I suck less than last year

Buco · May 2

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I got this as an inspirational merch for DiJ. It'll be easy to pick me out in the crowd.

But, it actually takes me longer than a year to fully realize I've improved. It could be a couple or even several years to truly hear and feel the improvement. How is it for others? That's assuming you don't practice 6+ hours a day. If you do, I'm pretty sure the improvement will be obvious in a year. What were the milestones for you?

A few that I can think of:

Wrapping the thumb

Learning La Gitane

Learning intro to Swing Gitane that Angelo plays

Realizing I'm finally decent at double down picking

Finally, for the last few years, realizing I can finally navigate the changes

Joonas · May 2

Denis Chang said in one of his videos that if you practice (I assume ~6 hours a day) you'll see jumps in results in about every six months.

For me, the fact that I can notice any positive changes in my playing at all is a very big thing. And I can see and hear them. Speed is obviously something to note. I'm not fast fast but there are certain licks and phrases that I know I'm definitely getting faster with than before. Hand strength also comes to mind. Some chords that seemed impossible to me about a year ago are now almost ordinary. I'm thinking about some weird 5-6 string chords that I picked up from Echoes of Spain from the Django Reinhardt Anthology book ( I think it was that), chords that I even b e l i e v e had probably like one note too much in them, so they were maybe transcribed wrong, but I stuck with them and now I can play them.

Also general speed of computing notes and chords. I "theoretically learned theory" 20 years ago (I'm forty now) but I haven't practiced it much. For the past couple of years I've been playing at the church almost every Sunday and this has had me involved in transposing a l o t of songs (the singers often need a specific key), often with a day's notice. And I've gotten pretty good at it. And I'm grateful for it!

Buco · May 2

Oh yeah, you reminded me of when a few years back I was working on some ultra fast lick I heard Remi Harris play. I was absolutely flabbergasted when eventually I had played it myself, I just couldn't believe it. I heard Paulus Schaffer say something like "don't worry about speed, you keep playing and it'll just come". And I think I mentioned that to Bill just a few days ago. But I know that at some point I went after it. And I also heard people who said that, at some point you have to go for it. I did that and that could've been one of the turning points for me as well.

Oh yeah, photo credit on my patch goes to @geese_com from when he was selling off his impressive collection of Killy picks. I ended up with the one on the left. Still a great pick. That was, buying that pick, another one of my turning points... wouldn't that be great...

B25Gib · May 2

Thanks to BUCO for acknowledging his GJ improvements. Budos to Joonas for learning key transposing for singers!

My biggest improvement jumps back to 2004 took 6 months after Django Fest in Langley Whidbey Island WA. Back then I still hit stagnant levels 6 months even after practice 60-90 min a day. Keep playing. Also: a Gm7b5 took me two weeks to grab!

Buco · May 3

Thank you @B25Gib . You're talking about days and months, I think everything is measured in years for me. Oh yeah, another way I know I'm at a good place is because before I couldn't wait for my turn to solo to be over and hand it off after one chorus. Now I have fun playing over a few.

Buco · May 6

Something that I realized this morning was probably the reason I came up with this line. While it wasn't clearly evident that I'm improving over time, when I would come to Django in June, it was easier to realize that I suck less than last time.