Never Be Great on My Acoustic - But Advice on Good Appreciated!

[pgcorky]

I tried for a little guidance on the Lesson Loft, but have been admonished for not having desire for greatness, or being a spoiled brat that won't work hard. At age 49 (happy birthday to me), I'm a little old for spoiled brat. (but my kids aren't!) In any case, thought the acoustic board might be a bit more constructive for me.

 

In my case I guess it's coordination (and time) - just getting my fingers in the right places on the fret board quickly and consistently is still a challenge. I suppose there are folks that are real born naturals, and then there are the rest of us. So I need to keep it simple. When I started playing, it was probably more with the intent of learning to strum and sing a few nice folk, country, classic rockish songs to build a campfire repertoire.

 

I can handle some simple finger style - (the Taylor 314 is pretty good for that) and strumming (the Martin D-15 is nice). Still not there on the expert skills side and thinking some fresh but simple suggestions from you alll would be excellent to get me back on track! Many thanks!

[GothicLlama]

I've felt that way before. The best thing I've ever done is take lessons. This forced me to practice and improve myself before the next lesson. Eventually playing guitar became something as integrated into my life as brushing my teeth or taking a shower...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do it once a month.

[SpaceCowboy409]

"getting my fingers in the right places..quickly and consistantly"
is a matter of establishing muscle memory, it takes time for those neural pathways to take. You might practice something for a long time on Monday, say, and find you're no better on Tuesday, but even without addtional practice, you're much better by Friday or so.

You're better off finding 30-45 minutes everyday to play than just doing a marathon weekend session.

Always be working on a song that's really too hard for you. When you go back to play your regular stuff, it will seem much easier.

It's really important to find enjoyment in the way you're playing now. Spend some time playing slow, very simple songs and really concentrate on the sound. You've got some good guitars, slow down and enjoy their beautiful
tone.

I'm older than you, and while not a beginner, I continue to improve - slowly.

[SpinalTap]

Just do what I do: Admit to yourself that you'll never be , then relax. Put on a CD you can play along to, and do it just for the satisfaction of it. Don't beat yourself up. If at some point you feel inspired to progress, then pick a new tune, deconstruct it, find a tab for it, etc, and repeat it a thousand times. That's how we learned to play in the first place, right?

With regards to the other forum you mentioned, you can glean a tidbit or two from just lurking there, like I do.

I see by the location below your avatar that we're neighbors!

[Whalebot]

Martin D-14?

[Freeman Keller]

I'm older than all of you... oh, wrong thread

Pg, the thing that has helped me more than anything has been video/dvd lessons - Stefan Grossman and Homespun in particular. I like the ability to stop the tape, look at how the instructor is doing something, and to be able to go at my own pace. The acoustic genres covered are almost endless. An occassional lesson with someone that playes my style of music is also really helpful - she can look at what I'm doing (wrong) and give really meaningful advice.

And as much as I hate to say it, going back to the basics - chord progressons, scales, easy songs that to work on smoothness (I do FreightTrain over and over and over). The mando dvd I just started on starts by doing scales in every key - good advice, hard to make myself do it.

I just got a digital record and that has been, er, "helpful" too - my god I sound terrible, but I can hear where I need to work.

[pgcorky]

The D-14 is almost as nice as the D-15. Just one less string. But I fixed the post. I think it's just an age thing - dropping digits all over the place these days....

I guess practice is a little like exercise - it doesn't have to take lots of time to be very worthwhile.

[Dave W.]

I worked on Vincent for about six weeks straight. Got it down pretty good, but the wife got tired of listening to it. So I put the guitar aside pretty much and spent the last six weeks finishing off the upstairs bed and bath room. Once we move up, I get the downstairs bedroom for my music room. I can shut the door and she won't have to listen to whatever I am currently working on, 671 times. Anyway, the other night for the first time in six weeks I start on Vincent again. The wife is sitting on the couch and says, did you have a stroke or something? in a loving sort of way. So now, every time I play it, I ask her if I suck less than yesterday. "Oh hun, you know I didn't mean it like that", but she is getting her upstairs rooms finished off after two years. I wonder who is smarter?

No real point, just a little story about sucking as a guitar player, and a reminder to self not to quit the day job.

[Freeman Keller]

Dave, I played Vincent (the Chet version) the other night for the first time in a bunch of weeks. I guess I only need 670 more times before I get it...

[pgcorky]

I guess I can understand why she would get tired of Vincent -- after 670 reps -- even if it did sound good by then! You might need some good soundproofing for that downstairs bedroom!

[kwakatak]

Just do what I do: Admit to yourself that you'll never be , then relax. Put on a CD you can play along to, and do it just for the satisfaction of it. Don't beat yourself up. If at some point you feel inspired to progress, then pick a new tune, deconstruct it, find a tab for it, etc, and repeat it a thousand times. That's how we learned to play in the first place, right?

 

+1

 

Practice is good but you have to make it interesting somehow. Pick a favorite song and find the tab online somewhere - just Google the title with the word "tab". It also helps to have a recording of the song on hand so that you can either follow along with the tab or internalize the basic melodies/chord or the overall song structure.

 

BTW, regarding "Vincent" it took me over a year to get it to where I was satisfied with it. By that time I had internalized it so that my fingers knew where to go on their own and my head only became involved with regards to the application of dynamics. Though a few people have given me some extremely good feedback I have to admit that I have more than my share of bad days playing this some. I'm usually feeling tired or indifferent on those ocassions.

 

Oh - and I make it a point to practice only when I'm alone, which is usually after everyone else has gone to bed or by shutting myself up in a spare bedroom. If I ever feel like I'm getting burnt out I either take a break for a couple of days, focus on something else or just noodle aimlessly with chords/melodies/rhythms. Sometimes switching off the conscious mind leads to the best breakthoughs IMO.

[Dave W.]

It was amazing. Even with the tab and chord chart in front of me, in six weeks I had forgotten most of it. Fortunately, it is coming back pretty quickly, but it is humbling.

[Queequeg]

I spent the summer with Vincent. But I never quite got it to the point where I wanted to record it.

Haven't gone back to it since then, but I will soon.

my playing has improved because I live alone. If anybody had to listen to me playing the same thing over and over again until I get it right, we'd both be crazy. in fact, I don't think anybody would tolerate me playing as much as I do, even if I never played the same thing twice.

but, as Freeman says, recording will help you figure out what you need to be working on. its humbling, but remember we are our own worst critics. And as I was told when I was fighting stage fright, its not a matter of life and death. play through your mistakes. Generally nobody will notice them unless you draw attention to them. Get your timing right, and they'll probably think it was perfect.

and next, I have written this so many times I am just copying and pasting it in here now...

 

Best thing I've found is tabledit software.

Here's a link to free download.

tabledit

 

and here's some tabledit download site:

 

Here's a bunch of Power Tab tunes for free download:

[pgcorky]

Well, I got a few words of reasonable advice on the lesson loft, but you folks are awesome by comparison. I appreciate that you take time from doing what other valuable things you can be doing to give me some great guidance and advice. It's humbling...

[Charlies Ghost]

All great advice.

If your just starting out here are some things that can possibly help.

Do not try playing the same thing over and over when you're learning something new.It seems kinda weird but you'll probably learn it better if you stick to 15 minute chunks.Pick a part of a song,anywhere from 1-4 bars,and learn it for about 10-15 minutes.Then take a break or play something you know for like a half hour.Then learn the same thing again for 10-15 minutes.I think the reasoning behind this is that after 15 minutes you not really learning it anymore,your kinda on auto pilot.By taking a break you have to start that learning thing over again and it seems to stick better.It also doesn't give you much time to get careless and learn mistakes.

Play with a metronome.Its a little tough a first but will help alot.Not only that.Count out the beats.With your guitar in hand but not playing it,figure out on what beat the notes or chords are being played on and count it out.Now set your metronome kinda slow,start counting the beats,play your 1-4 bare phrase while counting aloud.Every time you strike a note or a chord you should be saying something.The metronome really helps but if your actually counting out loud it really seems to make it stick better.Now when you can play that 1-4 bar phrase on the following day without looking at the tab then you know it and its time to move on to the next 1-4 bar phrase.After you learn it throw the first phrase onto the second one.Pretty soon you'd have learned the whole song.It's still at slow pace but now you can start to practice it.Move the metronome a bit faster and see if you can still play it and count it.If you mess up you going to fast.When your at this point you should learn where to put the accents in.If you trying to copy something listen to the original and see where its being played harder or softer,light touch or a heavey hand.Things like that.If you just working from some chords or something try hitting harder on the one and threes or the twos and fours.Try anything that makes it seem more alive.Just be aware of what your doing and the timing of it all so you'll be able to do the samething somewhere else.You can try working the lyric in after you have the timing on autopilot.

A beginner can sound great if he can get the timing down and get rid of some of the timidness that beginners sometimes have.Remember,if your pretty much in time and pretty much in tune your pretty much a musician.