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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | After quite a lot of practice I have managed to make some progress. I have finally boom chick'ed my way to the point where I can keep my thumb going & play - tada! the first three notes of Windy & Warm. Over & over & over. After a few hundred more repetitions of that (or however many it takes) I will shoot for the next two notes. I must say it is getting slightly easier. In the interest of possibly helping someone else that is trying to learn to do this, I have found that I can practice without a guitar by moving my thumb (boom chick, boom chick) & moving my fingers at the appropriate times. (Although I don't do it in public!) Since I can already play the melody (with a pick) my left hand already knows what to do so it isn't really neccesary to practice what I need to learn. Boom chick, boom chick. I've also been playing the melody on the guitar using only my fingers while boom chick'ing in my head, so they're being trained as well. By the time I learn how to do this I might hate this song but I AM going to learn to do it! Boom chick, boom chick, boom chick..... |
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Joined:
August 2004
Posts: 604
Location: Tampa, FL | My two cents (probably not worth that much)
I tend to learn the bass (thumb line) and practice that until I get REALLY tired of it.
Then I learn the treble lines that mostly coincide with the bass line (think of it as pinching the strings). After a while I start to get pretty tired of that so I start to think of the rythmically intermediate notes.
If a song is easy enough, and I get bored enough, I'll eventually end up with a recognizable rendition of what I set out to learn.
Caveat Reador:
I first learned on the banjo so a lot of my playing probably sounds like 5 string picking patterns with a REALLY low 5th string. ;)
Also, using my method, you will have to rework a lot of your left and right hand fingering as you progress through the process. I don't mind. It keeps me from locking into a single picking pattern (which I am very prone to do) |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | I can do it. Finally, I can do it. I'm slow & jerky & I have to stop & think from time to time but I can play Windy & Warm the way it's supposed to be played, albeit not very well yet. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement.
A special *THANK YOU!* to AdamasGuy! I didn't use tab like you did, but since I knew where pretty much all the notes were already (much of which I stole watching you & your buddies play, btw), I slowed it down to a sloooow crawl & did the bass & melody at the same time as you suggested, figuring out when & where the notes were supposed to go by ear. One string or two strings at a time or whatever. Once I got that down the 'boom chick' was there all by itself. I plunked my way through almost the whole song one part at a time tonight. (I'll have to go watch you some more to see what I still need to learn.) After three solid hours it's coming along remarkably well. Btw, I didn't realize it was three hours until my wife told me :)
As soon as I can get Windy & Warm smoothed out I'm moving on to Freight Train, Trambone, Wildwood Flower & a whole bunch of stuff I've been playing half-assed for years. I've already found clips of Tommy Emmanuel teaching the first two & Chet Atkins playing a whole bunch of stuff I've always wanted to learn.
Now that I have the basics of this type of playing figured out my guitar playing is going to improve tremendously. I know I'll never be really good, if for no reason other than I'm too old to get in the 30 more years of practice it would probably take, but I'll be able to get better than I ever imagined a few years ago. Thieving licks from YouTube is great! Being able to watch people play songs I've tried to learn for years makes a *world* of difference. I've been groping around blindly trying to do this stuff for a very long time. If I'd had YouTube 40 years ago I might be pretty good by now.
Damn, this is exciting! And it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. It wasn't easy, but I figured I was going to have to devote months to getting to where I am after only 5 days of serious work.
Yahoo!! |
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Joined:
September 2005
Posts: 5
Location: France - Paris | You are quite right Nils, it's so exciting ...
keep on pickin' .... ;) |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | Yes, it is AdamasPlayer! Very exciting indeed! I worked at it for three more hours tonight, mostly on the first part trying to get it a bit smoother. Tonight I went out into my shop & played my 1612 plugged in so I wouldn't annoy my wife. It's still very rough & awfully slow but it's getting better. My shoulders were starting to cramp up & my fingers are really sore (even though I have pretty good callouses) but I'm definitely making progress. Sometimes when I'm getting it going pretty good (not every time for sure) I just have to stop & laugh & be happy that I can finally do this!
Thanks again AdamasPlayer, you & your friends were my inspiration. I kept telling myself "If they can do it I can do it!" |
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No digital co-operation :/
