Hi John
Sorry to hear about your nerve problems.
I got a variety of books to get started -- including Anton Shearer's and
Christopher Parkening's.
Then I started corresponding with a fabulous and wonderfully expressive player
in the NetherlandsI found on YouTube-- Enno Voorhorst
Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viVl-G4lFQ4
I like his approach very much -- part of it is that he started out as a violin
player, and still does a fair amount of playing in string quartets, etc. You
can hear that his approach to tremolo playing is that of a solo timbre rather
than an effect.
And some of the violin ideas of little to no support for the left hand do work
well on classical guitar.But many of the barres (especially the hinged ones) do
require some thumb support. What has been interesting about this process is to
find out how much of the basic classical guitar technique is quite different
from steel string jazz chops -- it's taken a while to unlearn some "spinal
reflexes" that were developed a lifetime ago.
Cheers,
Alan
>________________________________
> From: John Zabroski <[email protected]>
>To: Alan Kay <[email protected]>; Fundamentals of New Computing
><[email protected]>
>Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 5:40 PM
>Subject: Re: [fonc] Alan Kay in the news [german]
>
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Alan Kay <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Hi Long,
>>
>>
>>I can keep my elbows into my body typing on a laptop. My problem is that I
>>can't reach out further for more than a few seconds without a fair amount of
>>pain from all the ligament tendon and rotator cuff damage along that axis. If
>>I get that close to the keys on an organ I still have trouble reaching the
>>other keyboards and my feet are too far forward to play the pedals. Similar
>>geometry with the piano, plus the reaches on the much wider keyboard are too
>>far on the right side. Also at my age there are some lower back problems from
>>trying to lean in at a low angle -- this doesn't work.
>>
>>
>>
>>But, after a few months I realized I could go back to guitar playing (which I
>>did a lot 50 years ago) because you can play guitar with your right elbow in.
>>After a few years of getting some jazz technique back and playing in some
>>groups in New England in the summers, I missed the polyphonic classical music
>>and wound up starting to learn classical guitar a little over a year ago.
>>This has proved to be quite a challenge -- much more difficult than I
>>imagined it would be -- and there was much less transfer from jazz/steel
>>string technique that I would have thought. It not only feels very different
>>physically, but also mentally, and has many extra dimensions of nuance and
>>color that is both its charm, and also makes it quite a separate learning
>>experience.
>>
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>
>>Alan
>
>
>
>
>Hey Alan,
>
>
>That's awesome that you are learning classical guitar. Are you using Aaron
>Shearer's texts to teach yourself? One trick I have learned is to not support
>my left hand at all when playing. In this way, the dexterity in my fingers
>increases and when I press down on the fretboard I am using only my finger
>muscles.
>
>
>I've had bilateral ulnar nerve transposition, and for a whole year in college
>could not type at all due to muscle atrophy from nerve compression! I wrote
>all my computer assignments on paper, and paid a "personal secretary" to type
>them in for me. I thought about everything the program would do before I
>wrote anything on paper, since I hated crossing out code and writing editorial
>arrows.
>
>
>Dragon Naturally Speaking is really quite good, although not good for
>programming in most languages. I've found Microsoft Visual Basic is somewhat
>possible to speak. I also experimented with various exotic keyboards, like
>the DataHand keyboard in the movie The Fifth Element. It was easily my
>favorite keyboard, but the main problem and reason I don't use it after
>getting better is that going to somebody else's desk and typing becomes a
>lesson in learning how to type again.
>
>
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