what can i improve?

davidjazzfan · April 3

i made up my mind i want to reach to Stephane Wrembel but i don't know how.

voutoreenie · April 3

Keep in mind that was 2022 pricing...assuming Antoine's still offering lessons, adjusting for inflation probably means he's up to $150+ by now lol

davidjazzfan · April 3

I've had a class with Branko Macic he's price is 20 bucks. He said to me that every pick stroke has to have equal volume and that everything goes from the wrist. The issue is i can't have equal volume with totally relaxed hand.

davidjazzfan · April 3

He also said that when you play slower you should only pick downstrokes. He showed me the slowest tempo for using both downstrokes and upstrokes but even on slowest tempo i cant have equal volume of both strokes and it sounds dirty.

davidjazzfan · April 3

How am i supposed to play faster upstroke? How am i supposed to have equal volume? Macic said it needs to sound like a machine going ,,Tak Tak Tak Tak Tak"

billyshakes · April 4

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/124955#Comment_124955

I'll second this. My kids get private music lessons for ~$35/half hour. At the music store, they are about $45/half hour. When you consider that versus what you might spend for a private lesson with a good player like Wrembel, Boyer, etc or even the online learning communities of Robin Nolan, Yaakov Hoter, or Christiaan Van Hemert, who are focused on teaching this style, you'll see how to rationalize that spending on yourself pretty quickly.

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/124956#Comment_124956

You could probably start by looking at his website if you haven't already thought of that by now.

Buco · April 4

These are very different economics we're talking about. Branko Macić was (is) a primo jazz guitar player in Yugoslavia times and his GJ playing is at the very top too. His Hot Club of Belgrade, Balkan Swing is one of my favorite albums in the genre. If $20 is what he's asking, then that's what he can get in that part of the world because that's what people realistically can afford. To go from $20 to a $100 is a big jump.

That said, David (hopefully you're reading all these posts by everyone), a single lesson can indeed go a long way but you will not get an answer you're looking out of a single lesson. A good teacher can put you on the right path but at the end of day it'll be up to you where you take it. You're making a big headway already by hearing that there's something missing in your tone, just by doing that you're already ahead. In one of the posts you asked a bunch of questions, really good questions. Just by thinking like that, you're progressing whether you realize it or not. This is a snails pace journey. At least for me it is. But that's fine with me.

I took a lesson with Sam Farthing about a 1.5 year ago with a single goal of trying to figure out what is about his tone that's makes him sound so amazing. Both his loud and his quiet playing. There is so much dynamics in his playing. And that was one thing he stressed out a lot. But I don't even know if I was left with any specific and clear cut solutions but I believe that today I'm much closer to where I want to be than before meeting with him and that one lesson opened another door. Just the inspiration from that meeting and having that carrot in front of my face is what helped me.

If I were you I'd get together with Branko again. As long as you like his tone and his playing. Then just try to spend time playing with him, watching him play, closely observing what he's doing, ask questions of course. Eventually you'll get to where you want to be. As everybody agreed here, your basic technique is solid so whatever you end up doing will be micro changes. Accept struggle as the necessary part of the journey. Of course I get frustrated occasionally but for the most part if I notice I'm struggling, that's the surest sign that tomorrow I'll play a little bit better. Some people here are familiar with my saying, I suck less than last year. That's all anyone can hope for. Have fun!