BarbaraM
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Mave,
If I understand you correctly, Tony is explaining things too fast for you to wrap your head around…? Or the play-along is too fast…? Both of those can be helped by slowing down the playback speed (lower right hand corner of video, hover and a little list shows up with 1x checked, but you can go up for slower speeds– .5, .75, or down for faster speeds, but for the video it does make Tony sound a little drunk). You can also repeat the video parts you have trouble with by sliding back the little ball on the progress line. If you already know this, sorry! I don’t know what you know.
Did you do the 30 Days to Play, so you know what the tab means and all that? Then all I can say is to stick with it, go slowly, give yourself some grace as a beginner. We were all beginners at some point. I’m 74, into my 3rd year, and feel I lost most of my first year due to frustrations of various kinds. I learned to be patient with myself.
You will get this, do not despair!
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Oh no, Loraine! Healing energy coming your way!
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Loraine, I just saw this. You are so brave! Since the surgery was in September, how has it gone in the past 3+ months? May the bones settle into their correct position and not need another surgery! Sending positive vibes!
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Oh, and you asked about quick chord changes. Have you gotten to the part where you learn new chords and Tony has us doing the “quick-draw” exercise? That is where you put your hand on your knee and count down 5-4-3-2-1 and either during the countdown or with a shorter count as you get better, you place your fingers in the chord positions so you are ready to strum it when you get to zero. That does help.
I can’t do a C cleanly either, nor the mini F, and never any barre chords. I don’t worry about it; if I really need a chord there are triads!
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Hi @CamiB! Nice to see more women here with average hands! I have been at TAC for almost 2 years and yes I had lots of trouble at the beginning. Part of the issue was I had too big of a guitar; ended up with a parlor guitar with 23.5″ scale length. Even so, I cannot stretch from 2 to 4 either, but it depends on which fingers are required. I often do a kind of rocking “jump” (as in the Blues shuffle), but it requires more attention to not shifting your fingers over. That’s ok, it makes one a better guitarist, in my opinion!
Another thing to try, is the stretching skill course, found in the sidebar of the main page. I have crooked fingers too, and while I know they will never straighten or grow longer, they can be limbered up to their limit over time. Good luck, and welcome to TAC!
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Thanks for your replies, both of you. I believe I could have bent the metal picks I bought, but didn’t want to in case they still didn’t work for me and I needed to return them. Six and change isn’t much, but I’m retired and every buck counts.
After looking at how I actually finger pick, I realize I’m not “clawing” enough perhaps, to engage my fingernail, though I don’t generally like long nails. The pads of my fingers end up doing the work, and they get sore. On the heavier strings it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But I would just as soon not have to use a pick as I would lose the feel of the strings, which I need to develop for accuracy. I’m having a hard enough time developing accuracy with a flat pick!
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Oh yes, there are a lot of finger picks, and the metal ones that don’t have a closed shape looked like they were adjustable. But I tried to adjust them, short of using pliers in case I wanted to send them back, but I could not budge them. So they went back.
I guess I’ll just have to tough it out until I develop a reasonable callus, as I really do want to learn some finger picking songs.
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A luthier told me that only hard cases protect the humidity in them, but I have found this not to be entirely true. It helps, definitely. He also told me to humidify in a soft case, to use a few pieces of damp sponge in a couple of baggies with holes, tucked under the strings and around the sound hole. I have tried that with my Baby Taylor, but I rarely play it, so I don’t bother, not wanting to encourage mold. My Zager Parlor lives in a hard case with a humidity monitor, and sometimes when it’s very cold and dry I place a small pan with a little water in it when I take the guitar out to play, and close it up. That works fairly well, but again, the case isn’t completely airtight.
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Yes the angle you have here shows more of what you are actually doing, than Tony’s video; you can’t see “inside” his hand. I can do this, I think, but only at half speed for the triplet as I have to get my index and thumb into position, and remember to put my little finger down to mute the strings. The more I practice though, the more uncoordinated I get; have to work on that.
Thanks, Pete for the video. And thanks to the rest of you who replied. It’s all helpful.
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Wait, I think you are doing more of a punch instead of a slap…? The only way I can get the flat part of my curled fingers on the strings is to point my hand/fist more toward the strings. It’s not too bad that way, but harder to coordinate the index and thumb for the triplet.
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Oh that’s where I get into trouble, often my knuckles are painful due to arthritis. Have to knock on doors with my left hand.
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So….You are doing similar to dead strumming but with a fingerpicking motion?
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OK, I’m trying that, but it’s …ah…challenging to keep from sliding off the strings. I’ll work on it some more
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Thanks, Pete!
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Thanks Pete, this is good information. So, since you didn’t mention it, the Bm power chord would be the second fret of the A string and the 4th frets of the G ad B strings, yes? Or would that be a B power chord; how to make it minor? Or do you? Oh wait, you are only concerned with sharps and flats, not major or minor. Since the C#m is only using the sharp of the C (4th fret A string, and moving up the other notes accordingly), the B would be one fret down from the C, since B and C are only one fret apart. So, second and 4th frets as I mentioned above.
Did I answer my own question? 🙂