Beginners Guitar Problems
Discussion
Razor O Rourke said:
How long did it take you experienced guys to finger the fret strings without catching an adjacent string? Finger three seems to be the problem.
I reluctantly gave up guitar when I read that it takes 10,000 hours of practice just to master any musical instrument. Best of luck to you though. All I learnt was 'Smoke on the Water'.
Steady, slow, precise repetition is the only way.
I have been playing for 35 years and I still rotate into my practice a number of exercises purely focussing on accuracy.
I have recently been learning a couple of songs that require suspended chords using inversions that are not the most common. I have found my fingers going to the closest approximation rather than the specific notes I need and the only way to overcome this has been to slow everything down and repeat the changes many times with a metronome to ensure timing is as accurate as placement. I will often go as slow as 60-80 bpm and change chord on every tick for a minute or so to make sure that the changes are locked in to finger memory.
I have been playing for 35 years and I still rotate into my practice a number of exercises purely focussing on accuracy.
I have recently been learning a couple of songs that require suspended chords using inversions that are not the most common. I have found my fingers going to the closest approximation rather than the specific notes I need and the only way to overcome this has been to slow everything down and repeat the changes many times with a metronome to ensure timing is as accurate as placement. I will often go as slow as 60-80 bpm and change chord on every tick for a minute or so to make sure that the changes are locked in to finger memory.
red997 said:
I found that 9 years of classical guitar lessons helped me !
teaches you how to fret cleanly.
though now my technique is pretty sloppy - I just play for fun
+1. The wide and fat necks with the string spacing help a lot when initially learning. My left hand has a great stretch and it's all down to that classical neck (and practice, duh)teaches you how to fret cleanly.
though now my technique is pretty sloppy - I just play for fun
Thanks all, looks like just more practice required. I do need lessons and I have a customer who does just that, I'll be seeing him next week so I'll book something. At the moment it's just a case of books and Youtube.
Two guitars at the moment, one electric (Which is slightly easier) and an acoustic.
Two guitars at the moment, one electric (Which is slightly easier) and an acoustic.
practise, practise, practise.
find something you want to play
get motivated
have someone watch you - they will spot things you don't
steel strung acoustic is actually harder than electric to play cleanly (string tension much higher)
don't give up.
Lessons are great; I had classical guitar lessons from 9 to 17; brilliant teacher. gave me a great foundation - and meant i learnt to sight read music.
find something you want to play
get motivated
have someone watch you - they will spot things you don't
steel strung acoustic is actually harder than electric to play cleanly (string tension much higher)
don't give up.
Lessons are great; I had classical guitar lessons from 9 to 17; brilliant teacher. gave me a great foundation - and meant i learnt to sight read music.
I've just made a major improvement with one simple alteration. Watching the country music station on one of the Freesat channels last night I noticed how people were holding their guitars, and found I had mine too far to the left of my body causing me to stretch my fingers at an awkward angle as I was having to reach to the neck. Six or so inch adjustment and viola! Fretting the strings became so much easier.
Which is something a teacher would have spotted straight away, got to book those lessons next week.
Which is something a teacher would have spotted straight away, got to book those lessons next week.
Pleased i came upon this thread.
I bought a Classical Acoustic after trying a "normal" 6 string and finding my hammer hit fingers struggling to fret one string without muffling another.
I was getting acceptably mediocre and recently bought a Fender Acoustic steel string (left handed as I'm a lefty).
Just cannot get to grips with it at all. Struggling to hit a chord, rarely clearly and of course the steel strings are a lot harder on the finger ends.
I know perseverance is the answer but I am tempted to return to the Classical guitar.
On another problem, is there any tips on fretting "F", I cannot manage the bar across the first fret, it just sounds duff.
Cheers
I bought a Classical Acoustic after trying a "normal" 6 string and finding my hammer hit fingers struggling to fret one string without muffling another.
I was getting acceptably mediocre and recently bought a Fender Acoustic steel string (left handed as I'm a lefty).
Just cannot get to grips with it at all. Struggling to hit a chord, rarely clearly and of course the steel strings are a lot harder on the finger ends.
I know perseverance is the answer but I am tempted to return to the Classical guitar.
On another problem, is there any tips on fretting "F", I cannot manage the bar across the first fret, it just sounds duff.
Cheers
Skyedriver said:
On another problem, is there any tips on fretting "F", I cannot manage the bar across the first fret, it just sounds duff.
Cheers
Keep doing it, it'll sink in in the end. Note that everyone here is saying the secret short cut is practice - because it is. If you'd like a practical tip on F major, form an ordinary E major but with the middle, ring & little fingers until you're comfortable doing it, then slide the whole shebang up one fret. Job jobbed.Cheers
F major is a difficult chord that all beginners have to master, I saw it as a milestone, but like learning to drive, once you can do it, you wonder how you couldn't before. Then you have to learn how to do it using just the thumb on the bass & fretting the B & E strings with your index finger.
FredClogs said:
Try whisky or weed if it's your thing, it will help. If you've got bigger than average fingers then a bigger than average fret board will help.
I can attest to this. I don't smoke anymore, kiddo in the house, but many of my former years were spent smoking weed and playing guitar. It helped me to ignore all the other s
t that was going on in my head and just focus solely on guitar and I feel it really did improve my playing. I was able to play 4-5 hours in the evening with full concentration. I got really into types of music I never would have previously considered before too. Whiskey not so much. It's fun for the first 45 minutes to an hour, playing motley crue and twisted sister riffs pretending you're a rockstar but then things become sloppy. Another downside is that if you get too drunk, you can't remember what you learned the night before anyway. I've tried playing on a few other drugs as well. Speed is fun, you just keep downpicking faster and faster until your left hand can't keep up with your right hand. Ecstasy is weird. Your hand is strumming up and down really fast and there's music but you're wondering where it is coming from. Coke, you play half a song then start playing another song, get half way through and start playing another song. The extra sweat on your hands make the strings rusty faster. Mushrooms, you play for 30 minutes then spend the rest of the night trying to pick pictures of horses off the front of your guitar. HTH
I can't remember specifically how I got to grips (literally) with F barre, but good advice is to bar your index finger across fret 1 without using any other fingers. Keep at it until you can strum all the strings cleanly, then add fingers e.g. once you can cleanly play all the strings when barring across fret 1, add your ring finger to fret 3 on the A string and you've got Fminor7. From there, if you add your middle finger to the second fret of the G string you'll end up with F (dominant) 7. Add your pinky to the third fret of the D string, and there's your Fmaj.
It's worth persevering with, as the above example can then be applied to Gm7 / G7 / Gmaj at fret 3 or Am7 / A7 / Amaj at fret 5 when your "root" note is on the low E. After that, the world is your oyster...........
It's worth persevering with, as the above example can then be applied to Gm7 / G7 / Gmaj at fret 3 or Am7 / A7 / Amaj at fret 5 when your "root" note is on the low E. After that, the world is your oyster...........
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