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Paramemetic posted:I consider myself a fairly decent guitarist, but I have a relatively beginner question. How does one pluck with a pick such that it doesn't sound so aggressive and staccato? I have a problem where individual notes played on an acoustic guitar hit with a lot of attack, and I'd rather it be more fluid. I'm not really amazing at guitar, but the easiest way was just to strike with the very tip of a pick? Petrucci for instance makes a huge deal out of how close you should keep your fingers to the tip of a pick.
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Sep 10, 2010 00:16
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Coritani posted:I've just started to pick up acoustic guitar for the first time and I've got a few questions. I've already bought a guitar. I'm not learning with a pick much because I prefer to just use my fingers. quote:How do I hold the neck properly? I've seen places suggest that you just touch it with your thumb. I tend to sort of grip it with my whole palm, like I'm holding a bat. Is this the right way to do it or will it just hold me back in the long run? quote:Does anyone know some solid exercises for learning fingerpicking? I've seen dozens but I don't know which ones are best. Should I just do, like, all of them, over and over? I really want to build up dexterity in my right hand because I love the sound of fingerpicking songs. Make sure you pluck your bass note (most of the time the A string, but C for the C chord; the third chord will be D, so D for the D chord) with your thumb. Practice very slowly plucking the rest of the strings with a single finger. Don't pluck more than one string with the same finger. quote:Finally, does anyone have any beginner songs to learn? I really want to stick with learning guitar, and I figure one of the ways to do that is to make sure there's variety in my practises, so I'm not learning the same song over and over. This is where my knowledge fails. I know that Woody Guthry has some simple fingerpicked songs though.
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Sep 13, 2010 13:47
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baka kaba posted:I'm no shredder but guitarists tend to use the one-finger-per-fret technique, where you have your hand in one position (say index finger over the 5th fret) and your fingers cover a box of four frets, with each finger responsible for the notes on the fret it covers. There's more to it than that (you can sometimes stretch, you might need to play more than one note at once, and if you're moving position it might make sense to fret a note with a different finger) but that's the basic idea. When you're shredding the minor scale and have to do, for example, two whole tone stretches (let's say third to fifth to seventh fret) then use your index finger, middle and pinky.[1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1RypBww_g (i love gilbert so much)
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Sep 19, 2010 22:54
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After going from D'Addario to Slinky strings on my Ibanez, my Floyd was no longer level. I had to take out a spring - it was still not level. So what I did was the following: I gave the screws that connect the whole spring system to the body a few turns outward, so that the tension on the springs would be lessened from one side. Then I tuned my guitar. My bridge is now perfectly level. Is that the right way to do it? Am I supposed to touch those screws? How far outward do they go?
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Oct 19, 2010 16:35
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Side Effects posted:It's totally fine. A lot of pro-guitar players leave the back cover off of the guitar for quick access to the springs and claw screws if they need it. I don't remember how long the screws are, but they are made fairly long to suit nearly any adjustment. Thanks. It withstood the test of time too, so I'm thinking it's fine
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Oct 19, 2010 23:02
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In relation to the post above: is it mandatory to 'unfloat' the bridge on a floyd rose system before I adjust the intonation on it?
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Oct 23, 2010 02:41
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Got tendonitis... again. The muscle connecting my elbow to my wrist, on the 'underside' of my forearm (the part that would not tan if you were to sunbathe, let's say) is all swollen and painful. This tends to happen whenever I practice anything fast. Aspiring to shred, that's near unavoidable. Is it the lack of a proper warmup routine? Because I doubt it'd be my technique that's causing this issue: I use only my wrist to pick. What am I doing wrong? This poo poo is so annoying. Not being able to play is annoying.
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Oct 29, 2010 02:40
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CalvinDooglas posted:don't practice fast. I can play pretty drat fast when I want, but I don't have the metronome set above 84 for anything involving two hands. The fastest thing I practiced today was sextuplets at 77 bpm. You really need a good warmup if you want to pick fast. Yeah, sorry for not mentioning that. I have no issues at all with my fretting hand. It's ALWAYS my picking hand! Always!
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Oct 29, 2010 03:41
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dark_panda posted:This actually could be the problem: you're putting too much wrist into it. You want to use a combination of wrist and elbow action: picking on one string should be mostly wrist-based, but movement from string to string across the fretboard should be largely elbow-based. Basically the fine movements you want to use your wrist as the angle of your wrist is largely going to go unchanged for picking against an individual string, but to move to another string, you'd have to increase the strain on the wrist, so your elbow has to make this adjustment. This could be it. If I can reach the strings without moving my entire arm, I usually just angle my wrist down and play the strings I need. Carefully examining my playing, my hand and wrist and forearm tense up pretty up bad when I put it in higher gear. Gonna have to think about that consciously and avoid it. Thanks for the tips. Anything else you might have would be appreciated (like how to get rid of this inflammation faster so I can start playing again  ).
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Oct 29, 2010 14:06
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Thanks again to everyone for the informative posts.
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Oct 30, 2010 01:22
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babychimps posted:imo the two shittest things about learning on cheapo guitars are yse. My first proper guitar was a budget model OLP John Petrucci signature series. It's a terrible guitar until you swap out the tuners. I don't know a lot about the nut but the problem of open chords sounding like crap is there, especially if you use a bit more force to strike them.
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Nov 2, 2010 13:06
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Saddamnit posted:I've been playing guitar for almost a year now, but have been playing sitting down. I recently started trying to play while standing up and I'm having trouble keeping the guitar steady. I'm having a hard time hitting the right fingerings now that the guitar isn't as steady as when I was playing sitting down. Are there any methods for keeping it steady while playing standing up? Experiment with different heights/strap settings and positions relative to your body. I had this same problem. It's the reason my guitar is at nipple height if I'm standing up. Don't worry, a day or two of practice and it'll get a lot easier.
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Nov 4, 2010 00:50
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G strings are nothing but trouble. They're always the first string to detune. My guitar's G string sustains far far less than any other string on any other note, as well. lol
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Dec 6, 2010 18:32
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I was going to get my guitar set up, but I'm just too low on funds at the moment, so I'm trying to make the best of it with the tools at hand: Does lower pickup height always amount to more sustain? It seems like it's far easier to get the guitar to feedback w/ the amp when I raise my (bridge) pickup(s) slightly. There is nothing about the tone change that I dislike, and the clean sustain seems to be no worse (if not better!) than before. I'm asking, since in the guitar setup Youtubes, they seem to talk about it as a rule: lower pickup height = less magnetic pull on the strings therefore longer string vibration time. Thanks! Great thread, by the way. It must be said
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Jan 7, 2011 17:51
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Try touching different parts of your guitar, like the strings (don't pluck), frets, bridge - basically the potentially conducting parts. Does the sound of the hum change drastically? If not, it's probably a computer or TV on the same circuit/outlet. Speaking from experience here. It's a necessary evil for practice, though. e: like rt4 said SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jan 24, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 21:35
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David Pratt posted:The sustain on my electric guitar seems to have suddenly dropped right off. Any obvious cause for this? Have you changed your amplifier positioning, your own positioning in relation to your amplifier, your amplifier volume or your amplifier gain settings? If so, you may have lost 'the sweet spot' where your guitar interacts with your amp to create a really nice loopback sustain (that you might have gotten used to). Are your strings fresh? I had one string that was totally not sustaining at all. It turns out that the winding on it, near my bridge, had actually slipped off and was just loosely hanging over the steel core, muffling the vibrations. Are your frets all still in the right position? Are they all still seated properly in the wood? Is the sustain 'good' anywhere, or just bad everywhere?
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Feb 19, 2011 18:07
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 Any tips on picking this fast? Right now I'm barring the G down to the A# to get those and using my ring finger for G's octave when I need it. Hitting a down stroke when coming back to the G seems to make things more rhythmic... but I can't get over the delay when getting my hand back in that position again. Would it be a crime to just hybrid pick that, i.e. use my middle finger and ring finger to fingerpick all but low E?
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Mar 6, 2011 01:10
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CalvinDooglas posted:16ths at that tempo are a little above "new to guitar". Just keep on the alt picking. I remember there being another guitar thread like this, but for intermediate level. Checked the first two pages and didn't see it! my bad It's more of a technique question though. The way I usually pick, economy I guess, has me hitting the open A string on the way down sometimes. Thought there might be a best practice to getting around faster. It's the distances travelled vertically that I've not done before. e: it might be goony or cliche by now but the little riff there is from vivaldi's summer (in case someone was wondering) and i really like it SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Mar 6, 2011 |
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Mar 6, 2011 03:11
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CalvinDooglas posted:there's an intermediate thread that seemed to die when my laptop did last fall, "No Longer New to Guitar". Unless you are concerned that your basic motions are not in shape, I would work up the alt picking. Just be sure that your pick is nice and flat! I think you'll find it easier to work with alt picking for string skips than economy. Up accents are a pain to get consistent, but remember to relax and not change the angle of the pick like you do with economy. Thanks a lot. I'll work on that. I do have a tendency to angle the pick, especially when doing poo poo like fast runs, but it doesn't get a nice, hard attack that way. You tend also to lose the ability to accent that way... Don't think that archived threads can be brought back, only remade.
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Mar 6, 2011 20:41
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Walked posted:Can anyone help me out on two things: As far as this is concerned, if you want a challenge, transcribe (or use guitar pro, preferably version 5.) piano sections of various songs on your guitar. You'll have a lot of fun learning chord shapes, accents etc..
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Apr 27, 2011 21:20
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Incredulous Dylan posted:I purchased a Boss ME-70 multi effects processor the other day to go with that new strat, and I'm totally in love with it so far. It has a lot of those things you sort of go "man, that would be cool to have" (especially the 38 sec phrase loop). I'd say check out that demo video, but for me my reasoning was really that I'd rather have one of these from a well known name than a collection of different pedals that would end up costing more. Seconding. This thing is great for beginners and even intermediate players I'd say. I mean, as far as I know, the ruling opinion among pros is that nothing beats the specialized stompboxes; but even then, this thing will give you an overview of so many of the different effects, that when it comes to getting your own set of stomp boxes, you'll know what you like/what to get. The only thing that unequivocally sucks on it is the Wah...
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May 3, 2011 00:04
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crm posted:this makes no sense My first 'real' guitar was the budget model Petrucci signature series by OLP and it has just that. A thin, from fretboard to fingers, but very wide, from top to bottom string neck. It's great to play on and not just a gimmick.
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May 4, 2011 14:32
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Faffel posted:I've heard the MetalZone is a bit of a disaster, but it sounded nice enough from the demo vids on youtube. I really want the Metal Core pedal (it sounds AWESOME despite the name), but it is just way too expensive. I can't wait to get the guitar home tomorrow and play with it, though. I can't pick for poo poo and I've never really done much chording. It'll be a wonderful cacophany. I have a good as new Boss Metalcore pedal that I've used like twice over the last 2 years. I bought it for slightly more than a hundred euros, you can have it for half that if you want it.  E: the little white specks on the bottom left part of the casing are white paint. Comes right off (from a recently re-done wall) Also, I just remembered this isn't the gear selling thread. Shall I (re)move this post? (apologies) SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 16:32 on May 11, 2011 |
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May 11, 2011 16:28
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Warcabbit posted:http://www.maldenguitars.com/store.htm These seem like really good instruments. How do guitars like this and the Rondo/Agile/Xaviere etc. type guitars (which seem to be very sharply priced) compare to market standards of the same or higher price?
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May 19, 2011 13:28
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Zakalwe posted:Does anyone else think the Valkyrie is a nicer design than the original SG? When you're used to the original SG, looking at the Valkyrie makes it seem like it has some kind of bulbous growth attached to it.
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May 20, 2011 18:54
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MurraneousX posted:Don't think about it like people flashing around gold jewelry and such, just think about the aesthetically appealing juxtaposition of contrasting colours. ^ For example: 
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May 21, 2011 15:01
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Picking hard is really bad for developing good lead technique though, in my opinion of course. I've found that most of my injuries, dry spells, lack of precision, etc. could all in a way be traced back to either using too much of my pick or picking too hard.
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Oct 20, 2011 00:28
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baka kaba posted:Try some unison bends too and don't quite match the notes to get some dissonance, although it obviously works better distorted too Does this guy have amazing sustain on those notes or is that just me imagining things? Good setup? Feedback? Compressor?
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Oct 20, 2011 12:41
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baka kaba posted:In my crappy experience I can get that with a decent amount of gain! Could be a compressor in there too, it seems to fade pretty consistently though. Sounds like someone's jonesing for some tone Eh yeah. Tried it a couple of times and I'm probably just imagining the difference, but gain does help, as does cranking the amp slightly more so you get a little feedback going. It's more insecurity, in that I haven't had my main guitar checked out in a long time, and it was made in like 1990.
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Oct 20, 2011 23:04
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So what's the deal with .11s? Seinfeld bass line goes here But seriously, is there anything serious to consider if I were to switch over to .11 gauge strings on my main guitar? We're talking about an Ibanez 450S from 1990. I want to try out thicker strings, I want my strings to 'give' less when I pick them (also changing strings is long overdue anyway). Anyone has experiences or warnings to share? e: this post reads like some bad avant-garde poetry god drat. hope it's understandable
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Oct 23, 2011 00:29
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Thanks for the information. I'm just waiting for a string to break so I have an alibi to put new ones on it. It has a combination of D'Addarios and Slinkies on it and this batch seems to be indestructible. I've dicked around with the Floyd plenty, too! Pshhhh if you don't re-intonate every time the G6 from the opening of Rush's the Necromancer sounds off.
SSJ2 Goku Wilders fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Oct 23, 2011 |
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Oct 23, 2011 01:21
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CalvinDooglas posted:You should replace the string every month regardless of how worn they are. Why so? I'm not doubting you but I'd like to know the reasoning for changing strings so often. Also agreed on picking too hard, but sag isn't the only reason I'd like to try bigger strings
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Oct 23, 2011 13:24
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^Yes to all your questions, and I agree with your reasoning on all points. I don't think I've ever tried 10-52, but probably will not because of your post. edit: thanks, forgot to say thanks!!!!!
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Oct 23, 2011 16:33
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Learning both has been very useful to me. I gave up on alternate picking because of the condition of my right arm, but have picked it up again since I last read the discussion about it on these forums. Currently I very much still prefer econonmy picking over anything else, but alternate picking has its benefits. IMHO, the greatest thing about alternate picking is learning to/forcing yourself to outside pick. You don't have to do it all the time either. Gilbert is a big proponent of alternate picking in general, and it's obvious why. He wants you to outside pick when you string skip, for instance, so you don't hit the strings you're not supposed to, by accident. On the other hand, I think Gambale is one of those dudes that agrees with Porn Thread. I'm sure I've seen a lesson by him where he goes "why learn to play the same thing in more than one way? Use the one that works!". If you have the patience and time, learning both is great. Not that I'm any kind of authority here, just sharing my opinion.
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Oct 29, 2011 00:10
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