Oh god, another one...

[NewbieEddy]

Hi. You know what's coming (just been reading most of the messages on this board, and I think this post really just counts as an introduction to me, Eddy the Newbie).
After dreaming about the idea for ages and ages I've finally got a guitar. A Pacifica 112M (A mate of mine who plays recommended it as a good one to start with), and with this I bought a nice fat audio cable and a small 15W Marshall amp.

Now comes the bit where I make sure that I'm not plain retarded, and fish for your sympathy.
I haven't really had much chance to play and play and play, and am only really able to play for a max of 2 hours a day because of school, my job and homework (A-Levels are a grade-a Biatch). For this reason, progress is slow. Very slow.
The callouses on my fingers (much talked about I see - At first it felt like my fingers had been attacked with sandpaper) are just starting to form.. Which is a good thing I guess. The pain is still there, but not as harsh as it was for the first couple of days.

My problems at the moment are..

"grabbing" chords. I've probably used the wrong terminology and I'll get laughed at now.. but I really find it quite difficult to just get a chord straight off. I am of course talking about the open chords at the moment.. I took one look at Barre chords and decided that I'd best get the open chords down first. I also tend to get quite a bit of buzzing when I do manage to grab the note, and this is either because my finger is slightly misplaced and connects with the high E string, or because I don't press hard enough with some note or another.

Strumming! ARGH! This one is really doing my head in. It seems the only way I can get something that sounds regular is to shake my arm up and down as fast as possible as if it were on fire.. I cannot strum slowly! The plec tends to get caught on strings so the strum sounds more like "plinkey plinkey plonkey plink" or something.. Any recommendations there would be much appreciated :D


I'm thinking about interpolating a bit of scales with the chords.. But not sure if that's a good idea or whether it'll just confuzzle me even more.

Once upon a time in a land far far away I played the flute, so I have vague recollection of musical theory, all of which really needs to be relearned.. something else I'd better get down to doing :)

I'm probably going to see about getting tutorage, but since I'm a poor student I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford it, or alternatively if it'll be worth the money.. Any suggestions?

[Levinson Blade]

I haven't really had much chance to play and play and play, and am only really able to play for a max of 2 hours a day because of school, my job and homework (A-Levels are a grade-a Biatch). For this reason, progress is slow. Very slow.

2 hours a day is good but try and practice for say 15 min sessions instead of 2 hours none stop and remember the saying about Rome being built in a day.

The callouses on my fingers (much talked about I see - At first it felt like my fingers had been attacked with sandpaper) are just starting to form.. Which is a good thing I guess. The pain is still there, but not as harsh as it was for the first couple of days.

Callouses take different times to form on diferent people all to do with skin types and Ph levels and so on but theye do form and the pain will go.

grabbing" chords

nobody will laugh we were all beginers once, anyway the term I use is to form a chord just keep at it it will come the first thing is make sure you position your fingers to stop any buzzing or muted strings being able to strike a clean chord is more important than stiking chords fast speed will come with practice
Barre chords are the vein in every new guitar players life the old saying is true here Practice makes perfect.

Strumming! ARGH!

Im more of a widdler than a strumer but what I found to help was to sit in front of the TV unpluged just doing strums in time to a metronome not realy making music but kinda making a sound do some diferent paterns ie

down up down up
up down up down
down down up
down down down up down up


I think that a real life guitar tutor is the best way to go, you cant beat that interaction but there are some great sites on the web to have a look at and books videos and the like all help

and remember no mater how silly you think your question is just ask we were all new once

[jaytee]

well...

doesnt sound to me like you are retarded or in need of sympathy....sounds like the stuff we all have went thru or are going thru...so...hey...the good news is....
you are NORMAL!!!!!

all of this comes with practice...its all you really can do...be determined to stick with it and feel like sometimes you have plateaued...it happens to all of us...its part of the process....

i myself think theory is very important...if you want to become a well rounded player you should learn it...since you have past experience it should come easily enough....

dont expect too much of yourself too soon....it takes a LOT of time to learn to play and do it well...really most of the people i know who play well say they sucked for at least a year and a half before things really started coming together....i think thats just the way it is...

anyhow...good luck and keep with it!

--jt

[eische]

»play, play, play«......ok, that just means play regularly and don't let some difficulties stop you - 2 hours a day is really a good quantity, it wasn't meant to do nothing else;)

So there's only two things I wanted to add to the things written before:
1. Even if it is hard, try barré-chords.

They are hard to play and to practise, so you should start early, because they take a lot of time. Another reason for starting early is, don't practise them too long at a time.
The golden rule for practising barré-chords is practise them often, but never for too long a time at once.;)

2. If it is insecurity of placing the fingers right, you may get that better if you play single notes (only one grip at a time) - therefore try your luck with scales (or if it is too boring, with simple, one-voiced songs maybe based on a scale). You would be able to keep an eye on your gripping-technique.


good luck anyway

[gck]

For the chords: do the "Changing Chords" lesson in the first fret section at www.cyberfret.com. It's really great.

For the bar chords: do them! Bar chords are one of the most difficult things to learn, but they are an absolute must! However, because of their difficulty, most people want to learn them "sometimes later"... result: I know people who've played for 2+ years and have never tackled barre chords!! Practice them for 5mins a day, and in a month or less, you'll have got it!! If you have strong hands and know, when you should stop to avoid hand damage, you can get them in even less time: for example, I practiced them like crazy for 3 days and got them!

For the strumming: keep the pick's middle axis (the perpendicular line from the pick's peak to it's rear) at 90° degrees to the guitar's body and angle the pick itself about 45° degrees to the strings.

Hope that helps you!

[NewbieEddy]

Originally posted by gck

For the strumming: keep the pick's middle axis (the perpendicular line from the pick's peak to it's rear) at 90° degrees to the guitar's body and angle the pick itself about 45° degrees to the strings.

Is this really a good way of doing it? Someone else I spoke to said it's a good idea to keep the pick totally vertical all the time, or something to that effect. I usually pick with a firm 90/90 angle along both axis, but strumming this way i tend to "dig" the pick in on some notes so it sounds well plinky.. I'll try that dude, thanks :)

I'm currently just starting doing scales, and last night after I posted this I had a bit of a breakthrough with my chord switching.. not huge but enough to work out the general idea. I need to relax a bit more.. I tried this and all of a sudden I was forming chords straight off.. wicked!

Back to more practice... thanks guys :)

[Krieselman13]

No, its not the best way to do it, go to the 1st fret section of this site, Shawn has a good leeson on holding the pick. But if you dont want to check iit out, then do what is comfortable for you.

[gck]

if you do not rotate the pick at least a bit around its middle axis, you are much more likely to "catch" the strings when strumming. You shouldn't angle the pick relatively seen to the body (i.e. the middle axis is perpendicular to the body), but you should rotate it at least a bit around it's middle axis. It's hard to explain...

http://www.guitarprinciples.com/Guitar_Technique/Slant.htm

The page has some photos to show you what I mean.

[jaytee]

you know i never gave much thought to this subject....

ill give it a shot tho...

id have to say if i understand him correctly im leaning towards gck's explanation....

i think he means...that you want to hold the pick so it is almost perpendicular to the guitars surface...like youve already been told...(and i only say "almost" because at some point in time you wont be perfectly perpendicular...but try and keep it close)...but so that its not hitting the strings on a flat surface of the pick...if you hit it more with the edge it will slide off better....

hmmm...you know i never really analyzed it? i just grabbed the thing and it was ok...my bigger problem has always been to keep the thing from rotating in my hand...grr i hate that....

http://www.cyberfret.com/first-fret/using-a-pick/index.htm

this is the page mentioned earlier by kries

good luck

--jt

[gck]

Well, for the slipping of the pick... I've never had this problem so maybe it's the way you hold the pick. On the other hand, you can try to roughen the surface of the pick with sanding paper. If your fingers sweat a lot during playing, you might consider cleaning the pick with some cloth afterwards: on some sorts of picks (for example, on bone and stone picks), the sweat tends to become an oily liquid that makes the pick slippery...

[NewbieEddy]

Hmmm.. Ok lemme see if I can clarify here.
The problem I get when strumming, is an extremely harsh sound.. like the pick is grinding through all the strings. There's no smoothness.. So what you're suggesting is that I try this?:


&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspI/
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspx
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp/I&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp->
&nbsp&nbsp/&nbspI

where the /'s are the pick and the I's are the string and the -> is the strum direction (this is face on to the guitar).

Lemme go try that now... *runs off to fetch axe*

[jaytee]

i *think* you mean what i mean....altho i never watched myself i *think* i might lead in with the edge closer to my palm...if that makes sense?
just thinking about it...to lead in with the edge makes sense on one other level...they say to inspect your pick and toss ones with rough edges because they get hung up on the strings/interfere with the sound...i would imagine if you were supposed to hit it with the pick flat it wouldnt be as much of an issue....
hmmm



oh and gck....you are right....about the rough textured pick...they help alot...i just havent found one i like yet....i dont sweat alot and im pretty comfortable with my pick these days...its just i always buy all these smooth ones and they do nothing for grip really...but im looking for something ill like better...i tried gator grips but they actually just tore up my fingers and were really uncomfortable....im thinking of trying maybe one of those that are a little thicker and has the grip impressed into the pick instead of molded onto it...but i dont know if i have enough control to deal with a pick that thick....but hey...its not alot of money to waste...might as well give it a shot....


--jt

[Krieselman13]

I think that that will give you a little less attack, wont it? I dont know as not trying it myself, msainly because I realy like the way that I do it.

[NewbieEddy]

Methinks that the whole strumming thing will just get easier as I carry on.. For the moment though it's very clumsy. I have no trouble at all with the down stroke, but on the up stroke I tend to hit a very harsh chord. I'll learn :D

[gck]

@krieselman: if you mean the pick "slanting", no, it doesn't give you less attack, it just makes the whole strumming thing a lot easier. For example, it's much easier to strum slowly that way, also, you switch from loud to almost silent much more easily.
Before I read that page for which I gave the URL above, I didn't slant the pick at all and the strumming sounded great. However, with the slanting, I can still produce the sound I had before BUT I also got a lot more control of the pick!

One more thing: it's just a recommendation, but it is also a good idea to keep the middle, ring and pinky finger of your picking hand almost outstretched (I'm sure you've already seen a guitarist doing what I mean here). Reason: an outstreched fingers don't produce that much momentum like a fist, so you will get more control of the pick. You can compare this to an ice skater, doing one of those weird spinning moves on the ice: if they want to go faster (i.e. get more momentum), they'll move their arms close to the body, if they want to go slower, they'll move their arms away from the body.

If you combine the slanting and "finger outstretching" technique, I think you can avoid most of the strumming problems.

[Krieselman13]

O, I didnt understand what you ment by 45 degreese. I thought you ment keep the pick at a 90 degree angle to the strings. I slant my pick too, and for the having the rest of your hand outstretched, I sort of do, but I keep my middle, ring amnd pinky side by side to the index; I found that this works perfectly for me. Well, thamnx for clearing things up.

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