Figuring Out That James Bryson Thing
So, I spent a good chunk of my afternoon trying to get my head around a particular James Bryson piece I heard the other day. You know how sometimes a sound just sticks with you? This was one of those times. Sounded simple enough at first, but man, was I wrong.
First thing, I had to actually find what I was looking for. Wasn’t super easy, Bryson’s stuff isn’t exactly plastered everywhere. Dug around a bit and found something that looked like a reliable tab for the song. Printed it out, old school style. Didn’t want to be squinting at a screen.
Got my trusty old acoustic guitar out. Gave it a quick tune-up. Sat down, got comfortable, and looked at the music sheet. Right away, I saw the bit that caught my ear. It was this weird, syncopated fingerpicking pattern. Looked kinda cool on paper.
Then I actually tried to play it. Disaster. My fingers felt like sausages trying to tie knots. The thumb was supposed to keep a steady beat on the bass strings while the other fingers did this jumpy melody thing on the higher strings. Yeah, right. Everything just tangled up. Sounded like I was dropping the guitar rather than playing it.
Okay, deep breath. Broke it down. Super slow. Like, painfully slow. Focused just on the thumb first. Got that bass line going, steady as she goes. Felt okay about that after maybe twenty minutes. Felt like a small victory, you know?
Then, tried adding just one finger doing its part of the melody. Still slow. Thumb steady, finger plucking. Okay, manageable. Added the second finger part. Things started getting messy again. The timing was just… off. It’s one of those things where your brain knows how it should sound, but your hands have other ideas entirely.
- Tried playing just two bars over and over.
- Focused on the transition between chords while keeping the pattern. That was the real killer.
- Hummed the melody while trying to play, hoping it would sync up. Sometimes helped, sometimes didn’t.
Spent maybe an hour and a half just on those few tricky sections. My fingertips started to feel it. Didn’t use a metronome today, just wanted to get the feel for the movement first, the rhythm could come later. Maybe that was a mistake, I don’t know.
By the end of it, I couldn’t play the song smoothly. Not even close. But, I could sorta stumble through the main difficult pattern at that snail’s pace. It wasn’t pretty, but it was progress compared to the initial catastrophe. It felt good, like I’d actually wrestled with it and learned something, even if it was just how much more practice I needed.
Gives you real respect for guys like Bryson who make this stuff sound effortless. It definitely ain’t. Gonna keep chipping away at this one, though. It’s got its hooks in me now.
