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Should I stay or should I go now? When to move forward on lessons
In my flatpicking learning group thread we were discussing (included below) when it's time to move on to other exercises or to stay and keep learning what the current lesson is.
Qualifier: Assume that either a person is a beginner or near beginner and the things that are being learned are new to them. In this book we are learning flatpicking and the exercises are teaching alternating bass and walkups. It's important to have this down before continuing because most other things derive from it. So... one approach is that you keep working until you can fumble through it and assume that as you go through the rest of the book you are going to improve because 1) You will come back and repeat the exercises as part of warmups <or> 2) It will naturally occur as you go through the other lessons. Basically how do you know when to forge ahead or when to stay and keep working? Quote:
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Gibson J-45 Studio Martin Road Series 13e Fender DG-8 |
#2
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The question "when do I move on?" is one I struggle with constantly. Few of the books or DVD's I use offer enough guidance in this area.
Am I able to strum 8th/16th notes fast enough to move on? Does my strumming sound "musical" enough? How fast do I need to be able to fingerpick these patterns? Are these chord changes smooth enough? Buzz free enough? Mistake free enough? I had all these questions going through Justin's beginner course, have them with the Travis Picking book I'm currently working on, and expect them with the Flatpicking Essentials 1 & 2 I ordered a few weeks ago. (Just got shipping confirmation as I am writing this) I'd love to find a good, convenient and cost-effective solution to this.
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Blackbird Lucky 13; Emerald X7 V3; Yamaha LS-TA; Yamaha SLG200; PRS Zach Myers; PRS SE Hollowbody Piezo |
#3
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The correct answer for me is both.
It's not like a textbook based class in school. I'm constantly going forward and backwards in both of my current courses (the flatpicking book you are in and a Travis picking into book). The early stuff is fundamentals, they need to be constantly reinforced. The later stuff can be attempted even prior to mastery of the earlier material, for it is never truly mastered except by constant repetition. Think of athletics. Basketball players practice lay up drills their entire careers, even though the shot is no longer difficult for them. Pro golfers almost never miss 2 foot putts, because they practice them. Hackers seldom do, they take gimmes, and often miss when required to make one. |
#4
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That's going to take a while!
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Gibson J-45 Studio Martin Road Series 13e Fender DG-8 |
#5
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This stretch of foundational material.... when I get to the end of it I think I'm going to use it to create an exercise that I do x amount of times per week, and initially each day. Heck maybe always everyday depending on how well I actually master it.
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Gibson J-45 Studio Martin Road Series 13e Fender DG-8 |
#6
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The epiphany that came to me after playing guitar (poorly) for 40 years was that I needed to practice everything correctly and if you can't do it correctly, you need to slow it down. Do not practice your mistakes.
(BTW the epiphany was to finally listen to the many folks who said that, not that it came to me in a dream. It was said to me many times during that forty years, I just did not listen. I'm kinda slow that way.) This does not mean that you need to work on just one thing until you get it perfect. Just don't build on a skill you don't yet have. Make recordings and listen to them critically. |
#7
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Thanks. The line above says a whole bunch.
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Gibson J-45 Studio Martin Road Series 13e Fender DG-8 |
#8
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Play along with the slow version and memorize the exercise. Do speed bursts and slowly work it up to full speed. Do not sacrifice accuracy for speed, if you do you aren't playing it faster, you're just playing it poorly. Speed comes with time put in, even going slowly. For some reason when I work on something new that is beyond my speed, after a while of working at it, it actually sort of gets slowed down by my mental processing and what seemed blazingly fast doesn't seem so fast anymore as my playing speed catches up. Then I start hearing little nuances that I can also do now that the speed is where it should be.
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#9
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I'm on day 15 of Mel Bay day 3. That's a Mel Bay joke that I just made up.
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Gibson J-45 Studio Martin Road Series 13e Fender DG-8 |
#10
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#11
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Another tip is when you have the mechanics worked out and you are playing a piece at a decent tempo, record yourself and see how it sounds. If it sounds musical and appealing to you the listener, you are probably ready to move on.
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Doerr Trinity 12 Fret 00 (Lutz/Maple) Edwinson Zephyr 13 Fret 00 (Adi/Coco) Froggy Bottom H-12 (Adi/EIR) Kostal 12 Fret OMC (German Spruce/Koa) Rainsong APSE 12 Fret (Carbon Fiber) Taylor 812ce-N 12 fret (Sitka/EIR Nylon) |