I'm a week in and making some progress

[Stone Preston]

Getting a little better every day. In my last post some people mentioned working on keeping my foot over the a and b pedals instead of moving it around so much so I tried to work on that. Gave this song by uncle tupelo a shot. Lloyd Maines is the steel player so I figured I'd get back to my hometown roots.

Here's a video of me playing the intro:
https://youtu.be/z2mH7YbbCYM

If anyone's interested in learning this part, I couldn't find a tab but I did find a YouTube lesson here:
https://youtu.be/gZfIJboXwa0

[Tucker Jackson]

Really good for one week, Stone. Keep it up!

FYI, at the 0:10 second mark in your video, instead of sliding all the way down to the 2nd fret, I think Maines just goes down two frets (to the 5th) and gets the same notes there.

I say that because if you listen closely, you can hear that the note after the 5th string is on a thicker string (different timbre), and that's string 6. Also, that next note comes really fast. It's really easy to hit if you just stay at fret 7, but makes a bit of a bobble if you have to play that follow-up note on the same 5th string, 5 frets lower, while putting down the pedal. In your video, that translates to a big slide down that isn't on the original.

Doing it the way I'm suggesting also lands you in the correct fret for the next section.

Like this:

at 7th fret, hit string 6 -- while ringing, slide to fret 5
string 7 - string 6 - string 7

You'll have to do a little blocking to make that work. It's a common move, so you'll want to get comfortable with it.

Also, that slide you do at 0:07 can be handled by slowly putting down the A-pedal. The main advantage there is it's more likely to land in tune. He definitely uses A-pedal on this lick on the last note of the song, because he's got the 4th string ringing along with the 5th.

There has to be something in the water in Lubbock that just makes that town churn out more than its fair share of musical greats. The list is impressive. You're on your way!

[Lane Gray]

For one week, you're VERY good.
I'd suggest backing off your volume pedal a touch, and pick with a bit more oomph, your tone will improve a bit.

[Gary Lee Gimble]

For one week, you're VERY good.
I'd suggest backing off your volume pedal a touch, and pick with a bit more oomph, your tone will improve a bit.

What Lane said except ditch ur volume pedal for a few months. Learn all your basic chord grips/locations, double stops, blocking techniques and of course scales. Select a tune to die for, something you wanna play so bad you can taste it. Experiment picking two notes at the same time by using thumb and middle and then just index and middle. Take note of the different tone structures....

[Jim Sliff]

Ditto on the volume pedal. You should find that it's not really necessary to "ride" or "pump" it constantly. In fact as your picking becomes more dynamic (varied in how hard you pick) you'll need it less and less, mostly on slower tunes, only a bit on medium-speed ones and almost never on fast songs.