[gasbag]

Hello again.

I believe I have stumbled onto an unusual problem and wondered if anyone else has done this and what they did about it.

First, I have been fiddling around in open G tuning. I love it. Very beautiful sound to my ears. I have been learning a particular song called Orpheus Returns. It is actually an etude written to practice and learn p-m-i-p-a-m finger picking. It is a wonderful tune and I love playing it.

However, while learning it I made an error in two particular places, both where there is a rather difficult fingering pattern on the fretboard. While learning this I made a particular mistake many times. My idiot brain has now implanted the incorrect fingering in my mind and I cannot break the habit. Is there any method of stopping this other than to keep trying? I have tried sitting and just working on the two phrases that are giving me trouble and I have tried leaving the song alone for a week and then going back to it. Nothing. Same old problem.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. It is driving me nuts.

Just for edification, I have actually made it through the song with no mistakes about twice, but the old problem always comes back the next time I play it. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

[starsailor]

Hi Gasbag I think you might have to reverse everything and maybe start the piece as if you are learning everything for the first time so practice the finger placings slowly until the placings become second nature again and then start speeding up a bit, it's quite alarming when your fingers won't go where you want them to go especially when you've been playing for a while, it happened to me yesterday on a chord change I've been doing for ages, my middle finger wouldn't play the game but I slowed it down and finally it came into line, that's the only thing I can think of doing really, interesting question, you've just picked up a bad habit, as you have knowledge of that placing you should be able to put it right

[wjp01908]

I agree starsailor - you`re probably best off approaching it as a new piece - really slowly and following notation or an accurate tab in a focussed manner.

Muscle memory is a bit like a hard drive - you might think stuff is deleted, but it`s really still there until it`s overwritten....


Will

[namiguShin]

Maybe you could practice just that part you have trouble with... Of course, slowly, and then speed up...

[karcey]

Yeah, it's like trying to change your signature. I have to agree with all above ... do it slowly, so slow you can't get it wrong. And keep doing it slowly for a long time. And finally when you decide to speed it up, don't start thinking about doing it wrong! You need to have forgotten about the old ways so you can give full attention to the right way.

[allthumbs]

It takes 30 days to break a habit so I have been told. Time and the correct fingering will do the trick

[gasbag]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. What I am going to do is basically start over like it was a new piece as suggested. I am also going to reduce the tempo by about 50% to start. It is at a rather brisk pace as is so I am going to take it slowly until I can do it properly and then step it up a bit.

Thanks again. It felt like my fingers were tying themselves in knots. Really frustrating............. Hope I can do better, I need my fingers for tying my shoes etc..