Stuck on lesson one BGU

[georgewsusa]

Hi, I made a commitment to not forge ahead until I have the lessons sounding good. My strumming sounds awful and I am beginning to think it is my stings! I have to blame it on something ;D

Anyway, I am using a PRS Custom with ultra light strings. I just ordered some mediums and hope that does the trick.

I am able to keep up with the DVD pretty good... Another problem I am experiencing is that my thumb, on the chord hand (my left) gets really tired as I am not use to playing these cords. But I do not think that is the problem. I can play three of four plays on the CD before I need to give it a rest.

I suppose I could upload a recording but I don't want anybody to hear how bad I sound.

Could it be a string thing? Any good advice/feedback is welcome.

Thank you,
OldGuy58 (George)

 

[Lame_Pinkey]

Well George ,

Let me perfectly Frank ... well i can't Frank is another member here  ;D , seriously though the gauge of your strings is not going to make you sound bad or good - its your playing that will determine that, the fact that you say you are able to keep up shows that you must be coming along pretty well with it - just needs some spit & polish perhaps ? This will take some time but if you are able to keep up with Griff on the video & if your timing is good then don't hold back from venturing on to the next lesson.
While learning the new lesson you can keep practicing lesson 1 & learning it for lesson 1 will rub off onto the other lessons you do - for example  you won't have learn a barre chord again for the next lesson...that type of thing.
Now with your thumb pain ! Sounds ominously like the "grip of death" we talk about here on the forum. You do not need to & should strive not to, grip barre chords to tightly this will cause pain in the wrist or thumb as you describe. If you play 5 mins straight through using barre chords then  , if noy used to these as you state, then you probably need to rest for 5 or 10 mins before going back to them. During that time you could practice some things that involve open chords or single note patterns.

Doesn't hurt to upload a song we are not in competition here & are here to help as best we can - so don't be afraid of that.

LP

 

[Marv]

Without a recording, it's going to be tough to answer your question. 

What sounds awful?  Are you out of time with the backing track?  Strings won't help.  Is the tone really thin and whiny compared to Griff?  It could be the strings, the height of your pickups, which pickup (brand and location on guitar) you are using, what amp you are using and how it is set. Griff often uses a little overdrive before the amp and you may not be. It goes on and on.

Thicker strings will make the barre chords a little harder to play until you get used to them.  Each time we make a change, we may get worse before we get better.

We need more info to try to help you.

Also have to say Griff moves on from the full barre chords and rarely uses them again. They are there so you know you have options in chord shapes, but Lesson 4 and beyond bring easier and more useful chords into play.  The important parts of the early (and all lessons) are making the chord changes at the right times and playing in time.

 

[Thatman]

If you can keep up with the recording then your doing pretty well, as for thinking you sound pants, well I'd do a post at let others tell you that, you know how supportive we are  :

One thing I find is that because you're behind the guitar and close to the strings you get to hear a lot of twanging and string vibration rubbish that an audience doesn't hear, so you may not be as bad as you think.   

Or if you are, try a couple of beers first  [smiley=beer.gif]  [smiley=beer.gif]  that'll help.  :-?

 

[samwell]

"I suppose I could upload a recording but I don't want anybody to hear how bad I sound" in retrospect: all sound bad initially :-?   however, an example of your bad leads to the feedback available for informed suggestions to make it good    just a thought.... [smiley=beer.gif]

 

[JN99]

Yes, I always sound better with beer!  And the more beer, the better I sound, how about that!  ;D

Seriously though, you aren't stuck you are just progressing at a speed that's perhaps not as fast as you'd like.  Happens to most of us.  Stick with it, keep working on it and by all means as others have said, do jump ahead and work on lessons 2-3 for example to help break the routine and get you started on some other stuff.

I work on at least 2-3 lessons at a time and always work time into my practice on occasion to go back to earlier lessons.  So my approach has been work on, say lessons 1-3.  When I feel 1 is pretty solid I add lesson 4 to the mix but still work on lesson 1, I just give it less time.  When 2 gets solid, I add 5 and so on eventually dropping the earliest ones to allow time for the newer ones.  Every once in awhile I start with a warm-up of sorts where I hit them all for a few minutes each.  It seems to be working pretty well for me this way.

 

[MikeS]

OldGuy, as you can see there can be many, many reasons.
I'd include that:
- if you are using really light strings and pressing really hard, you may be pushing the strings out of tune (effectively bending them)
- Ive seen where some guitars are just a bit out of tune and you don't notice it until you try playing with a track that is IN tune.

If you record your lesson and post it below, I'm sure that someone will be able to help.

 

[henryj]

How long have you been at it?

Building muscle tone takes time.  Making your fingers stretch an twist into unfamiliar positions takes time also.

The are cords and barr cords that give everyone trouble mostly because of muscle tone.  Its seems weird to think of building muscle in your fingers but it has to happen and can take some time.

No tricks gimmicks or secrets other than repetition and perseverance.

Put two cent smilie here.

 

[giayank]

Old Guy Mike touched on what I was thinking maybe out of tune . You have made a real step forward here . You know what sounds bad to you .If your timing is good and you are keeping up with the tempo try adjusting some setting on your amp as well as the guitar . What sounds awful to you may be too much gain for example . Give us an example of your settings and some of the more experienced players might be able to guide you through . This was a great help to me when I started to play electric . I had no idea how to set up my amp and guitar .

 

[Marv]

Shoot, I've been at this a year and a half and I still don't really know how I want my amp set up. 

I finally resorted to stuffing licks from famous blues players down in the Virtual Jam Room and asking everyone to try to match the tone and play the lick.  Then we can compare notes on how we got the various tones.

Of course, then I'm going to have at least one Buddy Guy Tone, Luther Allison tone, Stevie Ray tone, etc.  to choose from.  Good news is, they will all sound better than Marv Tone.

 

[Ivan]

Hi Oldguy......everyone has pretty well covered everything. What I didn't see mentioned (unless I missed it) was the height action of your strings. Could your action be set to high?

When I first started playing barre chords I found that lowering the action just a touch at a time until I found a comfort zone helped for holding a barre chord.

This helped me alot. However, when I started to learn how to bend strings, this became a problem because the action was too low causing the upper strings to slide under the bending string.

No worries, though....as you  progress and get used to the lower action you can start raising it again.....a bit at a time until you get it a happy medium where the height works best for you for both techniques.

Also.....like everyone mentioned you really should record and listen to yourself. You may be surprised!

Hope this helps.....and makes sense too!

 

[georgewsusa]

Thank you for the feedback. I was surprised to see 10 responses to my post. That's great!

I have been teaching myself for the past 4 years. I am a bad teacher, not enough discipline. I have mostly been doing warm up exercises to get my fingers trained. I have taken a lot of online lessons but don't know a single song... I get so frustrated with the theory.

At one time I new how to read music. I played piano, baritone, and then french horn in grade school. That was like 50 years ago. I think age is an issue with that. The little gray cells are not as sharp as they use to be.

Anyway, I will upload a recording as soon as I figure out how, and work with that. I realize without hearing what I am talking about, it is hard to be specific in responding as to what I need to be working on.

Thanks again,
George

 

[Silicon Valley Tom]

It might help to have someone who plays guitar check your left hand position, and your guitars setup.  Be sure that the tip of your left thumb is placed about in the middle of the neck and do not strain. 

What we really need is a video/audio area to help others with these types of issues. 

Tom

 

[panther]

Tom;
I struggle with keeping my thumb on the back of the neck, it seems to want to come up, around to the side, I seem to have better control that way, what is the advantage / Disadvantage to either method ?


BTW, oldguy58, Just have fun, When I start to doubt my progress, or get the feeling, of "It's just not coming as fast as I want", THEN it's no longer Fun.
I wish I were 58 again, I'd have 6 more years to improve. I've been at it for 3 years, and I'm 64. But, "People Still need me, People Still feed me, And I'm 64."  There has to be a song there someplace.

 

[georgewsusa]

Hi Gentlemen,
Thank you for your help. Everything is fine in my world. I just got one of the Fender Squire USB guitars from Apple. Sounds great!
Peace,
George

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

Oldguy, something that hasn't been mentioned here yet is that progress tends to come in stages.  You learn a bunch of stuff and then hit a "plateau" where you just seem to stay there not getting any better.  Then one day you pick up your guitar and as if by magic things all come together and pop, and then you amaze yourself with that for a while, then learn a bunch of new stuff and hit another plateau.  The trick is to keep at it consistently and not give up.

 

[ToneSeeker]

Here is a little trick you can use if you feel like your not making any progress..

Turn the guitar around and try to play it left handed....  then you realize the skills you've gained playing it normal...
Keep forging on.. and put up a recording

 

[Griff]

Here is a little trick you can use if you feel like your not making any progress..

Turn the guitar around and try to play it left handed....  then you realize the skills you've gained playing it normal...
Keep forging on.. and put up a recording

I've pulled that on many an unsuspecting student... always good for a laugh

 

[ToneSeeker]

Here is a little trick you can use if you feel like your not making any progress..

Turn the guitar around and try to play it left handed....  then you realize the skills you've gained playing it normal...
Keep forging on.. and put up a recording

I've pulled that on many an unsuspecting student... always good for a laugh

  I love this one... really puts things into perspective...  LOL

 

[ToneSeeker]

It might help to have someone who plays guitar check your left hand position, and your guitars setup.  Be sure that the tip of your left thumb is placed about in the middle of the neck and do not strain. 

What we really need is a video/audio area to help others with these types of issues. 

Tom

I like your idea.. you could always Skype ....  sometimes having someone just show you in 2 minutes can really relieve a lot of frustration...

After all ... this is music.. it's supposed to be social...  right?