Sounds like you’re making good progress Oliver, once you start to mix strumming patterns with chord changes you will notice a bit of an impact on the clean changes but it passes quickly, your hands know what they’re doing, it’s just your head dealing with a pattern and changes!
I found Dm to be my first “struggle” chord, particularly getting good changes to it, so you’re definitely not alone there. As you’ve recognised, introducing little finger to the party is interesting!
Oliver, you’re giving me flashbacks to a few months ago when I started, with you talking about Common People and For What It’s Worth . I remember playing through Common People and my fingers absolutely aching by the end. Amazing how the pain stops happening once those calluses build.
Hi Oliver, trying songs will give you hints of what you could be needing to work on a little more, but also will give you the reward of hearing what you have advanced.
It’s cold and wet here in Lower Hutt, NZ today. I’m still working away at the minor chords, Am, Em and especially Dm which I find a real challenge to change to. I’m having to look at each finger placement for that one.
However! If I only play one chord per bar I can play through and mostly sing through ‘Ain’t no sunshine’ which I really love singing. I’ll keep working on that song, I’ve had a look at Justin’s video lesson on it too which expands the strumming advice a bit. I’d like to play it with a few more strums etc so I’ll work on that. And that’ll likely be the first thing I upload for kind and gentle criticism, once I can mostly get the Em → Dm change.
I had a go at recording myself with my iPhone today which sort of worked, and I think is good enough quality that you can see my current ability. Which was so bad that I deleted it but I’ll have another go some time soon.
I was also tempted to shoot out to the shops and buy an audio interface, microphone etc as I’m a ridiculous tech collector and the Scarlett 2i2 is on a slight special at the Rockshop till the end of the day, but I restrained myself and might save that purchase up until I have something slightly better to record.
Sounds like you are making progress, Oliver. Keep it up, slow and steady, you’ll master those chords. And I look forward to the moment when you share your playing.
I’m still working away at things, still making progress. I’ve watched the lessons right through Grade 1 and am happy that I have all the 8 chords, still working on making all the changes quick enough and working on some songs. So I’ll stick to getting a set of songs playable for a while now.
Dropped in to the music shop this afternoon to see what playing an electric is like. One followed me home so that’ll be a new thing to experiment with!
It’s an Aria Pro II 714, feels really nice. I also bought a Blackstar ID Core 20 amp.
I’ll have to go back for a decent cable though, there was one in the box with the guitar that I thought would do for a while but I get tremendous hum if I turn the gain up or use high gain voices, even with just the cable connected. I assume it’s crap and it’s not shielded properly.
Guitar looks smoking, really pops on that deep purple wall, Oliver.
It may be your guitar cable, but may also be your amp power cable.
I have a Blackstar amp and mine came with a power cord that had a 2 pin plug on the end of it. I had plenty hum that pretty much disappeared when I replaced that power cord with an old PC kettle cord with a proper three pin plug. The amp power socket is wired up for earthing and I think the two pin and not connecting to house earth circuit was a problem.
Thanks for the tip. This amp runs from a 10v laptop-style power adapter and can also run from a battery pack. I assume the amp is floating like most digital products but it might be meant to be earthed. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, that or the house is faulty.
Thanks Oliver. So I suppose the obvious question, sure you’ve tried this, is whether or not you get the hum when amp is running on battery?
My wife got a budget bass and as I recall the cable that came with it was cheap and nasty, hummed like crazy. So a good option to get a better quality cable.
I don’t have the battery, that’s an optional extra for buskers etc.
I played a similar bigger Blackstar amp with the same modeling setup in the shop and was pretty impressed. I doubt I’ll be straying far from a clean tone for a while but there’s heaps of scope for different tone and effects.
So a new cable helped a lot, still some hum at high gain but not as much and it stops when I touch the strings or any other metal part of the guitar. Something earth related still going on.
Electric is so forgiving compared to acoustic! In terms of fingers near the frets, fret pressure etc. it’s a lot easier. Perhaps forgiving of bad habits?
Also popping on the crunch voice in the amp and practicing a strumming pattern, with some chord changes which I’m trying to speed up is both practice and fun. Still love the dreadnought to try to accompany my singing but this electric business is fun.
Glad to hear things are improved with a new cable.
I consider the electric to almost be another instrument. You can treat it just like an acoustic, which I think for practice is the way to go. Play it on a super clean setting, limit the fx dialed in, perhaps just a hint of reverb, not too much volume. Then I think you will learn good clean technique.
But then dialing up the gain, playing with fx, particularly once you reach the point of learning power chords … it sure does unleash the rock god beast within And nothing wrong with that, provided one keeps it in balance with the rest of the learning and practice.
I haven’t posted for ages but am still making progress! The second half of the year was fairly challenging personally, I’ve had a few health issues so haven’t been pushing myself but I’ve kept up fairly regularly playing guitar. I’m mostly playing the acoustic still, and did a home setup on that, new strings, sanded the bridge down to bring the action a little etc.
I’m at Lesson 10 in the course and have memorised a few songs - favourites to play at the moment are ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ and a finger style version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’. I haven’t recorded much but should really get back to that.
Hi, I think I may well be back on track with health - I’m home right now recovering well from a surgery that I hope will be the end of my hospital attendance for some years.
I’m having a great time sitting in my new home office playing with new toys, the major one of which is a Scarlett 2i2 kit with microphone etc that I bought so I can record myself. Having heaps of fun plugging the electric guitar in and playing rhythm over drum tracks in GarageBand. It’s a really fun way to practice chord changes: I’ve been playing a 4/4 drum loop and changing F to C on the bar, first strumming just the first note then putting more strums and rhythm in till I’m actually playing a decent rhythm with cleanish changes now and then.
I’ve also been doing some repeating G/C/D riffs with some push strumming, changing the rhythm up over a drum track and adding bass tracks using my guitar and a GarageBand octaving pedal. It sounds ropey on playback but is heaps of fun.
. I remember playing through Common People and my fingers absolutely aching by the end. Amazing how the pain stops happening once those calluses build.
And nothing wrong with that, provided one keeps it in balance with the rest of the learning and practice.