The Best Of
Ney Mello
On
Practicing & The Principles
(from the GuitarPrinciples Forum)
More about Ney Mello, bio
Ney's
Advice #2...
Hear him play! 
"Drag Racing With The Gazzelles" From "Meditations"
"Improvisation" from "Meditations" (what you
hear is the opposite of
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"picking and slow practice" |
Jamie,
I got the book about a week ago, and I am already finding super slow practice
very beneficial to my left hand technique. I have a dilemma about picking
technique, though. I have been using essentially the picking technique you
describe, with the motion coming mostly from the elbow. When I move my forearm
up and down at higher speeds, (starting around 16th notes at 120), if I relax
my wrist, my hand bounces up and down in a way it does not at slower speeds. It
seems like a natural motion, and a result of relaxing. The problem is, the
result is that the same muscle movements create very different movements at
different speeds. So what I teach my right hand at slow speeds doesn't seem to
apply at fast ones. Is this an issue you (or anyone reading this) are aware
with or know how to deal with? I would like to get up to 16th notes at 250, so
this is a pretty important question to me.
Thanks,
Eric Vogler
Dear Eric,
To
get to play 16th notes @ 250 you need to combine your forearm movement (which actually
is key to moving your hand from string to string) with your wrist.
The wrist will move the pick up and down (although it is not a clear-cut up and
down, it is a compound motion that uses the flat up and down wrist motion
simultaneously with the "opening a round door knob" type motion of
the wrist. So once you are on the desired string you pick from the wrist only.
If you are sweeping playing one string at a time you will sweep with your
forearm with some secondary wrist action to accent particular notes. Picking is
a very subtle art to convey in words only. Use a mirror and watch your wrist
and arm movements to see what you are actually doing which is not really
apparent from your usual playing viewpoint.
Avoid
any hand or finger tension as well as forearm tension. The only pressure should
be form your thumb pressing the pick in place against your index finger or you
will be slowed down at very high speeds.
Follow
Jamie's advice in the book and practice your strokes in super slow motion which
will train your stabilizing muscles.
Use
the "following"tool to scan the entire pick
path very slowly from beginning to end of the stroke. It is much, much harder
than it seems if done correctly.
Finally
be very patient and don’t rush the process. Your brain has a set rate to
process this very complex data and it will not be rushed no matter how many
years of playing you have under your belt.
Remember
that this not memorizing simple data like you do in dayly
activities and in school. Don’t forget that you can get to your goal eventually
but it is very expensive in patience and attention otherwise everyone would be
an artist.
All
my best to you.
Ney
Mello
Dear Ney,
I
have a question about the following statement:
>
The wrist will move
>the pick up and down (although
>it is not a clearcut up
>and down, it is a compound
>motion that uses the flat
>up and down wrist motion simultaneously
>with the "opening a round door
>knob" type motion of the wrist.
I'm
not certain what you mean by "flat up and down wrist motion". If I
held my hand out in front of me so that the palm was towards the floor, and
turned it to the left and right (whilst keeping the palm flat towards the
floor), would I be making "flat up and down wrist motion" you described
above?
Thanks,
Hi James,
Yes,
that would be a "flat up and down stroke", now imagine that at the
same time that you move your hand to the left as you describe we add another
simultaneous motion:... that of moving your wrist (still holding the
pick...)counter clock wise as if you were watching a clock facing you.. .That
is what I describe as the "opening, or turning a circular doorknob".
In
other words... if you straighten your arm and lock the elbow and turn a door
knob facing you that is the motion you need to add (minus the locked elbow
which is used in this example only to clarify the pivot point in the middle of
your wrist on an axis parallel to the arm bones).
These
two movements result in a downstroke motion. If you
move your hand to the left and turn the wrist clockwise it will result in an
upstroke. These movements are very small when applied to the guitar... of
course.
Note
that for loud more powerful strokes you rest the pick on the adjacent string
and let that string to some extent stop the pick travel. Don’t rely on just the
string to stop you pick or you will have a heavy handed uncontrolled motion.
The string is just helping so you use your stabilizing muscles on the arm less
intensively and relax even more.
That
is a rest stroke. A free stroke is for medium to softer dynamics and does not
rest on the adjacent string. This crucial and very elusive fine point results
in a technical parallel to classical and flamenco right hand technique (they
use rest strokes) and is not fully understood by many players but check out
Frank Gambale, Tal Farlow Jack Wilkins Tuck Andress's,
playing to see it in action.
Right
hand motions are very small and rather complex... thus almost impossible to
really track and analyze visually from watching someone play even if they are right
in front of you..let alone at a concert or in a
video, every facet has to be described verbally and shown from various angles
at very close range.
I
hope this can help a bit.
All
my best
Ney
Mello
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"PRINCIPLES P.53" |
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This is a reminder that it is crucial to practice the
exercises on page 53& 54. The forearm comes into play as a very
conspicuous reinforcement to the wrist action at tempos over 175bpm/16th
notes. A
ragged glitched motion will tear up your tissue if
it is done very fast. A smooth flowing one wont So it is very key to allow the time for your brain to learn it very thoroughly with LOTS of no-tempo practice. You will be shocked by the resulting ease in movement.
NEY
MELLO |
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HELP ME WITH WHAT PRACTICE" |
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I have now 5 hours free for day to practice. I
read all essays and tips on site about this but I´m
have some trouble with it. Anyone
can help me. My
style is music around rock. I
know some theory about scales and chords and know how to play. Thanks
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1 . "GABRIEL" |
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Hi Gabriel, You
need to find out what you would be playing if you could already play...Is it songs?..pieces...would you be improvising?...composing? You
must then get a teacher to guide you. Be sure to evaluate your teacher
carefully. A great player is always great to learn attitude and inspirational
mindsets from .. but NOT ALWAYS TECHNIQUE. a GREAT PLAYER MAY OR MAY NOT be a
good communicator or patient enough for technical training but he might be
great for improvisation, conceptual thinking, or bringing out your
inspirational potential by just watching him in action closely, that is also
very crucial... at a later stage when you can benefit from it. Your
future teacher MUST ALWAYS BE ABLE TO PLAY He
must be able to play it in front of you , not just tell you he can and heve you blindly trust him. Otherwise how can he teach
what he cannot do and has never experienced himself. This is the key point
and is frequently overlooked and not even pondered by students and they
wonder why they do not make significant progress... So
the more advanced you aspirations (mastery, virtuoso playing, deep
improvisational ability etc..) the more difficult it will be to find someone
who can do all that AND teach it too. It is very rare indeed and that is why
you must study Jamie,s book closely because it
contains the facts a great teacher who has experienced and is currently living
what you want to become as an artist uses to get the results. So use it in
conjunction with a good teacher and go to Jamie for a consultation now and
then or to one of the teachers in this website list who use the principles.
this is quite common in other fiedls of study so
apply it to your guitar learning. Choosing
a great teacher is akin to choosing a Guru or trusted priest or spiritual guide ; you must be very careful and also look at his or
her students to see if there are some really good players among them(not all
students will be great because of varying degrees of devotion on their
part...but most will be good and happy with their development. Are they happy
and fulfilled with a particular teacher? That must be a positive answer for
you to consider him.) Read
Jamie's guidelines on this site on how to evaluate a teacher . They are very
well thought out and practical. |
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3 . "Help!" |
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Hello Gabriel, It
sounds like you have many obstacles in your path, but you also have one big
advantage, you have an internet connection. We can help you, but you have to
work with us. Ney wrote "You need to find out what you would be playing
if you could already play...Is it songs?..pieces...would
you be improvising?...composing?" You need to tell us the answer to this
question before we can help you. I can point you to a few resources right now that you can use without the book.
Practice
Organization - You need to plan what you are going to do. |
Hi james,
Thanks
for posting this link to this textbook. The author mentions Jimmy Bruno's
favored method of picking.
This
method is the one I have been using for 29 years, and teaching because I found
it to be the most flowing and easy one by far, right from the start. It allows
for very free and unencumbered very fast improvisation in jazz , metal , blues
or any other idiom. You dont have the extra tensions from
the awkard alternate picking moves the author
mentions.
Interestingly
enough JImmy and I have discussed doing some concerts
together in the near future. You can get Jimmy's videos from hot licks for a demonstration
of the method and some very recommended intructional material clearly stated and played.
I
recently taught the method to Professor James Crowson
of
This
is for all right hand questions I have read:
Jamie's
principles and his right forearm exercise for doing a downpick
and up pick are the key to right hand mastery because it stabilizes your
forearm motion, trains the muscles and prepares it to assist the wrist at very
high speeds, so you dont have to rest...(which turns to anchoring WHICH IS A RESTRICTIVE STATIC
MOVE THAT TENSES YOU UP up when the speed get very
fast)... your fingers on the pickguard and compromise
your flow and freedom of movement.
Only
someone with exceptionally large hands like Vai
or Holdworth can feel negligible movement restriction
while resting fingers and that is still only when playing electric which has
narrow string spacing.
This finger resting technique breaks down on nylon acoustic and when you have
to play fast and loud on acoustic steel string.
George
Benson is quoted as wishing he had learned this free floating technique when he
started in the book "perfect picking technique" by Ivor Mairantz. He estates that he
would be able to do much more than he can do currently with his method (which
is the subject of an intriguing and very scholarly essay by the great electric
fingerstyle master Tuck Andress) .
Jamie
goes much deeper Than Mairantz (who gives only a
cursory description with some very good photos to illustrate the motion)
actually describing how to really do it and what to feel as well as all the
steps that are essential to really "get it".
ALL
MY BEST TO YOU
NEY
MELLO
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"HELP ME WITH WHAT PRACTICE" |
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I have now 5 hours free for day to practice.
But actually I don’t know what to do. Thanks
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1 . "GABRIEL" |
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Hi Gabriel, You
need to find out what you would be playing if you could already play...Is it songs?..pieces...would you be improvising?...composing? You
must then get a teacher to guide you. Be sure to evaluate your teacher
carefully. A great player is always great to learn attitude and inspirational
mindsets from .. but NOT ALWAYS TECHNIQUE. a GREAT PLAYER MAY OR MAY NOT be a
good communicator or patient enough for technical training but he might be
great for improvisation, conceptual thinking, or bringing out your
inspirational potential by just watching him in action closely, that ia also very crucial... at a later stage when you can
benefit from it. Your
future teacher MUST ALWAYS BE ABLE TO PLAY
PERFECTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN FROM HIM. He
must be able to play it in front of you , not just tell you he can and heve you blindly trust him. Otherwise how can he teach
what he cannot do and has never experienced himself. This is the key point
and is frequently overlooked and not even pondered by students and they
wonder why they do not make significant progress... So the more advanced you aspirations (mastery, virtuoso playing, deep improvisational ability etc..) the more difficult it will be to find someone who can do all that AND teach it too.
It is very rare indeed and that is why
you must study Jamie,s book closely because it
contains the facts a great teacher who has experienced and is currently
living what you want to become as an artist uses to get the results. So use
it in conjunction with a good teacher and go to Jamie for a consultation now
and then or to one of the teachers in this website list who use the
principles. this is quite common in other fields of
study so apply it to your guitar learning. Choosing
a great teacher is akin to choosing a Guru or trusted priest or spiritual guide ; you must be very careful and also look at his or
her students to see if there are some really good players among them(not all
students will be great because of varying degrees of devotion on their
part...but most will be good and happy with their development. Are they happy
and fulfilled with a particular teacher? That must be a positive answer for
you to consider him.) Read
Jamie's guidelines on this site on how to evaluate a teacher . They are very
well thought out and practical |
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3 . "REGARDING: MORE RIGHT HAND
TECHNIQUE" |
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Right hand plectrum technique is generally very superficially understood
and a bit mysterious because it is not a simple science/art. It
took me close to 20 years to understand what I was actually doing and what
works as well as what does not work as well. The mystery is in the fact that
it is not one technique but several. These are used simultaneously or
separately in the middle of a phrase or lick sometimes, because musical
expression demands it and you have to use the right one for the right feeling
to come across or you get the wrong feel or vibe in the lick. This
will be a very superficial treatment of your questions due to the nature of
the topic. I
have been training a student of mine named Suki
Hirata for one month now and he went from about 175 bppm
to 263bpm (as of last Thursday) doing 16 notes, Why is that? and how safe is
it? I have another virtuoso student (a teen..) who did not heed to moderation
and has had to stop playing for a while because of ...tendonitis. Now what is
the difference between the two? One is older and wiser in his late 20"s
and knows his physical limitations and does not overpractice
(and still can do 263bpm 16notes...and is getting faster) the other is still
learning about moderation (he had left arm tendonitis before.. also..but it was not enough
to teach him..). My
concern is that my verbal advice in this forum can be very dangerous if not
correctly interpreted so I will refrain to cover this subject for the time
being because of the inherent limitations of this particular format. Since I dont have a video at this time to properly and SAFELY
teach these methods I will
have to wait. I
will say this..however the videos I have seen
clearly explain what the artists do ONLY IN The
tendonitis is just a result of improper muscle conditioning as well as a
jerky motion that gets tight bedcause it is not
properly learned and also tendon inflammation due to all that extra tension
at high speed. So I dont wish this on any one of
us. I am thus only teaching students and Pros to use these methods as well as
left hand strengthening techniques for high speed IN PERSON to guarantee that
they are safely used ..I must be there to supervise
it to prevent dangerous training habits, such as extended practice at high
speed without the proper preparation in form and conditioning. As
guitarists our stakes are not as high but... is a bit like Olympic level
power lifting: Wrong training and incorrect form puts you in a wheelchair for
life .. use proper training and the sky is the
limit. Finally
it is mandatory to realize that one has to think musically and feel music at
high speeds and realize what it means musically to play very fast, what is
being expressed? why play fast in the first place? .. When is appropriate and
WHY? what does it mean to you; what are you using it for... musical reasons?
which ones? Playing very fast is so demanding that too many students and more
than a few pros..forget for a while how to use the
speed and the metaphysical meaning of speed in music and its role and
function. When these are understood and assimilated you become VERY
comfortable playing 16th notes @ 250bpm and it does not seem like you are
really playing all that fast anymore. That
is why it looks easy... because it has become easy. All
my best, NEY
MELLO |
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5 . "OK,thanks but..." |
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My long-term goal right now is to learn to play blues based rock,
most solos in this style are in 16th notes at 120-150 bpm. |
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6 . "MARCIAL" |
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YOU HAVE TO USE all your muscles. IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING
AT THE TIME. You can even pick from the shoulder if the music dictates it but
off course this motion is not used all the time or even often. For example; Stevie Ray would pick with his arm awy
12 inches fron the guitar at times, because it is
the only way to get that feel for that lick, yet that is only part of his techniqhe and is used only for that specific type of
lick. You
have to take the guidance off a master player to observe what is done in each
case. The blues, metal, rock , all have a very rich
array of techniques that are all important. So it is not so much a question
of arm versus wrist or arm and wrist it is much more complex because
different licks in each idiom require different combinations of wrist and arm
or shoulder or arm only or wrist only. You need to be properly guided or do
the work of re-discovering the wheel all by yourself ,like I had to do since
I learned in the dark ages of pick pedagogy when there was no one doing it in
the first place before the masters started to emerge after the sixties with
the exception of Django Reinhardt and Johnny Smith
and Pat Martino. Then
came the plectrum revolution with John McLaughlin and Al Di
Meola and now it is at least known how you can play
with a pick in that manner, but you need the guidance of one who can do it
personally because the science and art of it is not transmissible by the
printed word and I do not want to unintentionally confuse and misguide with
advice that is bound to be incomplete in this forum. It
is a very complex subject to master (after you go through the process it is
as easy as walking...) that is why there are very few who can do it and fewer
who can teach what they do in it's entirety like it must be taught. This is
why Jamie recommends that you use the book in conjunction with a good
teacher. It will save you alot of time. All
my best to you, NEY
MELLO |
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"Walking 1-3" |
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While doing walking 1-3 no matter how slowly i go i alway feel some tension in the little finger. Sometimes
it takes 5 mins just for one string and still i'm not totally satisfied.It
gets worser for thicker strings as my ring finger
is very weak. Any tips on how to crack this one down. |
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1 . "PESKYPINKY" |
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Here is what I recommend: You
may have to restrict your practice to the first two strigs
until you feel strong enough to move to the other strings. You were not born
with a lot of natural pinky control (Iwas not
either believe it or not..) and so you have to do a very slow motion walk AND
keep your pinky stationary for a few seconds at the various parts of the
movement so that you train it to be motionless and relaxed between movement
parts. So start by slightly raising your pinky about 1/8inch orless off the fingerboard AND KEEP IT STEADY AND
MOTIONLESS then relax and do it again , then proceed to the next small part
of the movement you are trying to do and keep that part motionless for
awhile. This is an advanced application of Jamie'S posing as described in the
book . Be
very very patient. You just have more work to do
than many other students but you will be able to span this challenge
successfully if yo do this. Hang
in there! NEY
MELLO |
Note: The Play-2-3-Touch technique on p. 71, used with the String Push Down Technique , p. 60, is the answer here. It will enable ANYONE to develop that coveted “quiet pinky”. …Jamie
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"Pick Slips Away" |
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While holding the pick in the standard position as described
in the Principles,i tilt the pick slightly towards
the headstock while doing the right hand string shifting exercise,however
the tip of the pick has a tendancy to slip towards
the left, away from the direction of the index finger when pressure is
applied onto the strings,am i not holding the pick
firm enough or is there any way to solve this? |
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1 . "SHIFTING PICK" |
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KENNY, Shifting
picks is a very common occurrence and has to be solved in several ways. You
can constantly reposition it as you play or you can use sand and super glue
gel to coat the gripping surface or use half beads on the index finger side,
which I invented and which works wonderfully and can be glued on any pick of
any thickness. This is a bit precise as the half-beads have to be positioned
in a certain way. On the other side you use super glue gel and sand (a trick
from Al di Meola's
roadie...and also used by the great sarod master
ALI AKBAR KHAN on his large picks). You can also glue some cork on the
gripping surface. Stay away from sticky substances like Gorilla snot unless
you like the feel of it... All
my best to you , NEY
MELLO |
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"Fitting the Foundation Excercises into my practice " |
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I have been playing guitar for about two years and I am
somewhere around the early intermediate level in my playing. I recently
bought Jamie's book, and while I can tell that it is going to help me with my
technique problems, I am having trouble fitting the foundation excercises into my practice schedule. I typically
practice for about two and a half hours a day. I want to add the foundation excercises to my practice schedule, however, due to slow
speed at which these excercises must be performed,
it has been taking me up to an hour and half just to complete 3-4 repititions of each excercise.
And I haven't even been doing the fingerstyle excercises!
I
would appreciate suggestions on how I should organize my Foundation Excercise time to fit into a 10-20 minute period.
Specifically, 1)How
much total time should I spend on Foundation Excercises?
I
would appreciate any help. |
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1 . "FOUNDATION EX." |
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Pete, What
matters is how intensely you concentrate on each exercise while you do it.
You will make good progress if you spend about 20 mins
or 1/2 hour on each exercise per day. More is much better as long as you take
a break now and then for your mind. The
speed must be as slow as you can for following to be practiced (see book for
def. of following) without feeling tense mentally and physically. That can be
very slow. I
used to practice between 4 to 11 hours per day when I started to learn to
play. It depends on how much command of the instrument you dresire and how technically demanding your type of music
is. Alternative
rock is mostly on the lower end of the technical requirement scale and needs
the least amount of proficiency...other styles get more demanding after this,
culminating with classical and bebopjazz,jazz-fusion
and indian -jazz fusion which require the most
technical (all styles require about the same in artistic integrity and
creativity...) development because they use the full range of musical
thought; other less technically complex styles use less range , but are also
very difficult to do masterfully if you are going to express their range with
great artistic impact and depth, that is why it is extremely rare to see a
classical-only artist perform jazz well, unless they had done it early and
frequently during their development, the same goes if she tries to sing rock
or rap. Likewise we have seen great jazz piano masters sound very weak
playing Mozart because their technique is not clear enough and articulated
enough aven thougn they
can play phrases of similar complexity in their genre. The reasons for this
are very clear , but not really the subject of your question so I WILL JUST
SAY THAT YOUR MUSIC WILL DICTATE YOU TECHNIQUE. SO SPECIALISE IN WHAT YOU
WANT TO DO AND GROW INTO OTHER STYLES AS YOU DEVELOP. If
you currently can only do 2 1/2 hours per day you must make very second count
to the maximum in concentration(still take breaks between exercises or you
will not be fully efficient concentrating...). All
we have to remember is that today information and automation have given many
of us the false idea that everything is easy and quick. Playing
and instrument like your favorite players or your personal idol is one of the
hardest things in the world in terms of patience and persistence and just
plain work. If you have the same love in your heart as your idols do for the
guitar you will be entirely successful in your personal accomplishments and wil have a lot to say musically to the rest of the world.
And
there is nothing that says you cant become like one of them yourself one
day.. you'd be surprised... NEY
MELLO |