BLESS YOU!! 70 year old very beginner! My hands have many years of knowledge but as you say, I need to go back to square one, acknowledge and accept that truth and common sense, and give myself a chance to learn. S L O W D O W N T O L E A R N!! A C K N O W L E D G E E A C H L I T T L E S U C C E S S !!
Hi, Janet. I signed up for your lessons the other day, and just received this in my e-mail. So, thank you! I began learning guitar (teaching myself via a few local friends here in NC, and from free RUclips lessons) and would not even have attempted it if it wasn't for RUclips! After I turned 65, my brother said now you need to start a hobby. I wasn't even thinking about learning to play an instrument, but about a year later, after talking to a local friend who plays guitar, I became intrigued. So, with his help, I purchased my first guitar, an Epiphone Hummingbird Artist acoustic, and started my journey. That was several years ago. I now have a Telecaster, and a semi-hollow that I TRY to rock out on. lol I feel I am passed the "beginner" stage, but as yet not to the "intermediate" stage, so I'm always looking for ways to improve my playing and understanding of music in general, and guitar music/playing in particular. The lessons I have watched of yours so far has helped me immensely! I cannot express my gratitude and thanks enough to you, and all those like you here on RUclips who share their knowledge, and love for music, especially the guitar! I was very fortunate to be in Hamburg, Germany in 1962-'63 while serving in the Navy, and saw The Beatles perform there. Now, I can actually play some of their famous tunes, thanks to people like you, and several friends here in NC. With my last name, by default, I HAD to be a Beatles fan! lol Again, thank you so very much for all you do, and I'm sorry this comment was so long. Take care, and keep up the great work you do! Mike. :)
Hi Mike McCartney! It's really fun to hear from you. I'm sorry my reply was slow. It's beginning to be difficult to keep up with the comments, which is a great problem to have! Thanks for following. Are you one on of the Mikes in my current inline class? I don't think so. In any case...I'm glad the RUclips lessons are helping. It's a wonderful tool. One I sure did not have back in the day.
Karen Weekley oh, thanks for your comment. You’re welcome! ... I did the same thing with harp: for one full year. Then I started over with a better technique and it was sure worth it.
I know! 😐 It took me way more than three years to learn these things. Actually...I target things that I think are not being taught enough elsewhere. A lot of these things are common stumbling blocks.
Tanmay Parekh ok, I will! Thanks for asking. I’ve been working on the EFG (Essential Fundamentals for Guitar) course, but I’m trying to get back to posting regularly. 😉
I started a week ago on line learning. My left wrist killing and of course fingers!. Gonna try this thank you. I'm not giving up! I'm 59 retired always wanted to learn. I think I'm too tense pressing too hard.. I need to relax! Will try this!
cecilia gouveia yay! Don’t give up! Relaxing often and making a habit of playing with less tension can make a huge difference. I had a severe injury when I was a classical guitar student. For 20 years I played very simple things believing I would never be able to play more complex things again. In the last few years my hands have healed to a great extent. I’m 58. A lot of what I have learned about relaxation came from my harp lessons, but I have learned to transfer it to guitar. And I learn my new habits by doing really simple exercises while focusing on technique and relaxation.
Ok good. Did you find the series on developing good guitar technique? I tried to share that earlier, but for some reason I can’t go back that far here on my phone. If you don’t find those, let me know. I can share a link when I’m on my computer.
Thanks for the comfort and support suggestions. So hard to relax when you want your hand to do something and get it right...all the time. Love the tips to shake hands and reset. Starting to learn at 64. Still have good hands. Retired so I have lots of time. Patience is part of the lesson. Getting a bit of a stiffness on right side of neck. Wondering if I’m leaning over to often to look at fret board. Or is my strumming arm starting to strengthen. Practicing 30 min. @ day on average.
Todd Weiler hi! Thanks for your continued moments! 30 / day us probably good at first. You want to avoid making any stiff muscles too tight. Even if half of your 30 minutes is spent stopping, relaxing, checking your posture, and starting again, that ya time well spent. Eventually the good posture and more relaxed approach will be a habit. Being attached to the result creates tension. Being focused on the process will help you be efficient and develop healthy effective technique. It’s slow at first, but be sure to measure progress in small increments. Once you get some technique and brain pathways developed for these new movements, you’ll enjoy faster progress on the musical sounds. Good awareness on the right side of neck pain. If you lean over or bend to see the fret board, just be sure to sit up straight and relax again after you’ve seen what you need to see. Or... sometimes we raise our shoulders needlessly to accomplish a task. It could be that.
Michael Turner hi Michael! Can you tell us anything about neck width on the Yamaha classical 1/2 and 3/4 size guitars? ... and how that might compare to a typical steel string guitar. My research has yielded conflicting information.
Hi Janet, I really like your approach to relaxing your fret hand and body posture. I've been focusing this during my practicing. Do you have any suggestions for doing pre-warm ups on fret hand? What I've done in past is wash my hands with hot water and it seems to make a difference. I have small hands, short fingers and need all the help I can get, lol. Thanks again.
Guitar playing goes all the way up your shoulders. Make sure you aren't really stiff in your upper body...depending on the weather and how you slept, you know how you feel. So do some windmills and get all sorts of basic stretching done (shoulders, arms, hands, fingers). Next, the muscles and ligaments get warmed up and ready. That really helps reducing possible carpal tunnel problems (combined with proper wrist position, that should be straight as much as possible except barre chords, it helps to have ergonomic guitar rest that points the neck up at an angle). Back to the warm up...to get some blood pumping and the forearm muscles working I use an forearm trainer working against an adjustable spring that works with inward and flipped with outward wrist movement. But you don't need that. You can take a really small barbell (the coloured ones for rehab.) close your fist(not overtighten) around the barbell while looking at the inside of your wrist with your forearm resting on your leg (wrist is free, hanging in front of your knees). Now lift your fist towards you...but don't force the full range of motion and do reps until you can feel the muscles in your forearm. Now flip it around so the palm is facing the floor and the knuckles move towards you. Do that with both arms. This is a lot of text, but the actual warm up takes less than 5 minutes. Now the fingers. We close our hands all the time but we're not used to quickly open them. Playing guitar is always pressure and release. By working on the opening you reach a balance. Work against a rubber band, a thera-band or you can get those colour coded silicone finger trainers. Never use one that makes your fingers tremble. Always isolate one finger have some tension already at the beginning of the motion. Using the full finger trainer as intended doesn't help here, cause you use your palm too much and the stronger fingers help the weaker. You've got to strengthen the weaker ones. (that helps to stabilize the pinky as well). It's no harm to do that on both hands, especially when you play fingerstyle. NOW you're ready to play for a few hours with minimal risk of harm. 2 more things: 1. Take a business card and push it under your strings above the first fret. There shouldn't be more space than a business card between the unpressed strings and the fretwire. If there is more space, work on the nutslots or go to a luthier who does it for you (not guitar center). If the string action is too high on the first fret, any sort of chord can be painful and it shouldn't be. Proper string action can make playing a lot more comfortable especially when you have small hands. As she mentioned, get close to the frets and you need less pressure. 2. the further down your thumb is on the back of the neck, the further you can spread your fingers. When you play barre chords, think which strings the barre really has to hold down and which are already covered by your other fingers so you don't have to press down all the strings with the barre but maybe just 2-3 strings. Almost forgot: Look at your overall posture. Don't hang over your guitar (bad for your back and neck) but force yourself to look at the side-dots on the top of the neck rather than looking at the fretboard. A mirror can be useful as well to check what you're doing. Hope that helps.
Thank you. Each day I just practise cords and trying to memorise almost feel the shapes before placement of hand. Can I ask how did yourself learn cord shapes
Fun Creations I just kept making them even though they sounded bad at first. I remember being surprised when F finally sounded good and I didn’t know why. A lot happens subconsciously if we practice often. For many years it sounded good, but I had injury. The principals I teach here helped me to play with more relaxation and without injury.
Like how your fingers move..make it looks so easy and beautiful and the sound out of really soft too...if i play my fingers look so stiff and rigid. It really impact the sound..something wrong with my fingers
It takes time to develop a good relaxed technique. You are very observant. It does make our music sound better when we are relaxed. Good technique is very important to me as a player and as a teacher. I will be including more about this in future lessons. One important part of developing good technique is to play something very easy...not even music, just one or two notes, and then one or two more, and be observant and find the best technique and relaxed position for you.
BLESS YOU!! 70 year old very beginner! My hands have many years of knowledge but as you say, I need to go back to square one, acknowledge and accept that truth and common sense, and give myself a chance to learn.
S L O W D O W N T O L E A R N!!
A C K N O W L E D G E E A C H L I T T L E S U C C E S S !!
Buttermilk3696 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
All sound good pedagogically. I like the analogy of the young child learning.
Hi, Janet. I signed up for your lessons the other day, and just received this in my e-mail. So, thank you! I began learning guitar (teaching myself via a few local friends here in NC, and from free RUclips lessons) and would not even have attempted it if it wasn't for RUclips! After I turned 65, my brother said now you need to start a hobby. I wasn't even thinking about learning to play an instrument, but about a year later, after talking to a local friend who plays guitar, I became intrigued. So, with his help, I purchased my first guitar, an Epiphone Hummingbird Artist acoustic, and started my journey. That was several years ago. I now have a Telecaster, and a semi-hollow that I TRY to rock out on. lol I feel I am passed the "beginner" stage, but as yet not to the "intermediate" stage, so I'm always looking for ways to improve my playing and understanding of music in general, and guitar music/playing in particular. The lessons I have watched of yours so far has helped me immensely! I cannot express my gratitude and thanks enough to you, and all those like you here on RUclips who share their knowledge, and love for music, especially the guitar! I was very fortunate to be in Hamburg, Germany in 1962-'63 while serving in the Navy, and saw The Beatles perform there. Now, I can actually play some of their famous tunes, thanks to people like you, and several friends here in NC. With my last name, by default, I HAD to be a Beatles fan! lol Again, thank you so very much for all you do, and I'm sorry this comment was so long. Take care, and keep up the great work you do! Mike. :)
Hi Mike McCartney! It's really fun to hear from you. I'm sorry my reply was slow. It's beginning to be difficult to keep up with the comments, which is a great problem to have! Thanks for following. Are you one on of the Mikes in my current inline class? I don't think so. In any case...I'm glad the RUclips lessons are helping. It's a wonderful tool. One I sure did not have back in the day.
I can’t thank you enough.... one year doing it wrong with my wrist and starting over.
Karen Weekley oh, thanks for your comment. You’re welcome! ... I did the same thing with harp: for one full year. Then I started over with a better technique and it was sure worth it.
My guitar teachers never told me this, three years on.
I know! 😐 It took me way more than three years to learn these things. Actually...I target things that I think are not being taught enough elsewhere. A lot of these things are common stumbling blocks.
That is good.
Please make more videos because this is the first time I am actually understanding the basics of guitar
Tanmay Parekh ok, I will! Thanks for asking. I’ve been working on the EFG (Essential Fundamentals for Guitar) course, but I’m trying to get back to posting regularly. 😉
I started a week ago on line learning. My left wrist killing and of course fingers!. Gonna try this thank you. I'm not giving up! I'm 59 retired always wanted to learn. I think I'm too tense pressing too hard.. I need to relax! Will try this!
cecilia gouveia yay! Don’t give up! Relaxing often and making a habit of playing with less tension can make a huge difference. I had a severe injury when I was a classical guitar student. For 20 years I played very simple things believing I would never be able to play more complex things again. In the last few years my hands have healed to a great extent. I’m 58. A lot of what I have learned about relaxation came from my harp lessons, but I have learned to transfer it to guitar. And I learn my new habits by doing really simple exercises while focusing on technique and relaxation.
@@janetbrockman3729 thank you. I found some more videos from you re these techniques thank you so much.
Ok good. Did you find the series on developing good guitar technique? I tried to share that earlier, but for some reason I can’t go back that far here on my phone. If you don’t find those, let me know. I can share a link when I’m on my computer.
Thanks for the comfort and support suggestions. So hard to relax when you want your hand to do something and get it right...all the time. Love the tips to shake hands and reset. Starting to learn at 64. Still have good hands. Retired so I have lots of time. Patience is part of the lesson. Getting a bit of a stiffness on right side of neck. Wondering if I’m leaning over to often to look at fret board. Or is my strumming arm starting to strengthen. Practicing 30 min. @ day on average.
Todd Weiler hi! Thanks for your continued moments! 30 / day us probably good at first. You want to avoid making any stiff muscles too tight. Even if half of your 30 minutes is spent stopping, relaxing, checking your posture, and starting again, that ya time well spent. Eventually the good posture and more relaxed approach will be a habit. Being attached to the result creates tension. Being focused on the process will help you be efficient and develop healthy effective technique. It’s slow at first, but be sure to measure progress in small increments. Once you get some technique and brain pathways developed for these new movements, you’ll enjoy faster progress on the musical sounds. Good awareness on the right side of neck pain. If you lean over or bend to see the fret board, just be sure to sit up straight and relax again after you’ve seen what you need to see. Or... sometimes we raise our shoulders needlessly to accomplish a task. It could be that.
Hello, Stopping buy to say hi! "Your Gear Guy" from Musicians Friend.
Michael Turner hi Michael! Can you tell us anything about neck width on the Yamaha classical 1/2 and 3/4 size guitars? ... and how that might compare to a typical steel string guitar. My research has yielded conflicting information.
I am in contact with Yamaha, waiting for a reply from their Rep. :)
Hi Janet, I really like your approach to relaxing your fret hand and body posture. I've been focusing this during my practicing. Do you have any suggestions for doing pre-warm ups on fret hand? What I've done in past is wash my hands with hot water and it seems to make a difference. I have small hands, short fingers and need all the help I can get, lol. Thanks again.
Guitar playing goes all the way up your shoulders. Make sure you aren't really stiff in your upper body...depending on the weather and how you slept, you know how you feel. So do some windmills and get all sorts of basic stretching done (shoulders, arms, hands, fingers). Next, the muscles and ligaments get warmed up and ready. That really helps reducing possible carpal tunnel problems (combined with proper wrist position, that should be straight as much as possible except barre chords, it helps to have ergonomic guitar rest that points the neck up at an angle). Back to the warm up...to get some blood pumping and the forearm muscles working I use an forearm trainer working against an adjustable spring that works with inward and flipped with outward wrist movement. But you don't need that. You can take a really small barbell (the coloured ones for rehab.) close your fist(not overtighten) around the barbell while looking at the inside of your wrist with your forearm resting on your leg (wrist is free, hanging in front of your knees). Now lift your fist towards you...but don't force the full range of motion and do reps until you can feel the muscles in your forearm. Now flip it around so the palm is facing the floor and the knuckles move towards you. Do that with both arms.
This is a lot of text, but the actual warm up takes less than 5 minutes.
Now the fingers. We close our hands all the time but we're not used to quickly open them. Playing guitar is always pressure and release. By working on the opening you reach a balance. Work against a rubber band, a thera-band or you can get those colour coded silicone finger trainers. Never use one that makes your fingers tremble. Always isolate one finger have some tension already at the beginning of the motion. Using the full finger trainer as intended doesn't help here, cause you use your palm too much and the stronger fingers help the weaker. You've got to strengthen the weaker ones. (that helps to stabilize the pinky as well). It's no harm to do that on both hands, especially when you play fingerstyle.
NOW you're ready to play for a few hours with minimal risk of harm.
2 more things:
1. Take a business card and push it under your strings above the first fret. There shouldn't be more space than a business card between the unpressed strings and the fretwire. If there is more space, work on the nutslots or go to a luthier who does it for you (not guitar center). If the string action is too high on the first fret, any sort of chord can be painful and it shouldn't be. Proper string action can make playing a lot more comfortable especially when you have small hands.
As she mentioned, get close to the frets and you need less pressure.
2. the further down your thumb is on the back of the neck, the further you can spread your fingers. When you play barre chords, think which strings the barre really has to hold down and which are already covered by your other fingers so you don't have to press down all the strings with the barre but maybe just 2-3 strings.
Almost forgot: Look at your overall posture. Don't hang over your guitar (bad for your back and neck) but force yourself to look at the side-dots on the top of the neck rather than looking at the fretboard. A mirror can be useful as well to check what you're doing.
Hope that helps.
Thank you. Each day I just practise cords and trying to memorise almost feel the shapes before placement of hand. Can I ask how did yourself learn cord shapes
Fun Creations I just kept making them even though they sounded bad at first. I remember being surprised when F finally sounded good and I didn’t know why. A lot happens subconsciously if we practice often. For many years it sounded good, but I had injury. The principals I teach here helped me to play with more relaxation and without injury.
Like how your fingers move..make it looks so easy and beautiful and the sound out of really soft too...if i play my fingers look so stiff and rigid. It really impact the sound..something wrong with my fingers
It takes time to develop a good relaxed technique. You are very observant. It does make our music sound better when we are relaxed. Good technique is very important to me as a player and as a teacher. I will be including more about this in future lessons. One important part of developing good technique is to play something very easy...not even music, just one or two notes, and then one or two more, and be observant and find the best technique and relaxed position for you.
Janet Brockman thank you mom. Yeah relax and correct technique is the key...but so hard to be relax when i play..