Hey Darren, sounds good! One suggestion - Norman has kind of a straightness to his swing. Maybe try playing it again, and stay as physically loose, but try focusing on keeping the feel a bit straighter.
No, not necessarily at all. I played everything very evenly in the example for clarity (although the super even approach does sound nice in it's way). Feel free to accent strong melody notes or play slurs in the midst of the cross picking. Those little things can make the content come alive. I believe that I may have covered some of this is subsequent lessons?
Yes, sounds great! That's a fully legit reading of the song. One thing that I personally would do differently (so take this or leave it) is I probably wouldn't emphasize the upstrokes and their corresponding beats quite as much. But it's very musical and well executed. Great job!
Sounds like music to me! One thing that you can do to make it a little more interesting is include the higher strings in the melody accompaniment as well. Notice in my version at the beginning of the video how I'm using all 6 strings. Maybe a better way of thinking about it is that you can use notes that are above and below the melody. That way you frame it a bit more.
Hey Darren, good eye! I always used to play those pull offs going down, but I noticed that Tony almost always does them going up. It's subtle, but there is a difference in sound - up is a little more aggressive I think. That said, either one will work. Try the up one for a bit and see how it feels.
-Feel free to use slurs (hammer-ons, pull-offs) to give your right hand a break from having to pick so many notes. Picking almost every note can cause tension. Look for spots where the slurs would sound good. I lot of times I will hammer from an A to a B on the 3rd string (see 0:30 and 0:40 on your video). As long as you play them with power they can sound great.
-Try lightening up with your right hand. It's a wierd paradox of bluegrass guitar, where it sounds really muscular, but you really don't play very hard. You want to find a spot where you are loose and relaxed but you are still driving the guitar top efficiently and effectively. Also, the precise nature of bluegrass timimg adds to the illusion of muscularity.
Darren, you sound great! Way to dig in to the guitar on those low notes in a very tasty and dynamic way. The only thing is that there are a few triplets missing at 0:38-0:39. I get them with some quick pull offs after the hammer-ons that immediately proceed. See around the 10:45 mark on the lesson video.
Hey Chris. I'm getting a thumping sound while I pick this song would that be a technique thing or would that just be the acoustic I'm playing. Anything else you can see to work on?
Darren, you sound really good flatpicking this. I'm not hearing the thumping that you describe, but that might be a limitation of either the microphone or my speakers. But visually speaking your technique looks good - I can't see anything that you're doing that would create that kind of sound. Most likely it's the guitar. A lot of acoustics just have a woofy resonant frequency within that can be activated by anything.
The next step for refining this would be to get your ryhthm to have the propulsive, relentless yet still swinging thing that the flatpicking greats have. Listen to Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Clarence White. There is a sense of forward movement with all of these guys that is very intoxicating. You're clearly an excellent musician so I think with a little bit of careful listening you'll hear what I'm talking about and then you can start to integrate it into your playing.
Enjoying the White Dove Lessons Chris. Is there a certain order after this that should be followed?
I made up a few new lyrics it seems. I'm working on staying relaxed, it's tough coming from more of an Electric background. Thoughts? Also, Avalon is a killer record.
Darren, sorry I'm only just now responding to this video. It seems I missed your email when it came in and I only just saw it when Mark posted a video above! You really sound great. And I'm enjoying the new lyrics ;-) You've internalized the groove, song, and lots of the little stylistic elements, and you have a fantastically refined way of playing guitar. You also sound super relaxed. The only thing is that it looks like you might be carrying some tension in your upper torso and right shoulder/arm. Maybe investigate that a bit. But overall this is great!
Hey Chris. Loving the songs! Great lesson.
Hey Darren, sounds good! One suggestion - Norman has kind of a straightness to his swing. Maybe try playing it again, and stay as physically loose, but try focusing on keeping the feel a bit straighter.
Cheers,
Chris
Trying trying trying again. In the cross pick are all the notes to have the same emphasis? Any kind of exercise you can recommend to improve that?
No, not necessarily at all. I played everything very evenly in the example for clarity (although the super even approach does sound nice in it's way). Feel free to accent strong melody notes or play slurs in the midst of the cross picking. Those little things can make the content come alive. I believe that I may have covered some of this is subsequent lessons?
This any better? I personally like the bobble head I've added in for visual effect haha! geeze
Yes, sounds great! That's a fully legit reading of the song. One thing that I personally would do differently (so take this or leave it) is I probably wouldn't emphasize the upstrokes and their corresponding beats quite as much. But it's very musical and well executed. Great job!
Used some stuff from the next lesson while singing.
Sounds like music to me! One thing that you can do to make it a little more interesting is include the higher strings in the melody accompaniment as well. Notice in my version at the beginning of the video how I'm using all 6 strings. Maybe a better way of thinking about it is that you can use notes that are above and below the melody. That way you frame it a bit more.
Hey Darren, good eye! I always used to play those pull offs going down, but I noticed that Tony almost always does them going up. It's subtle, but there is a difference in sound - up is a little more aggressive I think. That said, either one will work. Try the up one for a bit and see how it feels.
baked the end, more practice required
Great picking! 2 comments:
-Feel free to use slurs (hammer-ons, pull-offs) to give your right hand a break from having to pick so many notes. Picking almost every note can cause tension. Look for spots where the slurs would sound good. I lot of times I will hammer from an A to a B on the 3rd string (see 0:30 and 0:40 on your video). As long as you play them with power they can sound great.
-Try lightening up with your right hand. It's a wierd paradox of bluegrass guitar, where it sounds really muscular, but you really don't play very hard. You want to find a spot where you are loose and relaxed but you are still driving the guitar top efficiently and effectively. Also, the precise nature of bluegrass timimg adds to the illusion of muscularity.
Here's another for you Chris. It's a new guitar so the strings are real bright. Thoughts?
Darren, you sound great! Way to dig in to the guitar on those low notes in a very tasty and dynamic way. The only thing is that there are a few triplets missing at 0:38-0:39. I get them with some quick pull offs after the hammer-ons that immediately proceed. See around the 10:45 mark on the lesson video.
Really great job though. Sounds awesome.
Hey Chris. I'm getting a thumping sound while I pick this song would that be a technique thing or would that just be the acoustic I'm playing. Anything else you can see to work on?
Darren, you sound really good flatpicking this. I'm not hearing the thumping that you describe, but that might be a limitation of either the microphone or my speakers. But visually speaking your technique looks good - I can't see anything that you're doing that would create that kind of sound. Most likely it's the guitar. A lot of acoustics just have a woofy resonant frequency within that can be activated by anything.
The next step for refining this would be to get your ryhthm to have the propulsive, relentless yet still swinging thing that the flatpicking greats have. Listen to Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Clarence White. There is a sense of forward movement with all of these guys that is very intoxicating. You're clearly an excellent musician so I think with a little bit of careful listening you'll hear what I'm talking about and then you can start to integrate it into your playing.
Enjoying the White Dove Lessons Chris. Is there a certain order after this that should be followed?
I made up a few new lyrics it seems. I'm working on staying relaxed, it's tough coming from more of an Electric background. Thoughts? Also, Avalon is a killer record.
Darren, sorry I'm only just now responding to this video. It seems I missed your email when it came in and I only just saw it when Mark posted a video above! You really sound great. And I'm enjoying the new lyrics ;-) You've internalized the groove, song, and lots of the little stylistic elements, and you have a fantastically refined way of playing guitar. You also sound super relaxed. The only thing is that it looks like you might be carrying some tension in your upper torso and right shoulder/arm. Maybe investigate that a bit. But overall this is great!