Hi Tomo-san,
I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the 36-year-old beginner who previously asked about a subscription discount on one of your youtube post :) ı I ended up taking your advice and just went for the monthly subscription! This is the first time I've ever played an instrument in my life, and I'm really excited to be learning from you.
I’ve attached a video of me trying the chromatic exercise. I literally just started this exercise today, and I know it's nowhere near good enough yet, but I wanted to get some early feedback. My goal is to try my best to improve and post update videos on Day 15 and Day 30 to track my progress.
In the video, I was actively trying to focus on a few things:
Keeping a relaxed body posture.
My thumb position (trying to keep it lightly touching the back of the neck).
Muting with my palm and my 1st/4th fingers (which wasn't very successful yet!).
Getting clean notes to sustain (which I failed at again and again).
I am having a really hard time, especially with sustaining the notes when I play with my ring and pinky fingers. I struggle to keep the sustain both when pressing down and when releasing the string.
Could you give me some serious advice based on what you see in the video? As a complete newbie, I really want to make sure I practice the right way so I don't build any bad technique or habits as I progress.
Thank you so much for your time guidance.
Great job Gorkem! Thanks for posting.
There is a ton of info on chromatics on the forum. One that might be easy to miss is the November Challenge. If you just type "November" in the search bar, you'll see them. They are titled by week, so you could follow week 1, week 2, etc. if you'd like.
Thank you Gorkem! Yes I remembered that question! Thanks so much for subscribing my Guitar Wisdom. Great job!
Chromatic scale is really effective and it is so important to pay attention on several areas. I can list up so you can follow easy later when you review your chromatic scale exercise.
1) Do use all down strokes.
2) Keep it slow pace.
3) Move your left fingers slowly and mute other strings.
4) Pick near a front pickup.
5) Sustain each note longer.
More proper advices are from Guitar Wisdom Challenge and plesae watch my chromatic exercise more.
I highly recommend these lessons to understand “HOW TO LEARN” rather than “WHAT TO LEARN”
1) FT01 Simple Chromatic Scale Exercise 1233 (Learn this with less pressure, soft picking etc)
https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/videos/ft01-simple-chromatic-scale-exercise-1-2-3-4
2) ET01 C Major Scale (One String One Finger Approach/Name Of Notes/Intervals/Singing Do Re Mi)
https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/videos/et01-c-major-scale
3) ET12 Major Triad (Learn inversions One String Approach first with intervals not shapes and no noises!)
https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/music-theory-i/videos/et12-major-triads
Tomo
Thank you Clay for encourgement and pointing to our November Challenge.
Tomo