Little Breakthroughs

I love little breakthroughs. Little breakthroughs are what makes the world go 'round.

Now, I understand about major breakthroughs in science and technology (and plenty of other fields) that have shaped and shifted our thinking, and in many cases, turned our way of doing things on its head. The difference between a major and a little breakthrough being that major breakthroughs affect a mass population; little breakthroughs affect pretty much me exclusively and happen when I'm trying to learn something new. It's that feeling when something finally 'clicks.'

Yesterday I had not one, but two(!) little breakthroughs on the guitar. First, I learned how to mute strings. My way is to put the side of my strumming hand on the strings to get the click sound. This doesn't always perfectly - if part of my hand misses, I'll get this half-mute, half-open cacophonous mess that requires me to stop and redo. I know some people that mute with their left hand and I have no doubt that in some cases this is probably the preferred method, but for now, the only thing I'm muting with my left hand is the F chord.

My other little breakthrough was that I figured out the "proper" (I use that word loosely. I'm basically teaching myself [with the help of some friends and youtube], so 'proper' could just as easily be substituted with 'way more comfortable.') way of positioning my left hand around the neck. Here's what I figured out: Cognitively, it makes sense to form a chord where your fingers are perpendicular to the strings. Physically, that doesn't work so well. I'm trying to strum a C, trying to figure out why I keep muting certain strings, strumming strumming strumming, and then I shift my fingers from a 90 degree angle to a 45 degree angle. Each string rings clearly! My thumb, which used to push against the back of the neck (as if I was giving a thumbprint biometric), now (the entire length of which, including the fleshy part of my palm) rests parallel to the neck. Brilliant!

I tried it with (fake) F, D, Am. Everything sounds better! And it's far easier to change chords now too, I feel as though my fingers don't have to move as far, for some reason. I tried sliding up and down the neck, also with clearer and faster results. Sweet! I'm now slightly better at the same 5 songs I've been trying to learn for the past 2 weeks -- which makes me think that someday I will get it; I will be able to play to tempo without having to stop at every 4th chord change. Little breakthroughs are little motivations.