How hard is it to play Guitar?

[MadDogE134]

how do you hold your pick?

[tapper mike]

It's not the wrong question. It's the most common question I get asked by people who have heard/seen me play who think they want to play guitar or wish they could. Wishing, wanting and needing are three different values.

No one ever got anywhere wishing on a star. You can't always get what you want but sometimes you get what you need.

Lou Reed once said he had to play guitar because he knew he could never hold on to a regular job. He was failing at life 101 and new that it was either become a musician or spend the rest of his life in jail or die at a young age. Not that Lou Reed is anyone to aspire towards.

When I was getting clean from addiction my brain was a mess it was impossible for me to lock things down. This also applied to my guitar playing even though I played guitar before I became an addict. I needed to get better. I needed something to focus my attention on to clear my head and keep me from being out on the street looking for a quick fix. I'd watch some players with great self confidence surpass me and that would annoy me but still I'd persist. In time I'd see myself conquering things that while I thought they were easy weren't for me but I kept on fighting to get there. That lead to self confidence in the rest of my life as well. Eventually I got the confidence to play in front of others again. I seriously doubt if I could or would have picked up the guitar later in life.

Though I have known people who were in their 60s and even 70's who with no prior musical knowledge picked up the guitar and stuck with it to later become adequate musicians. They took lessons and put it upon themselves to be prepared for the next lessons which is something that wont happen in the YT era.

[GuyaGuy]

if the metal strings hurt your fingers, try starting out on air guitar, just to get the fretboard and chord shapes learned

Or...

https://www.aeroband.net/products/aerog ... 8971572412

[seangm]

Yes

[xtp]

how do you hold your pick?

I used to use open-hand technique but about 2 years ago I switched to closed-hand and I am just finding it is starting to feel natural. Picking I find easier with closed-hand, but strumming took a lot to get used to.

[MadDogE134]

well i don't know what you call my technique... as you can see i use the side of my pointer finger pressed against the knuckle of my thumb and only the tip of my pick showing. i use jazz iii picks. the biggest thing imo to using a pick is to NOT hold it with a death grip. it should sit like a feather in your hand... let it flow freely.

the reason i hold the pick this way is i like to let the string roll off my pointer finger, catch the pick then 'bark' off the meat of my thumb... quite easy to get it to 'chime' or pinch out sounds.

never took lessons and only did what came naturally. THAT is my most important advice... do what is natural to you. you will learn quickly that your best playing comes when you do it second nature. thinking only screws you up

cheers

p.s. one plus to holding the pick lightly is you can easily roll it into your palm and allow fingers to do 'finger picking' then roll it back into position again. also when i play i tend to 'anchor' with my pinky finger so the pick knows the distance to the string spacing. all part of muscle memory.

[pekbro]

I use a pick if i can find one. I can play a lot better without one as im not overly good at
the finger picking while using a pick thing.

For anyone whos actually serious about learning the guitar, i would say start on
a steel string acoustic, the hardest to play
that you can find. That will allow you to
build the necessary strength in the shortest
period of time imo. Use the heavy strings
as well, dont be a puss, its going to hurt,
but not forever.

[MadDogE134]

yeah an acoustic is harder on your hand and toughens it up faster imo too and when you can control the string 'ring' an electric will sound better to you lol electrics only AMPLIFY your mistakes

cheers

p.s. one other advice for new players starting out... get the best quality guitar you can afford right off. it will save you from many bad habits down the road. for example if you start on a guitar with extremely high action you will learn to squeeze the strings harder than you really should and when you finally get a 'good' guitar set up correctly you will still squeeze the way you initially learned how. best to avoid bad habits best you can :p

[vurt]

you can leave lou alone!
may not have been your idea of a virtuoso, but he had "the goods" whatever they may be.

carry on.

[tapper mike]

you can leave lou alone!
may not have been your idea of a virtuoso, but he had "the goods" whatever they may be.

carry on.

So when you read my post did you immediately break into "Sweet Jane" or "Walk on the Wild Side"?
I've covered them both when I was in a Rock/Blues band.

[tapper mike]

I use a pick if i can find one. I can play a lot better without one as im not overly good at
the finger picking while using a pick thing.

Like anything else it takes practice to get used to. I'm sloppier now because I too play fingerstyle most of the time now. Hybrid Picking is not an end all be all unless you intend to focus all your material/playing for it.

When I got into "Tap/Fingerpick" which was more Stanley Jordan inspired than EVH, I sucked. It was the worst time to do so because I didn't really get a chance to woodshed playing live 3/4 times a week. The sooner I completely transferred over the better I got. I won't say that I was great but I was damn good. After a time and I developed a reputation that put me over average joe cover band guitarist.

[vurt]

you can leave lou alone!
may not have been your idea of a virtuoso, but he had "the goods" whatever they may be.

carry on.

So when you read my post did you immediately break into "Sweet Jane" or "Walk on the Wild Side"?
I've covered them both when I was in a Rock/Blues band.

waitin for my man and venus in furs

[tapper mike]

I use a pick if i can find one. I can play a lot better without one as im not overly good at
the finger picking while using a pick thing.

There are limits and benefits to every method of picking. Usually you have to leave one method behind for a time to learn master another.


Thumb picks create a certain flair that isn't present with either flatpicking or fingerpicking.

Never tried these though I think I'd like them if I went back to that type of playing




Hybrid picking is a flatpick and fingerpicking. That was my main method in cover bands before tap and pick took over. It's more than chicken picking. It allowed me to fall back into arpeggiated chord word and flip around to strums and soloing losing very little along the way.
If not for my Tapping "awakening" I would have continued that method prolly for the rest of my days. It meant saying goodbye to traditional fingerpicking and took nothing away from my flatpicking. Later when I worked out my tap and finger approach I had to let hybrid go.





There are thumbpicks which allow for upstrokes but I hate the tone.

[pekbro]

Never really got along with the thumbpicks. Tho i never seriously tried to. I figured i would save that for when i ever finally got
round to picking up a banjo. heh

[MadDogE134]

waitin for my man and venus in furs

lol