I think that I've got the melodic shape now and I've worked on the tense mouth during the transition to the B section. Metronome is on 1 & 3 though I should've given myself an extra moment to find the beat before punching in!

It looks like my right arm is resting across the soundboard but the only contact is just below my elbow on the binding of the guitar. Based on other players' observations of their technique and the responses, I'll see how bringing my elbow affects my playing as I start adding into the chromatic notes in the next lesson.

Hey James, you sound great here and there's an obvious progression from one video to the next. It seems to me as if you naturally sorted out the damping in the second video. Damping isn't much of a problem on acoustic guitar just because the sustain of any "leftover" notes tends to be relatively quiet compared to notes that one might play in a melody. It's way less of an issue than on electric for instance where those open strings will often be nearly as loud as the "played" strings. All of that said, I do employ damping at times, using both my right and left hands. Also, for what it's worth, I am not at all committed to having a "floating" right hand. It does bring some advantages (crosspicking and quick leaps across several strings are easier for me when floating), but there are distinct advantages to lightly anchoring as well (timing and power). I'd suggest that you experiment and see what you prefer. 

Cheers!

Chris

Thanks for the input. I've been aware of what my wife calls "guitar face" for a while. I'm only just now starting to apprectiate how it gums up the works.

Hey Joe, you are sounding very musical as always! Your hand and wrist actually look wonderfully relaxed, but I think there is room to involve the rest of your right arm a bit more. Your forearm doesn't have any visible tension within it, but your forearm relative to the guitar seems to be pretty immobile. And also, there are spots where your pick stroke is getting turned around (0:08 for example). Here's a video to help show you what I mean on both counts!

That’s great Chris! Took me a second to find the comfortable angle, but resting my arm above the elbow on the top makes a big difference! Not so much with tension, but range of motion is better. Didnt realize I was bracing my forarm on the top. 

Have any exercise tips for pickstroke? I’m having a bit of trouble getting that to come naturally. Two ups just seems really foreign to me. 

Hey Joe,

I've made a video with an exercise that I think may help:

Paul, that is a great thing to practice because it will give you some perspective on what you are actually doing. As soon as you feel that you are able, stop tapping your foot and see if the new habit that you have been ingraining is sticking. 

I actually just started reading a GREAT book on this very subject that Bryan Sutton told me about 12 years ago and that I’m just now getting around to: The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. There is a similar book called the Inner Game of Music that is based on the tennis book, but I would skip it.

Thanks Chris!  If you come across any more books/articles about the mental side of playing, please do share.  

I'm finishing up The Inner Game of Tennis now and I'm seeing a lot of the connections w/ playing guitar.  What do you tend to use as a concentration technique when you're soloing?  For me, it's a total catch 22 cause the moment I tell myself to focus and relax it all goes out the window. Gallwey suggested getting tennis players to say "bounce" or "hit" as a type of focusing the mind during play and not letting yourself get too hyper-critical.  So I guess I'm interested if there are any tips you could share or you've heard from guys like Sutton, TR, or Norman.

Thanks, Chris!

PS: my wife and I are catching the KC show on Sunday.  My work (a high school) does a cool think where they give you a little money to do something that'll re-charge your batteries, so we got a babysitter, got some tix for Sunday, then checking out some cool guitars at Mass Street Music in Lawrence before heading home.  Have a great show!

Hi Paul, 

Sorry we didn't get to say hi in KC, now that the tour is over I'm getting caught up on my Sonic Junctions and I'm only just seeing this! 

I have a few concentration techniques that I tend to use. The first one is making sure that I'm remembering to breathe. There's nothing more foundational than that and yet we sometimes hold our breath and it causes tension. So I have gotten in the habit of taking a calm breath and closing my eyes - even for just a brief moment - before I have to play a solo or a difficult technical passage. I might also check in with my feet's connection to the earth (the connection is always solid) and register if my pelvis feels balanced and neutral (it always does). Basically, I focus by checking in with my body to make sure that all of these foundational elements are ok. Unless something is really wrong, they're reliably always going to be ok. This serves to ground me and bring me to the present.

Hey John, welcome! That's a great idea. Let me ask Mike (the gentleman who runs the ship around here).

Best,

chris

Pamela,

1) That's exactly correct.

2) I too would love to have regular notation included. I will look into that with Mike.

Thanks!

Chris

Hey Alex,

1) I do think it's very important that your hand not rest on the bridge or bridge pins. That is the essential transfer point of energy from the strings to the top. Your hand will absorb some of that mechanical energy and you'll essentially be siphoning off some power. That said, if the heel of your hand lightly brushes the pins, it's ok. I think it's OK to let my hand rest on any strings that I'm not playing. So if I'm playing on the 1st string, the heel of my hand may be brushing or even resting on the low strings. That doesn't affect the resonance of the guitar so no harm, no foul.

2) I don't have numbers unfortunately, but I'd say I keep my action just barely below what would be considered medium action. I don't mind a little bit of buzz at times - Tony Rice even told me once that it was important to have a little buzz in your sound - but I try to strike a balance between comfort and sonic practicality. And I'll only get some buzzing if I'm really driving the guitar hard. It really depends on what kind of music you're mostly playing.

Cheers,

Chris

Hey Ben,

Good question. To me, the main reason that bluegrass players play drednaughts rather than smaller body guitars has to do with rhythm playing. If you're playing rhythm in a bluegrass band there's a certian ammount of headroom that's important to have. Smaller body guitars can be every bit as loud as drednaughts, particularly in single note playing, but they don't seem to stand up as well to the, at times, more agressive strumming. I think it has a lot to do with the combination of scale length and body size. OMs have a long scale, but I still wouldn't feel comfortable playing one in a proper bluegrass band for fear that it would peter out on the rhythm front.

As for flatpicking technique, I do rely somewhat on resting my arm on the lower bout on a drednaught, and I do feel temporarily adrift when I first pick up a small body guitar, but I think it's just a matter of what I'm used to. In other words, I don't think that propping the arm up is a essential part of the technique. For instance, mandolin players, who employ a pretty similar RH technique get by just fine without a body to prop against. If it helps you to anchor your right hand against the top in some way (being careful to not induce tension while doing so!) I would encourage to you explore that.

A good small bodied guitar is a beautiful, glorious thing. Flatpick on yours with pride!

Cheers!

Chris

Hi Jeff,

When playing triplets I will almost always have either a hammer on or pull off embedded inside so that I don't have to do two really fast downstrokes in a row. I'll go deep in triplets and picking in a future lesson. 

good luck!

chris