What is the hard-for-you thing you're currently working on?

I have been in war with index / palm muting and high gain electric sound for quite some time. For some reason, that is really difficult to me. :frowning: Altough this is now much better with power chords, I am sure there is a long way in front of me before I can efficiently mute strings with individual note playing, expecially when quickly changing strings or bending.

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Iā€™ve been working on Justinā€™s lesson on Pink Floydā€™s ā€œWish You Were Here ā€œ for a couple of months now. It seems at times I can play through the intro all the way and other times I keep screwing up. When I pick the individual notes, one time Iā€™ll get them all and the next I keep hitting the wrong string. I know itā€™s a matter of repetition, and itā€™s definitely getting better, but itā€™s so frustrating on the off days where I canā€™t seem to find the notes. Iā€™m working on trying not to look at my hands when Iā€™m playing the song. Again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnā€™t. My feelings as I play it over and over, lol :smiling_face::persevere::flushed::roll_eyes::persevere::persevere::smiling_face:

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I donā€™t know, as Iā€™ve never seen one before. :rofl:

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just do a standard A barre and lift finger 2. :slight_smile:

Notice this comes from the old Em open chord. You are just using finger 1 as the ā€œnutā€ and scooting it from E at fret 0 up to fret 5 which is A on string 6.

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Iā€™m late to the party here, but better late than never :wink:

One of the hardest things for me is playing riffs that involve picking individual strings while singing at the same time. Iā€™ve been working on the song Day Tripper by the Beatles for a while and while the lead riff itself isnā€™t too hard, as soon as I add in vocals it falls apart :laughing: Iā€™ll get there eventually, but itā€™s a slow process.

Also, I would add making solos sound musical instead of just like Iā€™m playing the notes.

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Something else hard for me - I have a terrible habit of not remembering that squeezing the strings harder does NOT result in louder volume. With piano it does-hit the key hard, get a loud noise. So I remember, oh yeah I can strum harder to get somewhat louder. But I guess what I need to do is turn the danged amp up, but believe it or not, I forget Iā€™m even playing out of an amp. :woman_facepalming:t2: Anyway, my fingers hurt. :laughing:

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Iā€™ve also had the problem of pressing too hard on the frets. Itā€™s worse for me on days when Iā€™ve spent significant time outdoors doing heavy manual tasks (which is most days). I guess I acclimate to using my hands forcefully and then bring that to my guitar practice. Itā€™s not such a bad thing for barre chords, but itā€™s terrible for everything else.

Iā€™ve found something that I think helps me immensely, recommended by Tomo Fujita. I start every practice session by working my way up a string (any), placing the fingers on consecutive frets (1-2-3-4) and playing each note ā€œvery softly, very slowlyā€ as he says. Then I move up one fret and repeat until I get to the end of the string. Then work my way back down. I usually do the same on another string. It takes about 7 minutes. I find that the exercise has many benefits. Iā€™m very mindfully placing my fretting fingers right up against the frets with the absolute minimum force needed to get the note - conditioning myself to do that whenever possible. Iā€™m really feeling the instrument and hearing the sound of every note produced. Tomo recommends turning the volume up very high so you can be aware of string noise, so itā€™s important to play very softly. That also gives me more awareness and control of my picking/strumming and therefore dynamics.

Iā€™ll admit that the first few times I did it, it felt pretty silly. Now I have no doubt that itā€™s been a major factor in giving me the smoother, more relaxed feeling Iā€™ve had for the last month that has significantly improved my dexterity, chord changes, rhythm, etc. It really feels like meditation with the guitar. And, like everything else, you can adapt it to your needs.

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That riff isnā€™t too easy either. I incorporated it as part of my routine because itā€™s tricky to play it at the same tempo throughout the whole song.

I let Paul sing and I do the guitar partā€¦

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I will try that! Thank you!

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Yeah, i was doing great singing along on Whatā€™s Up but since i added the 2 bar strumming pattern singing went out the window. Now and then i get a few words in but then poof, its gone. At least i keep strumming even if the pattern isnā€™t correct any more. :grin:

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Curious which one? Thing about Green Day is that most of their songs arenā€™t super complex, but man do they do what they do well. Iā€™ve actually been focusing a lot on my power chords simply because I canā€™t switch fast enough (with the accuracy that I need) to play some of their tunes. But, my power chords have gotten cleaner and my speed is increasing now slowly but surely.

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B7 is giving me fits. Itā€™s just an odd shape I havenā€™t used before. Iā€™ll get there.

I know the 12 bar blues progression variations, but I refuse to let myself move on until I can do 60 B7 quick changes/minute. :slight_smile: Isnā€™t that what Justin said? He kinda knows what heā€™s doing, I think.

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Think of it like a D7 shape off the A string with a pinky added.

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OMGā€¦epiphany. Thank you. Because Iā€™m fine with D7. I had never looked at it like that before or made that connection.

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Agreed. This is a bit challenging. So I just backed up and spent more time with simpler strumming patterns and focused on saying the count out loud. Then I gradually increased the difficulty of strumming patterns while STILL focusing on saying it out loud. Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s what did it but Iā€™m not struggling here anymore. :slight_smile:

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Interesting, Iā€™ll give that a try for a while as well as just going back to practicing strumming with muted strings.

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Hope it helps!

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Thanks, @stitch Sat down for my practice session tonight and the first thing I did was attempt the B7 with this in mind. Just by saying that, you doubled my quick changes. :metal:

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Anybody have trouble getting the B string fretted when doing the F chord? Grr!

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Everybody, you are not alone in this fight.

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