Mike, this looks way better to me! Your hand actually looks a lot like Michael Daves’ now, which is good because Michael’s technique really allows him to leverage the weight of his hand to drive through the strings. Another thing you might want to play with is loosening/opening up the non-pickholding fingers on your right hand. Bryan Sutton got me to do that once years ago and it was really interesting how it had the effect of loosening my entire forearm.
Also, as promised, here is a video of me accelerating from playing a single open string slowly to going as fast as I can. The whole time I am trying to be very mindful of tension in my arm. I felt it creeping in in my shoulder, elbow and back at various points. You can see me shifting my shoulder around to try and let it go. Mostly I was just trying to maintain a calm feeling as I was pushing against my physical limits.
I think this single note picking advice on a G string is one of the most important lessons I have ever recieved during this journey. I spend at least 5 to 10 minutes everyday during the course of my practice to warm up in the beginning and cool down at the end. Although I won't be playing as fast as you are anytime soon ... I play tempos at interval of 5 bpm ranging from 75 to 95 spending about a minute or so at each. I've found some days are better than others but the mindfulness aspect is always helpful to stay loose and relaxed. Accuracy is also a by product but secondary to form and technique. Thank you!
Despite how stiff my technique looks I've been working towards loosening things up. I'm getting similar feedback from MD and others with which I've worked. As for your suggestion of 16th notes on a single string slowly and loosely and gradually speed up while sustaining loose mechanics... this is something I need to see to absorb and then go ahead and put in practice time on it. Also playing the melody overly loose while not being afraid to engage surrounding strings sloppily is great tip and I will practice it. I watched the Gold Rush video but aside from stressing downstrokes on strong beats and upstrokes on weak beats' I'm not sure what you're pointing at?
Sorry, I don’t think I was clear about the Gold Rush lesson. I actually was referring to the discussion in the comments section rather than the video itself. My apologies!
I’m traveling now but I’ll make a video of the single string exercise when I get home to show you what I mean.
First of all, cool musical ideas throughout! Bravo on that front.
Re technique, your whole mechanism looks pretty stiff to me, and it seems to get stiffer as the tune goes on. In particular, when you're playing the melody, by the time you get to the B part your wrist looks like it's pretty locked. When you switch to rhythm you loosen your wrist and it looks much more comfortable.
I'll give you an exercise that I gave to Torgier to help practicing loseness when playing single notes: on one string, start out playing SLOW up and down 16th notes. You can just play an open string. Gradually speed up and keep going until you are playing fast and keep going and going until you are playing as fast as you can. While you’re doing this maintain the sense of mindfulness. You don’t have to worry about sounding or even being musical. Just try to stay relaxed and probe at what it feels like to push your limits. What I hope will happen is that your technique/body will ”do what needs to be done” to try and accommodate this physical exploration. Your forearm might be free to move a little more, your wrist might feel different and out of control. Just be open to it all and try to notice what’s happening without trying to control any of it. You might also try playing the tune with a comically loose wrist. Make it sloppy. You've got a free pass to do so. But feel what it feels like for your wrist to move when you're playing single notes. Cultivate that feeling. In time with mindful practice your body will sort out the details of "cleaning up" your right hand performance.
There was a great discussion about this particular topic in the Gold Rush A Melody lesson that you might be interested in reading through: http://www.sonicjunction.com/chris-eldridge/gold-rush-melody-a-part
How do you keep the left-pinky middle-joint from collapsing? This may occur for example when playing an open position D/C# chord, where the fourth finger is fretting the low C#. The image below is not a guitar (duh! obviously) but captures the fourth finger foible.
Honestly, I think it just has to do with finger/hand/forearm strength. When I first started playing I couldn’t play a G chord without my ring and pinky finger collapsing. Eventually they just stopped collapsing. That said, I still have joints that collapse like that when I’m playing certain chords. If you wanted to train your fingers to not do that, I would think about playing on your finger tips a lot more. But I would advise not dedicating too much practice time to that, because playing on the absolute tips of your fingers isn’t necessary or even desirable. Another thing you could do is let your finger collapse and then slowly bring it into an arched position. Then keep going until you notice that they are collapsed again. Then slowly bring them back to the arched position. This kind of mindfulness, where you cultivate a habit of awareness, calmly correct when things aren’t as you want them to be then keep moving forward is very effective in my experience. Let me know how it goes!
Mike, this looks way better to me! Your hand actually looks a lot like Michael Daves’ now, which is good because Michael’s technique really allows him to leverage the weight of his hand to drive through the strings. Another thing you might want to play with is loosening/opening up the non-pickholding fingers on your right hand. Bryan Sutton got me to do that once years ago and it was really interesting how it had the effect of loosening my entire forearm.
Also, as promised, here is a video of me accelerating from playing a single open string slowly to going as fast as I can. The whole time I am trying to be very mindful of tension in my arm. I felt it creeping in in my shoulder, elbow and back at various points. You can see me shifting my shoulder around to try and let it go. Mostly I was just trying to maintain a calm feeling as I was pushing against my physical limits.
Mike and Chris -
I think this single note picking advice on a G string is one of the most important lessons I have ever recieved during this journey. I spend at least 5 to 10 minutes everyday during the course of my practice to warm up in the beginning and cool down at the end. Although I won't be playing as fast as you are anytime soon ... I play tempos at interval of 5 bpm ranging from 75 to 95 spending about a minute or so at each. I've found some days are better than others but the mindfulness aspect is always helpful to stay loose and relaxed. Accuracy is also a by product but secondary to form and technique. Thank you!
Chris,
Despite how stiff my technique looks I've been working towards loosening things up. I'm getting similar feedback from MD and others with which I've worked. As for your suggestion of 16th notes on a single string slowly and loosely and gradually speed up while sustaining loose mechanics... this is something I need to see to absorb and then go ahead and put in practice time on it. Also playing the melody overly loose while not being afraid to engage surrounding strings sloppily is great tip and I will practice it. I watched the Gold Rush video but aside from stressing downstrokes on strong beats and upstrokes on weak beats' I'm not sure what you're pointing at?
Sincerely,
Michael
Hi Mike,
Sorry, I don’t think I was clear about the Gold Rush lesson. I actually was referring to the discussion in the comments section rather than the video itself. My apologies!
I’m traveling now but I’ll make a video of the single string exercise when I get home to show you what I mean.
Chris
I'm interested in your feedback on right-hand technique,
-Mike
Hi Mike,
First of all, cool musical ideas throughout! Bravo on that front.
Re technique, your whole mechanism looks pretty stiff to me, and it seems to get stiffer as the tune goes on. In particular, when you're playing the melody, by the time you get to the B part your wrist looks like it's pretty locked. When you switch to rhythm you loosen your wrist and it looks much more comfortable.
I'll give you an exercise that I gave to Torgier to help practicing loseness when playing single notes: on one string, start out playing SLOW up and down 16th notes. You can just play an open string. Gradually speed up and keep going until you are playing fast and keep going and going until you are playing as fast as you can. While you’re doing this maintain the sense of mindfulness. You don’t have to worry about sounding or even being musical. Just try to stay relaxed and probe at what it feels like to push your limits. What I hope will happen is that your technique/body will ”do what needs to be done” to try and accommodate this physical exploration. Your forearm might be free to move a little more, your wrist might feel different and out of control. Just be open to it all and try to notice what’s happening without trying to control any of it. You might also try playing the tune with a comically loose wrist. Make it sloppy. You've got a free pass to do so. But feel what it feels like for your wrist to move when you're playing single notes. Cultivate that feeling. In time with mindful practice your body will sort out the details of "cleaning up" your right hand performance.
There was a great discussion about this particular topic in the Gold Rush A Melody lesson that you might be interested in reading through: http://www.sonicjunction.com/chris-eldridge/gold-rush-melody-a-part
Cheers,
Chris
How do you keep the left-pinky middle-joint from collapsing? This may occur for example when playing an open position D/C# chord, where the fourth finger is fretting the low C#. The image below is not a guitar (duh! obviously) but captures the fourth finger foible.
Honestly, I think it just has to do with finger/hand/forearm strength. When I first started playing I couldn’t play a G chord without my ring and pinky finger collapsing. Eventually they just stopped collapsing. That said, I still have joints that collapse like that when I’m playing certain chords. If you wanted to train your fingers to not do that, I would think about playing on your finger tips a lot more. But I would advise not dedicating too much practice time to that, because playing on the absolute tips of your fingers isn’t necessary or even desirable. Another thing you could do is let your finger collapse and then slowly bring it into an arched position. Then keep going until you notice that they are collapsed again. Then slowly bring them back to the arched position. This kind of mindfulness, where you cultivate a habit of awareness, calmly correct when things aren’t as you want them to be then keep moving forward is very effective in my experience. Let me know how it goes!