Progress

[MorrisrownSal]

My guitar journey began in 1978, when I was twelve years young. I learned every Eagles song every written, and learned how to strum. Of course, my journey continued on electric with The Who, Led Zep, ACDC, The Stones... well - this lasted quite a while - well past college, in cover bands.

 

It's been only in the past 18 months that I really feel my acoustic playing has progressed. I have always had an ear, but I dont read tabs or music. In the past 18 months I tried ditching the pick. I learned Freight Train. It took forever, as I just could not get my thumb and other fingers to act independently. It's starting to come together though!

 

I recorded this at work before I hit the gym, and before the place filled up. Yes - I am playing a little Taylor :)

 

But it felt good getting to this point! I have a long way to go, but I think the basic fundamental piece is almost there - the alternating thumb. I feel I can start to get more intricate, and it feels good. I may even be able to get away from cowboy chords, although I am not sure I want to! Amazing how a little realization this morning has put me in the best mood.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ta84Y6GSU

[Rambler]

That's all it takes, nothing fancy, just a flow.

 

About life beyond the cowboy chords. Since you know C, A, G, E and D, that's all you need to go up the neck. Every two frets up is a whole tone, and the 4 and 5 chords relate to the root just like they do in first postion.

[Autumn Light&Shade]

Hi ThemisSal, that's some sweet picking :)

[duluthdan]

Nicely done. Looks like its coming naturally - I'll be forever stuck trying to cross that terrain.

[Wee Davy]

Well done. I reckon you've got over the first hurdle very successfully.

I get what you say about finding it relaxing, I find the same.

[blindboygrunt]

Fab

Now play harmonica at the same time :)

[MorrisrownSal]

Fab

Now play harmonica at the same time :)

 

 

errrr back to strumming

[blindboygrunt]

It is great though Sal.

Hats off.

[E-minor7]

Splendid development - not hard to see you're on the right track.

 

Tho it's an early stage the things you do points toward further improvement and very important : You have these first bricks laid right.

 

Many f-pickers never get their basics together and continues on fragile fundament - not the way to go. .

 

Try to keep the double-bass running in every chord - for me the common D was the hardest one to fit in the flow, , , especially when comin' from a G.

 

You'll be up'n'running in a year - I mean where the songs in that vein kind of play themselves. Tell you it'll be worth every sweating minute. .

[MorrisrownSal]

Em7 and Grunt, Thanks. I have a ways to go. Thanks to you guys, the Aussie, and others ... for the first time in years I wanted to get better, and not just noodle around in my prior comfort zone. So Thanks be to Gibson for my favorite guitar, and this forum.

[flatbaroque]

It's good being on the forum for a while - you can follow people's progress and actually see things develop.

You and EA are both examples of once-were-strummers embracing picking and getting results.Lots of determination from both of ya.

[EuroAussie]

Agree with others, doing well Sal. I reckon the thumb is getting used to the action and its becoming natural. I found it best to focus on slower songs and really drill that double bass routine, keep it slow and steady at first. Landslide is a good song for that and I often come back to that track if I want to practice my thumb routine on simple chords.

 

Youre going well mate.

[MorrisrownSal]

Thanks for indulging me this post...

Back to The Tournament

[BluesKing777]

Thumb picking is going well!

 

 

Fingerpicking is a good example of seeing someone doing it easily and trying to do it yourself - it just seems to take forever and really the only way to do it is to keep doing it.

 

So sincere congratulations are in order, SAL, from somebody who has been through the ring of fire and come out the other side to the few moments of joy in life of a guitar player.......and do not want to have to do it ever again and so never have a day off ever and I kid you not.

 

 

What to do with it though?

 

You mention you don't read music or TAB, a lot of guitarists don't, but I would take steps to learn the rudiments. I learned higgledy-piggledy - a bit when I first went to guitar lessons, a bit here and there and then I sat down and got into it. It is a while back because TAB hadn't been invented yet....There is basic music which is really easy to teach yourself, but a lot of people think of music as Beethoven with 95 pages of rows of notes to read.

 

TAB is great to show where the left hand fingers should go, because sheet music only shows the music playable by the whole orchestra whereas guitars have the same notes in a number of places....so TAB helps, but doesn't show the details of the rest of the thing...sheet music does...

 

So work on a combination of both music notation and TAB and many, many, many, many other doors will open for you!

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

[northcntryblues]

Well done, Sal.

 

I also recommend having a go at learning tab. It will open up a whole world of fingerpicking for you. A great way to do that is with this book:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Books/dp/0825625564

 

This book/cd set by Arnie Berle and Mark Galbo was essentially how I learned tab, and how I learned the basics of country blues fingerpicking. The first few exercises will align well with where you are - they literally begin with the alternating bass in the major keys - A, E, D, G, and as such, the first half of the book sounds more like folk music than blues. However, they then build slowly and steadily from there, logically going through each exercise in each key adding pinch notes, syncopated notes, blue notes. The end part of the book moves to inversions of the chords up the neck, and finishes off with five blues tunes. The way the book is organized, and the way the exercises build on top of the previous ones is first rate.

 

Once I picked up this book, about 17 years ago or so, believe it or not I have not used a flatpick since!

 

Again, I highly recommend this resource. Once you use it, you will be able to tackle the likes of Mississippi John Hurt. From there, the sky is the limit and you will eventually find yourself wanting to get into playing blues without alternating bass in the Delta and Texas blues styles.

[Cougar]

...I think the basic fundamental piece is almost there - the alternating thumb....

 

Yeah, you've got that going pretty independent of the other fingers. Maybe this marks me as an amateur, but I pick mostly with the (alternating) thumb and middle finger. Occasionally, the index finger will join the middle finger in a 'pick' (on a different string, of course), but never independently of the middle finger. Hammer-ons essentially serve as an additional independent finger.... which I guess they are. Just on the other hand. :)

[BluesKing777]

Sorry to jack you thread, but it may be marginally relevant, if you learn TAB.....

 

The rise in popularity of DADGAD and related tunings would have to coincide with the rise of modern TAB.

 

You just play the fingerings and chords supplied for a tune without knowing the music. I do it myself. When first learning it, I was constantly referring the standard tuning versus the DADGAD notes, but the mind is a weird thing that will take the easy option every time. But I have a wonderul book by Doug Young from AG mag - Understanding DADGAD. It breaches the gap mentioned above by supplying the scales and chords in TAB/music for DADGAD and related to standard tuning - great if you want to explore the tuning more and create your own things instead of learning something from TAB by rote.

 

Of course, if you dont learn a bit of TAB and music, these options are just not on your horizon.......plug, plug..... It is another side to guitar that can be really enjoyable.

 

 

 

BluesKing777.