Erik van Goch -> RE: Picado and hand size. (Feb. 8 2014 22:06:18)
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ORIGINAL: Ricardo We all know Todd has been jumping on this poor guy but he is basically been saying that the results come from slow disciplined practice. Gabriel has felt the improvement and wants a pat on the back for it from people he respects. I would say he deserves it, but here we are now at the same stage developing a new simple idea. We can blame the length of the fingers or the age we started learning etc, but the truth is we need to be patient with new techniques and not make excuses for not seeing instant results in "a day or two". That pretty much sums it up :-) Gabriel, i generally watch your posts with a mixture of admiration (i really believe you have great potential) and a "there we go again" (my teachers eye telling me you are waisting time on things not worthy your attention while cementing bad habits). I totally agree with Todd's view that results comes from (as Ricardo so beautifully resumes) slow disciplined practice, not based on seeking instant results but on studying and cultivating perfection. A good bass player/teacher ones said "you must make it a habit always to play good" which is the same as "never to play bad". What's the point of playing a suggested ia-picado at full speed within a day if the result is so sloppy? That wise bass player mend to say that by accepting that sloppiness you are basically telling your hands and brain that sloppiness is ok. That ia combination is corrupted before it even had a change to enjoy a fresh start/healthy development, a perfect example of a "i'll perfect it later" attitude in process. You might think filling the preceding hours with more serious study holds the balance, but as long as you are tempted to "i'll perfect it later" actions you seriously obstruct your development and i can tell you first hand "later" is an illusion that eventually runs out of time. I'm 51 now and have the same talents and bad habit's as you have. I could play endlessly better if only i had the discipline "to cultivate perfection on a daily base and stop fooling around"...... but in stead i embraced the "i'll perfect it later" attitude during the past 20 years (if playing at all) with matching results. I started to play when i was 9 years old. Despite having the best teacher possible i proved to be a very poor student and after 2 years i stopped taking lessons in order to "study" flamenco on my own intuition. I had a lot of fun doing so but totally lacked any sense of quality awareness towards my own playing. When i entered Paco Peña's school of flamenco guitar (after playing the guitar for 14 years) i could only dream playing the guitar at the level you have right now. My 10 classmates all played way above my 1985 level as well. Still we all had to forget everything we learned before in order to start from scratch. The first year we hardly played music but fully focused on biomechanics (how to use your fingers/hand/wrist/arm the best possible way), technical exercises, playing strategies and last but not least proper relaxation. The first couple of years i still did not take these things to seriously (despite being a full time flamenco student) and as a result lacked skills when demands grow. So as a 3th or 4th year student i decided to study those 1th years exercises after all (very simple and monotone exercises allowing one to cultivate good habits and way simpler then the things you practice). Although these exercises were excellent i did not benefit from them at all because i only did them to please the teacher and the clock and the only thing i really invested in it was time. The missing factor were focus and the willingness/intellect to learn from it. Once i put in those ingredients i learned to play the guitar within 40 hours, hardly playing music at all, just focussing on understanding/studying my body, my guitar and training/refining my brain and nerve system (and the interaction input/output). Todd recommended you to slow down and even to go back to scratch. I honestly believe that is the only way to reach higher levels. Like i said, after 14 years of fooling around i had to start from scratch when i entered Paco's (5 year/full time) flamenco school and after 4 years of professional training (close to final exam) i voluntary started from scratch once again, this time with focus and giving it all my love and intellect. 4 weeks on a row i started every single day with a fresh mind, treating myself as an absolute beginner. Where Paco only asked me to become a baby again, i went back to the womb in stead. And the 40 hours i spend there were the most meaningful hours i ever spent behind the guitar. Every second (2 hours a day) was spent on re-connecting with my body and the guitar, hardly playing music at all but just studying biomechanics/ motion/ energy exchange/ tonal development and the utterly important relaxation, but this time with more depth and an incredible focus/desire to learn from it. I can tell you first hand that 5 minutes of intelligent, full focus study beats endless hours of mindless repeating. I share Todd's advice to study meaningful material only, at low speeds and with full focus, allowing your brain to monitor/evaluate/understand and guide your biomechanics/ movement/ tonal quality and rhythm wile changing bad habits for better ones. The biggest challenge really is to spend your time well and to find the right state of mind to connect with your body/soul and guitar the best possible way. The "slow" soleares you posted already was a big step in the right direction, assuming you not only play it slowly but use that extra time to monitor and change things for the good. But for me your "slow" is my upper speed when studying. Between two of my notes i have time to heat the water, make/drink a cup of coffee and do the dishes......... actually that is a lie because doing the dishes would obviously corrupt my hands. But seriously, once i realized the meaning and power of real focus i soon discovered that 2 hands were way to much to deal with (your brain basically can handle only 1 thing at the time). So i began studying left and right hand separately only to discover that 5 fingers are still way to much to handle if you demand total control. So i ended up studying individual fingers, phalange by phalange, studying every single move and action at microscopic level. I was not longer focused on playing music but on creating a perfect understanding/control of my body, energy transposal and tonal quality/development Once i had that understanding/ control i could play my pieces effortless without any further practice (this kind of studying really sets your technical/musical control on a totally different level). The best advice i can give is "the smaller the object of your focus, the bigger the result" (assuming you are able to recognize the bad/good and cultivate the good). To me the biggest challenge was getting in the right state of mind for this adventure because it is very demanding mental wise. Once you become thrilled by surging for perfection, working on a single phalange/finger/note/sound can be equally thrilling as playing highly demanding music and on top it is way more productive because you don't upgrade 1 falseta or a piece but your complete system. That 40 hour just shows how quick things can go if you pair talent and incredible ambition to personalized training (at that period of time i would have prefered playing 1 perfect open note over receiving 1.000.000 dollar, that's how motivated i was). Obviously i was extremely lucky that when i applied this way of studying i already had received numerous excellent lessons of the best of the best and as a result had a reasonable understanding of basic flamenco techniques and the correct musical interpretation. As a result every second could be spend on understanding/controlling my brain/body and guitar. Once you have that level of "control" the sky is the limit. Unfortunately i can also tell you first hand that you can lose it as quickly as you gained it if you abandon it to soon and lack the motivation to continue playing/studying like that. Becoming good is one thing, staying good and getting even better a very different one. You seem to have a lot of potential .... hate to see how good you might become when you really get in control of every aspect of playing :-). Ps I generally start with placing/plugging the involved right hand fingers simultaneously. So i probably would start with placing i and a on the same string fallowed by plugging the string with both fingers at the same time, just to study how to hold/shape the hand/fingers/nails to become a unit (they should glide of simultaneously when applying equal pressure). This might help to level out the difference in length between the fingers. You are not fixed to that position but it might be a nice starting/reference point for future investigations (i always like to start with a reference point). Also i like to add that critic can be a bad and a good thing, depending on the context. Many students of the conservatory were used to be admired and highly praised before they entered the professional teaching scene and now suddenly all the focus is on what is wrong with their playing :-). Some could not cope with that and did not appreciate critical notes of the teachers. But what is the use of paying your teacher lots of money if he don't use the time to focus on your flaws? Funny enough they often applied their advice later on, thinking they invented it them self. It is a fact you can only see/ benefit things if you are ready for it. In a way it took me 4 years to re-invent/benefit the first lessons, after which i processed the next 4 years in 40 hours :-) Also not every road fits everyone, we all have to find our own best route.... but sometimes altering that route can be very rewarding (on the long run :-).
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