[WernHalen]

Hey,

I have mentioned this a couple of times before, but I have struggled with a mild case of lysdexia when i was younger... Sepcifically with regards to maths...

Anyway I am having problems with putting together full free flowing solo's. I play short licks and then i miss a couple of notes and then I pick it up again. It seems that I cant concentrate on the notes enough to see where I should be going next. I get carried away in the music and then I forget where I was and where I was going... This is sometimes (seldom though) a problem even for music that i know and have played fluently before...

Anybody have similar problems? Have you found anyway to get around this?

[Stratrat]

Glad to see you back, WernHalen. Good to hear everything is going well. Keep your chin up and keep playing, you're probably just in one of those temporary "slumps" that we all go through! It sounds like all the conditions are right and the willpower is there, so I'm sure you'll see a turnaround in no time.

[starsailor]

Hi WernHalen,

Good to see you around again and that things are going well for you, I agree with Stratrat about your recent setback, your post says how well you've done and people like hearing you play maybe you just need a bit of time to take stock, my future son in law who as I mentioned has dyslexia recently hit a bad patch, we thought he was going to drop out of college but with some support we managed to turn it around he did get quite depressed though. You have the ability so I'm sure you can get back on track, I wish you the best of luck and once again good to see you back.

Best Wishes

Chris

[carol m]

Hi Wern - we missed you! I'm sure you will hang in there because you always have done in the past. I find your determination to keep going is an inspiration. I know I don't spend enough time practicing in an organised way, and I don't have dyslexia (that I know of).

One thing though......how does dyslexia and Archery go together!!!! Hopefully your spacial skills can keep you aiming in the right general direction, or do your friends and family wear armour?

[WernHalen]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone,

I am sure it will pick up again... It always does...

it is fun to see all my old compatriots are still very active on the forum and that they still remember me...


Carol,

I am actually fairly good at this archery thing... I grew up shooting guns all my life and even though shooting a bow is completely different I have the muscles trained that help to keep me steady.

I am not brillinat and there are lots of people that are better than me but i am doing well based onthe time I have been doing it. Especially if you consider my level compared to my level of guitar playing vs. the time i have been doing it...

Hopefully the more relaxed lifestyle will help with my concentration on the geetar as well.

[Teddy Madison]

I think you can relax. I only recently started to get out of the very place you are in (but it seems you are getting there). It started with the pentatonic scales; my teacher would give me one, I would learn it, then he would give me another and say "Integrate this with what you already know". I would rip along and then hit a wall, totally lost as to where to go next. I can now move through all of the pentatonic scales with ease but guess what, he's throwing modes at me now.

Wayne

[solidwalnut]

Hi Wern--

Glad to see you back on the boards. I'm not on here as much as I would like, but....

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that your new life changes have been agreeing with you. I know that a change of life's speed as you've done will most likely do you a great service as far as learning the git.

I just wanted to share with you my brief story about learning the guitar. I took some test years ago when I was in grade school that said I had some pretty big disparities and learning disabilities. The bottom line of it was that the test told the experts that I would never be able to do anything very well if it had to include brain-hand coordination.

That was back before they had names for all this stuff, so who knows what they come up with. But I saw this as being inherited: my dad is pretty much this way and his mother would trip over a twig when it got in her way...

So I tried not to take this too much to heart. When I decided to learn to play at the age of 12, I learned what I could because I spent an enormous amount (probably some would say imbalanced) of time learning to find the note or sequence of notes that I just heard. Or to listen to a recording and then tell myself 'what chord was that they just played? Was it a G chord? If it was, was it a barre shape of some kind? What were the sequence of notes I just heard (not names. I'd just hum them back to myself and then find them on the guitar)'.

I just kept telling myself that if they could do it, so could I. Hey, there's only so many ways somebody can play a G chord, and these people playing were most likely playing it the most simple way they could...or they were playing the chord where they were on the neck because of the sequence of notes they wanted.

To me, it's all about the ear. It's all about listening, listening, listening and then learning to play back what you hear. Not to become the fanciest guitar player out there, but just to master the basics.

At the same time, I learned basic rhythm. I learned to listen to what they were playing and then tap back what I heard. Then I'd try to incorporate that into learning to strum. They were separate, but inseparable, issues.

Steve