Weekly Update 02-08-15

Good Morning,
I have also been on vacation so practice wasn't as planned as I like but got 6 hours of solid practice in mostly in large blocks.
I started trying to record a portable full speed version of Rockin and Rollin for Phil, but not sure I'll ever get a version I feel is postable.
I have a decent version of delta mood ready for posting for the review, but holding off as I am trying to come up with an extension with
Something I came up with, not sure it'll happen several good ideas but nothing clean enough to use.

I spent a lot of time in Blues Rythms You Can Use, working on TRIADs. I have it pretty much memorized and the groove timing is pretty good also just need to improve chord changes and getting the triad shape creamed in on the 11 and 12 fret.

I also reviewed the rythm piece for major blues, and continued excersises from MBYCU lesson 1.

I got in 7 1/2 hours on guitar and 3 1/2 on bass. Did get a little something accomplished this week, what was it now...oh yeah finished More Blues You Can Use   I also worked a bit on writing some stuff for Delta Mood, I don't time that because I'm just fooling around with coming up with stuff so it's not really "practice".  My solo is sounding more rock than blues (what else is new).  

I finally bought that EZ Drummer 2 program (and the blues expansion pack of course   ) and spent the second half of the week learning how to use that, which consumed most of my guitar practice time.  I think I've got a satisfactory drum line made up for Delta Mood.  I also downloaded a 10 day free trial of Izotope's Ozone 6, which is mastering software (I used it on Rakin' in the Funk).  I really like that program but can't afford to buy it right now;  maybe next year 

Did my usual improvising and looked over Atlantic Coast Soul in the R&B book a bit too.

I've been continuing to work on Chord-On Bleu, also playing around with Delta Mood - man, I love that deep delta groove thing! Been having too many "skip" days, without playing that guitar, due to work and family. Well, probably can't do anything about that. My excitement for MBYCU really hasn't vanished, only my available practice time has!

Bruce

Chris, getting the bends to pitch is the #1 problem everybody here has - welcome to the club    Everybody has their own method of working on them, I find it very helpful to play along with John on the CD track;  make sure you've got the volume balanced between your guitar and John's so you can hear them both clearly, and then just concentrate 100% on bending up to the same pitches that he does.  

I never used to care about them too much, I was more interested in getting the fast parts played cleanly.  But everyone here was nice enough to point out (repeatedly) how bad mine were, and making them my main priority when practicing was the first step in making some improvements. 

Ok, so feedback accepted on the bends. Here is the deal, I had a work related injury a year ago that damaged my ulnar nerve right where it is exposed by the elbow. This is the central nerve for everything in your arm, and needs to 'glide' easily and not get knotted up like mine is. Unfortunately, I still don't have full strength and I'm finding bending to full pitch bend on certain strings very difficult still. I've been doing a lot of extra work trying to find stuff that might help, and continue to try to do exercises, etc. to strengthen it. Guitar setup has been tweaked a lot lately as well, string gauge, tremolo setup, action, etc. As far as technique, I do pretty much all of the above mentioned items including practicing with a tuner, hearing the pitch two frets up, etc. Pitch isn't the issue for me, unfortunately, it's more mechanical. Unfortunately, it's also very frustrating because bends are such a HUGE part of the Blues. I also have some issues with being able to stretch my fingers apart real wide, so even the first few lessons in the BRYCU book are a challenge and after one run, result in some pain or tension.

Having said all of that, I really, really want to progress with Blues playing and I'm finding that what I may do is continue to work on lessons and songs with large bends in parallel with other lessons that are a little more straight forward or don't require as many bends. I'm sure over time I'll get there, but this injury is more of a set back with some lessons than others and more than I thought it would be.

I'm also open to suggestions from the group as well. Anyone else have ulnar nerve issues and been able to get it completely healed? Or any other suggestions on maybe alternate technique for bends based on this?

Going to lighter gauge strings will help, like Rich said (I think one of the guys from ZZ Top uses .008's and he doesn't sound too bad  ), and also make sure you're using extra fingers to help bend like this:



That way you only need to provide one-third of the force with each finger.  Or maybe that's not applicable to your injury, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Also, although the "correct" way to bend is to pivot your wrist, you can also bend by leaving your wrist stationary and just pushing the string up by extending your fingers.  That's the "wrong" way to do it but if it helps take the stress off your injury, it might be worth a try.  

Billy Gibbons has been known to play .007's also. I think Joachim got what I was trying to say much clearer, excercise is good but don't over do it. Lots of picking excersises and scale practice can go along way.

Thanks fellas, all good feedback. I have tried lighter strings, but snapped a high E string at the 10th fret on this same lesson. There isn't a ton of pain, but strength is definitely an issue. Just harder to build up because of the injury, even though I've come a long way with physical therapy. I don't bend with fingers (bad), but bend with the wrist as you should, and use typically 3 fingers. I also use my thumb for leverage and as kind of an anchor.

Phil, I like the idea of the half step bend, played one fret up. I might try that in addition to continuing with full step bends to increase my strength and ability. I don't want it to become the norm though.

I'm sure over time it will improve.

Good idea, Jack.  As someone who rarely changes their strings, I usually know it's time to change 'em when that high E string breaks.  I've definitely bought individual E strings before - seems like I used to break them more when I played acoustic all the time, and those strings were really heavy - go figure.