What to do when you hit the wall?

[reeve21]

Ok, I am a couple of weeks into Mark Hanson's intro to Travis picking book.
Been strumming for a long time but never finger picked before.

I've been playing Freight Train for a good hour a day for a week now. By memory, not by sight. I know the tune. I can do all the fingerings and keep the bass going at a reasonable tempo. The problem is I can only play it cleanly all the way through about 1 out of 6 times. I lose focus and forget where I am, my mind wanders about, and that leads to fingering errors even if I am on track up to that point. When I get near the end on a cleanly played chorus I'll flub the easiest part! I feel like I'm choking on a 2 foot putt!

Someone advised taking it one tune at a time, which is why I am spending so long on it, but my growth has stopped. My thought is that I should move on, come back to it in a few days and all this practice will have had time to penetrate my brain and I'll be able to play it in my sleep. I think the issue right now is mental and my head needs to hear another tune.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

[TBman]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Ok, I am a couple of weeks into Mark Hanson's intro to Travis picking book.
Been strumming for a long time but never finger picked before.

I've been playing Freight Train for a good hour a day for a week now. By memory, not by sight. I know the tune. I can do all the fingerings and keep the bass going at a reasonable tempo. The problem is I can only play it cleanly all the way through about 1 out of 6 times. I lose focus and forget where I am, my mind wanders about, and that leads to fingering errors even if I am on track up to that point. When I get near the end on a cleanly played chorus I'll flub the easiest part! I feel like I'm choking on a 2 foot putt!

Someone advised taking it one tune at a time, which is why I am spending so long on it, but my growth has stopped. My thought is that I should move on, come back to it in a few days and all this practice will have had time to penetrate my brain and I'll be able to play it in my sleep. I think the issue right now is mental and my head needs to hear another tune.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

I find it best, for entertainment purposes, to work on a couple, maybe three songs at once, going back and forth instead of too much on one song. Also, you have to practice it so slow that you make zero mistakes. Don't be in a rush. Over time your skills will improve, but its like watching paint dry sometimes.

Try a couple of other finger picking instructional books as well or try some online lessons like TrueFire or ActiveMelody. I think Mark's books are laid out in increasing difficulty so that is why I suggest other books/lessons, so you can find things of equal difficulty.

There will be times that it seems that you are going backwards skillwise, but as long as you push through it and keep practicing, you will get better.

[reeve21]

Thanks Barry, I think it may have been you who suggested taking it slow, one song at a time. I'm very literal (to the point that it drives my wife crazy) so I'm happy to have this clarification.

I do feel like I now have enough basic skills to take an Active Melody or similar finger style lesson. But I'm pretty sure I will stick with Mark Hanson as my main guy in the long run, his teaching style really speaks to me

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Freight Train is a great melody but now I'm getting an ear worm!

Bob

[Han Biemans]

Sounds like you're getting bored after some time. Same as me. Working on different songs helps a lot. Besides I usually do different things in my practice sessions. Warmup, technique, etc, you know the drill. But not always the same exercises. When it comes to practicing songs, I find it amazingly helpful to play with a drum machine rather than a metronome. Gives you more of a feeling that you're playing music. But in the end it all comes down to practice, practice, practice.

Greetings from the Netherlands.

And an afterthough. Log your progression, record yourself etc. That might motivate as well.

[Looburst]

You're not hitting a wall, honestly you're just waiting for your brain to remember where you are. It's not effortless yet but please give yourself time to be flawless. Being flawless doesn't come in two weeks or even two months. It comes after maybe a year or two, when you don't have to think about where you are in the song anymore. I'll finish playing a song sometimes and say "how did I do that?" My answer is always the same. I wasn't thinking anymore, just playing it. I know it sounds other worldly but it's just a fact. Then some days you pick up the guitar and can't play anything right, I hate those days.

[RodB]

I would do what you are suggesting - give it a short break, work on something completely different, then come back when it isn't swimming around in your head. Then, when you run into difficulties work only on that section, not starting from the top over and over.

[Kerbie]

It's just a plateau on the learning curve and can happen to anyone. It usually helps me to change my habits somewhat. Leave it alone for a while and then come back to it. Work hard on whatever part gives you the most trouble. Work on it in sections. I'd just vary some things and I'll bet you'll break out into another climb on the learning curve. Hang in there...

[LeftArm]

When I get near the end on a cleanly played chorus I'll flub the easiest part!

I get this all the time. My tuppence of advice is: Try to think a bar ahead of where you are playing. This is like looking where you want to go rather than looking at what you are trying to avoid. It's like if you are on a bike . If you concentrate on a lampost that you are trying to avoid you are more likely to run into it.
Don't agonise over the odd mistake. When you are trying really hard you will tend to get tense. Learn from the mistake and as someone already said practice the difficult parts only for a bit. (I mark them on the score). But don't sweat over them.
I agree with everything that has already been said as well.

Freight train, freight train, run so fast.....

[dkstott]

I agree with the suggestions to work on more than 1 tune at a time.

There is a lot of evidence and research that shows that if you work on a specific tune for more than 30 minutes, you will lose focus and stop making progress altogether.

My suggestion is to spend 15 minutes on this tune. Set it aside and work on another tune, scale, fingering exercise, etc.... After 15 minutes, go back to that tune.

Set up your daily practice routine so that one song isn't the only thing you work on each day.

"Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you can't play it wrong"

[reeve21]

Thanks so much to all who have replied.

Many of your suggestions are things I am aware of, but it is one thing to know about a technique and another to know when and how to apply it to a specific situation. You have been a great help in that regard.

When I first started learning songs (strumming) there were many I thought I would never be able to play, and others I could get through only with great difficulty. And now I revisit these songs years later and they are a piece of cake. I have to think the work I did on them in the past was the foundation for being able to play them now, but it sure was painful at the time. I sure hope the same pattern holds true for finger style playing!

Thanks again,

Bob

P.S. to Hans--I hope things are well in the Netherlands. Greetings to you from the state of Connecticut in the USA (160 km northeast of New York City, 160 km southwest of Boston).

[dkstott]

Another suggestion is to look into the book by Scott Tennant titled "Pumping Nylon".

While it is directed to nylon string guitars, it has a ton of great exercises for both the left and right hand that will help improve your fingerstyle playing.

Hello from the Nutmeg state

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by dkstott

Another suggestion is to look into the book by Scott Tennant titled "Pumping Nylon".

While it is directed to nylon string guitars, it has a ton of great exercises for both the left and right hand that will help improve your fingerstyle playing.

Hello from the Nutmeg state

Thanks, I have heard of the book, will look into it.

Us Nutmeggers have to stick together these days!

Bob

[SprintBob]

What I would do.

Keep it real slow but at the same time challenge yourself to keep the song sounding musical and not sound like a song that you typically play fast being played slow for practice. I'll try varying the tempo a bit also just to keep my focus up. Recording yourself can keep it interesting as you will hear your rough spots and that will help you re-focus. I learned the version you are working on and I have the version in Art of Solo Fingerpicking down pretty good and I like to play them both together as well as a version of the song arranged by Tony Polecastro. There are lots of versions of Freight Train out there to learn!

I always have 2-3 songs I am working on at the same time. Mark has some excellent songbooks and I have worked on his course material at the same time I have worked on a song out of say his Paul Simon book. I also took the patterns I learned in the first half of Contemporary Travis Picking and applied them to several songs I initially learned strumming and got nice results (Angel from Montgomery, Tequila Sunrise, Peaceful Easy Feeling, Long Black Veil, Mad World, and others to name a few). In the last year I learned Mark's versions/transcriptions of Landslide, Never Going Back Again, and Scarborough Fair. Each have a very distinctive repeating pattern that when you are learning can get old and repetitive so it was always good to have a couple of other songs to break to.

After you learn Freight Train out of Contemporary Travis Picking, you could start working on the material out of The Art of Solo Fingerpicking and still work on most of the remaining songs in the first book. That might also give you some more diversity to keep it fresh and fun. I agree with you about Mark's material. If you work through it in order and understand the logic to his teaching progression, it really gives you a solid foundation. I take Skype lessons from him every 3-4 weeks, he's a great guy to work with.

[reeve21]

Hi Sprintbob (I guess that makes me Slowbob!),

Sounds like you are well along on the journey I am just starting out on.

What you have said is very helpful and reinforces my feeling that Mark is the right teacher for me, and I had no idea he did Skype lessons. I have a ways to go before I could benefit from that but it is very good to know.

Really glad to hear I'm at the point where something can be gleaned from his second book.

I have begun Travis Picking on some songs I play with the flatpick. I actually just learned "Can't Find My Way Home" thanks to a posting on this forum and the descending bass line sounds real nice in Travis style.

I'm finding it hard to sing and fingerpick at the same time. This is not an issue for me while strumming, so I assume it is just a case of the brain needing time to acclimate.

Thanks so much for your input, it is very helpful and encouraging.

Best,

Bob

Put Freight Train into your repertoire. Play it once through every practice session but definitely it's time to move onto the next tune.