After kindly loaning me his fave LTD for the past 8 months to learn guitar, my amazing partner got me one to call my own. It feels like silk, plays like butter, and sounds like crystal. Feeling so grateful right now, I have no other words….
Curious to know what resources people have come across that address/discuss the mechanics of guitar technique (beyond basic form and positioning) in different contexts.
There are many players who are at varying stages of fine-tuning, where advancement is reliant not only on lots of practice, but also on details around how you are playing something.
The link is one I came across for piano, and it got me wondering what hidden gems there are like this for guitar.
I think it is a fantastic watch for piano players—but many ideas could probably be carried over to guitar, such as thinking about what the “resting” fingers are doing in such a way as to reduce strain on the playing fingers, and thinking about what shape and motion/route of movement the hand can take to better set up the fingers for the next set of actions.
Guitar is a string instrument, so the toolbox of motions are going to differ greatly from piano. And so far, my toolbox is made up of ideas I’ve had from my own playing, which, at 7 months in, is still pretty basic. Hoping to build it out a bit, and interested in what others have found to be helpful in this regard.
Been hearing a neighbor practice the bass for about a year and half, through the walls, and with me and my partner both playing instruments, it’s never bothered us (he usually stops before 11 PM). Recently, he’s been playing a Muse song I like, and I’m sort of tempted to learn the guitar part and join in. Lol. Is that wrong? We don’t know which neighbor this is—we’ve tried to look, but there’s lots of shared wall space in our complex, so sound travels, and we haven’t been able to figure it out.
I thought it’d be sort of funny to do, but I’m even greener than our neighbor, and have no wish to throw him off his practice game in any way. What’s the code of conduct for something like that? Too intrusive?
I’m only 6 months in, so I humbly acknowledge the fact that I suffer from inexperience, and that this may be complete bogus, and not at all how one should approach practicing for speed (if true, lmk why too, pls).
However, I felt like I needed to devise a set of daily exercises focused solely on speed-building technique to help me reach one of my lesson goals, which is playing 16th note subdivisions at qtr note=100 bpm (currently topping out at 75. 80 is doable, but starts to get a little sloppy. 90 is sloppy, and 100 is a mess. lol).
I do have a great teacher, but not as confident as he is, that I will get there organically just by virtue of practicing the prescribed material, because they are usually challenging in other ways, and my focus is pulled elsewhere. And, I suspect he thinks I’m better than I think I am. Heh.
Thoughts?
PS—apologies for the terrible screenshot. I took the lazy way out when getting it.
PPS—Numbers in #2 refer to strings. It’s to practice string skipping.
Playing like pic A forces the ring finger to curve, and the angled finger makes the G buzz most of the time. About 5-10% of the time, it doesn’t buzz, though I’m not sure why.
Straightening the finger by locking the first joint fixes the angle so there’s no buzz, but not a hand position I can get into quickly.
Should I practice trying to use pic A, and figure out how to make it not buzz, or like pic B and figure out how to move into position faster?
Curious how ya’ll would approach this part, to set up your fingers to shift down from the F# to E (highlighted) smoothly?
I’ve practiced the above two fingering patterns, but both feel a bit clunky in my hands. Shifting down AND changing fingers at the same time feels weird. Using the numbers in parentheses avoids that problem (shifts without changing fingers) but means I’m walking the same two fingers over each other (3232) in order to set that up, which may be hard to pull off cleanly, when I can play it at tempo (qtr note=137).
I’m currently at half tempo, and can’t go fast enough to see what will work at that speed. Would love it if someone who can play this at that tempo could tell me what finger #ing works for them at that speed. ty!
I am practicing a neoclassical etude for my lesson, and have a measure of arpegiatted 16th notes, where the ones on the lowest strings are supposed to be palm muted.
It’s from a book and I don’t have any audio recordings for it, so am not sure what they are supposed to sound like. But they sound kinda like a fuzzy “thump thump thump thump….”. Could that possibly be right? Maybe I need to mute less?
It straight up sounds like some cartoon character tiptoeing to Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
I’m a fairly early beginner in guitar (4.5 months) and have been playing scales mainly to orient my fingers to the fretboard and learn how to play notes cleanly, at varying speeds.
That said, I never tried playing them to music before, and have shrugged off past suggestions to do so because….idk? Intimidated by the idea, probably.
Well, finally tried it today and what an eye opener….y’all were so right!
Not knowing what else to do, I started by playing the scale (C harmonic minor) straight up as eighth notes, and within a few notes, could feel the backing track practically pulling the the scale into its path—winding the notes to play atop it and imbuing it with rhythm. wtf?! So cool, unexpected, and exhilarating!
It also made me realize I am none so good at moving to notes further than the adjacent strings. And that I need to understand better what the guitar is supposed to sound like in the context of the music, cuz I may have sounded more like a classical pianist, and not a guitarist. Oops.
Just wanted to share with y’all how impactful your advice was to me as a new player, and to say thank you for all the time and suggestions and insight you give on here. It is much appreciated.
Just learned the harmonic minor scale and playing a riff from Death’s “Crystal Mountain” to practice it. There is a low humming throughout, maybe from the low E or A strings vibrating? What can I do to clean that up?
Also, am I shifting with the right fingers (index going down, and pinky going up)?
I am 4 months in with guitar, though not new to music with other instruments, in case that’s relevant.
UPDATE: The company has reviewed the photo and believes the strings are defective—discoloration is NOT NORMAL. They didn’t say whether the fraying is normal or not. I will update again if they clarify on that point further.
Amazon (they were the seller—not a third party) requested that I return the [used] strings, so hopefully it means they will look into it further and pull any other defective ones floating in their inventory. They also issued a full refund.
Thanks, everyone, for your input and experiences. Much love, y’all.
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First time using Elixer Nanoweb strings. Put these strings on less than a week ago, and got about 10 hrs of practice in, before noticing the D string is shredded, and the higher 3 strings are lightly discolored. The shreds are almost definitely from the threading. They don’t wipe off, and I think I can see the beginnings of the same happening on the low E string.
Very confusing, since I play with a pick, and don’t play hard (I’m a beginner). Yesterday I tried a little hybrid picking—so maybe the shredding is from my nail? No nail polish, and I was using my fingers for the most part, but my nail did graze and catch on the string a few times.
I thought Elixers were supposed to last longer than most?