Overcoming frustration

[Elio]

Thank you. Bad analogy)) I was born driving a stick shift)) . I just have to practice until I get the right formula, I guess.

One thing that I worked on last night is not bending the string with the end of my finger but rather with the fleshy part not quite opposite my nail. I was kind of observing what was happening and when I bend with the end of my finger the B and G string sort of fold over each other and when they release that is when the ringing is caused. If I bend with the fleshy part then part of my finger is over the top of the B and G string and controls them better. It requires more strength and control and it ain't perfect but I may be on to something. Thanks so much for responding, I am new to this and am amazed at the complexity of playing the electric guitar. I haven't yet begun to deal with the amplifier and that is a whole other instrument to learn))

My method for controlling string noise was to always pick upward on a bent note so that the pick would rest on the next string and dampen it. My instructor, as well as a another close friend who is a music professor both advised against it. My friend's logic was that it would interrupt my picking. His advise was to work entirely on hitting the target pitch and that the string noise issue would resolve itself.

The technique that my local instructor taught me was one that works well but that was incredibly awkward for me. That was to use the top finger not to bend but to stick out a little bit to touch and mute the adjacent string. For example, if your ring finger and pinky are doing the bending, the middle finger is used to dampen the next string. At the time that I was trying to learn to bend properly, I could just never really do that comfortably and kept resisting so I never really adopted it. At some point, everything came together and I just stopped thinking about bends as they just all started to work without the noise.

A few months ago it occurred to me that my instructor's technique is exactly what I do now fairly consistently and without ever thinking about it. Even so, I still use the palm of my picking hand to mute strings, as well. It turns out that they were both right. My instructor's method works great and by not over-thinking it and by focusing on the pitch the problem resolved itself.

 

[Elio]

How do fretboard radius and width at the nut play in here?

I'm not sure about the effect of the nut width, but a flatter radius reduces the likelihood that the bent not will "fret out" and choke. My Godin has a 16" radius. On a good day, I can do a 2-step bend and still have the note ring out (note that I am not saying that I do them often or well). On the other hand, my G&L ASAT with a 12" radius hits the limit at about 1 1/2 step bends (depending on the fret), where the note starts to choke.

 

[Danno]

I'm not sure about the effect of the nut width, but a flatter radius reduces the likelihood that the bent not will "fret out" and choke. My Godin has a 16" radius. On a good day, I can do a 2-step bend and still have the note ring out (note that I am not saying that I do them often or well). On the other hand, my G&L ASAT with a 12" radius hits the limit at about 1 1/2 step bends (depending on the fret), where the note starts to choke.

You might want to check your truss rod adjustment. If you're seeing bends fret out on the same string at different frets you probably don't have the relief set correctly. Or your neck might be warped or your frets might not be level. But adjusting the relief is the easiest thing to do.

In general, fretboard radius is really only a problem on 7.25" fretboards and even then it's mostly on the high E string and you'd still have go more than a step and a half. I have a Fender AVRI Strat (the one I used on the Bloomfield challenge) with a 7.25" fretboard and had no problem with the 2 step bend on the G string in the Bloomfield lick.

I should add too that with a 7.25" fretboard the setup is really critical to keeping bent notes from buzzing or fretting out. It's not as big a deal on flatter fretboards.

 

[ScottMFL]

You know, I find the frustration is usually doing the same thing over and over...............I believe, dont know, thats why so many of us have multiple courses.

I use the penatonic mastery 5 days a week, and do one exercise through each section, then I move on to something else.

An example, Monday, I learn new licks, and practice them tuesday and wednesday, Sundays, I work on riffs to learn songs

@Griff has said multiple times, and I may not say it the same, dont wait for perfection, get it down good enough and move on and learn. You will continue improving on the other stuff

Timely answer to my current frustration. I half way through BBG, and after going over the same 3 bars to get the transition down, oh 500 or so times, I've come to realize its as good as its going to get until I have another 500 or so repetitions under my fingers. The other 9 bars are close to 100%, so one more crack at it, then I'm moving onto the next lesson and will try again in a few days. Reminds me of taking accounting in college and being off a penny, Just wanted to pull the sucker out of my pocket to balance the ledger.

This is the first time since I started learning guitar that I felt like throwing it out the window. I suppose that's not bad for 6 months or so. Want to run, but all I can right now is limp. Patience not-so-young grasshopper.

 

[dwparker]

Learning guitar is a cumulative effort and some things on the instrument come faster than others. Just move forward into the next lessons. Keep practicing and you'll come back to this in a few weeks and you'll nail the transition, you'll see.

 

[Elio]

Coincidentally, this just landed in my email today. It covers a number of different techniques for muting string noise:
https://carvinaudio.com/blogs/guitar-bass-education/banish-your-unwanted-string-noise-part-1