Fingerpicking has to be precise if it is to function properly. We made a second try on "We've Been Working So Long," which features a soft bed of fingerpicked guitar and banjo. Unfortunately I was fighting the Martin and so even though the notes are there, the dynamics and timing aren't. We're going to have to make a third try at it. I think we'll move on to something else in the meantime. I think I'll start practicing with a metronome, perhaps at double time to iron this out. I want it to be smooth as glass, like Mark Kozelek's playing on April or Ghosts of the Great Highway.
Recording is already giving me a much deeper idea of what musicianship means. Not only hitting notes, but having some kind of dynamic feeling and having precise timing, which are concepts that don't mean anything until you hear yourself on a recording. Then there's the trick of actually being able to do this on record, which almost never captures the "best" performance.
I have a friend who studies classical guitar, and his teacher refers occasionally to the concept of "musical content"--more than just hitting the right notes but mastering the notes such that one can actually put some feeling on them. This is what needs to be developed.
Another thing my friend's teacher said was something like, "if it's not easy, it's impossible." I am finding that this is true especially in a recording situation, not only in live performance.
It was 65 and sunny yesterday, 45 and rainy today. Unseasonable, abominable, incredible.
