1. learning by memorizing lines 2. dots on fretboard

richter4208

There is not one path. There is not even the right path. There is only your path.

NylonDave

There are many paths, few choose their own for the way is cold and strangers fearful.

Better to shuffle along close packed, warmed by your fellows fore aft on a path described by liars to a goal that was never reached, eyes closed or on your neighbour or on the ground. Proud of the chains dearly bought. Happy.

Save when a foolish stranger crosses your path and challenges your 'freedom'.

D.

Bones

You know now that I think about it my archtops that I hardly play are all 9th fret and my Gallatos are 10th fret but I don't even notice it switching between them and I just played one of the archtops last week. Didn't even think about it until just now. I'm guessing I only really use the 5, 7 and 12th markers consciously or unconsciously????

NylonDave

Bones wrote: »

You know now that I think about it my archtops that I hardly play are all 9th fret and my Gallatos are 10th fret but I don't even notice it switching between them and I just played one of the archtops last week. Didn't even think about it until just now. I'm guessing I only really use the 5, 7 and 12th markers consciously or unconsciously????

I have never in my life been handed a cup and missed it unless I was looking somewhere else.

You look at the cup your hand goes there.

The ONLY reason to ever miss a shift is that you have started shifting before you look. If you are looking at your hand it will take a moment to widen your focus to include the guitar and to pinpoint where you want to go, if this process is continuing as you are due to play you will panic rush and miss.

You look early and then shift and then instead of fixing on your hand you CHOOSE where to look next. Shifting stops being a problem.

There is no debate about this, if someone disagrees then they have not understood. The eyes closed or open thing is a distraction although I will say that it is a great exercise to play through a piece by ear in a new key visualising the fingering in your minds eye, away from the guitar. Again it doesn't matter whether or not you have your eyes open.

Every first driving lesson starts with the instruction to look well ahead. Not at the steering wheel, and certainly not to close your eyes. People who ignore this instruction have more accidents and more stress.

I note that there are a lot of new cyclists and they have frequent crashes, mainly because they are unaware that the bike follows their gaze. So they see a pothole or a pedestrian and stare in panic then fall off as their entire body is confused as they try and steer away from where they are staring. Every single seeing animal on the planet is set up for the body to follow the gaze. Tension and panic are the result of staring somewhere other than where you want to go.

This is FREE advice, for goodness sake someone admit they understand it as it is perfectly straightforward.Free is good, free you can trust. I am selling nothing.

But it is HARD to implement as you have to integrate conscious use of your eyes into your practice. The addiction of staring at your hand or gazing internally (ie out of focus blank expression) is addictive like all bad habits. And like all bad habits it will encourage you to make excuses to persist in it.

Maybe there is a special plectrum with a mirror in it that will allow you to look at your left hand whilst staring at your right. Maybe that's the answer. I'll make some, thirty quid seems about right... maybe you'll trust me then.



D.

Bones

Thanks Dave. Yes that absolutely makes sense. Same with sports or any other activity. You look where you want your body to go and it will follow.

Elí Saúl

Well, I learnt to play on a guitar that had no dots and got used to it, never relied on the dots for real.
However It's quite a process changing from guitar to guitar, when I got my Dell'Arte I encountered many issues with it's long scale neck and the size of the body, had been almost only playing archtop and classical and took me a while to get used to the favino type.
The dots doesn't seem to matter if you are used to the guitar, at least for me.

I have this friend who had a lot of issue playing my old dotless guitar, a few years ago I lended it to him for a month or so and he said it helped him to be able to switch guitars easier.

I guess it's a matter of knowing well your instrument, just look at cellists and upright bass players. That seems hard as hell!

croth

rafapak wrote: »

Hi guys

1. I would like to ask you for help. Except for Gonzalo Bergara's materials which method that teaches improvisation is based on learning ready made lines by heart ? Can you recommend any tutor or any book that teaches by telling students to learn lines by heart? I like this method of learning therefore I am looking for materials that teach in this way.
2. I have recently bought gitane dg 255. I like this guitar but unfortunately white dots on fretboard are placed on 10th and 12th frets . On my regular guitars dots are placed on 9th and 12th frets. Do you know any methods to correct position of dots so that my gitane looks like regular guitar and I don't get confused when I play gitane ? Should I buy black sticky tape or sth and put it on existing white dots?
Should I buy white sticky tape and put white dots on desired frets ? Probably sticky tape method will not work so can you recommend something different ?

While I certainly respect Adrian as a teacher and player, I have tried the tactic of trying to adjust my dot orientation on the fly and, after many months of frustratingly trying with a new GJ guitar I had purchased, I had to give in. If you're like me, and not a particularly talented guitarist to begin with, adjusting to dot placements is one last thing you don't need on your plate. I play other styles of music and all of my guitars have the dot on the 9th fret as do others of my GJ guitars. I think I have enough trouble learning to play the style without having to struggle with dot placement. With due respect to those of you supporting the idea of getting used to it, I'm sure some of the more talented players can do it, but it might be recognized that it's not a skill everyone can master.

So, to answer rafapak's question, it is not a difficult job for a decent guitar technician to remove the 10th fret markers (and make the work effectively disappear), both on the fretboard and on the sides, and place new ones in the 9th fret position. I have done this twice, once with an Eimers and once with a Barault) and both times with excellent success. After I had it done, I kicked myself for the months I threw away trying to change the muscle and eye-hand coordination that had been built into me over the many years I have played the guitar. Imho there is no real value in forcing yourself to do that. It will not make you a better player in any way.

Find a respectable tech and have it done. You won't regret it. If you do find yourself in that unusual position of being at a jam and having to borrow someone else's guitar, just don't play anything between the 9th and 12th frets (3 frets!) and you'll be fine! :-)

Oh yes, about the Gonzalo books. I use them and I love them. I have been in touch with Gonzalo regarding these books. If I understood him correctly, he told me that it was not his intention for the users of those books to memorize the entire etude (which is what I was trying to do), but that within the etudes are valuable licks that the student should pick out for themselves and absorb those for themselves. I have started to look at them that way and it makes things a lot clearer. Of course, you do have to play the etude to get a feel for the licks within each that you like, but you don't have to memorize them.

rafapak

thanks for reply