The past two weeks of guitar practice have brought more progress. My calloused fingers are now strong enough to allow 2-3 hour sets, and if I take a break I can come back for another shortened set. The extended practice times are the main reason for the progress, but also the excitement of becoming better sets my mind to concentrate intently, knowing that each day may possibly bring new insights and physical skills.
I continue to compare learning guitar to learning how to read and write. The first year I needed to learn scales (alphabet), sounds of the notes (letters), how to hold a pick (pencil), how to strike the strings (writing). It took years of schooling to learn reading/writing, and so I expect the path of guitar to be a long journey as well. However, having gained a lifetime of insights into the art learning and practicing, things should go a bit faster because I can avoid some of the mental pitfalls which can plague a young and inexperienced mind. As a teen it was easy to fall prey to the propaganda of teachers, television and newspapers, but I now know what types of thoughts lead to stagnation and confusion - thoughts of fame and wealth, or any goal other than trying my best to learn and love, are folly and will lead to quitting the activity when those things don't happen (they won't happen for 99.99% of the world's population). All I have to do is love the practice, love the journey, and not have any preconceived ideas of where I should end up. Each day of practice is an end in itself, and although I have my eye to improvement, the practice is not a guarantee of it.
Tomorrow will be the 3rd jam session of the year - Peach Jam. I suggested to Joseph that we should start the jam with an idea of sets because in previous jams we just played whatever came into our heads and some of the time it was difficult to remain in harmony with each other. To overcome this confusion it might be better to discuss before each song/jam what key we will be in and what the dominant chords are. If someone gets lost (me) it would then be easy to get back into line by returning to the key chords and notes. I also suggested three songs for the Peach Jam, something which will bind us together, but also allow us to follow our imaginations when improvising. The songs are Graveyard Train and Heard it Through the Grapevine by CCR, and a version of Down by the River by Phish and Neil Young. I have been playing my best to Heard it Through the Grapevine, and lately I have learned how to fuse both rhythm and lead, and while doing both is not difficult, it requires a set of skills which I did not possess until only recently.
I will now break down the skills needed to play Heard it Through the Grapevine. Doing so will allow me to recall the progression of learning which brought me to this point. Someone just starting out would be thrilled to be able to play along to this song, but have no idea how to, or what it takes to get there.
Achieving a level of comfort in the basic skills - holding a pick; hitting the strings with accuracy and precision; being able to play while standing up; knowledge of keys and chords; knowledge of the 5 positions of the pentatonic scale and being able to play it across the fret board, in any key; bending strings; vibrato; strumming (for rhythm).
Each of the above skills takes weeks/months/years of practice to achieve the comfort needed in order to not think about the skill while playing the music. The skill should be an automatic response of the body and mind - no thought required, but much concentration upon the music and what the body is doing - a fine line!
A beginning student has to endure and keep the faith that all of the practice is leading to somewhere good. I can recall the difficult first months of the journey, when simply holding a pick required much thought and analysis. Hitting the strings with the pick was not easy, I would constantly hit the wrong string, or hit it too hard and deep, which then stopped the pick, making the next note difficult to get to. This too required thought and analysis. All of the thinking meant that no music could be made because the mind was trying to figure out how to achieve the skills needed to make music. Not being able to make music required faith that one day in the distant future I could perhaps figure it all out.
The pentatonic scale seems fairly simple at first glance - 5 notes, 5 patterns, yet it took me 20 months to get somewhat comfortable with it, and I am still far from having it down cold. Yet I have reached the point where I can move around the board with relative ease, being able to play all notes on all strings, which now makes playing blues/rock music a possibility. I have a long ways to go with this scale, but now that I am practicing 2-3 hours a day I become stronger with it each time I pick up the guitar.
Playing standing up and sitting down are vastly different. I chose to sit down when first learning because it seemed easier on the body. After months of practice I tried playing standing up and within 5 minutes strained my foot and neck, and it was more difficult getting the hands into certain positions. By this time Joseph was asking when I was coming over to jam and I had to laugh at myself because I could not see how it was possible to jam if I could not stand up and play for more than 5 minutes. I therefore told Joseph I was still months away from jamming. I knew I had to build up the physical strength, and I had learned from running that a little bit each day adds up quickly. I therefore played a few minutes every other day standing up, and after a few months was able to practice for 30 minutes without much discomfort. The first jam in the spring I was still uncomfortable playing while standing up, but I threw myself into the fire and was able to jam for 2 1/2 hours. I had trouble playing bar chords and just about everything else, so after that jam I worked everyday playing standing up. For the past few months it has become my preferred method of playing while jamming to music due to its expressiveness. For finger exercises I still prefer sitting down because expression is not needed.
The past month my ability to play along with music has improved. I am able to find the main bass riff within a few minutes. Having the bass riff is important because I can return to it when I want to pause the lead notes. I have also intuitively learned how to find chords to songs. By knowing the key, and therefore the notes of the 5 patterns, my fingers press down on 2 or 3 notes which are close together on the board, and strumming these notes makes a nice sounding rhythm. When I later look up the chords on a tab website I find that the notes I played were the correct ones after all. Using Heard it Through the Grapevine as an example, I found that strumming the key notes near the low frets (frets 1-4) sounded good. I realized I was playing the shape of the D minor chord, and a partial F chord. When I later looked up the tabs for the song I found that D minor and A7 were the main chords, and the A7 fell into the F chord pattern I was using. The ability to find chords on the fly from knowing the notes of the scale makes improvising easier and less mechanical. Instead of thinking that I must play D minor and A7 in a certain order, with correct fingering, I now know that it is fine to create chords based on sound and feel - perhaps this is the basis of improvisation and music making?
Thinking of the above analysis and the path of my guitar journey, for the first time I am feeling a kind of power in what I am doing - I know I have a chance (a slim one) of releasing the music which is inside of me, and this makes me practice even harder, for longer periods of time - now it gets fun!
