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. 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.
Iāve been working on Justinās lesson on Pink Floydās āWish You Were Here ā 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 Iāll get them all and the next I keep hitting the wrong string. I know itās a matter of repetition, and itās definitely getting better, but itās so frustrating on the off days where I canāt seem to find the notes. Iām working on trying not to look at my hands when Iām playing the song. Again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnāt. My feelings as I play it over and over, lol
I donāt know, as Iāve never seen one before.
just do a standard A barre and lift finger 2.
Notice this comes from the old Em open chord. You are just using finger 1 as the ānutā and scooting it from E at fret 0 up to fret 5 which is A on string 6.
Iām late to the party here, but better late than never
One of the hardest things for me is playing riffs that involve picking individual strings while singing at the same time. Iāve been working on the song Day Tripper by the Beatles for a while and while the lead riff itself isnāt too hard, as soon as I add in vocals it falls apart Iāll get there eventually, but itās a slow process.
Also, I would add making solos sound musical instead of just like Iām playing the notes.
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 Iām even playing out of an amp. Anyway, my fingers hurt.
Iāve also had the problem of pressing too hard on the frets. Itās worse for me on days when Iāve 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. Itās not such a bad thing for barre chords, but itās terrible for everything else.
Iāve 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 āvery 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. Iām 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. Iām 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 itās important to play very softly. That also gives me more awareness and control of my picking/strumming and therefore dynamics.
Iāll admit that the first few times I did it, it felt pretty silly. Now I have no doubt that itās been a major factor in giving me the smoother, more relaxed feeling Iāve 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.
That riff isnāt too easy either. I incorporated it as part of my routine because itās tricky to play it at the same tempo throughout the whole song.
I let Paul sing and I do the guitar partā¦
I will try that! Thank you!
Yeah, i was doing great singing along on Whatās 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 isnāt correct any more.
Curious which one? Thing about Green Day is that most of their songs arenāt super complex, but man do they do what they do well. Iāve actually been focusing a lot on my power chords simply because I canāt 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.
B7 is giving me fits. Itās just an odd shape I havenāt used before. Iāll 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. Isnāt that what Justin said? He kinda knows what heās doing, I think.
Think of it like a D7 shape off the A string with a pinky added.
OMGā¦epiphany. Thank you. Because Iām fine with D7. I had never looked at it like that before or made that connection.
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. Iām not sure if thatās what did it but Iām not struggling here anymore.
Interesting, Iāll give that a try for a while as well as just going back to practicing strumming with muted strings.
Hope it helps!
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.
Anybody have trouble getting the B string fretted when doing the F chord? Grr!
Everybody, you are not alone in this fight.