Need better technique

DavidASkelton

DavidASkelton

Blues Newbie
I’m kind of new to this community. I’ve
Only been playing guitar for two year come Christmas but have been obsessed. Done a lot of online lessons, but have my two to three core sites with Griff being one of them. Now that I have a job again I started taking lessons in person and want to audit some jazz guitar courses at the university I work at. Having my first in person lesson was a mixed bag. On the one hand, he didn’t throw me out or tell me I wasn’t ready to play the songs I want to learn like Pride and Joy for blues some Blues Oyster cults for rock. On the other hand, I was so mad at myself because I was so nervous and kept making mistakes in front of him. At one point I was trying to play a B chord on the 9th fret! He was very reassuring but said there’s a lot of little technique tweaking we need to do. Watch my elbow, too much thumb drifting over, flying fingers on scales. I’m kind of bummed that my first practice is just going to be playing scales slowly at home.

Sorry that was so long winded. I said all that to say what are your more technique oriented courses. I’m not talking music theory. I know that. I’m talking about refining mechanics and building up sort of stuff
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Welcome to the fun, David! I might suggest you give Beginning Blues Guitar a look. I've been going through that one myself, and it starts with blues-essential techniques like hammers/pull-offs and slides. I think maybe spending time on details like that might help some of the technique like hand position take care of itself? A thought. :Beer:
 
jmin

jmin

Student Of The Blues
Great attitude David! You’ll definitely get there. You might want to check out “Pentatonic Scales & Technique Mastery.” At some point you really have to go through the “boring” theory & scales stuff if you want to be an accomplished guitarist. I started working on this stuff with Griff’s courses about 8 years ago and I’m just now getting “comfortable” with it. It takes time. Have fun and enjoy the journey..the “aha’s” are lotsa fun!
 
snarf

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
Welcome to the forum, amigo! Take a look around and join in the fun.
 
Silicon Valley Tom

Silicon Valley Tom

It makes me happpy to play The Blues!
Technique is so important! There are specific techniques related to Blues and electric guitar. Having a "good teacher" is so important. That "good teacher" should be able to point you in the right direction. As I often say, "your goal is to become your own teacher"!

If you have technique questions, by all means ask your teacher for assistance. You might consider using Youtube to see if you can pick up good techniques for guitar.

By the way, I have been playing guitar since I was 10, and that was 69 years ago. I always start by doing warmups, which include basic techniques. Five or ten minutes of that and I am ready for the day! :):cool:

Tom
 
Jack

Jack

Blues Junior
It's great you're playing in front of someone - of course you're very nervous but that will gradually go away and then you'll have accomplished something very important, being relaxed while playing with others!

Any trust me everybody wishes their technique was better :) Good technique comes from putting in the hours doing the boring stuff; if it were easy everybody would be doing it.
 
MikeS

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Welcome to the Forum David.
I'm fortunate enough to be taking live lessons from Griff.
Griff has seen me play for years at BGU Live events so he kinda has an idea of where I am,
At my first lesson with him I was just like you (maybe worse): making mistakes I'd never make at home, playing out of time and barely remembering a single thing.

The nerves will go away, but in that first lesson he said "I know that you can play, I know that you already gig, but there are some technique things that you should fix"
When he saw the look on my face, he said: "They aren't things that you HAVE to fix. You are 90% there. You only need to fix them if you want to go the next & hardest 10%.".

Griff has the PSTM (Pentatonic Scales and Technique Mastery) course.
But what I'd recommend is getting the All Access Pass and taking advantage of the monthly "Fix-It" session.
In a Fix-It session you can video yourself playing som4ething and ask Griff to help with your technique. He will look at exactly what you are doing and make recommendations.
 
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