aljaxon

think ive just found a technique that works. lol i know im talking to myself here. i start plucking 3 strings nice and slow then get faster and faster until im at my max. then stop and start again. and in 2 minutes ive just got faster. ive been playing this for weeks trying to get faster and the start slow and build up speed has worked a treat, thanks for putting that idea in my head dad3353!

just checked with a metronome and im at 76bpm. but ive identified my problem. if i try to pick just 3 stings as quick as i can ,3 plucks no more just strings 4 2 then 1, i am very slow. 3 strings pause for 3 or 4 seconds. then the 3 strings again, i cant get that faster. the thumb forefinger second finger. pluck them like in the song continuous. im the same speed. i also pluck the 3 stings very slow and then slowly build up tempo but hit a wall.

i havent been playing along to anything. just playing it as fast as i can on my own no background music. i only put the youtube video on to see what speed i was actually at. but when i practice i just play it endlessly as fast as i can over and over again for like 5 minutes. the crazy thing is im playing it faultlessly. no errors. i just cant go any faster. sometimes i can pluck the 3 strings a lot quicker but then the next 3 string pluck is back down to my fastest speed. that only happens about once a minute.

i seem to have hit a brick wall. im trying to play the "8 notes on 3 strings then move bit" on bring on the night. its in the background while the verse is being sung. top right window at 4mins 46. straight after that he then explains how its played. skop to 7 mins to see it in full at slow speed. i can play that and move around the fret board ok but my plucking speed is stuck at 75% of normal speed courtesy of slowing it down on youtube. actual song here and the verse bit comes in at 27 seconds. its been a few weeks now and i cant get any faster. im trying to relax my fingers as ive noticed i often tense up which is counter productive. so how can i build up speed? is there anything i can do whilst sat watching tv or on t break at work? any finger exercises? i often play the guitar quietly whilst watching tv and have played that over and over sometimes for 20 minutes. does my wifes head in.

thanks for replies, that sounds quite hard but ill give it a go. and as for the reply re muscle memory i guess thats fine. but how about making something up in your head and playing as you go in a kind of right i want to play this note next, and cue the damn wrong fret.

i dont mean fancy impressive solos just very basic simple tunes. like albatross or even better for my example ode to joy from beethoven 9th symphony? lets imagine i try and play the tune. its in my head and im trying to play the next note and im guessing where it is on the fretboard. im not looking at tabs or sheet music or playing from memory. i can usually do that tune ok cos its simple but half way through it goes to the lowest note and its quite a way from the previous note and i sometimes only get it right after 2 failed placements. so my question is how are you able to always select the right note when converting a tune in your head onto the fretboard? is it something you either can or cant do? i can sing in tune quite well and can hear the notes in my head perfectly. but i cannot visualise the fretboard in sounds. i just watched a youtube video about intervals thinking it might be something to do with that. even though i can hear the tune in my head perfectly and sing it, i cant say oh yes that note is an A which would make it easier to pick the right fret. so do i need to be able to put names to the notes in my head? or what do i need to be doing/learning. im not trying to be a goodsolo player, its just inbetween chords in some songs you get the odd couple of infill notes and playing them correctly at first is hard. then its just down to memory

i know this post is very old and the op is probably long gone but i had a very poor condition cheap accoustic guitar for 40 odd years and i was a very poor player, id pick it up and it had several faults and when i tried to play, it didnt sound very good. a combination of guitar and my technique so i lost interest quickly but would pick it up once every couple of months or so. then a year ago i discovered a long time pal played guitar and asked him if it was worth buying a new guitar despite me being a terrible player ie 4 or 5 chords and fingers deadening other strings by accident etc. . he said just buy a second hand one for around £100 then your not really throwing much away. i bought one and it sounded nice, much better than my old one and i made the decision to play or practice a bit more often and discovered youtube is full of free tutorials/lessons and was invaluable for showing me how to try and play my favourite songs and improve my technique.. i went round to a pals house to jam last weekend and he has 4 or 5 expensive guitars and i quickly found he is a worse player than me and he asked why i havent bought a decent guitar and i said im just trying to match my skill level kind of thing. in the same way you dont have to be a formula 1 driver to buy a ferrari but if you cant drive a ferrari is wasted on you. so an expensive guitar would be wasted on you. but a decent one might just inspire you to want to learn to play a bit more. a lot of chinese stuff in other areas is getting better quality so who knows your chinese guitars might be better than a decent guitar. i bought one with wider spaced strings and even just over a mm more gap between strings made it easier for me to not sound so bad. i'd been blaming my fat fingers but realised it was only 5% fat fingers and 95% poor technique. play minimum 15 mins a day i was told and ive trie to do that. you will become a better player. once a month or so. no chance.

dad ive always been a tight git. i just go on ultimate guitar its free. plus ive just started learning to use fl studio which was given to me for nowt so i can make my own drum beats and backing stuff. dunno if you need to have a face book account to wacth this but here is a very short clip of my doing my best Ian mcCulloch impersonation. i was only going to put the chorus bit in and was virtually mouthing the lead up lines but decided to leave them in. ive watched youtube clips of echo and the bunnymen live and i can safely say i "p1ss" all over what he can do nowadays on the high notes. he needs to go on ultimate guitar and transpose it down a bit lol. https://www.facebook.com/alan.jackson.7731/videos/2532299470293234

i dont have enough time to learn everything about playing the guitar. theres loads i am not going to try and learn unless it naturally falls into place as my technique improves and a song needs it. but so far like i say theres only 2 songs out of about 50 that cant be played with what i call open chords. im currently trying to get my fingers to do what i want them to do. eg going from an Am to a Cadd9 my little finger is very slow to move. and on sunflower the little intro was hard a week ago but now its almost easy if i leave out one note on the last bit. i practicing picking quietly even while watching tv. sometimes up to 2 hours a day. i can definitely see improvements. even over the last week. my approach has been - hear a song. think yeah lets try and play along to that and then learn to do so as accurately as possible. its been a lot of fun so far. im finding out my weaknesses and ive been trying to improve on them. not just sticking to the same open chords that ive done since the 1970's. when practicing i focus on what i cant play, instead of what i can play. when im jamming with a pal or singing to myself or missus (or neighbours through the walls) thats when i stick to playing to what i can play. im popping round to a long time pals this evening first time for a jam. is that the word? could be interesting. i think im going to surprise myself at how crap i really am lol and might see what other areas i need to brush up on.

thanks for taking the time to reply. the songs i currently play all with open chords are candy paulo nutini your ghost kristen hirsh wonderwall, stop crying your heart out, stand by me, all oasis, chance big country, never tear us apart mistify inxs long and winding road, rain, ticket to ride, strawberry fields, across the universe beatles , tomorrow, born of frustration james, closer kings of leon, fake plastic trees radiohead fix you, a message coldplay every one of us rick astley, impossible james arthur sonnet, verve, they dont own m,e richard ashcroft, wish you were here, pink floyd killoing moon echo and the bunnymen all for you cian ducrot - high pitched leprechaun transposed to lee marvin. hate to see you cry alan hull. most of calum scotts non dancy stuff. back for good take that, holding back the years simply red davig grey babylon oldies like cant explain cant get enough of your love sunny afternoon and even tried the new post malone country and western stuff. loads more. and for the finger picking i practice soldiers eyes jack savoretti dust in the wind kansas love song elton john which ive mastered and now trying to sing in time to it. started solsbury hill. got the first bar under my belt!!! and every day if i hear a song i write it down and try to do a version. i have a problem with memory so use ultimate guitar for their chords and lyrics plus the fantastic transpose. there are maybe 2 or 3 songs pout of all that lot that i can sing in the same key as the original. well i can sing all of them in key but only like a choir boy. to give it power and raspiness i have to transpose them all down. ive seen people do triads? is that almost the same thing as what you are suggesting? 3 or 4 finger chords up and down the neck?

you have to remember we are talking about me here and the sound i'm creating. barre chords sound rubbish. open chords sound fantastic in comparison. so i use them. i dont care about whether i should be learning to play barre chords. virtually every song i play sounds great with open chords and a capo. i am intrigued by only using 3 fingers and leaving the rest open. like the intro 2 chords to breads make it with you which when i play sounds great until i ruin it with the 2 barre chords

i think some songs are played on electric guitar with barre chords where it doesnt matter at all if there are f# bflat etc. but on an accoustic these chords sound terrible. so i transpose them to open easier chords it sounds much better. you must agree on an accoustic open chords are a million times better than barre? i forgot to mention ive got accoustic guitars only. as for simplifying you are preaching to the converted!!! and at 63 ive come to the conclusion im not going to be a brilliant guitarist, havent got enough time left on this planet. i need every trick in the book to help me. so ive given up on trying to get barre chords sounding as good on an accoustic as open chords and instead devote my practicing hours to learning other stuff. but thanks for the advice!!

ive done some reading and some cheap machine heads are bad and you cant tune down to get it in tune because they just go out of tune too quick, likely by carrying on turning down by themselves. so you have to go lower and then tune up to get it in tune. thats what the seller told me tune back up. and it helped a tiny bit. but they still just turned by themselves no doubt encouraged by string tension. i mean they arent going to tighten up are they? i looked at the design and the worm is designed to be forced in one direction and hence persuaded not to turn. but it can and does. only a tiny bit but thats all it takes. but not now. its perfect thanks to the tiny washers making the screws actually do their job. thanks for trying to help Dad 3353. guitars arent as difficult to set up as people think. i am a builder and diy mechanic and there is nothing i wouldnt take on myself. ive made nuts from scratch even widened the spacing from std. shortened and packed saddles up. plus ive got a ruddy great big hammer.

ive sorted it. i dismantled one completely. the tiny screws in the centre of the button are supposed to tighten the button (windy bit) down so its tight to turn. or at least stiff. but even when its tightened up fully and at the bottom of its threads the button was free to turn in the slackening direction only. . much much much more willing to turn in the direction of slackening as opposed to tightening where it was as stiff as you would expect. the pathetic wave washer supposed to apply tension is wholly inadequate. far too thin and flimsy. so i simply fitted another washer over the spindle that the button keys onto so that the screw when tightened actually makes the button stiffer. luckily i have washers down to 3mm ID. and this made it so that the button was stiff to turn in either direction. 2 hours playing last night and what a lovely sound. i realised if i tuned it previously within seconds one or more of the strings would go ever so slightly out of tune and it always sounded funny/bad. im crap at playing a guitar but i can tune one by ear without having to press any frets. sadly with this same tuneful ear i can hear how crap my singing is. the tuners are very similar to these. fully enclosed. https://www.stourmusic.co.uk/product-page/eko-s300v-maple-sunburst

please please forget the strings. it has absolutely nothing to do with them. the post or machine head shaft that the string is wrapped around is in direct contact ie meshed or geared with the worm. so if one turns the other turns. to go back to a moped the speedometer is driven by a cable with a worm at the end of the cable. the worm gets turned by an axle. im going to look at the problem myself by dismantling one.