Spoke to my folks yesterday, and upon hearing my grand schemes for music, they adamantly tried to convince me that I'm wasting my time and that I don't have my talent. I see where they're coming from, as my return on investment in music has not panned out in terms of playing results. Yet one of the reasons that this has happened is that I've often become discouraged and given up on the practice routine that I was on. The conversation with them really ruffled me up.
Fundamentally, this blog is based on the idea that with enough effort and the right methods, anyone, including me can learn to be an exceptional guitar player. I must remember this and not give up.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Interval Review:
Reviewed yesterday’s intervals (40 cards)
Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75.
Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Fretboard Review:
76 correct, 4 incorrect (95%) @ in 2 minutes.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 91 bpm.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 88 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 110 bpm rest & free.
l, m @97 bpm rest & free (slower than the 97 bpm I've been playing)
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 80 with i, m.
@ 75 bpm l, m rest stroke
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 75 bpm l, m
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 G & H @ 75 bpm i, m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Realized that there’s still something off. Decreased tempo to 70 and practiced slowly.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 71 bpm, making sure that I’m only hitting the notes I need in the bar chord in the first measure. This is especially hard to do when switching from the Bb major chord back to the F chord.
Pica-Pica
Played with metronome on silent at 90 bpm, but it was hard to concentrate for some reason. Definitely didn’t get into the groove of the tune.
Estrellita
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 60 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C. Did well, but the speed is killing me. It’s so slow, I feel the spirit of the tune is gone. I was really tempted to play at full speed, and I did. It went fine, but I had to look at the fretboard at times (for the double-stop parts, the wrist position is a bit different, and I’m not so used to them; also for the artificial harmonics, the left hand fingers are supposed to be right over the frets, as opposed to a little to the left when playing normally). I reminded myself that I should get this part down perfectly at a slow tempo before playing at concert speed.
Triad Study:
Added G# minor in 1st inversion.
Reviewed yesterday’s intervals (40 cards)
Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75.
Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Fretboard Review:
76 correct, 4 incorrect (95%) @ in 2 minutes.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 91 bpm.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 88 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 110 bpm rest & free.
l, m @97 bpm rest & free (slower than the 97 bpm I've been playing)
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 80 with i, m.
@ 75 bpm l, m rest stroke
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 75 bpm l, m
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 G & H @ 75 bpm i, m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Realized that there’s still something off. Decreased tempo to 70 and practiced slowly.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 71 bpm, making sure that I’m only hitting the notes I need in the bar chord in the first measure. This is especially hard to do when switching from the Bb major chord back to the F chord.
Pica-Pica
Played with metronome on silent at 90 bpm, but it was hard to concentrate for some reason. Definitely didn’t get into the groove of the tune.
Estrellita
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 60 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C. Did well, but the speed is killing me. It’s so slow, I feel the spirit of the tune is gone. I was really tempted to play at full speed, and I did. It went fine, but I had to look at the fretboard at times (for the double-stop parts, the wrist position is a bit different, and I’m not so used to them; also for the artificial harmonics, the left hand fingers are supposed to be right over the frets, as opposed to a little to the left when playing normally). I reminded myself that I should get this part down perfectly at a slow tempo before playing at concert speed.
Triad Study:
Added G# minor in 1st inversion.
Only picked up the guitar to review intervals today, and it was really late, so didn’t actually play. Yet I felt very rejuvenated from not having to go through the typical practice routine (yesterday’s was a typical example).
I stumbled upon this great article by Joshua Foer about memory techniques written from a participatory journalism viewpoint. I’ve encountered many of the principles behind effective memory techniques discussed before, but one thing that I found powerful and inspiring was the discussion of the plateau. As an example from the article, most people maintain the same typing speed after learning initially, even though they theoretically could be perpetually improving.
It’s often believed that there’s a limit to what one can do, but according to some fancy scientists referenced in this article, the only thing holding us back are beliefs of our limit at that particular point.
The strategies that top achievers employ to get to the top are:
- focus on technique
- stay goal-oriented
- get immediate feedback after performance
The timing of me reading this article couldn’t have been better, because I’ve been thinking these past couple of days that maybe I simply can’t play certain pieces at the speed they were intended to be played (and other such . This has brought back the confidence to keep pushing myself.
I hadn’t talked about my quest to improve relative pitch. Relative pitch is useful for transcribing tunes, as well as for playing with other folks (ultimate fun!). So I downloaded a pre-made Anki deck with a couple of chord progressions, and started to add my own as well. Some progressions that have been kicking my ass are
i-IVMaj7-iv
I-IV Can you believe this?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Interval Review:
Reviewed yesterday's intervals (40 cards)
Sight Reading:
Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Fretboard Review:
76 correct, 4 incorrect (95%) @ in 2 minutes.
To be honest, I don't know whether I should just move on or keep at the same number of frets in order to improve my score.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 91 bpm. Filed nails, so rest stroke was harder. Hmm, maybe I should file the nails less often.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 88 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 109 bpm rest & free.
l, m @94 bpm rest & free (slower than the 97 bpm I've been playing)
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 80 with i, m.
@ 75 bpm l, m rest stroke
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 75 bpm l, m
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 G & H @ 75 bpm with i, m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Realized that there's still something off. Decreased tempo to 70 and practiced slowly.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 71 bpm, making sure that I'm only hitting the notes I need in the bar chord in the first measure. This is especially hard to do when switching from the Bb major chord back to the F chord.
Pica-Pica
Played with metronome on silent at 90 bpm, but it was hard to concentrate for some reason. Definitely didn't get into the groove of the tune.
Estrellita
Wow, my facial expressions suggest I'm really struggling with this piece. I wonder if it detracts from the listening experience.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 60 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C. Did well, but the speed is killing me. It's so slow, I feel the spirit of the tune is gone. I was really tempted to play at full speed, and I did. It went fine, but I had to look at the fretboard at times (for the double-stop parts, the wrist position is a bit different, and I'm not so used to them; also for the artificial harmonics, the left hand fingers are supposed to be right over the frets, as opposed to a little to the left when playing normally). I reminded myself that I should get this part down perfectly at a slow tempo before playing at concert speed.
Triad Study:
In order to sight-read properly, I must be able to sight-read chords. In order to do that, I need to be familiar with whether a given triad is in the root, 1st or 2nd inversion. Then, based on that information, which the brain should theoretically process in a tens or hundreds of milliseconds, I should play the correct triad based on my knowledge of the shapes of the root/1st inv/2nd inversion triads.
Reviewed yesterday's intervals (40 cards)
Sight Reading:
So one important aspect of sigh-reading is getting the correct rhythm down. i found a program that generates rhythms based on the time signature and the level of difficult that you choose.
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75.Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Fretboard Review:
76 correct, 4 incorrect (95%) @ in 2 minutes.
To be honest, I don't know whether I should just move on or keep at the same number of frets in order to improve my score.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 91 bpm. Filed nails, so rest stroke was harder. Hmm, maybe I should file the nails less often.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 88 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 109 bpm rest & free.
l, m @94 bpm rest & free (slower than the 97 bpm I've been playing)
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 80 with i, m.
@ 75 bpm l, m rest stroke
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 75 bpm l, m
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 G & H @ 75 bpm with i, m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Realized that there's still something off. Decreased tempo to 70 and practiced slowly.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 71 bpm, making sure that I'm only hitting the notes I need in the bar chord in the first measure. This is especially hard to do when switching from the Bb major chord back to the F chord.
Pica-Pica
Played with metronome on silent at 90 bpm, but it was hard to concentrate for some reason. Definitely didn't get into the groove of the tune.
Estrellita
Wow, my facial expressions suggest I'm really struggling with this piece. I wonder if it detracts from the listening experience.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 60 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C. Did well, but the speed is killing me. It's so slow, I feel the spirit of the tune is gone. I was really tempted to play at full speed, and I did. It went fine, but I had to look at the fretboard at times (for the double-stop parts, the wrist position is a bit different, and I'm not so used to them; also for the artificial harmonics, the left hand fingers are supposed to be right over the frets, as opposed to a little to the left when playing normally). I reminded myself that I should get this part down perfectly at a slow tempo before playing at concert speed.
Triad Study:
In order to sight-read properly, I must be able to sight-read chords. In order to do that, I need to be familiar with whether a given triad is in the root, 1st or 2nd inversion. Then, based on that information, which the brain should theoretically process in a tens or hundreds of milliseconds, I should play the correct triad based on my knowledge of the shapes of the root/1st inv/2nd inversion triads.
Currently, I am at the first step of this process. I'm teaching myself to recognize the triads. Created triad deck in Anki in E Major in which I so far have E major, F# minor and G# minor in the first inversion. I will keep adding to this deck on a regular basis.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Interval Review:
Wow, the intervals are really kicking my ass. It probably took me around 30 minutes to go through all the reviews, and I got many of them wrong. Definitely need to keep pounding away at them. For sure, I need to review them again today to solidify my memory.
Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75. I noticed that I tend to mess up in the places where there are long pauses. For some reason, I remembered the importance that many musicians place on the silence between the notes as defining the music (good example - Miles Davis).
Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Started sight-reading book Reading Studies for Guitar, by William Leavitt, from scratch. Pg. 6-7 @ 65 bpm.
Also, sight-read a piece from Delcamp Vol. 2 page 59. It was atrocious.
Fretboard Review:
Reviewed up to 6 frets. Decided to track progress:
76 correct, 6 incorrect (92%) @ in 2 minutes.
Really felt the pressure mount.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 88 bpm. Filed nails, so rest stroke was harder. Hmm, maybe I should file the nails less often.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 85 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 109 bpm rest & free.
l, m @97 bpm rest & free
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 78 with i, m. L, m rest stroke was not good - nails too short. This is surprising, because I didn't think that I had filed them excessively. Measured. The white part is 1 mm.
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 80 bpm l, m - free fine, but rest once again difficult because of the nails
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 @80 bpm with l, m
@109 with i, m
Rest and free
G & H @ 75 bpm i,m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Right arm started to hurt after playing for 5 minutes or so. Too much tension?
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 90 bpm. Also listened to recording to define my own meaning for the piece. Reminisced about a special time with a certain girl (not that kind of time).
Also, a bit of arranging in my head. During the intro, the singer should sing fifths in "oohs" or "aahs".
Like this:
Pica-Pica
As per Klickstein's suggestion in a blog post, I put the metronome on the downbeat only muffled it a bit so it wouldn't be so loud, and recorded myself playing. My metronome goes down only to 40, so I was essentially playing at 120 (really fast for me, but doable).
Part A was pretty good. Part B, not so well.
Also, dynamics in many parts were not right. I should record in the same way again tomorrow and analyze.
Estrellita
About halfway through part A, I realized that my mind was drifting off thinking about errands. So, while playing, I referred to the essence of the piece, which is love. I decided to think about my dear friend, Yachi, who I love. Even though this piece, should in my mind be romantic, I thought of Yachi thinking about and dreaming of love.
Though there were a couple of glitches in the playing, I was very happy with the piece because I wasn't worrying about the technical aspects. Rather I was making music.
This may big implications for how I perform music. Maybe I need some concrete event in my life to be the theme of the piece I'm playing in order to convey its essence for me.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 58 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C.
Triad Study:
Created triad deck in Anki and put in E major and F#minor triads in 1st inversion. Quite challenging.
Wow, the intervals are really kicking my ass. It probably took me around 30 minutes to go through all the reviews, and I got many of them wrong. Definitely need to keep pounding away at them. For sure, I need to review them again today to solidify my memory.
Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75. I noticed that I tend to mess up in the places where there are long pauses. For some reason, I remembered the importance that many musicians place on the silence between the notes as defining the music (good example - Miles Davis).
Also, 3/4, level @ 75
Started sight-reading book Reading Studies for Guitar, by William Leavitt, from scratch. Pg. 6-7 @ 65 bpm.
Also, sight-read a piece from Delcamp Vol. 2 page 59. It was atrocious.
Fretboard Review:
Reviewed up to 6 frets. Decided to track progress:
76 correct, 6 incorrect (92%) @ in 2 minutes.
Really felt the pressure mount.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 88 bpm. Filed nails, so rest stroke was harder. Hmm, maybe I should file the nails less often.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 85 bpm
Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 109 bpm rest & free.
l, m @97 bpm rest & free
i, l @ 88 bpm
Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.
l, m @ 83 bpm
Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 78 with i, m. L, m rest stroke was not good - nails too short. This is surprising, because I didn't think that I had filed them excessively. Measured. The white part is 1 mm.
Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 80 bpm l, m - free fine, but rest once again difficult because of the nails
Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.
Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 @80 bpm with l, m
@109 with i, m
Rest and free
G & H @ 75 bpm i,m
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Right arm started to hurt after playing for 5 minutes or so. Too much tension?
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 90 bpm. Also listened to recording to define my own meaning for the piece. Reminisced about a special time with a certain girl (not that kind of time).
Also, a bit of arranging in my head. During the intro, the singer should sing fifths in "oohs" or "aahs".
Like this:
Pica-Pica
As per Klickstein's suggestion in a blog post, I put the metronome on the downbeat only muffled it a bit so it wouldn't be so loud, and recorded myself playing. My metronome goes down only to 40, so I was essentially playing at 120 (really fast for me, but doable).
Part A was pretty good. Part B, not so well.
Also, dynamics in many parts were not right. I should record in the same way again tomorrow and analyze.
Estrellita
About halfway through part A, I realized that my mind was drifting off thinking about errands. So, while playing, I referred to the essence of the piece, which is love. I decided to think about my dear friend, Yachi, who I love. Even though this piece, should in my mind be romantic, I thought of Yachi thinking about and dreaming of love.
Though there were a couple of glitches in the playing, I was very happy with the piece because I wasn't worrying about the technical aspects. Rather I was making music.
This may big implications for how I perform music. Maybe I need some concrete event in my life to be the theme of the piece I'm playing in order to convey its essence for me.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 58 bpm. Sounds solid.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C.
Triad Study:
Created triad deck in Anki and put in E major and F#minor triads in 1st inversion. Quite challenging.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Note Review:
I often forget how the low E and F note looks on the staff, so I found this program to help me out.
Interval Review:
A lot of reviews. Problems with Augmented 4th intervals on various strings. Didn't additional cards.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 84. Still quite challenging.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 80 bpm, but the modified barre position isn't ingrained yet, so I just practiced the chord switches making sure to hit only the notes I need on the barre. Seems like a small thing, but this is what mastery is about.
Estrellita
Deliberately made a mistake on the position jump in measures 9-10, and then played it correctly. You'd think there'd be no difference in deliberate mistakes and accidental mistakes. But there is! It acquires such a jazzy feel when it's deliberate. The Bad Plus, in their version of Smells Like Teen Spirit, use this technique to great effect.
Come to think of it, these deliberate mistakes are a sign of mastery, because they show the player's lack of fear in terms of manipulating the instrument.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 54. Sounds good.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Reviewed part A @ 64 bpm. Ready to increase tempo.
I often forget how the low E and F note looks on the staff, so I found this program to help me out.
Interval Review:
A lot of reviews. Problems with Augmented 4th intervals on various strings. Didn't additional cards.
Warm-up/Technique:
Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 84. Still quite challenging.
Repertoire:
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 80 bpm, but the modified barre position isn't ingrained yet, so I just practiced the chord switches making sure to hit only the notes I need on the barre. Seems like a small thing, but this is what mastery is about.
Estrellita
Deliberately made a mistake on the position jump in measures 9-10, and then played it correctly. You'd think there'd be no difference in deliberate mistakes and accidental mistakes. But there is! It acquires such a jazzy feel when it's deliberate. The Bad Plus, in their version of Smells Like Teen Spirit, use this technique to great effect.
Come to think of it, these deliberate mistakes are a sign of mastery, because they show the player's lack of fear in terms of manipulating the instrument.
Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 54. Sounds good.
Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Reviewed part A @ 64 bpm. Ready to increase tempo.
Checking out Gerald Klickstein's The Musician's Way blog, I stumbled upon an article about rhythmic precision. He talks about the common misuse of the metronome which makes playing music dull. His advice:
1. Vocalize and move with the rhythm
2. Toy with timing
3. Vary emphasis
4. Focus on the downbeat
For this last one, he suggests putting a metronome in the background on the downbeat only while you play a piece. Record your playing and then judge your rhythmic accuracy. I'll try this tomorrow.
Additionally, leafing through The Musician's Way, I realized that I neeed to perform some memory maintenance strategies (p. 91) for my pieces - so that I image ahead while playing (otherwise I will start to rely on muscle memory).
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