Quote:
Originally Posted by Clallam
That's a question I've asked myself too and I'm going to be interested in the answers you get. It sounds like you are starting at a much higher skill level than I am at so you don't have as far to go to get to where you can safely move on.
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I'm probably a little bit ahead of you as far as skill but if we were both playing consistently I'd say about six months is all. On the things we are learning now my hands fumble a bunch but they recover due to my on and off playing in years past. Even in years past when I did play it was basic cords around a campfire. Since I'm focused on my small Christmas program at work I'm only able to work on these things occasionally. I suspect you will catch up before long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clallam
I think the critical thing for me is going to be getting the right hand automatic enough that I can focus my attention on what my left hand is doing.
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Yes! I either have to stare at my right hand or my left hand to get this right. I try not to do either as that will turn into a bad habit I would think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clallam
I'm spending several minutes working on exercises 1 through 6 every night. I'm working with a metronome on the first five exercises since I have learned that I need both a certain number of repetitions and a certain minimum speed before I can do anything automatically. I still can't play exercise 6 with a metronome without crashing so I foresee a lot more work ahead of me there. My intention is to do those six exercises until I can do them automatically at the speed I would need them at in order to play songs at the correct speed for the song.
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I don't think I'm going to wait until I can do them full speed. I'm going to wait until I pass my "Not thinking about it" test. For me that means I can sit and play something while watching tv and not being uber-focused on what I'm playing. Or looking out the window, or whatever. When I can do that I'm going to move on yet keep coming back and working on them. Additionally, I'm going to get a few songs where I can use the easy version of the skills we are learning and then play those songs. Practice in context is what I'd call this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clallam
I've looked through the rest of Volumes 1 and 2 and think that is the foundation I will need to make the rest easier. Certainly, not having that foundation has made trying to move on to the next exercises difficult. I started to work with exercises 7-9 but I found it rough going. I'm not going to do much more while I get the foundation of the earlier exercises solid.
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I agree. If we don't get this then the rest will be frustrating and time wasted.