ted_h
Forum Replies Created
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I just read your post and tried to play a D7/F without my thumb and it was a brain teaser! For years I played a lot more electric guitar than acoustic and it’s super common to use your thumb either to fret notes on the low E string or to mute the E and A strings. For some pieces, it’s obligatory — there’s no good way to play a lot of things without the thumb over the neck!
Watch Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn for some inspiration in this regard. 🙂
I say, do whatever it takes to play the piece with the least amount of contortion!
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Congratulations! Strong work, @albert_d!
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Great performance! That’s a tough song to sing, and you did a fabulous job!
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Impressive week, @Brian2501! Congratulations!
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Congratulations and happy anniversary, @AttyTJ! What a sweet song!
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That was awesome, @Marisa! Sweet reverb from the room – kickin’ it old school! The fingerpicking was really strong, and your singing excellent!
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Hi, @GJA! I had similar problems with barre chords on the acoustic. There’s a barre chord course in the TAC Skill Courses section. I did that one every day for a month and it really helped me build up the strength to fret them correctly. At the beginning of the month I could only tolerate a minute or two each day, but I would do that minute or two each day and my stamina got better each week. I’d encourage you to give those lessons a try, even while you’re working other parts of the TAC program.
Regarding finger tip pain, it took me a solid six months to get to the point where I could play for an hour or two without getting tender on the fingertips. Now after a year of daily playing, I only get sore when I’m playing on the electric with lots of bends using my pinky. But it really took a good number of months of daily playing to get to this point. I would just quit when you’re sore, and expect that gradually your fingertips will become optimized for guitar fretting!
Good job sticking with it!
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That was really nice, @jonathandavid! I heard hints of Willie Nelson and John Prine in there! I really liked when you used the double stops…
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Really nice, @charlie_d!
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Hi, @Dean-Staff! Welcome to TAC! I play both. I actually think I spend more time on electric than acoustic, but that’s just where I’m at in my guitar journey these days. 🙂 When I post things on TAC I usually play on the acoustic, but the group’s been tolerant of a few electric postings as well!
My wife is also learning to play guitar, and she’s been playing on an acoustic guitar for a few minutes until her hands get tired, and then switching to the electric because it’s so much easier to fret. You’ll find the barre chords much easier on the electric, I think.
I find it fun to play the TAC acoustic exercises on the electric guitar, and fun to try to play electric stuff on the acoustic in an “MTV Unplugged” fashion. 🙂
Go to a music store and try out a few different styles of electric guitar before you buy one — the necks feel a lot different and you may find one more comfortable than another. In general, the Fender-style necks are narrower across the fretboard at the nut and have a tighter radius (the fretboard is a little more curved), whereas the Gibson-style necks are a little wider at the nut and a little flatter across the fretboard. Your hand and finger shape might make you gravitate more towards one than the other. Try playing some of the “30 Days To Play” things on different guitars and see what feels best!
Good luck with your potential guitar acquisition! 🙂
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Hi, @Duane58! I had problems with “guitar elbow” or “tennis elbow” as well. I ran into it maybe three months into my first year. Here are the things that helped me (I went to a sports medicine doc and physical therapy and they set me on the right path):
1. Stretching before and after playing (the TAC stretching exercises in the skill courses section were great)
2. Eccentric strengthening of the wrist extensor muscles – look up “eccentric exercises tennis elbow” and you’ll find a bunch of examples. I got a resistance bar on Amazon and also did the ones where you use a hammer for a weight. I think I got the most relief from these
3. I iced the area 3-4 times a day for 20 minutes
4. I videoed my technique and looked at my wrist motion – turns out I was wildly rotating my wrist with flatpicking and strumming, and I spent a lot of time with my wrist on the bridge which put my wrist in exaggerated extension. Fingerpicking didn’t seem to cause problems at all and I had my wrist in a much more natural position. I have modified my flatpicking to keep my wrist in a more neutral position and the problem hasn’t come back. Everything I’ve seen on this gets to the point that it’s a good thing to keep the wrist in a pretty neutral position and to avoid tension in any of the arm muscles while you’re playing. I’m assuming it’s your picking/strumming hand that’s impacted, but there’s a similar case to be made for the fretting hand
Good luck with all of this, and I wish you a speedy recovery! Good thinking on other musical pursuits to keep your head in the game. You can always work on technique on the hand that’s doing OK, too – if your strumming hand is impacted, you could concentrate on fretwork and strum super gently, for example…
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That was awesome, @Cadgirl! Well-played! That is a tough piece and you did great. Strong work on all the syncopated stuff!
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@Val, that is a great question! I really like playing both with and without a pick, and sometimes I hybrid pick as well (pick held between thumb and index finger, and fingerpick at the same time with the middle and ring fingers). There’s a good intro to hybrid picking in the TAC Skill Courses if you want to give it a try.
But it’s _your_ guitar journey, and if you find it more fun to play without a pick, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it! You can always spend a few minutes using a pick on the TAC exercises that call for them, and then go back to the fingers. You can simulate alternate picking, foregoing the pick, by alternating between your thumb and index on the same or adjacent strings.
A thumb pick might be a nice option to try. I have trouble playing with them, but some folks love them! Anyone here use one?
I play electric, as well, and I try to play with and without a pick. I’m in a group for learning classic guitar solos and there’s a guy who plays every solo without a pick and he sounds amazing!
One of my favorite electric players is Chris Buck, who effortlessly switches between fingers and pick. He stashes the pick in the crook of his index finger when he’s not using it — completely mind-blowing! You can find plenty of examples of his technique on YouTube.
Whatever you end up doing, I wish you plenty of fun!
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Hello again, @Dean-Staff!
Does your Tele have six screws to set the intonation (one for each string), or does it have three screws and three of the barrel saddles (one barrel for each pair of strings)? Mine had the old-school barrel saddles and I could never get the intonation right. It was my least favorite guitar because of that! But then I learned that you can get “compensated” barrel saddles that allow you to move the break point forward or backward for each string in a pair and I was able to get the intonation much better. That’s when it became my favorite guitar!
If you go that route, I got the “Wilkinson Compensated Brass Saddles” for about $15 and it made a huge difference! Maybe the best money I ever spent on guitar gear!
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That’s awesome, @Dean-Staff! I play on a Tele a lot and I love it! I just can’t get enough of how it sounds with the neck pickup. 🙂
Whatever you play, have fun doing it! Cheers!