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  #16  
Old 09-05-2020, 09:49 AM
Kyle215 Kyle215 is offline
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I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of Stefan Grossman’s fingerstyle lessons.
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  #17  
Old 09-05-2020, 11:52 AM
Mystery123 Mystery123 is offline
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Post How do you check for improvement?

Do you have a video of you playing something 6 months ago to compare now?
What's your baseline?

There's no way one cannot improve by practice unless of course you are trying to learn something that takes years in few months.

When I feel down, I watch 5 years old video of myself struggling to change from G to D.
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  #18  
Old 09-05-2020, 03:31 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mystery123 View Post
Do you have a video of you playing something 6 months ago to compare now?

What's your baseline?



There's no way one cannot improve by practice unless of course you are trying to learn something that takes years in few months.



When I feel down, I watch 5 years old video of myself struggling to change from G to D.
I don’t have a video but I may have a recording. I did find an old YouTube video (that’s unlisted thank god!). Maybe I can take a video of me playing the same song since I’m sure I play it much better now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
The fact you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there.
Do you have recordings you made a few months ago? That you can compare with recordings of the same pieces played now?

I'm not saying you must have improved in that time, but I find it hard to believe you haven't - assuming you really have been playing every day. Even 10 minutes a day is enough to produce technical improvement.
Personally I've never known anything like this, although I see this kind of post quite a lot.

I've always played for pure enjoyment, learned the tunes I wanted to learn as I went. I never had the sense that I "should" be at any particular skill level at any point. Obviously I often felt technically challenged by a tune, and some pieces were always well beyond my skill level (and still are, 55 years after I began playing). But either I sat down and worked on the tune until I had it, or simply rejected it as not being interesting enough to devote that much time to it.
IOW, I quite often failed to complete learning a tune I started on. I'd abandon it and move on. That was fine because no one was paying me to perform it, and I'd (probably) learned some useful new stuff in the process. There was (and is) always too much music out there that's within my grasp (with minimal extra effort if any) to worry about music that's impossible.

What I never did - except very occasionally, more for warm-up than anything else - was practice scales. I never worked on technique for its own sake. I never played exercises. Still don't. For all those 55 years, I've been just as good as I needed and wanted to be at the time - or nearly, which only meant a little more work on whatever tune it was, to get it "good enough". Why would you play exercises when you can play music? Why treat music as "work", as a "chore"?

It helped that I was playing in bands (often two or three), right from 9 months after first picking up a guitar. So I was enjoying myself gigging and playing with friends, while I worked on fingerstyle pieces for enjoyment in my spare time (which would only rarely be for performance).

So I was in an environment which proved to me that I was good enough. I think this is a critical point. If it's just you alone in your room, I can imagine you get used to seeing all these amazing players on youtube or wherever, and feeling hopelessly inadequate.

My role in the band(s) was never that challenging (not as complicated technically as what I was learning in private), and we were never boo-ed off stage, so I knew I was "OK". In fact, more than OK. Audiences clapped, even cheered sometimes! What more could one want! (Being paid for it? Yes, that happened too, sometimes... )

I realise I was very lucky in that respect. As a teenager, my closest friends were all amateur musicians, and when they needed a new member I was the nearest person. I was nowhere near "good", but I was "good enough". (They weren't great either, just a little better than me.)

But even with the gigging - and later the seriously paid gigs - there was still no pressure involved. No sense that I needed to be "better".

I realise this is a long personal rant that might not seem relevant. But it comes down to attitude. I guess you're learning guitar for recreation, for your own pleasure - not because you're being paid as a performer, and need to reach a certain standard or you'll be losing work!

Assuming you're doing it for enjoyment, then, it's a no-brainer that if you're not enjoying it then you're doing something wrong. Either you should just stop playing (until you want to start again), or you find something you enjoy playing. Then play that until it gets boring again. Then stop again. And so on. IOW, just stop thinking about where you "should" be (according to what criteria? what rules?).

Stop comparing yourself to other people - however far you think they got in 7 years. There will always be people better than you. Try comparing yourself to those millions worse than you for change! Hell, there are even some people in world who can't play guitar at all!! Have some pity on them while feeling a little smug ...

Even comparing yourself to "yourself a while ago" is fraught with complication, because memory plays tricks, and your improvement - while always progressing upwards (inevitably) can get out of balance. Your understanding of music (and your ear) can advance ahead of your instrumental technique, which can make you feel like you're getting worse. You're obviously not: your technical advance is just not keeping pace with your advance elsewhere. The reverse of that is the feeling that you don't know what to learn next; you have all this technical skill and don't know what to do with it. That means your understanding has not kept pace with your technique.

Pick a tune you want to learn. Sit down and learn it. If it takes so long you get fed up with it - stop. Find a simpler tune.

Excellent point and great advice. I don’t do much scales only to warm up, but I don’t dedicate any significant time in practicing scales. I just try a song that I like and find it challenging if not well over my head and try to learn it.

I can’t help it but to compare myself to myself, especially when I recognize the same mistakes from those years ago. But even with all those frustrations, I still enjoy playing my guitar so that’s good.
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  #19  
Old 09-05-2020, 08:46 PM
CSB123 CSB123 is offline
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You are a lot more experienced than me, but like you, i practice 1-2 hours a day for the last 4-5 months from being an absolute beginner.

At first it was frustrating but i was picking up concepts quickly and seemed to be improving well enough.

However the last few weeks i have been introduced to fingerpicking by my instructor, at first it was magical, as we learnt each segment in isolation, then started string them together to form something that sounds like music.

I now had to put them all together, to me it sounded ok but slow, in my follow up lesson, my problem area, was the biggest switch from frets 7 and 8 to a shape on frets 5 and 3, i am very slow on the change and then lose my timing.

In 3 weeks it felt like i had improved nothing, spending 1-2 hours a day on almost just that sequence.

What I didn’t know was the instructor was secretly timing me and how long it took me to change between that two sections, and i was at around 2.8-3 sec to land my fingers and play that first note, well i have been frustrated to tears, as i can feel its not on pace still.

But i had my lady time me, and low and behold i am changing consistently at 1.4 sec to 1.2 sec consistently.

It’s still a tad slow for the songs and i am not “there” yet, but if I hadn’t checked that, I wouldn’t of realized that slowly the speed was improving, and with some grit, and repetitiveness, eventually i will be were i need to be.

We shall not discuss metronomes however, the one tick tick that scares me more than the Jaws theme song.

Good luck, never quit, and i hope to be hearing some great tunes from you in the future.
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  #20  
Old 09-05-2020, 09:10 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CSB123 View Post
You are a lot more experienced than me, but like you, i practice 1-2 hours a day for the last 4-5 months from being an absolute beginner.

At first it was frustrating but i was picking up concepts quickly and seemed to be improving well enough.

However the last few weeks i have been introduced to fingerpicking by my instructor, at first it was magical, as we learnt each segment in isolation, then started string them together to form something that sounds like music.

I now had to put them all together, to me it sounded ok but slow, in my follow up lesson, my problem area, was the biggest switch from frets 7 and 8 to a shape on frets 5 and 3, i am very slow on the change and then lose my timing.

In 3 weeks it felt like i had improved nothing, spending 1-2 hours a day on almost just that sequence.

What I didn’t know was the instructor was secretly timing me and how long it took me to change between that two sections, and i was at around 2.8-3 sec to land my fingers and play that first note, well i have been frustrated to tears, as i can feel its not on pace still.

But i had my lady time me, and low and behold i am changing consistently at 1.4 sec to 1.2 sec consistently.

It’s still a tad slow for the songs and i am not “there” yet, but if I hadn’t checked that, I wouldn’t of realized that slowly the speed was improving, and with some grit, and repetitiveness, eventually i will be were i need to be.

We shall not discuss metronomes however, the one tick tick that scares me more than the Jaws theme song.

Good luck, never quit, and i hope to be hearing some great tunes from you in the future.

That first year is when you see yourself grow the most. You go from plucking open strings to playing some simple songs. You’re doing it right by hiring an instructor, I wish I did the same. Thanks for the words of encouragement, I might record something this weekend.
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  #21  
Old 09-05-2020, 09:39 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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This is from may 31st. Haven’t played this part much as of lately because I started concentrating on learning a few solos from later in the song. But I think I can play it cleaner now. Sounds simple but it’s tricky with the string skipping and time signature changes.


https://youtu.be/lXz0EWuM6ek
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  #22  
Old 09-06-2020, 01:31 AM
Lamenramen Lamenramen is offline
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I was complaining the same thing. Just wasn’t seeing the results despite legitimate time being put in.

I think it’s important to be persistent always but obsessive only in short bursts, like 30 minutes to an hour at most.

Then leave it behind. Do something else. Forget the guitar.

Come back a few hours later.

The most recent learning research suggests that 8 hours a day is just not efficient for anyone.

I obsessively practiced a passage for two weeks. We are talking two measures. And it is better. You have to just record yourself and you will see. But your goal has to be perfection. Then you won’t get there but you will see improvement.

And a side note like the karate kid is that movement where I needed bar shapes and stretches that I had never done before resulted in me being able to do the caged system g chord d chord and c chord barres for the first time ever. I didn’t practice them but I tried it again a month later and I was shocked I could do it. Totally shocked. I distinctly remember trying many times and saying it’s not possible. I then remembered that I had tuned a half step down for a song and left it there. So I figured fools gold I still can’t do these Harder caged shapes. So I tuned the guitar back up to standard and I could still do it.

Focus on a challenging piece of music that you really want to learn how to play. Determine to be able to play it perfectly very slowly. Along the way you will pick up skills unknowingly. When you go back to easier stuff you will realize that those chord changes, those finger stretches aren’t so tough anymore.
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  #23  
Old 09-06-2020, 07:41 AM
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TBman TBman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1neeto View Post
This is from may 31st. Haven’t played this part much as of lately because I started concentrating on learning a few solos from later in the song. But I think I can play it cleaner now. Sounds simple but it’s tricky with the string skipping and time signature changes.


https://youtu.be/lXz0EWuM6ek
That was cool.

I really like how an electric guitar can take stuff that would sound boring on an acoustic and bring it to life.
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  #24  
Old 09-06-2020, 08:57 AM
JBCROTTY JBCROTTY is offline
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A few of my thoughts if it helps:

1) You are better and likely improving more than you think.
2) I find that taking a few days off helps significantly to make progress. Sometimes over-practicing does not allow your brain time to subconsciously solve problems. I've made significant progress by taking a few days off when I reach a frustration point.
3) Learn and play full songs. Songs that you like. Learn to play them from memory. I also like to play along with the recorded song. This keep my interest level high, makes me feel as though I am making progress, and allows me to see and feel incremental improvements. If I spend too much time practicing skills or other exercises I get bored and frustrated.
4) Play with others. Tough to do these days but I have heard it said universally that playing with others is the best and fastest way to improve. I don't do this enough, but am going to seriously look into it when things are safe again (whenever that is).

Good luck and go easy on yourself.
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  #25  
Old 09-06-2020, 01:10 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Default Practicing 1-2 hours a day for a few months...

Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
That was cool.

I really like how an electric guitar can take stuff that would sound boring on an acoustic and bring it to life.

One of my favorite parts of the song is an acoustic piece. This guy played it just about perfect. I think it will take me a year to learn this.


https://youtu.be/AqVLXj_1tjs

*edit*
Sounds so much better on finger style even though it was originally recorded with a pick.

https://youtu.be/AqVLXj_1tjs

Last edited by 1neeto; 09-06-2020 at 01:49 PM.
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