Hey James,

You sound great here. Very clear, nice flow and just generally musical. I have a question and two suggestions:

The question is: as you continue to practice this are you able to bring the tempo up closer to where I play it? My guess is that the right hand becomes more difficult as the speed increases because most of the lateral string-to-string picking motion is coming almost exclusively from your wrist. If you shift the guitar slightly to your left so that your forearm can reorient to be slightly more horizontal then you can engage your elbow more meaningfully in the pick stroke. To be clear, a pick stroke ideally is one fully integrated movement that engages your whole arm (and really, actually, your whole body) - not just something happening your elbow or your wrist. So see if shifting the guitar and, accordingly, the angle of your forearm helps the movement to feel more unified.

The other suggestion is to see where hammer-ons and pull offs complement the melody and give your right hand a break. It's important to remember that they can subtely change the contour of a melodic line. Experiment and use those subtle tweaks to your musical advantage. There's not a right or correct way to do this - the slurs will just change the emphases of the notes you're already playing, so see what you like. The melody will become more dynamic and your right hand will thank you - win win!

Chris

Thanks, Chris.

I've tried to increase the tempo as much as I can in this video for technique feedback but I can't match you yet. As you predicted, it's difficult to hold everything together. I could get quicker but I think that the single note runs would become significantly weaker and lose balance with the rest.



I've adjusted my right arm position here - how's this looking to you? This feels weird at the moment so my playing isn't good here even at the slow speed. I'm happy to persevere for a few weeks but wanted to check that it's off to the right start :-)



I'll have an experiment with the slurs for sure - breaks for the right hand sound great right now haha

Hey James, this is great - thanks for both videos. 

You're doing a fine job on the quicker video using your normal technique - your wrist is getting quite the workout! 

Even though the technique isn't as assured on the second video, your forearm and mechanism on the whole looks more relaxed. My suggestion is this: try for a forearm position that splits the difference between your old position and the new one. See if you can find a spot that still retains a bit more fundamental familiarity but where you also are engaging your forearm a bit, as in the second video. I'm guessing that the split difference will be the sweet spot where you can encourage a better, more wholistic movement pattern but it doesn't feel like you're starting from scratch. 

I think I've found the middle ground - my arm position hasn't really changed but my pick stroke is less wrist-based which is making things easier to control.

This take is at 110bpm with a few fluffs but it's a fair representation of an average runthrough. I'll be tidying it up over the coming weeks but think it's time to start working on something new too :-)

Yes! This looks much more relaxed and flowing to me. Keep working on it of course, but you're on a good path here!

Hey Bryan, it is indeed a blueChip. In the video I was either using a CT 55 or TAD 60, but lately I've been using a TAD 50. Bluechips are great as long as you don't lose them! :-)

Bryan
I love Blue Chips too and managed to not to lose any of the three I've acquired. (On UMGF and Mandolin Cafe there's a pretty active market where you can trade and buy and sell lightly used Blue Chips for $25 all day long.)
That said, I recently bought a handful of Dunlop Primetones, and while they're not as super slick as a Blue Chip, they're a surprisingly good $1.50 alternative for stuffing in a jeans pocket or wallet, or where you might drop a Blue Chip in the (blue)grass, never to be found again. 

I like the shape of these which are pretty close to a Blue Chip TPR 45, but they make them in a variety of sizes and materials.

https://www.amazon.com/Dunlop-515P1-3-Primetone-Semi-Round-Sculpted/dp/B00JB4WA54/ref=pd_lpo_267_tr_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QV75C2X5F3YPR0K3GJ7N

Thanks Kip! It was great to see you out there! Sorry i didn't get to say hi in person.

Kip, you're killing me Buddy! Awesome!

Awesome! Can you share the link? I couldn't find it!

Nevermind, I got it. And John Hartford, Byron Berline, Earl Scruggs, Marty Stewart too!

Great improvement! That sounds really good! My main comment now is make sure you keep the timing steady when you play those bass runs down to the G chord in the B part - they're rushing a little right now. You want to keep that flow groovy and steady. But all in all, great progress and great job!

Hey Jack,

The A part is really close. I'm just being a stickler here, because what you're playing totally works, but I believe you're leaving out the second "drone" double stop (2nd 16th note of 2nd beat of first full measure--check in the tab). That one missing doublestop shifts everything behind it foreward one 16th note. If you add that back in it'll add a cool extra layer of syncopation and I think it'll actually be easier too!

For the B part, you're right--it does get off the rails a touch from the melody. With any situation like this where you might feel more lost my main advice is make sure that you can sing it. My variation of playing it low is actually quite close to the original way I showed the melody in the earlier lesson, just down an octave. So let that be your guide. It's the melody down an octave with a couple of extra bass runs. Nothing too crazy (unlike the A part which is a little more out). Make sure you can sing it along with me playing it. Then put it on the guitar. Also, try practicing this with the metronome as well. Get the metronome clicking in 4/4 where the first beat of the measure is accentuated. That'll help keep things honest.

Good luck and please, if you would, upload another video once you feel like you've made some progress.

Chris