Thanks folks for all the comments, tips, and links.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silly Moustache
The deal with slide is that you can always play flat but should never play sharp.
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This was a very useful comment. Landing the notes when sliding is something I'm really needing to work on (but I'm getting better already), and your comment highlights something I had noticed but had not really thought of as clearly as I should have. Having notes be sharp is indeed a lot more annoying than if they are slightly flat.
I've been working today a bit on "Look so Good", a very simple piece, and perfect it seems as a first piece (recommended to me by the great Weissenborn player I bought this instrument from). Though my family will soon be sick of it (me too maybe!), it really is useful for working on technique.
This endeavor is reminding me a bit of when I first got into 5-string banjo as a teenager, when it was frustrating at first attempting to get anything to sound good at all. It is a good reminder of what it is like in the very early stages with an instrument. A few days ago I was so frustrated and craving a more familiar and more comfortable musical experience that I found myself starting to just pick it up to play like a standard guitar!
But I actually am making fairly rapid progress. Each session (even if a short session) with the instrument has me sounding a bit better. I keep reminding myself how long other skills on guitar or banjo took to develop, and how seemingly impossible things eventually became second nature by just plugging away at them with stubborn persistence.
I'm actually sounding sort of musical today!
I think it will surely be months (or maybe a year) before I'm REALLY happy with how anything sounds on this instrument, but perhaps it will go faster than I'm thinking.
I just need to be careful to not totally neglect my other guitars and lose my callouses!