[jorgemac]

When I first started, the web site I used to use Was the Frank Ford Fret.com site

Frank was one of the original owners of Gryphon Guitars(spelling?) In Palo Alto and did all of the repair work on all types of instruments. He started the Frets.com website and it has a huge amount of information all type of guitar repairs and what causes that weird buzzing noise your guitar is making.

Sadly Frank passed many years ago but the web site is still up. It is a 90’s style web site with out a lot of bells and whistles but is very informative. I go to it all of the time when I’m stuck on a vexing issue on one of my instruments. Check it out. Rule of thumb, If your guitar costs less than $750 and is from over seas it is a good chance that the nut and saddle is not bone.

[jorgemac]

I remember in the 3rd grade i just had to practice my math tables over and over to start to acquire a feeling for them.

this is no different. A few minutes of just Strumming up and down one any chord or the open strings will help tremendously. five minutes a day will change your guitar picking in a couple of weeks especially if you use a metronome set very slow. Slow is good on guitar exercises, especially in the beginning.

I’ve been playing forever and i still start out Tony’s play along on each lesson at 1/2 speed.

i don’t need to but i know that it builds up the play back accuracy better to always start slow.

.

[jorgemac]

Wow that would be special to use your father’s last pick. Sweet.

[jorgemac]

Thanks Pete, like all good things in life you have to learn to adjust to modern changes.I didn’t realize You tubes progression had affected TACers so much.

I have a love hate relationship with them. Their success seems to have come with some contempt for it’s old timed used. I assume $$$$’s have something to do with it.

[jorgemac]

I use a heavy 1.5 pick and have 2 fingers on the back and thumb on the front but , only, between 1/8th to 3/16th of and inch of the pick tip visible and striking the stings and play so much that i have good control of the tip, Also have a couple of Blue tips but don’t use them much.

A lot of times when doing down strokes my middle finger tip actual touches the string before the pick tip does. this doesn’t seem to affect my tone, unless I want it to, and and I take this anomaly and develop different sounds with it. I try to use this as a different way to strike the strings and achieve a different tone. I have actually used that nail tip to get that different tone, on down strokes. If you play enough you can try to do something with the different way you play as you don’t have to please anyone but yourself. That finger nail can help partially mute a string to get a different tone.

Also I noodle a lot, sometimes forever or so it seems. When you are retired and don’t have to account for your time any longer you learn to stretch out in different directions. This means that I am discovering different tone/sounds, mutes, etc. All of this creeps into your playing, over time, when pickings tunes.

Maybe someday I’ll actually know what the heck i am doing on a guitar.

[jorgemac]

I don’t know if i can help with this but on the left hand side of the the next to last item is titled quick start method. Click on that and review it. Hope that helps .

[jorgemac]

I played Electric guitar, poorly, forever before I wised up and switched to Acoustic guitar. Electric picking allowed me to form many poor fingering habits ,just because it was easier to “cheat” fingering posture on electric’s. On electric my palm was allows kissing the back of the neck which flattened out and took most of the arch out of my fingering. Since I have “seen the light ” and pick almost exclusively acoustically I have been able to develop better guitar fingering patterns. Moved the palm off of the back of the neck, adjusted my thumb position, so that much of my Hand in now above the fret board. More finger arch equals more finger position control.

If we would have all taken classical guitar lessons from a qualified Classical guitar teacher for our first 6 months of learning we would have eliminated a lot of our fingering issues. If i had only known…

[jorgemac]

Follow Pete’s advise and make sure you are only touching/fretting the strings with your finger tip, close to where your finger nail stops and top of your finger tip. See other post as Pete suggests.

[jorgemac]

If you are playing and practicing “tight” that is part of the problem. When i am doing something new on guitars i tend to hunch over and tighten up my hand and arm muscles and place my palm too close to the back of the neck.

I know that i do this and now make myself relax, sit back , place my thumb in the middle of the back of the neck and make sure i can see the palm of my picking hand above the fretboard, for my size hand, about a half of and inch. this puts more arch in my fingers and so i hold the strings down at a much better angle that doesn’t mute other strings unless I want it too. It takes practice to do this unconsciously, just like every little learning step to play guitar. Good Luck.

[jorgemac]

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.

[jorgemac]

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.

[jorgemac]

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

[jorgemac]

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?

[jorgemac]

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.

[jorgemac]

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.