-
delete
Last edited by joe2758; 05-28-2024 at 02:54 PM.
-
06-02-2023 06:18 PM
-
What are the first 3 strings? E A D or G B e?
-
Application of constraints can provide an effective way of blowing the dust off of one's settled ways, encouraging the discovery of new and different methods, techniques, or ways of thinking. Typically one limits the number of constraints to one or two and applies them for a relatively temporary period; however, you have listed ten constraints by which you intend to abide, and are planning to do so for a year.
Have you considered:
- after one year of fingering only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings, you might find returning to fingering the whole width of the finger board that you have lost some of that previous ability, both physically and mentally?
- four of your constraints are to deliberately not learn or remember things; what if you succeed and that becomes a strong habit after the year is over?
- with a plan of no multiple keys, no lower three strings, no technique exercises, no learning of arraignments, licks, tunes, no playing for people or with backing music, no practice unless felt, and no remembering anything, this plan does not seem to be oriented toward improvement of playing the guitar. It does have some other musically interesting possibilities; have you considered applying this to the piano and not to the guitar?
-
1 word: wtf.
Why do you want to not do all those important practice topics? I can understand things like focusing on 3 strings to improve that area but not much of the other things. My view is you want to improve skills by working on them consistently to improve creativity or music ability, not ignore them. Give us more of your reasoning.
-
Good to see you're inspired to play Joe.
Alan
-
I've done stranger things, and for longer periods of time. But then I wasn't smart enough to tell people on the forum about it, so that they may have talked me out of it!
-
You could do worse with your time like watch hours of Jens Larsen YouTube videos or only learning 8 bars of a bunch of tunes and never going back to them…
-
Me: you're fucking nuts.
Also me: cool!
-
Jens Larsen got me back into playing jazz guitar, and his lessons are bite sized enough to break you out of a rut or start off a practice session without feeling overwhelmed going into it. I like him. And Tim Lerch.
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
-
Welcome back Joe.
What difficulty are you trying to hone in on with these limitations? Is there a specific pedagogical goal?
Are you transposing tunes to the key of A? What about tunes that change keys? What about the chords that are harmonic expansions to the key, like secondary dominants? Or are you not playing tunes at all?
-
I like him too, but 3 years ago I guess I thought if I watched enough of his videos I’d get better. Turns out I need to pick up the guitar to get better. Originally Posted by Blackguard53
-
If you don't like guitar and are ready to quit without remorse then switch to keys lol.
-
Mick Goodrick advocates practising on one string (the ‘unitar’ approach), so 3 strings are plenty!
Coincidentally, I dug out my copy of Randy Vincent’s ‘3 note voicings’ book this week and messed around with it. I’d been listening to some Ed Bickert comping and I thought 3-note harmony would be good to work on (easier to move around etc.).
-
He's only talking about doing it for a year. I've been forced into abstinence a few times for much longer periods. Getting it back is easy, and I came back with a new attitude each time.
I think it's interesting. Limitations can be good. Witness: Blues. Also, the bowed orchestral instruments. They enjoy only 4 strings and no more than 2 notes at a time, for the most part.
Fortunately I have several of long-standing limitations to keep me amused already :-)
-
As long as your studies and project comes from a place of thought out intention and motivation, I think you definitely unearth something extraordinary by not taking the guitar for granted. It's not a restriction but a way to focus. I get that. Hats off to you!
I sometimes wonder if Django would have achieved what he did if he didn't have such impossible restrictions...or what he would have become if after a period he regained the faculties we take for granted.
I met Tiny Grimes once. After being amazed after finding out his guitar only had 4 strings, I wondered what he could have done with 6, so I asked him if he'd ever considered a 6 string guitar. He told me "I have my hands full with 4. I get everything I can think of out these. I don't need anything else." so he found a limitless universe in his restrictions, which he didn't think of as a restriction at all.
I wouldn't have the patience to impose such limitations but no matter what I'm working with, I find something new every day. There's not enough time in a lifetime to do justice to those things I do have and find.
Best of luck to you. I hope you share your findings and insights.
-
I'm self taught. In the beginning my interest was "lead guitar". Originally Posted by joe2758
The usual way guitarists get started is to play cowboy chords and sing songs through the initiation period of sore finger tips for the first two months. Some go on to learn more chords, some go on to learn soloing with notes.
My approach was like starting the piano, playing single notes first. I taught myself lead solos for two years before playing any chords. When I did turn to playing chords I found they were easy to construct since they were made up of notes, something with which I had become familiar. To this day almost all the chords I play are self constructed.
Chords are made of notes, but notes are not made of chords; learning notes first seems obvious, but that may be quite rare in the guitar world. Anyway, I think maybe I'm starting to understand some of your unusual crusade.
-
Dunno. I can't see how not revisiting skills and knowledge for a year would be a good experiment.
As interesting as it may be, since it has been done over and over anyway by most people then.. nah.
But I guess you have an idea and a plan, well, hm. Why not
-
I like the idea that learning is non linear, it's organic and follows a cumulative flow of dynamic knowledge. Personally, I do give myself restrictions like this but for me, imposing a time frame, especially something like a year, might seem reactionary to a point of diminishing returns, but I'm not after the same thing as the OP.
With so many balls to juggle in becoming a balanced improvisor, it is indeed necessary to leave the path of conventional learning and develop your own skillset; to supplant a lick approach with something else, for example. But a year is a long time, and an arbitrary amount of time to hold one's self to an attitude of abstinence, when it's unknown how long it will take you to accomplish your goal.
That's one of the things I hated about music school: This idea that a semester can provide a specific amount of information in a specific amount of time.
I really admire Sonny Rollins. His playing had reached a point, and he was at the top of the scene where he and Coltrane recognized their place in determining where tenor sax would go next. Sonny couldn't find that with his peers on the bandstand and he took to playing his tenor every night on a bridge over the East River. He cleared his mind, but he left it open how long until he would cloister himself from the scene and how long until he would re-join the scene.
Coltrane took up a place in Monk's band and it changed him. But he didn't know how long it would take him or even where it would take him until he was ready to close that chapter.
When Mick Goodrick left Gary Burton's band (where he shared packed stages every night with Swallow, Pat Metheny and Bob Moses) he stopped playing jazz completely and spent close to a year only playing Bach lute suites on a classical guitar. But he had no idea when he began how long until something told him it was time to rejoin the world he felt was lacking.
It can be productive to give one's self goals. I think it's really important to recognize when those goals have been achieved to a point where they're part of a larger picture.
Something to think about:
-
Jimmy Blue Note,
That was the absolute best thing someone possibly could have said. Thank you.
-
Half way.
-
Sorry joe, did not see this post before. Originally Posted by joe2758
I tend to think of anything that’s not an obvious chord-tone or scale note as just a passing note of some kind. I guess I just incorporate them without thinking about it too much by now, also enclosures, approach notes, etc.
I agree that it makes a big difference once you start using these ideas freely. I guess I figured it out mainly by listening to the records, lifting ideas, etc. I know my playing got a lot more ‘chromatic’ after I worked through some of the Jimmy Raney solos in that Aebersold book he did. Also I got some good stuff from playing a few of the Pat Martino lines in the Linear Expressions book.Last edited by grahambop; 12-19-2023 at 06:01 AM.
-
Is anything improving? :P Originally Posted by joe2758
-
That's pretty Joe.
I look forward to hear what's next.
A
-
Thanks man. Any of the good stuff I learned from you, ill take the blame for the rest!
For those who don't know I am Alan's only student by way of blackmail and, probably, fraud.
-
Sounds like Debussy Originally Posted by joe2758
Reply With Quote
Can anyone date this? goodwill epiphone
Today, 05:40 PM in For Sale