Nah, I doubt it. Guitarists have been playing with 8-finger tapping for decades and/or tuning in fifths. This seems like a "solution without a problem" kinda thing. I find it very pretentious.
@@ErebosGR I know exactly what you mean and that is actually exactly why I mentioned these two genres. They (and their fans) eat this kind of shit up. And I say that respectfully as one of them.
@@pr0r0gu3 I don't agree with that generalization. I feel that those genres are very pragmatic in how they incorporate musical elements/instruments from other music styles. The "touch guitar" would have to provide something unique and distinctive, musically, to justify its adoption.
Already digging the progress and the sounds you're making. That U8's neck was cut from the same wood as mine was, they are sister instruments. What a significant chunk of Plumwood.
Me: "Oh neat, Shawn is inhumanly good at the drums so it'll be nice to see him learn a new instrument and see how we all start out as trash at first." Shawn: Proceeds to play The Girl From Ipanema while accompanying himself in week one. This... is going to escalate quickly, isn't it?
attempt to make music, then, when you have an idea you can't execute, work on technique until you can execute that idea. this ensures you're always motivated by passion, and not a sense of obligation. people have limited motivation for obligation, but essentially limitless motivation for passion.
I think this is both a good and bad idea and would like to offer an addition. When you write on the instrument you are going to play with, you tend to underestimate how much of what you are going to come up with is channeled by the technique that is already there - you tend to gravitate to things you are comfortable with playing. So if you come up with the ideas on your instrument, you will come to ideas that require you to push your techniques less frequently than (and that's my addition) if you write with a notation software first and then try to execute what you have come up with. Or take music written for another instrument and try to play it on your instrument of choice. Or sing a part you then try to execute.
@@simongunkel7457 i should also add that i specifically have an office job so that i'm never creatively constrained to play things that other people want to buy or hear. when music is a job, some obligation--based motivation is inevitable. also weird thing: using a tracker to compose "feels" closer to fretted stringed instruments than piano roll or western music notation because it naturally guides you to think of music in semitones as the base unit rather than degrees of your chosen scale.
I agree with what you're saying but it is SO important to have focus on general technique just so you don't hurt yourself. I know great guitar players who have had to stop playing altogether because problems with their technique has given them serious wrist and muscle injuries. I've been playing bass for years and years mostly self taught and I've had to spend a while ironing out potentially dangerous technique years down the line I didn't even realise was wrong. I think that's what Shawn and his teacher are getting at here with the "bad habits" they're talking about.
This is so helpful for any instrumentalist, is really hard to not get into bad habits but it is worse to correct them, and those advices of finding the balance between musicality and technique is what everybody should think of Thank you Shawn and my best wishes for you to continue growing in this new world
Next exercise will be opening the chakras. Great job in surviving the first week of learning new instrument! It's very easy to get sidetracked in the "experimental" jamming amidst the mundane exercises.
@@JGBDYT It's a lot of things but I'm talking specifically about emo music, a subgenre/offshoot of rock and hardcore punk. Check out the band American Football for an idea of what I'm talking about.
Been having recurring anxiety dreams about going out and forgetting a mask. Don't even think about it during the day. But I guess it's weighing on my mind. Whole video was like, "Why are they in a room together? Oh yeah, Germany" ಥ﹏ಥ
5:00 Ha, this was reminding me of practising acoustic the other day and working out how to get rid of the finger-pad release sounds, they often slide a little and make little scraping sounds. Great to focus on, makes a huge difference overall to manage those sort of byproduct sounds.
This video actually motivated me to work more on my tapping as a guitarist, thanks for reminding me about the possibilities when you have both hands on the fretboard
As a math rock guitarist this sort of stuff is so cool to see! There's way more differences than I expected between touch guitar and just normal two-handed tapping with all of your fingers. Excited to see how this goes!
Thank you for being so open showing your/jamming practicing! its a good reminder to see that even an accomplished musician and composer like yourself had to start somewhere I also really enjoy hearing what you're hearing and how you're trying to figure out the resolutions without knowing the shapes! (I do it on bass a lot haha)
Shootout to Liquid Tension Experiment. The old guy playing the chapman stick at the beginning of the video is part of that band. The band is 75% Dream Theater (Petrucci, Portnoy and Rudess). They just released a new album this week.
This is super reassuring as an amateur guitarist (common or garden six string variety lol). I learned to move my hands to avoid pull-offs on nylon instruments and to see someone so proficient explaining it at the beginning is awesome. Sometimes it is inevitable you'll get a noise but I'm learning to live with them and only to bother trying to avoid the super dissonant ones to manage your workload. (dissonant being unwanted notes in this case, if you want to build tension sometimes harmony can be a problem 😂)
Honestly this is brilliant. It's incredibly humbling to learn a new instrument and you're killing it! It's a great opportunity for others in their musical journey to see you starting from scratch too. I remember I started learning Trumpet to play with the Year 4 concert band at a school I taught at. My students gained a new perspective of learning an instrument because "even someone with a music degree can be a beginner". Love the channel.
The clean tone and range of the guitar while you're jamming near the end reminds me of the song "Flavor Bud Living" by Captain Beefheart (don't worry, it's actually listenable).
After I read the Ipanema comments and then got to the part where Shawn played it I was like "Hey, that's nice! I like how easy that part of the chord progression actually is on this instru… wait, he's adding the melody, too?! … wow."
With the whole lockdown situation making band practices/gigs a no go, I’ve started writing stuff on bass using two handed tapping to do the melody/bass parts. How does this compare to doing it on a regular bass/guitar?
Stanley Jordan is one of the best touch guitarists and jazz composer/musician ever. He never gets mentioned enough. If you haven't heard his albums, or the Concert he did with Chet Atkins, MUST sees. He is the progenitor of jazz touch guitar. Please mention him... he is a father of touch guitar... thanks
eh, I feel it was necessary for me as a non-guitarist. the theory/rhythm/coordination stuff will be easy for me, but my body isn't adapted to playing on strings.
@@ShawnCrowder you definetly have a point there, looks like you're already at a good point judging by your noodling though! really looking forward for the next episode
Don't get it. Unconvinced that the sound is good or unique enough to warrant its own instrument. Stanley Jordan made a go of it, it's already been pioneered. Don't get it.
A bit of jamming certainly makes for a more entertaining video than a record of diligence in the basics would've. In the more focused week it might be an idea to take the videos of those and figure out what you've done wrong in any piece where this shows up clear enough and basic enough to be worth going back there to fix things (slow, accurate, etc). Also for the creative side, while you're at the start, and now you've released that pent up urge to just get out there and play that thing, maybe next time it grabs you, send it down some other avenue? Play the tabla. Or just attack the drum kit in a completely new way - jam like they jam in Senegal or something. Or sing. Even if you don't sing much, do what you can. Throat sing like the Golden Horde did. And then get nice and calm and in-control, and go back to making sure you're only practicing success. And having said that, I now feel free to agree with everyone that your jams were pretty cool (and give a good idea of the kind of fun such a guitar could become after not too many years down a journey). Thanks for putting yourself out there like this. It's really interesting seeing a musician learning an instrument like this. (A compressed/ accelerated version of the longer path a talented hobbyist would follow, so a story one can follow without getting too bogged in the details - because you have it in you to deal with those quite quickly.)
Hi Shawn, great video as always! Though you might enjoy this piece by thomas ades: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pak3U_f0H4o.html starting at 1:54, it features a 5/12 pattern in the right hand (with added 2:3 polyrhythm, often starting a triplet or two off the beat) over a straight 3/4 left hand. curious if you might have a different way of notating or conceptualizing it, I'm learning the piece now and at tempo it's hella difficult 😅
Question: does that foam at the nut (to mute accidental pull-off to open, i assume) stay on for all levels of play, or is that on there because you're a beginner?
i’d guess it stays on, it’s really common for guitarists using extended range strings to have some foam up there to cut down on sustain or to keep unmuted low strings from ringing out and muddying shit up
