Competency

CliveE

I was listening to Jim's interview with Justin Sandercoe where he talks about being competent at the age of 17. I have read the discussion about lesson order but would like to ask another (probably naive) question. I bought the playing the blues lesson(among others) and kind of got the hang of it after a couple of days BUT to go from being able to play it medium paced with mistakes to playing it at tempo flawlessly seems like a mystery to me no matter how slowly and precisely I play it. Is it just time and keep at it, or is it possible my fingers just won't do it? Also does anyone have any opinions on using Jim's lessons to achieve a reasonable level of competence musically, so that you can kind of play along with most things and have an understanding of the musical principles without being expert.
Any thoughts much appreciated.

JMH

Keep at it. I wouldn´t be worried about not playing everything perfectly and up to speed after only a few days. Daily practicing is the key for long term results. You don´t need to practice eight hours a day, but fifteen minutes each day is better than four hours once a week. Also, perfect practice makes perfect. Make sure you practice cleanly, without mistakes and in time. For me, this means starting S-L-O-W-L-Y and learning the piece bar by bar while resisting the urge to speed up beyond my limits. I see no reason why your fingers would not be able to replicate the original tempo. In time your speed will increase naturally. Like Howard Roberts has said: "Speed is the byproduct of accuracy."

There´s also this guy who did pretty well with only two healthy fretting hand fingers...



Good luck & don´t give up! You can do it!

morroben

I would tell you to stick with it. I don't have the blues lesson, but I have several others and I highly doubt your fingers are incapable of playing the material, though anything's possible. What makes Jim's playing great isn't remarkable speed or insane stretches....he's just incredibly tasteful. What speed is required can be learned with practice.
Is there something in particular that's giving you problems? Single note lines? Moving between chords? Can you keep up with your left hand? Can your right hand keep up with your left hand? Is the timing of the two together the problem? Try to locate the specific difficulties and it becomes easier to correct them. And the folks here on the forum may have suggestions at that point.

CliveE

Thanks very much for your suggestions, much appreciated. I guess playing very slowly and precisely is the name of the game and let the speed come by itself. Playing along with the tune I guess is the way to get the timing right.
The other part of my question is really about being able to educate yourself musically in the most efficient way, and to that end I was wondering which lessons other people thought offered the best way to build the skills necessary to play competently, not in every style of course but kind of a broad range. Although I tend to play blues I quite enjoy fingerpicking a la Jorma Kaukonen, John Renbourn etc. and am very open to other stuff but don't want o go down too many blind alleys.

smogfalls

In my opinion, timing and dynamics, and melodic sense are way more important than speed. Speed is just an inevitable result of playing for a long time!
Saying that, there's no harm in working on speed also; try Jim's arpeggios lesson... you can't beat arpeggios as speed building exercises.

Keep at it mate, you'll get it.

Cheers,
Xan (guitar teacher)

kgharper

Well, I been labeled incompetent by some experts on the subject. I jest try not to let it get to me and keep goin. The movie "Napoleon Dynamite" was a great inspiration to me. He sent off for that instructional video on dancin and practiced there in the privacy of his own bedroom at his own pace.Then he went out n danced for the whole school n won the election for Pedro. Napoleon pretty much inspired me to do the same..........but only with the guitar. Some guy lent me a Robin Ford video n I been watchin it..........as of yet I ain't quite got it.......but I'll keep practicin till I'm competent, by golly. Robin Ford ain't no Jim Campilongo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but he'll have to do for now.