I’ve not written a log since Sunday, that’s because I’ve really just kept to the daily exercises and that wasn’t really enlightening enough to warrant a blog post (plus I’ve been tired – still am). Today’s bend exercise was interesting in that not only it was good for timing a bend, which I tend to play either too quickly or too slowly, but also to practice bend control by supporting bends done by with ring finger with adjacent fingers. It’s basic bending practice but I have this tendency to let the one finger do all the work and it is generally detrimental to the control, and thus quality of the bend. I’ve gotta see if I can take that idea to other songs which have heavy bending licks such as Parisienne Walkways and try to improve the playability of the song that way.
Since I had a little more time, I finally was able to do a recording tonight. Have a listen below and I’ll follow with some comments
As in previous recordings, the first thing that strikes me is how audible my picking is. My gut reaction is because I don’t use as much phrasing as I should in slow simple pieces like these, and it’s true it would probably sound smoother if I used more legato. However it might be an issue with the recording method, I don’t exactly use a professional home studio here so obviously there will be issues.
Still, it’s not perfect yet, and it’s still just a jamming session but it’s not too bad for something I essentially rushed (single take). So please do let me know what you think in the comments below if you feel so inclined.