Training yourself to play cleanly.

[dkstott]

My suggestion is to try playing whatever tune you are working on on your nylon string guitar. If it sounds clean on nylon strings, you are doing it right.




The most humbling experience for me was when I moved from steel string to nylon string guitars. Almost all of my left and right hand technique was not appropriate for getting good clean sound out of nylon strings. Fretting has to be much more precise to get good sound out of your left hand. My right hand fingerstyle technique was good for steel, but produced snaps on my nylon string instead of clean tones.

I spent almost a year working out bugs in my technique... Now my playing is much cleaner on both steel and nylon...

[Ze.]

Good thread thoroughly enjoyed reading and it kind of ties in with my thoughts of late about the "performing arts " .Do i have what it takes for to play that cleanly for to aim to please ...i think i just do what i do as some of the best sounds i make on a guitar are mis-takes .

[s0cks]

Originally Posted by Wyllys

The Zone. That's where you want to be, where everything's in balance: touch, tuning, coffee/tea...whatever.

My subjective feeling is the good, clean touch required feels almost like walking on ice as I warm up for the day. There's a delicacy, a hyper-aware approach to waking up the hands, ears and instrument and as an old friend said, "achieving soundage".

When balance is attained there's a tangible sensation of a circle being closed: hands/ears, heart, breath and instrument. I proceed when a balance is struck.

I have what I call my "coat-hook" tune, the one I always play first when I pick up the guitar after making my coffee and doing my warm-up stretches. It's a familiar old friend of a piece and warms/opens me up for whatever Music and the day have in store for me. I have a deal with Music and the instrument: I won't tell you what "should" be. I'll accept what is and what will be. Play me.

But I think that the primary factor is the "user friendliness" of my instruments. I've had many through the years, but the friendliest, the most open, warm, balanced one has always been a Harmony Sovereign H-1203. Touch is a two-way street, the hands on the guitar and the guitar back to the heart through the fingers.

When it's clean it's alive : when it's alive it's clean.

Balance.

I love this. It resonates with how I sometimes feel. It's a feeling I'm still pursuing and trying to hone in - the zone. I got into it last night and I almost cried. It's that feeling that makes this all worthwhile. Where you and the music synchronize and become one. It's beautiful.

[Ze.]

Originally Posted by s0cks

I love this. It resonates with how I sometimes feel. It's a feeling I'm still pursuing and trying to hone in - the zone. I got into it last night and I almost cried. It's that feeling that makes this all worthwhile. Where you and the music synchronize and become one. It's beautiful.

It sure is beautiful but be aware of this zone it'll get you into another realm especially the acoustic i found .I learned guitar in the zone .I used to retreat into my small back kitchen every night with the same rituals and play for hours ,children in bed and my wife doing what she liked to do in the living room .It became shamanistic almost but i found when the audience demanded i play for them the general public i couldn't do it ,they didn't know how to be a good audience and it pricked my bubble .Nick Drakes story is a good example of this i later found out .In the Zone is good but not in isolation ,play WITH distractions and get used to every day happenings around you as you zone .Lose the audience but not yourself as you play ...if its nearly making you cry i suggest to snap out of it a little and remain in control you need to captivate the audience not yourself (too often that it becomes the norm ) Just be respectful of that zone is all i say acoustic guitar music is powerful medicine .

[Wyllys]

Originally Posted by Ze.

It sure is beautiful but be aware of this zone it'll get you into another realm especially the acoustic i found .I learned guitar in the zone .I used to retreat into my small back kitchen every night with the same rituals and play for hours ,children in bed and my wife doing what she liked to do in the living room .It became shamanistic almost but i found when the audience demanded i play for them the general public i couldn't do it ,they didn't know how to be a good audience and it pricked my bubble .Nick Drakes story is a good example of this i later found out .In the Zone is good but not in isolation ,play WITH distractions and get used to every day happenings around you as you zone .Lose the audience but not yourself as you play ...if its nearly making you cry i suggest to snap out of it a little and remain in control you need to captivate the audience not yourself (too often that it becomes the norm ) Just be respectful of that zone is all i say acoustic guitar music is powerful medicine .

I think you're in a different zone. I was talking about awareness and acceptance, not obsession. To paraphrase the old team sports adage, there is no "I" in the Zone.

[Looburst]

Barry, obviously finger style is a strange animal indeed when it comes to noise and trying to keep all that at a minimum. One of my favorite exercises was to do the D fingerpicked to G then walked down to EM then over to A. Just a great simple method to practice for perfecting this issue, with lots of open strings. One of those first moves we all learned but few perfected it. James Taylor uses it a lot varying the chords but basically the same process. It's all about letting those strings open until they need to hammered down again and knowing just the right space of time to do that in. A very basic lesson that many would find helpful in fixing this pesky problem.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Looburst

Barry, obviously finger style is a strange animal indeed when it comes to noise and trying to keep all that at a minimum. One of my favorite exercises was to do the D fingerpicked to G then walked down to EM then over to A. Just a great simple method to practice for perfecting this issue, with lots of open strings. One of those first moves we all learned but few perfected it. James Taylor uses it a lot varying the chords but basically the same process. It's all about letting those strings open until they need to hammered down again and knowing just the right space of time to do that in. A very basic lesson that many would find helpful in fixing this pesky problem.

I think my mics were running a little too hot. I'm changing my recording chain a bit and it seems to be getting rid of a lot of the noise. I haven't done any recording in stereo with the new set up yet as I'm short xlr cables, but by the end of next week I'll have what I need. I ordered a couple of 3 footers for about $6 each. Beats the Sam Ash in store price of $14 each!