Well, that didn't take long!

Hasn't been a post in this section for some time, so I'll add something...

Fired up Section One of 52RF (no guitar in hand). "Man, this stuff is *really* basic", I thought. Way below the level I should be starting at. Still, I figured it couldn't hurt to have a little tune up on the basics, so I continued to just watch the first 16 examples, without bothering to touch a guitar. "Finally", we get to Example 17, where Griff strings a variety of those basics techniques together through a full verse. I grab my guitar here, just to make sure I can follow along easily before skipping on to section 2.... and low and behold, I have trouble duplicating what Griff plays!

Oh, I'll work it out in short order, cause it is very basic. But the fact that I can't readily mirror these simple examples on a first or second pass is a bit of an eye opener (me, a guy who some time ago managed a decent rendition of the solo for Skynard's "The Breeze"). This experience demonstrates something important about fundamental skills training... ya shouldn't skip it!
 
Geez.... a month as gone by already? No wonder it takes me forever to learn something new. I gotta improve my practice regimen!

Been working long days shifts (and other excuses), but finally have worked through the first of 4 sections in 52RF. I initially figured to spend a week on each section, but obviously turning out to take longer than I planned. In this first section, the examples lead up to two 12 bar rounds of various combinations of the techniques. The first 12 bar run through was easily learned. The 2nd one, presented in the last example of Section One, not quite as easy. In particular, the turn around Griff shows at the end. That one's requiring a bit more diligence.

I'm at a point where I have the passages memorized, but my fingers still have trouble articulating the necessary moves. I have typically spent most of my practice time in this zone that resides between knowing what I'm supposed to play and being able to play it cleanly and consistently, reaching for that feeling of total comfort and control, but rarely achieving it. If you were to plot my improvement on a curve, this section of the curve would show the most amount of time consumed and least amount of actual improvement.

I heard Griff say in one of his blogs or videos, that he generally doesn't like his students spending more than a couple weeks on any one thing. Boy, have I tended to violate that guidance. So I think I'm going to listen to Griff, and moderate this aspect of my practices sessions. Try to shorten the time I spend reaching for that last bit of perfection, which I never seem to achieve anyway. Maybe put difficult things away for a while and come back to them later. Something else I've not customarily done.

So, I like Griff's teaching methods, and I like the environment of this forum (which I see as a considerable aid in staying motivated). But to be honest, I don't yet trust myself to stick with this.... I've already dropped out of 2-3 other structured online lesson formats I paid good money for. I want to, but let's face it, life has a way of continually interfering. But this does seem like the best format I've run across, perhaps that will make the difference.

If I make it all the way through 52RF, and decide to take the leap, the All Access Pass seems like a no-brainer, and that's the way I'd go. Although it will be challenging managing the availability of all that lesson material, and figuring out a path. Between just this one small lesson I currently have, and the email lessons Griff sends out, I'm nearly overwhelmed. I think I have the four newest email lessons still queued up waiting to be reviewed.

And by now perhaps you see why I need to limit my posts to the forum! :)
 

Rad

Blues Newbie
Geez.... a month as gone by already? No wonder it takes me forever to learn something new. I gotta improve my practice regimen!

Been working long days shifts (and other excuses), but finally have worked through the first of 4 sections in 52RF. I initially figured to spend a week on each section, but obviously turning out to take longer than I planned. In this first section, the examples lead up to two 12 bar rounds of various combinations of the techniques. The first 12 bar run through was easily learned. The 2nd one, presented in the last example of Section One, not quite as easy. In particular, the turn around Griff shows at the end. That one's requiring a bit more diligence.

I'm at a point where I have the passages memorized, but my fingers still have trouble articulating the necessary moves. I have typically spent most of my practice time in this zone that resides between knowing what I'm supposed to play and being able to play it cleanly and consistently, reaching for that feeling of total comfort and control, but rarely achieving it. If you were to plot my improvement on a curve, this section of the curve would show the most amount of time consumed and least amount of actual improvement.

I heard Griff say in one of his blogs or videos, that he generally doesn't like his students spending more than a couple weeks on any one thing. Boy, have I tended to violate that guidance. So I think I'm going to listen to Griff, and moderate this aspect of my practices sessions. Try to shorten the time I spend reaching for that last bit of perfection, which I never seem to achieve anyway. Maybe put difficult things away for a while and come back to them later. Something else I've not customarily done.

So, I like Griff's teaching methods, and I like the environment of this forum (which I see as a considerable aid in staying motivated). But to be honest, I don't yet trust myself to stick with this.... I've already dropped out of 2-3 other structured online lesson formats I paid good money for. I want to, but let's face it, life has a way of continually interfering. But this does seem like the best format I've run across, perhaps that will make the difference.

If I make it all the way through 52RF, and decide to take the leap, the All Access Pass seems like a no-brainer, and that's the way I'd go. Although it will be challenging managing the availability of all that lesson material, and figuring out a path. Between just this one small lesson I currently have, and the email lessons Griff sends out, I'm nearly overwhelmed. I think I have the four newest email lessons still queued up waiting to be reviewed.

And by now perhaps you see why I need to limit my posts to the forum! :)


Kinda a zombie thread, but I had to respond. I did the same, opened this course and thought, why not see what the big guy is teaching here. I thought, geeeeze, simple stuff. Then I tried it. Embarrassing really, considering how many decades I’ve been playing. I can do most of it by listening and getting a feel for; but, doing it by counting how it should be done.......I suck.

The lesson really has turned out to be really good for me and a lot of fun
 

Zzzen Dog

Blues Junior
I've had a similar experience to the OP (original poster), worked rapidly through the first 16 examples, barely picking up my guitar. Spent a little time just moving through the full twelve bar format of Example 17, a snap. Had a bit of a stumble getting the timing on the "flurry" example, but had it within 15-20 minutes and then there was Example 20. What I've really been looking for, almost yearning for. Really cool fills, laid out like someone might actually play them and stall...

It has taken me several days of working at it to be able to move through it somewhat fluidly, in time and my fingers still want to miss strings, or I strike the wrong string with the pick, and the first bar of the turn around makes me want to tear what little hair I have left out. I understand it but my fingers just don't want to do it. Needs more work and Section 2 is calling me, along with the How to Jam the Blues Alone (HJBA), 5 chorus 12 blues (the first one) is still needs working (I've got the first 3 choruses down, and working on memorizing the 4th).

I think there's got to be a balance between working on different things, so I spend time each day on this course, the HJBA, a Truefire course on Blues Rhythms and I'm thinking of adding the Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed. Trying to be really rhythm and fill focused in my playing. I'll get back to solo wankery later.
 
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