Help!I'maRock!'s winter offseason woodshedding diary - mach II

remember last year when i realized i was holding my breath while playing certain exercises in Mel Bay? i haven't noticed it until today, when i started the 8th note exercise on page 19. which means i have to play it until i'm comfortable with it.

i'm also going to make myself play it until i get it up to 100bpm. i'm at 68 right now.
 
i got as high as 92bpm last night before i couldn't see straight anymore. i'll start slow today and work my way up.
 
you know what i hate? when the guy in the video says "you're going to have trouble in the second measure of the third line" and now its in you're head that you're going to have trouble, so you screw it up.

:mad:
 
i took today off from reading and just jammed. and i learned something about my lead playing. i really only use my first and third fingers. i'll use the other two if i'm changing position or bending or something, but mostly its 1 and 3. i need to change that. though i'm guessing i won't get to it anytime soon considering the path i'm on. oh well, everything in due time.
 
Mark Wein said:
The most important thing to remember, I think.

In college I had a teacher try to describe it to me this way. You can eat an entire elephant if you want to. You just have to do it one steak at a time. :embarrassed:
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exactly.

i've chosen a specific path that will help me reach the level i want to be at as a musician. and i'm only at the beginning. there will be plenty of creative distractions along the way, but the goal is to stay on the path. if i see it through, i'll get where i want to be.

looking ahead, all 5 CAGED scale patterns are addressed by the end of Book 1. so i won't have to wait long to start working on this "problem". it might take me two years to get there. but what's another two years? i waited 18 years to get to page 20. another couple of years to advance 100 pages isn't such a big deal.
 
alright, got past part 1 of that exercise. now have to do part 2. at fist glance, its the same thing, but there are some other things they throw in there that definitely make it a "second guitar" part, so you actually have to play it.

my goal for this week is to finish Lesson 2, which ends on page 22.
 
apparently, i DIDN'T get past part 1. i played one note wrong. the problem is that i learned it that way. i figured it out when watching the dvd lesson for part 2.

now i have to do the whole thing over again.

:mad:
 
Mel Bay is a treasure trove of how NOT to do things.

today's lesson in how not to do things is on page 26. the lesson learned here is not to name your G major scale exercise "Daily Drilling" unless you want your students to make inappropriate jokes.

in other news, my left hand hurts.
 
Mark Wein said:
take a break. guitarists who start playing alot of bass can screw their hands up pretty good if they over do it.
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what happened was that i did my chromatic exercises this morning, but didn't do them again when i went to do the DAILY DRILLING. i figured that since it was a scale exercise, the DAILY DRILLING would stretch me out. which it did.

part of the hurt is that the action on my bass has also been affected by the seasonal change. so i'll bring it for a tweak next Saturday. its frets seem fine, but there's definitely a bow to the neck and the action is higher than where i'm used to.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
what happened was that i did my chromatic exercises this morning, but didn't do them again when i went to do the DAILY DRILLING. i figured that since it was a scale exercise, the DAILY DRILLING would stretch me out. which it did.

part of the hurt is that the action on my bass has also been affected by the seasonal change. so i'll bring it for a tweak next Saturday. its frets seem fine, but there's definitely a bow to the neck and the action is higher than where i'm used to.
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That would do it. I've been playing a bunch more bass every week and I've really tried to lighten my touch on the instrument mainly for this reason...its working but it is putting some extra strain on things...
 
Mark Wein said:
That would do it. I've been playing a bunch more bass every week and I've really tried to lighten my touch on the instrument mainly for this reason...its working but it is putting some extra strain on things...
Click to expand...

i play a 50-105 flatwound set. so there's some pretty decent tension on the neck. the extra action isn't helping things. but when they're set up right, its the best feel you've ever gotten on a bass.

anyway, back to the Berklee Method. i corrected my mistake last night and have to work on the 2nd part now.
 
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