Group 2

Martin thank you so much for the tip!  You are right! I do have a lot of challenges with my a finger and also my pinky to stay relax, not just with tremolo.  That's why I now start to practice in front of a mirror but still not really fixing the issue. I didn't pick up this on the video myself, thanks for noticing. I will try the suggestions that you have given!

don you’re off to a good start! I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like, when you start with the a finger, your i finger tenses up in preparation. Similarly, when you start with the i finger it looks like your a finger tenses up a bit. Is that happening? 

Steve Pederson yes that is true. Because prior to this course, I was already working on daily tremolo exercises for about a month. I was playing them staccato and with preparation so this time I had to work to not prepare and not to touch the strings. I would normally prepare my thumb and a finger on both strings, then play the thumb then a finger then prepare m so on so forth. Thanks!

Martin btw have you heard of this tremolo mute? I got it a while back when I started to practice tremolo exercise. I felt it kinda improve my tone when I remove it but it could be placebo effect. Have you use it and if you think it works? Thanks man!

Martin haha please do. If you set up a channel I'll definitely hit the subscribe! 

don Great Start Don!  You have amazing discipline to execute these exercises so well -- even and good tone.  I find it difficult to play this so slow, as the mind wanders, and easy to lose track; however, this slow playing approach seems to be essential to diagnose and correct technique limitations.  It is particularly difficult to break long standing bad habits.   Only answer is hard work and discipline to do it slowly and gradually build up over time.  Keep up the good work!

Barney Thanks Barney! Yes I really happy with this approach. It already flag out one issue with my a finger.  

Yes it can be really boring to play it slowly at time. What really help me was to recognize them as just pure exercise than part of an actual piece of music, so I don't get tempted halfway to start upping the tempo playing and going off -tangent. So my focus is really just one stroke one note. 

Barney Im still a beginner in classical guitar so can't really offer much help in terms of techniques. But from what I can hear is the tremolo sometimes sounded quite disjointed instead of just one flowy line of notes. Maybe can explore slowing down a bit more and diagnose them?

don Thanks Don!  I appreciate your helpful observation and will try doing that.  Seems like slowing down and listening carefully is the key..

Barney Glad you find it helpful.  Let's try to help each other improve these 2 weeks..

Barney great first submission! I have found the p-i-m-a exercise to be very revealing for myself. I've never tried it before, so it's proving very helpful. I wonder if that's the same for you. Your technique for p-a-m-i looks real smooth, but for the p-i-m-a exercise it looks like you're just getting used to it. You look a bit more tense with that one. You may want to try slowing that one way down - like painfully slow - and deliberately focus on relaxing each finger. You'll probably get it after a couple times.  

Steve Pederson Thanks Steve for your good advice!

Martin Thanks Martin so much for your wonderful advice!! I will certainly work on both of those suggestions--the first for "relaxation" and second (dotted rhythms) for "independence".

One thing that comes to mind when looking at this tremolo "analysis" is that  the sound production quality of your "free stroke"  has a direct bearing on how good your tone and sound of tremolo is. Therefore, it seems to me that I need training on improving the tone and sound of my 'free strokes";  I think they sound thin compared to my rest strokes.

Perhaps a Tonebase lesson specifically on improving "free stroke "tone?  what do you think?

Also, this two week challenge to improve Tremolo is great; however, does this really require several months to really incorporate into ones technique?  ( I thought you had previously mentioned  working on it for many months to get to your current result, which sounds beautiful!!)