TheLefty Challenge Part 4

carol m · #1 March 10th, 2008

I haven't been playing much lately - have even lost most of my right hand callouses, but as of today, I'm going to get to grips with practicing properly again.....here is part 4 - a bit late, and a few glitches but hey, that's 'room to improve', right?????

It sounds a bit boomy in the bass to me. Don't know why because its just nylon string guitar with mic and no special effects apart from a tiny bit of compression. Mic is a few inches from about 12th fret.

X4StringDrive · #2 March 10th, 2008

Sounds good here

carol m · #3 March 11th, 2008

Thanks Kenny. I'm going to do a Kirk lesson next - at least that's the plan....

knight46 · #4 March 11th, 2008

Carol,
I thought that it sounded good, nice and clear. Good tone and playing was very good.

carol m · #5 March 11th, 2008

Thanks Knight. I see I have called this thread No 3 when it should have been No 4 and can't see how to change it. Oh well. (Edit: now I see how. That was confusing!)

starsailor · #6 March 11th, 2008

Lovely playing Carol, you have my utmost admiration, and it's great to see you doing so well

Nutty · #7 March 11th, 2008

Hi Carol,

That is truly awesome. I admire you for your determination. I'm not sure I could do that.

Keep om stummin'

Nutty

Aunt Doty · #8 March 12th, 2008

Good job Carol!

I don't think I could play lefty...........not too great as a righty!!

carol m · #9 March 12th, 2008

Here is a confession

Uploading an example of my playing as a righty was really daunting because I was never that good (compared to others here)........but.......now I'm starting from scratch as a lefty, even the most pathetic effort is viewed as an achievement. I hadn't anticipated this, but there are no expectations (from me or anyone else) so this gives total freedom.

I hope that other real beginners will hear my early efforts, and be encouraged (most are probably already better than me) and post examples of their playing. It really does encourage me, and it also puts a bit of pressure on me to keep practicing and improving.

So, courage, all beginners - record, submit and get support and encouragement. Post early, before you are proficient, so any improvement can be seen (by you as well as others) and get some encouragement - it really helps. Thanks guys.

PS Learn how to use Audacity or something similar so you can splice together a couple of efforts to minimise flubs - the above example is two recordings spliced together because I couldn''t get through the whole thing without a flub.

eddiez152 · #10 March 13th, 2008

Carol m,

I think you did a lovely job with that.

carol m · #11 March 13th, 2008

Thanks Eddie, I was looking through the lessons yesterday to find the next challenge and decided on the True Beginners lesson for strumming. Oh dear, no way I could find G (the pinky just couldn't find the top string in time) and as for C well, hit and miss plus late!

However, using Audacity, I slowed down the tempo of the mp3 backing track to - 20% (no, still too fast), then -30% (no, still too fast) and then -40% (only a bit too fast). So now I have a plan! Keep it simple, get accurate at slow speed, keep the rhythm exact, and don't give up until I am proficient at full speed plus a few ups as well as downs.

Already there is improvement - isn't the brain a wonderful thing!

fly135 · #12 March 17th, 2008

That was beautiful Carol. I get worse boominess problems than you when I record my nylon. I thought yours sounded pretty clear. There are a couple of good slowdown programs that work better than audacity. "Best Practice" is free. Another called "Amazing Slowdowner" has superior quality at slow speeds but costs IIRC $50. Amazing Slowdowner also has better looping control.

I couldn't follow exactly what you were saying about lefty/righty but if you're switching back and forth then you're doing a great job.

carol m · #13 March 18th, 2008

Thanks fly. I started playing lefty about New Year because I had been struggling with a left hand tendintis from too many barre chords. About Christmas time I started to do some practice again and got the pain back immediately. Starsailor challenged me to play lefty (thanks Chris) and it was brilliant. Starting again from scratch, but no limit on how much time I could play for. Since then it has been lefty only.

Thanks for the info on the software. I'll check it out.

fly135 · #14 March 18th, 2008

Carol, switching like that is nothing short of amazing in my mind. Learning to play guitar is hard enough already.

carol m · #15 March 19th, 2008

All I know fly, is that if it's a choice of starting over, or not playing at all, it's obvious once you think about it (although it hadn't occurred to me before Chris suggested it).