N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
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Wow, @Guitargeezer-Jack
Thanks for posting. What a blessed grandpa you are. I look forward to playing with you more when we can.
MG 😀
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Here’s the thing @va601m
Some very good players do this. Others can’t do this as it causes stress in their hand. That’s the bottom line.
If you can do it without causing stress, go for it. I do it. It helps me. At the beginning, I would sometimes put too much pressure on that little digit. So I had to learn to just touch, not press. But I never considered giving it up because so many great players do it and I felt it helped me a lot. That’s my story. Good thing it’s my decision. 😁
MG 😀
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Hey @JeffK ;
I’m gonna have to agree with @Philb . I do not believe it is “fat fingers”. I do believe you are muting the high E string because your finger is too flat. You are muting the G string because your finger is pushing up past the B string and touching the G string. And again, it’s because your finger it too flat to the fretboard. Like Phil already said, your fingers have to be more arched. Try dropping your thumb lower on the back of the neck and push your wrist forward so you can get more arch. Then make sure you are using the tip of your finger and not the pad just as Phil has said.
Do some experimenting and then get back to us. Ask more questions if necessary… or, let us know about your success.
MG 😀
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Hello @OhWowMan
First. let me say I have not read any of the other comments. I’m not going to apologize for that, I’m simply going to respond to your original query.
There is no “recommendation”. You can do the 2 courses at the same time if you have the time. You can go back and do either course any time. You can take each course once a month for the next year if you wanted. Neither course takes a lot of time to go through the videos. The 30 Day course takes some time on your guitar. The Fretboard course doesn’t take a lot of extra time beyond the videos. However, right from the start, the Fretboard course will help you get more out of the 30 day course. But, it’s no big deal as you can do these courses in whatever order as often as you’d like. You own these courses.
I took them at the same time. I think I did it the “right” way. I didn’t do the Daily lessons until I had completed the 30 Day and the Fretboard courses. Some people also to the Dailies at the same time. It’s totally up to us. The important thing is that you do it the way you think is “right”.
MG 😀
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I totally agree, @Cadgirl . The TAC dailies have made me better at strumming also. I feel all us TAC members have been blessed in our guitar journey because we found this site and joined.
MG 😀
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Thank you so much, @Cadgirl . I do know what you mean about hitting the melody notes as you finger pick. Those notes are there in the strum, but they just don’t stand out and it can be most difficult to hear them.
I also know what you mean about the up, up, down, up, up strumming. I have been practicing learning new strum patterns. I still strum with my fingers and not a flat pick, but it does seem to help my over all sense of timing to work on my strumming.
Anyway, thank you so much for you encouragement. I appreciate your participation in the forums.
MG 😀
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Thanks Jack. When you read someone’s quandary about TAC being worth it because they can’t see the benefits they have received, you realize why it’s so important to actively look for these little successes and then post them under Small Wins. It also chnages our overall outlook for the better. I want to associate good feelings with playing guitar, not frustration.
(More song fodder. 😅)
MG 😀
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Thanks so much @stevieblues . There’s nothing wrong in giving up and going for a pick. When I try to use a pick, I give up and go for my finger picking, or finger strumming. There’s no right or wrong. There’s only what we want to do and how we want to do it. We make different choices and that’s why there’s so much cool and varied music. Guess what? I love flat picking. A lot of different styles. So I’m glad that some people are into it. But when I try flat picking, that’s just not what I want to do.
Anyway, thanks for your encouragement.
MG 😀
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Thank you so much @Cherie , I do appreciate your encouragement.
MG 😀
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Thank you @Bill_Brown for reading my post and commenting. I appreciate that you are a very regular contributor to the forum. Thanks for that also.
So, I just wanted to say 2 things as I read your comment.
1st) I learned that we need to break things down to a really simple level at the beginning. Tony has a finger style warm up where you just hit the base strings with your thumb and you don’t use your fingers at all. In fact, the one I’m thinking of you hit all 3 base strings in different order so you really get used to being able to hit the correct string with your thumb. I believe you can find it in the Fingerpicking Jumpstart course found in the Skills Courses. After that, you can start adding your fingers in very simple patterns. First, do pinches. You can pinch with one of your fingers or all 3 along with the thumb. But do thumb, pinch, thumb pinch; then try thumb, pinch, pinch, thumb. There are actually 4 variations of just alternating the pinch; 1.x,3,x; x,2,x,4; x,2,3,x;1,x,x,4. (The “x” can represent the pinch or the thumb, you’ll still arrive at the same 4 patterns.) Then, there is the staggered finger pluck (Tony calls it the staggered pinch since there doesn’t seem to be an “official” name.) There is another warm up that does that using 2 base strings. Thumb, index, thumb, middle, where the thumb is hitting 2 different strings. Of course, that’s not true alternating thumb as you only have half a measure if those are 1/8th notes. True alternating thumb, the thumb strikes a base string for every 1/4 beat and the thumb hits all 3 base strings. The order depends on which string the root note of the chord is on. 5,4,6,4 or 6,4,5,4 are the 2 most common ones. But that is usually not carved in stone, but just a place to start to train your thumb to be automatic.
2) Don’t confuse the “mark complete” button with your desire to continue working on a particular lesson. That’s where our “intentional” practice comes in. It really works to actually write down what you want to work on every day. Now a days, I just hit “mark complete” at the beginning of my practice session because I have forgotten to mark it complete so many times after I practice. If I sign in and open the page, it’s because I’m about to spend a few minutes, or more, on the lesson. So, why not just hit complete. Now, I can get down to work on the lesson. But, I should already have warmed up using that weeks warm up or the one I am currently focusing on to increase some particular skill. Before or after the current lesson, I can go to any previous lesson that I want to do again and again to really get it into my muscle memory.
I hope this helps.
MG 😀
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I use extra lights on all my guitars, @Kim-Fitz . I even use silk and steel extra lights on some of them. People talk about the sound like it’s not as good. Well, if that’s the case, then why would anyone ever play a nylon string guitar? The sound is softer, mellower, but it’s not a huge difference like nylon is. It’s still a steel string guitar with the typical “steel string” guitar sound. All that crap about string gauge. Go listen to all your favorite artists and come back and tell me what string gauge they’re using. Good luck.
The lighter the string gauge, the easier they are to play and the easier they are on your finger tips. If you started playing as a child, yeah, go play a Martin Dreadnought with 13 gauge strings like Molly Tuttle. But if you started as an adult, especially an older adult like I did, then forget all the advice about sound and just use extra lights. No one ever said to me in the VOMs: “Oh, you must use extra lights on all your guitars. Your sound is always so low and weak and just not like everyone else’s sound.” We’ve had discussions on the VOMs about string gauge. No one ever knows what gauge someone is playing until they tell us. If you were playing in a bluegrass band with a bunch of other instruments, then you’d know because you’d be drown out if you weren’t using 13 gauge and a dreadnought. I had a dreadnought with extra lights on it for a while. It was very difficult to balance my voice and my guitar because the thing was so loud. You always had to sing loud to compete with the guitar.
Anyway, I’ve gone on far too long. I hope this helps.
MG 😀
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Any time the term “open” tuning is used, it means that the 6 strings make a chord, @That_Guy . So “open E” means the string can only be the notes of the E chord, E, G#, B.
Hope this helps.
MG 😀
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Hello @drummer567
Yes, as @Bill_Brown says, the Fretboard Wizard course is open again to those who didn’t sign up for it when they first started.
The “Support” link is at the very bottom in the left hand bar. Once you buy it, it will appear permanently in that left hand bar in the bottom group under “30 Days to Play”.
If you miss this sign up it will be another 8 – 12 months before it comes around again.
MG 😀
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@Rando 😂
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Well, we can go back to any lesson we want if you “favorite” it. And you can look at the tab on your computer screen. But I know some people prefer to print them out. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more.
MG 😀