Now that you’ve mentioned it? Oh yeah, I see the side you go down. The side of muscle memory and hearing what you want in your head. I’ve been doing this “by ear” thing and it has helped me immensely with hearing and muscle memory. I’m about to wrap up Billy Strings break on “Loser” that I worked out by ear (w/the occasional cheating looking at the vid when my ear failed) and once that is completed? I’m done with the ear work and heading into at least 1 year of right hand technique and moving around based on the CAGED system with an emhasis on melody.
I hope to achieve where you are. I just need to work more on the muscle memory. I’ve got the ear tuned up, decent basics, and I am ready to ROLL ON BUDDY!
I left bluegrass and fiddle tunes around five years ago. I backed up. I have committed to 1 year or working on right hand technique and moving about the fret board based on the CAGED system. After that? Spend two years going through all of Ben’s material in order to get that “grass” sound back…licks and all.