[Skyman911]

This is a very good question, and I’m not sure I really have an answer. I understand what you’re saying, and I also wonder the same thing. I’ve tried to find songs that include some of the techniques as I just can’t throw them into any song I’m wanting to play. Fire Lake by Bob Seger is a fun easy one to do a nice basewalk on for example. Another thing I try is simple hammer on’s whether strumming or fingerpicking to add some embellishments to each chord. I’m looking forward to hearing what others have to say on this topic.

[Skyman911]

So glad to see you posting songs again. Great job.

[Skyman911]

Most will have different perspectives. For me, I think I have ADHD, and have a hard time working on something for a long time. I just get bored. I always have a new song I’m trying, and most I don’t get down before my boredom kicks in. I’ve forgotten more songs than I currently know I think. I usually have two or three new songs I’m trying at a time. This works for me, however I still get discouraged that I don’t have the patience to really get a song down perfectly. I’m all over the place it seems. But I’m fingerpicking, flatpicking, strumming and playing. None of them perfect per se.

[Skyman911]

Let me ask you this, does your guitar neck fit your hands? What guitar are you currently playing? My first guitar had a large chunky neck, and it was difficult to get my fingers to hit all the frets. I didn’t realize when I first started that there were so many different neck shapes and thicknesses, AND scale lengths. I went with a slimmer neck and shorter scale, and the guitar was soooo much easier to play.

[Skyman911]

“I just don’t know what to do I want to get better but it doesn’t seem
like I am getting better. My timing is off my cord changing it sucks.”

In my opinion, you won’t get much better until you change your mental messaging. You’re at the critical point where most people give up. The best single piece of advice any of my teachers gave me was, you need to be OK sucking and still have fun. Even Tommy Emmanuel espouses this. You’re new to this. Your timing will suck, your chord changes will be slow and cluncky and so on. Really try to be OK with this and accept it. Have fun with it, laugh at it when you screw up instead of beating yourself up. THIS single piece of advice will help more than anything. It will make you want to pick up your guitar and learn with vigor instead of not wanting to pick up your guitar because you may be off on your timing, or miss a chord change etc.

I know this sounds easy put in words, it is more difficult to put into practice, especially if you’re like me, and have the need to be perfect at everything. Most activities in life have come pretty natural and easy for me. Not this dang guitar. But I keep plugging away everyday, and having an absolute blast. And I totally suck.

[Skyman911]

This topic is dear to me, as I almost quit due to some of the same issues. I had a great teacher who helped me through. He basically said I was practicing too much and not playing enough. My mindset was, “well I need to practice in order to play, right?” Not so much. I wasn’t having fun. Since I’ve gone from practicing to playing, my guitar has improved greatly, and the best part is, I’m having fun. I don’t put my instrument down because of frustration anymore. The hard part about this though is being OK playing poorly and still having fun. Being OK with the thudded chord, the missed chord, the out of time chord allows you to start having fun, and not striving for the perfect chord. TAC is a great resource, however not the only learning method out there. Find some songs you really like and just start playing. Don’t get me wrong, I still practice. However I spend 90% of my time playing, and not practicing technique or chord changes to a metronome. Playing is practice. I mean, this is why we started with guitar because we wanted to play, not just sit there with endless practice leading to frustration. The key again is learning how to accept where you are, and being ok with sucking. I hope you can find the same joy I have found. It is life changing.

[Skyman911]

Another tip that most people don’t mention or realize is, leveraging the guitar body against your body to essentially push the neck outward toward your fretting hand. I can make a full barre with my index finger using only the leverage from the guitar body pressing against my finger, and not using the thumb in any way. Now, add the thumb, and the barre chord just became easier, and you lose some of the death grip.

[Skyman911]

For me, it’s Thursday and Friday. I usually spend the most time on those days. I also do scales everyday as a warmup for my fingers, so Wednesdays are sometimes skipped.

[Skyman911]

Are both wrists sore? Where in the wrists do you feel the pain? I can’t say I’ve ever had my wrists get sore from playing. I’m curious what may be going on.

[Skyman911]

Congrats! It’s been nice having you on board. you’re very helpful to many of the new members, and you bring a lot to this forum.

[Skyman911]

If you haven’t played the guitar for 20 years, it may be in need of a setup. Adjust the neck relief, string action etc.. I would recommend not doing this yourself if you don’t have experience in adjusting truss rods, sting action, saddle height and other setup adjustments.

[Skyman911]

@jorgemac, interesting you mentioned this. That’s kind of what my boredom does. It makes me try different things. Chord voicings, different strumming patterns, capo in different positions. I noodle a lot and try different Travis picking patterns with different chord progressions. I should probably start writing some of them down since I’ll work on some real cool sounding progressions, and the next day completely forget what I was playing. Similar to TAC, I’ll come back many times and play old songs I hadn’t played for a while and see how things have progressed. I think sometimes stuff just needs to “simmer” for a while in order to develop. I can kind of tell when a song still needs to simmer for a while, and when a song is ready for the heat to be turned up and rock. I always have numbers songs in the hopper. Last week for example I worked on some of the following songs.

New songs
Bad Luck – Zach Top
Broken Wing Bird – Kashus Culpepper

Old Songs
A Day in the Life – Beatles
Across the Great Divide – Nancy Griffith
That’s the way the world goes round – John Prine
Rocky Raccoon – Beatles
In Spite of Ourselves – John Prine

Seems like I’m always working on Dust in the Wind, Landsline

[Skyman911]

I used to say this too. So have many that have come before you. You CAN learn these chords. Like @petelanger mentioned, there are different ways to play the F chord. If you can form a C chord, you can do a modified F chord. Try the easy way first, and then keep working on the full F chord. And, I would highly encourage you to keep working on the full F chord. That chord shape is extremely versatile all up and down the neck. Move that same chord shape two frets, and you’re playing a G, two more, you’re playing an A and so forth. Be diligent. You can do this, but it takes time and baby steps. Once you start getting the feeling of barre chords, the other barre chord shapes come a bit easier. Such as the B major chord. That is a difficult shape to make for sure.

[Skyman911]

It fairly popular for people to use the strap attached to the neck as you have described, as long as the strap string is under the guitar strings and behind the nut between the tuners so it doesn’t interfere with the sound. Some guitars come with strap buttons, some do not. I’ve tried both ways, and for me, having the strap attached to the neck seemed to get in the way of my fretting hand and I also didn’t like the angle of the strap. I’ve installed strap buttons on my guitars like Pete had posted below. Do what’s comfortable for you.

[Skyman911]

Lol, sounds like you also have GAS. I think I’ve been through 15 guitars in the 5 years I’ve been playing. Currently down to 6. Just sold my Fender Strat and amp. I’ve determined I’m an acoustic guy. The electric was fun, but I just didn’t bond to it like the acoustic.

I wish we could all jam together sometime.