This old dog is learning some new tricks thanks to CtC. I’ve felt for a while that I owed at the very least a sincere thanks and a report of what’s been going on.
I’m almost 59 years old. Picked up the guitar in 1981 or 82. Studied at Music Tech of Minneapolis briefly in the early '90s (a long since defunct guitar school). Went on to study classical guitar at university, again very briefly.
Long story short: With minimal and sporadic time spent with the guitar, I have managed over the past few months to develop new skills with DSX. I’m doing things that I’ve never been able to do. Lightning fast 2 notes per string pentatonic stuff was where it all started. I was playing around with establishing my primary motion with tremolo one night. On a whim I thought, “well I know these guys on CtC say 2nps pentatonic stuff is really hard, but let’s see just how hard it is.” And it clicked. Descending only, at first.
So I’ve been developing it, and gradually feeding in some ascending lines. I’m letting strict DSX dictate my fingering, which of course makes for some unusual shifts, but that’s okay at this point. It’s pretty damn cool. Every time I pick up the guitar I come up with something new now.
Also noteworthy: now that I am gaining fluidity with DSX, I’ll sometimes give USX and DBX a shot and there are glimmers of hope with these bugbears. Ultimately I’ll need to master DBX in order to play some of the things I love. DBX is totally confounding at the moment, but comfort with DSX seems to be loosening everything else up too. So I’m very happy about this progress especially considering how little time I’ve had to invest in it. Just a few minutes here and there for the most part.
So that’s the basic news.