Bob Dylan by thereshopeyet

thereshopeyet
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:05 pm

Hello Buddy

Thanks for the advice.
This is definitely an issue for me ..... stopping the strum.
It's like one had says to the other ... it's my turn.... so annoying.

I worry too much about trying to be perfect.

I think I need to make uncoordinated noise until both hand work together.

This song seems like a great song to achieve this because it's basic chords.
It's a hurdle I'm determined to jump this time.

It's embarrassing but I have to admit to myself where I'm at.

Although I can play bits and piece of other things, it is just bits and pieces.

Thanks again

Dermot


dennisg
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:16 pm

I've recently been teaching a friend how to play the guitar, and she always wants to watch her right hand while she's strumming. When she has to make a chord change, she turns her head to watch her fretting hand. Everything grinds to a stop while she turns her head, locates her hand, then refocuses her eyes. In the meantime, all sense of tempo is lost. This has been mentioned in previous posts, but I thought I'd hammer it home one more time: avoid looking at your right hand while you strum. There's nothing going on over there that needs your attention, so keep your eyes glued to your left hand and just let your right hand do what it's going to do. If you mis-hit some strings, don't worry about it. You'll get it right the next time or the time after that. But if you continue turning your head and shifting your eyes from one hand to the other, it's going to kill your tempo on every chord change. You can't successfully play the guitar without maintaining tempo, but you most certainly CAN play if you mis-hit some strings. Eyes to the left.


MarkM
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:22 pm

Dermot,

Great to see you posting this. You've got some good pointers on this so far. May I suggest a few more? As others have said you probably should slow it down a bit. When ever I start a new song regardless if its a strummer or a fingerpicking song I want to make sure I get the chords/changes and the progression nailed first. Try starting it out a bit slower and only strum the down strokes 1, 2, 3, 4 (& change fingerings to new chord) 1, 2, 3, 4. Keep repeating that through the progression only hitting the down strokes. This will give your hands a chance to get used to the fingerings and changes. Once you feel comfortable with this then either speed up the tempo or while still in a slower pace add your strumm pattern. Forget about the individual bass notes for now until you can feel good about the chords with the changes. From there then you can start each chord with the single bass note on the first down stroke. Make sense? Its all about getting your hands used to the fingerings and the changes. As I said earlier I always try and do this when working on a new song. Once you have it then it's off to the races. Thanks for sharing Dermot. Keep posting your progress.



MarkM


Hydroman52
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:39 pm

Dermot,

I agree with Mark and Dennis. It seems like you don’t trust your hands and you need your eyes to supervise. I could be wrong here . . . it just seems like, when a change comes where you need both hands to do something different at the same time, your eyes need to look at both places before your mind can approve and accept. The musical mechanism must stop because you can’t look at both places at the same time.

I had the same trait when I first started out, and it was a tough one for me to overcome. Finally, I just closed my eyes and did it. By not looking at anything, it seemed to free my mind to just imagine where everything was and then things seemed to fall into place. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t happen as quickly as flipping a light switch. It took about a half-hour to get the hang of it, and then a couple of days to break the habit of peeking to find out what was going on. It was just a confidence problem.

Of course, that was back when I didn’t have anybody to give me advice and other things to try. The “play-up-to-the-first-beat-bass-note-and-stop” and “forget-about-the-bass-notes-entirely” are tips that I wish I had known about back then. Those may have gotten me past it, too.

Hope someone helps you solve this one. Like MarkM says, once you get past it, you’ll be off to the races. Good luck, and keep us posted.

Hydroman52


thereshopeyet
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:18 pm

Dennis, MarkM and Hydro52

It's great of you to post responses.
I find your comments constructive and encouraging.
I have summarised everyone's points and will spend some time on all.
Thanks again

Dermot


tovo
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:03 pm

Hey Dermot, you have got all the advice you need and it's all good. I just want to say good on you and keep progressing.


thereshopeyet
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Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:13 pm

hey Tovo

Thanks

:laugh:


cosmicmechanic
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Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:00 am

This is a sweet thread ... having an open mind and reading all these individual views on strumming is gooood pickins' !


thereshopeyet
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Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:31 am

Hello Cosmic

Thanks for joining in.... it's great and I have stripped back to learning only the progression with basic strum and no bass note.

My strum is starting to improve and am no longer nodding my head from left hand to right hand.

I think I keep jumping ahead of my ability out of enthusiasm but I'm putting that in check now and concentrating on basics I should have worked out by now.

Thanks again everyone.

Dermot

:)


tombo1230
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Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:59 am

thereshopeyet wrote:
Hello Cosmic

Thanks for joining in.... it's great and I have stripped back to learning only the progression with basic strum and no bass note.

My strum is starting to improve and am no longer nodding my head from left hand to right hand.

I think I keep jumping ahead of my ability out of enthusiasm but I'm putting that in check now and concentrating on basics I should have worked out by now.

Thanks again everyone.

Dermot

:)
This is great news that you are making progress Dermot.

Once you can play the tune alll the way through with no thought of stopping, and you can repeat this over and over, then you will be on your way.

Just take it in stages and be patient and don't get frustrated. You will probably find that as you add something i.e. the base notes, you may be temporarily set back a little, until you have got that down. At that stage you might want to make sure you are doing it slowly enough and don't try to do too much. In other words............ take two bars and add the base note and make just the two bars work with base notes added ...........then three bars, but don't add any bars until you can repeat the two bars first, several times over fluently. Maybe ten times each time. When you can do this you can add a bar, before allowing yourself to move on and add another bar and another bar, until you can play the whole song with the base notes added. Step by step by step is how you should proceed. You will make mistakes when playing, but that is ok. To er' is human. Eventually you will have this down solid and playing it without thinking

Good luck Dermot, I look forward to your next video, when you will be much improved! :)



Tom N.


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