What guitar did you play today and how long?

[Uncle E]

Anything NAM or Tonex is excellent. You can download Tonex CS for free and that comes with enough to do anything you need. I've also been using the NAM plugins by Nicestomps, which are nice because they log directly in to tone3000.com to download NAM profiles on the fly:

https://giannichiarello.com/NiceStompsPlugins/

[tapper mike]

Sorry I can't help there. I left
Ableton a long time ago in persuit of a more traditional DAW.

What I rememger about message in the bottle was Electro Harmonix Mistress set to flanger Though others have said it was something cleaner like a tc electronics

With regards to plug0in effects I'll leave that to someone more qualified in that realm

[tapper mike]

So after a good five hour workout with my acoustic (D"Angelico Tammany) and plenty of rest I picked up my MIM Telecaster.
God I love the tone on that Tele

[tapper mike]

It's a slow start for me today. I'm playing the parker and a touch of arthritis has settled in. While as a whole I think my travis picking ability has improved considerably Band in a Box makes a fool of me

[tapper mike]

Started with the tele now I'm on the strat.

Just changed strings on the strat (first time since I bought it) Did a quick neck adjustment. Have to say fresh strings stretch pdq on this thing and are staying in tune.

I'm making a musical transition I never thought I would... Country.

When I started this journey I just wanted to be a better travis picker. I can fingerpick but never really cracked down on the art of travis picking. I'm getting better to the point where I can accompany my singing over "Americana / pop rock" Which I'll take the win and acknowledge that I have a long way to go still.

Two hours in on the travis picking and today's/yesterdays' exercises aren't making too much progress on. My scaling/scale pattern skills have all returned in all 12 keys. Though I'm exceedingly bored with them.

[mystran]

I'm making a musical transition I never thought I would... Country.

I kinda don't care for country at all, but ... lately I've actually been looking at bluegrass stuff quite a bit simply because, that flat-picking is something that would kinda be nice for a whole lot of other stuff as well.

[Uncle E]

Try rasgueado. I've never been able to do those super fast funky rhythms using standard alternate picking, but I can do them with rasgueado.

[tapper mike]

Try rasgueado. I've never been able to do those super fast funky rhythms using standard alternate picking, but I can do them with rasgueado.

That's my treatment with hybrid picking when it requires fast strumming.

[mystran]

I feel like I can strum reasonably fast (if I just do straight 16ths over all the strings, I can kinda keep up to around 170-180bpm or so, but .. realistically I'm not going to hit any real patterns at that speed, would have to practice quite a bit for that; not really "super fast" but I'd say in the funk territory) and I'd say I use a completely different technique from regular alternate picking for that. With regular alternate picking you need to be precise to hit the correct string, but with strumming I feel like that's not as important (muting any "accidents" with the fretting hand just makes you sound more percussive and "funky") and it's more of a matter of raw velocity.

So... the way I'd do it is basically the exact same way you'd bow fast on a violin, but since that's probably not terribly helpful for most people, let me try to explain: the wrist needs to be very loose and it's more like you're shaking the wrist from your elbow, applying short impulses of force to change the direction of travel and then just letting the inertia of the hand's (and forearm's) mass carry it through the strings. The actual motion is physically a lot easier to do than what it might seem, the difficult part is convincing your brain that it's really the loose "inertial" motion that you want and also teaching your brain to anticipate the musical timing sufficiently, so that the hand is already halfway through the motion by the time the pick needs to hit the strings.

Now... fast cross-picking on the other hand... that's just difficult, 'cos especially with wider string skips you need almost the same raw hand velocity as with the faster strumming, but now it needs to be precise too!

[mystran]

I experimented with this "funk strumming" thing a little bit more, 'cos I've never really done much of it ... and the one thing I want to add to the subject is: use a thick (=rigid), pointy pick.

Conventional wisdom says "thick picks are good for lead playing, thinner picks for strumming" but honestly I tried using a medium .88 tortex with a standard round tip ... and I can't even do 120bpm 16ths with any amount of consistency 'cos it's just too floppy, too much effort to push through the strings 'cos you can't really edge pick and it's just ... horrible.

Went back to the 2mm Flow that I normally use ... and problem solved, speed is back.

[mystran]

I experimented with this "funk strumming" thing a little bit more, 'cos I've never really done much of it and the one thing I really want to add to the subject is: use a thick (=rigid), pointy pick. Conventional wisdom says floppy picks are good for strumming. Conventional wisdom sucks.

I tried using a medium .88 Tortex with a standard round tip ... that's probably as "normal" as pick get... and frankly I can't do 120bpm 16ths with any amount of consistency.

Back to 2mm Flow... problem solved.

ps. I think the main reason why this makes such a difference to me is that with a "floppy" pick there's a pretty drastic change in the amount of resistance from the strings depending on how much you dig into the strings, where as with a rigid pick it's always pretty much the same... and with a pointy tip you can still get a nice crisp attack even if you go on the edge, which makes it feel even more consistent. YMMV.

[Cuauhtli]

I used the rounder edge of a heavy pick for speed sweeps/arpeggios. Mostly because my technique was trash. I just don't like practicing technique and I prefer messing with my synthesizers 99% of the time. But I have gotten better at arpeggios/sweeps, just need to practice.

[cryophonik]

Played my Lakland 55-01 for a few hours today and I’m feeling a little rusty not to mention a little bit of tightness or arthritis in my left hand. A few of my old bandmates from different bands have been urging me to join their new band, but I’m way out of practice with both bass and vocals and I’ve become a homebody these past few years, so IDK… These days, I much prefer the comfort and convenience of my studio over band practices and gigs.

[khanyz]

My trusty, long serving, Stagg folk Electro Acoustic for a couple of hours, with a bog standard Planet Waves 0.70mm pick.

It needs some more lemon oil.

[tapper mike]

I like the fact that this thread is keeping going.

I've been finally getting back into the linnstrument and god am I rusty. Spent about a half hour on it today transposing keyboard rhythm patterns. Sometimes I think it's over sensitive and others I just have to admit I need to spend more consitant time on the thing doing the banal work to build those core rhythm ideas. When it was new or even newer it seemed that all the stuff just flowed from my fingers.

I've tapered off on my scaling exercises for now. Yes a different key each day but I tend to spend less than a half hour on major and melodic minor scales. As much as I've tried to workout travis style as soon as I get into serious covers as performed I get into the deep end and get frustrated. Suffice it to say many of these "learn to play" guitar videos while nice primers on methods are so far from the actual recording it isn't even funny. Not so much the chord progressions but the patterns themselves are way to simplified. A young Bob Dylan or Paul Simon makes fools of us all.