a sore shoulder quickly. If you get it right, it’s comfortable, relaxing - you could play all day. It should stay gently anchored in place.

Hope that helps - kind of a challenge to get this stuff in words. If you get this right it will make playing way easier as the guitar won’t move around while you’re trying to use it.

[LunaRocket]

Thanks, I’ve hardly ever been comfortable, I’ll check some of this stuff out tomorrow. Right now, it’s whiskey time (with that pesky “e”.

[oztelemann]

@jkahn

my guitar is more across the front of my body, yours is sticking out the side of your strumming arm. It’s subtle, but it makes a big difference.

Yes, I watched your video and thought exactly the same thing. You seem to be reaching around sideways somewhat which will only create extra tension. I made up 2 images to show you this difference (I flipped yours).

[LunaRocket]

Thanks, I don’t really see a difference in the placement of the guitar, but I definitely see that it’s doing its usual tilt which pulls my elbow back. The guitar simply slides out on my leg. It’s why I occasionally make jokes about attaching Velcro.

[Lisa_S]

Hi Rebecca,

sometimes I had the same issue with my Electric, don’t know exactly why it was different from time to time, but what I found is: Putting my right leg onto a foot rest, so my guitar sits more tightly to my body and can’t slide down the leg. Have you tried this before? Maybe this could be a little help. Fingers crossed for more guitar grip.

[LunaRocket]

@Lisa_S

Putting my right leg onto a foot rest, so my guitar sits more tightly to my body and can’t slide down the leg.

I’ve been doing this for months. I still can’t figure out what’s going wrong. My first half of practice today I really tried to be conscious of where the guitar was and after about the first 15 minutes though I had it okay, at least no arm pain by the end. Then I took a break, walked the dogs and started my second half and before the end, the upper muscles of my strumming arm were aching. It’s the same feeling I had when I tore my rotator cuff. But my surgeon, many years ago, assured me, it was fixed.

So, I’m still doing something wrong, and this is very frustrating. Tomorrow I’ll try my old office chair instead of the kitchen stool I’ve been using and see how that goes. Otherwise, I’ll be fiddling around with this all during my vacaction.

[oztelemann]

You should be able to look straight down and see your strumming hand - for me it is very slightly to the right but I can easily see my hand without turning my head to the right at all. If you sit in a chair without the guitar but with your hand resting in your lap that is pretty much the position you want. I suspect this is the cause of your arm pain.

[LunaRocket]

A hopefully short update as I am trying to stay awake after eating turkey, stuffing, gravy, and an assortment of pies for our Thanksgiving dinner over here in the states. I was doing all the cooking and cleaning so I had no time to practice today. I did get 55 minutes in yesterday.

I’m still where I am a month ago. A couple days ago I discovered my mini F chord was wrong, I seem to have merged the Mini F with the Fmajor/C and was using 4 fingers for the mini F by adding the pinkie on the 5th string 3rd fret. It sounded fine while “playing” House of the Rising Sun (still at 60% speed) so I just kept doing it that way. I am now practicing the Mini F the correct way and so have put the song on hold as I still automatically go to this odd merged chord.

I am still in Module 10. I had a great time on my vacation in Massachusetts at the beginning of November and didn’t have a lot of practice time there, but I did manage to get a little in here and there every few days. It wasn’t the most comfortable, the only place to practice was the edge of the bed, but I managed.

Speaking of comfort, I have been trying to reorient my guitar/body alignment including getting a lightly taller stepstool for my right leg and thus far I’ve only felt a twinge of the upper arm pain I’ve been having. This is a good thing, I just hope it continues.

Since I’ve got the Song Ap, I discovered the 12 Christmas song bundle and have tried a few, so far, I like practicing Jingle Bells and Silent Night. I had to learn the D7 and A7 but they seem easy enough as long as I don’t go too fast yet. I’ve tried O Come All Ye Faithful, but with 7 chords , it’s a bit trickier plus I need to figure out if I can transpose it to a different spot on the fret board, my voice is either way too high or too low. Still, just learning the first 2 by Christmas I think would be plenty.

That’s all for now.

ETA: I woke up enough to get in 31 minutes of practice! Now I’m going to bed.

[LunaRocket]

Gotta say it while it’s true: I’ve played guitar every day this year!

Quick update. I’m staying in the middle of Grade 2 Module 10, I have no desire at this point to finish the module, I’ve mainly been playing songs, taking @Richard_close2u 's mantra to heart! I’m definitely better at most of these except the Rising Sun, but that change to the mini–F is noticeably better than a month ago, so there is hope. I tried it once today at 70% speed, iffy, but I’ll keep trying.

Songs and why I’ve chosen them:

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac - F major 7
Hey, Hey, My, My by Neil Young - F major 7
The House of the Rising Sun - Traditional/ the Animals - Mini F
Wonderwall - Oasis - stuck 3/4 chords
As Tears go By - the Rolling Stones - weak G

I’m going to stay playing these for now until I can get House of the Rising Sun to sound okay at a speed faster than 60% on the App. I just don’t feel comfortable adding/learning new things when I’m not improving in being able to play actual songs.

I’ve been neglecting my Grade 1 repertoire as well, so I’m throwing a couple of those songs in now and then, too. I’ll probably try one of the Christmas songs with the D7 now and then, too, as that particular chord is so-so.

In any case, with the holidays having wound down, I’m getting more effective practice in than I did in December, when I missed a lot of days due to illness or had super short sessions because of no time. Plus, I’m enjoying myself more. Too much stress last month!

Also randomly doing chord change practice and Alternate C picking as that was getting rusty.

But still, mostly songs, songs, songs!