Rest Stroke "relax" - how? And a few other questions

Charles Meadows

I gather you've been doing exercise 2 from Christiaan's second video? It has worked wonders for me.

Scoredog

Having been a fairly successful pro why change a winning formula, but I took the plunge a bit over 2 yrs ago now and my playing has improved drastically...I am moving into my late 50's so there was certainly a lot of trepidation in deciding to change my technique. One of the most gratifying things to see was the ability to change and dramatically at this stage of my life. It cannot only be done but can be done where I often feel an upward trajectory, what an unexpected blessing to have. I have now put a bunch of time in so that is the caveat but if you are just sitting at home and have some spare time can it be spent in a better way?

That's a personal question for you to ponder.

Bones

Chas- yes I've been working on ex. 1-4. After slowing WAY down and videoing my right hand I noticed a LOT of unnecessary motion so I am starting over and trying to re-program my muscle memory. I think it is going to be a long process. Finally feel like ex 1 and 2 are better at slow tempos but afraid to speed up much since I think I will fall back into my old habits. Ex. 3 and 4 are still pretty poor but I'm working on them as well. Have not really worked on ex. 5. The plan is to get these movements pretty solid and then go back and re-program licks and arps. Sigh....

SD- it's nice to know that us over 50 types can still learn something new. I really need to put some time into this. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of quality free time (only small amounts of time here and there) so I really need to try to prioritize carving out some larger blocks of time as an initial investment.

woodamand

Charles Meadows wrote: »

I gather you've been doing exercise 2 from Christiaan's second video? It has worked wonders for me.

Uh, no. I know about the video re: rest stroke and that is great, but because of my class I have been concentrating more on la pompe. Unless you are talking about videos that are not on youtube, is that right?
For that I guess I need to dig into video 1. I also bought a quick video by Yaakov Hoter, and looking at that.
I still have no idea if I am doing this right at all. Maybe I will post a video at some point

jonpowl

Here are a couple of more videos for gypsy swing rhythm that have already been posted at Djangobooks:
and: http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/12595/the-gonzalo-rhythm-sound/p4
Certainly worth a look, and I try to review them every month or so.

woodamand

Thank you! I will study both of the videos and hopefully make more sense of this.

NylonDave

For a rest stroke place the pick on the string at about 45 degrees to the plane of the guitar top. Then it is easy to get through the sting and you can play as loud or as soft as you want depending on the amount of arm weight you use. The stroke itself is a gentle ROTATION of the whole forearm from the elbow, there should be no change in the angle of the elbow, it should feel like using a screwdriver or turning a doorhandle.


All the guys who struggle have the pick addressing the string perpendicular to the top like normal economy picking and try and saw with the whole forearm like bad strumming ( same motion as hammering a nail in), it takes a lot of force to get through the string like this and you get a real loud uncontrolled heavy ugly sound and a tense wrist (actually your whole arm and neck). Most guys give up after a few notes in a jam and alternate pick and it sounds thin and uneven.

It takes around ten seconds to get this right. If it seems hard then move you hand to where you can place the pick at 45 degrees. If you use your old electric/flatpick hand position then you might be struggling for the rest of your life. That seems pessimistic but looking at jam sessions this is what the vast majority do.

If it seems at all hard then you are doing it wrong.

There is no retraining of muscles or building of strength required. Just stop doing it wrong and it is pretty much instantly easy.

D.