Study Group: A Modern Method For Guitar Vol 1 Pages 12 to 14

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by fingerstyler

Hello everyone,

Kids are awake but I managed to sneak in a recording with some muting.
Maybe should have muted some more because I think I woke them up!!

Finding that I have a difficult time muting the a higher open string. For instance, the b in m5. My version says to let the notes ring after m15 which I didn't really do here.

There is also something ringing in measures 12 and 13 but my ear isn't good enough to pick it out. Believe it is my low e and a little bit of the low a string from sympathetic vibrations. This is likely because I'm resting my thumb on the d string so I can play rest strokes against the g string for the c and the d and mute the g.

Wouldn't have noticed this without your comments. this is what is great about this forum.

Thanks everyone.

Here is the link:
2012_01_21_Leavitt_review_page13_2.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Cheers,
fs

Good one fs. Everything sounds right to me.

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by jaydogg

Here's my first entry! As I mentioned before I went through some of the course last year. Started right around this time. Maybe more like December. Got pretty frustrated and moved on to other stuff after a couple of months. Kept dipping back occasionally. Lately I got on a new kick. I've been playing around pg. 26 and also skipping ahead to pg. 60 so see what positional play is like. Anyway, I don't have all the old exercises mastered and pg. 13 is a prime example of this. Something about this exercise frustrates me :-) The change to the "F" chord kills me every time. I always end up muting out the bass note. Although, on this attempt, it was the "F" with A in the bass that killed me. Left in the mistakes because I've never made it though without a bone or two! This thread is a great excuse to do all the review Mr. Levitt keeps telling me to do form beyond the grave. I need it!

Thanks for posting jadogg. The F/C in m.15 and the F/A in m.19 both feel a little unnatural to me as well. Nice steady tempo. Your rest strokes are sometimes inconsistent, just like the rest of us. I think you played G instead of B as the second note in m.28. Overall good job!

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by fingerstyler

Hello everyone,

Kids are awake but I managed to sneak in a recording with some muting. ...

My version says to let the notes ring after m15 which I didn't really do here.

There is also something ringing in measures 12 and 13 but my ear isn't good enough to pick it out. ...

Here is the link:
2012_01_21_Leavitt_review_page13_2.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Cheers,
fs

I hear the ringing fingerstyler and don't know enough to say where it's from. At least it sounds good. You obviously have experience on the instrument and these are minor nits: As you mentioned, the half note was shortened at m.15. Also, I could not hear the B in m.28. But very nice work overall.



HighSpeed

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

For me, this is the first time ever posting recordings, and I'm also new to Reaper, which I downloaded this morning. I'm very serious in saying that now I owe fep and all the people in this thread yet another thing: In addition to getting me shedding daily, now I have been motivated to enter the digital recording age. These recordings were done with the built-in mic of a portable digital recorder - I hope to have better recording gear soon - but anyway, here goes …

MM1 pp 12-14 by HighSpeedSpoon on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

The thing that bothers me the most in these recordings is not the flubs, but the uneven picking and the timing errors - some small, others bigger. Not surprising at this stage though. Here are a few more specifics that occurred to me:

Exercise 9, Page 12: There is a flub in m.14 and more notable mis-timing m.21 beat 3 and m.25 beat 1.

Exercise 10 Review, Page 13: This exercise killed me, and I worked very hard to get this version, which was more legato but had more problems with muting. I noticed relatively significant timing issues in m.17 beat 1, m.21 beat 1, and in m.29 through m.30 beat 1, which is just flubbed. I'm also not sure if I hit the C chord properly at m.24 beat 1. Finally and FWIW, I deliberately played the single quarter notes in the last measure somewhat detached (portato) because it made musical sense to me.

Imitation Duet: There's a flub in the top part at m.9 beat 3 and something that sounds like a warble in the bottom part at m.2 beat 1. There are also a few bigger than average timing issues, for the top at m.9 beats 2 and 4, and for the bottom at m.4 beat 3 and m.7 beat 1.

-- Thanks in advance for any feedback.


HighSpeed

Thanks for posting HighSpeed. I didn't hear that many picking problems. You've got a pretty good handle on what you need to do to get better. Mostly just play with the metronome everyday. Also record and listen to yourself as often as you can.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by jaydogg

Here's my first entry! As I mentioned before I went through some of the course last year. Started right around this time. Maybe more like December. Got pretty frustrated and moved on to other stuff after a couple of months. Kept dipping back occasionally. Lately I got on a new kick. I've been playing around pg. 26 and also skipping ahead to pg. 60 so see what positional play is like. Anyway, I don't have all the old exercises mastered and pg. 13 is a prime example of this. Something about this exercise frustrates me :-) The change to the "F" chord kills me every time. I always end up muting out the bass note. Although, on this attempt, it was the "F" with A in the bass that killed me. Left in the mistakes because I've never made it though without a bone or two! This thread is a great excuse to do all the review Mr. Levitt keeps telling me to do form beyond the grave. I need it!

Well I'm glad not to be the only uploader newbie today so thanks for that. (And you'll have plenty of company leaving in the mistakes LOL.) mm.18 - 19, where you had some trouble, are part of that really hard phrase starting at m.17. But on the upside, the playing was pretty faithful to the chart (although I did notice that at m.28 you play a G on beat 2 instead of the B). Also on the upside, you are very tight with the metronome, which is good, and you are looking at the music and reading it, which is also good and not to be taken for granted.



HighSpeed

[mjsarlington]

Enjoyed everyone's recordings. It was particularly interesting to hear fingerstyler's interpretation of page 13 vs. Marty's. Played at a slower tempo, flatpickin' chords really come out arpeggiated. Both renditions work for me.

Here's an attempt at Imitation Duet. If Leavitt says not to worry about perfecting these exercises, he needn't worry. My take is far from it.

100 bpm was probably ambitious for me. I flubbed jumping from F to A quite a few times in measure 4 and C to E in measure 5 before getting it. Still, my volume is inconsistent as a result of freaking out at those passages. Missed a note in measure 9. All in all, probably need to slow things down.

Imitation Duet (MM1 page 14) - YouTube

[ten left thumbs]

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

[/font] The thing that bothers me the most in these recordings is not the flubs, but the uneven picking and the timing errors - some small, others bigger. Not surprising at this stage though. Here are a few more specifics that occurred to me:

HSS, this sounds good. I find it a real challenge to play this slow. It gives you time to think, but also makes it harder. I do these exercises slow and I make mistakes, mostly mistakes of picking or fretting the wrong string. I do some of the tricky picking exercises later on in the book, and actually get them mostly right. When fingers are flying it's easier to keep track of where they are.

Evenness and accuracy of timing only come with time and experience. You can practice all you want, concentrate all you want, it will come when it comes.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by ten left thumbs

... Evenness and accuracy of timing only come with time and experience. You can practice all you want, concentrate all you want, it will come when it comes.

Ain't it the truth!


Thanks to Marty and TLT for the feedback - it's appreciated.




HighSpeed

[jaydogg]

Thanks so much for the feedback, this is a great thing! Yeah, you're right, I did play a G instead of B. And it is comforting to most everyone is finding the rest strokes challenging. I try to focus on getting them tight, but often it takes all of my brain cells to follow along with the music and remember the shapes. I'll try to get in a little practice on it today and see if I can't get through the madness of m. 17 - 21.

[fep]

Hi Msjarlington,

Nice job, good timing, solid.

BTW,

I copy the address in the top bar at you tube and put it in this

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

and you get this

Msjarlingtons Imitation Duet

YouTube Video

[mjsarlington]

Thanks, fep. I was wondering how you did that on this site. Unfortunately, embedded YouTube videos don't show up on the old iPad. Something about Flash (thanks Apple!). What makes it worse is no "alt" URL link shows so I have to jump on the PC to see anything. Anyhoo, thanks for the tip. Looking forward to another week of Leavitt.

[oldhead]

P14, Imitation Duet 130 bpm

I'm w/Msjarlington, when Leavitt says, "...do not attempt to completely perfect any one lesson before going on."

I'm already seeing improvement in accuracy and speed when going back over the beginning lessons.

Very challenging, but very satisfying. I think I'm addicted!

I'm trying a new server since my previous posts seem to have vaporized.
Hope this works.

p14, Imitation Duet 130 bpm.mp3

[fep]

Originally Posted by oldhead

P14, Imitation Duet 130 bpm

I'm w/Msjarlington, when Leavitt says, "...do not attempt to completely perfect any one lesson before going on."

I'm already seeing improvement in accuracy and speed when going back over the beginning lessons.

Very challenging, but very satisfying. I think I'm addicted!

I'm trying a new server since my previous posts seem to have vaporized.
Hope this works.

p14, Imitation Duet 130 bpm.mp3

Wow, that's something to be really proud of. That was played really well, I played it again just to enjoy the piece. I can hear both voices really well and they sound real good together, and the timbre of your guitar really worked well for this piece, and that was a good choice of tempo.

That was very enjoyable to listen too.

[oldhead]

Originally Posted by fep

Wow, that's something to be really proud of. That was played really well, I played it again just to enjoy the piece. I can hear both voices really well and they sound real good together, and the timbre of your guitar really worked well for this piece, and that was a good choice of tempo.

That was very enjoyable to listen too.

Thanks a bunch, FEP, I really appreciate the kind comments.

[Will Glen]

Originally Posted by Marty W

What muting technique works best for you? It's one of those things you do without noticing how you do it.

I was thinking today about different ways you can mute strings on the guitar and trying to figure out which ones worked best in what situation. Here are some observations:

The technique we use probably depends on our fret hand finger position and also how we hold the pick. I have thick fingers and tend to fret single notes with the pad of my fingers instead of the tips. That makes it easier to do fret hand muting. SRV & Hendrix are great examples of this style.

For pick hand muting, I hold the pick close to the tip and use my thumb and 1st fingers to mute. With this technique I can simultaneously mute one string while picking a note on a different string.

I recorded some examples of what works for me, hope it helps.

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put this up. I have been working on this, trying to and this helps. It is hard to say thanks to everyone in all these threads but they are chock full of great information. Again, I appreciate this info.

I'm coming up behind picking up all these gems I can.

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by Will Glen

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put this up. I have been working on this, trying to and this helps. It is hard to say thanks to everyone in all these threads but they are chock full of great information. Again, I appreciate this info.

I'm coming up behind picking up all these gems I can.

You're welcome! And welcome to the study group. Never thought I'd enjoy working through MM 1 but this makes it more fun.

[Will Glen]

I've been working on new exercises in the morning and then doing my review in the afternoon or evening for MM1. I can definitely tell that the previous material becomes easier upon review and I improve on this material after practicing new stuff.

Always room for improvement that's for sure and I like Leavitt's counsel to review, review, review and not stay put until the piece is "perfected". This was very helpful advice. Having a recording of past material helps to review I've found and listen for ways to improve.

I'm really enjoying playing Low E, F, G, A, B & C. I have always neglected these notes in previous attempts to read.

Exercise 9 page 12.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Exercise 10 page 13.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Imitation Duet page 14.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

As a side note, I picked up David Oake's Music Reading for Guitar the other day off Amazon and he discusses three methods to Developing Eye Movement, a concept that was new to me and I've found helpful.

Reading Down and Up the Page: You start at the first measure, read down to the second line/first measure/third line first measure until you reach the bottom....then you start from the bottom of the last line/second measure and read up etc...

Readings Backwards and Up the Page: Here you start at the end of the song and play it backwards.

Reading in Boxes: Number the measures randomly and it causes you to follow a random pattern, forcing you to recognize the notes and forcing you to think about looking ahead.

I'm just starting to do this with review material in hopes it will improve my sight reading and offset the innate problem of memorizing, rather than reading.

Take care everyone and have a good one,

Will

[oldhead]

Will, sounding good. You're off and running. I agree about the review process. Constant review and practice makes accuracy and speed better. It's very satisfying to go back and play something pretty much effortlessly that seemed very hard when you first tried it; it's very reinforcing mentally, at least it is for me.
FTP

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by Will Glen

Exercise 9 page 12.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Exercise 10 page 13.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Imitation Duet page 14.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

As a side note, I picked up David Oake's Music Reading for Guitar the other day off Amazon and he discusses three methods to Developing Eye Movement, a concept that was new to me and I've found helpful.

Reading Down and Up the Page: You start at the first measure, read down to the second line/first measure/third line first measure until you reach the bottom....then you start from the bottom of the last line/second measure and read up etc...

Readings Backwards and Up the Page: Here you start at the end of the song and play it backwards.

Reading in Boxes: Number the measures randomly and it causes you to follow a random pattern, forcing you to recognize the notes and forcing you to think about looking ahead.

I'm just starting to do this with review material in hopes it will improve my sight reading and offset the innate problem of memorizing, rather than reading.

Take care everyone and have a good one,

Will

Sounding good Will. Thanks for the tips. I do the reading backwards exercise but hadn't heard of the other two.

[ten left thumbs]

Hi Will, good to see you're making progress! The recordings sound good. I also have the Oakes book, and I have to confess I skipped the bit about reading backward and upside down. Glad you found it helpful. There is certainly a skill to tracking your eyes a little ahead of your playing, including down to the start of the next line, and skipping for the repeats, etc.

If you need to read, rather than memorize, then reading *lots* is your friend, and the Oakes book is good. You can take the start (5th) and play it in open position for extra practice.

[Will Glen]

Originally Posted by oldhead

Will, sounding good. You're off and running. I agree about the review process. Constant review and practice makes accuracy and speed better. It's very satisfying to go back and play something pretty much effortlessly that seemed very hard when you first tried it; it's very reinforcing mentally, at least it is for me.
FTP

Thank you sir. I've been listening to you and you are doing a great job as is everyone participating. I agree with you about the good feeling of making progress.

Looking forward in the book can be daunting. There has been many evenings I've sat at my desk looking ahead in the book and I tell myself there is no way I will be able to play all those notes sight reading alone. I keep telling myself that if I can just stick with it, that God willing it will happen.

Originally Posted by Marty W

Sounding good Will. Thanks for the tips. I do the reading backwards exercise but hadn't heard of the other two.

No prob Marty!

Originally Posted by ten left thumbs

Hi Will, good to see you're making progress! The recordings sound good. I also have the Oakes book, and I have to confess I skipped the bit about reading backward and upside down. Glad you found it helpful. There is certainly a skill to tracking your eyes a little ahead of your playing, including down to the start of the next line, and skipping for the repeats, etc.

If you need to read, rather than memorize, then reading *lots* is your friend, and the Oakes book is good. You can take the start (5th) and play it in open position for extra practice.

Thank you kindly and I will be doing that for sure.

Have a great one everybody and keep plugging away.

[gxi1247]

Here are my recordings for Ex 9 and Ex 10.

Ex 9
Ex 9 60 bpm.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Ex 10
http://www.box.com/s/b98mc32cbct1ntx7xx37

I swear I play so much better when I am not trying to record. I will try to get imitation duet recorded tonight. I also want to say thanks to everyone. These threads have given me so much motivation. I couldn't even play ex 10 on 40 bpm about 3 or 4 days ago. I have been getting up in the morning and playing before work, and then I play over lunch.

[ronjazz]

Good work all around. I'd like to jump in here and note a couple of details from my lessons with Leavitt. First, he was very complimentary to me when he saw that I kept my left hand thumb behind the neck, generally in the middle of the back of the neck. That was because of my classical guitar lessons, but he pointed out that keeping the thumb back will enable the player to stretch further and to utilize the fingertips more efficiently, so that's something to think about. Also, from my own experience, when you do look at the fingerboard, try to train yourself to look not at where you are, but at where you're going. This will be especially helpful as you start playing in higher positions and using position shifts: put your eyes on the goal, In fact, you can experiment a bit by just choosing two notes, say a G on the first string 3rd fret, and a D on the 10th fret; play the G with your third finger, and jump to the D with your first finger. If you look at the D before making the jump, your accuracy will be much higher. This also works in first position when you're skipping strings, etc.

[gxi1247]

Here is imitation duet

Part #1
Guitar part #1 72 bpm.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Part #2
Guitar part #2 72 bpmx.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Any critics are welcome

[oldhead]

Originally Posted by gxi1247

Here is imitation duet

Part #1
Guitar part #1 72 bpm.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Part #2
Guitar part #2 72 bpmx.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Any critics are welcome

Sounds like you are cutting some of the notes a tad short. Better on Part 2. Overall, nice job.
I took the liberty of mixing them - thought you might like to hear them together. You can hear the notes ringing longer in spots on part 2 when juxtaposed to part 1. If you want me to delete this, just let me know.
Parts 1 and 2 mixed.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

[gxi1247]

Thanks for mixing them it sounds pretty cool.

[Spook410]

You know.. I really didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I am. I wish I had gone back to fill in the gaps years ago.