A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 1 Pages 8 to 11

[Langs]

Exercise 8 first I got the fingering of the chord changes wrong. I With the F chord I changed my fingering with every group of 3 strings that needed to be strummed. Same thing with the C chord at the beginning of the exercise.
That was pretty challenging until I realised I dind't need to do all that with my left hand!

So after I realised my left hand needs to plant a classic open C and F chord and it's all about my right hand strumming the right strings, I'm sort of re-learning the exercise now so that's why it's taking me a while..

[Kojo27]

Dang near perfect, bro. Keep it up! Remember to review the other lessons, a page or so a day.

[Langs]

Dang near perfect, bro. Keep it up! Remember to review the other lessons, a page or so a day.

Thanks again. When I listen to it, it sounds like it's going to break every moment. The notes don't come out very confident. Is that because I'm listening to myself?

Good that you keep brining up the reviewing, I've been avoiding that thusfar

[smokinguit]

You should be listening to yourself. That is how you get better. You just need to get use to the exercise. It will come out more clearly with continued practice.

[Langs]

Picking "chords" inside, without playing unwanted strings, is where the rest stroke becomes crucial. Make sure you're doing it right

I actually found out yesterday what rest strokes are exactly. Funny because I thought rest strokes would be 'cheating'. What I did instead with practicing have my strum be pure control of motion without relying on anything external not even having my pick rest on the string below the last one played.

So in all honesty the rest stroke doesn't seem like a real challenge at the moment.

What IS a challenge though is getting the chord change clean and with one snap at the beginning of 'one, two three, four' with the thumb behind the neck. I'm feeling like I need to nail 100bpm this time before moving on. Tonight I'm having another 30mins reserved for MMG, so hopefully a decent take will come out of it.

[Kojo27]

I actually found out yesterday what rest strokes are exactly. Funny because I thought rest strokes would be 'cheating'. What I did instead with practicing have my strum be pure control of motion without relying on anything external not even having my pick rest on the string below the last one played.

So in all honesty the rest stroke doesn't seem like a real challenge at the moment.

What IS a challenge though is getting the chord change clean and with one snap at the beginning of 'one, two three, four' with the thumb behind the neck. I'm feeling like I need to nail 100bpm this time before moving on. Tonight I'm having another 30mins reserved for MMG, so hopefully a decent take will come out of it.

Sounds as though you're one of the lucky ones whose rest stroke comes naturally. This is not unheard of - I know a couple of guys who "rest" naturally after every downstroke.

I don't understand what you mean by "getting the chord change clean with one snap....at the beginning...

Are you talking about left-hand technique now? Or still with right hand? If you're talking about the quick right-hand "strum-rest" that happens right at a quick chord change, I'd say the only medicine for that is slow practice. Practice one change slowly, over and over, slowing down to a snail's pace if you have to, to get it clean. There's a couple of YouTube videos about making clean chord changes... I don't have the URLs, but they're easy to find. Jody Fisher teaches one of them.

If I'm misunderstanding, you might post a video showing what you're talking about -- if this technique is a considerable problem for you, I mean.

"Nailing it at 100 bpm before going on..." Yes, we need those types of goals at times, but recall Leavitt's rule: don't hold yourself to mastery of each thing before plowing forth. You "nail" the stuff during review, days and weeks and months down the road. However, use whatever criteria you like for signalling time to move on to a new thing. I wouldn't make "mastery" one of them, however! : )

kj

[Langs]

Sounds as though you're one of the lucky ones whose rest stroke comes naturally.
kj

Oh but that is not what I was trying to say. What I was trying to get at is this: I started practicing my right to strum inner groups of 3 strings while just having my right hand floating, period. So no pivoting, resting anything. Having done that for a while, the rest stroke didn't feel like a nuissance to add to my right hand. But I'm pretty sure my rest stroke as in technique is quite poor.

Practice one change slowly, over and over, slowing down to a snail's pace if you have to, to get it clean
kj

Never heard anyone say that

Anyway, The snap thing: I mean my left hand. Yesterday the entire 30 min went into practicing that again. Watching a lot of pebberbrown video's on youtube will to that to somebody.

Mastering the excersise as a goal: I tried setting a time constraint on each lesson as a goal instead of mastering at a certain speed. I guess that would work if I wasn't recording. So the problem is I just can't get myself to upload a recording with nasty stuff sticking out like a sore thumb. To my own ears of course. For a lot of people, I will have done nothing but that

[Kojo27]

The rythm accompaniment:

This recording is loud + I'm using too thick of a pick for pure strumming. Above all my strumming is way too harsh as a technique as well. The difficulty here seems to be graceful strumming while keeping in time + muting not too abrupt and in time as well

Hey Langs -- the strums aren't too loud, imo. One thing to work on (and it takes some work) is using a heavy pick to strum softly, to strum medium, loud, and all points in between. Almost without exception, jazz and swing guys use big heavy picks, because, for one thing, more control can be had from a stiff pick that from one that bends. When a pick bends, that's motion you can't control.

Same for playing the fast lead lines. The trick is developing your wrist, or arm, so you can play at any dynamic level - loud, soft, whatever. Practice strumming with the pick held so loose that you might actually drop it sometimes. See how soft the sound is? You'll find that playing louder is really just a matter of gripping the pick tighter. The variation in dynamics is less predictable with a thinner pick, because you aren't in control of the pick's bending. A heavy pick doesn't bend, so you get total control of what goes on. : )

Your time is very good. Just hang in with Leavitt and you'll be fine. Mess around with some jazz tunes, too - comp through them as slowly as you have to and always use a metronome.

[Langs]

I've been playing heavy pick exclusively for so long that I though I could afford playing a pick that flexes for strumming. But I can't and you're absolutely right: it's purely an indication of technique that needs work, nothing else.

As for metronome: The quicktime recordings that are otherwise awesome in easy of use, they don't include the click that I'm recording to (click comes out of my amp model software). For the record; I never ever practice without a metronome (what tels you I don't?).

[thetruewheel]

Hey all, I just started going through this book last week and decided I had been start posting recordings! This is an 80 BPM recording of both parts of One Two Three Four duet. Self-critique: with the chords, I was trying to concentrate on a quick, clear stroke and not having space between notes. Sometimes I forget about the rest stroke and have to focus on it. For the melody part, I was just trying to be as consistent as possible.

edited with a much better recording... https://app.box.com/s/2f4kbsk84nemrp52srr6

[Kojo27]

Nice job! Good tone with the pick and good timing. The rest strokes will come with a bit of practice. You might want to jump ahead and start work on the solo in F - lots of practice there for rest strokes in chords (resting on the top note in the chord.)

I think only two people have posted this whole book; maybe you'll be the third? (I did 10% or so; still want to do the rest eventually.)

Good recording job, too - post more!

vj/kj

[Langs]

Hey truewheel,

Very even sounding, tone is great! Plus both guitars seem spot on timing-wise and sound remarkably well 'together' to my ears.

[Langs]

I'm feeling inclined to re-port my material here since I changed youtube acccounts and things got a little messed up. Anyway here's are the most reviews I recorded

Ex5:

Ex6:

Ex7:

Ex8:

Self critique; especially the last one (one, two, three, four) - EVERYTHING
But, like you, michael-m I just needed to remember that recording pretty versions is secondary. I needed something on tape and move on. The recording button truly messes with my brain really bad.

[Jazzstdnt]

Another one, for fun with recording equipment...

[georgebanketas]

I have been reviewing all material up to an including these exercises. The 3 note stacks in these exercises are getting easier for my eyes to recognize. I no longer have to really think about the notes in the stacks and then think about where they are on the fingerboard. My fingers go to them, at least in the first position. I am also trying to work on my rest stroke. I have been using hybrid picking when playing the 3 note stacks. Not sure if I am using the correct term in calling them 3 note stacks. I guess I should call them triads and triad inversions. I like how Leavitt introduces us to triad inversions without calling them inversions. I don't know much about inversions but what I basically understand about them is the notes played are the same just the notes change order. C-E-G, E-G-C, G-C-E, etc... Obviously there is more to it than that but like I said earlier this is my basic understanding of them.

Exercise #7 - 100 bpm

Exercise #8 - 100 bpm

[georgebanketas]

Still need a ton more work with the metronome. I am rushing some parts and in others I am behind the beat. Obviously when played separately it is hard to tell. Once I put the two tracks together then my timing issues are magnified. I am tapping my foot along with the click. I am trying to have the down stroke for the quarter notes in sync with my foot which should be in sync with the metronome. I hear and feel that it is but apparently I am wrong. Lol.

One, Two, Three, Four Guitar #1 - @ 100bpm

One, Two, Three, Four Guitar #2 - @ 100bpm

One, Two, Three, Four (Duet) - @ 100bpm

[Jazzstdnt]

I have been reviewing all material up to an including these exercises. The 3 note stacks in these exercises are getting easier for my eyes to recognize. I no longer have to really think about the notes in the stacks and then think about where they are on the fingerboard. My fingers go to them, at least in the first position. I am also trying to work on my rest stroke. I have been using hybrid picking when playing the 3 note stacks. Not sure if I am using the correct term in calling them 3 note stacks. I guess I should call them triads and triad inversions. I like how Leavitt introduces us to triad inversions without calling them inversions. I don't know much about inversions but what I basically understand about them is the notes played are the same just the notes change order. C-E-G, E-G-C, G-C-E, etc... Obviously there is more to it than that but like I said earlier this is my basic understanding of them.

Exercise #7 - 100 bpm

Exercise #8 - 100 bpm

Sounds good George.

And yes, inversions might be voiced exactly like that but can be voiced differently too (open voicing, doubling of some voices, etc.) It refers to the note in the bass not being the root of the chord.