Hail, forum fam! Overly dramatic Josh is back to ask you…
Will you answer the call of the 2 Week Technique Challenge?
Here’s the deal - I’ve created an exercise that will MAGICALLY solve the 5 most common technique mistakes I see beginners (and even intermediates) making.
Your mission -
watch the (rough draft) lesson video below for more guidance on the written exercise
grab a “before” video of you attempting the exercise, along with the track, BEFORE you dig in and practice a bunch.
Please record yourself playing each of the 5 levels, since they focus on different skills.
And also record yourself playing Level 5 at 50% and 100% speed.
Don’t be afraid of sounding like s**t in the “before” vid, that’s what “after” vids are for
Practice the exercise daily for ~10 minutes, for 2 weeks.
You can decide how to break up that time based on your weak points / what you want to practice the most. Maybe you split the time between all the levels, maybe you focus on one per day… your call.
Record an “after” video to measure your progress (more tips on this in the rough lesson vid)
The challenge officially begins Monday, Aug 19. The cutoff for after vids is Sep 2nd (I’ll give some hours leeway to account for timezones).
If you get your before/afters in by the deadline, you’ll get a custom forum badge acknowledging your participation.
Post all your vids, progress, questions, etc. to this thread.
Here’s a no-bass track you can jam this exercise with, created by our very own @Justyn .
(you can hear me play each level in the video, for reference)
And here’s the track at 50% speed for practice + recording your Level 5 before vid -
The Lesson
My intention is to turn this exercise into another “Practice This Daily” video, and I’d love to use your progress clips in the vid to show that it works! Please let me know if you don’t want your clips on Youtube for the world to see. (I promise to show your progress in a flattering light of course) EDIT: It is done. see above.
Hi @JoshFossgreen, this seems like a great video idea, and I am going to try to join. But I can’t download the practice tracks. Might just be me doing something wrong.
Hello @JoshFossgreen I love this concept and I’m going to accept your Top 5 Technique Fails Challenge, but only to see how far I can push myself. I’m not going to submit anything. I’m OLD! My fingers (and brain) just don’t move as fast as they used to…one of the unfortunate hazards of aging. I have a hard time playing at 150 bpm! And honestly that’s not my goal. I just want to be able to play along with my favorite songs, with a few technical challenges along the way to keep the journey interesting. Actually, that’s songdog51 not songodog…and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with music!
Ok, this is not good, but guess that is what you want @JoshFossgreen .
Jumped straigt to 100% on level 1-4 and then one time 50% on level 5 and then 100%. I think it is a total chaos.
Will practice 10 min every day hopefully it will get better. Also I kind of prove that I need to get better at reading.
I didn’t manage to download the backing track so the sound is just from my camera. Think it would have been better to have the track and recording in Reaper.
God knows I could certainly benefit from this exercise, but I won’t be to do the two week challenge as I’ll be on the road. But, I will practice this when I have more time. Thanks @JoshFossgreen for this lesson.
Okay… this is a lot to process. I’m a bit confused on the directions and think I am making things overly stressful for myself.
To start out on Day 0/1 - do NOT do the exercises yet? Just get video of best attempt at playing the exercise music provided at full tempo. Don’t bothering practicing. Allow things to be overwhelming. Get 100% speed on levels 1-4, and then 50% at L.5 and 100% at L.5. Correct?
Then on subsequent days, practice one exercise and work on the corresponding music line. Get at least one video for each level. (Maybe video first day practicing each level and last day.)
