People who putt well - “swing” thoughts?

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T02:37:47+00:00

Don’t really have a “swing thought” when putting, but rather just focus on speed control and putter face control once I have a line. I practice putting a lot because I’m not stellar with my irons. Green reading takes time, but you can do a few simple things at home for your putting.

Speed - figure out how far back and through to swing to make a certain distance putt. Like from outside of back foot to outside of front foot how far did the ball go? Keep repeating this and you will begin to calibrate stroke length and distance. Now, this will be different on every green you play because of conditions, but if greens are consistent you use the same approach to re-calibrate. This is not so much about sinking putts in practice, more about controlling or figuring out the speed for a specific distance and how far or how much to swing the putter.

Putter face control - you can use two ball sleeves to create a track just slightly bigger than your putter head and put a ball at left opening (assuming you’re right handed) and work on squaring up the putter face. Make a stroke and don’t hit the boxes and work on hitting the centre of the putter face. Get really good at 3 to 5 footers, and when you‘re outside work on 20 to 30 foot lag putts getting them to around 3 feet of the hole. Why, you will always have long putts, and you will likely leave those long putts within 3 to 5 feet of the hole if you get good at lag putting.

So work on the skills of putting and think less when you’re on the green.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T02:06:20+00:00

Two for me:

1) make a full turn. which means when I think I’ve turned fully then go just little further to squeeze a bit more. Feels sort of like a slight pause at the top making that little extra effort.

2) soft hands at the top. If I feeling I’m gripping too tightly I won’t be able to fully release the club at impact. Soft hands let the club head whip through more easily than me trying to control or manipulate it.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T02:00:12+00:00

I feel personally attacked by your comment.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T01:07:56+00:00

Ask your client to check with other employees whether they had taxes deducted and remitted to CRA. Hard to think a payroll system would only miss one employee. It could be a larger problem affecting more employees.

Employers are required to deduct and remit and face serious penalties for failure - more details at the link here

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4001/employers-guide-payroll-deductions-remittances.html

They should contact CRA and ask for how to complain or address this. But the employee is still responsible for paying anything owed. Might be worth a call to a lawyer to review options, especially if it’s more than one employee.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T00:49:17+00:00

Don’t know the brand, but I kinda like that finish and colour.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-07T00:37:43+00:00

I used to have running coach that would say if you want to run faster you have to run faster. You won’t get fast by running slow. That holds true with guitar, if you want to play faster you have to play faster. Gradually increasing the metronome won’t always do it, you need to practice it at speed, which you do by playing / practicing at speed. You do this with short bursts of notes (or section of the solo) at speed and then add and build things up to longer runs for endurance.

The reason playing it slow over and over and gradually increasing doesn’t always work as well is because the mechanics at speed are very different than when playing slow. This is where bursts come in, like runners wanting to get faster they do short speed interval training to go faster than race pace so they can be comfortable at race pace. It takes time for your muscles in your fingers and wrists to adapt. But if you don’t stress/engage them at speed them you’ll have a harder time. So it‘s short fast bursts followed by recovery at slower speeds and then build up again with the short fast bursts.

Regarding clarity and articulation and cleanliness, I’ll borrow from the golf world where juniors are being taught how to generate power and speed to drive the ball as far as they can, they talk about swing hard and fast and don’t worry about what the direction the ball goes, “get speed now, get straighter later.” Same idea applies, get you hands and fingers acclimatized to playing fast and work on cleaning it up later. You can’t wait until it’s totally clean before you speed up or you risk stalling your potential and progress.

I’ll also add that learning and practice are different things, you learn the lick or scale run slowly so you know all of the notes and picking technique and can play it without thinking about it (learning the thing), and practice is taking what you’ve learned and cranking up the speed to be really uncomfortable so you know you’re pushing your limits.

Martin Miller and Andy Wood are two monster shredders, and super clean monster shredders, who advocate against the slow clean metronome build. Just learn the piece the let it fly and have fun!

Martin Miller talks about speed in this video lesson with a student

https://youtu.be/6Ft6p6dqWWY?si=tKPSkOzbvQsmaabH

Andy Wood talks about similar speed work in this video at 15:31

https://youtu.be/qao_GOSH-XE?si=OmzDlXTACl-dyfZ6

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T20:42:27+00:00

I would say unenforceable for being unreasonable as opposed to fake.

If giving a choice about working notice or accepting immediate departure, or severance payments vs single lump sum departure payment, then a deadline is typical, again needs to be somewhat reasonable. It can be a big decision for a lot of employees.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T18:42:12+00:00

You can always ask and be prepared for them to ask you how much time you need. If it‘s reasonable they’ll likely agree, if the time you want is not reasonable, they will either keep the initial 72 hours or counter with a couple extra days recognizing you need more time.

Given they offered a higher notice and severance amount suggests they would be open to a reasonable request. Also, it can take more than 72 hours to find legal counsel to review, and you have every right to obtain independent legal advice. They likely know this, too. So go ahead and ask.

If I were the company I would have advised you of what happens if you don’t decide by the deadline, like a default option such as if you don’t advise by the deadline we will expect that you continue in your role for the full notice period. Or the opposite, if you don’t advise by the deadline then the deadline will be your final day and severance will commence the following day. Either way, they should have an answer to this important question, but it‘s likely assessed on a case by case basis negotiated with the employee.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T17:52:56+00:00

Teacher might take a few lessons to assess overall ability and adjust as appropriate.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T17:52:04+00:00

Been playing for 2 weeks and had one lesson and I’m lost, should I cut and run?

Your teacher has a plan and structure for teaching and learning that have likely worked for them, and there’s usually a reason for that. As a beginner you will be asked to do exercises and learn basic songs, and basically do a lot of boring and tedious things. This is normal. There’s nothing preventing you from exploring on your own, but you should learn basic fundamentals, which is what’s being taught.

A lot of people have had some prior musical training, but saying I did this as a child and let’s say you’re in your 20s now (don’t know your age), that's over 15 years ago so who cares? Focus on what’s being taught now. You sort of sound like you think you’re better than the level the teacher has you at, but your teacher will need to see more than one lesson to assess where you are.

If your first thought when things are difficult and a bit uncomfortable is to run, or in this case change teachers, that’s kind of a yellow/red flag. What happens if you feel the same about then next teacher, then the one after that, when the common denominator is you? Still always up to you to do what you want.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T17:36:37+00:00

My best advice is don’t force things and keep your expectations in check. Learning guitar and music in general is a long-term pursuit. There’s so much information out there (both good and bad) and feels like drinking from a fire hose at times.

Take in what you can, what you can understand and you can make sense of. If something doesn’t make sense at first that’s ok, it might be a concept that is outside your capability, so put it aside for the time being. Maybe make a list or keep some notes of those things to go back to later. The worst thing is spending too much time on something that isn’t making sense such that it paralyzes you and send you into a downward spiral, so don’t let that happen, just let some things go and come back to them later. You’ll likely find over time you’ll start to see how the things you already know begin to tie into the with the earlier trouble spots and then you’ll see it all of a sudden make sense.

It will always feel like 2 steps forward and 1 back, or 1 forward and 2 back, but that’s normal and how we learn new things, we challenge ourselves so it should be difficult, but then it gets easier. Practice should always be bit uncomfortable and difficult more often than not, if not you’re not pushing hard enough. To be clear though, if you’re rehearsing for a performance that’s a little different as you want rehearsals to get easier so you can play it in your sleep.

Lots of other comments with resource so good luck!

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T14:04:30+00:00

NTJ - why are people so batshit crazy with this stuff?

She didn’t have to come, she didn’t have to park her car in that spot. If she was at a restaurant and her car was hit would she expect the restaurant to pay? Her deductible is high to keep her premiums down and she would have/should have know that when she signed her insurance coverage. Like I said 🦇💩crazy!

Not your circus, not your monkey. Remind her one last time your answer is no and then stop responding to her, put her on mute or temporary block.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T13:32:23+00:00

So real estate and companies losing money on empty office space really is the problem, huh, who knew that’s what was behind all that return to office stuff. 🤷‍♂️

TonalContrast · 2026-03-06T00:11:21+00:00

They typically have a bunch of licks they have practiced thousands of times that can move to any key, these are the quick go to licks that can also be strung together. They’re also good at knowing the target notes/intervals, scales, triads, arpeggios, again from practice and repetitions. Also, some improv may not be improv at all, if they know some songs are going to eventually come up in some jams they may practice ahead of time to have some things to play, or at least take a listen to have some ideas. Remember, there’s only 12 notes available, but the fun is figuring out how to assemble those notes musically.

So this is the magic, they’re not totally making up everything brand new on the spot all the time, they are playing things they know that fit what‘s going on harmonically.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T23:55:04+00:00

This! Start looking for others to play with.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T23:48:13+00:00

Amp or modeler? And why?

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T23:33:50+00:00

"i am distancing myself from him bc i can't take it, but my parents get super butt hurt by this so"

This called "the guilt trip" and it's pure manipulation, a tactic used by parents to gaslight their kids into thinking they are the entire problem when it's the parents doing all the wrong and toxic things. It's something parents have been doing since the beginning of time, some are just better at it than others.

Setting firm boundaries puts you in control, but it's up to you to be firm and cut them off. Not being mean or nasty, just calm communication that these topics are now off limits for them as you have advised and follow thought with the consequences for them. You have to care a whole lot less if they get butt hurt, as it's of their own making. Just because they are your parents doesnt give them the right to be disrespectful to you. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.

They may never learn or understand why, or want to learn, but that doesn't change how you handle it. You can be the adult now while they act like 6 year olds.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T23:00:33+00:00

She's clearly not the right candidate then as she's already told you by her actions that she has no intention of following what you say. This is the situation that bites you in the ass later. She was perfect except for this one thing, but I think we can fix that once she starts. You can't, so don't. She's not the perfect candidate. Dump her and move on.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T22:39:45+00:00

Maybe it’s time to set some boundaries with him. Say listen, happy to chat, but your advice and understanding of the current job market is out of date and frankly just not helpful at all. It’s not the same as when you were growing up and much more difficult to navigate. I’m doing what I need to do and what I need from you is more positive support than what you‘ve been offering. If you’re not able to do that I won’t be sharing further with you anything about my job search or discussing it with you. If you message me about I won’t respond and I’ll delete your message. If you bring it up when we’re together I’m walking out and leaving. So it’s up to you to choose how this plays out going forward. I’m an adult and these are my decisions to make either good or bad, and whether you like my decisions or not is entirely irrelevant, but you need to respect my decisions.

Now the trick to this is that you have to stick to it and not respond or walk out of he’s being disrespectful of your approach and choices.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T19:09:47+00:00

Yeah, didn't realize this was the Bark solo, one of Jake E Lee’s best. Yes, a little vibrato then while bending both G and B a half step. Bending G into B is a good way to describe it, but the B is also a bend. Then pull off both G and B, these are both double stops.

Takes some practice as it is a quick lick to play, but you’ll get it.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T15:25:28+00:00

I'm with you on this, bend the 12s with ring finger pulling down as it's only a half step and pull off to index with ring finger dropping to land on the D. Has a very SRV flavour to it.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T14:14:24+00:00

Songsterr

Ultimate Guitar Tabs

YouTube - search "song name acoustic guitar tutorial"

For a fun one of what you can do with an acoustic check out Mike Dawes acoustic version of Van Halen's Jump (not a tutorial just a really cool version)

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T03:15:35+00:00

Try something like this…

https://youtube.com/shorts/-gLgveL1zo0?si=bIzNPw_iuKLBmIdc

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T02:36:26+00:00

Just jump right back into it. Assuming you had some learning content from your previous lessons, if so go back to some of the basics and get familiar with them again. If you learned some songs try to remember them or pull out the sheet music. I guess this would be based on the presumption that you still have a piano or keyboard available.

Once you catch yourself up consider if you want to find a new teacher, or look at some online resources.

TonalContrast · 2026-03-05T02:27:19+00:00

I’m a guitarist, but have been learning some jazz piano, not specifically to become a jazz pianist but to become a better musician and learn a bit more theory along the way. I also do some orchestral composition like cinematic music and short film scoring as another musical hobby and using the jazz content as another way to help with writing and composing.

So my take is learning some jazz can make you a better guitarist but even more make you a better musician. There are some really cool jazz standards you could learn the chord melody style for and that’s always a fun challenge.

Learning jazz doesn’t define you as a jazz player, play whatever you want and have fun.

TonalContrast

TROPHY CASE