Quote:
Originally Posted by WonderMonkey
One thing I'm wondering though how to know how to do the walkups (and walkdowns) when looking at a new piece of music. Have people just done it enough that they know how to go from one chord to another or do they know the theory behind them and apply that as they go?
I am interested in learning the "why" for theory but I tend to bog myself down on that. If people learn it a bit then just play and through repetition know the common changes then that's what I'll make myself do as well.
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I had a breakthrough on that last month. I attempted walk-ups (Vol. 1, Exercise 9) for the first time and was having problems. I was trying to figure out which fingers to move and when to move them and couldn't find something that worked. I searched on google and found this page:
http://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/c...e-dots-part-2/ which walks through the finger moves step by step and also discusses why the writer chooses those moves. That's when I realized he was using the moment when the open string is played to re-position for the next chord and that position was guiding his fingering choices. Now I know what my goal is I find it easier to figure other walk-ups/downs out.
I did one other thing that helped. Dan talks about going up and down the scale between the root notes. Since I couldn't play the scale, that wasn't helpful. I found the G major scale in the book (Vol. 1, p. 91-92), and started learning it. I found as I got better with the scale, finding the notes I needed for the bass runs and getting my fingers to them became much easier.
I found a little theory helpful. More wouldn't help with this, I'm just going to have to do a lot of practice.
I find it frustrating how experienced people trying to teach forget to explain stuff they do on a sub-conscious level. It sure makes it hard for a beginner when some critical fundamental isn't mentioned. I have done a lot of teaching (in an unrelated subject) so I am on the lookout for this. When I suspect missing pieces, I look for other sources to fill in the gaps. This fingering thing is a perfect example. I'll bet Dan hasn't thought about his fingering choices for bass runs in years, he just plays and those drilled in patterns happen automatically. For me, it's a different story.