I think the most invaluable thing that CTC can teach you is how to think on a microscale when it comes to correcting technique.
Pedal Steel Guitar has slowly become the main instrument I reach for when I have rare practice time ever since falling in love with the instrument a couple years back (maybe one day I’ll be to 10% of what I can play on spanish guitar.) The picking ideas and other learning concepts that Troy and the CTC folks have provided us are huge and they are absolutely transferrable to other instruments, especially string instruments.
Chunking: this is how I learn stuff now and it works, it really works, I chunk stuff into patterns or bytes of information that can easily be burned into the EPROM of muscle memory.
Escape angles: This is huge for two reasons. PSG is primarily played similarly to bluegrass banjo with a thumbpick and usually two metal fingerpicks. If you get stuck in between the strings you can’t move around. With at least 10 strings on an instrument that fast runs are primarily played via single or two note per string changes its huge. Another element is blocking you can’t escape too far because PSG has near limitless sustain and it becomes total mud without quick muting akin to playing a piano with the sustain pedal held down with a brick. Also included in this thinking with the economy of motion.
Thank you so much to the everyone at CTC for their contributions in teaching us how to think from a physics angle!
I didn’t make the connections until I was watching this vid and the “door knocking” example came up in regards to picking in this vid around 14:30.
