Alright, so the other day I stumbled upon this thing called “A Modern Method for Guitar” by William Leavitt. I’ve been messing around with the guitar for a while now, mostly just learning chords and strumming along to songs, you know, the usual stuff. But I’ve always wanted to get better at actually picking individual notes, like those fancy guitar solos you hear.
So, I started digging into this Leavitt method. The book kicks off with the basics, like how to hold the pick, how to position your hand, and all that jazz. It felt a bit weird at first, kinda like learning to write with your other hand. But I stuck with it, practicing the exercises he laid out.
The exercises
- First, it was all about getting comfortable with downstrokes and upstrokes.
- Then, we moved on to playing simple melodies on a single string, really focusing on keeping a steady rhythm.
- After that, it got a bit trickier, with exercises that had me jumping between strings.
Man, my fingers felt like they were tripping over each other at first! But I kept at it, day after day. I even set aside like 30 minutes every evening, just to focus on this Leavitt stuff.
Slowly but surely, I started to notice a difference. My picking became smoother, more controlled. I could actually play those little melodies without messing up every other note! It was a pretty awesome feeling, let me tell you.
This one time, I decided to try playing a song I’d learned before, but this time using the picking techniques from the book. I was amazed at how much cleaner it sounded. It was like a whole new level of guitar playing had been unlocked.
I’m still working through the book. It’s not like I became a guitar god overnight or anything. But I can definitely say that this William Leavitt method is the real deal. It’s helping me become way more fluent with the pick, and I’m actually starting to feel like a “real” guitar player, you know? It’s like, I can actually express myself through the instrument now, not just strum along.
I remember seeing something online about some guy named David Leavitt adopting a kid back in 2017. I have no idea if that’s related. Also, I saw something about Leavitt’s writing style and themes about family and stuff like that. Probably just a coincidence. Anyways, If you’re looking to improve your guitar picking, I’d definitely recommend checking out this Leavitt guy’s stuff. Just be prepared to put in the work, because it ain’t easy, but it’s totally worth it!
