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Beginner question, jumping up string on higher frets of higher notes.
50 Years old, never played before. Working through the 30 day quick start, having an issue with the blues shuffle. I know I must be doing something wrong with my hand placement, and not sure what it is.
On the A and D strings, I am transferring between 2nd and 4th frets on the strings, and winding up on the same string, but when I attempt to fret the G string, I am fairly consistently winding up with the 4th fret placing my finger down on the D string, not the G string. So it seems to me, I have something off on my hand placement.. it doesn’t feel like I’m out of parallel with my hand and the guitar, but clearly something is off.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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8 Replies
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Try watching your hand in a mirror to check how your fingers are aligned. I was surprised the first time I did this. Or your computer works too if you have a camera on it. No need to record just watch your fingers.
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Thanks, I will give this a try.
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Just like it’s normal for new typists to hit wrong keys, it’s normal for new guitarists to hit wrong strings and frets. It gets better with practice, time, and most of all patience. Jeff’s suggestion to use a mirror or a screen and camera is good, and I also like to shut my eyes, go really slowly, and find it by feel. Combining the two approaches would likely yield good dividends after a week or two.
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Agree with @tailsawaggin that this is a process. Although it’s called the 30 day challenge this will roll along at your pace and some excercises will be more challenging and take longer to get. Some may seem impossible at first. Add to that the fingers being painful and Challenge really lives up to its name. But keep at it and one day you’ll realise it is working for you.
I started last April. In November, as part of my 90 day progress goals I redid the 30 Day Challenge and found I could play it all at the 2x speed. What a buzz because that was utterly impossible when I joined. Give it your best but don’t be afraid to move on and come back later. Good luck and welcome to TAC. 🤟😎🎸
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@speckpgh Welcome to the TAC community. What you outlined is common for many people until they build more muscle memory and learning placement of hands. Keep in mind that the neck of the guitar is angled, but many times we are sliding our hands as if the neck was parallel to the floor. Instead, we have to learn to compensate for the angle of the neck when moving up and down it. Hope having more consciousness of this fact will assist you. Have fun with the 30 days to play!
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Thank you everyone for the helpful tips and information, and encouragement. They have been helpful.
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No problem. Hope you have fun with it. Also here’s a forum tip. If you want to post a thanks to someone on the forum and for them to get notified you can either reply to their specific message to you, or you can write a single message at the end of the chat (like you did) but pop an @ sign with their handle after eg @moonhare and in both cases they will get a notification alert. Otherwise they won’t know you thanked them as the reply only gets notified to the original person that actually posted it, ie you! Took me ages to work that out! 🤟😎🎸
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Thanks for the info
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