*Began using red nylon Jazz III picks, Eric Johnson model. Tried XL nylon and XL ultex, do not like XL jazz iiis. But I love the red nylons! *Lots of mindless picking, finger coordination to the metronome, pushing speed and also gaining strength. *Working on hybrid picking.
*Began working through Berklee Modern Method for Guitar, volumes 1, 2, 3 superbook. Some good work on reading music higher on the neck, definitely helps drilling the meaning of these notes without having to think.
*hybrid picking, the pick is slipping because the angle of the pick between the thumb in index finger is shifting. Keep that angle and see if it doesn't slip. *keep the left hand as LIGHT as possible. cannot emphasize this enough. DO NOT PRESS or it will HURT and MANGLE and BRUISE and the INJURY will mean STOPPING for a while again.
*Breaking stuff down into smaller sections. E.g., into smaller pieces. *When playing C chord, find how it turns into C7 *Motor learning, one little bit at a time.
Novelty and surprise! Means MEMORY. Throw twists, do things differently.
1. Right wrong right. Play it right a few times, then wrong a few times. E.g., play lightly, then use too much left hand pressure.
2. Do it like you will do it. E.g., playing using a strap, at stage volume, etc.
3. Super slow mo. E.g., 5 times slower than you normally do it. For the purpose of analyzing everything that's happening. Painfully slow. Subtle changes you can't see otherwise.
4. Play it backwards.
5. Play in the dark. Eliminating one sense makes others more acute.
6. Play pretend. Create mental imagery when you play, imagine various scenarios. Notice how this creates different feelings.
7. Make a game.
8. Five times perfect. Game, do it 5 times perfectly before you can move on.
9. Do it NOT like you will do it. Change tempo, change style, play it weird.
10. Bump the ceiling. We advance fastest when we play at edge of ability. E.g., playing at 130 is too fast, but 120 is hard but just possible. So stay there.
*how to not strain fingertips and left hand with too much pressure *how to hybrid pick *how to write lyrics *how to keep time with a metronome *how to gain control in time *how to reduce accidentals using left muting and right hand precision *how to consistently play through a difficult fingerpicking song without stopping with minimal mistakes *how to be comfortable playing in front of people regularly
*how to tune, string, and setup *ways to sit and stand with the guitar *how to read music *the names of the notes everyone on the neck *free stroke and rest stroke *many fingerstyle patterns PMIA, etc *Bach prelude 999 *tangerine jazz solo *various FF songs (3) *how to read many chords *how to construct many different chords *plectrum use, scalpel style, wrist, serod *CAGED scales *major and minor scales in several patterns across the neck *several whole tone, whole half tone, and augmented scales *pentatonic scales in boxes and across the neck *major and minor triads
One observation I've made recently has been that it may be useful to have different shaped picks for different purposes. Strumming songs using a Tortex Flow pick, which is excellent for playing leads, seems to be less effective than using the standard teardrop shape. As much as I would prefer to have one go-to pick, working with different options may be the best choice. To be further assessed...
Finding time in the day difficult now with long hours.
The most reasonable plan to make is setting aside time in the morning, before work, to really practice, as this is less likely to happen when I am tired.
When I first began playing guitar, I was interested specifically in Classical Guitar (CG) and CG music. Thus I adopted a CG left-hand technique from the beginning.
Unfortunately, my emphasis on emulating the form was incorrect insofar as my left hand (LH) was tense and unrelaxed. This may have also been due to gaining/building strength in the LH. But it became a matter of habit.
Later, when I began playing more rock music, I discarded classical LH technique, and deliberately broke the rules, ESPECIALLY with the aim of feeling RELAXED as I played, and not tense.
As I have worked on the goal of having a relaxed left hand, it astonished me that I could swap between using a CG LH position without it "hurting," and the more typical "thumb over the fretboard" position.
It is helpful to get the feedback from videos that using the CG LH technique is ideal for many applications, but that there may be some utility to hanging the thumb over during certain types of bends, etc. My goal, moving forward, will be to deliberately choose when the break the "rule" of the CG LH technique, with this set as the default.
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