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Topic: In a Slump |
Deirdre Higgins
From:
Connecticut, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 7:50 am |
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Hi, I hope Everyone is doing well.
I have been in a slump musically,I was improving steadily up to around three weeks ago then my picking has seemed to have changed, and now I sound awful; I'm getting depressed because I love the steel guitar and really wanted to get good at it  Maybe it's because I've started so late in life.
Does anyone ever get into this kind of slump? And what to do about it?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
_________________
Jerry Byrd Fan |
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Rick Barnhart
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 7:54 am
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Never fear, it happens to all of us. When I start to feel slumpy, I just take a little break from my steel, and brush up on something else. My steels have a way of calling me back, though.
_________________
Clinesmith consoles D-8/6 5 pedal, D-8 3 pedal & A25 Frypan, Pettingill Teardrop, & P8 Deluxe. |
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Deirdre Higgins
From:
Connecticut, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 8:53 am
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Thanks Rick,
I forgot to mention that lately I've been paying much attention to my right hand picking/muting maybe that's what's wrong I'm trying too hard.
_________________
Jerry Byrd Fan |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 8:56 am
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| Relax. Jam with some friends. Take a break. The results oriented approach can often drain you and leave you feeling like you do. Try to think of the experience as a process and not a destination. Look at what's happening right now with open curiosity and inquiry, it will pass. |
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John Speck
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 9:20 am slump
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| It seems like when that happens to me, I will take a break from it. Then when I pick it up again I will come back better than I was before. The act of playing any instrument is physical, and like anything physical, the muscles get tired and need to recuperate. Practice slowly. They say practice makes perfect. Well, perfect practice make perfect. Otherwise you are practicing your mistakes and you play your mistakes perfectly. I'm reaching to myself with that one. |
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Rick Barnhart
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 10:22 am
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It can be difficult to break the "looking at your right hand" habit...but break it you must. Practice right hand grips so much that you instinctively know where the strings are. Remember, your strings are always where you left them. Your bar on the other hand (literally and figuratively) is constantly moving and you must devote your attention there in order to remain in tune and on target.
_________________
Clinesmith consoles D-8/6 5 pedal, D-8 3 pedal & A25 Frypan, Pettingill Teardrop, & P8 Deluxe. |
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Loren Depping
From:
Lihue, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 3:00 pm
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| I empathize. Very much in the identical position right now...I'm 50 and feeling like I started too late. Try to enjoy it as much as you can and *don't give up!* |
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Larry Carlson
From:
My Computer
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 3:13 pm
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| Loren Depping wrote: |
| I empathize. Very much in the identical position right now...I'm 50 and feeling like I started too late. |
50? I am wearing underwear older than that.
Try 70+. I know I started too late to get much better than mediocre but it is just
too darn much fun trying and it keeps my old sclerotic brain active.
I played acoustic 6 string for decades and when I got in a slump I would back off for one day and then
come back and work on something entirely different for a while.
After a few days I would go back and start where I left off and things usually seemed to straighten themselves out a bit.
I needed to take a break because the "slump" was causing frustrations which made it even harder for me to play. It seemed to help me at least.
_________________
I have stuff.
I try to make music with it.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
But I keep on trying. |
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Chase Brady
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 6:11 pm
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I've been doing the online dobro lessons with Andy Hall. He was talking about pick-blocking and other forms of muting and said something that kind of registered with me. I don't remember quite the wording, but the gist of it was don't focus too hard on the mechanics. Instead, get the sound that you are trying to achieve clearly in your head, relax and trust your hands to figure out how to get it. Good advice, I think.
Back before there were videos, online lessons and extensive tablature, we learned to play by wearing the grooves out in records and trying to replicate what we heard. The tendency to learn not just the notes, but the sound of those notes as well (dynamics) was often subconscious. Modern tools can accelerate the learning process, but perhaps we need to remind ourselves to take the time to really listen close to recordings of folks who do it really well and get that sound in our heads. Then try to get something similar. I personally need to do a lot more of this. |
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Deirdre Higgins
From:
Connecticut, USA
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 7:05 pm
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I love everyone's suggestions, This forum is my teacher, thanks a bunch guys.
What John said about practicing your mistakes hit home I know I do that quite often. Instead of paying attention to correctness I will start getting sloppy, running through the songs I've learned, I'd better stop doing that.
I think I'll take a little break not too long though I love the instrument too much to stay away long.
_________________
Jerry Byrd Fan |
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Larry Carlson
From:
My Computer
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Posted 20 Dec 2014 7:47 pm Re: slump
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| John Speck wrote: |
| They say practice makes perfect. Well, perfect practice make perfect. Otherwise you are practicing your mistakes and you play your mistakes perfectly. |
That is probably the best description of it I have heard. 
_________________
I have stuff.
I try to make music with it.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn't.
But I keep on trying. |
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Jamie Mitchell
From:
Nashville, TN
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Posted 21 Dec 2014 4:03 pm
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it's all mental. you're fine. come back to this post in a month and you'll have no idea what you were talking about.
j |
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Jeff Melvin
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 7:59 am
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| My advances have always come to me in steps and plateaus. It was frustrating and discouraging at first but I've now accepted that that is how I personally develop these skills. I'll practice every day and not hear or feel any improvement for weeks or even months but then over night all of the sudden the work all catches up to me and I reach a new base level of skill. Then I grind away away at that level for a few more weeks or months until lightning strikes and I'm instantly a better player again and I make the next step up. When I feel like everything I'm playing sounds terrible and I'm not having fun I revert back to the basics and practice exercises instead of playing songs. |
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Tom Margulies
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 1:34 pm
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Some days I just sound bad...
Some days better.
I found that it helps to warm up my right hand playing one string triplets. then triplets using two adjacent strings then three string rolls After about five minutes of this my dexterity and precision are much improved. At least until the next day when I start out lousy again.
tm |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 2:06 pm
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All great advice. I've found that taking a break is almost essential sometimes in order to come back with a fresh perspective and desire to improve. Happy holidays!
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Paul Honeycutt
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 5:05 pm
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Some days are better then others.
One trick that helps me is to take a song I know and totally rearrange it. Change the key, change the rhythm, mess with the melody. Don't worry about it sounding good. Just mess around with it a bunch. Then forget about it. Take a day to go fishing or something totally unrelated. When you come back to it, bits of the new stuff will find its way into your playing.
I'm learning C6 after years of open E and Dobro G. Somedays, I can't stand to hear myself. On other days, not too bad.
BTW, We all started too late. |
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 6:02 pm
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I was intending to comment but Jeff Melvin summarized my thoughts exactly. You will go along at a certain level for a seemingly long stretch and one day you will learn something new that opens up that stairwell to a new level. Then the process repeats. Don't hack away at practice when it's not fun. Get away from it until you're hungry for it again.
_________________
LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Fender Twin Tone Master, Session 400, Harlow Dobro, R.Q.Jones Dobro |
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Deirdre Higgins
From:
Connecticut, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2014 6:23 pm
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| Clyde Mattocks wrote: |
| Don't hack away at practice when it's not fun. Get away from it until you're hungry for it again. |
Picked up the guitar today after two days off, sounded bad right off within the first five minutes, I wasn't having fun and was fighting it so I put it away.
This January will be a year for me, I know you fellas have been playing a long time, but for me it's a milestone. I tried guitar back in the 70's stuck at it about a month; I didn't have the love for it like I do steel though.
If it wasn't for this forum I wouldn't have gotten this far I'm grateful to you.
_________________
Jerry Byrd Fan |
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Jean-Sebastien Gauthier
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 7:22 am
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| Do you have the Jerry Byrd lesson dvd? He give all the basic and is very inspiring, you can pass lot of hour just working on picking, vibrato, muting.... I practised only technique 4h a day for my 2 first years of steel to get a decent right hand (soft picking, swing timing, fast muting) and left hand (fast move for positions, vibrato, intonation...). |
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Jean-Sebastien Gauthier
From:
Quebec, Canada
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 7:23 am
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| I also take lesson with John Ely, without him there no way I can play steel. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 7:54 am
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I have had exactly the same problem before Deirdre...that right hand can be a real stumbling block, and I still struggle with it as far as blocking / muting. One thing I will suggest is to try and find the right hand method that is right for you. Not everyone is built exactly the same or with the same hand size and shape. Don't get fixated on doing it exactly like anyone else. What is comfortable and natural for you may not be exactly like any of the "correct" methods but might be a combination of techniques or a slight modification of them. Whatever you do, don't let it get the best of you. If you are aware of the need of the proper blocking and right hand technique, that is half the battle.
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Niels Andrews
From:
Salinas, California, USA
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 8:26 am
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Even though hard to do, when like me you start later in life, is to walk away and take a break. Maurice Anderson told me this and it works. Sometimes I feel like I have to make up for lost time because I was almost 60 when I started, but I found out if I tell myself I am taking a break, something in my mind clicks and all of a sudden I am out of the slump. As you will read in these pages everybody goes through it. Learning in general is a up and down event, I call it steady progress by jerks.
_________________
Die with Memories. Not Dreams.
Good Stuff like Zum S-12, Wolfe Resoport
MSA SS-12, Telonics Combo. |
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Ralph Czitrom
From:
Ringwood, New Jersey
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 8:33 am
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| Deidre - Jean-Sebastien might be on to something: I also take lessons via Skype from John Ely and feel the same way. John is a great guy and a wonderful teacher. Maybe a couple of lessons with him could get you straightened out with some of the basics. You don't have to make a long term commitment, but it sure helps a great deal to have a teacher...Keep at it; it's a tough instrument to learn, but very rewarding! |
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Jack Aldrich
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 10:59 am
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| Loren Depping wrote: |
| I empathize. Very much in the identical position right now...I'm 50 and feeling like I started too late. Try to enjoy it as much as you can and *don't give up!* |
I started playing pedal steel when I was 38. and I really didn't get into Hawaiian non-pedal steel until I was 63. Keep playing!
_________________
Jack Aldrich
Carter & ShoBud D10's
D8 & T8 Stringmaster
Rickenbacher B6
3 Resonator guitars
Asher Alan Akaka Special SN 6
Canopus D8 |
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Paul DiMaggio
From:
Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 23 Dec 2014 11:05 am
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| One year of trying to play this dam instrument was when I just about quit. The suggestions to find a teacher for even one lesson is good advice. Well worth the expense. My way of dealing with the frustration of a slump is to go back to where playing was still fun and then add the new technique in small increments. |
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