[Session 3 - fingering for 10ths on 5th/4th string]

Getting pretty comfortable with doing 3rds and 6ths but with 10ths I find it somewhat awkward to use the index on the root note and ring/pinkie as I believe Steve does in the video.

For the 5th string I find that using my 2nd finger on the root and pinkie on the 10th is more comfortable (on the root note). Then when the interval is one fret shorter I find it easiest to use the same two fingers (2nd and pinkie) but just have them 1 fret apart rather than 2. I've been using this for example in Blackbird chorus as it feels a lot easier. 

Is this bad form or does it largely not matter?

[Session 2 exercises taking a while?]

On 4/22/2019 at 6:01 PM, Steve Krenz said:

Great question,

I'm glad you're learning.  Session 2 in the Fingerstyle course is a big one, so it's not surprising to me if it takes a month or two.

This session is all about muscle control and finger dexterity.  In other words, getting your fingers to cooperate with what your brain is telling them to do.

My advice is to practice it slowly and carefully. 

The primary goal is to get the finger motions correct.

Once you do that then it's pretty easy to pick up the tempo.  But speed will never happen until the finger motions are correct.  So focus mainly on getting the finger motions correct.

Try and get as many notes and strings to ring out as possible.  In other words - don't cut off notes or strings before you need to. 

Strive for a very smooth and legato flowing sound - not short and choppy.

Follow along with me in the video at the end of your practice session to make sure you are doing the exercise correctly.

Hope this helps.

Glad you're part of our guitar family!

- Steve

Hey Steve, thank you very much for the encouraging words and the great courses! I'll keep at it, starting to tick off exercises at 88bpm now.

[Session 2 exercises taking a while?]

Been doing fingerstyle course for a few months and I'm finding progress somewhat slow in terms of getting some of the patterns up to the reccommended 88bpm.

In particular the bar ones I find tricky (can do the chords fairly well but hand gets tired quite quickly). 

I do only practice around 20-30 mins 5 times a week so maybe this is not quite enough but not sure. How long do people tend to take in the sections? session 1 took a good month+ for me. 

FYI I've worked up to around sesh 16 in l&m guitar. 

Thanks 

[Is using flesh okay?]

As title says, when I was doing the fingerstyle chapter I sort of learnt playing with flesh without realising. I use an electric guitar mind you so I don't exactly struggle with volume, though I do realise that using the whole part nail part flesh gives a brighter sound. 

I am finding it sort of do-able to learn to use the corner of my thumb (where skin meets nail) but would find it very tricky to learn with the fingers. Would it matter much if I were to stick to using flesh? 

 

[Session 18 - Jazz]

Anyone else finding this session a bit frustrating? 

Every exercise has chord forms I've never seen and so they take a long while to get down. I wanted to go through all the exercises and play at a decent pace before moving on but I'm thinking that would take ages (and I'd probably just forget all the chords eventually like I sort of have with session 15).

For reference I'm mainly talking the bonus exercises, like the chord melodys

[Session 17 - Going Beyond the First Position]

Just thought I'd update as working on the 3 note on a string scales for a month or so. Really started to get the forms under my fingers, starting to learn the hammer on and pull off way now. Know the neck pretty well now but note recognition still not instant. 

Did anyone else find learning hammer and pull off to be very slow? I admit they don't feel as natural, and I really struggle to get volume on the third hammer on if I'm going slow (~60bpm eighth notes). I guess I just need to keep at it!

 

[Session 17 - Going Beyond the First Position]

22 hours ago, V7#5b9 said:

The “Three-Notes-On-A-String” scales are navigational patterns, just like the pentatonic forms. They should be learned in terms of intervals, which are easily transposable to any key, rather than notes in those patterns. The notes of the fretboard in any given tuning don’t change, but their function may change depending on the context.

So, learning the notes of the fretboard using scale patterns will work eventually, but it may cause more confusion in the beginning and delay the progress. I suggest you pick a method that directly deals with the layout of notes on the guitar fretboard and how they relate to the musical staff.

Thanks for the insight, that does make sense. 

I am curious though as Steve seems to say in the videos that if I go through these 3 note on a string exercises and say the notes then I'll eventually know all the notes on the board. Do you know of anyone using this method and succeeding?

At the moment I'm going through the 1st , 2nd and 3rd forms for each of the 12 keys, will try this for a week or two and see how far I get! 

[Session 17 - Going Beyond the First Position]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

Another thing I've been wondering is a bit of skepticism to how going through these scales will make me memorise all the notes. Maybe I'm not putting enough time in into yet but not sure. 

For example I've made a start by taking the 1st 3 note on a string form and have gone through all major scales with it (playing through and saying notes, twice each). But by the end of this I don't feel like I know the notes any better, if I pick some random somewhere in the middle I still don't have a clue and have to use reference points like 1st position or the 12th fret. 

Will I really eventually learn them all by using this kind of method? 

Only one way to find out of course, but I'm curious how the learning process went for others, when did you start seeing progress?

[Session 17 - Going Beyond the First Position]

Hey, so I've just got onto this session and I'm determined to do as Steve says and learn to go through all the 3 note scales in the keys to hopefully learn the entire fret.

I'll be honest to say when he prescribed the same thing for pentatonic scales I did quite do the lot, managed to learn the notes in each scales pentatonic but I didn't get any closer to learning all the notes at that point. 

Just wondering whether I should go back to the pentatonic scales and learn them fully all over the guitar or if I should just do the 3 note scales properly. 

Cheers!

[Session 15 - Electric Guitars - The Heart of Rock & Roll]

19 hours ago, NeilES335 said:

@flobbadob Welcome to the Guitar Gathering Forum & Congratulations on your progress!

As others have said, 2 yrs is pretty quick by most standards (I thought originally I'd be done in a year...woah was I wrong; that was about 5 -6 yrs ago... )  I'm currently studying S14 and S15 as well.  

I like your flash cards idea and i use that too sometimes as a refresher. By the time you get to S15 I think (as @Eracer_Team-DougH says) Steve assumes that you know how to read notation fairly well, and therefore you're left to read and know where the notes are on the fretboard too.  I admit this is still a work in progress for me, but as they say the more  you use it, the better you get.   

Short answer, yes its a okay idea; any trick that helps you learn better is certainly "" okay"

(BTW..S14 is an important introduction to arpeggios, and soloing, incorporating early lessons on triads. I plan to spend some time there ( I can already play and have done most of S15 which is quite fun) to memorize these shapes (along with hammer on's and pull offs) so I suggest if you havent, dont rush it... )

Thanks for the reply.

I'm keeping the arpeggio's and little skill stuff from S14 in my warmup so I'll hopefully refine them.

So you think at this stage I should be able to read the sheet music and play at any position? I did try as Steve suggests with the pentatonic scales to learn every note across the whole guitar but I was finding it so laborious to go through all 13 keys and wasn't retaining any of the notes in my head.

I probably sound very lazy but can't decide if it is worth the hassle or my time is better spent refining other techniques.

[Session 15 - Electric Guitars - The Heart of Rock & Roll]

Hey, just onto session 15 now (been going about 2 years, pretty slow I know).

TLDR: With exercises like the chicken pickin and power chords if I should be able to read the sheet music?

My single note reading is decent in the first position but I am very very slow with the rest and it seems a bit too challenging to do it here and I'm not sure it is worthwhile.

I can name the note fairly quickly (still working on flash cards to be instantaneous) but finding it on the guitar takes a second or two. I added a little exercise where I use flash cards to identify a note then find it on every string - is this an okay idea?

Advice would be great!