My guitar lessons and how they have helped
Aug 11, 2018 9:09:58 GMT
jonnymosco, ocarolan, and 10 more like this
Post by jangarrack on Aug 11, 2018 9:09:58 GMT
Back in January of this year, I posted the following comment in jonnymosco’s New techniques blog about the Guitar Basics videos.
"As someone who has been playing for years but seems to encounter so many brick walls that prevent me from progressing as I feel I should, these videos have been invaluable to me. They have really helped me identify areas of weakness which until now, I was unaware of and make me think my time would probably have been better spent learning a lot more about technique rather than just concentrating on being able to play particular tunes.
I guess one thing this this experience shows is that although being self taught clearly works well for some people, there must others like me who would have done and probably still can do so much better with professional lessons and I'm already giving that some serious thought.
Thanks again for great videos."
That comment led to a conversation with jonnymosco which resulted in me having some lessons and I thought it may be interesting and hopefully helpful to others to share the experience.
My aim was not to necessarily learn any more tunes, but to try to improve my technique and to overcome the constant dreadful episodes of my fingers seizing up and mind going blank every time I try to play in front of people or even just on trying to make a presentable video, something I believe is referred to as performance anxiety.
I always felt that even my best my playing lacked something that I couldn’t quite pin down as even getting all the right notes in the right order at just about the right time resulted in more of a cacophony than music. Most things I played got faster towards the end as well. Does anyone else do that?
Jonny explained that improving technique would be more achievable by learning it within some new tunes then applying it to my old tunes and this has definitely proved to be the case. Overcoming the anxiety would be longer term, but he recommended a couple of books. I have only read one so far and it has explained a lot and been really helpful. It’s called The Inner Game of Music (Paperback) by Author: W. Timothy Gallwey and Barry Greenand. I got mine second hand from Abe Books and would recommend it.
First thing to say is that these were Skype lessons and I had no idea how well that would work, but much to my surprise it worked really well. For a start it was easier time wise as there was no travelling to and from lessons, it was more comfortable and less distracting to have the lessons in my own familiar environment and apart from the occasional Skype sound delay, I would say that for me there were no disadvantages at all.
Throughout the 10 lessons, we covered 3 tunes, Willoughby’s Farm, The Water is Wide and Down by the Sally Gardens. When I first saw the tab to each, I thought that it it all seemed a lot more basic than I was expecting as I could have easily learned to play each piece fairly quickly on my own. In fact the tab to each tune got more simple as we progressed.
What I had been completely unaware of until now is how little I understood about the importance of timing, fluidity, dynamics, just the general expression of music and how to reflect it in my playing. All of these shortcomings and others become even more evident in the simpler pieces of music where there is no flurry of notes to hide behind. Hence the importance of what I initially thought to be very simple tab, in fact it was the simple tab that really tested me and what Jonny used to teach me so much. Never underestimate the beauty of simplicity.
Alongside of this were the left and right hand finger exercises, some of which can be seen on the New techniques blog, and since doing these I definitely have much better control over my fingers, particularly the left hand third finger.
Jonny’s approach has been great, he was able to identify my main areas of weakness and build exercises and lessons around them, he has been constructive and encouraging all the way and never once made me feel like a poor or inadequate player.
The result for me is quite profound, it’s like a light has been turned on and for the first time I can see where I’m going and what I’m trying to achieve. Practice is now always more focused, I definitely play more calmly and feel a lot more relaxed about it all. I’ve still got a long way to go and so will be booking more lessons in September.
Another upside is that changes to the way I play seem to bring out so much more from the same guitars I’ve been playing for years, they really do sound better…..so maybe a good cure for GAS as well.
"As someone who has been playing for years but seems to encounter so many brick walls that prevent me from progressing as I feel I should, these videos have been invaluable to me. They have really helped me identify areas of weakness which until now, I was unaware of and make me think my time would probably have been better spent learning a lot more about technique rather than just concentrating on being able to play particular tunes.
I guess one thing this this experience shows is that although being self taught clearly works well for some people, there must others like me who would have done and probably still can do so much better with professional lessons and I'm already giving that some serious thought.
Thanks again for great videos."
That comment led to a conversation with jonnymosco which resulted in me having some lessons and I thought it may be interesting and hopefully helpful to others to share the experience.
My aim was not to necessarily learn any more tunes, but to try to improve my technique and to overcome the constant dreadful episodes of my fingers seizing up and mind going blank every time I try to play in front of people or even just on trying to make a presentable video, something I believe is referred to as performance anxiety.
I always felt that even my best my playing lacked something that I couldn’t quite pin down as even getting all the right notes in the right order at just about the right time resulted in more of a cacophony than music. Most things I played got faster towards the end as well. Does anyone else do that?
Jonny explained that improving technique would be more achievable by learning it within some new tunes then applying it to my old tunes and this has definitely proved to be the case. Overcoming the anxiety would be longer term, but he recommended a couple of books. I have only read one so far and it has explained a lot and been really helpful. It’s called The Inner Game of Music (Paperback) by Author: W. Timothy Gallwey and Barry Greenand. I got mine second hand from Abe Books and would recommend it.
First thing to say is that these were Skype lessons and I had no idea how well that would work, but much to my surprise it worked really well. For a start it was easier time wise as there was no travelling to and from lessons, it was more comfortable and less distracting to have the lessons in my own familiar environment and apart from the occasional Skype sound delay, I would say that for me there were no disadvantages at all.
Throughout the 10 lessons, we covered 3 tunes, Willoughby’s Farm, The Water is Wide and Down by the Sally Gardens. When I first saw the tab to each, I thought that it it all seemed a lot more basic than I was expecting as I could have easily learned to play each piece fairly quickly on my own. In fact the tab to each tune got more simple as we progressed.
What I had been completely unaware of until now is how little I understood about the importance of timing, fluidity, dynamics, just the general expression of music and how to reflect it in my playing. All of these shortcomings and others become even more evident in the simpler pieces of music where there is no flurry of notes to hide behind. Hence the importance of what I initially thought to be very simple tab, in fact it was the simple tab that really tested me and what Jonny used to teach me so much. Never underestimate the beauty of simplicity.
Alongside of this were the left and right hand finger exercises, some of which can be seen on the New techniques blog, and since doing these I definitely have much better control over my fingers, particularly the left hand third finger.
Jonny’s approach has been great, he was able to identify my main areas of weakness and build exercises and lessons around them, he has been constructive and encouraging all the way and never once made me feel like a poor or inadequate player.
The result for me is quite profound, it’s like a light has been turned on and for the first time I can see where I’m going and what I’m trying to achieve. Practice is now always more focused, I definitely play more calmly and feel a lot more relaxed about it all. I’ve still got a long way to go and so will be booking more lessons in September.
Another upside is that changes to the way I play seem to bring out so much more from the same guitars I’ve been playing for years, they really do sound better…..so maybe a good cure for GAS as well.