Peripatetic Adventures (Mar-10-03)

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In practicing the walking exercises, I have the following problem/observation I'd like to throw out and hear what y'all have to say.

Issue 1 (in my best John McLauglin)
If I start walking 1 and 4 from the 7th fret, I've noticed that the sympathetic vibrations that happen when you hit the D on the 6th string start the 4th string vibrating....I used to think that was a good thing, but now, I find that my placement of the first finger on the 5th string sometime hits (or is hit by) the vibrating 4th string, iow, hitting the 10th fret D makes the 4th string vibrate, which is an unintended consequence (I don't know if its a mistake, but I don't like it). When it happens on the B note of the 4th string, the open B has time to die out, so its not such a problem there, but it seems to be particulary active on walking from the 7th fret.

Issue 2
When I walk 1 and 2, stopping to pose and at no tempo, my third and fourth fingers look like I have the DTs. They do not bunch up, that is, I believe I have acheived the finger isolation sought, so I wait for them to settle down and then continue the exercises, but the really look like they want to resist the 'brainwashing'. Have any of you confronted this and beaten it?

I am still at no tempo/posing with walking, at first I hated the sounds of the intervals, now I'm actually getting to like it.

Thanks,

-Drew

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"When I walk 1 and 2, stopping to pose and at no tempo, my
third and fourth fingers look like I have the DTs."


I had a similar problem, but only with my 3rd finger. As I recall, I just spent some time focusing ALL MY ATTENTION on that finger - keeping it relaxed and still. Think I had to do some no-tempo first -just focusing on that finger. I only turned on the met when I could do that without the shakes. Anyway, the problem went away.

-Tom

[moved from old forum:]

"When I walk 1 and 2, stopping to pose and at no tempo, my
third and fourth fingers look like I have the DTs. They do not
bunch up, that is, I believe I have acheived the finger
isolation sought, so I wait for them to settle down and then
continue the exercises, but the really look like they want to
resist the 'brainwashing'. Have any of you confronted this and
beaten it?"

Yes. Just keep doing what you are doing and they will learn to relax.

James

[moved from old forum:]

Hi Drew,

I agree with Tom and James. Just do as they suggest and it will become automatic in due time.

All my best to you,

-NEY MELLO

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Well Drew, since I am seeing you tomorrow night, I guess I'll get the
opportunity to answer your question. I will show you exactly what you have to do, and then you can report here on it!

Very cool!!

Best,
Jamie

[moved from old forum:]

The lesson in this is that the sound does not matter at this point. What matters is the form.

The amount of work and concentration necessary to change one's form is difficult to swallow at first, but as Jamie said, does it matter if it takes a year to build the foundation of a building that will support a skyscraper, or would you rather build the foundation in three months and have the second floor cave in on you?

So the sympathetic string vibration is a non issue at this point. The walking exercises are not a musical event, like calesthenics, not aesthetics, for example, an error I had been making was in letting the notes ring, sustain into eachother which I thought sounded nice, but indicated that I wasn't releasing the firm finger soon enough to smoothly transfer the force from one finger to the next.

The remedy for this is to do the string push downs during the sustain of the preceeding note, (play 2, 3, touch) this enforces the notion of getting ready for the next note and forces you to prepare. It also helps get you ready for the application of force before the note, so your hand is prepared ahead of time.

What is critical is the flexion of the fingers at all their joints, the curve is more extreme than I had thought, so the perfection with which the walking exercises are done, the orientation of the left elbow made to put more work on the pinky's (abductor mini something) to exercise the lateral movement and curve are what is important.

Parenthetically, I want to say that Jamie's left hand assumes the form of a violinist, cellist or string bass player (I used to play in the orchestra in high school) which means simply that the spread between one and two is bigger that between two and three, and the distance between three and four is huge, and that the four has to actually travel to the fret wire to be successful; the one can be situated somewhat closer to the middle (2/3 actually) of its fret. The curviture in the fingers is to be maintained at all times.
At least I did it well enough this week to have gotten the nod to move on but that step is behind me now and part of my routine

So apart from the curviture, elbow and play 2,3,touch issues, the other really interesting part of the lesson was in picking technique. I have a very light touch, which Jamie pointed out is something I use as a compensitory mechanism, in that I am able to acheive speed using it, however, the goal is to be able to pick strongly AND with speed, which will not be possible with the way I do things now. This led to a very revealing dissection of what my forearm, wrist and fingers are doing, and what my elbow is NOT doing. So I am working on string shifting from the elbow, and the magic move is that on the uppick, the pick arrives at the top of the next string to be played, not its underside. This was quite an epiphany for me because I noticed that I cost myself time (miniscule, but its still extra effort and delays getting to the right string) by ending my uppick between the string uppicked and the next string.

This motion is achieved by the elbow, it is very subtle and barely perceptable, but critical in placing the pick in position for the next attack. It also opens up the field for the normal variations in picking when you skip strings, a very useful addition to my arsenal.

What is incredible is the amount of value Jamie delivers in teaching. Thankfully, I have it taped, so that I can associate the conversation with what was happening physically. I came home and practiced for forty minutes, just to remember everything.

It was a great lesson, and everything we covered is necessary for my development, and will stay with me as long as I'm playing

-Drew

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Thanks Drew! You're report on the lesson with Jamie is invaluable to all of us on the forum. I look forward to reading more about your lessons with Jamie!

Sincerely,

Donna

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Drew,

I'd like to echo Donna's comment. The post on your lesson was most valuable. You know, it would be nice to have you chronicle your lessons here on the forum. Just as Donna's series of posts on her teaching has been valuable, we would receive much from your perspective as a student of a "master". This is something not available to us poor trolls (as in dwarfs giants inhabiting caves) living out here in a place totally devoid of principled teachers.

Your efforts would be much appreciated, I'm sure.

Richard

[moved from old forum:]

Happy to do it. The above was from my third lesson with Jamie.

Unfortunately, my first lesson post got taken out when the forum went south, so its become part of the ether...I don't know if the people who host the list will be able to recover that doc or not.

My second lesson was kind of a disaster. That one did not go so well because I was missing the idea of 'the bottom of your practice'. Jamie remarked that for where I was at, I should know six ways to finger scales, and I got sucked up the exhaust pipe when I realized that the scales fall out of the walking exercises!

I got distracted and frittered away time doing them when I should have been working on my muscles, bringing my fingers and pick to the string, and concentrating on relieving tension in my right shoulder and left two little fingers.
I think my distraction had something to do with what my expectations of the lessons were...iow, I don't think I needed Jamie to teach me to read this and that, or how to count different figures, I mean, I'm not a great reader, but I can get through how something should sound by taking it a note at a time and relating it to my foot (a hold over from my Nick Manoloff books), so it isn't music lessons per say that we are doing, its more about technique, approach and form.

So I'm kind of on my own as far as reading, theory and harmony go, but I belive I have a good understanding of most of it, and I love to study anyway, so learning music in and of itself would not be the best use of our time together.

That is not to say that I wouldn't profit from Jamie's musical knowledge, which is wide and deep, but I'm comfortable with a lot of the rudiments, and I think Jamie assumes that facilty in me already. I am a babe in the woods as far as the physical faults in my playing, and when I think about the improvements in my horizontal development, my mouth gets dry
.
Here are the notes I wrote to myself for my second lesson. I did ok with them because we moved off them at my third lesson, but they constitute a repeat of the material we did on the first lesson. I was kind of down in the mouth about it at the time, but it just made me dig in and get it during the intervening time between lessons, which I guess is the way progress goes, you confront something, hit the wall, try a little harder, and get it. The fault I committed was a lack of focus and getting involved in something that was not part of the lesson. I think Jamie and I are on the same page now.

Keep the distal pinky joint bent and the pinky 'rolled over' to the right. Keep it separated from the third finger.

Keep pressure on the pinky (heavy arm) until the first finger has made its grazing move (light finger) to the adjacent string and is ready to fret the note. Feel the shift in emphasis from light to heavy.

All fingers move across the strings together. A curled up pinky is tense, as are any fingers that are moving but not active on the string being played; they move together over the active string.

On an up pick, keep the pick perpendicular to the string, don't loosen your fingers so as to let the tip of the pick point down at the picked string. This represents too much 'give' in the pick and in the fingers.

Learn to read the tension in the muscles involved in the note production cycle, from the biceps, forearm, wrist, hand and fingers. The shoulders and neck react unnecessarily to the "note production cycle", so concentrate on their reaction, because it is subtle and unnecessary.

The note production cycle is:
Apply pressure.

Become aware of resistance of muscles producing either fretting or picking pressure (pay attention to both).

After the attack, resistance is no longer needed; let the resistance subside after striking the note.

The scapula IS NOT involved, because the biceps are supporting the arms.

You are aware of a mistake after you make it which causes more tension, so if you make a mistake, stop and correct it immediately.

It is much better to avoid tension in the first place than to have to act to relieve it.

Practice the 1&4, 1&3 and 1&2 correctly at no tempo. This is insanely slowly...more slowly than you can imagine.

Ok kids, that's it for now...

Best,
Drew

[moved from old forum:]

I have a question on the following:

"On an up pick, keep the pick perpendicular to the string, don't loosen your fingers so as to let the tip of the pick point down at the picked string. This represents too much 'give' in the pick and in the fingers."

I haven't fully understand exactly how much "give" to allow while playing exercises on p. 53 and 54. I want to know exactly what I should be doing while practicing no-tempo and at very slow tempos.

I'm used to holding the pick very firmly, not allowing any give in it. I always used to just use the -very tip- of the pick so that I didn't pick with too much force. This was ideal for very fast lead guitar playing (especially on classical pieces like Flight of the Bumblebee).

So... what exactly should I do here?

It seems to me that if one lets the pick give very much, he's not going to be using for economical motions at higher speeds. I.e., the picking arm and wrist will be moving more than they have to in order to compensate for the 'give' in the pick. Then again, allowing some give affords more control over tone, volume, etc.

So what should I do? As of now, I've been allowing about this much give: if I pick a string very slowly, the pick does not push through until my picking hand is about halfway to the next string. (So maybe, 10 degrees or so of 'give'?). Is this too much?

Thank you!

-Dawson