Toby Walker lesson thread... - Page 6

CaptJack · #76 07-03-2017, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowrider

Try leaving that last base note in C open (fourth string, second fret). It gives you more time to get the two fingers in place for the G. I'm attaching a pic of what I did to the two C bars. I've had a lot of fun messing up Toby's arrangement, mostly spitting the second pinch in each bar into ''base-note'', it just makes it roll through my brain better. But in the second bar of C, I put the second pinch back in and left the last base note open. It plays better for me.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Tho' I think what's happening is that I've practiced making smooth C-G chord changes so many times my pinky is ingrained to land on the first string rather than the 2nd. When I go slow it's fine, but once I try to pick up the pace a bit, muscle memory takes over.

s0cks · #77 07-03-2017, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptJack

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Tho' I think what's happening is that I've practiced making smooth C-G chord changes so many times my pinky is ingrained to land on the first string rather than the 2nd. When I go slow it's fine, but once I try to pick up the pace a bit, muscle memory takes over.

Muscle memory can either be a god send or a nightmare. Like you said, just gotta go slow.

Toby Walker · #78 07-13-2017, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s0cks

Muscle memory can either be a god send or a nightmare. Like you said, just gotta go slow.

Absolutely. While you can train your fingers to hit the right notes, you can also train them to hit the wrong ones over and over again. They get pretty good at whatever you train them to do. That's why it's important to slow down and do it right the first time, second time, all the way up to 1000.

Toby Walker · #79 07-30-2017, 05:27 PM

Coming out with a new set of lessons on playing acoustic lead guitar soon!!

lowrider · #80 08-01-2017, 07:23 AM

I'll be looking for the acoustic lead lessons sometime in the future.

But for now.....here's an update. Still working on Oh Suzy and Spike Driver. I still get lost in Oh Suzy and then mess it up about half the time. I can play through Spike Driver cleanly and slowly for a few times and then I'll miss something. I thought I could record it with my iphone but I must have felt the pressure and messed it all up. Soon I'll have it. I also started working on Sugar Babe pg 1 and 2 so progress continues. Lots of fun, frustration and rewards.

Toby Walker · #81 08-02-2017, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowrider

I'll be looking for the acoustic lead lessons sometime in the future.

But for now.....here's an update. Still working on Oh Suzy and Spike Driver. I still get lost in Oh Suzy and then mess it up about half the time. I can play through Spike Driver cleanly and slowly for a few times and then I'll miss something. I thought I could record it with my iphone but I must have felt the pressure and messed it all up. Soon I'll have it. I also started working on Sugar Babe pg 1 and 2 so progress continues. Lots of fun, frustration and rewards.

The one thing I'll emphasize is regular, daily practice. Isolate those trouble spots and hit them each and every day. Do them slowly so that you're playing them correctly, and do that numerous times each day.

I usually have the 50 penny rule: set aside a pile of 50 pennies and each time you play that one measure perfectly, move one penny over to the other side. When you have gone through the pile, then you're done with that passage for the day. Then do that same procedure every day in a row for a few weeks. You'll be surprised at how much you'll improve.

lowrider · #82 08-06-2017, 01:25 PM

Thanks Toby, you kicked me out of my rut. I was working on other stuff and giving these songs minimal attention fro the past couple of weeks, thinking that they would fix themselves. This week I gave them the max and the pay-off is that I now know both OhSuzy and SpikeDriver with out the sheets. And Sugar Babe is starting to sound almost good.

Hope you're enjoying your camper tour and that nice new guitar!

Toby Walker · #83 08-07-2017, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowrider

Thanks Toby, you kicked me out of my rut. I was working on other stuff and giving these songs minimal attention fro the past couple of weeks, thinking that they would fix themselves. This week I gave them the max and the pay-off is that I now know both OhSuzy and SpikeDriver with out the sheets. And Sugar Babe is starting to sound almost good.

Hope you're enjoying your camper tour and that nice new guitar!

That's fantastic news!!! You'll find that once you have that technique under your belt, those types of songs will come about much easier.

I'm loving this new guitar.

lowrider · #84 08-26-2017, 05:25 AM

Time for another update;

Spike Driver is solidly in the bank, I can play it well every day.

Oh Suzy is the toughest of the first four songs, I still flub the C-G-D section if I don't pay attention.

Sugar Babe, page 2, is a lot of fun to play. I like playing the first line twice and doing the same thing in the break. It just rolls back into itself. Page three coming soon.

Started to play Crow Jane. Next I'll skip forward to ''Freight Train'' just because I want to play it

Great job with the lessons, Toby. I'm loving it!

TBman · #85 08-26-2017, 10:14 AM

One of my favorites of Toby's arrangements is Deep River Blues. Its a little challenging for the fat fingered like me, lol. Its a nice bouncy tune to have under your fingers. I'm dusting this one off and going to work in his lessons 2 to 3 times a week as the other stuff I'm working on will get there, it just takes repetition and I'm not playing at Carnegie Hall this year so I have plenty of time

Here's my rendition of it played on my Alvarez. I might re-record it with my J-45 one of these days as I have been working on my recording skills a bit.

lowrider · #86 08-26-2017, 03:51 PM

That's beautiful Barry. I remember Deep River Blues from way back when. Doc Watson,right? It's funny how these things come back from the bottom of my memory. If I can get to your level, I will consider this a very big success.

This afternoon I payed through Toby's ''Freight Train'' but just now I printed out a much simpler version to get started with. It's more like the version I learned in college. It was the only melody I could play back then.

Toby Walker · #87 08-28-2017, 04:15 PM

That was real nice Barry! I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed the fact that YOU enjoyed learning and playing it. Nice work.

Toby Walker · #88 08-28-2017, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowrider

Time for another update;

Spike Driver is solidly in the bank, I can play it well every day.

Oh Suzy is the toughest of the first four songs, I still flub the C-G-D section if I don't pay attention.

Sugar Babe, page 2, is a lot of fun to play. I like playing the first line twice and doing the same thing in the break. It just rolls back into itself. Page three coming soon.

Started to play Crow Jane. Next I'll skip forward to ''Freight Train'' just because I want to play it

Great job with the lessons, Toby. I'm loving it!

Sounds like you're really coming along well there! Kudos to you, as those tunes will certainly give you the skills you'll need to learn plenty of other country blues and Travis style picking. You're building a nice foundation with that set of lessons.

lowrider · #89 10-11-2017, 12:15 PM

Just wanting to bring this thread back up to the front page;

So, before I tried to finger pick with it, I thought my barre F chord was pretty solid. But once my brain had to think about my right hand every weakness in my left showed up. Tried the little F chord with thumb over but it was more work than just working harder on the barre.

And, after a few weeks of going through the C/ E/ E/ F/ F/ C part of Freight Train it's now flowing pretty well.

And, if I strum the chords I can sing to it; the first time I can sing while playing this time around!

And, I even started making up my own verses to Freight Train!

Thanks Toby for another great lesson!!

reeve21 · #90 10-11-2017, 12:42 PM

Hi lowrider,

Good to see you are continuing to progress!

Don't feel bad about the barre chords--playing them strumming and fingerpicking are 2 different things, as I found out. It will come in due time, one day out of the blue you will have it.

I highly recommend working on the thumb on the low E string. It is just so much quicker and smoother than making a full barre. Give it a couple of weeks, it took me about that long for it to become second nature.

Congratulations, you are doing very well!!!