jorgemac
Forum Replies Created
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Pete nailed it. This is about playing guitar more than playing songs. Songs are the format that Tony used to teach members how to improve guitar skills. I have been a member for 46 or7 weeks and some of the stuff we do on a daily basis has visibly creep into my songs that I practice/play all of the time. Pull offs, slides,slurs and hammer on’s have popped up in my picking, walking into the next chord in a progression is natural now Also I keep much better time and the tunes now swing.
I also am involved in a couple of other guitar formats and they have become easier since I’v become a TACer.
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Some things that help me learn hammers ons. All of us had issues with and all of us have different finger palm wrist joints so we had to find what would work for us.
How much of your palm/ finger joint is above the treble side of the Fret Board? I can see all of my palm finger joint when I do hammers. This gives you a better downward angle to hammer the fret clean and true with out hitting any other strings.
Where is your thumb located on the back of the neck?
If I am going to hammer on 2 or 3 frets further up the neck my thumb usually is located between the Fretted note and the fret I am going to be hammering down on. Sometimes the thumb is located in the middle arch of the neck and sometimes located more up on the bass side of the back of the neck. This depends on how close to the fret board/neck I need to position my palm. Short fingers need to have the palm close or resting on the fret board edge. Longer finger not so much. If I place my palm too close to the fret board edge i have a harder time being accurate with my finger down stroke to the fretted area.If you use hammer on’s, pull offs slides, slur’s long enough and a lot it will just become natural.
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Got-cha, Being a guitar junky always looking for a new way to learn. I do have a chord wheel that taught me a lot, but the hands on approach of drawing it out would lock that stuff, deeper, into the grey matter. Thanks
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Coach I like tht hand drawn idea of the circle of 5th’s that would be a great way to imprint it into your brain for easy transfer to your fingers. Any tips on drawing that out myself?
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Thanks Coach and Pete. I am currently trying to work through 4 and a half Pages from the newest Acoustic Guitar magazine regarding triads. It is laid out like most of their teaching lessons of one lesson a week for 4 weeks. I usually rush through these things so I “Get Better” faster.
I am trying to force myself to limit the lesson to their teaching schedule and am on the 4th day of week one lesson one and can comfortable play this lesson with the metro nome at 65 BPM and not have to look at the written lesson page . Hope to reach 80 before the end of my 7 day restriction. I’ve told myself to lighten up and enjoy the heck out of the 4 lessons and maybe they will stick with me. Hope I can take my own advice.
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While living on and surfing pretty much every day for 28 years in Hawaii, I had a old local teach me a great lesson. It was a beautiful early afternoon surf session over on the north shore of Oahu and there were only 3 or 4 of us out surfing. I had lived on Oahu for a couple of years and was determined to become a “surfer”. After riding a nice 4 foot wave and paddling back out the older local man turned and looked at me and said “you surf well but don’t look like you enjoy what you are doing. There is no flow to your style, learn to lighten up and enjoy what the wave brings to you”. That changed my approach to surfing and to other parts of my life’s journey.
It’s a good guitar teaching lesson to learn to lighten up and enjoy what you do. Take your small win’s and enjoy them. All of us can be our own worst enemy when we judge our personal guitar progress. If you are in a contest with your ego there is a good chance that you will never be able to lighten up and enjoy your guitar journey. Good luck with your guitar journey.
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I don’t use metal finger pcks a lot. For some reason my finger tips don’t get sore and I don’t develop large calluses from holding down the strings. I do use mostly the padded part of my finger when finger picking but do use my short finger nails when I dig in for more sound. I do coat my right handed finger nails with fiber glass tap and nail glue on about 3/4th of the 2 fingers I use in finger picking and have to redo it every month.
James Taylor did a video on u tube regarding finger style guitar nail care that is very helpful.
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When you bend/shape the 1st pick, please play a few notes with out a finger pick to see how and what part of your finger strikes the strings. The part of your finger that actually strikes the string is the part of the metal finger pick you want to strike the string first.
If you look at your hand with the palm facing up, on the right hand the thumb is on the right and the pinky is on the left. So, if you pick a note with your index finger, like I do, mostly no finger nail just the side of my finger and maybe a little nail, sometimes, the right hand side of the finger strikes the string very close to where the finger nail joins the right side of the index finger. That is where I want to make sure the metal pick strikes at a clean angle to produce a good string tone.
Put on a 1st or 2nd finger pick and pick for awhile so you can see where you have to bend and shape the metal pick. Because the picks I currently use are the metal open faced design they can be bent very easily. They usually are purchased in sets of three picks and I only use 2 finger picks and a Black Mountain thumb pick, so i have an extra finger pick that I can experiment with and learn how to make the pick bends I need when playing. As you grow used to using picks you can always make micro adjusts to your finger picks. you will learn what part of the metal pick you will need to bend to make the adjustments you want to make. Some times to get the right adjustment you may need to adjust a lower part of the metal pick to actually get the correct angle on the top side of your pick.
Pete you have worked with materials enough to know that every action you take is going to affect other parts, so keep that in mind.
If I don’t use metal finger picks for awhile I always have to make adjustments to my picks cause my string striking style might have changed slightly. l’ve had the same set for almost 3 years and they show not sign of wearing out.
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Actually I appreciated your humor.
While your problem will be unique to you, it is a problem that most of us had to endure to begin to call ourselves guitar players, even if we paused and then said I’m not very good. I have finally progressed to the level that I don’t have to pause and say that any longer. I now say “oh, I play a littlebit” with a modest smile then proceed to show off a little. You will get there also, just not today….
You can do both, on the weekends I usually revisit the skills section and take something again maybe bass patterns or chords or Hybrid picking or finger style lessons. Every day seems to be a learning day for me in y guitar journey.
The TAC style of learning is great and you can progress and become a better guitar picker using it but it does not hurt to hone your skills by playing as much as you are comfortable with. If you are brand new it will take you a lot of practice in each skill to say Oh, I can play a little bit. When you do get there, Don’t forget the modest smile…
Chicks dig, it even when you are 79 years old.
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Coach is right. If you develop what I call “Guide” finger as the first finger you fret in chord changes ,after a few G to C to D and back to C will become easier.
Almost all chord changes are done in pairs, ie, learn G to C backwards and forwards, then move on C to D, Then D to C and finally C back to G. Don’t forget C to F, then F to C.
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I mess around with my dobro and also Pedal steel. I have always used metal finger picks. You can use needle nose pliers to shape them however you like. I currently am using Stainless steel open design finger picks that I purchased on Amazon in2023. Just checked and they are still selling them. I bought the large size. Most old timers use national finger picks.
You can shape the plastic ones by putting them in heated water until they are pliable and then u can shape them.
Trim your finger nails fairly close to your finger and shape them to arch around the shape of you finger tips. you can probably find to some your tube instruction if you want to explore more. The way I use them is called claw hammer finger picking style. Your fingers are curled in toward your palm. It is very easy to use muting with this style of finger picking.
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In H.C. you are going from and C chord to the Dm
C , for me is index , middle and ring fingers with the pinky just hanging out and doing nothing, but ready to make a C7 chord by . Switching to Dm from C –
Drop the pinky onto the B/3 D note, middle finger drops down 1 string to the G/2 while the index finger drops down 1 string to cover both the E and B Strings on the 1st fret, especially the E/1 F note.
Because the ring finger is available it can also fret G/3, the Bb note in a C7 chord, or fret the D/3 F note in a Dm chord as an accent note or a fuller sounding Dm chord.
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A very rewarding challenge. There are online courses but you will find out that you are going to need some tools that you currently don’t probably have. I shaped all of my own necks, made all of my own fretboards, slotted and installed all of the frets, routed and installed all the truss rods, Routed the neck joint pockets and set all of the necks. Mounted of the top X bracing and shaped the braces. Routed and installed all of the bindings and the sound hole purfling. Back then you could use wood lacquer for finishing, On and On and on. If you have the right tools it is fun. if you don’t it can be very challenging. I still have that 1st acoustic guitar build and was so proud after finishing it. It does have a great tone but i look at the quality of the work and cring.
Each build did get better in quality and performance but dealing with customers was not my strong point so I stopped building. If you do it right the amount of hours needed to build a guitar will shock you.
It is a wonderful challenge and I encourage you to approach it with your eyes open and know that there is a heck of a lot of work involved , especially if you build from scratch. Kits are much easier but they still require a great deal of patience.
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Actually think it is fun. My guide is the Dan Erlewine Guitar player repair book copy of 1994 in my copy. there is a heck of a lot of information on your tube now. There wasn’t much info back then so I learned through my mistakes on my own instruments. I’ve hand built 20 guitars, 10 electric, 10 acoustic so that taught me a heck of a lot. There were only about 3 online places to buy tools and they all were overpriced as most were made by special order as there were not that many of us customers interested in specialty guitar building tools. They are still way over priced, I think. I think the 1st set of nut files were good quality but were over $50 even back then. I still have them and they are still great tools. Even learning to sharpen chisels was a learning experience. No teachers and no online instructions.
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I thought about doing guitar set ups, but just helped friend out. Now that i am retired i think about starting to do it a couple of days a week but it is just a thought currently. I would have organize my garage which looks like Noah’s Ark after the flood, or organize my spare extra room which looks like the ruminants of the land after the flood. …
It is kind of nice to wake up each morning and not have my day all planned out for me like when I worked for a living.