I swear I want to write a self-help book with this title... but that's a different topic.

I have been getting 2-3 hours practice in each night with a fair amount of consistency for the past 5 weeks or so.

However, tonight, after 3 hours, even though everythnig hurts, and nothing sounded quite right, and all of my scales were either buzzing or missing, and my fingers were everywhere they shouldn't have been on top of the frets; too far away from the frets; and even on the wrong frets.... Even my sweetie remarked, "Whatever you're doing sounds wrong..."

By even the most casual observer's opinion, tonight's practice session would be considered a failure.

I am, however, going to call it a success. I didn't stop, I didn't quit, I focused on form, posture, holding my fingers right, and so on. And I am believing, that tomorrow and the day after that and even next week, I will see payback from tonights efforts.... Somehow.

-- Abs

Keep going on don´t give up we all have days that it looks like we are doing it for nothing but there are days as well that you finally think "yeah i was rocking" as Pebber and many others mentioned many time PERSISTENCE.

So keep going on Abs and dont give up!!!!

Greetz Ray

Thanks! I guess I wasn't done. I spent another doing trills, who needs sleep anyway :)

We'll see how it goes tonight. :)

if you feel things are going wrong.... slow down...but keep on pushing

Thanks, that sounds like great advice.

It was not so much that things were going wrong but more that they weren't going right :)

Maybe give your left hand a rest and work your right and then switch the next day
I had to do this for a while while building the strength.

we all have times where there seems to be no returns for the effort
but you are doing right keep pushing through and you will reap the rewards....

I had to call it early tonight. (About two hours). I may have over done the trill exercises yesterday, my fingertips feel as though they are bruised. It was all diminishing returns tonight. But things seemed better for some reason. Who knows? Hoping for even better stuff to come.

Aura Lee is starting to sound more recognizeable, so there's that :)

-- Abs

you wanna get good?! Stop worrying aboout hurting your fingers...As longer as you stick your forms as classical your hands are not going to fall off...my advice is to trill maybe not harder and faster but simply longer...unplug the internet...turn off your iphone...stop worrying that your guitar is going to hurt you...the best attitude is "who gives a $#$# about fingers even if they actually do bruise?" Bruised fingers dont never put Guitar any players out of buisiness ....but Carpal tunnel will...so learn what the symptomes of it are and really learn what constitutes good classical technique then even if you feel discomfort who cares then?...Because once you know what the classical form is and what symptomes to watch out for
...then your attention span is the only constraint you have left on how long you can go on practicing/phobia of RSI will never from that point on should NEVER be a reason that you decide to stop practicing on any given day...Also regarding attentioon span LET GO of how long its taking to learn any particular thingy or whatnot....It takes as long as it takes....and the longer the better....because that means more time for you to get to spend be doing your guitar widdly widdly.

I have adhered classical form since I began my PB syllabic oddysey about 2 years ago...and I have yet to be put out of the game by RSI...or any other type of playing related injury...mind you there have been times where I have been trilling for over 24-30 hours without any rest beyond break for make coffee and smoke break. The biggest benefit from that was probably how it allowed me to put such fears of RSI to bed...Because If that was ever gonna happen to me...it woulda happened by now I think (-: (p.s. i would not advise a day one guitarist to try trilling for anywhere near that long, but I digress)...good luck

This is where the internet gets confusing, don't take this the wrong way. I was not so much complaining that my fingers felt bruised, as much as remarking it because it is the first time since I have begun that they felt like this. I was not expecting this specific pain. Granted I felt the pain of fretting strings, and especially with my previous guitar with action so high you could reach your fingers under the strings :). Those pains were long gone, it was just weird to have a "bruised feeling" that was new.
I had a good 3 hour practicing in before I attempted the trilling for the first time, and spent an hour at it. I am pretty sure that was overdone. Interestingly enough that night never hurt in my muscles. On the other hand, last night I was able to feel the muscle fatigue and that kind of kept me into a reasonable time box with it.

I am a software engineer by day, and since I am at a keyboard for long amounts of time I am aware of the RMI/RSI CTS issues, and as of yet nothing I have done on the guitar or computer keyboard has gone in that direction.

I am also not discouraged by things not progressing too fast, because, I am not really progressing at much of an appreciable pace at all. I am concerned that my form is not necessarily classical, since I have not really found a groove where everything feels right, so I do keep shifting around. Perhaps I am not 100% on exactly what constitutes "classical form" per se. I am aiming at keeping the thumb on the back of the neck, playing with my finger tips and fretting somewhere near the middle of the fret. I still find myself with the head too low, or with my elbow in my lap or things like that which I know are wrong. I tried puttign the strap on and standing up, but then I find myself either leaning on the neck (moving the thumb away from the back to the top). When seated I am trying now to raise the head more. I know 90 degrees is wrong, and 45 feels good sometimes there needs to be somewhere in between. This may be a good thing for an in-person session. Watching PB's videos are not really helping in this posture since he is usually holding a strat/tele electric in them, and I am working with an acoustic. I know the groove on my guitar is supposed to go over my thigh, it is just getting the correct angle after that which is throwing me.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement, and advice! I am not giving up, and FWIW, my fingers no longer feel bruised this morning, so no biggie. The body does heal. :) Tonight we dance! Lets see if some shagging lessons help at all :)

-- Abs

Thanks Pebber! I will take that advice to heart!

I welcome the pain, just want to make sure it is good pain.

-- Abs