Having done my scales and spiders and all that stuff we are supposed to do, I still struggle getting (and coordinating in my brain & hands) to pluck the right string that my left fretting hand is trying to play.
As an example, while trying to play a song @ 80bpm: I might be fretting the B string on the 3rd fret, yet my right hand will pluck the G string…(stop that John!!)
I know one of my problems/causes with this fumbling is that at times, when trying to keep up with the beat, I will use whatever finger is available to fret the note and sometimes they (my fingers) trip over each other.
Anyone have a suggestion on plucking or fretting drills to help this. I already do spider drills and recently looked a little deeper into arpeggios drills, not necessarily to translate chords to single notes, but just as finger/fret exercises.
BTW, been doing Justin lessons for a year or more…in lesson 3 right now.
You should definitely solve this problem. Work out ahead of time which finger you are going to use to fret each note and stick to the plan. If you’re “trying to keep up with the beat”, then you probably need to slow down. Get it rock solid at a slower speed, where your fretting hand is doing the right thing every time. Now you can concentrate on picking accuracy.
Some people like to rest their pinky lightly (not “anchored”!) on the fretboard to orient their hand. Another option is to rest the heel of the palm near the bridge to give a point of reference. (These ideas have been discussed on this forum, you can search for them).
Btw, picking the right string at the right time is very difficult and takes a lot of practice. As in years. It’s very cool, though, when it starts coming together. Good luck!
Thx for the quick reply and wisdom. Indeed, i know that wayward finger wandering is a bad thing and am trying to fix it…it is sloppy fret-finger management.
As for keeping the beat, i think as most of us beginners, trying to not constantly look at the fretboard (which slows chord/note changes way down), that also contributes…gee, thought was the B string instead of G.
And when trying to “not-look” at the fretboard, then my strumming/picking hand will pluck the wrong strings. A vicious cycle.
Consistency is definitely part of the answer. If you are keeping changing your fretting fingers then you’ll never develop muscle memory. Sadly the answer is to slow it down until you are consistent and then gradually build up. Trying to play too quick too soon is likely to take more time than biting the bullet and starting slow.
It’s a similar story with your strumming hand… whatever reference point you use (as mentioned by @jjw ) keep with it… if you don’t then it’s going to remain erratic
I find drills boring. I look for songs that test the skills I want to develop. The way I play Everybody Hurts by REM for example is all picking strings in different sequences. There’s other songs I’ve learned that are similar. I also learn on Yousician which requires you to look at a screen to follow the notes, which you can’t do if you’re looking at the guitar. Different things work for different people so if you’re happy with drills then that’s ok too.
And just know it does take time. A lot of time. I’m much further along than six months ago, the good notes to bad notes ratio is much better but there’s still missed strings
I will check out REM. Being a 77 yr young guy, I gravitated to music in my time…70-80’s , so trying to play/learn today’s music (Swiftie & the messy red hair kid) don’t resonate with me.
Plus a lot of music is like 250 bpm…yikes
Speaking of Yousician, which I use too, they sometimes switch the fretting finger from #2 finger to #1…very confusing, but I do try to focus on the bouncing notes and not my finger placement. As a retired guy…I do have time, just frustrating like all of us “learners” have to slug though.
Making use of what you already know, and to make it musical, use the major scale, fretboard framework etc, for string skipping/ hopping driils.
Eg, some good ones are;
Play the major scale in 3rds and 5ths ( a great exercise that’ll provide numerous benefits). Justin has a lesson on this.
Pick out all root notes ( eg. all the Cs) on the fretboard, and play them from top to bottom, left to right etc. Again, numerous benefits, one being picking/ fretting accuracy.
Using the pentatonic scale, you could play every second note, play 3-in-a- line. etc…
Learn a few simple fingerstyle songs that’ll force you to pick single notes, jump strings etc…
All these exercise are going to make you jump around alot, including over multipke strings; accuracy will improve.
I constantly read about not looking at your fretting hand. Then I see video after video of amazing guitarists, blues, jazz, rock, country, classical, looking at their fretting hand. In fact, often concentrating on their fretting hand.
I see this too. The thing is sometimes it does it for good reason, perhaps to get your hands into a better position for an upcoming change and other times it’s for no apparent reason, maybe a transcription mistake. In the second case I play what feels right to me but importantly I do the same every play through
You’re describing a fundamental technique that you need to correct - knowing which finger to place down and being able to pick the correct string. When you have a technical problem, when you are unable to perform the mechanics of a task, you do not want to be using a metronome at any speed. You need to be able to physically follow the technique first. So set aside the bpm counter and just train your two hands to coordinate.
Also, imho, it sounds like Yousician is a hindrance not a help, like it is not learning to play guitar, it is a game.
I just looked back at your topics and a similar theme is clear - you still seem to be lacking focus, not on the structured learning path (the JustinGuitar course) and are still dipping into too many youtube tutorials that are taking you off in different, random directions that are not supportive of, or complementary to, your core learning needs at this time.
Yes, I’ve noticed this, too. Here’s my take on that seeming contradiction:
For most beginner-ish stuff, where the fretting hand is basically confined to the 1st 3 frets, then playing without looking is preferred and doable. Justin gives lots of reasons in the video on this topic (https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/playing-without-looking-bg-1402). I would say that accomplished guitarists never look at their hands while strumming and singing. That is a worthy goal for somebody learning guitar.
Once you start moving up the neck, it’s much more common to look, even for advanced players. It can be hard to move a barre chord up 5 or 7 frets without looking. Or playing a complicated solo high on the neck with slides and so forth. In those cases, people necessarily look. There are probably also great guitarists who look, simply because they never learned not to look. I bet they are mostly instrumentalists, though, because singing and looking at the guitar instead of the audience is not a good look, as Justin says.
As with everything, there aren’t absolutes. There are many good reasons to play without looking and that should be the goal, but there are also many instances where looking is necessary.
NO ! it is not a game !
its the same as having tabs sheet to play , the only difference is that the tab is scrolling on its own
Guitar pro uses the same technic
and the songs are open chords and beginner friendly at the beginning … thats all
maybe its just a little bit more colorfull to be attractive
it helps a lot to practice guitar but if you do not understand the technic first , of course you ll play badly
It d be the same with or without YS
YS permits to lower the bpm to learn the patterns / songs slowly
if 80 bpm is too fast then lower it at 60 or 50
The problem here is not YS
Ryan is a proof that YS is not an hindrance in the learning process at all
Thanks @jjw for that post. I had been wondering exactly the same thing. By watching professional guitar players I was wondering why they are looking at the fretboard when Justin tells us we should be learning to play without looking. Your explanation makes it much clearer and makes a lot of sense.
I’ve been practicing a lot with the basic chords so that I don’t have to look and I’m slowly improving, but it makes sense if you then have to start a solo, say on the 7th or 8th fret, that you then need to look to those frets to see where your fingers need to go.
Agreed. Seems like all the teachers are making a point of “do not look at the fretboard”…or your fingers/eyes will go dark. Of course, I can fully understand why to “not look” as that is one of the keys to playing faster and better chord progressions and playing in general.
I have a bit of a stupid question, maybe, but, you know, gonna ask anyway: I assume you’re talking about riffs or fingerstyle here, yes? Are you using tabs with the numbers in it? Because I sometimes have a similar confusion.
I know it’s the g string held in the second fret, but my brain sees the 2 and interprets it as second finger, and so my plucking hand uses second finger, which is, of course, on the b string. This especially happens when I try to play something in time, and haven’t fully memorised it yet.
@sevi You are right - although the bit about which finger to use is specific to Yousician which uses standard guitar tab but then additionally colour codes it as an indication of which finger to use for a given note - and occasionally it’s not the finger you’d expect and can be hard to work out if it was for a reason or if it’s a transcribing error. Regular guitar tab leaves it entirely up to work out which finger is the best to use for each note
I’m about 6 years into the guitar thing, and I must admit I still look at the guitar a bit When I play the first note in a phrase I sneak a peek to make sure I’m fretting and plucking the right string. However, after that, if the phrase/scale/interval/arpeggio is familiar, I don’t need to look at all, but that has only come from a lot of repetition.
I guess it might be interesting to take your favourite guitar players and watch to see how much they look at the instrument.
Yeah, this is not yousician, this is just regular tabs from the internets (Scarborough Fair arranged by six string fingerpicking). I do not use apps for learning guitar, it’s too much hassle for me.
What I meant is that my brain sees the number 2, and since there are a lot of things that are 2nd in guitar speak in general (2nd string, 2nd finger left hand, 2nd finger right hand, 2nd fret), sometimes it gets confused in the heat of the moment, and instead of interpreting it as “commando to left hand: 2nd fret”, it says “commando to right hand: 2nd finger” which is usually located on the b string. Or it does both at the same time. That’s why I sometimes pluck the wrong string while looking at the tab playing through a song, even if I know immediately it’s not right. And after reading the initial post, I thought it might be something similar for the original poster.
When I play the first note in a phrase I sneak a peek to make sure I’m fretting and plucking the right string. However, after that, if the phrase/scale/interval/arpeggio is familiar, I don’t need to look at all, but that has only come from a lot of repetition.