Reflecting on Section 1 of BLYCU/Bruce's Challenge
Sept 14, 2020 6:04:20 GMT -6
bluesbruce and Marc like this
Post by grampalerxst on Sept 14, 2020 6:04:20 GMT -6
No other proper way to start this than to give Bruce another shout out for keeping the Challenge going. Thanks, Bruce!
General thoughts:
I'm happy I was able to stick to this. We've been at it about 7.5 months! It took a fair bit of work on my part to keep up. I'd estimate I averaged somewhere in the range of 3-5 hours per week, sometimes more. If nothing else I had to gain some callous thickness and finger strength. I broke two high E strings. I'm playing a guitar with stainless steel frets, otherwise I'm sure I would have completely trashed frets 10-13 or 15. I'm really hard on frets and think I'll only buy guitars with stainless frets from now on.
Positive takeaways:
The thing I think I gained the most from was the time I spent playing along with the demos, starting usually with the "slow" version slowed down to about 70% of it's original tempo. Two good things about that. First, it's slow enough I could mostly learn the phrases by ear. Second, it's easier to pick up on the articulation. There are a lot of little things: notated bends aren't always executed precisely, notes don't fall exactly on a grid, etc. This was especially apparent on a couple of the examples where I switched back-and-fort to playing along with the demos and the GP Bruce prepared.
I improved my awareness of where I was in the chorus; not a lot, but anything that moves me away from oblivious is good.
This was also the first occurrence when I've spent a sustained amount of time working on blues in a key besides A. Playing three frets further up the neck makes a difference!
I learned to play a lot of phrases that I probably wouldn't have picked up on were I left to my own devices. I'm sure that was helpful both to techniques and to my ear.
Things that didn't work out like I hoped:
At the top of this list is that I don't feel like I really internalized much of the material. Seems like my memorization was temporary. I can't imagine my self using more that maybe 5-10% of the Section 1 material were I trying to just freelance through a chorus or two on a random Friday evening. It's just not "there" for me to draw on. This is the point where a diligent student would keep working regularly on the first 15 licks while devouring the next 15. I won't do that simply because of time.
I didn't get most of the Section 1 material really nailed. Every recording I made I was flying by the seat of my pants trying to survive getting through the BLYCU parts, usually with C+/B- execution. In contrast, with the stuff I made up to fill the rest of the space I was usually a lot more relaxed, though sometimes truly awful, haha. That's sort of a self-fulfilling thing because what's "there" for me to draw on is stuff that's comfortably under my fingers.
I still can't sit in the pocket rhythmically the way I would like. My ability to sync up/lock in is inconsistent.
Bottom line:
So, taking away all the nuances did my playing get better? I listened to all my recordings from the Challenge back-to-back in reverse chronological order. The ones I felt were best came from the early part of the summer. It seems like there was improvement over the first half dozen or so then a fall off. The licks got harder and we started taking them 2-3 at a time so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. I don't think I can claim much in the way of results where the rubber meets the road. That doesn't bother me too much because I seem to have a really long gestation time before work begins to pay off (something like a year or two usually).
Looking ahead:
The tempo of the next section is higher which will present a big challenge as the section progresses and the note density gets higher. Having listened through the demos, the next group overall sound more like the kind of phrases I aspire to in certain blues settings, which should help with motivation. My biggest concern is being able to stay on pace.
General thoughts:
I'm happy I was able to stick to this. We've been at it about 7.5 months! It took a fair bit of work on my part to keep up. I'd estimate I averaged somewhere in the range of 3-5 hours per week, sometimes more. If nothing else I had to gain some callous thickness and finger strength. I broke two high E strings. I'm playing a guitar with stainless steel frets, otherwise I'm sure I would have completely trashed frets 10-13 or 15. I'm really hard on frets and think I'll only buy guitars with stainless frets from now on.
Positive takeaways:
The thing I think I gained the most from was the time I spent playing along with the demos, starting usually with the "slow" version slowed down to about 70% of it's original tempo. Two good things about that. First, it's slow enough I could mostly learn the phrases by ear. Second, it's easier to pick up on the articulation. There are a lot of little things: notated bends aren't always executed precisely, notes don't fall exactly on a grid, etc. This was especially apparent on a couple of the examples where I switched back-and-fort to playing along with the demos and the GP Bruce prepared.
I improved my awareness of where I was in the chorus; not a lot, but anything that moves me away from oblivious is good.
This was also the first occurrence when I've spent a sustained amount of time working on blues in a key besides A. Playing three frets further up the neck makes a difference!
I learned to play a lot of phrases that I probably wouldn't have picked up on were I left to my own devices. I'm sure that was helpful both to techniques and to my ear.
Things that didn't work out like I hoped:
At the top of this list is that I don't feel like I really internalized much of the material. Seems like my memorization was temporary. I can't imagine my self using more that maybe 5-10% of the Section 1 material were I trying to just freelance through a chorus or two on a random Friday evening. It's just not "there" for me to draw on. This is the point where a diligent student would keep working regularly on the first 15 licks while devouring the next 15. I won't do that simply because of time.
I didn't get most of the Section 1 material really nailed. Every recording I made I was flying by the seat of my pants trying to survive getting through the BLYCU parts, usually with C+/B- execution. In contrast, with the stuff I made up to fill the rest of the space I was usually a lot more relaxed, though sometimes truly awful, haha. That's sort of a self-fulfilling thing because what's "there" for me to draw on is stuff that's comfortably under my fingers.
I still can't sit in the pocket rhythmically the way I would like. My ability to sync up/lock in is inconsistent.
Bottom line:
So, taking away all the nuances did my playing get better? I listened to all my recordings from the Challenge back-to-back in reverse chronological order. The ones I felt were best came from the early part of the summer. It seems like there was improvement over the first half dozen or so then a fall off. The licks got harder and we started taking them 2-3 at a time so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. I don't think I can claim much in the way of results where the rubber meets the road. That doesn't bother me too much because I seem to have a really long gestation time before work begins to pay off (something like a year or two usually).
Looking ahead:
The tempo of the next section is higher which will present a big challenge as the section progresses and the note density gets higher. Having listened through the demos, the next group overall sound more like the kind of phrases I aspire to in certain blues settings, which should help with motivation. My biggest concern is being able to stay on pace.
