Radek’s Learning Log

[roger_holland]

Hi Radek,
I really like the warm up period, and need it too, so always nice to see new ideas
Greetings

[RadekSiechowicz]

Thank you Roger, glad to hear it that you find it useful.

[DarkWillowTM]

Hi Radek! I know you could do it

Found something interesting just now so hopefully it helps. Focused practice would actually work and help you get to level ★★ pieces =]

Will 10,000 Hours of Practice Make You an Expert at Anything?

[RadekSiechowicz]

Thanks Vincent. It is interesting indeed, but as it says, it requires both talent and practice. Since my amounts of talent are limited I’m putting 100% into 50% that constitutes for practice part .

[RadekSiechowicz]

September classic update (piece no 8), this month it was a Lullaby by no one other then W. A. Mozart. One of the most pleasurable pieces to learn in this whole 12 pieces study.

I experimented with the shape of the thumb fingernail, rectangular shape works much better then rounded, I hope it will result in less dead bass notes.

Lullaby (Fingerstyle Guitar) / Challenge no 8

[DavidP]

Lovely sounding piece, Radek.

Bass notes sounded consistent to me.

There is one note that sounds odd to me, about 23" mark, which is repeated again later in the piece?

[RadekSiechowicz]

Thanks David .
This particular part is mostly open strings, here is whole phrase.

[DavidP]

I think it was the D#, Radek. Probably just my unschooled ears and poor taste

[RadekSiechowicz]

No worries David. Probably it would have been clearer without added reverb.

[RadekSiechowicz]

Another of long term projects. The Rohan, one of the most beautiful themes from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. I’ll play it as three short parts before I try to capture it in one go.

Rohan Theme, part 1 #fingerstyleguitar #acousticguitar #fingerstyleguitar #lordoftherings #rohan

[DavidP]

Beautiful indeed and immediately recognisable, Radek. Sounds so good and look forward to the whole theme in due course.

[RadekSiechowicz]

Thanks David. This piece is on my list for about two years, perhaps it’s the time now .

[RadekSiechowicz]

Riders of Rohan, part two (my favorite part of the whole piece). This time with a bit more bang .

Rohan Theme, part 2

[DavidP]

So evocative. Sounding good, Radek.

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

@RadekSiechowicz

I experimented with the shape of the thumb fingernail, rectangular shape works much better then rounded, I hope it will result in less dead bass notes.

Ha tell me about it, I am hoping to grow and reshape my thumb nail for the same reason. Love watching you play, as the techniques are similar to my Blues adventures. Good to watch and learn while listening to different genres. Could not agree more in the Rohan soundscape very evocative and yes one of the top LOTR sound tracks. Boy there are some great tracks from those movies !

[RadekSiechowicz]

@DavidP

So evocative. Sounding good, Radek.

Thank you kindly David .

@TheMadman_tobyjenner

Ha tell me about it, I am hoping to grow and reshape my thumb nail for the same reason. Love watching you play, as the techniques are similar to my Blues adventures. Good to watch and learn while listening to different genres. Could not agree more in the Rohan soundscape very evocative and yes one of the top LOTR sound tracks. Boy there are some great tracks from those movies !

Keeping fingernails in good shape is a challenge on its own . This year I broke my thumb fingernail twice, Index finger twice as well. Hope you will grow your fingernails soon! Btw., having a fine file or piece of sandpaper (about 2000) while practicing is very handy.

Your blues pieces are sounding great, glad you found a genere which you enjoy.

There is so many great songs in LOTR (other movies as well) I would like to play some day. But it needs to start somewhere and since I was sitting on this for about two years the choice is obvious .

[DarkWillowTM]

Congrats on working out the piece you want to play Radek!

Figure out something just now so hope it could help a bit =]

On motivation to learn difficult techniques

And to add a bit of useful advice, when you are dealing with difficult passages, start with the few first notes only. Stop there and repeat from the beginning. Once feeling comfort slowly add in the next few notes. Rinse and repeat the procedure until you have mastered the whole passage. Well, hope this could help anyone interested in mastering fingerstyle guitar =)

I think to be able to play the whole piece in one go takes slightly different approach, such that it is okay to make some mistakes, but to make sure the entire song flow is good enough. The goal is to play till the end, so endurance matters more than precision. It would then takes months of playing the same song to get the smooth playing you want.

Experiences would then reduce the amount of time needed from zero to mastering, a great example would be Sungha Jung

Happy learning!

[RadekSiechowicz]

Thank you Vincent. Yes, I can play the whole Rohan theme as whole with some mistakes. These mistakes however turn me off from recording it until it is good enough. I recorded 1st and 2nd part but struggling with the 3rd where the flow is different. It is getting better but not good enough, maybe it will get into shape next month, hard to tell.

I generally slowing down now with the recordings, it feels like I need some quiet time without selfmade pressure.

[RadekSiechowicz]

October challenge moved to November challenge. It’s been a difficult month, broken fingernails, thumb injury but somehow I managed to record no 9 (overall practice time 8h). What I have noticed that most of this classical / traditional pieces are easy to memorise but quite tricky to play clean. I’ve been plagued with accidental string hits and left hand inaccuracies, I think these are my biggest challenges at the moment.

Plans for November, record either one more challenge or finally record Rohan theme as whole, whatever comes first.

The First Noel (Fingerstyle Guitar) / Challenge no 9

[DavidP]

Challenge 9

Look for to the Rohan theme, Radek