One of my favorite bands in college was REM. They were famous for unintelligible lyrics.

@Jake Yakes great movie!

@Ricardo Ponce i’ll do that. I feel like I need to be able to strum this much smoother and in a way that feels effortless. When I watch videos of others, it seems like their wrist just floating up and down with no tension at all. I just need to find a way to replicate that.

@Tim Hess thank you. I’m gonna go back and slow it down and try to get more wrist movement and more of a fluid motion and try to build up my speed that way. I just feel like I strum with way too much tension and too much with my arm and elbow.

@Jake Yakes I was in sixth grade when I saw KISS live, and even though the details are a little fuzzy now, the feeling has never left me. The lights, the fire, the makeup, the sheer spectacle of it all — it was unlike anything I had ever seen. It felt larger than life, almost unreal, and it completely pulled me in.

@Jake Yakes they were surprisingly cool about it. I went with some classmates and an older brother as kind of a chaperone, I guess.

@Jose Barranco Yeah, it’s really cool to see your progress on the song. I actually found an earlier video of you from about ten days ago, and you were sounding really good even then. I’ve been practicing this one a lot myself and I’m definitely making progress, though speed is still the biggest challenge for me. The solo feels pretty solid at this point, but the strumming and some of the left-hand movement are still pretty quick. If I can really get this song down, I’ll be extremely excited — it would feel like a huge step forward for me. That’s what I love about Jake’s approach: he picks songs that really push you but are still achievable with focused work.

@Jose Barranco Hey, I’ve been watching your video and really like your strumming feel. I’m trying to figure out my own technique — it looks like you’re mostly using your wrist, while I tend to use more of my arm. Is your motion more of a wrist rotation, an up-and-down movement, or a mix of both? How did you get so smooth like that? Are there any tips that you can give me to help me move to that level? Thanks so much.

Happy New Year everybody!