MAB Q&A

August 2, 2017

#4614

Phil,

Good observations. Now I'm going to give you the "MAB ASSESSMENT." and some overview.

I have been on you about playing all those open mics and writers nights. And I know you do some of them. But every time we talk you always say "And there is this other one in ..... that I have been meaning to go to, but don't."

THE REASON YOU DO THOSE ARE IT'S REHEARSAL!!!!

You still have a very erratic timing problem. You tend to jump measures in your approach, you get ahead and behind the beat and don't feel comfortable. Part of it is trying to pattern after the way we wrote particular songs. I use THE CHUNKY EIGHT NOTE FEEL on many of the songs I write.

This is what you need to get FLUID and SMOOTHER on. I think working with a metronome would help you get to this point. Also using your camera phone to record your performance while you rehearsal, would help.

You should also run through EACH SONG THREE TIMES BACK TO BACK. This will give you muscle memory on those songs.

This is the reason you get tripped up and forget words, which cause you to start, stop (didn't do that much this time) and be erratic in your delivery.

Another thing to do:

Go through a practice JUST PLAYING THE GUITAR. DON'T SING. Sing in your HEAD, but just work on the guitar with no vocals. Do that a couple of times. Then add the vocals.
Another thing I do, is in the SHOWER, or in the car, I often will JUST DO THE LYRICS. I will hear the music in my head but rehearse it like giving a speech. That way I can see how to BEND NOTES ,HOLD NOTES, or what I need to GET RID OF.

So keep at it and always let me know what you need. I'm always around for you.

Thanks for the post.

MAB

MAB, thanks for that input! I edited your post down to the things I need to work on. Yes, I do like the chunky rhythm. BUT, I don't always do straight 1/8 chunks, and I know that. I will change the pattern to "change up", if that makes sense. BUT, like you said, I then get off beat by 1/4 - 1/2 a beat, and have to "slow down" or "speed up" to get back on beat. I do practice with the rhythm patterns on my Yamaha, and I do notice when I've "lost the beat". BUT, I realize I don't practice nearly enough with that.

The other issue I have, which you didn't mention, is my guitar playing skills, or lack there of. My wrist still is too stiff, and I tend to strum awkwardly and off beat, and that irritates me, in real time, and I loose concentration. Sometimes I DO just sit with my guitar and strum along with the rhythm on my Yamaha. But I don't do that nearly enough. Then of course there is always the "not fingering the chord correctly" syndrome. Or, playing the wrong chord and trying to recover.

The other thing I don't do nearly enough, is just practice only playing the guitar chord progression for songs. That is a great suggestion, and I will start doing more of that. Will probably help me with my chord changes, chord fingering, and strumming too.

As far as the lyric thing is concerned, my wife likes a lot of TV shows I don't particularly care one way or the other about. That is when I sit and go through the lyrics of a song I'm trying to work on. Then at bed time, I will go to sleep singing songs I'm working on.
BUT, I don't always do that "in rhythm". Those exercises are mostly to just remember the lyrics. I do work on the rhythm for certain phrases in the lyrics, but not the whole song.

All of these things are things I should be doing a lot of. But to tell the truth, I've always had a "concentration" problem. I either get bored and sidetracked, or I get frustrated and sidetracked. Since that is a 60+ YEAR problem, it's kind of hard to overcome! And of course, when the "fun" becomes more like "work", I will get lazy and quit! And the reality is, if you want to get better at anything, it IS WORK!! There's no getting around it!

I am probably beyond help at my age, but thanks for your help!! I will start trying some more of those concentrated exercises and see if that helps me.

phil