[Skyman911]

Congrats! Now go get that guitar. You deserve it.

[Skyman911]

Progress over perfection. Don’t spend too much time on each lesson. You can jump into the daily challenges as soon as you want. If you think they’re too much, you can go back to the 30 days to play. But I would just jump right in. You’ll feel overwhelmed, but that’s OK. Just do what you can do. You’ll honestly be surprised with your progress when the challenge comes around again.

[Skyman911]

One of my teachers lived about 40 minutes away. On days I didn’t want to make the drive, we did online lessons. We could play together without much interruption, and would use Zoom. There were a number of settings we both had to get dialed, or it would cut one person off. It’s been over a year since we did lessons, and I can’t remember all the particular settings. Seems like “original sound for musicians”, and a couple of settings in my “settings” tool on my laptop. Zoom does work if you can figure out the correct settings.

[Skyman911]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Are you using standard teardrop picks? I don’t think I could fit both my index and middle on a teardrop. Maybe a larger triangle pick. Glad to hear this is working for you. For the first 4 years I was learning, I didn’t use a pick. Mostly due to my inability to use one properly. I’ve been working hard this past year to use a pick, and do so everyday. Best thing I did was stepping up to a thicker pick, and trying to have the least amount of the tip exposed. Usually around an 1/8 inch or so.

[Skyman911]

I think one needs to be careful trying to stretch the pinky, or any fingers. It isn’t hard to injure the fingers more when trying to manipulate the stretch. Stretching the fingers takes time, and forcing it will lead to injury. I know it’s hard, but just keep trying to persevere. Others here use Chinese balls, putty and other gentle exercises can help with loosening up the fingers, thus giving you a more relaxed stretch. I used to just try and hold the index finger on the first fret, and the pinky on the forth and hold the position until I start to fatigue. If that is too much of a stretch, move down the fretboard and have your pinky on the 12th fret, and the index on the 9th fret. The distance will be shorter, and you can eventually start to move down the fretboard. Also, a shorter scale guitar will help. Most of my guitars are 24.9″ scales opposed to the standard 25.5″ scale. The difference in fretting is significant.

[Skyman911]

I always play with a strap for this very reason. Well, sometimes I like to try and stand while playing too. Crazy how much more difficult it is.

[Skyman911]

Thanks Pete. Also thanks for being so active and helpful. You’re great at supporting others and sharing your insights.

[Skyman911]

As far as anchoring, both of my teachers had me basically anchor my palm on the bridge. This keeps your hand in a stationary position, so it’s easier to know where each string is every time. I tried to learn the pinky anchoring method, and it just didn’t work for me. I see a lot of folks using that method. One advantage I find with the palm on the bridge is, if I’m only playing say the low E, A, D strings, I can use my palm to mute the G, B, and E strings so they don’t ring out while picking. I’m sure you know this, but if you pluck one string, the other 5 will also ring out due to vibration. This can make the strings you are actually playing be less clear since the other strings are also ringing out. By muting those, you get much clearer tone. I’m struggling with muting the low E, A, D while playing the high G, B, E strings. Not as proficient there.

[Skyman911]

You can do this. I suspect you started dabbling in guitar because you like it, and wanted to learn. So yes, guitar is for you. You sound very motivated, so I know you have what it takes to put the time in. Please don’t give up. Guitar can bring so much joy to ones life, and I think you want that in your life, but some frustration is getting in the way. Everything you mentioned can be resolved, and I think you did the right thing by reaching out to the community. There are some very insightful folks on here, and everyone is so willing to help.

I would say, put less pressure on yourself. Slow down. You don’t really miss anything with this course as most lessons come back around. I feel like I’m a bunch of half baked technique sometimes, and I’m OK with that. As long as I make a little progress along the way. Keep pushing, it WILL get better.

[Skyman911]

So, a couple of things here. There are challenges to online learning. A good teacher can physically show you hand and finger placements. A bit more difficult learning online. That said, some issues may be your guitar, and how your hand fits the neck. All instruments are different, and have different sized necks, scales, bodies etc.. Another suggestion is trying to lower your elbow, creating more of an angle so you can create more of an arch. A bit difficult to explain. Also, as I’ve progressed, I have gotten more “arch” when forming chord shapes, and don’t mute as much as I used to. This also helped with the fleshy part of the palm that can mute the high E string sometimes. Others will chime in with words of wisdom.

[Skyman911]

I’ll add my 2 cents based on my personal experience. My frustration came from not being where I wanted to be based on the amount of time and practice I was putting in. Seemed like the more I practiced, the more frustrated I got. It was my last teacher who lifted the veil. From the very first lesson he could see I was frustrated, and not having any fun. He asked me why I wanted to play in the first place, and said you’re not having fun while playing, and you’ll probably end up giving up at some point. He said I’m striving for perfection, and I don’t have the skills yet, and this is where most of my frustration was coming from. He basically said “you need to be OK with sucking.” It’s OK to miss a chord, it’s OK to mute a string, it’s OK to be out of rhythm. Your a BEGINNER. He encouraged me to stop doing all my drills, and spend most of my time actually playing songs. No matter how bad I play them. Just have fun. This is really the reason we wanted to play right? To have fun? Well, my progress skyrocketed after that. Frustration only comes into play now when I can’t play. Never while playing anymore. Put the fun back into playing. You will improve.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by  Skyman911.

[Skyman911]

Thanks for sharing. I’ve also been contemplating this. Not even sure how to find a teacher.

[Skyman911]

My last teacher tried to get me to play in the classical position. I just couldn’t get comfortable with it. He was classically trained however.

[Skyman911]

I was one of those beginners. Big guitar, high action, thick neck. Finding a guitar you like, that fits your body, hands etc., with a proper setup, is literally night and day. Guitar is hard enough, don’t make it harder. The things we learn along the way when flying solo. I would have saved a lot of money and frustration knowing this up front.

[Skyman911]

Another trick that really helped me was the “hover” exercise. Basically, form and hold down a chord, and then lift the fingers off the strings slightly without losing the chord shape. Stay in this position as long as you can until the shape starts to distort more than you can keep the shape. This helps tremendously with muscle memory, and eventually you will make the shape before you even hit the strings. This is something I could do while watching TV in the evenings and still be practicing. This was the exercise that helped me the most.