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Getting there!

Ha! Thanks so much!

@@lazarus908 pleasure and thanks!

Thanks!

I generally agree, but not always. For barre chords many people who are trying to do it ‘slow and perfect’ end up getting stuck in a hard to fix habit where every time they get to a barre chord they’ve trained themselves to stop to try to get it to sound perfect. So the point of my advice is that they also need to practice keeping going! And then when you try to keep going, you can assess what needs work and then you can go back and work on those things carefully. Also true some things work differently when you’re doing them fast, like say a tremolo where all the movements are happening kind of at the same time, it’s actually different than slow where it’s one finger at a time, and so at some point, like it or not you gotta go for it, and likely fail and then back to careful practice. If you’re trying to go from a double axle (sorry - one of my teachers got this from a figure skater) to a triple, there’s nothing in between so you can’t really work your way up, you gotta try, fail, dust off, go back to working on it carefully. If they don’t give it a bit of a Hail Mary try at some point they’ll be stuck and never learn it. Actually sort of true every time you go a little faster etc., if we really couldn’t make mistakes in practice it would be pretty rough!

It's sort of depressing at first to realize it can't be 'perfect', at least not for everything, but it's also kind of liberating to know it only gets as good as it gets! Thanks for that!

Thanks for that! And yeah I feel like people always get worried their ears aren’t good enough and that’s why it’s hard to tune, but often their ears are kind of ‘too good’ and they just need to expect it to be slightly imperfect!

Yeah nice one! Lower tension is a really good idea!

👍

...in a bar!

Here you go (I'm just considering it to be public domain, anyway): drive.google.com/file/d/1VYCzkG0yTxxmcDlEDLoTcYuuJX3WXpw-/view?usp=sharing That's funny bc I was just making it so my next one would have a link to my little theme song TAB, but I was thinking no one will probably ever look at it, but you've given me hope!

Yes, I totally remember that 'let your fingers do the walking' and that logo! and actually that's a good one!

That helped me a lot too bc it shows you how it feels - and it’s not like you have to actually practice with the ball, but just do it a little ‘like that’ - cupping your hand (with least possible effort!) - just makes it feel more stable, and then your fingers are more automatically the right spacing to cover 3 strings!. Thanks for watching!

I'm always jealous of stories like that, bc I was self-taught (first) and although everyone has different ideas of what the 'right way' is, I'm sure everyone would agree the way I taught myself was pretty terrible! But I do see people like you who play with good technique from self-taught because I think you're right the best way should also feel better, and so if you have good awareness and patience you might just get it naturally!

Yes, if you can do that then that’s probably the best! Just hard if you already have a habit of sticking it out to ‘will’ it to stop! But some people just never stick it out and do what you say, and I wish I would have been like that!

Excellent! I stopped saying to not move from the other joints and more like they can do their natural share of the movement but should initiate and only try to consciously control what you’re talking about…. Thanks for the amazingly insightful comment!

I always push for no pinky touching, and basically insist if it’s a classical student! But depends on your goals and everything! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it kind of thing! But I like this exercise bc you keep touching the strings the whole time which sort of gives you some of that sense of stability we are looking for with our pinky touching. And actually pinky touching is like the common technique for baroque guitar (bc strings are really close to soundboard, so it works more easily), so it’s not that crazy!

@@fretboardIQ thank you so much 😊 for the advice

This is a very helpful explanation to avoid the “bicycling” type of movement when plucking the strings. I’ve noticed guitarists that look like their playing is effortless and it’s partly because they use your recommended technique! Can you also explain the best way to use thumb planting … I think it really helps to achieve good tone and accuracy! Thanks!

I’ve had some students who just ‘naturally’ do strokes more this way as well, and I’m always jealous bc I self-taught my strokes as a kid and then 20 years later worked with classical teachers to ‘fix’ it. But it’s basically the same idea as piano technique or violin in a way, bc even though hand position might seem so different, they basically say not to bend wrist too much, keep fingers arched and use closing muscles to initiate movements! But that’s a totally interesting point and now I want to watch some banjo players and check out their technique!

I don´t think it´s the reason for health problems with the hand. I´m fingerpicking the same way for decades without any problems.

@@temporarydimensionalconfusion no, i don't think my banjo problems had to do with my technique; it was the combination of age and tension. i played for money maybe fifty years.

No, that’s a totally good question and basically I’d say yes! And even when I play on electric I do it the same way if I’m doing fingers. But I’m not putting any real power into it on electric, and then on steel string acoustic I can get a pretty good ‘flick’ feeling and tone that way. But if you can get used to using those closing muscles you’ll generally find you can play much more easily, which is kind of the main benefit, and then you can adapt it to different guitars or especially it might need to change if you’re doing a mute or some kind of special technique! But feels weird at first but just try the exercise a few days a few minutes here and there and it will already start to get more natural feeling!

I´m playing steel strings the same way. Never anchoring the pinkey, because it would not allow me to keep the fingers relaxed and straight. It worked for me for decades, without problems.

Hi, thanks for that, I edited out a bit where I was talking about that (bc I want to make a video about that too!) I’ve had nails most of the time for like 25 years so whenever I don’t have them it feels soooo weird to play now! But I do think it’s basically the same, and everyone likes to use Sor as an example of a guy who played like that with no nails…And I’ve seen teachers and books recommend to every so often get rid of the nails and work on the ‘pure’ strokes for a while and then you sort of try to shape your nails as they grow back so that the stroke doesn’t change but the nails just have that edge as the last surface that touches. Just see if you can find a little resistance and flick through it for the exercise! Thanks for great question!

Pleasure and thank you!

Thanks for that!

Thank you!

I don't know a great deal about acoustic instruments, but I can't see what expensive has to do with overall action on an electric? If it's been well made I'd expect good intonation, however for action as long as the neck & bridge are at least solidly adjustable, and the string height of the nut is where it's needs to be, then that's enough to get it to be playable. Whether your preferred action intonates well, or whether any setup at all does, is another matter; given what people have said about Gibson in recent years I wouldn't trust that throwing money is a reliable option in that aspect either. If you're referring to any form of acoustic then I can imagine there doesn't tend to be a cheaper solution however!

​@@BarrySPeaspeople are confusing set-up and high quality. A well set-up guitar will be most playable, with the action at an ideal gap b/t strings and fretboard. A high quality guitar will be made of higher quality materials and (for a classical guitar) be made by an expert luthier, who will be employing specific techniques in construction of the guitar in pursuit of coveted sound qualities. A guitar may have one, both, or neither of these properties. I have a classical guitar that is lower quality, mostly made of what is effectively plywood; its tone is ok and it has a rather poor sustain. I have another, higher quality classical made of all solid wood which has a better tone and a sustain roughly twice as long. The higher quality instrument is more expensive.