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Post by creamburmese on Oct 9, 2014 17:32:00 GMT
Great advice here! Wish some of it would magically enter my guitar and just make it happen... I can really relate to AndyHowell's story... i'm new to playing guitar, but have been giving scientific talks for too many years, and so they rarely cause me anything other than worries about the projection system. An exception was a review talk I gave to bigwigs at NIH where I interpreted the findings of others... only problem it turned out several of the "others" were in the audience. Closest I came to losing it in many a year....
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 9, 2014 14:29:04 GMT
Loving reading these stories! Though for me, I have not yet reached the stage where I can confidently play in front of anyone at all rather than mostly getting it right and occasionally screwing it up... so still trying to break the ice on that one. I watched a master class this weekend and one of the pearls of wisdom was practicing the right hand independent of the left... For me, in the piece in question (you all may have have forgotten it but for me it is still a source of angst...) playing the right hand by itself illuminated the fact that the relative timing for the movements of my right hand thumb and fingers was all wrong. And led my darned teacher to give me lots of boring exercises to work on it... sigh. And I did read an article which says the only reliable way to overcome performance anxiety is in fact to do it enough to allow desensitization ( and presumably occasionally succeeding in the performance - presumably repeated failure would ramp up the anxiety even further). So I'm working on the technique as a first step. In the meantime if anyone remembers far enough back to have problems playing for someone who is teaching you, keep the advice coming! Julie
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 7, 2014 14:20:46 GMT
Is it a roll rather than a strum? i.e. pluck the strings in sequence but fast - often notated with a wiggly line down the side of the chord... would give you the fingerpicking sound with a strum effect...
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 7, 2014 14:04:31 GMT
Pity the poor bass player!! Well I'm not getting any better at this playing in front of (insert chosen intimidating persona here) but I'm certainly enjoying the responses in this thread! Despite the fact that I had another lesson yesterday, and fumbled exactly the same bit, I'm no longer suicidal and willing to pack it all in (just kidding). Actually the whole lesson turned into deconstructing the technique, note by note. Turns out my technique sucks. and I have to go back to basics (those of you who have ever struggled with classical lessons may recognize the issue of which string the thumb sits on and how fast it gets there ... ). Good news is I now really really believe what you have all been saying - it's all about confidence, and confidence comes from rock solid technique (or being able to play it 45 times in a row without mistakes!). This makes sense to me because In my 'real' life I am rarely bothered by presenting talks, - the confidence coming presumably because in that case I'm the 'expert" for that small time and my assumption is that the audience is there to learn what I have to say (even if they are just taking the opportunity for a quick nap !) So what am I doing now? painstakingly practicing moving my thumb in the correct manner, and practicing the right hand all by itself until it gets to be automatic! No more lessons for 3 weeks so here's hoping for better results NEXT time I get to play this Julie
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 4, 2014 21:43:28 GMT
What's the difference between a guitarist and a foot spa? A foot spa bucks up your feet. You'll have to explain that one........?
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 1, 2014 17:26:42 GMT
Yup - definitely going to try faking it too... just so long as I don't have to wear a costume
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 1, 2014 14:31:53 GMT
I second (third)? the recommendations to get a teacher - whether in person or on Skype - especially if you've tried before and are not making progress. I tried several times in my life to learn guitar by myself, and in each case gave up after learning a few chords. When I started again 18 months ago my husband said - "if you want to do it properly, get a teacher." He could not have been more right (though it pains me to say it). Apart from giving you feedback on all the nitpicky ways (and they appear to be infinite) you can do it wrong and suggestions for how to achieve apparently impossible shifts etc, a teacher can guide you in what techniques you need to learn and the order you need to learn them as you build skills, can pick tunes that will challenge you but not make it impossible for you to succeed, and importantly, give you a reason to keep at it as you have a lesson coming up! However I started with - and left- 2 teachers before I found the one that works for me, and I had lots of self-doubt about leaving those teachers - wondering if I was just incapable - but now I have the right teacher I know they just weren't a good fit for me. So best of luck! And you will find the skilled players on this forum to be an incredibly amazingly supportive and encouraging group! Julie
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 1, 2014 14:13:01 GMT
I've been trying the suggestion to try to visualize/or play the left and right hands separately and I have just had a revelation - usually when I'm learning a piece I concentrate on the fretting hand, as I find that more difficult. The right hand just "goes along" and picks it up with the left. However when I tried playing both hands separately in a piece I'm learning, I discovered, surprise surprise, that although my left hand has a pretty good memory of where to go and I can visualize it, the right hand hasn't got a clue. The only way I can do it is concurrent with the left hand on the fretboard. This means that if I make a mistake with the right hand or use the wrong finger, it is totally lost because the pattern it "knows" is disrupted..... So I'm trying to practice right hand only - by humming the tune in place of using the left hand ..... to see if that is one source of the problems I'm having.... finally something concrete to work on.
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 1, 2014 13:59:29 GMT
I had a similar problem once and did exactly the wrong thing - spent a lot of time pulling up on the string/pin which of course wedged the whole thing in the hole even more securely (obviously brain was not engaged at the time). Finally got it out by using another string looped under the top of the pin and pulling up. However I have since made a point of pushing the string down before trying to dislodge bridge pins which causes everything to loosen wonderfully (though I haven't bought any more guitars with strings that have been on for eons either so don't know if it would work with truly wedged pins).
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Post by creamburmese on Oct 1, 2014 13:32:05 GMT
Gosh I'm so glad im not alone...to hear that all you accomplished players have hit the same problems is I suppose not surprising but I'm still wondering what exactly to do about it. In the case I described for some reason I was getting nervous before I even reached the music school so I had definitely set myself up for it. Maybe a little focused deep breathing would have helped. I even headed out into a little used staircase and warmed up (that usually helps) but obviously not in this case. I had read before that being able to actively visualize both hands (in effect using the conscious brain to practice) as Keith suggested will stop the decoupling effect that happens when you suddenly go blank. I just tried visualization and found that actually I can't do it - it's like both my hands have to be engaged for me to remember so I'm going to work on that. It's a good method to distract the brain from worry when trying to go to sleep if nothing else! I will also try the singing/humming- I can see that concentrating on the tune might in effect "de concentrate" you from interfering with what your fingers are doing and in fact may be the only immediately available method when in the throes of panic! Though that may be better in a live setting than when sitting next to the teacher. So lots to work on ... Thank you so much everyone for your personal anecdotes and suggestions. I will report back when I've tried some - I'm going to start by breaking down the piece into 2 hands and see what that does. Stay posted!
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Post by creamburmese on Sept 30, 2014 20:24:49 GMT
Wow Bernd - I think you nailed it - I truly do concentrate really hard and also think I should just try to do it a little better for my teacher. And of course after messing it up I concentrate even harder in an attempt to get it right. Which makes it worse, of course. But if the solution is just to clear your mind and not think about it - how do you make THAT happen? It's like -not- looking at the elephant in the room when you know it's there. Does your neurosurgeon /guitar teacher have any tricks for -not- concentrating? ps I hadn't noticed any limited English skills ...
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Post by creamburmese on Sept 30, 2014 18:22:05 GMT
I guess this really applies mostly to people who are still on the steep part of the learning curve, like me, but any insight from you more experienced players would be appreciated. I had the lesson from he** this week. Been working on a piece called "Rose in the Garden" which is fairly straightforward arpeggios - requires a lot of tone/tempo control and a bit of finger contortion, but nothing really hard. Been working on it for 2 weeks now, thought I was doing OK - could get through it at home, mostly without major mistakes. Well I go to my lesson and I couldn't even play the first couple of bars - the easiest bits! Started off with stupid mistakes I hadn't made before and deteriorated from there. The more I tried, the worse it got, and I must have restarted 6 or 7 times without success, culminating in the shakes setting in and I had to actually give up... I know it's all mind over matter (and it's all in my head too ) but honestly - has anyone experienced this and found a means to get it back together? I have the most understanding teacher and I"m scarcely a spring chicken, so I ought to be able to deal with this. And to make matters worse, I picked up the guitar today and it was still bad... so I put it right back down and I'm taking the day off. But I'm sitting worrying about it.....
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Post by creamburmese on Sept 23, 2014 19:46:10 GMT
Great story! And may you have many thousands of hours of happy playing! Is anyone taking bets on whether it stays under the bed for the next 3 months yet? I thought I was over GAS until I read this... and am now thinking I've never played a LOWDEN...
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Post by creamburmese on Sept 23, 2014 15:18:58 GMT
I can only speak from an n of 5..... my classical teacher has a very high end cedar guitar that has an extremely warm resonant, round and LOUD sound... but his guitar probably cost many thousands and I imagine any guitar of that quality will exhibit fantastic tone that only varies in character. I previously owned a Kenny Hill Player (made in China) classical with a cedar top that was similarly warm, though not such a round sound (I don't know how best to describe it but that "roundness" is what attracts me in both classical and steel string guitars). I tried out a Kenny Hill spruce top when I was shopping for my current guitar and it had a more clear and penetrating sound that to my ears lacked both mellowness and roundness... I currently own a Douglass Scott classical with a Sitka (I'm pretty sure he said it's Sitka) spruce top that is incredibly warm and round -sounding - so much so that my teacher looked at it and couldn't believe it was not cedar, which of course again points up the fact that you have to play the individual guitar. As an aside It also has a very strong rosewood smell (to me it smells like clan tobacco!) despite being over 5 years old...my brand new Taylor has a rosewood back and doesn't smell like that at all. Finally I also own an ancient Japanese Dauphin classical with a cedar top and laminate back - it too has mellow (but not "round") sound... So I guess my take on this is that cedar usually sounds pretty mellow, while spruce can vary with the individual guitar (and its age...,)
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Post by creamburmese on Sept 22, 2014 17:18:41 GMT
Ahh that's why I don't sound like Michael I knew there must be a reason! I just need to have a manicure then all those years of playing will come to fruition! Gosh and I thought if I had his guitar I could play like Michael...
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