My rigid wrist

topic posted Tue, August 15, 2006 - 6:53 AM by  The Idiot
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It's getting looser but I've been playing long enough now that I'm beginning to seriously think I've got some kind of psychological block. I can't play fast and never could. I don't want to be a speed demon but I like jazz and wish I could play lovely long flowing lines of a Benson variety. If you can do it what can I do to do it like you?
posted by:
The Idiot
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  • Re: My rigid wrist

    Mon, August 28, 2006 - 9:41 PM
    I bought a DVD from www.elderly.com called Accelerating Your Guitar Technique, or something like that. It was really good when I started, I could see that if I had the discipline I was going to get much better. It has lots of exercises and the video shows you how to play them, you can play along and there is also an instruction book.

    What killed it for me is that I am first a songwriter rather than a guitarist and it was taking too muc attention from the former. I would certainly recommend it though.
    • Re: My rigid wrist

      Sat, February 10, 2007 - 12:00 PM
      Have you heard people talking about guitar muscle memory? Someone in some tribe mentioned the Ten Minute Rule whereby he would spend the 10 to establish a muscle memory of any riff, lick, hook or whatever and then revisit it the next day/time he played and that he'd have a specific muscle memory of that piece that he could recognize and call up at any moment.

      Spend enough time learning distinct progressions and you'll be able to connect various bits and, ultimatey, be able to let your own feelings come out in your music.

      I've tried it and it is working and helping me a lot...

      And as you already know... practice, practice, practice. As we also know though, the better you get the funner.

      Regards, Dave
  • Re: My rigid wrist

    Tue, October 23, 2007 - 8:43 PM
    As an aside, a friend told me once that he went to a master class for flamenco guitar and learned that back in the day, they used to hold a burning candle alongside the strumming/picking wrist as an incentive to learn to keep it rigid and have all the movement done with the fingers.

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