Week 3: ... and Fire

Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise for your comments. I keep working every day on the piece and will post another video late next week. 

Andre Bernier Way to go Andre! This is smooth and steady. You got it! It's coming along very nicely! 

One thing I noticed, and it's very subtle (plus, others and I have been discussing our own challenges with this in other threads): you seem to be scooping the string with your i finger. When you do that on the 4th, 5th or 6th strings it scrapes against the wound string. Perhaps see if you can attack the string a bit more quickly or see if you can come at it at a slightly different angle. 

I know there may be "bigger fish to fry" when it comes to things to work on, but maybe just something to be aware of. 

As for Blaise's comment on the headphones, I agree. It's very difficult to monitor yourself when recording. I have found monitoring myself to not be helpful. I am much more relaxed when not listening to what I'm recording while I'm playing. I've found it much more helpful to just record, and then listen back with headphones afterwards. 

Keep up the fantastic work! 

Steve Pederson Thanks Steve for your comments. I really appreciate both elements you did mention.

1- After reviewing the video a few times, I understand what you mean. So far I think it is coming from the fact I am using my  pinky finger as a support. This is from my acoustic finger picking experience. On the high strings (1,2,3) I still have enough room to generate the pluck from the big joint of the i finger. However, when I am playing the low strings (4,5,6) and still use my pinky finger as a support; I do not have enough room to generate the pluck from that joint. I then use the middle joint which generates that scooping you mention.  I am working to reduce the use of this support but it is a tough habit to change... work in progress.

2- The use of the head phone is essentially to hear the metronome I am using from my computer. The volume is low but would still be too high when I record the video. It is why you can see that my right ear is not fully covered with the headphones so I can hear the sound of my quitar. I still need to use a metronome as I have a tendency to speed-up too much during the performance to a point where I have a hard time to execute the chord changes.

Thanks again for your comments. It is always helpful.

Andre Bernier Got it! I didn't know you were using the headphones for a metronome. That totally makes sense. Yeah, that right hand stuff is tricky. I think part of it just has to do with the fact that that the first three strings are nylon, and you could run fingers from both hands up and down all day long without a squeak, but those 4, 5 and 6 strings man... 

You got this!