Monday, August 8, 2016

4 fingers death shred


Hello, Monday. But I'm not gonna talk about Monday. This was what happened last weekend- more 4-notes-per-string workout. Current obsession? Not really, it's my attempt to address boredom & the need to try something that's out of my comfort zone. I've always been a 3-notes-per-string person till I keep listening to Tom Quayle, Alan Holdsworth, Brett Garsed, et al. 

I sounded worse than a noob, completely helpless & stupid-sounding when I started out. All the fumbling & mistakes reduced me to nothing. But like all good education (self-education included), there is a need for a plan & the essential plan here is to start things slow which I'm completely not used to. The slow approach worked wonders & the next step to it was the reduction of unnecessary tension in my fretting fingers. It's more psychological than anything else, keep telling yourselves to stop forcing your fingers down too hard because you are not a beginner- it should work. Develop some exercises to see this through & on to the final aspect of all this- muting. I sounded bad with all those extraneous noise in the way. Sometimes when one places too much focus on the left hand, the right hand gets neglected. I repeated whatever rubbish lick I played with those awful noises in the way. Discipline is key.

OK done. I'm not saying I'm up there when it comes to 4-notes-per-string playing but I have properly incorporated something that was never a part of my playing. It had always been a part-tapping approach when four notes needed to be played in quick successions but I'm glad I have another perspective in addressing the same delivery. One can never stop learning, keep that in mind :-)

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