Mental Block Cleared?

[Jim Comeaux]

I think that My persistence has finally paid off. I have been trying for the las month to learn the B part to the fiddle tune “Salt Creek”. For some reason I had developed a mental block and just couldn’t get my head to “hear” the tune. I had no trouble at all with the A part but with the B part I always ended up playing the B part to “Red Haired Boy”. It got to where I was wondering if I needed counseling or hypnosis or something. But after several hours of playing it from tablature at a painfully slow tempo, maybe 2 or 3 bpm, I am now at a place where I can get through it without inadvertently transitioning to “Red Haired Boy”. I am not for sure, but I suspect that it is because the version that I learned from is so different from “Red Haired Boy”. But then again the two tunes are not that similar to begin with. Is this something that is common? Can expect it to happen again?

[buddyhu]

When I am learning something that is challenging for me (which might be pretty easy for someone else), I might have to focus on just a bar or two, or maybe even just a half bar, and practice only that small chunk for a few days or two weeks, and as soon as I add something (maybe try to tack that chunk onto a part before it that I already know, or adding a bar or two of adjacent new stuff, it might get bumpy again.

If I were in your shoes, as soon as I realized that I kept jumping out of the B part, I would have taken the next few days to just practice the last bar before the B Part and the first bar or two of the B Part. Maybe 10 - 20 repetitions each time I sat down with my guitar for 5 minutes (or more), and would aim to sit down with my guitar 2- 4 times a day. Then I’d add the next two bars of the B Part, etc. until everything is connected.

I have been working on learning the fingerpicking to a Leo Kottke song since December, taegetint 1-6 new bars of music every week (while continuing to do some practice of the already learned parts, and to practice other songs). It is slow going. But it is very gratifying. And before the end of the Summer, O hope to have it ready for an Open Mic or to play for friends….and I will have developed quite a bit as a guitarist as a result. This is much more of a challenge than any other guitar project I have taken on in years.

I hope this input is useful …

[jaymarsch]

Another trick that I have used and found helpful when learning a new piece is to start with the last bar and learn that. Then add the bar before it and learn it and then play through the end. Then start with the third to the last bar. This method relaxes the mind because we are leading the brain from the unknown to the known. When learning a piece from the beginning, we are going from the known to the unknown as we add more bars which is more stressful. It is a method that might not work for everyone but is worth a try.
Best,
Jayne

[rick-slo]

Now when you start playing "Red Hair Boy" you will accidently start playing part of "Salt Creek".

[Mandobart]

These two tunes are quite similar. Both are in A modal (using a flatted VII chord or G vs G#). This is common in fiddle tunes - I sometimes have to consciously keep "Whiskey Before Breakfast" separate from "Forked Deer."

I like to (tongue in cheek) point out the startling similarity in fiddle tunes at my weekly bluegrass jam. Try to convince me that, except for the key change, "Lost Indian" isn't the same song as "Cherokee Shuffle," or that "Sail Away Ladies" is any different than "Sally Ann", or that "Temperance Reel" isn't just "Billy in the Lowground" in G vs C....

[Dogma]

I feel much better after reading this! I've recently started the Bryan Sutton bluegrass online course on ArtistWorks and it's a genre with which I have limited familiarity. In listening to the tunes and trying to decide which to learn I find myself thinking "A lot of these sound the same." So maybe it's not JUST my inexperienced ear?!

As far as the original question goes, I have had a similar problem and for me, the only solution is to listen, a lot, to someone else playing the song. Again, with this new course, I get into this circle where I really want to learn the tune from the music/tab, so I plunge ahead with that, invariably making mistakes with rhythm that interrupt the flow of the melody. Then after I learn it the wrong way, I start listening to the provided examples and have to spend a long time re-wiring my head/hand reality.