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[OwenG]

I think I expected to quickly pick up new keys, didnt, and promptly reverted to playing the easy stuff I know.

A good way to start finding your way around this is to play the stuff that you know, but in different keys. So for a D/G 2.5 row, try playing tunes in C, E and A and related minors.

I've done this having slipped down a tone to a C/F 2.5 row, and tried to re-learn stuff in D, G etc. The different fingerings make tunes sound different, and it's also a good way to start thinking about the extra notes that you've got as not just accidentals, but as notes from different keys.

[GbH]

     PS: just thought of another exercise that helped me. Play in darkness - where you can't look

Ah yes, I've had a go at this - it certainly proved an interesting exercise.  I think I must have played constantly for about half an hour, happy in my own little world, using one of those travel sleep mask things rather than finding a dark room.  I noticed two specific results:

1.  As I'd half expected, I found I didn't need to look, playing pretty much exactly as normal.  Well, mostly, anyway.  To my surprise, during one or two tunes, I suddenly had a urge to look down, which was a bit unexpected.  As it turned out, I didn't really need to see anything for those particular phrases, but must have got into a habit of looking anyway at some point.

2.  Secondly, and far more interesting, was that, in the darkness, I gradually begun to listen much more attentively than usual.  I've previously heard how one sense can become more sensitive if another is disabled and that seemed to be the case when doing this.  The real revelation, though, was the day afterwards, when playing as normal with sight, I noticed that things sounding noticably better than before, despite having put the previous days experiment out of my mind.  I really do think it made a difference.

So, yes, from my own experience, it can prove a worthwhile thing to try.

Guy

[ganderbox]

     PS: just thought of another exercise that helped me. Play in darkness - where you can't look

I believe that this is what Andy Cutting used to do to hone his skills when he was learning.

[ladydetemps]

     PS: just thought of another exercise that helped me. Play in darkness - where you can't look

So, yes, from my own experience, it can prove a worthwhile thing to try.

when I started learning concertina we had a powercut...and I learnt this by accident.

[Falseknight]

It's prbably not applicable to most here, but I've found that when I hit a plateau on an instrument, if I step backwards from it and concentrate on another instrument for a month or so, I find that when I return, the problems causing the plateau are surmountable.  I'm currently playing melodeon a lot to divert from a stilted mindset in my approach to guitar.  I actually NEED a stint where I have to play bass properly again.

[mikesamwild]

I think the thing that's driving me onward at the moment is the listening that I'm doing. The more good players I listen to the more I want to be able to emulate what I'm hearing. Another motivator and I hope assist, is Graeme's button-box workshop in September - the motivator is the fact that I don't want to make a complete ass of myself when I get there, and I want to be able to draw as much benefit from it as possible.
AL

I see Al that you have 999 posts You are a beast and a half!

[Lester]

I see Al that you have 999 posts You are a beast and a half!

No that's just the Austrailian beast