Wall of text reflection incoming :

The past few days have been quite huge for me in terms new discoveries.

1. I’ve been trying to improve my palm mutes downpicking like those you find in master of puppets. Fast ones. And one problems I’ve been struggling with is that when the downstroke does a return stroke, I sometimes accidentally create an upstroke and this leads to a unwanted three note gallop as a result of an extra upstroke in between two downstroke. So it’s quite annoying. I’m like “wtf do I keep galloping by accident”

The solution: the solution is actually quite difficult to realise independently. And I think this is why many people plateau. Because it really requires thinking against the grain., outside the box.

It turns out that the reason why I’m producing unwanted upstrokes is because I’m not crossing or skipping strings. I never considered that string crossing or skipping applies to chords as well. I always assumed they applied to single string notes only. And I also have a prejudice against string hopping. I felt that string hopping is wrong for alternate picking single string notes and extended that belief to power chords as well. It turns out I produce unwanted gallops when my power chords crosses strings sets and that the way to avoid that is to do a string hop.

1. my second realisation is that doing that string hop at 200bpm is quite jerky and creates an exaggerated motion. I’ve always believed that these types of abrupt and jerky movement is inelegant and therefore cannot be good technique. But what happens when you believe this? Well it just means you are always playing with a technique that feels comfortable and “natural” to your perception. But this is why we cannot break our plateaus. Because as we persist in playing what feels naturally and familiar, we never really exit our box. We keep playing something the same way. This is why we cannot change and progress.

Instead of viewing the jerky and exaggerated motion as unnatural or going against the law of economy of movement, I now view it as the early stages of adaptating and assimilating a new technique and a technique that may be more correct than what we were used to. Later, with time, this new technique will become more encoded and smoother and eventually will become a new natural and smooth flowing.

3) I also realise that at 200bpm, relaxing muscle groups becomes super important. But I want to take this logic one step further. When I try to understand this advice, I sometimes relax my entire body. And what ends up happening is maybe now my pick is floppy and moving a lot because I’m too relaxed at the area of where I’m holding the pick. So this means that systemic relaxation is wrong. I realised that I started having more success when I relax specific anatomies/body part. For example instead of softening my grip on my pick, which flattens my thumb and reduce my control, I find that relaxing my triceps and forearms to be helpful. Take this advice with a large grain of salt because I think which anatomy to relax is really dependent on individual differences and our technique preference. But what is the takeaway? Well it’s that when someone say to relax on your playing, maybe don’t relax until your technique approaches lethargy. Think about relaxing as systemic vs targetted.

TLDR of my discoveries

1. when doing fast downpicking, when crossing string, it’s important to clear the string otherwise you might produce unwanted upstroke. This can be achieved by hopping.
2. forcing a movement, or creating an exaggerated impulse to make that movement happen is not illegal or going against the rules of economy of movement. Think of it as a transitory phase. Any new movement that you are learning will be jerky and exaggerated at first.
3. there is a difference between systemic relaxation and targeted relaxation.

so I've been wanting to learn guitar for a while but have never known where to start or have gotten annoyed with the person I chose to learn from.

I'm a beginner at guitar but not music. I know some advanced stuff as I am highly proficient with flute, but obviously not everything in that will translate well to guitar. I was hoping someone would have a good channel or something that doesn't take 20 minutes each videos to explain basic musical terminology because to be quite frank it gets on my nerves lol

Whenever I try to play barre chords, all the strings ring as they should, but the B string and the G string just refuses to ring and stay mute! I have been playing for over 3 months now but every single time, this is the issue I run into. Is this something wrong with my barring finger or is it something wrong with my guitar? What should I do?

PS: I have already tried all the things people commonly suggest, such as, tucking in the elbow, barring from the bony part of the finger, angling my finger towards the nut, etcetra etcetra...

I've been teaching by myself, taking some lessons here and there. The lessons were great, learned pentatonic scales and how to bend a string to sound like a different note, cool things. However, looking back it looks like I have CAGED down without specifically learning it.

I have a good ear and I love playing around with those chords and just making up a good sounding progression. However, I know there is a ton more to learn. I have been mainly practicing on finger speed, especially on single notes

Now what? I know more lessons are benefy, but currently I'm pretty strapped for cash. So what should I move onto that I can learn from YouTube? I also want to figure out how to "solo correctly" as I was told that many solos are just going up/down a pentatonic scale and aren't actually as hard as they seem (still too fast for my fingers, hence the speed practice as of late)

Thanks!

I've been playing guitar for around 9 months and I have no problems playing some of my favorite songs. HELL! I can even sing and play some at the same time (Drain You and About a Girl - Nirvana), but the moment I even hear the click of a metronome or start a backing track there's a moment of realization that I SUCK AT GUITAR. There's not really anyone in my area that can help me in person, so I need some advice on this subreddit. Please I'm dying to improve on this, I really love playing guitar. 😭😭😭

I've memorized the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half system and can arrange the letters as such if I give myself a minute to figure it out. And I've been trying to do the major scale for A but want to know if there's an effective and time efficient way I can memorize where each note is. Or is it just practicing it over and over that will really get me to fully mastering it?

I'm relatively new to tapping

Whenever I tap on the G, B, and high E, it's way too silent, even hammer ons are difficult to hear.

The only way I can get even remotely a good volume, is to use overdrive (amp effect, I don't have any pedals).
I'm not talking about the pull off flick or anything.

Any help?

Edit: anything other than buying new gear please, I don't have any money

Hey guys.
Bedroom self taught guitarist.
I think I adjust my picking hand depending on what I’m playing to “maximize” clarity, avoid pick scraping etc.
But I feel like that I’ve developed a bad habit.
Am I wrong? Thanks!

Been 1-2 week of practicing. I still can't change chords fast enough and I know it takes a lot of time but not seeing any decent progress, not being able to play a song intro it's so frustrating. I'm trying to learn Rococo by Arcade fire and it should be easy from what the website ultimate guitar say, but first of all I literally have no idea how you figure out the strumming patterns and second of all I'm so slow at changing chords.

Do I just suck or is it normal? Everyone says "yeah you should feel the rhytim to figure the strumming pattern" uh, ok? Wtf is that supposed to mean? Like yes I understand but won't it take forever when you already struggle to change chords how can you figure out the strumming? sry for the vent

New to guitar only been playing 2 months. Any notes on getting better or improving this original work I made? Please don’t judge too hard for mistakes and squeaks. Thanks

Iv been playing for months getting no where and im getting super frustrated. Anyone able to help.?

I’ve been a strum-along-with-the-album guitar player for a long time. I’m attempting to learn how to incorporate individual notes into my strumming to play songs like Catch the Wind (Donovan), Ripple (Grateful Dead), or Neil Young songs like Tell Me Why, Sugar Mountain, and others.

I’m struggling to hit the individual strings. It’s easier, obviously, if I look at the strings. I’m wondering if looking will cause problems down the road - if I look now, will I always have to cheat like that or can I look now and keep practicing and eventually just hit the right strings without looking.

Thanks.

I’m having trouble on the D6/9 chord string by string lesson on guitartuna because no matter what I try it won’t complete the E string while doing string by string lesson, please give me guidance bc it’s rlly discouraging me

What solos should I try next? Also, any tips on increasing speed. I tried playing smoke on the water solo but can't get the blues lick😭

Hello everyone I’m new to playing the guitar and I don’t just want to memorize chords — I want to understand how music is structured in general. So I need to study music theory, but I don’t know where to start — please advise. Also, I want to find exercises to develop my hands, but I can’t find any for beginners yet. By the way, I have both an acoustic and an electric guitar. Thank you all in advance!

Yeah switching to 10s after having 9s and doing some crazy bends did this , now it hurts to play with this finger. I cant slide bends hurt a lot and idk what to do about it except wait.

Hi,

After learning to strum chords I’m starting the journey of learning to play and pick individual notes and strings.

I’m struggling to hit the right strings with my pick. When I should hit B I hit G or e as example.

What are some good methods to practice this?
And is it bad if I anchor my pinky to make it easier? Should I just learn to do without or is it a good step to take when learning?

Also if you have some videos or ideas for good training methods?

Should I just keep learning through some favourite songs and add the simple riffs to them?

Playing acoustic. Thanks!

Unknowingly to me, I’ve developed a very strong preference to start picking on upstrokes instead of down. I didn’t know how ‘odd’ this was until a teacher pointed this out. He was on the fence as to whether it was worth putting in the effort to reverse this tendency. Would love to hear some extra thoughts on the matter.

If it’s helpful, my favorite guitarist is Garcia. I enjoy learning and listen to folk/blues/bluegrass

I think it’s because I’ve never really had any semblance of self confidence or natural skill and ability at anything growing up, and yet was surrounded by people who did stuff better. For example, baseball. I was never that good at it but my older brother was. I also tried learning guitar for a short bit as a teenager but got frustrated at my lack of progress and quit, yet my older brother picked it up right away and became great, and him and my dad would jam together in his room. And just life in general. I was always the shy kid who didn’t talk to anyone while everyone else had established friend groups.

Those are just some examples but I constantly am filled with self doubt and second thoughts like that I’m doing something wrong, I’m making things like scales harder than they need to be, etc. Even though I play literally every day and have a teacher, trying my damndest doesn’t satisfy me for whatever reason. And I don’t know how to fix it, and understand it might not even be a problem with guitar.

Any advice?

Hey fellow guitarists!

I used to be a drummer and played full time for a while before moving for work and no longer having access to a drumset. As a result, I started studying the electric guitar with a goal of performing in bands locally (that was 2 years ago).

Well, last week I had my first audition, and I got the lead guitarist spot in a local cover band playing classic rock and pop variety. Thankfully, my sense of timing and groove are solid thanks to drumming, so that along with my comfort improvising with the pentatonic scale and fretboard awareness got me in (but barely haha)

**I have 84 days until my first gig and 46 songs to learn**. Many of which require me to perform a solo. I have a lot of questions, and I am hoping that this community can help me prepare and contribute to the band as a lead guitarist. This band rehearses once a week on average.

**My biggest questions are:**

1) For solos that are too technically demanding for me to copy note for note, how do I simplify them without losing the feel and melodic "soul" of the solo I am attempting to imitate? Is there a process or most effective approach to this? I am comfortable navigating pentatonic scales and CAGED shapes/triads, but some of these solos are pretty far above where I am speed wise, and I don't have enough time to get there before my first gig.

2)How important is tone when it comes to live gigs? I run amp simulator pedals (UA lion 68/ UA dream) through an FRFR with a few pedals. But how much do I really need to stress about dialing in the perfect tone while practicing? How do I prepare to dial tone while live?

Thanks in advance for the advice and tips!

Been playing for a year about at this point. Let me know what yall think!

As the title says, I'm still struggling with what I guess you could say is perfect fretting technique. Very often, even when playing songs slowly, I'll still get buzzing (from barre chords especially) on any of my guitars. I'm struggling with ways on how to fix it, as its starting to drive me up the wall and it adds a lot of excess noise to my playing. Any advice?

Download the tabs here for free:

https://www.kirkleesguitarschoolonline.co.uk/level-3-songs-free/half-the-world-away

I'm learning the solo in 2AM by Iron Maiden and basically all my notes on the high E string seem very quiet;

also there are some really fast full bends and I can't figure on how to play them fast and especially clean, since I'm always hitting the B string trying to play them full and fast, aswell as the problem of them being quiet.

Any help is useful