Whooooooooooooa Nelly

[michelew]

Most of us know what we need to do to improve our practice; slow it down, play against a metronome, slow it down, concentrate of the the hard phrases first, slow it down, repeat until you make less mistakes, slow it down, stop practicing the section when you start making more mistakes, slow it down.

But, knowing isn't doing.

I find I'm mostly playing fairly late at night when I'm tired at the moment, maybe too tired. But, I'm having trouble with the slow it down bit. I'm just getting too impatient with myself.

Do you do that too? Anyone got any tricks to help slow it down that they find useful (beside alcohol and stop drinking so much damn coffee). .

Just wondering.

OK back to trying to shift back a gear. I'll give myself a good talking to.

Shel

[daryl]

I've got the same problem. Please HELP ME!

I can usually take a measure or phrase and slow it down to about 10BPM to get the phrase right, but then I jump right back up into high-speed and mess it all up. I KNOW I should SLOWLY increase the tempo but for some reason I can't control myself. I'm doomed.

[dtaylor]

Yeah you've put your finger on it Shel, I do exactly that, trying to play at speed too soon. It gets frustrating that I keep making the same mistakes, but also I find it frustrating to play slow with a metronome.

I must try to change though because I find I've hit a brick wall in practice and I don't think I'm making progress.
I'd be interested in people's practice regimes to get yourself out of a rut.

Dean

[willem]

Yeah sure Michele,,,when you play/practice sloooooow it aint sound like the song and thats not what we want but for getting it in the fingers and brain we can only learn it slooooooooooooooooow,,,Its not only Neil that told me that but many others and its so true...


Practice early in the morning a bit and in the evening a bit and not being tired 'cos when you are tired then the slow practice sounds like slow and lazy..

:laugh: :laugh: B)

[michelew]

Thanks guys. Misery loves company I guess.

I'm so glad you didn't say, 'What's the problem? Just do it.' Which is of course what I ask and tell myself.

Yes a metronome drives me crazy too.

When it's in reasonable shape I play against the track slowed down, that helps, but I don't generally do that at the beginning because I'm working on smaller phrases or just trying to get a section working.

Maybe Neil's got some good advice. I should have put this in the 'Ask Neil' section, but it seems too obvious and pathetic. At least I'm not alone.

thanks

Shel

Edit - Willem, you posted while I was typing. In the morning you say. Hmmmm...nice plan. I really should try to get up earlier....but I don't like my chances.

[neverfoundthetime]

Hi Shel. Its only since I Joined TG that I have learned to slow things down and it really helps big time. I'm not sure what happened as my guitar playing friends gave me that nugget of information years ago, many times but I just didn't slow down. Now I do and its a whole lot more fun. I even do it when I have more or less mastered a tune... just to see where the imperfections are and better them. Its actually become more fun than playing the tune at normal speeds some times. Best example is Story in Your Eyes, Neil's lesson which brought me to TG. I will often sit and play that ultra slow and enjoy the heck out of doing that because there is something cool about it. I do this with singing now too and it really helps me get clear on a song... and its fun to do. So, maybe try slowing down really super slow and see what happens... if its fun you may find the motivation you need to stay the course. Hope so!

[tombo1230]

Hi Shel, everyone wants to play full speed it's only natural.

I play all of my fingerpicking songs with Guitar Pro, I set the speed usually at 50% on day one, then once I have it all good I speed it up slowly over time. As you know getting it working slow means when you play it fast you don't have stumble points, as your brain to fingers has it all worked out. When you have it at normal speed then you can do it super fast just for fun. Guitar Pro is so good to play along with and you can set the speed to get faster as you go. It also has a metronome you can play at the same time.

If at full speed on the song and you still have dodgy trip up places, then just slow them down and speed them up gradually. I know you know all this but it's worth mentioning for anyone who doesn't know this or do this. It was one of the first things I was taught when I went for lessons.


Tom N.

[MarkM]

Shel,

Yeah it's a problem for me as well. I actually find that when I become fairly proficient with a song, usually fingerpicking, I actually play too fast. Faster than the original. When learning a song I've really tried to learn the progression first then work on slowly getting the right hand to do what its supposed to do and in time. For the past year I've really learned how to get my foot tapping where it becomes second nature. That has helped my tremendously. It becomes my metronome and my right hand follows suit. The other thing that I will do is play along with the original countless times to get that timing right so I don't play too fast.



MarkM

[BigBear]

Hi Shel!! Great question. I didn't see anyone say this but absolutely use a metronome!! I know they are a pain in the rear but try to play fast over a metronome and you'll drive yourself nuts.

Start really, really, agonizingly slow so that you let the metronome win. Don't fight it. You are trying to convince your brain that the little box is controlling the timing not you!! Then build speed, with added confidence, until you get back up to full speed.

I believe the basic problem is we hear the song in our heads at the performance speed and thus we want to play at that speed so it sounds like the song. But we may not have acquired the skill and confidence to play at that speed yet.

Just a thought.

Cheers! :cheer:

[Max]

Depending on how fast the original recording is, maybe you could try to slow it down to a ballad.

Try pretending your Eric Clapton and your doing a remake of Layla.
The original was a real rocker, but the acoustic version is very slow with a whole different feel.

So what i'm really saying is try to make it a new version, with a new feeling, and maybe you won't try to keep to the original tempo.