I’ve been dawdling around, hesitant to publish myself to get through Grade 1 and move on.
Well, press on!, I say to myself. That means I need to record myself.
So I plugged my acoustic guitar pickup in, and recorded it. Why not wear a headphone too?, I thought, in many of the videos I see of folks playing they’re wearing headphones–it must be for a good reason, probably so they can hear a backing track
OMG What are those buzzing sounds?
No, my recording levels aren’t too high,
and those buzzes come and go so quickly, so loudly, so softly
Buzzing = strings slapping against something.
What are those strings slapping against then?
So far I’ve isolated the buzzing to
Partially lifting my finger to get ready for the next chord before I shoulda-oughta be doing that lifting.
Not pressing hard enough on the string (usually from the finger being too far above the fret as I hurried into the chord)
My palm wrapping around so it grazes the high E
My strumming finger grazing another string as I attempt to strum one string while missing the string above it (when playing w/out a pick)
While pausing a beat, my strumming hand not completely away from the strings (and therefore not going up and down…)
Capo not put on properly
I feel certain others are lurking and unidentified—but they won’t be unheard of
Fretting finger grazing adjacent string ( thanks for the reminder @Jamolay )
I ruined my self deception!
'til now I was thinking I was playing OK.
Now. Now some scales have fallen from my ears and I hear buzzing even without wearing headphones. Ignorance is deception, knowledge is power
Time to unlearn those bad habits I’ve practiced so hard to instill
No man can say for sure. I can only suggest that you lower your expectations a little and enjoy the splendor of level one guitardom. You are not going to escape the realities of string noise, fret buzz, lawn mowers in the background, etc – nor am I. There is life and depth in those imperfections. Your playing is not going to be as flawless as a (meticulously engineered) recording of your favorite artist(s). Embrace the suck. Learn and keep moving. Play on playa!
Hey @mundeli, like Clint said above, relax and enjoy the learning process. I’ve been at it going on three years, and when playing I still ask myself “WHAT IS THAT STUPID BUZZING SOUND!!!” You’ll never get to flawless, but you will improve by paying close attention to small details and making micro-adjustments over many month of practice. For me, making sure my fingers land as close to the fret as possible makes a big difference. Doing that (or anything on guitar) consistently is just a question of repetition, repetition, repetition to develop two-handed coordination your brain has never tried and muscle memory you were not born with.
I resemble all of these buzzing sounds. Over the 4 years I have been playing they are improving quite a bit. But they do jump out every so often still. Except maybe the capo one. I did get that one sorted.
The most common for me now come from ones you left out, a fretting finger just barely leaning on or touching a neighboring string and fretting the chord way too far back from the fret (which is similar to not pressing hard enough.
I run into that last one due to sloppiness and switching from my short scale steel string to my much longer scale classical.
The first step to solving such issues is being aware of them and you are aware early so that is good. As @CT says keep on playing. It is part of the game and improves slowly as we improve.
@mfeeney0110, @Jamolay@CT
Hello all. Yes sage advice: be aware, and be kind to yourself–it is the journey.
Playing guitar is not data to be picked apart, my proclivity/specialty.
Thank you for the reminders…
Recording is a fantastic way to track progress! Don’t throw away a recording if you’re not satisfied with it. Store it somewhere on your computer/phone/cloud, dated. Then a while later, do it again and compare, see where you improved. It’s a great motivator, at least for me - I have a whole folder of recordings accumulated since I started module 1, over two years ago.
Sometimes when I’m learning something new I do a few recordings in sequence, spaced a week or two apart, as a way to track progress.
Also, tangentially related: just yesterday I was watching a GORGEOUS rendition of Sweet Child O’ Mine with Slash playing acoustic, and it is super lovely. And still, even Slash gets the occasional muted note on some of the faster solo parts (don’t know if there was any buzzing though, that I did not notice). If Slash is allowed some mistakes, we mere mortals can get a lot of slack when practicing
I mean, it is a good practice to record yourself, listen and improve your playing, but acoustic guitar pickups in general are just not great and have a way of amplifying the worst part of your playing. Yes, it is the way you are playing, I had the same issues the first time I played live and then I listened to the recording and I thought 'What the Heck, I thought I was doing well!!". But also the pickup quality and sound settings can have a big impact on what you are getting out. Yes fix the fingers, but you can also likely improve the quality of the recorded sound by adjusting the levels on the onboard preamp or amp / DAW or pedals or whatever else you have the guitar plugged in to.
Thanks Shawn–good to hear that the pickup is amplifying the errors disproportionately to the playing. I was pretty shocked that I hadn’t noticed all that buzzing before. I’d obviously heard some, but it was truly disheartening to hear it through headphones. And, as the others noted, “yeah, those are problems, work on 'em, but don’t fret–you’re a beginner, enjoy being a beginner”, or words to that effect.
Haha I feel this so much—recording yourself really is the fastest way to destroy the “I think I’m doing fine” illusion. But honestly, noticing all those little buzzes means you’re leveling up! You’re becoming way more aware of technique, and that’s a huge step forward. It’s frustrating, yeah, but also kind of exciting—like unlocking a new layer of the game. Keep going, the clarity (and cleaner playing) is totally worth it!
