A Modern Method For Guitar Volume 1 Pages 63 to 66

[ten left thumbs]

Both are very good questions!

I don't know what happened to page 60-62. They were definitely there, I remember posting on them.

The toughest stretch on these pages is the F. As a woman of small proportions, I stretch and move the hand. It's all very well for Leavitt to tell be to stretch. I get injured, I don't get to complain to him.

Stretching is important, you just gotta be sensible about it. Warm up first.

[Kojo27]

Tommo -- do you have the DVD version of Leavitt Volume One? On the DVD, Larry Baione (instructor) shows how the left-hand fingering should work, ideally.

If you don't have it, maybe someone (ahem) could post a video of the left hand, traversing one of these scales. Just to let you see how the fingers stay DOWN on the fingerboard, or very close, even when not in use. It's crucial, imo, not to learn bad left-hand habits when first acquiring the technique of playing speedily and smoothly and cleanly through these fingerings. They aren't easy, but they aren't THAT hard - otherwise I couldn't do them. A couple of weeks of practice should see you going smoothly through these things.

Also, you don't have to begin with the key of C, as that puts the F and G# stretches at their toughest. Move up the neck to key of E, say, and play the same fingering there, if it helps. Gradually move back down toward the nut, as your fingers become limber.

TLT is right - if playing these properly is physically/anatomically impossible, you'll have to work around it somehow. I'd suggest dropping the Leavitt fingerings altogether and using the CAGED system. If you aren't familiar with that, Brad Carlton has a multiple DVD course at truefire.com - worth their weight in gold.

[TOMMO]

Thanks for your informative replies, tlt and KoJo. I'm working on proper fingerings and I'm sure I'll ge them down in a while.

I haven't seen any of the DVD you mentioned although I'm aware of the necessity to keep your fretting fingers as close to the fretboard as possible - something I try to hammer into my students' brains.

Although I haven't seen any of the Brad Carlton videos either I'm aware of the CAGED system and I teach it to help my studets to "mapout" the fretboard and see where scales and chords are related to each other but I'm not aware that it requires a different fingering....

[fep]

Hi Tommo,

I fixed it; pages 60 - 62 are now included on the index.

Cheers

[TOMMO]

Hi Tommo,

I fixed it; pages 60 - 62 are now included on the index.

Cheers

Cheers, Frank!

[Langs]

I don't know what happened, but I'm quite positive that I already posted my recordings for this lesson a while ago. Can't find it anywhere.

p. 63 Etude no. 5


Can't wait till I get back to this piece while reviewing. Way out of sync....

Reading studies:


p. 68 - the Ballad


Made quite a bit of progress playing in sync here. But is also because I'm forcing myself to count the beats out loud while playing. Works really well when guitars are recorded with software amplifiers

[michael-m]

Etude 5: O.K. there might be some timing issues, but it wouldn't take much to iron these out (he says hopefully, knowing how difficult it actually is!).

I didn't listen to the reading studies - I'm saving myself for them...

Enjoyed the Ballad. I'm looking forward to doing this myself :-)

[Langs]

Etude 5: O.K. there might be some timing issues, but it wouldn't take much to iron these out (he says hopefully, knowing how difficult it actually is!).

The re-reviews I feel are already helping for when I get back to this... So much stuff that is a little harder about this, is covered already in the beginning.