Study Group: A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 1 Pages 15 to 19

[oldhead]

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

Very nice oldhead, and I'm not just saying that to return the favor. The brisk tempo really worked and the notes were played in good, confident time. There was even a pretty ritard at the end, and if you were not playing with a metronome, then you are to be especially commended for keeping the time so well.



HighSpeed

Thanks, HSS. I tried it with a metronome. Couldn't do it. I'd come to the end and it would throw me off. I can't tell you how many times I've played this one trying to get something I could post. I don't know why this one caused me so much trouble. As I said, I'll revisit it many times, I'm sure.

[mjsarlington]

Good job all. I didn't realize you weren't using a metronome, oldhead. That was played at quite a clip. Ambitious!

So, for the heck of it, I recorded HWGA duet with my classical guitar and then my steel string to see if I could glean anything interesting. Nothing jumps out at me but Measure 7 was easier to play clean with finger picking. How are you all playing that? I subconsciously hybrid-picked it on the steel string instead of strumming. Also, in both cases, I don't like the using ring/pinky. Much prefer middle/ring.

Otherwise, G2 needs to be amped up and was a little sloppy in parts. Got to work on the crescendo instead of just suddenly plaing forte!

YouTube Video

YouTube Video

[oldhead]

Originally Posted by mjsarlington

Good job all. I didn't realize you weren't using a metronome, oldhead. That was played at quite a clip. Ambitious!

So, for the heck of it, I recorded HWGA duet with my classical guitar and then my steel string to see if I could glean anything interesting. Nothing jumps out at me but Measure 7 was easier to play clean with finger picking. How are you all playing that? I subconsciously hybrid-picked it on the steel string instead of strumming. Also, in both cases, I don't like the using ring/pinky. Much prefer middle/ring.

Otherwise, G2 needs to be amped up and was a little sloppy in parts. Got to work on the crescendo instead of just suddenly plaing forte!

Sounds good. M7 I just mute the fifth string w/third finger and strum as usual. I'm doing all mine with a pick; I have enough trouble doing that, let alone trying to learn hybrid picking.

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by fep

Cool Marty, Both voices came out real clear (what are you using for your pan settings?)

And the dynamics where real nice, and you even stopped the metronome (what do you have, three hands?) and pulled of the Ritard. Thanks for posting.

I'm panning 100% left and right. For the metronome I made a click track that stopped two measures early.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

[ten left thumbs]

Originally Posted by Marty W

For the metronome I made a click track that stopped two measures early.

wow, that's dedication!

[Marty W]

Originally Posted by ten left thumbs

wow, that's dedication!

Thanks but not really that hard. Recorded a couple minutes of click with audacity, played through the piece, marked the spot I wanted it to stop and deleted the rest of it.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by mjsarlington

Good job all. I didn't realize you weren't using a metronome, oldhead. That was played at quite a clip. Ambitious!

So, for the heck of it, I recorded HWGA duet with my classical guitar and then my steel string to see if I could glean anything interesting. Nothing jumps out at me but Measure 7 was easier to play clean with finger picking. How are you all playing that? I subconsciously hybrid-picked it on the steel string instead of strumming. Also, in both cases, I don't like the using ring/pinky. Much prefer middle/ring.

Otherwise, G2 needs to be amped up and was a little sloppy in parts. Got to work on the crescendo instead of just suddenly plaing forte!

They both sound very nice. Even though Leavitt is plectrum oriented, it must be helpful in the general scheme of things to have classical, finger style skills.

Originally Posted by oldhead

Sounds good. M7 I just mute the fifth string w/third finger and strum as usual. I'm doing all mine with a pick; I have enough trouble doing that, let alone trying to learn hybrid picking.

What he said.



HighSpeed

[fep]

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

I uploaded Here We go Again at 90 bpm. On the upside, I can see some things getting better in terms of controlling the pick and translating that control into a tighter rhythm and more purposed rendering of expression. Of course, this sort of improvement is an incremental and glacially slow process. On the downside (and obvious mistakes aside):

• I notice that after a chord, there is sometimes an unintended separation between the chord and the next single note
• Some of the picking seems a bit ham-fisted to me, especially the bottom part
• There is some crescendo/decrescendo at the end in the top part, but nothing that I could hear on tape in the bottom part. In my defense however, the bottom part has all the movement in the last six (6) measures, and it seems musical to me for it to be a bit more pronounced than the top.

Anyway, warts and all it still feels good to have gotten to this point. -- Comments welcome.

p16 Here We Go Again Duet - Both Parts @ 90 bpm



HighSpeed

Good job, and good progress. That last chord of the 1st guitar is played as a single slow strum, it sounded as though you played it too slow or picked the individual notes.

[richard vandyne]

high speed spoon-- good job on your recordings -what source are you using for your audio transmissions, you tube,audacity ???????

[richard vandyne]

fep i got message but unfasmiliar with format. re-call me

[fep]

Originally Posted by richard vandyne

fep i got message but unfasmiliar with format. re-call me

I don't know what "re-call me" means as I never did call you.

Did you read post #38 and watch the video at post #39 on page 2 of this thread as I pointed out on the message I sent you?

Post numbers are at the top right of each post. For instance this post is post #101.

[richard vandyne]

i am now getting the post.been having internet problems. i would like to know name and model of that webcam? the recording is very clear, just what i need. i have a new hp computerw/lots of storeage.it has all the bells and whistles. mic and web cam?? i also have hand held microphone and both work well. have 2 guitars epi shearton2 and an epi performer se new and it is acoustic/elec. have no cameras . have recently downloaded audacity" for recording but cant make it work right. all recordings are blurred and getting an echoing effect the makes the recording sound terrible. thats what i have to work with,.

[fep]

@ Richard,

The webcam I used is on a new HP laptop. Is your HP computer a laptop? If so I can give you very specific directions.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Here is the Rhythm Accompaniment from page 17 at 56 bpm. The rhythm is as locked in as it's going to get for now. The strokes are a bit late on beat 1 of mm 5 and 6, and there is a modest ritard at the end because I can not yet quite grab those particular chords in tempo. (But I gotta tell ya, it felt good to grab them at all! )


MM1--P017--Rhythm Accompaniment--56Q--120131 0196 by HighSpeedSpoon on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free




HighSpeed

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Here are Exercises 1, 2, and 3 from page 18-19. There is a flub in m. 33 of EX3 and the last 4 measures are a bit unraveled too. C'est la vie.

MM1 pp 18-19 by HighSpeedSpoon on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free



HighSpeed

[richard vandyne]

fep- sorry i wasn,t clear about my computer. it is a hewett packard laptop. about one year old and has about 250 gigs. 170 free. hope that helps .

[fep]

Originally Posted by richard vandyne

fep- sorry i wasn,t clear about my computer. it is a hewett packard laptop. about one year old and has about 250 gigs. 170 free. hope that helps .

This is how I do it on my 6 month old HP laptop. There are several steps. 1st open the webcam by hovering your pointer over the HP icon on the bottom of the screen and then clicking the Cyberlink Youcan BE icon:



Then frame your image by changing the distance from you to the computer and tilting the screen. Then click the capture button and you will be recording a video. Click the stop button at the end of your video.



Double click the thumbnail that appears at the bottom of the video screen to view your video.

Let me know if you get that far and we'll then continue with the next step of uploading it to Youtube and posting it to the threads.

This is difficult to do this way, if you have a friend or family member that is good at this kind of thing and can be with you and help you, it will be much easier for you (and me )

[richard vandyne]

fep i think i have given you some bum information. i have no webcam and there is no webcam software in my computer. your instructions wont help me without the webcam will it

[fep]

Originally Posted by richard vandyne

fep i think i have given you some bum information. i have no webcam and there is no webcam software in my computer. your instructions wont help me without the webcam will it

Yes my instructions won't work without a webcam and software.. I thought all laptops these days came with a webcam.

Just indulge me, above your screen and centered is there a little lens (about the size of a small pea) and in small font next to it does it say HP Webcam in real small font?

[ten left thumbs]

HSS - That's great work! You've got the idea, both for the quavers (8ths) and the chords. For the quavers, are you aware your tendency to race the metronome? In ex 3, there were a couple times you swallowed whole beats. It might help to have the metronome louder as you play, tap your foot or something. It'll likely just get better over time and you relax more.

[richard vandyne]

fep - well i,ll be i never noticed the before- yea there is a little dot w/ webcam above the screen-what do i do with it????? i looked at the devices in my computer and they do not show a web cam there-just printers,fax,etc

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by ten left thumbs

HSS - That's great work! You've got the idea, ... For the quavers, are you aware your tendency to race the metronome? In ex 3, there were a couple times you swallowed whole beats. It might help to have the metronome louder as you play, tap your foot or something. It'll likely just get better over time and you relax more.

Hey TLT - Thank you so much for the specific and extremely important information about racing the metronome. Even as I play, I am often aware in a general way of not being tightly locked in with the metronome. I went back and listened to EX3 twice and did indeed hear me racing. (I could not discern swallowing any entire beats, although at the end I simply muffed some entire beats and resumed - in tempo I think - if that is what you mean.)

I've been cutting myself some slack at this stage of my development, telling myself that timing will improve with better hand coordination. But coordination issues would account for random errors in timing - not for racing. So while I understand your point about relaxing, I now think the problems will only go away if I slow down and make it a priority to establish a tight, solid groove. No better time to avoid a bad habit than at the start.

Thanks again.




HighSpeed

[fep]

Hey HSS,

That's one benefit of doing all this recording we're doing, it's going to improve our sense of time.

[richard vandyne]

fep- i have gotten down to where i see your image but i cant seem to find a way to get my image on there. also there is a reference to a thumbnail and i dont see anyway to find a "thumbnail" also i got refered to imageshack and have signed up there but they have no image and tell me to find that thumbnail???????????

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Originally Posted by fep

Hey HSS,

That's one benefit of doing all this recording we're doing, it's going to improve our sense of time.

A very good point fep. -- You guys have made a believer out of me.



HighSpeed

[fep]

Originally Posted by richard vandyne

fep - well i,ll be i never noticed the before- yea there is a little dot w/ webcam above the screen-what do i do with it????? i looked at the devices in my computer and they do not show a web cam there-just printers,fax,etc

Richard the thumbnail is those little pictures below the bigger image on the 2nd image I posted at post #107.

I don't think this is going to work with us trying to do it via messages back and forth on the forum. We'll spend hours (I maybe already have) on something that someone could go to your house and spend 15 minutes showing you.

[richard vandyne]

fep you are right -this isn,t the way to get this done. i do appreciate the effort and mucho thanks.

[ten left thumbs]

Originally Posted by HighSpeedSpoon

Hey TLT - Thank you so much for the specific and extremely important information about racing the metronome. Even as I play, I am often aware in a general way of not being tightly locked in with the metronome. I went back and listened to EX3 twice and did indeed hear me racing. (I could not discern swallowing any entire beats, although at the end I simply muffed some entire beats and resumed - in tempo I think - if that is what you mean.)

I've been cutting myself some slack at this stage of my development, telling myself that timing will improve with better hand coordination. But coordination issues would account for random errors in timing - not for racing. So while I understand your point about relaxing, I now think the problems will only go away if I slow down and make it a priority to establish a tight, solid groove. No better time to avoid a bad habit than at the start.

Thanks again.




HighSpeed

HSS, you're welcome. What I mean is this. You're a little ahead, then a teensy bit more ahead. For a second your beat is midway between metronome beats. You speed up just a fraction and before you know it, you are back in synch - but now a full beat ahead of your band. (We've all done it, don't worry! )

So, first off, that page long thing is awful long. You could work on shorter sections, like two lines. This is what I did with my son - he has to play scales to a metronome beat for an exam:

We sat with the beat, said "one and two and three and four and one and two", etc, till he had it bang on. Didn't move on till he had it. Then, on one string, one note, down up down up down up down up, till he had it bang on. We were a couple of days on that before I let him loose on a scale.

Also, I have an old-fashioned ticking one which has a more commanding tick.

I mean it when i say don't worry. You are doing just fine. It will all come good.

[girevikdavid]

Hi,

I'm a new player (having tried guitar a couple of times in the past and given up in frustration - and yes, MM was principal in my frustration).

I'm following the forum faithfully and am up to Here we Go Again with all of the previous material progressing from sufficiently slow to defy the title music to very slow or in a few cases actually just slow .

I can't thank everyone enough for all the help and inspiration I'm getting from this group.

David

[girevikdavid]

apologies to everyone's musical sensibilities, but we all have to start somewhere. One of the benefits of this for me is that I have pretty serious stage fright and recording for the group will help. Open to and welcome feedback.

Leavitt Review p 13 - YouTube

My critique:
loosen up/relax
timing loose
dynamics all over the place
And the fingernail on the chalk board of F at the beginning of line 6

On the other hand - I did it.

Cheers,

David