A week on ;-)

rottjung

hey, well for myself and anyone interested, Jazzaferri's post inspired me to make one of my own where i track my progress.
hopefully with a lot a educational comment and critiques from you guys.
i bought my Manouche guitar about 3 weeks ago and started learning GJ from day one. Only I played everything with my palm on the bridge using a lot of down-sweeps but also a lot of up-sweeps.
after a week or two I got minor swing and bouncing around pretty good.

BUT THEN, hehehe i discovered rest-stroke!!! and couldn't play anything on a guitar anymore!

anyways after a week now of intense rest-stroke practice, this is the result.
I'm happy i made the switch a week ago and didn't wait any longer.
it's almost starting to feel natural already.
you can see i still have to practice a lot especially in higher gear! ;-) the 184 bpm is very sloppy...



btw the lick is a small variation on the opening of django's solo on minor blues.

Spartan

rottjung wrote:

BUT THEN, hehehe i discovered rest-stroke!!! and couldn't play anything on a guitar anymore!

LOL! That's like me in the last couple of weeks! trying to totally revamp my picking technique, no more resting on the bridge all the time!

Felt really strange at first, but it's slowly starting to feel more natural and with all the phrasing inflections the rest stroke playing gives you, you see why the technique is so vital to the art.

For me it's like starting from scratch, so i particularly identify with your quote at the top here!

Well done on the video, you're coming along really well.

rottjung

thx spartan, hehe i got a gig coming up this week.
it's kind of a rockband (ref; www.myspace.com/therottchilds) and we didn't play for over a month or two (working on album)
now with me getting familiar with the rest strok feeling, I'm curious how performing will be.
will i go on auto pilot and play like before... sure hope so because i can't play our set in rest stroke!
standing up will help I hope, and my electric guitar is way lower then sitting with my new sweetheart.

I'll post my progress next month, you could do the same spartan. then we can reference our progress on one an other.

Spartan

rottjung wrote:

thx spartan, hehe i got a gig coming up this week.
it's kind of a rockband (ref; http://www.myspace.com/therottchilds) and we didn't play for over a month or two (working on album)
now with me getting familiar with the rest strok feeling, I'm curious how performing will be.
will i go on auto pilot and play like before... sure hope so because i can't play our set in rest stroke!
standing up will help I hope, and my electric guitar is way lower then sitting with my new sweetheart.

I'll post my progress next month, you could do the same spartan. then we can reference our progress on one an other.

Hi rottjung, oh! sounds as though you'll have to go back to the rock technique for that gig!

As far as mixing the styles when you're first learning this, did anyone else forego the way they played previously to totally immerse themselves in the rest stroke picking? or did most people mix it up? It'd be interesting to know! :?:

Mark DS

ah but can you play it at 40bpm?

rottjung

Mark DS wrote:

ah but can you play it at 40bpm?

i think so ;-), i practised it at that speed more or less, well I'll try it...
btw the video was honestly meant as progress tracking since i find this still very poor playing. hope to see change every month...

Jazzaferri

If you get a chance to view Stochelo's DVD on his style (Dennis Chang) you will notice that his pick attack is at more of a down angle.

If you are not rest stroke picking I regret my error. To me it looks more like alternate picking.

If you have any classic training or books it is the pick version of Apoyando (gad I think I got that right but not sure ... its been 30 odd years since I studied that) :shock:

Jazzaferri

A thought for you to consider.

Try playing the piece you are playing with only downstrokes. The important thing in this exercise is to focus on a loose hand with not tension. If you feel any tension in your right hand or arm slow down.

While practicing really slowly seems counterintuitive most teachers I know would agree that one gets further in the medium and long term by going slowly than by practicing quickly.

It took me 6 months before I would comfortably play the lick you are playing at 160 bpm with good technique.

rottjung

i play it like this, every new string i start with a down stroke
the beginning of the vid is a bit messed up...

Jim Kaznosky

Jazzaferri wrote:

A thought for you to consider.

Try playing the piece you are playing with only downstrokes. The important thing in this exercise is to focus on a loose hand with not tension. If you feel any tension in your right hand or arm slow down.

While practicing really slowly seems counterintuitive most teachers I know would agree that one gets further in the medium and long term by going slowly than by practicing quickly.

It took me 6 months before I would comfortably play the lick you are playing at 160 bpm with good technique.

It took me many months to realize that this is the correct way to do it. I was enviable at the evenness of Gonzalo's lines on Djangophonic and instantly knew that the only way to attend this is to not rush the process. At triplets, I hover around 120-130bpm before it becomes sloppy; 16th notes-110bpm, 8th notes, 150bpm. I start every practice item real slow and increase the tempo until I can't play the exercise clean. That's the absolute stopping point for me for the day.

Mark DS

rottjung wrote:

i play it like this, every new string i start with a down stroke
the beginning of the vid is a bit messed up...

It looks like you correct it halfway through, but definitely be mindful of your fingers hitting the body of the guitar, because your nails will create this kind of tapping sound.