Group 3

Scott Sundsvold Hey Scott, lets do it!

Scott Sundsvold Hey Scott, great start - I just finished watching your video. I also like the spooky humidification just in frame :)

Great work so far - just a couple of piece of advice -

First, the main thing holding you back might be very well that you're "plucking up" on the guitar with your right hand. You might notice when reviewing your video that your hand kind of "lifts off" the strings and into the air after plucking each note (especially i m and a fingers). This causes a lot of inefficiency in your movement. I would recommend watching some of the videos on tonebase about tone production, and this will have a nice effect on your efficiency in your arpeggios and preparation as well! martin is probably much more familiar with the library here and could recommend you one!

Next, I would recommend either slowing down the metronome even more and just starting with going from p to i and back to p again, making sure the preparation is immediate. There should be no delay between the pluck of your p finger and the preparation of your i, and vice versa. When you feel comfortable with that, you can move on to adding the m, and so on. I hope that helps and I look forward to seeing your progress!

Best!

Evan

Evan Taucher Thank you!

GALAIS Olivier Galais, (or is it Olivier?), really, excellent work! The first video is very very good - nice effificent, and relaxed Right hand - makes me happy to see!

Regarding the tone - for the most part it sounds very good, I would just say try to make the accented notes loud, but not "snappy", just accented (or 'heavy' is a nice way to think of it). In the first video, you prepared very well EXCEPT when you started to accent fingers. Make sure that you still prepare the finger that is accenting! This will help your tone production as well!

In the second video you're doing extremely well also. But watch out for your RH fingers getting a bit tense. Especially a finger and your pinky finger. I'd recommend slowing down to a tempo that feels "very easy" for you and trying to get comfortable with the feeling of your right hand being relaxed. Once you identify that feeling, it should be easier to recall it as you speed up the tempo (with speed bursts, dotted rhythms, etc).

Thanks for the video!

Mark Mark, very nice video and I'm sorry about the flu! 

I'm so glad you found the exercises helpful. I have to say you're doing them very well and with nice sound and rhythm! These are the most important things!

There are a couple of things a sense from this video and I hope I'm not overextending my advice by mentioning these, but I think they will help you with your arpeggios as well as your other guitar playing.

First, I sense that at this speed, you are very tense and if I had to guess, you're not feeling relaxed. Don't worry, I never feel relaxed when the camera is on so we have that in common. Though I do want to recommend this: starting with the first exercise in the video, try exhaling while you're ascending (towards the 1st string) and inhaling while you descend (towards the 6th string). Do this with the metronome at an even slower tempo than the one in the video, and start by not even worrying about preparation. If the breathing becomes difficult to control when you introduce the preparation, then slow it down even more till the breathing and preparation is easy to do together. Take extra care to make sure your right arm feels like it's truly resting on the guitar while you're focused on the breath. 

Next, I can tell that your p finger is the one that feels the most awkward. I notice because of it's shakiness as well as by observing the rest of your hand's response to the use of the p finger. Make sure that preparing, and plucking your p finger doesn't result in movement in the rest of your hand. I notice that in the video, so try to take care of that. Also, make sure to relax the rest of your hand by the time you p finger plays. I'd practice this by adding an extra beat of rest before playing the i finger. Truly, I think most of these issues will resolve on their own by taking it a bit slower and focusing on your breath and staying relaxed. Don't push forward until you're feeling GREAT at the tempo you're on.

Hope this helps and I apologize for the wordy response!

Mark Mark, I have to say - Excellent improvement! And very thoughtful and observant ideas you shared there. Although I can't see your whole body, congrats on the improvement you're feeling from the breath work. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day!

So glad the reshaping seemed to fix the hand moving! Since it's a habit at this point, make sure you keep checking in on it to make sure it's kept away!

As far as the issues with the i finger tucking, my only suggestion without seeing many more things in your hands is to constantly revisit plucking the i finger on its own and trying to relax it. Start with smaller arpeggios as well, not just full pima arpeggios, but just pipi and pmpm and so on. I'd recommend checking out the exercises from this video as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1CiHV9BAqg

Congrats on your progress, and it's been a pleasure to work with you this short time! Best wishes

Evan Taucher 

Thank you so much Evan, this has been extremely helpful!  I hope we get to work together again one day.  I will look for more of your tutorials on Tonebase for sure! Warmest regards, Mark

GALAIS Olivier Galais, Excellent work - your hands are looking great in the first video. Nice sound production, too! In regards to having to think too much in the 2nd video with the accents - you are spot on. It's much too fast to concentrate on all of the things. I'd take it more than half as slow as that and slowly build from there. Remember that this is a big change rather than a small one - it shouldn't necessarily be a "simple" fix, but one that takes time to build back up to a reasonable tempo with.

Thanks for your videos and it's been a pleasure working with you!