Custom Chromatic Exercise - Week 2

[StingrayTBold]

Week 2 of my progress with the Custom Chromatic Exercise. I started out at 1-note-per-click 100 BPM, and went all the way up to about 170 BPM. It certainly gets much harder to keep everything in line and relaxed at that speed!

Things I'm working on:
-Using strict down-up-down-up-down picking for each group of 5 notes
-Moving the pick to be in position on the string for the next note as soon as possible after the previous note has been played
-Moving each finger to the next string and relaxing once that finger plays its required note
-Keeping my elbow from being pulled inwards towards my body
-Trying to keep my thumb as a support for my hand. (I was taught to keep the thumb at the back of the neck parallel, so this is a HARD habit to break )

Jamie, you asked for more speed, so let me know how I'm doing, thanks!

http://youtu.be/jJMEmg2tfK8


-Matt

[Jamie]

Good work Matt. Now, you need to understand that the practice approaches I gave you are what I call "transformative applications". They are things we do in practice that change the way our fingers behave, and enhance our control of the fingers, and the possibilities they can aspire to............but we may or may not employ them in actual playing.

So, keep doing them at no tempo, and slow tempo. But now it is time to push the speed up, and "let them fly", while you exert only minimal effort to control them. Work the speed up, and let the fingers get the notes. Take note of where things begin to degrade, and use all the methods you can to fix what goes wrong.

If you get stuck, you will need my "direct intervention"!

[StingrayTBold]

Thanks, Jamie! Ok, so if I understand you correctly, you are saying that for this particular exercise, it's not super important for me to get the fingers on the left hand that have already played their notes to rest exactly in their proper place on the next lower string, we just don't want to have them flying all over the place. Correct?



The biggest hurdle I'm still trying to overcome is my thumb position. It seems to be really "locked" into running parallel with the back of the neck ever since I first had classical training many years ago. I realize how much extra tension that it's adding when it is so far away from the rest of the hand like that, but it still seems to like to jump back to that place it's been accustomed to for so long. Slowly but surely, I am re-training it.

"Direct Intervention" still seems like a good idea for now though! I'm thinking of trying out your Guitar Sherpa course! It's a bit pricey, but with having unlimited video responses and being able to do them straight from the website, it seems like it could be a very powerful and useful educational tool.

[Jamie]

The Sherpa is a real bargain! No one else there offers unlimited video, and no one offers live time along with it. I still have to see if i can continue that offer.....I'll see as time goes on and I work with the format.

Meantime, you could post a pix of your thumb...not sure what you mean. If it is actually sticking out from the fingers, reaching toward the headstock, well that is baad!

[StingrayTBold]

Basically, when I took classical guitar lessons in college, my teacher enforced keeping the thumb at the back of the neck, directly parallel to it, pointing towards the headstock. That apparently got burned into my brain (and my hand!), and when it came to rock and other non-classical positioning styles, no one ever told me any to move the thumb any differently (except when doing bends and heavy vibrato, by bringing it up over the neck for leverage), so I ended up with the "stuck thumb syndrome", where my thumb consistently likes to just rest in that "classical" position even if I'm doing barre chords, where it doesn't really offer too much support to the rest of my hand, and it definitely creates some excess tension as it pulls away from the hand, so yup, definitely a baaaad thing!

Do I need to do anything special with you to get started with the Sherpa thing, or do I just need to sign up and enroll directly through the site?

[Ruby6092]

Hi Matt,

I am in the Guitar Sherpa program with Jamie and it is a fabulous way to study with her . It is easy to enroll on True Fire's site. Takes a few minutes, a credit card and you are a new Sherpa student. Their " help" folks respond quickly if you have any problems with the set-up. It's a blast! And, she's right about it being a great deal! If you have any other questions you can also find me under her classroom on the True Fire site.

Marilyn

[jules]

Good work Matt. Now, you need to understand that the practice approaches I gave you are what I call "transformative applications". They are things we do in practice that change the way our fingers behave, and enhance our control of the fingers, and the possibilities they can aspire to............but we may or may not employ them in actual playing.

Perhaps the topic for a new GP book/DVD.... ???

"Exercises to move you in the Direction of Skil - Transformative Applications, by Jamie Andreas" ....?????

jules.

[Jamie]

Hey Jules,

Transformative Applications will be fully explained and a large series of them will be given in my new book, which is still probably 2 years away. I am, as usual, giving the results of my research, in progress though it is, to students studying with me now. Everyone else will have to wait!

[jules]

Excellent - look forward to it!