Welp, Iāve reached my two year JG anniversary this month.
Iām improving slowly. But here are some things I notice:
-My two hands are starting to get better at doing the correct things at the same time. BUT I still pick the wrong strings a bunch (if Iām not looking). Or buzz or mute notes in a riff or lick. I think this comes down to having delicate, sensitive fingertips (even with calluses) and still not much strength or reach. I just get buzz or mute when I canāt get the fingertips fully in the right place with the right force. But at least I am getting the finger down at the same time I am trying to pick more often than I used to.
-Iām still having to consciously straighten my wrist. It just doesnāt feel natural to play with a straight wrist because of small hands/short fingers- I donāt have a lot of reach and I canāt exert much perpendicular force to the fretboard. My natural instinct is to bend my wrist down and get as much of my hand under my fingers to give them leverage. When I try to force a straight wrist, I get buzzes and mutes. The battle continues. Yes I play with the neck tilted up.
-I am still having a time finding the right strings when I am not looking directly at the picking hand. This may be partly because I rotate guitars every few weeks between short scale acoustic and full scale electric (I have two electrics with slightly different string spacing).
-I find I get irritated when I canāt find a strumming pattern that fits a song I am playing. Iāll want to get into a feel-good groove, and sometimes I find a pattern that feels good but it wonāt sound quite right for the song, or what might sound right doesnāt feel right.
-I admit I still havenāt learned very many songs. I still struggle with even getting any interest in any songs to play unless its specifically mentioned in a lesson, used to develop a technique. Iāll be honest, its because I canāt play anything very well, and I just donāt want to play any songs badly. Itās de-motivating.
-Palm muting is just eh right now. Its fine when Iām doing power chords loudly. But trying it on the Enter Sandman riff (went back to that one over a year later) and finding it hard to do consistently.
-I still feel like most things I play, be it a strumming song or (definitely) a riff or single note melody, sound bad. Just not good. Buzzed notes, muted notes, I still make tons of mistakes. Nothing sounds very good, at all. Iām still pretty clumsy. But as I stated above, I can see that I am just starting to see my two hands doing the right things at the same time. Iām just not doing anything very well. Strumming is better than picking, Iām getting fairly decent at strumming and chording a song from start to finish.
I am currently in Grade 3 Module 18 learning the Lickin Riff exercise. It is actually easier than I thought when I first heard it in the beginning of the lesson, so that goes to show I have improved a bit over the past year because the Greensleeves song that I started on a few months ago was seemingly harder to do than this.
Anyway, Iāll keep on keepin on. Slowly but surely. I still read tons of threads on here even if they have nothing to do with my personal struggles. I love all the new gear Iām seeing being acquired by others, and glad folks are keeping the convos going strong. Iām watching all the learning and growing going on everyday. Iām still enjoying the lessons, I still go back and go over previous lessons all the time. I still use the app and play along to songs. I use Moises to make guitar-less versions of songs for the future. The elements for productive practice (one minute changes, finger exercises, small time blocks, etc) are indispensable and will keep my practices successful well into the future. I love the community, and I am so happy to have found Justin and everyone here.
Thanks to Justin, to everyone!
).
Seriously though, I might add a short scale electric one day.
, strumming patterns, and more. At times, chord transitions without looking at the fretboard go smoothly, especially with slower tunes. Yet, accurately picking or strumming the correct strings without looking remains a formidable task. Singing while playing simultaneously only works for me with some simple Mani Matter songs.
