I had another guitar lesson Tuesday evening, and it's still a lot of fun - even though it often feels like drinking from a fire hose. Here are the things we talked about, and that I'll be focusing on for the next two weeks.
Tremolo Picking: I made decent progress with this, and there's plenty more to work on. He wants me to hold more of the pick, which should give me more control. I'm to keep working at it with the metronome, getting faster as I can do it while hitting every note cleanly. I'm also to do tremolo picking with the four-finger exercises of the right hand, which will work on getting both hands faster and coordinated. I also have exercises with open-string tremolo picking, and then two-string open-string tremolo picking, which is wickedly hard.
Guitar Vibrato: I currently do right-hand vibrato in what he calls "violin-style", or twisting the fretting finger back and forth while you hold the note. It does add some tone to the note, but it doesn't have the effect it does with a violin since a guitar has frets. What he calls "guitar-style" vibrato involves moving the string itself up and down, like mini-bends. It sounds great when he does it, but it's really hard to do and feels incredibly awkward. I think it will take a lot of repetition to feel somewhat natural (i.e., to the point where I could do it without thinking while playing.)
Music Theory: I knew this was a big question, but I asked how, when looking at a song, you know its key, and what scales are appropriate. I knew some of this, but we talked about theory for a bit, and he gave me some charts to study. I already know a decent bit of theory, and I'm interested to know more. But this is a subject that can get as complicated as you care to go with it. I now know all the basic scales needed to play in any major or minor key, but I have to get them smoother and more natural. This will be an ongoing process.
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