There is a recurring principle in many endeavors, similar to the 80/20 of the "Pareto Principle", wherein the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the work.

Do y'all find this to be true in adding a piece to one's repertoire, or am I just finally discovering my limitations?

For context, the Stick is my first "solo" instrument, so despite having fooled around with music, and instruments for decades, I've never developed any repertoire as my previous instruments (guitar, drums, bass) were all ensemble instruments, and I never had an ensemble to play with. I may learn a bass part or a guitar part to play as a "cover" with a backing track, but never had to contemplate actually having to perform the piece, and after a while I'd forget how it was played.

With the Stick in contrast, I have 5 pieces I'm working on. Three of the 5 I have fully memorized, and am fairly quickly getting to that point with the other two.

But it seems I've hit a point with the fully-memorized pieces, one of which I've literally been playing for about 7 or 8 months, that I'm starting to feel I will never, ever, get to the point of being able to perform these pieces.

• I've played them at a fast tempo
• I've played them at a slow tempo
• I've used a metronome for both fast and slow tempos
• I've broken them down into little phrases, working on getting those parts that I might stumble over really nailed down
• I've tried playing with more "abandon", trying to think less about the notes and more about the music
• I've tapped my foot, rocked my body, nodded my head – anything I can do to get these pieces under my skin, in my bones. so that I don't feel like I'm constantly riding a knife-edge of competence
• I've recorded myself and listened to those recordings over and over again
• I probably practice at least one, and frequently over two hours a day

Despite all of this, I'm still at the stage where my articulation is inconsistent, my volume is inconsistent, my legato playing is inconsistent, I can't maintain a steady tempo (I'm always rushing - I'll start one piece at 110 BPM and I'll be up to 126 BPM by the time I'm done).

So, I'm wondering if over all these years, I've just been fooling myself with regard to my musical abilities, and that now that I'm trying a more traditional and disciplined learning approach, those limitations are becoming glaringly obvious.

I'm going through this with drums right now. To be fair, I never had any interest in drum set performance, simply being interested in getting a better grounding in and appreciation of rhythm. Having taken lessons for the last three years has certainly done that, but I'm also realizing that becoming a good drummer really requires years of practice to master the technique required, and I'm thinking that I've probably gleaned all the benefit from lessons that I'm going to get, and having to devote a minimum amount of time each week to my drumming "assignments" is getting in the way of more time with the Stick.

"So, Steve - you here just to whine, or do you have a question?"
Yeah - is this normal? Do I just keep plugging away at it? For a while I was following a rule of only learning one new piece at a time, but I'm actually finding it enjoyable to be able to work on several different things. It makes my practice sessions much more interesting. But was my first approach better? Is my learning new material getting in the way of mastering the material I've already learned? Is there some approach to begin to "own" these pieces and get all the rough edges smoothed off that I should try?

Thanks!

My suggestion is to walk away from it for a while.
Take a break from what is stressing you out and try to have a little fun.
When boredom sets in, go back to the cover that you were working on.
After all, there's only one Elvis and a lot of copycats.

Speaking of Elvis, has anyone done his tunes on the Stick?

Hi Steve

I'm in a similar place, so it's not just you! In my case, I've been playing for about four years. I am a professionally-trained musician, and make my entire living from it (music... not the Stick!). I've got plenty of pieces at the 90% level... and they've stayed there for months.

Despite all the training, the last 10% can still be the hardest. In my case, I've figured out a few reasons.

The upside to the Stick is that, for me at least, it's so intuitive and well-laid-out that I can easily conceive an arrangement of a song... but long before I actually have the chops to execute it well. And while the Stick may be easy to understand, it's still a lot of things to work on, all at once. There's a lot of muscle-memory to build up, and that's always a slow process.

When going through a piece, you may notice specific issues: inconsistent touch, difficultly moving around the board, tempo issues, you name it. So, take one particular issue and work it out... but not on the song itself. Spend a few days (or even a week) just working on articulation exercises, for example. Next time, tackle another issue, like timing. Then, come back to the song.

I find that learning comes in bursts and plateaus. The upside is, you can put a song away for a while -- say, even a month -- and if you've been working on some of those things, the song will, at worst, at the same level where you left it or, best case, you'll feel like you're working on it with "new hands" that are just finding things easier.

It's worth the journey! Good luck

Yours
Dylan

Well, that's actually encouraging. Thanks for sharing that!! I've only been at this for 14 months.

Two of the pieces I'm working on are refreshing in that they seem as though they're going to be much easier to execute than the other three - one is Bach's Prelude in C Major, and the other is Greg Howard's Right-Hand Etude in Cm. Both are pretty much just a string of (beautiful) arpeggios, and their regularity I think is going to make them easier to get right. I have about half of the Prelude memorized, and got the RH Etude under my hands about a week or two ago. I'm sure that getting those two closer to "performance ready" will definitely make me feel better while I'm still struggling with the others.

Bottom line, if this is normal and to be expected, then I'll just happily keep at it and let time and continuous effort gradually push me closer to being ready for showtime...I'll also see if I can't find or develop some exercises to help with some of the problem areas. I have plenty of things from my guitar-playing days that were primarily for learning the fretboard, but might be equally valuable as exercises to improve my technique.

In general, good advice, but I find it neither boring nor stressful, other than the occasional momentary fit of frustration!!

I really do enjoy every minute I spend with this instrument.

I'm able to single-mindedly pursue some niggling little problem for 20, 30, 40 minutes and never get bored. Frustrated occasionally, but never bored. As I'm working I see errors I'm making, correct them, see others develop, correct them, rinse & repeat over & over. The entire process has new challenges and I usually feel like I've made some progress, even if it's only coming to a new understanding as to what I'm doing wrong.

When I hit that frustrating moment I'll work on something else, or, if I've already been at it for an hour or two, I'll call it a day, or come back to it later. And it usually is just a passing thing born of fatigue more than anything else.

find some shorter simpler pieces that you can embellish on a bit also. keep the tempo on slow side and work from there. e.g.

https://silverukulelestrummers.files.wo ... gone-2.pdf



they're good for taking a break between something more challenging and then still sound nice when it's not as perfect as you'd like ( like this example )

Good advice, Mike. In fact, I was just dong this a moment ago. I took the opening phrases of one of the pieces I have fully memorized and am trying to "polish" (Bach Minuet in Gm) and just used the Gm scale and the harmony from that section and simply improvised. In the process I noticed something I was doing that has likely been holding me back. As I was noodling along, slowly, and as expressively as I could, I was also being mindful of that little inconsistency, working to correct it, but really just enjoying making pretty sounds for a while.

Yeah. I need to do that more...

On an unrelated note, I just realized you're the same person who posted the "case foam replacement" solution. I tried it and it's great. Thanks again for that! - dB

Oh, you're quite welcome. Glad to share that info. Choosing the right material makes all the difference.