Clips - pompe critique, please?

Passacaglia

OK, messing around last night, clips. I've got some thoughts, but I'd appreciate a bit of helpful feedback on this Minor Blues clip, in terms of La Pompe.

Thanks,

Paul

Passacaglia

Just a second clip, Djangology. I am trying to work on easing the fairly plodding, heavy nature of what I'm hearing (want to achieve a really "leger" pompe), so any helpful critique and suggestions (on this, or anything else), very much appreciated.

Paul

Matthias Lenz

Hi Paul !

In my opinion there are quite a few things you can improve :

1.) General timing : use a metronome to practice with, in order to develop a feel for a steady pace. Apart from any stylistic details, it´s the most crucial thing to develop good time-keeping.

2. beats 1+3 are very weak, with hardly any accent. Play the full chord instead of just the bass note, and keep it short, don´t let it ring. Also, try and get the upstroke closer to the beats, and don´t mute it. By playing these long and muted upstrokes, they get too dominant and steal even more energy from the following beats.

3. beats 2+4 should also be stronger and shorter. Keep the chords really short on these, which sounds more percussive, and give it a really strong accent.

So, when practicing, really use a metronome. Isolate beats 1+3 from 2+4 and practice both separately. When doing 1+3, let your hand hang loosely and don´t even waste a thought on that upstroke. Just lift your hand up as late as you can to get the beat in time with the downstroke, and the subtle upstroke will be the result. That´s my best attempt at describing this in words, and I guess it´s what everyone means when they say that the up-and downstroke is one movement really. To me it´s happening more in a passive way instead of being a trained rhythmical movement.

Well, I hope I didn´t go in too hard with my criticism, and that all this is helpful information for you. Enjoy playing and have fun

Passacaglia

Matthias, thank you very much, fantastic feedback - precisely what I want to work on, and these are very helpful. I know I've got a long way to go - been away from playing for a long time, and although I will be formally studying with someone coming up shortly, I want to make sure I'm not practicing in a way that is on the wrong track.

Matthias Lenz wrote:

Hi Paul !

In my opinion there are quite a few things you can improve :

1.) General timing : use a metronome to practice with, in order to develop a feel for a steady pace. Apart from any stylistic details, it´s the most crucial thing to develop good time-keeping.

2. beats 1+3 are very weak, with hardly any accent. Play the full chord instead of just the bass note, and keep it short, don´t let it ring. Also, try and get the upstroke closer to the beats, and don´t mute it. By playing these long and muted upstrokes, they get too dominant and steal even more energy from the following beats.

3. beats 2+4 should also be stronger and shorter. Keep the chords really short on these, which sounds more percussive, and give it a really strong accent.

So, when practicing, really use a metronome. Isolate beats 1+3 from 2+4 and practice both separately. When doing 1+3, let your hand hang loosely and don´t even waste a thought on that upstroke. Just lift your hand up as late as you can to get the beat in time with the downstroke, and the subtle upstroke will be the result. That´s my best attempt at describing this in words, and I guess it´s what everyone means when they say that the up-and downstroke is one movement really. To me it´s happening more in a passive way instead of being a trained rhythmical movement.

Well, I hope I didn´t go in too hard with my criticism, and that all this is helpful information for you. Enjoy playing and have fun

Matthias Lenz

You´re welcome, Paul ! Glad I could help

One more thing about the metronome : after you isolated beats 1+3 from 2+4 and practiced each separately, go over to playing the whole "pompe" pattern, but set the metronome to HALF the speed you´re really playing.
Start with metronome giving beats 1+3, and after a while "turn it around" and let the metronome give you beat 2+4. But in both modes, keep your foot tapping on 1+3.

This will really force you to keep good time, and you´ll instantly recognize when you´re getting off pace. Makes you sweat in the beginning, of course, but it´s really effective and pays off nicely.

P.S.: Welcome back to playing guitar. It´s wonderful, isn´t it ? 8)

Passacaglia

Yes, it is wonderful, Matthias, and it's wonderful to be taking it up again, and this time with far more earnestness than when I was young. By the way, I've never heard you're playing before tonight - saw some of your music on Youtube. Thank you for such great music.

I returned tonight to the first things I began with, a couple of months ago - amazing to me how fast things can fall if not given attention. Like a flattened wrist, the "one-wash" of the upstroke that I worked on, but too quickly abandoned, for instance. I went back tonight and just worked to get back some sense of a smooth "crush" attack on beats 1, 3, and really want to hone the sound of the up/down as one "wave."

Lots to work on, obviously. I am pleased I've gotten a playing chord vocabulary I never knew before starting up again, but it's clear it's time to return to true fundamentals (I'm sure it's always time to return to true fundamentals). Thanks again (and thanks, Michael, and Denis, as well, for taking the time and so considerately providing your expertise), for pointing these out.

dennis

sorry for the cheap quality i recorded these with my laptop mic and on an archtop guitar, but you'll get the idea...

you'll find four different rhythm styles :

you'll find a subtle downstroke style

a heavy gypsy downstroke style where there's more accents in the bass and where the second and fourth beats are much dryer (almost muted but not quite)... lots of people today seem to like this style...

you'll find a very subtle upstroke style that bireli's rhythm player uses

and a heavier upstroke style that stochelo's rhythm player uses

Passacaglia

I just wanted to publically offer my humble gratitude to Denis; I come from a tradition of direct teaching, what in my former training we call (english translation) "mind-to-mind transmission," a direct means to maintain and pass on a lineage that avoids a lot of words and other obfuscations.

Anyway, not to add too much coloratura to a sincere feeling, just want to thank a true master here for being so generous.

In Gassho,

Paul