It might just be I have chubby fingers, but getting each note here to ring out clearly took a lot of practice. The older I get the more I appreciate Ed O’Brien’s parts in Radiohead, less immediate but more the tone on which the track is built.
This is an interesting one to solo over as it has a minor to major key change half way through, and to play rhythm as it has some unusual chord shapes in it.
Another song full of very nuanced playing, which I struggle not to make sound robotic. For all your fancy lead lines, both Hendrix and Mayer are masters of making the rhythm part sound beautifully detailed.
Today I Practiced: Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by John Mayer
I’ve been practicing this one for ages and I still can’t nail the subtleties of it. I thought I’d be better finger style for a while but decided to go back to the pick today as that seems to help a little.
This really messes with my head. I can go this pattern quickly in position one, which has a much more regular layout, but in position two I really struggle. This probably tells me something deep about how my brain and motor skills work :)
I have to confess that I don’t know the original - this is an exercise is Hendrix style double-stops to me. Playing double stops up round the middle of the fretboard seems to get the best tone out of this guitar and amp.
Really struggled to get my head into practice today, particularly annoying when I missed practice time yesterday. Here’s some travis style finger picking exercises that I do regularly. It wasn’t until recently I learned to put the plectrum down occasionally.
This is me getting frustrated as I trip up again and again and again on this one. A mix of bends that need to be hit, transitions from picking individual notes to arpeggios, double stops, it has them all.
The first blues solo I learned, and it’s still a little ropey as I’ve not practiced it for a while. I do like how the tele gets the slightly nasal tone of that 50s blues songs though.
I really struggle to feel triplets, I’m counting on my head all the way here. I also see I’m doing that weird non-alternate picking on the way down the scale again - tsk.
This is the to and tail at the end of today’s practice where nothing was coming out right. Then I stumbled upon a nice set of chords and could vent my frustration over it for five minutes :) Not every day will practice feel like progress, but this saved today’s session from feeling like a total waste of time :)
Going down I see my alternate picking is fine but on the way back up I seem to do down-down-down-up without realising it. Dammit subconscious motor skills!