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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 27, 2019 7:11:32 GMT -6
It's been a strange week for me with guitar. I'm back logging overtime at work so only managed about 10 hours practice time. What's unusual is that I'm about to revamp the whole way I approach and view guitar playing. I'm going to stop using goals the way I have been. They just wind up becoming a source of distraction and anxiety. This is an outgrowth of the "reps" thing I've been doing/talking about. Through it I stumbled on an escape from my head (my inner critic that perched on my shoulder and judged every note wrt my goals) and I found myself "just sort of playing" but with slightly heightened awareness. It became apparent that that kernel inside the reps ritual is where all the progress I was making originated. Maybe not unrelated, but without the harping critic, the effort is more enjoyable (not exactly the right word). I'm reading a book called The Practicing Mind, and while overall it's been a disappointment, the idea about goals potentially being an obstacle the author stated explicitly caused my little between-ear tumblers to tumble. Really, all I'm converging on is the idea of making my immediate concern be getting in that zone and staying there as much as possible each time I pick up the guitar. I've learned a few tricks that at least for now seem to work pretty reliably. The reps is a brute force way to do it (the inner critic either gets tired or bored and goes away after a while), but I'm learning to short circuit that. Time to spend some time just enjoying the learning instead of worrying about the gulf between progress and goals.
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Post by joachim on Jan 27, 2019 7:54:19 GMT -6
I made video of Rockin' and Rollin' today, I'm working through the last part of the book with John.
At full tempo it's harder than I remembered...
Otherwise I am doing moretchord work and constructive noodling.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 27, 2019 8:16:39 GMT -6
I made video of Rockin' and Rollin' today, I'm working through the last part of the book with John. Sounds really good, Joachim! Not much else to say. |
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Post by Phil on Jan 27, 2019 8:37:11 GMT -6
Joachim - great playing on that. Very smooth and tight. I like the jazzy tone you got. I wish I could get a tone like that. 
I only got in 4 hours. Still having motivation problems. I didn't play at all Fri. and Sat. and only 15 minutes on Thurs. I'm hoping that by not playing for a couple of days the desire will come back.
Like Grampa I also came up with a new practice plan. I have a list of 6 things I want to work on this week. The idea is to warm up for 10 minutes doing arpeggios and a stretching exercise and then pick 1 or 2 things from the list each practice session. I have to do at least one thing from the list for at least 15 minutes. After that I can do whatever I want.
We'll see how this works out.
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Post by cunningr on Jan 27, 2019 9:14:31 GMT -6
Well first off Joachim great playing there, tone and smooth as already pointed out!
I quite trying to accurately track practice time, felt stressed and I think its more important to enjoy the time. At any rate I did take a break on 2 days but still got 15 or 20 minutes in on those days, otherwise minimum 1 hour.
Class we are still working baselines, and intro into Albert King. Working on 2 licks in the key of c# second lick is on 19th fret i think you start the bend grab the next string and pluck both and to a 2 step bend.
I am also still working on Born under a Bad Sign, i am all the way to the verse, i need to start memorizing next section.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 27, 2019 17:15:33 GMT -6
Well, as threatened, here's the end of the road for me and Texas Rock. I had a devil of a time getting a decent take on it, bad case of red light paralysis, and in the end I just gave up and kept one with a bunch of little screw ups to be done. I took a lot of liberties in modifying the arrangement and can't remember if I ever uploaded one of the earlier stages of its evolution. The little variation in the final chorus I added yesterday. To me the arrangement sounded pretty cool here by myself, but hearing it on "tape" sorta makes me cringe. Oh well, if nothing else this one made me learn how to grab that open E7 chord voicing from the book, which for the longest time was really difficult for me. Glad to be done with it. soundcloud.com/grampalerxst/bycu1 |
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Post by Phil on Jan 27, 2019 17:49:05 GMT -6
Well, as threatened, here's the end of the road for me and Texas Rock. I had a devil of a time getting a decent take on it, bad case of red light paralysis, and in the end I just gave up and kept one with a bunch of little screw ups to be done. I took a lot of liberties in modifying the arrangement and can't remember if I ever uploaded one of the earlier stages of its evolution. The little variation in the final chorus I added yesterday. To me the arrangement sounded pretty cool here by myself, but hearing it on "tape" sorta makes me cringe. Oh well, if nothing else this one made me learn how to grab that open E7 chord voicing from the book, which for the longest time was really difficult for me. Glad to be done with it. soundcloud.com/grampalerxst/bycu1Nice going there, Gramps. You took a basic study and made it interesting. More importantly you made it your own. I like what you did with it. Nothing to cringe about at all. Well done. |
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Post by bluesbruce on Jan 27, 2019 21:55:28 GMT -6
Nice job both Joachim and Grampa! Good to hear some BYCU studies, both very nicely done. Been kind of shirking off playing this week, had to work this weekend. Been spending time trying to get my new laptop set up for music. I did buy the iRig HD 2, but haven't had much time to play with it. Did get it plugged in finally, was able to get sound into Logic. Didn't get any kind of recording together, though. Got to work all this week, too, then leaving Friday for a ski trip to Colorado. Boy, I've got a whole pile of excuses, don't I!
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Post by joachim on Jan 28, 2019 0:25:17 GMT -6
Grampa, I am of full respect! Really nicely done!
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 28, 2019 6:22:26 GMT -6
Very nice Joachim! I remember that one, some really quick stuff in there. Only nitpick is that it's rock 'n roll - the gain knob needs to be rotated farther clockwise  I had a pretty light week. Worked on that Little Wing thing at the beginning of the week and posted that here. Messed around with it a bit more yesterday - I think it just takes time for that rhythm structure to sink into my brain. Although it can be very melodic, like with Little Wing itself, it still tends to be more rhythmic that the way I typically play. Just need to spend some time each day messing around with it and exploring the possibilities I guess. So, perhaps I shall do that this week  Right after I get done with the snow shoveling lol. Hey you guys should come visit, we're expecting some balmy weather   |
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 28, 2019 6:25:56 GMT -6
Grandpa - very cool! Love what you've done with it. Great timing, loved the slides / pull-offs or whatever you're doing there Absolutely nothing to cringe about there |
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 28, 2019 6:27:54 GMT -6
Been spending time trying to get my new laptop set up for music. I remember when I got my laptop - I had to replace the hard drive with an SSD and double the amount of memory it had just to make it usable for anything lol. |
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 28, 2019 6:38:34 GMT -6
Thanks Phil, Bruce, and Joachim. The encouragement is appreciated very much. Next up is Blues Rock Tune which of all the BYCU studies is the one I've never been able to get under my fingers, as they say. But I'm going to rep it for a month using the full demo from the book as accompaniment rather than the backing track. Maybe trying to imitate the guy who did the demo will help. That's the theory I'm putting to the test.
Phil, I wish I could do more of that. I reached a point on that one where my poor right hand just had to do something different and so I made it an exercise in freeing up my right hand and then slowly changed up some of the notes (the evolution played out over about 1.5 years). Unfortunately for the vast majority of studies, even other basic ones, I seem powerless to do that.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 28, 2019 6:50:13 GMT -6
Grandpa - very cool! Love what you've done with it. Great timing, loved the slides / pull-offs or whatever you're doing there Absolutely nothing to cringe about there Thanks, Jack. Wow, so it looks like you have four straight days of subzero temps, maybe longer. That's one aspect of higher latitude living I don't miss. We're expecting 2" of snow tonight and about 36 straight hours below freezing (below 32*F, not below 0*F) here in N Alabama. School closings for tomorrow and probably Wednesday will be announced by noon today. Bread and milk shelves at the grocery stores will be bare by this evening (I dunno what people think they need the bread for, snow sandwiches maybe?). All relative I guess. Stay warm! |
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Post by bluesbruce on Jan 28, 2019 8:05:08 GMT -6
Been spending time trying to get my new laptop set up for music. I remember when I got my laptop - I had to replace the hard drive with an SSD and double the amount of memory it had just to make it usable for anything lol. My new computer came with an SSD and plenty of RAM for that very reason! Just takes so darn much time to install and set up BIAB, Logic, Guitar Pro, Midi Guitar 2, Amazing Slow Downer, Ear Master. Then to try to get the iRig set up and it comes with a version of Amplitube 4 (plus some other software I may pass on). Plus been ripping some of my instructional book CD's (can't find my MBYCU and R&BYCU CD's! - I'll have to get those off my old computer). It's been so long since I got a new computer, I had forgotten what a pain all this stuff is... |
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Post by Phil on Jan 28, 2019 9:14:08 GMT -6
Thanks Phil, Bruce, and Joachim. The encouragement is appreciated very much. Next up is Blues Rock Tune which of all the BYCU studies is the one I've never been able to get under my fingers, as they say. But I'm going to rep it for a month using the full demo from the book as accompaniment rather than the backing track. Maybe trying to imitate the guy who did the demo will help. That's the theory I'm putting to the test. Phil, I wish I could do more of that. I reached a point on that one where my poor right hand just had to do something different and so I made it an exercise in freeing up my right hand and then slowly changed up some of the notes (the evolution played out over about 1.5 years). Unfortunately for the vast majority of studies, even other basic ones, I seem powerless to do that. Interesting concept. Frank Vignola, Jazz guitarist and instructor, says that if you repeat a lick or the melody enough times you'll eventually feel compelled to change it in some way just to keep your sanity. Once you do that it becomes yours.
Looking forward to the next one.
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 28, 2019 9:36:32 GMT -6
Grandpa - very cool! Love what you've done with it. Great timing, loved the slides / pull-offs or whatever you're doing there Absolutely nothing to cringe about there Thanks, Jack. Wow, so it looks like you have four straight days of subzero temps, maybe longer. That's one aspect of higher latitude living I don't miss. We're expecting 2" of snow tonight and about 36 straight hours below freezing (below 32*F, not below 0*F) here in N Alabama. School closings for tomorrow and probably Wednesday will be announced by noon today. Bread and milk shelves at the grocery stores will be bare by this evening (I dunno what people think they need the bread for, snow sandwiches maybe?). All relative I guess. Stay warm! My cousin was reminding me that at -29, plus windchill, we're not all that far from the average temperature...on Mars |
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Post by blackcountrymick on Jan 29, 2019 17:42:37 GMT -6
Hi guys, after the last year of hit and miss practice and getting nowhere I've finally got myself a guitar teacher in a bid to get my ass into gear. Its something I really should have done ages ago as demonstrated by the amazing progress other members here have achieved. Onwards and upwards!!!
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Post by cunningr on Jan 29, 2019 23:13:57 GMT -6
Hi guys, after the last year of hit and miss practice and getting nowhere I've finally got myself a guitar teacher in a bid to get my ass into gear. Its something I really should have done ages ago as demonstrated by the amazing progress other members here have achieved. Onwards and upwards!!! I have to agree totally, getting an instructor has really helpe. Good luck on finding the correct one. |
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Right after I get done with the snow shoveling lol. Hey you guys should come visit, we're expecting some balmy weather 
