Learning Methods, What's working and what isn't?

[tapper mike]

Not all styles have the same approach to dynamics and it's not always about playing as fast as you can.

[mystran]

Not all styles have the same approach to dynamics and it's not always about playing as fast as you can.

Ofcourse not, but what I'm trying to say that I would personally want the expression to become muscle memory the same as everything else.

[tapper mike]

Today I have no rhythm for Travis picking and it's driving me insane. Then again my fingers/brain don't usually wake up till 11.

Yesterday I looked around at all the gear I never touch. Like my new tele and strat. My linnstrument. Everything I've put on hold while trying to master Travis Picking. I'm sinking into a hole. It's time for a brain break.

[tapper mike]

In a slightly related thing...

I finally took the time to figure out how the drum sequencer in cubase works so I could put in my own patterns. I've had two years with Cubase now and it's one of the things I never learned how to do. I'd just get frustrated and use predefined patterns or lift drum patterns from midi files.

I've been sequencing drums since the 80's on various hardware drum machines and even in other daws but I never sat down and followed along with a video on how to create or select a kit and then step sequence or simply perform on my keys/linnstrument. Which is funny to me because when I was using Abelton Live and bitwig I'd be able to knock it out of the park.

Now I can actually write drum patterns that match the rest of my songwriting rather than having to alter my guitar/keys playing and lose the beat I had in my head.

[hardyharrharr]

i don't want a wife
she would end up like my guitar
untouched for years

[lfm]

Today I have no rhythm for Travis picking and it's driving me insane.
. I'm sinking into a hole. It's time for a brain break.

That's not good.

Make sure what you eat, and maybe multivitamin to make sure you have it all covered.
It may be a physical thing too, just not mentally enhausted.

Our brain is magical but it also adjust very quickly to what is used or not.
- revisit warmups from before as well

As I understand you do keys as well, but do you have proper weighted keys piano?
- these sloppy synth like keys do nothing for strength in fingers

A good friend, an experienced drummer said, it takes about 4 days for new synapses to form, so don't expect result the same or next day.

Just a few thoughts...

[tapper mike]

Thanks, Yes you are correct in many ways.

No I sold my keys everything is guitar and linnstrument now. While the Linnstrument has velocity and pressure sensitivity there his very little throw and subtle tension on the surface.

It's a number of things both physiological and psychological. I'm getting older and seeing the early signs of memory loss. Part is diet but I have a family history of early Alzheimer's. While I had strong quick memorization in years gone by it's getting harder to learn and retain new things. I could be making considerably more if I retained my cognitive abelites of just a decade ago. Mostly I operate on wisdom. I'm to the point where I have postit notes through out my apartment reminding of things I need to do. I've had nights of complete blankout where I'll buy groceries and leave them in my car overnight because I forgot about them when I got home.

Yes I take all the right pills. Vitamins and what not. No my diet is not what it should be. I lose my appetite eat not nearly enough. Forget to do cardio Diet and Exercise are both important for mental acuity.

It's also important to have and end goal with a defined timeline. Beating a dead horse isn't the answer. If you are applying yourself to something you should have an end goal in mind. Play it in a song that has been written or improvise/write a song with what you are studying. Which leads to my current dilemma.

I may get the pattern but lose the feel. Patterns are taught using one chord then playing them in sets so each measure has a variation of said pattern. Then applying all that to a chord progression. Learn songs write songs perform live if you can.

Performing live is always the end point for me but that's always slipping away. Older songs that I've done for decades I can for the most part play from route if I have setlist with their names. The newer ones or ones I learned later on but didn't keep up with sometimes need a serious refresher. And then there is that addiction to sheet music all forms. Sometimes if I've only read it off a sheet I draw a complete blank without the sheet in front of me.

Sometimes backing tracks just get in the way especially if it isn't an exact match to what you are doing. On a good note. As I've stated elsewhere I finally took the ten minutes to figure out the drum sequencer in Cubase. Putting a kick on all four or on just i and 3 or a basic kick / stick /kick/stick is much more organic to me than a metronome will every be.

The above is funny to me as I've been programming drum sequencers since the 80's I learned to read drum notation and would study patterns to play/program. Just to have a little bit of a backing track in my four track cassette days.