QUOTE (gregc1 @ Nov 8 2012, 08:47 PM)
Yeah Degroot, Blues is mainly what I started out playing and played for years with Rock/Hard Rock mixed in as well. What I have going for me is simply 20+ years of playing, what I have against me is discipline. It's damn near impossible for me to just sit down and practice patterns slowly working to build up my speed, I just want to play songs so it's really my own fault. I've relied more on letting things come to me naturally than really dedicating myself to improve in different areas.
Like you though, GMC has helped me a great deal since I joined about a year ago just through learning these lessons that have these skills embedded in them so hopefully in due time the light switch will really turn on.
I'd say you're on the right side of things though Greg.. I (and probably most other players) would rather have what you've got in the way of taste, phrasing, vibrato and overall feel.. to have that and have the technical stuff as the homework is a much better place to be because no matter what, you can always play an awesome solo but when it's the other way around, you can't hide what you're lacking.
I also believe that my best progress came from just 'doing it' in an innocent, naive kind of way. No preconceptions or metronomes or rules. Sure' I'd repeat stuff a lot but only with the goal of getting it to sound like what I hear in my head. I feel that when you aim for a sound then you can keep going indefinitely and only your aching hand that is about to fall off will make you stop. (and only then because you want to be able to play tomorrow, not because you couldn't carry on..). However, when aiming for a speed then there is much less motivation there for me.
I follow the music best and when doing so, I can sustain it as long as it needs to go. I swear I could keep blazing on one lick for hours and hours if only there wasn't a chance of overdoing it and ruining practise for next day. When I'm in the zone, I don't mind the pain of muscle fatigue, I can take as much of it as possible. But I only get like this when I've chanced upon a lick that is 'me', usually a legato lick.
That's when repetition works for me.. but it's only done at the pace of my hand's natural progress.. how clean it sounds etc.. I'll slow down and speed up according to how I feel.
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