That 1 minute of fame or it ain't ready for primetime thread

[TBman]

So what song have/tune you been driving yourself nuts with the last few weeks (or even months) trying to get half way decent? This is the place for it. Post it, whether its a whole song or just the cool beginning or a section, something that is good, but needs work or parts of something that is good, but the rest of it stinks still.... Get it out, get recording, its one of the ways to really improve and working on beating red light fever is always good.

Dogue Creek, 1st page, not quite performance speed.

The second page is "easier" but giving me hard time to get down, but I will conquer it eventually - to be posted to "Show and Tell" once it gets beaten down!

Page one, Dogue Creek, from Al Petteway's Mountain Guitar CD.
CGCGCD tuning on the Larrivee OM-05. There's not a lot of string muting going on and I have to figure out how to play quick and still keep the sustain in check.....


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[reeve21]

Woody Mann's Creole Baby, in the style of John Hurt. Can't play the syncopated parts up to speed. But I find the tune so infectious I may die trying 😀

Thanks for giving me a place to post my not ready for show and tell song, Barry!

https://soundcloud.com/user-16619491...7-9-41-33-pm-1

My Ibanez AC 240 Martin Retro Monels custom lights into my iPhone.....

[TBman]

That's a cool tune Bob, I'll have to try that one. Keep working on it. Take no prisoners, lol.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by TBman

That's a cool tune Bob, I'll have to try that one. Keep working on it. Take no prisoners, lol.

Hi Barry,

I enjoyed your soundclip--you've got some great tempo going on that one.

Woody Mann is incredible to me, there is enough in that one book to keep me busy for several lifetimes :-)

This thread is really timely for me. I've been fingerpicking for 9 months now and have a so called repertoire of about a dozen songs--but most of them are not really polished when I try to play them up to speed. I'm at 85 to 90 per cent, not quite there.

It seems like I lose focus on the easy parts, and make silly mistakes, and then tense up and speed up on the hard parts, and flub them, too.

So lack of attention on one hand, and too much tension on the other.

What to do about it? Someone posted a video from Domenic Miller recently where he talked about practicing at "hyper" slow speed. Now I try to practice slowly, but was talking about very, very, slowly. And it seems to help. I can't really play "hyper" slow without a metronome, and even then it is a real effort. It certainly forces you to focus your attention, much more than just playing "somewhat" slowly does--that is just too easy, I guess.

That thought led me to a book by Jamie Andreas that I hadn't looked at in a very long time. She talks about practicing with "no tempo" at all and actually "posing" over the positions to try and eliminate tension.

I'm curious about what others may do to try and polish up a piece that just doesn't seem to want to get "done", even after much practice?

[Gitfiddlemann]

That thought led me to a book by Jamie Andreas that I hadn't looked at in a very long time. She talks about practicing with "no tempo" at all and actually "posing" over the positions to try and eliminate tension.

I'm curious about what others may do to try and polish up a piece that just doesn't seem to want to get "done", even after much practice?

Hi Bob, I'm familiar with something similar to that, and I can see where there would be merit in it.
Years ago when I was taking classical guitar lessons my teacher had me practice something he referred to as "Aim Directed Movement". No tempo or even music making involved. What it's about is to train the brain on how to play mistake free. The idea is to never play any note or chord in a piece, unless you are 100% certain that it is the correct way forward, i.e. or place for your fingers to go. In other words, you can only make the next move when you are completely sure that it is the correct one. (Thus, no tempo involved).
If you go slow enough, and concentrate, you can do it. But it's easier said than done. Trust me!
Sometimes it's easy, like going from a C chord to a G chord. Other times, like involving faster scales and string crossings, and more awkward fingerings, not so much.
I found it to be a very demanding task. It's always tempting to speed up and go too fast. Move the fingers before the brain has given the green light. But it is very effective at cementing memory if you stick with it.
Note: As I said, this is not "musical" practice. No tempo requirements. It's just an exercise to test yourself and how well you know where the fingers are supposed to go; to verify if your brain and fingers are indeed in sync!
Just thought I'd mention it, since that book you mentioned reminded me of ADM.

[TBman]

I go so slow when first learning something sometimes it isn't even close to sounding like music. It's more like a baby pressing random notes on a piano. You have to train finger position first, then timing and then performance speed and then expression.

[reeve21]

Thanks for the advice, Andre and Barry.

I always knew to go slow, and sometimes am able to restrain myself to do it, but I have never gone as slow as you are talking about. Slower than music!

I have a piece I've just started working on that will be a good chance to try it out on on. Because right now I can't make some of the fingerings at any kind of speed.

It is Pete Huttlinger's "McGuire's Landing". I didn't realize it was in DADGAG which I have never attempted before, or how hard it would be--it's not fast, so I figured it would be a piece of cake! I love the tune so much I had to give it a try, hope I live long enough to play it

I appreciate your input.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Thanks for the advice, Andre and Barry.

I always knew to go slow, and sometimes am able to restrain myself to do it, but I have never gone as slow as you are talking about. Slower than music!

I have a piece I've just started working on that will be a good chance to try it out on on. Because right now I can't make some of the fingerings at any kind of speed.

It is Pete Huttlinger's "McGuire's Landing". I didn't realize it was in DADGAG which I have never attempted before, or how hard it would be--it's not fast, so I figured it would be a piece of cake! I love the tune so much I had to give it a try, hope I live long enough to play it

I appreciate your input.

I have a tab book of Pete's that's pretty big. I'm pretty sure McGuire's Landing is in it. I'll have to listen to it.

BTW, Creole is not the easiest tune in Woody's book. You're moving along good with it.

Patience is the hardest part of learning a new tune.