I recorded myself doing R37 swing groove in Bb over 200x, slowly, during the last week. I didn't watch all the recordings, but the ones I watched taught me some good stuff. Here are 3 things I learned:
#1. "Lazy Pinky" — On the Bb chord, I wasn't picking up my pinky (D on the 3rd string) high enough for muting, so that note would ring out on the upstroke. That was relatively easy to fix, though I still sometimes suffer from this pinky laziness.
#2. Harmonic on Low E— On the F chord, even though I was using my thumb to mute the low E string, the harmonic sometimes rang out. This was something I didn't notice while playing, only when listening back to the recording. (Interestingly, it only happened on the F chord, not the Eb chord.) I tried to fix this by positioning my thumb differently, but it kept happening. Now it's happening less, I'm not sure why, but still happens sometimes.
#3. 3rd Not Ringing Out — On both the Eb and F chords, I discovered from the recordings that I was inadvertently muting the 3rd (G and A, respectively, on the 4th string) with my second finger (which reaches over that string). This has been hard to fix — I still find it difficult to let the 4th string ring out on the Eb and F triads while muting the 1st string at the same time.
Here's the last recording of the series— still new mistakes after 200x! I can also hear #2 (E string harmonic on the F chord) a few times, and #3 (muted major 3rd on Eb and F chords).
Thank you Andy for sharing your experience & thank you for sharing this video.
Great job working on R 3 7 Swing Groove! My favorite exercise of all!
Nice clean dry tone! Your right hand strum distance is so good!
Then first thing I noticed was that your left hand mute timming is a little earlier than your right hand stroke.
Around 0:28... your down stroke duration is getting shorter.
As you said... You didnot notice while you were playing! This is super imporrant fact!
Without recording yourself, it is very difficult to improve your guitar playing.
Eb7 & F7... listen closely to the 4th string (Major 3rd)
I cannot hear that M3 well. So try to play each note after you strummed.
Tomo
Thank you, Tomo! It is great to get your encouragement. One thing: I didn't understand your comment: "...your left hand mute timing is a little earlier than your right hand stroke."
Do you mean that I should keep the left hand pressed longer, to just before the upstroke, or do you mean that I should press it sooner/later before the downstroke? Or something else?
Yes, my #3 learning was that on the Eb7 and F7 chords I am having trouble sounding the major third — my second finger keeps touching the 4th string. (In my original post I made a mistake and said it was the 7th — I edited it.) This is what I am working on now.
BTW, I made a bet with my son that you would say I should play slower. You didn't say that, so he won $1 :)
You're very welcome Andy! Thanks so much for making this thread! You are helping others!
You mute notes by your left hand before you play your upstroke!
Listen that part carefully! Should be same time... when you strum your up-stroke, you mute the strings by your left fingers.
Use less pressure for holding notes in general. Your down stroke... the duration of those notes are little short. You need to sustain all the way. Plus you want to feel swing / triplet feel under your playing.
Yes! Your second finger is touching the 4th string. So please work on that angle. I practice this everyday! I was just practicing tonight.
Ha ha! Your tempo is slow overall so I didn't say that. Your son is very smart!
Tomo
Nice going Andy! Beauty telecaster you have there and great pure hard work and also for recording so you can learn what to work on. Exciting
The same here with #3. I have partially solved the problem moving the arm (elbow) like Tomo. Everything he does is for a reason.