Over Analyzed |
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Over Analyzed |
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Jun 12 2010, 04:22 PM |
Yes, it has happened to me,
The first thing that came to my mind is: Observe the picking of a good player. Try to imitate, That's how I did it. And I went through stages. I remember I went through the Greg Howe stage. I just wouldn't support my hand with the pinky on the guitar. It felt all right for a while, but then I naturally came back. Or the Marty Friedman stage even, I even tried to hold the pick like him for some months, I even got comfortable with that, but then I came back to my picking again. Now I just don't think about that anymore. I just don't observe my hand and just listen. If it doesn't look cool or whatever, I don't care, I'm interested in being able to play whatever I want to play. Look at Alexi Laiho or Vinnie Moore, their picking technique looks awful, uncomfortable and unorthodox imo. But they sound great! Don't be too over analytic too, you'll get it, if you got it once. -------------------- Visit my:
INSTRUCTOR PROFILE "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music." Gustav Mahler Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here |
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Jun 12 2010, 05:15 PM |
You have to be patient, the result (speed) won't come in couple of months. You have to rehearse for years to be able to play fast. Just be patient, and try to practice everything slowly. In the end, it doesn't matter that much what picking technique you use, as long as it provides you with best comfort and tone when playing.
-------------------- - Ivan's Video Chat Lesson Notes HERE
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Jun 13 2010, 08:37 AM |
Think of learning the guitar like chipping away at a mountain with a spoon. It literally takes years to develop technique - and that technique doesn't just one day pop into perfection. It goes thru levels of forward and backwards progress. You have high expectations for yourself, and you're getting frustrated because you're not reaching your goals fast enough - that's natural because people expect quick results - we don't naturally think in terms of months or years to achieve goals - we're more in the weeks camp. Everyone has expectations, but realistically speaking - you need to be thinking in terms of years, not months, especially for something like guitar.
The mind is willing, and the body has the physical strength, but coordination and mental aptitude rely on nerve-endings and fast-muscle tissue - those don't just develop overnight. A brand-new exercise, using areas of the mind / nervous system that your body has never done before takes a minimum of 2 weeks of regular observance just for the neural pathways for those signals to form. After that is the fine-tuning phase which takes a life time. If you've ever picked up something for the first time, and it seemed awkward at first, that's because you haven't developed the neural pathways for it yet. Fine-tuning something as precise as alternate picking at a very fast speed is not something the body can achieve in a short period of time. Sure physically you can make the pick go up and down, but transitioning from string to string requires a lot of fine-tuned motor and neural pathways to fire perfectly to avoid the first string on the way over to the second string. Don't downplay the physics in that exercise. It really is an amazing task that the human hand has to achieve at high speeds. Anyways - yes we all get frustrated. There are huge learning curve jags in the rise to perfection. The first jag is first starting out - you have 2 weeks of learning how to just hold the pick and it not feel completely awkward - those are your neuron pathways forming. Then the learning curve speeds up for a while - then you hit the base of the mountain - that's the threshold of your speed and coordination - now for the climb up the mountain. The climb up the mountain is a guaranteed number of years of pain and suffering. Consider this: No athlete picks up a ball and becomes a major league player in less than 5 years. It just doesn't happen. Guitar is no less rigorous a sport - not physically - but agility wise it really is. Best thing you can do is stop thinking of your practice as a short-term "reach the major league" kind of exercise. Instead, think of it in terms of a life-long activity that gets better with age. As a guitarist, you have something professional athletes don't have - longevity. Take advantage of it. Athletes peeeter out at age 30 - 40 is much rarer. Les Paul and BB King --hahaha. you got an extra 40 years to get good man. Stop racing. All the hot rods on guitar started at age 9, 11, etc. They weren't famous til they hit 20. That's 9 years of practice to get fast. Just keep that in mind. Christian A. Let me add this - I also experienced having alternate picking down really well once when I first started playing when I was about 20. I took a 15-20 year haiatus because I got married and suddenly busy lol. - I picked up my guitar again about 2 years ago, and was able to AP just fine - for about a month. Then I tried doing scales with AP and I could not for the life of me do it faster than about 50 bpm I kid you not. I was fumbling around - it was really frustrating so yeah I hear you on that front. I stuck with it and within a few months I'm back up to doing full 2 octave scales fairly cleanly at a good pace. So patience and perserverence won. I'm sure it will with you too. Just keep at it and don't toss your guitar out the window! This post has been edited by SirJamsalot: Jun 13 2010, 10:16 AM -------------------- The more I practice, the more I wish I had time to practice!
My Band Forum: http://passionfly.site/chat |
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Jul 11 2010, 10:18 AM |
Well, I took the easy way out. Instead of practicing AP, Im using legato and writing songs. I found practicing AP most boring and never found any use for it in my music anyway....
//Staffay -------------------- Guitars: Ibanez AM-200, Ibanez GB-10, Fender Stratocaster Classic Player, Warmouth Custom Built, Suhr Classic Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2003, Ibanez steel-string Amps: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Marshall JMP 2103, AER 60 Effects: BOSS DD-20, Danelectro Trans. Overdrive, TC-Electronics G-Major, Dunlop Wah-wah, Original SansAmp, BOSS DD-2 Music by Staffy can be found at: Staffay at MySpace |
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Jul 11 2010, 11:50 AM |
Yea Staffay, you just need to learn what you use really.. I am not sure why I am practicing so much AP stuff. :-S I am learning some grace notes stuff now. I did learn much legatos before GMC so I haven't been concentrating on that this time.. will do a lesson about it soon though. Grace notes are grace !!! (or great...) I use it a lot when playing jazz, it gives some motion in the music that haven't been there else. Looking forward to those lessons! //Staffay -------------------- Guitars: Ibanez AM-200, Ibanez GB-10, Fender Stratocaster Classic Player, Warmouth Custom Built, Suhr Classic Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard 2003, Ibanez steel-string Amps: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Marshall JMP 2103, AER 60 Effects: BOSS DD-20, Danelectro Trans. Overdrive, TC-Electronics G-Major, Dunlop Wah-wah, Original SansAmp, BOSS DD-2 Music by Staffy can be found at: Staffay at MySpace |
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