jorgemac
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No, but I love to tinker instead of zero in on the lessons. After I have the lessons up to the at least 60 BPM I start changing the fingering around. I’m just as bad when trying to learn a new song tab. As soon as I have the minimum arrangement down on songster I’m messing with it to make it my own version of the song. I usually stay close to the structure for Chorus but the verses are fair game. I do keep the same strumming structure in place but the chord notes can be changed. The 1 and 3 beats in most popular songs have a stronger beat to them so the 2 and 4 beats can be modified, The 4 beat can be a dual 8th note beat with the 2nd 8th note a diminished chord, or a major 7th chord, that leads to the next chord change.
I’m a member of K.O. Stringworks, an old time blues site, that introduced me to using diminished chords for a transition Beat before the actual chord change. Original Blues artist’s( Reverand Davis, etc,) used this to great affect. you have to pick your spots to use it but it is very effective. Just another tool to help you make your own stye.
That seems to be where the tinkering comes in. After you have the basic Progression down fairly well I always want to toy with it. Just my nature to never be satisfied with the arrangement, I think. Easy changes are hammer on’ s, pull offs, slides, Dyads and triplets, Sus, diminished,6ths, 7ths, 11th, flatted 5ths, on and on. A lot of the times that doesn’t improve the arrangement, just clutter’s it up, but sometimes… it does. If used sparingly.
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Thanks Mark,
I do tinker much too much and seem to have a guitar around all of the time. Almost every Thursday and Friday TAC lesson I practice ends up being Modified in some way. Like you I like to add the pull offs, hammer on’s and slides. Plus picking the progressions in other positions on the fret board. I post these changes when I have the time.
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Like you, I always used the folk 3 finger G for years and now i have gotten used to the 4 finger style. My fingering, from the treble E is pinky ,then ring finger on the 3rd fret of the treble E and B strings, index is on A/2 and the middle is fretting the Bass E/3.
For the D chord my ring finger does not move from the B/3. The index goes to the to G/s and middle to to E/2. That leaves my pinky available to finger the D/4 F# and make a fuller sounding D chord, especially if you hammer it onto that fret once and a while.
if I am using the hammer on I rotate my index finger to cover the the 3 treble strings, the middle finger is now fretting B/3 and the Ring finger can hammer onto the D/4 F# note for either and fuller D chord or also a Bm7th chord partial chord which is a great transition chord to either the Am7 or C chord.
A good progression Is the G chord to the D chord to the Bm7th for a beat or 2 and then the Am7 to the full C chord, Back to the starting G chord.
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A lot of great posts on the great thread.
My practice, before practice, routine evolves all of the time but some of the constants are 3, 4 and 5 finger E shaped barre chords up to the 12th fret, 5 finger and the thumb E shaped barre chords up to the 12th fret. If you don’t practice your barre chords you will always have problems with them.
The A and A7th shaped and Am and Am7 Barre chords, omitting the treble E string, except for the 7th chord version, up to the 12th fret and as the old coach says do this with your eyes closed as it is muscle memory and also helps train the ear.
The E7 shaped chord beginning on the A, D, G strings. I do these in the before practice practice at least twice a week and sometimes every day. I also love the Bb major 7, B/3, G/2 and D/3 strings to the Am7- B/1, G open, D/2 and walk that up the neck( Cmajor7 to Bm7 starting on the 5th fret to the 4th fret) to the 12th fret. It is a great transition chord to the relative minor of every key, especially if you pick out every note leading to the relative minor.
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Skyman, good advice. Keep it simple.
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Matt, The first guitar I purchased was a Takamine Back in 1971. A few years later I lent it to a friend and… haven’t seen the guitar or her for years. It was a beautiful soulful sounding guitar. Much better tone than I deserved when learning to play.
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Hope it helps you
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That is a very complex question and hard to answer.
I’ve been purchasing guitars my whole life and each one is going to the perfect guitar for me. That seems to be true for a few months then,,,, I’m looking around again. If I was starting to play after a long absence from picking, I would research the different styles, shapes and tones of guitars in my price range. There are some good beginner guitars available for under $1,000,better intermediate guitars under $2,000 and great guitars above that. Do you play at all? If you can play a simple tune or 2 you can test a lot of different guitars at your favorite music store.
I usually buy used instruments that are in great shape because someone purchased it but gave up because of the the work involved to learn to play guitar.
I listen for tone 1st and foremost. Then the guitar action- does it need a setup to play smoothly? Do you have any friends that play who can help you?
You can’t go wrong with beginner Taylor, Larivee, Yamaha,Takamine ,,, I could go on and on but if are serious about learning you need to find a guitar that you will feel comfortable with. Are your hands big or small. What kind of music do you enjoy? What stye of music are you interested in learning?
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1 & a 2 and 3… 4
Some days I’m a strummer, some days I’m a finger picker.
Some days my fingers won’t listen to me.
Some days I’m a slide guitar king and a few minutes later I can’t fumble through a chord change.
Some days I can hammer on, pull off, slide into or out of a progression.
Some days I can slap the out the melody with a percussive beat.
Some days My fingers get in the way like 2 left feet.
Some days I can pick a melody by ear.
Some days I just land on my rear.
I am an evolving guitar player… And life is pretty darn good.
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A metronome will help as you can in crease the tempo slowly and strum more accurately as you build up speed.
In practice, I always work out my fingering for chord progressions before I practice them and run through them a few times , just moving the fingers from chord to chord for a few minutes, no strumming just fretting finger movement. I see how much speed I can work up and sometimes use the metronome with out strumming, just calling out my note count on the metronome beat- 1, 2 and, 3, 4, etc. This prep work helps me mentally as well as physically.
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I once saw a paraplegic while attending a Giant’s baseball game bussing outside of the stadium using his toes to play a slide guitar. I was amazed at his will to play and was happen and honored to contribute to his guitar case fund. Never say never was the lesson I took away from that.
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you are one of the shining lights of this website and it is always wonderful to hear from you. As I always say to you you, hang in there and keep on chugglin.
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Welcome to our picking world. I use CDB cream To relieve the pain. Also Chinese metal hand exercise balls and a Therapeutic squeeze ball. All of these help enough that I have fair to good dexterity most days. 10 – 20 minutes a day when I wake up and before bed at night.
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James Shipway’s books are better than excellent and he can add humor to his, that is always welcome in a “boring” knowledge learning explanation. Good choice. I have his books also. Both of these do a great job of explaining the ” mystery ” of keyboard knowledge.
One of my many guitar roadblocks is I sometimes allow my ego to get in the way as I am just too “good’ of a guitar picker to “need” anything but a very fast review of fretboard knowledge so I just lightly read and skip area’s that, could, actually help me become a better guitar player.
I skip exercises as I am above that level(not). Today is Monday and I almost skipped practicing Tony’s lesson as it was below me. What an stupid reaction to a learning experience. Then I did the lesson and actually had to slow down as for some reason(lack of practice) , lack of concentration maybe) My picking wasn’t very smooth. This forced me to take the proper time to concentrate on my up/down and down/down strokes for about 20 minutes to correct this error. I am my own worst enemy during guitar practice sometimes.
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This is a great primer book to use before you decide whether to enroll in the fretboard wizard course. The FW course would probably give you more hand’s on information and visually explain all of the examples available in this book and go into everything in more detailed depth.