Two Questions

[alcoyot]

1. Do you guys think that it is possible to predict how progress will unfold? Is it possible to have a realistic timeline, for example, to say I will be able to play this piece of music, after 5 more months of progress.
My own answer to this is that no, you can't predict the future in a timeline like that. In my experience there is always the possibility of new obstacles popping up that delay progress, and they only come into my awareness when I have reached that point. For example I might be trying to master playing a phrase, and discover tension, somewhere in the body, that I wasn't aware of before, so at this point all previous predictions of "hey no problem I'll be playing this like a breeze in just a few weeks" go out the window.

2. Have any of you guys ever encountered regression in playing, and why do you think this happens? After practicing something a lot I'll be playing it perfectly one day, totally smooth, feels relaxed, fingers are going in all the right places, and it sounds awesome. A few days later I'll go at it again, and its nowhere near that peak performance level. Why does this happen?

[N E Y]

1. Do you guys think that it is possible to predict how progress will unfold? Is it possible to have a realistic timeline, for example, to say I will be able to play this piece of music, after 5 more months of progress.
My own answer to this is that no, you can't predict the future in a timeline like that. In my experience there is always the possibility of new obstacles popping up that delay progress, and they only come into my awareness when I have reached that point. For example I might be trying to master playing a phrase, and discover tension, somewhere in the body, that I wasn't aware of before, so at this point all previous predictions of "hey no problem I'll be playing this like a breeze in just a few weeks" go out the window.

It depends, in my experience, entirely on what type of learning it is. If it is something relatively similar to what you know or a more complex variation of it, yes I can predict. The hardest takes two weeks, Anything longer means I can't really predict because I don't know enough about it yet and it is still a relative mystery. Once I know what to do I can learn anything new in 30 seconds of repetition if it is a short lick. The issue is knowing exactly what to do and what is precisely involved which is what I call the mystery part. A very mysterious hyper-fast lick can take years even if it is short...If someone points it out or if I find out what to do it takes no time at all. Muscle memory responds immediately to the right data. The reason we spend months and years is because we don't know what we are doing so we don't put anything new in the data stream. Once we figure out all the data bits we "get it". Of course it takes devotion to work that hard mentally.



2. Have any of you guys ever encountered regression in playing, and why do you think this happens? After practicing something a lot I'll be playing it perfectly one day, totally smooth, feels relaxed, fingers are going in all the right places, and it sounds awesome. A few days later I'll go at it again, and its nowhere near that peak performance level. Why does this happen?

There is no actual regression unless you suffer too many blows to the head while sparring with your trainer Mike Tyson which is understandably common.
The simple fact is that you did not learn it at the time as much as you thought. There are two possible situations which would take too much time for me to type here. But you did not regress. You just did not really learn it at the muscle memory level . Basically you were still practicing it then and now you cant remember what you where thinking and you have to re-discover it all again.

To avoid this, Keep practice notes in a binder like I used to do in the 80s or if you are a girl reading this, keep a cute practice diary which is fun.

My mind is tremendously more capable than what it was in the 80s so I don't keep a cute diary anymore but without it back then I would still be bug-eyed and spazzing guacamole-like green goop out of my mouth instead of playing music

I do keep two notebooks with my discoveries in the technical development field in the last 7 years.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeyMelloOfficial?
http://bit.ly/aSUSw6
http://www.musicarts.com/Stores/Store.a ... 320&mode=1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NEY-MELLO/8702485599
http://www.myspace.com/neymello
http://www.twitter.com/NeyMelloGuitar

[alcoyot]

Cool, so what you're saying is that if you're advanced and already mastered something to a very high level, its possible to predict how long it will take to get down something IF its similar enough to the things you already know how to do.

[Alexander]

This article by Jamie might help
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/artisti ... lines.html

There is another which I can't find (but I've read a few times) where she literally breaks down what is a reasonable expectation (how many hours for how many years etc) of practice for certain goals - ie- if you want to strum complete songs at parties, if you want to play rock n' roll, if you want to be a metal player, if you want to play jazz, classical. Sadly I can't find it now. I wish I had favored the link to it. It was one of the early articles I read that sold me on Jamie's authenticity because so many so-called guitar gurus on the net try to sell you this vague "YOU'LL BE ROCKING IN NO TIME" crap. Well Jamie was very clear and specific provided that you are willing to practice and it all seemed very honest and reasonable, and made sense to me. May she will the name of the article I'm talking about.

[N E Y]

Cool, so what you're saying is that if you're advanced and already mastered something to a very high level, its possible to predict how long it will take to get down something IF its similar enough to the things you already know how to do.

Yes



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ney_mello
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeyMelloOfficial?
http://bit.ly/aSUSw6
http://www.musicarts.com/Stores/Store.a ... 320&mode=1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NEY-MELLO/8702485599
http://www.myspace.com/neymello
http://www.twitter.com/NeyMelloGuitar

[alcoyot]

This article by Jamie might help
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/artisti ... lines.html

There is another which I can't find (but I've read a few times) where she literally breaks down what is a reasonable expectation (how many hours for how many years etc) of practice for certain goals - ie- if you want to strum complete songs at parties, if you want to play rock n' roll, if you want to be a metal player, if you want to play jazz, classical. Sadly I can't find it now. I wish I had favored the link to it. It was one of the early articles I read that sold me on Jamie's authenticity because so many so-called guitar gurus on the net try to sell you this vague "YOU'LL BE ROCKING IN NO TIME" crap. Well Jamie was very clear and specific provided that you are willing to practice and it all seemed very honest and reasonable, and made sense to me. May she will the name of the article I'm talking about.

Yeah thanks Alexander, that article was helpful. That along with Ney's response confirmed my suspicion, which is that as a beginner to intermediate player, there's just no telling how long something might take, because you're not aware of what obstacles might come up. I did read the other article you refer to, about how long it takes to master the different styles of playing. I agree that was a very lucid one as usual. My question was more in reference to something smaller, like 1 song, or even just a small part of a song.