I’m trying to get back to where I was at pre-botulism. Having a heck of a time with tension in my right arm. that I’ve never felt before. I just can’t seem to relax! I’d love a form check on anything that looks off in my playing here with my right (or left) hand. @Troy@tommo
I’m getting so frustrated with my practice since coming back, it feels like the joy is gone and my practice has become a chore. Basically, I’m not as patient as I once was and I want my skills back, yesterday! I could really use some constructive criticism or affirmations so I know if I’m on the right path.
No slo-mo as my phone cant upload slo to YouTube. But I’ll be on a computer soon!
Thank you, this has been a hell of a week practice wise, I’ve always been an upbeat guy but honestly I’ve considered hanging the guitars up permanently every single session this week. Only thing that keeps me coming back as this passionate obsession! I just can’t give it up haha.
No other advice, just cut yourself some slack. Its not like the above video is an absolute car crash it sounds good! Your body has been messed up by the botulism, it needs some time to recover and your muscles and nerves to get back into the game.
Maybe just practice some easy songs to get some overall fun back into your playing and loosen up.
Glad you can go back to playing, hope you’ll make a full recovery soon!
This sounds and looks really good and fluid! If it makes you feel better, the tension you are mentioning is not really showing in the video. But I know that sometimes look and feel are very different.
The main observation I can make from this angle is that your picking relies significantly on elbow motion. So it may help to look at what other elbow players do to stay relaxed - the excellent @Bill_hall comes to mind, and he has written a detailed set of suggestions for this - hope this helps but of course let us know how things go
I like also @PickingApprentice’s suggestion to give yourself some easy wins during your guitar playing - if you work all the time on things that “feel difficult”, it easily starts to feel like a chore (ask me how I know!).
EDIT: sometimes tension is also the result of not knowing exactly what movements you are making (e.g. we had several examples here on the forum of players that were convinced they were doing USX, while in reality they were DSX players - so the opposite - hence the USX licks they were practicing felt super tense/random/uncontrolled!). So when you have time you could also try to film yourself with the “down the strings” perspective (see link below). Knowing what you are doing and relating it to what you feel you are doing can help loads.
My initial reaction after just a casual viewing (not trying to pick anything apart) is that it sounds great and looks controlled. But then I read your post again and noticed this:
How fast were you playing before your botulism diagnosis? Are you not quite flooring it in the clip you posted here? Again, just viewing the clip there’s nothing to feel frustrated about I could understand if you were playing 20 - 30 bpm higher than this before and you feel you can’t match that yet. Just looking for some additional context. Great playing here though!
EDIT: Oh and thanks for that Bill Hall link @tommo! There are some great tips there. Very helpful to an aspiring elbow player like me!
