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Making progress..........somehow

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(@grungesunset)
Honorable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 342
Topic starter  

I had a weird thing happen today. Due to health and mental issues I haven't touched my guitar in a few weeks. The specifics I won't discuss, not so much due to embarassment but because you'd think I was crazy. Plus, no one seems to be able to figure out what's going on............... but either I've been too sick or haven't have the energy to play.

I mustered up the energy to play my guitar today but being the lazy person I am, I couldn't be bothered booting up my PC to find the tab and just started winging it by ear. I managed to pick out our national anthem. While I'm not complaining I couldn't play anything by ear before. Later on, I was just noodling and found hammer ons and pull offs to be easier than colouring inside the lines. I could do them before but only with an extreme conscious effort. My teacher gave me excerises to get better at them but I kinda blew them off so how this skill came about I don't know Finally, I started playing Vicarious by Tool and played with little to no screw ups. I found it odd since I abandoned this song in favour of others long before the recess. Even back then I could only play it at half the speed of smell.

I don't know if the break let me interalize everything or I just had a LOT of frustration to get out. It was still great though. I felt like I had reached a new level..............without even trying............

Still can't strum with my teeth though.

"In what, twisted universe does mastering Eddie Van Halen's two handed arpeggio technique count as ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?!" - Dr Gregory House


   
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(@coolnama)
Prominent Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 590
 

LOL it happens.

Sometimes all we need is a break, when you mean you could only do hammer ons and pull offs with conscious effort, you mean you couldn't do them unless u focused or simply didn't do em even though you could ?

But yeah the break is good cause sometimes we spend alot of times just stuck mentally, even though we got the technical skill down, cause ok, you are practicing something and you get in your head you can't do it, but u practice and practice to no avail. Then 2 weeks later you just try it without thinking and do it, cause you didn't have that mental block, o.o its the first thing that comes 2 mind.

Something similar happened to me, I play an electric guitar most of the time, and when I'm soloing I always like o.o forgot to use hammer ons and pull offs, but I played a classical guitar for a week, for some reason, nonstop without touching the electric, I practiced everything I did everything I do in the electric, and bam when I come back to my electric I am doing hammer-ons and pull-offs for different things, Idk why that is similar, but I made progress xD.

I wanna be that guy that you wish you were ! ( i wish I were that guy)

You gotta set your sights high to get high!

Everyone is a teacher when you are looking to learn.

( wise stuff man! )

Its Kirby....


   
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(@rahul)
Famed Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 2736
 

Still can't strum with my teeth though.

That's when you know you have become the legend...

Congrats on your progress.


   
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(@dogbite)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 6348
 

I think you hit on something....absence and frustration. that combo has power. it enabled you to go past your conscious experience that inhibits all of us. the guitar practice and lessons all came out.
it is supposed to work this way.
I also believe that great understanding can come about by playing a melody you have in your head.
by using your ear and the lessons of note intervals to pick out a song. that method empowers a player I believe.
I learned much with that method.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=644552
http://www.soundclick.com/couleerockinvaders


   
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(@scrybe)
Famed Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 2241
 

You were probably highly relaxed and aware. Being too conscious and critical of your playing can cause problems that disappear when you relax. Also, the break probably did help you internalize the material.

Ra Er Ga.

Ninjazz have SuperChops.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Scrybe


   
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(@musica23)
Reputable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 277
 

Well, whatever the reason, I think it's great! :D And thank you for sharing your experience as it inspires me to read such stories. I've had similar days...and I think it's when I'm expecting to suck or just not expecting much of anything out of my playing. It's relaxing for me to expect very little or nothing of myself. And if I could only stop "thinking" I might be able to strum with my teeth. :lol:

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May you have many more days like that! :D

Love and Peace or Else,
CC


   
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(@rparker)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

That happens to me sometimes. It's almost like something just clicks inside and I get it. I'm always going back to songs previously tried and butchered only to find myself mysteriously able to play them.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@scrybe)
Famed Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 2241
 

I have an interval training app on my iPhone that I use every now and then (usually if e.g. on a bus somewhere or in a waiting room, to kill time productively, I should use it more regularly tho, lol). I usually make some mistakes on certain intervals (the major 6th, minor 7th, major 7ths get me bad....I mix them up too often). The other morning, I woke up but was feeling too lazy to get up just yet, so I played that game for a bit. Must have done about 15 minutes, and not a single mistake. I've never done that before, and can only put it down to being so relaxed that I was highly aware of what I was listening to. It felt effortless though.

Ra Er Ga.

Ninjazz have SuperChops.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Scrybe


   
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(@dan-t)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5044
 

I've had similar experiences myself. It's weird how you can be away from the guitar for a period, pick it up, and then have an "ah-ha" moment. Congrats on your progress. 8)

"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge


   
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(@aleholder)
Trusted Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 52
 

Congrats on the new skill. It is what makes learning fun and empowering. :D

I also have lots of these learning moments and not just with guitar. It happens with everything I set out to learn. I call it 'percolating'. I'll try to learn something and try it several times over the course of weeks or months(!) and quit when I get frustrated. I'll come back to it a few days later and do it correctly.

It took me a full six months to figure out the four finger ninth chord form on the bottom four strings. I never thought I would get it. Same with trem picking. Now I'm working on pinch harmonics. Playing and singing together. The list goes on... and on, and on. :o


   
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(@blue-jay)
Noble Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1630
 

Good work, and best wishes for continued success. 8)

Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.


   
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