Posted by: @robert

I am thinking I will do a longer lesson on playing through the most common modes, using only double stops, on EB, BG, GD, DA, AE string pairs. It would a pretty long lesson but very useful. It's very powerful to know this stuff so you can play it without thinking.

"Double Plus Good!"  (1984)   That would be a wonderful lesson set Robert.

Is that Newspeak?

That's right, Parsons!

Posted by: @clayton

Posted by: @robert

I am thinking I will do a longer lesson on playing through the most common modes, using only double stops, on EB, BG, GD, DA, AE string pairs. It would a pretty long lesson but very useful. It's very powerful to know this stuff so you can play it without thinking.

"Double Plus Good!"  (1984)   That would be a wonderful lesson set Robert.

Yes, Clayton, as a double stop newbie I’m really looking forward to the new lesson and to «Robert’s speak» – to broaden my «thinking» on double stops.

It would be also very helpful for me, @Robert, if you could talk a little bit about the double stop strumming technique.

And «play it without thinking» will be a big goal for me 😊. 

Thanks,

Birgit

"How many fingers?" O'Brien

"Two for Double Stops" Winston

Double-stops

Double-think

Double-speak 

Winning formula?

Perhaps a duet here at the Ministry of Silence, titled, "Oh, how I love Big Brother."

@bluesiline 

That really sounded so good. I really liked it. Smooth playing, rhythmatically speaking, spot on. I think you were stomping your toes too. 👍 

Practice log 02-28-2022

I keep on practicing double stops, 16th rhythm strumming and single note lines focusing now again on Robert’s lesson «Funk Riff James Brown Style» , a very cool riff and a lesson for which I’ve already made a 1st recording.

I’ve learned a little bit in the meantime, but the riff is still a tricky one for me because of the 16th note strumming pattern.

This time I decided not to use scratches between the accents, but to use only air strokes. I haven’t used air strokes before because I always got confused with the timing.  

So I did a lot of practice and now, in my 2^nd recording, I only use air strokes between the accents, no scratches.

What I can see from the video:

I have to pay attention to holding the notes longer and focusing on a steady movement of my strumming hand.

The strumming hand position still looks terrible but it takes time to fix it

I’ll definitely keep trying to improve myself, so that I’m able to switch between air strokes and scratches and hopefully to increase the tempo from 70 bpm now to Robert’s tempo (100 bpm).

Birgit

James Brown had the title, hardest working man in show business, and I think you, Birgit, are the hardest working student/member here at the MGA.  

Get down with your bad-self!

@clayton, thank you so much for your kind words! All I can say is: I enjoy practicing.

I would like to come back to your term „bad-self“ and replace it with „looking at the points I need to work on“. That’s the look I learned from Robert and you  - very important for being able to change even a little bit.

When I started my practice log, I couldn’t even figure out what I was doing well or badly during my guitar playing: I just did it and thought it was ok.

In the meantime I learned a lot from both of you, what I have to pay attention to, what I can do better. This also sharpened my senses regarding „what are the points I need to work on?“.

Meanwhile I know that this is a very tough road and I’m always grateful for very small improvements 😊.

Birgit

Great to see you play this! Timing can improved. I think you should keep the right arm going up and down non-stop. I will make another video to see if I can help clarify the details.

Strumming with muted strings is an important practice aspect in itself. Try playing 16th notes with muted strings and hit harder on the 1 2 3 and 4. 

ONE e and a TWO e and a THREE e and a FOUR e and a

Downstroke on the 1234 and the muted "ands". The others are upstrokes.

Practice log 04-27-2022

I haven’t had that much time to practice, but I’ve tried and I’m so glad that I could make a first but rudimentary recording (at 100 bpm instead of 120 bpm).

I managed to play the first 12 bars without a break, phew!, although it’s a tricky rhythm for me with a lot of double-stops …..

And it’s much easier for me to play the tritone after the pick-up notes with ring finger and pinky instead of middle finger and ring finger.

There is still a lot of work to be done, especially I’ve to work on my picking hand – it doesn’t happen overnight.

But it’s such a wonderful and tasty blues 😊 and I really want to improve. I’ll keep practicing.

Birgit

Addendum: Today (04-28-2022) I exchanged the video by another one (I made yesterday) with the correct up and downstrokes in bar 10, 11 and 12.

I can hear the magic rising in your playing- those are huge steps into the sonic landscape! 

Very exciting effort and progress.

Hey thanks for sharing that! You are really close. Try counting along - we have to start on the "2 and". You are starting much later, and that will not fit with the chords. 

Have you ever tried playing along with Soundslice? I wonder if you can try that. You can also slow it down right within Soundslice. 

Soundslice can also provide you with a count-in.