1 YEAR of Touch Guitar progress (here's what I learned)
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- Опубліковано 5 січ 2022
- ○ Touch Guitars: www.touchguitars.com
○ Markus Reuter: / markusreuter
○ Anchor and Burden (studio project Markus & I collaborated on): anchorandburden.bandcamp.com
I've been learning to play Touch Guitar for the past year under Markus Reuter's instruction. It's been an incredible journey and here's what I learned!
(UPDATE 2024) All of my lessons with Markus are now available for purchase here:
www.markusreuter.com/store/sh...
ABOUT MARKUS
Markus teaches remote 1-on-1 lessons for any & all "touch" instruments (Chapman Stick, Warr Guitar, Touch Guitar, etc.) and two-handed tapping technique for standard guitar as well. You can reach him here: info@markusreuter.com
ABOUT TOUCH GUITARS
This video is more about the journey and learning process than the instrument, but in case you're curious: The Touch Guitar is an 8-string guitar, tuned in 5ths, and played with a tapping or 'touch' technique. Range is that of a 5-string bass, plus standard guitar. Scale length is 34" (bigger than guitar, smaller than bass). It's more similar to a traditional guitar than a Chapman Stick, in terms of sound, tuning/string layout, and single output (though they have many customizable options).
You can learn more about the Touch Guitar in my previous videos, or on their website: www.touchguitars.com
I can't believe Markus stood there, with a coffee, for a whole year.
Tea! It was tea! :-)
For any struggling beginners, Shawn started out quite a bit ahead. He has an expert sense of rhythm (and how to practice with a metronome) and as a mallet player, had exposure to the basic music theory concepts (key, intervals, etc.). This is a great help, and for drummers out there who may see any pitched instrument as "unattainable": you might be surprised how much you can learn in a shorter time. Forget the guitar though: Bass! 🙂
Calling Shaun an expert is honestly almost an insult to him; he's unnaturally gifted at perceiving and playing idiosyncratic rhythms... it was never more clear than after watching the latest Adam Neely vid. The guy's a freak in the best possible sense.
Come on man the guys playing waves after one year on an instrument that only a handful of people play he's clearly just unreasonably good at this
@@divinasi0n Attributing the result of hard work to some arbitrary factor that may not even exist is the insult here.
@@BrunodeSouzaLino Or perhaps you don't fully appreciate just how good Shaun is on the drums? 🤔 Either way, what I typed wasn't an insult; quite the opposite in fact.
@@divinasi0n I kinda see what both of you guys are saying lol, I think the point is that you have to look at both sides and not just one. Yes the guy is VERY good but at the same time it's the work he put in as well, like he says in the video, he made mistakes when learning but also kept going.
As a trombonist/pianist who just casually plays the guitar, the "notes make no sense on the guitar" resonates in my soul
Don't worry, it starts to make sense after a while. Just practice scales. A lot.
@@oscargill423 And then u learn about the 7647254Y6 other tunings and be like "guitarists are monsters, why are you doing this ?"
@@Dzendoss Custom tunings can mess with your head for sure, but they make things *easier*, not the other way around (why would anyone complicate things for themselves). It can be as easy as "man my fingers are not long enough to play this as I would like...Hey! If I tune this string down it doesn't affect the other stuff in the song but makes it so I can just put my finger straight down for this hard section".
So while it may seem complex and annoying when you're trying to play random song X and find it has an alternate tuning, for the musician who made it it was 100% to make it easier or even possible to play.
@@Dzendoss Don't worry, we have to adapt as well when we learn new tunings. It's worth it for the numerous new musical possibilities it affords us.
As a guitarist and bassist mainly I see a paino and my only thought is "Okay, there is clear hierarchy between different keys here, the sharps and flats of C major / A minor are singled out. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU COMPOSE SOMETHING WITH SOMETHING LIKE THAT?" That is madness. Like, that layout makes me uncomfortable and I had piano lessons for a long time.
And don't get me started on the wind instruments. Like what the fuck are you even doing? :D
tl:dr Pff, your instruments make not sense.
One could think that the approach to an isntrument or to music is strongly dependend on the instrument you started your journey with.
"...with the help of a teacher..."... Man, you´ve worked with Markus Reuter! How great is that! I dig his work! He´s a genius!
I yelled, "Oh, wow!" when he introduced his teacher! I love the album Outland Markus Reuter made with Ian Boddy.
You open it with "Waves" by Guthrie...you're a champion. Great vid. I was lucky enough to meet Markus and Tony Levin after a Stickmen show. What a great choice of instrument to learn!
It's impressive that you're already at the point where you can play a Guthrie Govan song, and Waves isn't one of the easiest either - great job!
What a awesome instrument
I bought a drawing tablet a couple of weeks ago and I haven't done ANY progress in learning how to draw. A couple of things you said really touched me, hopefully I'll sort some personal problems quickly and I'll start practicing thanks to your motivation. Thank you for this video!
Ideally, you should learn how to draw on paper first. Getting a tablet first adds an extra level of complexity as you also have to learn hand eye coordination. The muscle memory is transferable between methods. Drawing on paper also gives you direct feedback of what you're doing, as you can look at what's happening. Even those fancy screen tablets have a degree of disconnect.
Follow the draw in box method ;)
hey man i encourage u to start slowly and with things u like to draw to keep u happy , dont fall into the techniques road til u die , make stuff and learn techniques a long the way that u ll need in each new drawing
@@BrunodeSouzaLino bro it doesnt matter enough to introduce doubt into it. Why tell someone who is already hesitant to try in the first place that they’re already wrong.
@@mimipeahes5848 First of all, I'm not your brother. Secondly, it's very common for people to become overwhelmed by drawing when they start with a tablet, since you're learning two things at once. Drawing on paper teaches you discipline and control, as well as commitment, since you can't undo or transform your way out of the drawing. Why would it matter when the op had holding onto the tablet for weeks and hasn't done anything with it?
There's an (obviously) old interview with Paul Simon where he discussed seriously changing over to piano as his primary instrument due to a hand/arm injury. He estimated it would take him about a year to learn, which seems crazy short. But, as a former music teacher told me, the real goal is to teach our ears and brain how music works. Once you have that, you can play it on anything. Of course, playing music well on a specific instrument takes years. Your drumming is wonderful!
well i think he likely already had some basic knowledge on piano/keys as most pro drummers do and he also has his rhythm, his experience in music, his pro approach/drive in music and also it's his job so he can devote a lot of time to it. if you combine all that no wonder he can accomplish great things in a full year
A big part of it is the discipline and knowing how to practice. Many beginners get easily discouraged but once you already learned an instrument relatively well you are better equiped to handle frustration, solve issues, etc.
And having an awesome teacher is a huge deal as well 😀
Ooo a collab with Markus, I'm already digging it on the bcamp. I've always liked this aesthetic ever since the KC ProjeKCts
Adam Neely on drums
As a drummer this inspires me. Soon I'll be taking 6 months off work to focus on music and make record progress day by day.
I'm currently learning Piano (mainly for theory and composition) and BASS! Because being a able to create music as a drummer and bass player it's like a whole combo.
A good teacher can get you a long way! If you know what you want.
Love this.
Touch Guitar is my next musical step. I really appreciated sharing your journey.
I really love this- two hand tapping style on 8 string guitar? It’s so cool, even on fewer strings. The way that some people are able to basically play piano but also nothing like the piano. It’s such a cool things.
This is absolutely awesome!
You did better in a year than I've done in 2.5 yrs with my Chapman Stick
To be fair, it is a different beast. "Stick" with it, you'll get there!
Du rockst das total. Danke für deine Unterstützung :)
Danke dir. Das wäre ohne ein tolles Instrument nicht möglich.
@@ShawnCrowder can you do The Woven Web by animals as leaders?
I've been keeping up on your progress. It's motivating.
Super inspiring Shawn, thanks so much for sharing this!
This is fantastic Shawn!!! Great to see so much progress!!!
Man, this is inspiring! Your progress is really amazing
This was very inspiring, thank you for making this.
this series of video was sooo good and mind opening, thank you so much
Beautiful process!!!!! Congratulations and Gracias for share it!!!!
Beautiful video. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Bro so encouraging, great work!
Very inspiring video. Must be pretty cool to have your progress captured like that
This is awesome! I’d like to see more of your progress.
Thank you! As a guitarist learning drums, this has helped me appreciate the stuff I've already learned, be grateful for it and really motivated me to perservere and carry on! Wishing best of luck to you Shawn with the touch guitar!
Man… drums are the one instrument I’ve touched where I was like “fuck that”. Good luck man!
BRAVO, Shawn! This has been a great kick in the pants for my motivation. Thank you to both you and Markus.
thx shawn ive been waiting to see u reach the one year goal , thats great for u , cant wait to see ur progress in the next year , i encourage everyone to pick more things to learn
This is great and inspiring and the instrument is super cool!
Dude, well done. What a great video!
Thank you for this very honest video! Beautiful playing as well!
Shawn!!!! This is awesome!
So cool you filmed that video diary! Congrats about your progress! And the teacher as well.
You are doing amazing man! I am super impressed!
Bloody hell! Incredible job!
Your videos and Yogev Gabay's have actually made me decide to buy and learn drumkit. I'm a composer who started off on bass, so drums will be quite different for me.
Thank you so much for your inspiring videos.
Great progress Shawn!
I'm proud
I’ve been following your progress this year and it has been super inspiring. I highly recommend watching the full length lesson videos on Marcus’ channel, as it’s great to see the unedited process of learning.
I’ve played a variety of instruments for the last 15 years or so, mainly bass guitar and piano. Have been struggling with respective strain injury in my forearms for the last few years.
I’ve recently started learning to play the trumpet, and it’s the first brass instrument I’ve ever played. Decided to start as I’ve always loved the sound, and it is less hand/arm intense than my other instruments. Watching this series was definitely a key part of the inspiration for starting it, and for getting a teacher from the beginning
2 months into it and loving it
Thanks for everything Shaun and Marcus!
Incredible and very motivational!
I think you should keep it up, you've done so well. It helps having the teacher/designer to guide you, but, you still have to put in the hours. Impressive, don't stop
What’s great video. I can sense the dedication. I love it! It’s inspirational
I forgot that you were doing this! What an awesome instrument.
Excellent and informative
Very motivational video ! I went the other way around and started playing the drums after 18 years of guitar. Thanks for letting us know your journey ! best
you're an inspiration
Excellent video man, I loved your parting thought of "what if."
Thank you for giving me a new project in 2022. I don't have access to that instrument but I'm gonna try playing with my right hand more.
This is awesome. I'm a drummer, been playing for 7 years, of course still improving. But I wanna learn how to play bass guitar. I've always loved how it sounds, plus it keeps the rhythm just like the drums. Thanks for the dope video, Imma go give it a try now
GREAT video!
Shawn this is a really remarkable video. Starting something new from scratch can be really frustrating. With all your experience in rhythm odd time signatures poly meters an so on I bet you will compose many interesting and complex stuff. Congrats!
good job dude!!!!
Man, that's very inspiring! Learning a new instrument is at the same time one of the most joyful and frustrating things in life. I love the work markus is\was making with Devin Townsend, you got yourself a real master of this instrument as a teacher.
Wait isn’t it literally just an 8 string guitar
I just heard waves and this is the first song i heard today coming home from school, happy to see someone else knows about that song.
This is great!!! :)
That piece at around 7 minutes in was absolutely gorgeous - does this mean we'll be hearing some touch guitar on the next Sungazer project?
Agreed, really rather beautiful! What is it?
Interesting video - I haven't watched your other videos about this, cause I found your channel only recently, but I really liked the way you structured and paced this video. And a very cool instrument, I hope you'll have fun playing it for a long time. 7:08 (and after that) really hit home for me, as I always struggle with playing publicly (and sadly also practicing in private), I always feel like "I never will be able to play that or like this" and while that may be true in some cases, you probably really just need to start the process of getting there and then you'll learn it way faster than you thought you will. Thank you for this video, cheers! :)
Hearing waves in the beginning of the video made me more happy than it should have. :D
Kudos.
Nice!
Now I wanna learn touch guitar. Congrats on your progress! Looking forward to seeing it in future Sungazer projects!
Well touch guitar (based off of this) is essentially just a regular 8 string guitar but with a longer neck and an emphasis on tapping.
@@wingsoficarus1139 If you put it this way, a bass is just a 4 string guitar with a longer neck and lower strings.
This is just another proof of concept, if he can start something, we can too!!! Keep at it my dude!
Good job
You been a great Drummer with a lot of complex Rhythm Knowledge and now learning to Tap on Guitar you are really close to Become the Perfect Math Rock MAchine!!!!
Shawn, I just want to say thank you for this video! I started music school this year. I was a drummer for about two years, then pandemic hits, and I stopped playing completely. I came back in the begining of this year, to enter music school. I passed the practical test, and man, does it fell good. I know I'm not the best drummer there, and I'll have to REALLY practice to be the best I can be, and hope to reach a level where I can be a successful international drummer. I also picked up a keyboard, to try to learn it again, and learn music theory too. You're a great inspiration for me and many others! Thank you so much! I hope to meet you and Adam one day, and play with you guys, as New York is my goal in this journey. I'll really try my best and give my all to this! Hugs from Brazil, it'll be a long journey!
Nice one, Shawn... ☝️😎
Ok so this was awesome
Good call on not being guilty for “underpracticing.” Most people practice too much. So the instrument becomes “the thing I do scales and exercises on” rather than “how I make music.” Practicing for less duration but with more intention, and giving ourselves time for the practice and music to seep into us between practice sessions is a huge help. Muscle growth requires recovery time. And we also need to practice our listening, which unfortunately often happens between practice sessions.
Hey, Shawn! Awesome stuff! Glad to see you trying your hand at guitar…no pun intended! I don’t know if you remember, but you recorded drums for my band Tragedy Awaits Us’ album ‘Deep Rest’ several years ago in Brooklyn! Such an awesome experience working with you! Good to see you still doing your thing at such a high level 🤘🏻
This reminds me a bit of a Chapman Stick with a few less strings. Very cool
Agree with so much here! I always tell me students that any practice is better than no practice so just pick up your instrument and play even if you're not working on some specific technical thing. Just make music. I also always have them learn pieces and any exercises we do come from difficulties they had playing them. Do just those two things and you almost can't help but improve. Great work Shawn, even as a guitarist that instrument looks terrifying!
This is going to get a lot of views, epic
Some of the best advice I was ever given on my instrument was, sometimes if you want to take your playing time next step, you just have to set aside a chunk of time and commit to practicing.
I’ve made some of the craziest leaps in my playing in 3 month spans where I just consumed knowledge and technique and went at it solidly.
By the end of those 3 months where I was putting maybe 2-3 hours in daily, with weekends being longer 5-8 hours.
Honestly, you can get a lot done in a year at a relaxed pace, but you can also absolutely learn to take your playing ti the next step, in a short space of time, if you have a specific idea in mind of what you want to learn, how you’re going to learn it, and then you just put in the hours,
It definitely comes eventually :)
Ive been playing guitar for a year and half and I cant play waves. Awesome job my man.
The stuff you said about how learning songs helped your progression a lot kinda speaks to me. I dont really like the process of trying to learn songs, i came from sheet music so ear training and picking up on small details in a piece really stumps me. I really really should though, if im not uncomfortable then im not learning.
I started playing guitar last Christmas (first instrument I have ever tried playing) and I have Improved quite a bit, I now play bass and can improv over songs like the chicken by jaco pastorious and I do music college now, so it goes to show that even if you know nothing about music apart from listening that you can learn a hell of a lot in a years time if you put the effort in 👍🏻
the fact that you’ve become able to play Waves in just a year of learning an instrument, let aside the fact that is your first string instrument, it’s mind blowing. congratulations
Hey, I had the same thing in reverse, I bought a cheap second-hand drumkit and now I kinda can drum
wow playing waves with tapping and slidess, dunno if that makes it easier but thats dope af
Wow...just wow. Not only you learn a new instrument in 1 year, you also nailed legato to a rick graham level ( hammer on from nowhere) and learned Waves from G. Govan. This is seriously raising the bar for lazy bedroom guitar players like me. Very inspiring
Man it’s been a year already?
in addition to having a supernatural sense of rhythm, i’m sure being immersed in harmonically insane music for the last several years didn’t slow you down either :)
Just found out my landlord/housemate owns a cello. As a musician, it's been one of those instruments I've always wanted to give a college try. So today, I did. When I sat down I felt quite hopeful about it. Then this was the first video I saw in my feed! I'll take it as a sign, thank you very much! B)
Ps. I am digging Perihelion so much! It's tied for my favorite album of 2021 (with Shad's "TAO").
Perseverance is the highest achievement man can accomplish.
Practising any instrument has always been a difficult burden for me so I've ended up just playing when I play and not really practise that much. I'd really love to get better at my singing and instruments, and I do get occasional bursts of inspiration, but without outside attention and support I've rarely kept up a practice routine of more than just a couple weeks.
How do you motivate yourself when it's practising something you're not sharing with the world?
Wasn't expecting Guthrie Govan's "waves" here. Good job !
Come on man, Guthrie Govan ?! That's bloody impressive ! Congratulations, thank you for sharing your journey
Now I wanna see him do The Woven Web by animals as leaders.
though mostly fourths is odd for a tuning, it can make for getting around the cycle of 4ths & 5ths in one position, rather than having to move an open tuning around. The jazz session guys in 30s used to (sometimes) tune to all major thirds. You may enjoy messing around with that. The Rosenwinkel one is fun to write in, a 9th cluster on top and a diminished triad on bottom.
Awesome you picked Guthrie Govan’s Waves!
Shawn, what's the piece you played at the end? It's absolutely beautiful!
Whoah! Your teacher is from a Crimson ProjeKct? That's the coolest.
Jimmy Webster
Websters Abridged
A designer at Grestch
Was an early proponent of stereo right hand touch playing.
Real hokey but it was 1960. Tony Levin was a monster at it
You mentioned a large range of practice hours, of "what if you practiced 8 hours a day". What is a realistic amount of hours one should expect to be practicing every day? What's a realistic amount that you'd have liked to spend on the touch guitar?
At the same time, how many hours of drums did you practice every day for the year?
really any amount of practice. 5 minutes, 3 hours its all great. Enjoy yourself and take breaks. Breaking up practice throughout the day will also allow you to technically practice longer without wearing yourself out mentally.👍👍(from a mid-tier musician)
I think it would be hard to practice more than 3-4 hours or so in a day because after that my fingers hurt! But if I had done that, I could have (maybe) compressed this whole year's worth of learning into a few months.
I did have the benefit of playing drums for 20 years before this, so my practicing was way more efficient. It took me probably 2-3 years on drums to reach a similar level, with many more total hours spent simply because I didn't know what I was doing.
I mean it depends on your situation right? Like in 2019 I was in music school in the states, working part time, so I could spend 6-8 hours a day in the practice room. Now I’m a music student in Canada, I work a lot, on top of other stuff, so my average is maybe an hour tops, not infrequently my practice is solely mental
in chinese boxing i learned, that the conditioning of muscle memory requires about ca 70times repeating a certain physical movement within one practice session. so it actually doesn't need even half an hour at once for 'practice'. from my own experience this works. but that hasn't anything to do with 'making music' yet, of course. that's the next part of the lesson😁. mr.crowder, u did very well. i'm still looking forward for mr.reuter taking drum lessons by you😄! greeetz!
I'd be interested to see the research on where exactly it begins, but I'm sure there's a point at which you're essentially no longer actively building any meaningful skill due to muscle (or maybe learning?) exhaustion, a curve of diminishing returns so to speak.
Good 👍
Wow your progress is amazing. You seem to pick up musical stuff quite quickly when think about your learning japan project. That was also really impressive! Do you think you are just very disciplined at learning new things or that you are also really good at learning musical (i would count leanring language also in that realm) stuff?
Also, I've been listeting to perihelion up and down, really great and fun piece of music you guys put out there. And the rythms man, hard to wrap your mind around it at times, but always very interesting and fun to focus on :)
Lastly, do you think there is chance to see you play in summer somewhere in Berlin?
This is an awesome story, and a nifty introduction to a new-to-me instrument. I'm curious on whether being an already accomplished musician helped or hurt with being a novice. Did you get frustrated with yourself because you already knew what excellence felt like? Or if you got stuck, would you go over to the kit and bang out YYZ really loud just for fun?
it helps tremendously having all that background knowledge. just like a rally driver would have a huge advantage vs a noob when learning how to drive a f1 car