Oh! It’s a pick(le) jar. 
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True 
I had them in some plastic container but it just didnt feel the same.
You are giving me ideas though, what if I add just one tiny cornichon, will the picks then become less slippery? 
Please tell me you are not storing your picks in an old surströmming can, Rudi @Moloko126?! 
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Hi Nicole,
It’s probably unnecessary for me to say it, but don’t forget to record a video every now and then (at least for yourself) so that after about 2 or 3 months you can see clear progress that you might not otherwise notice, which would be a shame. …You’re doing well 
Have fun 
Greetings
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Noooo… I don’t need a reminder. Still don’t like doing it though as I just don’t like videos (or pictures) of me at all
Let’s see, I might record something on the weekend, maybe in the style @metramaks did in his LL plus some music…
But yes, of course recording is useful. I recorded a bit before my in person lessons two weeks ago (long since deleted :sweat_smile), listened back to it and went to the lesson with a good feeling…
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Does anyone?
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No. I don’t think so… But the snapshot of your open mic at least looked really good to me
Now how do I persuade my parents in law to lend me their cat for the video? 
Bucket head? 
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I could copy the look, not so much the guitar playing!
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Yep, that’d be quite challenging, to say the least.
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This sums it up nicely Nicole. All these items are the right things to recognise and something to celebrate.
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As I have said before, I use Herco Flex 75 pics. They have a notched pattern moulded in and are not slippery:
PS: pics have a great knack of blocking a vacuum cleaner.
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I have a range of nylons picks with such “pimple”. Not this specific one though, since the website from where I ordered had a funny bug thatwould make delivery costs explode, when I tried to order certain picks…
That’s a good reason to stop vacuuming entirely 
Seriously though, these things are everywhere (where they shouldn’t be) and I fear the day when our washing machine will stop working, because of pick intrusion…
Very slowly my quest for a lighter touch continues. There surely won’t be any videos worth uploading here this weekend though
It’s fascinating, when using the chord progressions listed here and playing them in the keys of C and G (https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/common-chord-progressions-mt-422), I noticed that such lighter touch is beneficial even for barre chords. Weirdly, in my lesson with Jari on Monday I had contested just that (" It won’t work with barre chords though, will it?")
While I’m far away from being able to use E-shaped barre chords in the context of any real song, things are slowly getting better. F# minor hadn’t been a one off. I get all strings to ring out rather reliably on my Godin. Furthermore I am able to shift these barre chord shapes around the neck relatively okay.
Yesterday, I had seen @Alexeyd mentioning in another thread that playing without the thumb touching the neck is a great exercise for the fretting hand. I became curious and tried. Strangely, it works. Even fretting E-shaped barre chords and shifting them. It works slowly though and it does require a lot of conscious effort. Fascinating.
Sooo… it seems, this weekend I made the first small steps to fight more bad habits
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It feels as if an eternity has passed since the last update. Hard to believe that it’s actually only 16 days.
Quite a lot has happened in the last weeks. Of course I had promptly lost the paper with chord progressions, Jari had given me. That let me to do more research on the most common keys and chord progressions in major and minor keys. I played a few of them, ended up wondering how I could make them sound more interesting and found my perhaps favorite video so far https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/how-to-play-easy-chord-shapes-up-the-neck-bg-1602. I literally sat there for hours, guitar in hand, listening, testing and writing down chords.
What else? I joined a group of “beginner songwriters” here in the community and our collab is starting to take off. I’m really happy that I got the chance to contribute a bit to the work of and to learn a lot from community members who are more advanced than I.
My in person lessons have been a bit of a mixed bag. Last week, I made some sort of fool of myself when I took the first draft of the chorus of an own song to the lesson. Lesson learned: Don’t write something that you are not able to play yourself
Today I took my hollow body Gretsch to the lesson. The guitar has swallowed its output jack and electronicwise always has been some kind of Monday production. However, had I had any doubts whether it’s worth getting the guitar repaired, these doubts disappeared when I heard Jari play the guitar unplugged. It might be an entry model, it might have a neck that feels plasticky, but it’s easy to play. And the tone it has is beautiful. So warm. Of course it won’t sound as nice when I play it. Still definitely worth repairing.
Today also marks the first day that I have been able to play percussive hits. Turns out that I hadn’t been able to play them, because my strumming hand was positioned in the wrong place. Sometimes solutions can be so easy.
Music theory continues to be fascinating wonderland. Together with Jari, we established that learning triads is a very feasible way to memorize notes on the guitar more easily. Playing scales and beginning or ending with the associated root note chord (e.g. G for the G major scale) will also be useful for ear training.
I might “officially” be in Grade 2 for years and months still and it does not matter a bit. All that matters is that I’m having fun and that I decided daring to learn in my own way.
In summary: I really, really love this guitar thing.
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It’s an easy fix, get some wire wool (or a worn out Brillo pad) and give the back of the neck a gentle scrub until it feels nice; but feel it several times until it feels right. It’s something that I always do with my guitars.
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And your experience says this procedure will not cause slight damage? 
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Simple don’t ditch the Gretsch!! Love my Streamliner. Maybe entry level but it has a Bigsby vibrato doofer but it is easy to play and has a sweet tone. Interestingly the finish is “gloss” like my Washburn HB30 but my Washburn HB32 matt Dark Mahogany feels like its dressed in silk compared to all in my stable and that’s saying something !! Only the 2 Hardly Davidson Benton Basses cost less (lecky’s only) !!
Never crossed my mind to actually “dump” the Gretsch. It’s a nice practice guitar unamplified as well. I was just in two minds whether it’s worth getting it repaired or not, because getting the electric parts fixed might easily become quite expensive, I fear…
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Not really, it just takes the gloss and gummy feel away, you have to remember that the most important thing about any guitar is Playability, if there’s anything that you find isn’t perfect for you then anything that isn’t going to cause obvious damage and make it better to play it’s worth doing. What you have to remember is that it’s a tool to use for learning to play not an ornament.
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