listen to your inner voice , its a lot smarter than u are

galsteien
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 3:50 am

Been playing for about 2 months now, making slow progress, more so in the last four weeks than the first 4.

Can do the basic major chords c, d, e, g , a
but the c is giving me a hard time with muted strings

Been struggling to get chord changes in "jet plane" going and keeping rythm right with no luck, switched to arpeggios on "rising sun" changes from am,c etc coming nicely but still dodgy strings in c now and agian

Eventually decicded to listen to inner voice which had been screaming "sound of silence" but which i had ignored up to this morning

Pleasant surprise, no c chord in entire song and the strumming pattern is slower and i got it right away

So listen to your inner voices, they are smarter than u think


BigBear
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:14 am

Mark- it sounds like you are making good progress. Congrats! You bring up a really good point, to play within yourself and keep it fun. It's mandatory for growth to keep challenging yourself by playing songs tougher than what you can handle but if it becomes so difficult and so frustrating that it's just another struggle, what good id that?

I think you need to mix somgs you can play, even if they are really simple, with songs that seem over your head. I was playing something tonight and playing it pretty well. And I thought wow, a few months ago I wouldn't have even tried this song, now I've got it nailed! That was a wonderful feeling!

Keep posting us on your progress. That C chord is central to everything so keep practicing it. House of the Rising Sun is mandatory for all guitar players. It's in the rule book somewhere! lol!

Cheers! :cheer:


mark
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 5:32 am

The C chord is a difficult one to start with.
I think it is because you have to spread the fingers out so much.
Most people end up putting down their first finger first and then follow with their others. Eventually you can put down all 3 at the same time (but it takes time).

Make sure when you change from Am to C and back again that you only move your third finger. The other two can stay where they are


Lavallee
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:39 am

galsteien wrote:
Been playing for about 2 months now, making slow progress, more so in the last four weeks than the first 4.

Can do the basic major chords c, d, e, g , a
but the c is giving me a hard time with muted strings

Been struggling to get chord changes in "jet plane" going and keeping rythm right with no luck, switched to arpeggios on "rising sun" changes from am,c etc coming nicely but still dodgy strings in c now and agian

Eventually decicded to listen to inner voice which had been screaming "sound of silence" but which i had ignored up to this morning

Pleasant surprise, no c chord in entire song and the strumming pattern is slower and i got it right away

So listen to your inner voices, they are smarter than u think

Mark I think the mute strings is probably coming from the hand position. As Mark mentionned, the stretching is challenging. When you look at Neil's lessons, he often refers to the baseball bat position, where the thumb kind of wrap around the neck. The main drawback of the position is that your palm touches the neck and since your fingers have to stretch, you full palm ends up in contact with the neck since you have to open it.

The effect here is that your first finger on the second string (C note) is very bent and it touches the first string giving a mute sound to the chord. The 2 other fingers are most likely not perpendicular to the fret board as well touching other string.

So if you try to lower you thumb in the back of the neck than you fingers will be more perpendicular to the fret board and pushes your palm away from the neck. Your fingertips, rather than the side of the fingers (especially the first one), will touch the strings giving a cleaner sound. It looks a little less comfortable at the beginning. This is what I was told when I began and it helped.

The exercise that Mark suggested is very good because when lowering the thunb it is easier to make the Am, thus making easy to switch alternately from the Am to C

Marc


wrench
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:31 am

Mark,

I struggled with this problem a little myself. I think this problem is even tougher if one has short stubby fingers like I do.

Mark and Marc most certainly are right about hand position. I always had good hand position, but I don't have fingers like a space alien, and so I had to try some other stuff to beat the C chord.

First, since you have only been playing a short time, your hands may not be as flexible as they can be. Daily stretching and exercising for a few minutes increased my span a full fret after just one week.

Second, The muting may come from hand position, or it may be that your fingers are positioned too far from the frets. In several videos, Neil explicitly demonstrates that when changing from Am to C, you need to slide your middle finger up to the fret. This is really important if you have short fingers.

Third, when changing to C, lead with the third finger, then second finger, and stretch the first finger backward to land on the first fret of the B string. This is where the stretching exercises really pay off. If you stretch your second and third fingers, they lose some arch, making mutes more likely. When you shorten up on the first finger though, you increase arch.

Last, the C won't be the only challenge you face going forward. If something doesn't turn out to be easy for you, attack it, outsmart it, and beat it. Don't let it beat you. You'll get better faster, build confidence quickly, and have a lot more fun along the way. In a couple of months, you will be amazed at your own progress.

Good luck, my friend.

wrench


galsteien
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:40 am

tks for all the kewl advice dudes


heyjoe
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Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:50 pm

Hi Mark

After reading your post I'm wondering if you are trying to do too much at once. You're working on chords, palm muting, arpeggios, and keeping rhythm and you've been playing two months?

Some of the techniques you are trying to work on can be quite advanced, and while I totally understand and applaud your wish to stretch yourself and improve as quickly as possible, I'm also a huge advocate of getting the fundamentals right. (This from someone who is working to correct errors which have been ingrained into my playing over many years).

What I'm saying is maybe you'd be better focusing on getting the basics right before moving on to more complicated areas like arpeggios and palm muting...maybe focus on posture, hand position, fingering the chords correctly, getting your changes sounding smooth, and then move on.

I hope this is coming across as constructive feedback, as its meant that way. As I'm learning, when you are trying to learn something new, you really need to walk before you can run. Your inner voice is hopefully telling you this too!

Thanks

Joe


galsteien
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Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:23 am

Joe. tks for advice

Its partly (all?) my fault

I know people take a while to play guitar properly, I have need/want/have to ;)
get it uder the belt asap for lots of reasons (which i wont go into detail here )

So if im gonna push myself i suppose ill have to deal with the kwinsekwonses

Ill have to tske up meditation to keep the balance right

Once agian tks to all for taking time to listen to my rambling

Btw has anyone seen this kewl software? ((yea yea im probbably last ont he planet to find it , but here is url anyway ))

http://www.tabledit.com/index.shtml

Mark

[Edit] - Meditation - not medication - just incase u thought the typos has struck agian


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:49 am

As long as the voice inside your head is yours, you'll be fine..... if it's got a great booming resonance, a white beard and white flowing robes..... you might want to drop the meditating and pick up the medication.... :-)

Doing too much? Good point Joe. Some learning is just computing information. All the theory would fit into this category. Some learning is about laying down neural networks and requires repeated practice over time. Physical laws are in place that you can't over-ride. And some learning is process oriented where you need to find a way through trial and error to get where you wan to be. The latter plays out to it's own timetable and can't be forced. You will get there, but it will be on a S.A. train schedule, not a Swiss one! :-)


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