Strong Enough feedback

Chasplaya
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:41 pm
Status: Offline

Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:10 pm

Hi Roberta, yup the metronome is not easy to begin with but certainly worth persevering with. From listiening to your vids so far I doubt whether you will have too many issues, as Neil said good fretting fingers with good reach , envy here lol


wrench
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:12 pm
Status: Offline

Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:41 am

Roberta,

I'm not sure I have any business telling you how to play guitar because pretty soon, you will be awesome. You're already miles and miles ahead of me, but I have a couple of comments that might help you.

You look somewhat uncomfortable holding your guitar. It looks like it's sitting a little low, and you are bending at the waist a little to try to get down to it. Try sitting your right foot on a block out in front of your chair and see if that brings the guitar up to you. I think it will also enable you to get the guitar neck pointing a little more upward, and to find a guitar position where you are not supporting the guitar with your left hand as Neil teaches us.

You have great guitar hands, and it looks like you can get away with murder on hand position. I'm not so gifted, and that means I must use good hand position all the time, and for me that means some discipline on the thumb position. Try to keep your thumb vertical on the neck, and keep the hinge of your thumb in contact with the center of the neck. Apply force through the hinge, never through the top of your thumb. If you apply force through the top your thumb, you do not apply force evenly through your fingers, and you can't let go of the neck to change positions. In short, keep the top half of your thumb off the neck, and keep your thumb vertical. Also, on barre chords, align the thumb with your index finger to apply the force most efficiently where it needs to be - at the barre-ing finger.

You asked about the A to Bm chord change, and one of the things I love about learning from Neil is that you learn techniques and innovation to improve your music, not just rote chord charts. This means that you do not always go the same route to make an A chord or anything else. You make what is efficient. For the the A to Bm, try this: make your A chord with an Am chord shape with fingers 2,3, and 4 all in the 2nd fret, then just slide 3 and 4 to the 4th fret, 2 to the 3rd fret, and slap down the barre with your index finger. When putting down the barre, get your thumb vertical and aligned with your index finger. I just tried this. Wow. Easy.

Last, I cannot give you enough credit for posting your videos. Thank you for sharing them with us, and I can't wait to see more.

wrench


Post Reply Previous topicNext topic