FruitarGeek
singemonkey wrote:
Dude. I still have to do this today. There's a dom7th chord voicing I'm trying to get down, and I just go from the preceding thing to it... over. And over. And over. And over.
At each session my fingers learn the awkward shape a little better. Eventually it will feel as natural as an E chord at the nut. It's just repetition. Nothing else.
+1. Exactly the same situation with me
Tonedef
Well let me get to it, then! That long row aint gonna hoe itself.
RobK
...and finaly, if all else fails, you couls always try...
?
Tonedef
Eh? What is that thing? Looks like satans lollipop.
Warren
Tonedef wrote:
Eh? What is that thing? Looks like satans lollipop.
Almost...tis the Pick of Dessssstiny!
---mario---
ever seen TanacsiousD ?? haha, so lame, yet so funny
RobK
Tonedef wrote:
Eh? What is that thing? Looks like satans lollipop.
Tonedef
Do I have to sacrifice my firstborn to use it?
Dave-the-Pub-muso
Something worth memtioning regarding chord change practise is that you must force yourself to keep time. If you practise alone with no accompaniment, you will generally go easy on yourself i.e you will wait until your fingers are ready before you carry on with the song. It is therefore VITAL to practise with someone else or with the original on cd or with a metronome! This will be hard at first, but will pay dividends...
Good luck,
Dave
Tonedef
Thanks for the advice, makes perfect sense!
Tonedef
I discovered how to beat the stoopid suckage of placing each finger down one after the other (as opposed to all at once). Simply force yourself to move the finger you usually placed last, first. I found that when I did that, the other fingers were usually in position and ready to press down as well! This did an unspeakable amount of good to my overall fluency (not that it deserves the term fluency, but anyhow). Bakgat!
[deleted]
Lekker man. It helps to practice, but practicing in the right way just makes it so much faster.
Tonedef
I'm telling you hey, it's truly testing the quality of my patience. Improvements are forthcoming (as so finely expressed by Ms. Bronte) "with vexatious phlegm". :-\
Thankfully I can genuinely say that every single day shows an improvement over the previous, and that helps to keep me motivated. I just hope I don't run out of steam.
But if that happens I'll post a thread on here so that you guys can whip me back into shape.
[deleted]
Now you know why they smash guitars on stage. ? When I was little and learning to play the piano I once gave in to my frustration and gave it a good kick. It hurt me more than the piano I think, but it made me a little nervous learning to play the guitar, because I knew I'd have to resist that temptation. At least it improved my patience!
Tonedef
Personally, I'm EXTREMELY self-competitive. Everything I attempt, I attack with vicious fury until I master it. Generally speaking, these things are intellectual pursuits and I manage to manage fine, mostly. I read up everything I can find on the subject, ask questions about it that are often irrelevant, and so on.
The problem with learning to play the guitar is that it's an entirely different ball game. It's all about fine motor control and I regret not having done this 15 or 20 years ago. Sure, it's an enormous mental challenge as well, but for now it's purely the physical aspects of my mind/body link that are the stumbling blocks, and there's little to be done except hack away at it.
The only way out is through, as they say.
Even learning to ride a motorcycle fast around a track is easy compared to taming this damned six-tailed demon trying to tear the music out from within me.
FenderBender
I keep a yammie C40m classical hanging on my bedroom wall. That way I always see it and I'm reminded to play it. I probably put in an hour in the mornings and again in the evenings.
It was slow going while the guitar was hanging in my workshop/practise room, but within 3 months of keeping it in my bedroom, I've been able to play Hotel C, lots of Pink Floyd and I'm almost there with BTO's YASNY, but there's a D9 in there that just doesn't sound right, even though I can play it.
I do battle with timing though so +1 to what Dave said re a metronome. I'll put a click track through my headphones and see if that helps.
Also, singing while playing is just not working yet. My right hand and mouth seem to share a common motor nerve ?
Tonedef
Theres an old beaten up small acoustic laying in the garage, not quite a uke, maybe a kid's guitar. Ive been toying with the idea of giving it a bit of a once over and some tlc, and keeping it at work.
singemonkey
I'm similar, tonedef, in gathering up info on a new subject. And guitar playing - or any physical activity - is different. It's about repetition while continually refining movements. The guitar does almost nothing for you. You have to do all the work. The longer and more efficiently you work at it, the more noticeable the incremental improvement becomes.
[deleted]
I absolutely agree with the practising suggestion. And with the practising-in-time suggestion. Use a metronome - it's actually your most valuable ally, not your worst enemy. ? (I only realised this in my latter years as a music student. Now I even use the damn thing to practise easy scales/left hand exercises!) Start slowly, work consistently, and build up speed over time.
Another concept I find helps my students (and myself!) is what I call 'micro-steps' (sort of like micro-analysing your golf swing in slo-mo). So, e.g. if you have to do a shift: break it down: relax the wrist, release the thumb, shift on one finger to the next position, then add the rest of the fingers to build up the chord, in a logical order.
It's as if you're building multiple, tiny muscle-memory anchors into your technique, which help infinitely with accuracy, and - when combined with careful metronome practise - speed (because you've trained your muscles/nerves/brain up in baby steps, so it ultimately becomes an instinctive muscle action, as opposed to a brain-thought-process action).
Also, practise in small pieces - so, say you want to learn a feisty lick of 16 notes - learn a group of 2 or 3 together at a time. Then learn how the groups are linked together. Then join group 1 to group 2, group 2 to 3 etc... Then put it all together, slowly and build up speed.
If you practise carefully, consistently and correctly, you'll be stunned at how quickly you'll see awesome results! (Generally we all have to walk before we can fly...) ?
[deleted]
joel wrote:
For a bit more motivation , go check out Dan Patlansky - live @ Tanz Cafe Fourways , this Friday or Saturday night 11 +12 / 02 /2011 ........that should keep you going for a while.....lol 8)
+10! Dan is the man... wish I was gonna be in Jozi this weekend... ?
