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Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available
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Author:  arsacane [ Sat Dec 31, 2011 7:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

Got the DVD & songbook a few days ago; great work Greg!


Best wishes for 2012, Daniel.

Author:  greg [ Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

arsacane wrote:
Got the DVD & songbook a few days ago; great work Greg!


Best wishes for 2012, Daniel.
Thanks for letting me know it arrived safely, Daniel.

I'll send you a page about using the Baritone Melody songbookk with the Classic 10-string tuning.

Some of the songs are playable as is, but most you will need to take up an octave, of make occasional mods.

Author:  stringtapper [ Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

Just finished the DVD and I must say that more than anything that last exercise revealed some things about my left hand chording:

I've been relying on basically one LH pattern—specifically 1-5-3-5-1-5-3-5—instead of using different patterns like the 1-5-3-5-3-5-3-5 that Greg uses in that exercise. If I played the exercise with my "autopilot" pattern I was fine and could do it immediately, but when I played the pattern Greg uses in the video everything ground to halt. Obviously my independence wasn't as independent as I thought it was! :o So not relying on the same old LH pattern is a big thing I've gotten out of the video so far. I think in particular it's the fact that the "autopilot" pattern hits the roots twice a measure, whereas the pattern from the video only hits it once a bar. This makes the external time base (left foot) even more important for me to not get lost within the measure.

Another part where I found something similar is when Greg plays the "Norwegian Wood" style part. I can play that fine if I just play the two chords as 1-5-3-5 patterns, but try to play the first chord as 1-5-8-5 and then the second as 1-5-3-5 and I fall on my face. Somewhere along the line I really got myself stuck in the "pop baroque" chord shapes and it's obviously time to focus on branching out with the left hand.

Overall it's been a great reminder to strive for more precision between the hands when playing independent lines and to not get too comfortable with a single pattern.

Author:  greg [ Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

Hi Dave,

The phenomenon you experienced is really common among Stick players. The answer is more hand movement (of course). The 1st finger is very dominant, and our urge to use it as the downbeat finger is strong (I've even seen some players advocate this as a regular strategy), so in order to have freer hands we need to practice using all the finger on all the beats.

The "Blues for Ayman" bass riff in the DVD is great to practice for this (it's in the Songbook you just got, too). Play anything against it in the right hand, the simpler the better, will help you get used to the feeling of having other fingers on the down beat as a matter of course.

Thanks for all the feedback about the DVD. It really helps me in figuring out what best to focus on for supplemental materials.

Happy Tapping,
Greg

DVD link:
http://www.greghoward.com/free_hands/dvd/

stringtapper wrote:
Just finished the DVD and I must say that more than anything that last exercise revealed some things about my left hand chording:

I've been relying on basically one LH pattern—specifically 1-5-3-5-1-5-3-5—instead of using different patterns like the 1-5-3-5-3-5-3-5 that Greg uses in that exercise. If I played the exercise with my "autopilot" pattern I was fine and could do it immediately, but when I played the pattern Greg uses in the video everything ground to halt. Obviously my independence wasn't as independent as I thought it was! :o So not relying on the same old LH pattern is a big thing I've gotten out of the video so far. I think in particular it's the fact that the "autopilot" pattern hits the roots twice a measure, whereas the pattern from the video only hits it once a bar. This makes the external time base (left foot) even more important for me to not get lost within the measure.

Another part where I found something similar is when Greg plays the "Norwegian Wood" style part. I can play that fine if I just play the two chords as 1-5-3-5 patterns, but try to play the first chord as 1-5-8-5 and then the second as 1-5-3-5 and I fall on my face. Somewhere along the line I really got myself stuck in the "pop baroque" chord shapes and it's obviously time to focus on branching out with the left hand.

Overall it's been a great reminder to strive for more precision between the hands when playing independent lines and to not get too comfortable with a single pattern.

Author:  greg [ Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

I just posted a little trailer for the DVD on YouTube:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNFmXFQ4kU[/youtube]

and it's now available from amazon.com as well:

Amazon.com for Basic Free Hands Technique DVD

Author:  mad_monk [ Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

Wow, Greg, the graphic presentation you came up with is fantastic.
I'm all admiration.

Mad Monk.

Author:  greg [ Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

mad_monk wrote:
Wow, Greg, the graphic presentation you came up with is fantastic.
I'm all admiration.

Mad Monk.
Thanks, Randy!

I did all the graphics in Photoshop, which probably took way longer than they would have in Illustrator, but that's the program I know best. Emmett's finger symbols translate really well to video, I think. I couldn't imagine doing something like this without graphics.

I don't know if you have the DVD or if you are just commenting on the YouTuube trailer, but the principles of movement for the right hand are equally applicable to the left hand, especially when you have mirrored 4ths (but then you already knew that ;) )

Author:  jpow112 [ Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:56 am ]
Post subject:  Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

Greg its showing out of stock on Amazon- is it better to order direct via yourself?

Cheers

John

Author:  greg [ Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

jpow112 wrote:
Greg its showing out of stock on Amazon- is it better to order direct via yourself?

Cheers

John

Hi John,

Amazon is always behind the 8-ball on these things. I have to wait until they re-order before I can send them any more...so yes, you can order it direct from me or from Stick Enterprises as well. I'm packing up a bunch to send out in today's mail as we speak.

Thanks for the interest.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNFmXFQ4kU[/youtube]

Author:  abby [ Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greg's new Instructional DVD Now Available

This is great news, Greg! I think this is the answer to my slow internet connection haha. I think I'll have it shipped together with some stuff I ordered at SE. Your teaser video got me so hyped, I didn't even realized the techniques have "names".

Anyway, hope you had a great holiday.

Happy New Year to all!

abby

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