Every post on this thread has a piece of the puzzle, and I think the assembled puzzle is the set of fundamentals we need to use to play guitar. The setbacks we face are the introduction of non-fundamentals to our play.
Well put wrench! Fundamentals.
It’s way past my bedtime (again) but this thread has my attention. Chas’s has got us to spotlight how we experience learning. He certainly doesn’t believe there is regression in the learning curve. Neither do I. We may experience a plateau where nothing seems to be changing but when we walk a way for a few days and come back to it, suddenly it works better (seemingly by having a break from practicing). Our expectations change our perception. What we can do is not as acceptable anymore as what we want to do. We get stuck in a tight focus. When we take a break and come back to it more relaxed and less focussed, it all works and flows.
Our minds are wonderful things (most of yours will be, mine’s a mess!) and we accomplish much more with our subconscious or “Undermind” than we realise (- Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind). We spend most of our time in our digital, analytical mind (D-mode) taking things apart, thinking and calculating in a linear fashion doing things one at a time very fast like a computer. The Undermind is more like millions of networked computers performing countless actions simultaneously. It puts things together for us and allows us to perform complicated actions seeming unconsciously (subconsciously). Neil has talked about practicing until you can play a piece over and over watching TV (or doing whatever else). What happens is we let go of the sun-rays-through-the- magnifying-glass- type focus and fade to fuzzy focus. At this point the Undermind can finally do its job without the interference of the “Boss” upstairs in D-mode telling us what to do.
In a sense, we get out of our own way. Timothy Gallway, in The Inner Game of Tennis, drew attention to this in his ideas about Self1 and Self2. If self1 would just get out of the way (with all its instructions, orders and analysing), Self2 is perfectly capable of getting things done PERFECTLY and effortlessly. We flow.
I have almost never used TABS because I’m too impatient and that process takes too much time for me to read, find out which fingers to move where and slowly think it through (analysing in D-mode). I’m slow if I have to read or listen to instructions. If someone shows me the moves (gives me a visual) or just plays it, I can get a “feel” for it and can get 95% of it down much faster by not engaging my thinking brain but by allowing the rhythm and feel to come through in a much more fuzzier way (engaging my Undermind, or Self2). This is MUCH faster for me and much more fun. This is a FUNdaMENTAL way for me to learn. Of course, the analytical part of understanding what you are doing (the MENTAL part) is important too but the FUN part (just having a go, letting go, flying over it) is much more important. Maybe we spend too much time in that tight focused, verbal, thinking state and not enough in the visual, feely, fuzzy focus state. That slows progress and blocks flow. I know of a pianist teacher in Germany (he’s Chinese) who gives his pupils pieces to learn that are a little above their level. Next week thy get an even more difficult piece to do and no more time on the old piece. This goes on for several weeks. Weeks later they are asked to play the original piece (which they haven’t practiced since) and they play it much, much better than before. The Undermind has been allowed to do its work.
I don’t think there is ever any regression involved. Hyper-focus blocks flow and distorts perception, expectations are raised and frustration is allowed to take over. Let it go do something else, get distracted, come back later and just wing it and see what happens. Results may be surprising.
Hope that's ok, the was a call for coach's opinion back there in the thread.