When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Most of the time you know when you’ve played wrong notes, chords, or rhythms. But that’s not always the case—and that presents a big problem! How can you know what you don’t know?
You can start by looking for the most common mistakes people make. Rhythmic mistakes are the biggest problem most students have. The most common rhythmic mistakes are adding or subtracting beats to one or more measures in a song or playing in the wrong time signature. Unfortunately, if you’re making one of these mistakes, it may sound fine to you, and the longer you practice the mistake, the more right it will sound! To avoid those problems, try isolating the rhythm and using a metronome. You’ll need to count out loud as you do this and be impeccable in your commitment, otherwise you’ll slip into old habits that may be incorrect.
What Else Can You Do?
Although those are common mistakes people have in playing their songs, they’re not the only ones. A good teacher can catch your mistakes, but if you’re teaching yourself, you may play songs incorrectly for months or even years, to the detriment of your rhythmic or pitch sense. For this reason, I’ve decided to add another service to my lesson and coaching options: single song support.
To take advantage of this service, record yourself playing the song you want me to check or correct and email the audio file to me. Don’t get caught up in trying to make a high-quality recording—I just need to hear it clearly. Recording it on your phone is a good option.
When you email your recording, include a link to the version you’re working from, if you have one. (For example, the version of the song on YouTube—no video necessary.) I will review your performance and send you back an email that describes any problems I’ve found and suggestions about how to correct them. If you’re playing everything correctly, I’ll let you know that, too (yay!), but I’ll probably throw in some helpful suggestions anyway. (That’s my job!)
At only $25/song, this is an affordable and efficient way to clean up one or more of your songs and move your playing forward. Choose “Single Song Support” in the drop down menu below. After you’ve completed your purchase, I will email you within 24 hours and provide details on sending your recording. Expect it to take 48-72 hours from the time you send in the song until you receive my assessment and any corrections or suggestions.