Change It Up For Progress

It's funny how progress can sneak up on you for the strangest reasons.

I've had the luxury of being able to play my guitar at lunch time at my work.  It has been a lovely diversion, and a wonderful way to augment my practice/playing time.  Eighteen months ago I moved offices to one where business operations continue over the lunch period, so I began to practice exclusively on finger style technique - to be more quiet and unobtrusive.  Up until this time, I would always practice strumming with a plectrum.  Well, it was a difficult transition, but I made the best of it day, after day, after day.

Well, about a year after changing offices, I sat up one day and realized that finger style guitar had suddenly become 'easy' for me.  Wow - breakthrough!  As I looked back over the time in the new office, I realized that by using finger style I had come to intuitively feel the timing of some difficult songs which had continued to elude me when I approached the songs with strumming.  It was a really cool realization.  So now, when I'm struggling with the timing of a song, I will switch to finger style in order to get a better feel for the timing.  Another thing that happened as I focused on finger style was that I came to use finger style in  a more spontaneous fashion based on what I was hearing in the music.  Again, boy golly.

Another small thing that has paid some big dividends has been playing ukulele, well, Guitalele to be more precise.  With 6 strings and baritone uke tuning, I can play the same fingerings as the guitar, you just have to adjust the pitch for singing by transposing a bit lower, or changing the capo placement.  Playing the uke has given me a different feel to my guitar playing, again, a more spontaneous, more rootsy feel, which I can carry over to my guitar playing.  I think it's a combination of (1) not using a plectrum, and (2) a different 'feel' of the instrument.  It has made me listen to my playing more carefully, and then experiment with the sound to make a pleasing outcome, and in every case it sounds much different from simply strumming the ol' guitar.

Two small things that have paid off huge dividends over an 18 month period.