[Crabby]

Awesome, congratullations

[Crabby]

very nice

[Crabby]

Thanks Charlie, That’s fun to listen to.

[Crabby]

This depends on what level you are at and what style you are interested in .

Right now I am working on a simple version of freight train and refining Spike Driver Blues. Both finger picking songs.

If you are a beginner I would focus on songs with very simple strumming of basic open chords. While they may not sound like much, you are learning basic skills like strumming, timing, clean chord changes etc.

Bob Dylan’s knocking on heavens door would be one. I just learned that one myself.

[Crabby]

your guitar is upside down LOL

[Crabby]

Sometimes I find I struggle with the daily challenge but it sometimes gets a lot easier by the second tie I try it. good win.

[Crabby]

I am working on dust in the wind myself. It is not a super complex song but it is not a beginners song either. If you like finger picking give it a go but I would say don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t come quickly.

Don’t discount the value of learning some simpler songs too. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Crabby]

@NW7 yes when you take your finger off a string it will stop vibrating and go silent. This is normal. Not necessarily desirable but it is normal. As you get faster those silent notes will shorten and become un-noticeable.

As you advance there may be times when you deliberately lift your finger to mute the note and shorten the ringing. But that is down the road.

Right now I would say trust the process. Keep playing. Sometimes you will have mini breakthroughs that will excite you and motivate you. Sometimes some things will just gradually get better over time and one day you realize “Hmm that issue with pulling my finger off the strings doesn’t seem to be a problem any more”

[Crabby]

Congratulatons

[Crabby]

WORKAROUND

Some of this may have already been mentioned but here is what works for me.

You can Favorite a lesson, click the little hear icon just below the video. It is in light gray so it can be easy to miss. The lesson then continues to show up as a “Favorite” under the drop down menu next to your profile photo in the upper right.

This saves the video only. You have to save the tab separately. You can open the tab for a lesson by licking the little staff icon (also in light gray) next to the heart icon. Now to save the tab you need to download it to your computer. In firefox in the upper right there is a folder icon with an arrow on it. Other browsers will have a way to download it or open in in Adobe PDF reader.

SECRET BONUS TIP

For lessons that are already gone go to history menu (may have a different name or might be in setting for other browsers) and look for pages you opened last month. Open one the tax ones and you may find last months lessons there. If not try another page in the history file.

[Crabby]

A few random thoughts:

Another finger is touching the string behind where you are fretting it. You don’t notice until you pull off the fretting finger.

You may be moving your finger in a way that creates a “pull off”. A pull off is a deliberate attempt to play a new note on the string by basically picking it with your fretting finger. you may be doing this accidentally.

The above may cause the string to vibrate enough it buzzes against an adjacent finger.

Your fingernail could be striking the string as you pull it off.

Almost all of these things will naturally get better with time. Of course if you can identify the problem you can work on it specifically and speed up the learning process. At first I never felt a string buzzing against my finger. Now I can feel it and adjust.

[Crabby]

One specific idea is to go outside to play. You can enjoy the nice weather outside while playing – the old kill two birds with one stone trick.

From a totally different perspective, what else is going on if your life? Is this attitude leaking into other areas of your life? Maybe you are stressed/depressed/burnt out etc. s it time for a break, vacation, stress reduction techniques or maybe just some deep breathing?

We all cycle through periods of life of greater productivity, energy or excitement with lower energy periods. There is nothing wrong with taking the occasional break to recover. Actually that is a good thing.

To use exercise as an analogy. Exercise DOES NOT make you stronger. Exercise actually breaks down the body. It is RECOVERY FROM EXERCISE, that makes us stronger.

[Crabby]

Wow that is awesome. Have you recorded yourself recently to compare? It would be cool to se how much you have grown in the last year.

[Crabby]

Great recommendation by Bill. It is pretty simple but the strumming pattern will take a little effort. But it is lots of fun.

Even if you can’t sing along with it, which I can’t, it still sounds like “A Horse With No Name”.

Early on singing and playing at the same time can be tough. Now I can sing along with some songs but not with this one because the strumming pattern still takes a lot of focus.

Skills you will learn

How to do a strumming pattern that goes for two bars

How to mute strings

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Crabby.

[Crabby]

Generally a thinner pick is considered better for strumming, especially for newer players. Due to the flex you can hold the pick firmly but the pick can bend as it glides against the strings.

A thinker pick takes more skill to hold solidly and still glide against the strings. In time you will be able to use a thicker pick more effectively. I agree they sound better. I haven’t tried a wood pick but the idea sounds awesome.