One Small Part

In Guitar Craft I have learned how changing one small part changes everything. This is subtle, something I have experienced in my guitar practice many times before, and I continue to be amazed when I experience this again. Tonight I decided to focus on one section of Dandelion Wish that I play poorly. Has to do with moving from playing lots of arpeggios into playing an artificial harmonic, getting my right hand back to more arpeggios and then playing two artificial harmonics in the 15th position, and then right back to arpeggios.

Since I am opening with this piece at the benefit for Darhyl Lyons on Saturday I need this piece to take off. To do so I need these harmonics to be crisp and in time. I slowed the metronome down to 60 bpm to facilitate seeing what I am and am not doing. After about 12 minutes I could play this reliably. I took a quick look at August Born and then returned to this part again. After a couple minutes I increased to 62 bpm. Played at this tempo for 5 minutes then played through Scattered Hearts. Back to the part at 62, nailed it and incresed to 64.  After getting it reliable at 68 I took a break.

Returning from the break I played it at performance tempo and was able to nail it. Happy I returned to 68 and slowly increased to 76bpm. Once I was satisfied at this tempo I played through the piece with the metronome. I played the artificial harmonics with confidence botht times this section appears. I then moved on to run the set. This was when I saw how this quality of care and attention had spread. The set was well played for 6 pieces. I stumbled a bit in the final piece, part of this was fatigue in my hands, part getting tired overall. A good nights work. What small part shall I focus on tomorrow?

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