Took me years to figure these out but now I see how much it can benefit my students so it was worth it. ;) Check out all my videos at: www.the-art-of-guitar.com Patreon: / theartofguitar
Great tips. I'm not a beginner, but I play like I am a beginner. I broke my neck in 2005 and really have no strength in my left hand due to muscle atrophy in my left arm. I tend to fret too hard and also strum too hard. Love the thick pick idea too. I quickly get cramps in my left (fretting) hand. Now that you pointed out to me why, I picked my guitar up and played. Even barre chords seem to sound better. Thank you for the reminders. Now to get my creative brain flowing once again.....
This is kinda where I am at. I used to play viola from 5th to 12th grade and guitar I taught myself through my teen years. I'm 24 now, haven't picked up a guitar in 4+ years, and lost most of my skill. The technique is coming back, but the expression in my music is going to take some time to recover.
I am just about ready to break out my old Gibson Les Paul Studio guitar now that my hand is back after 18 months of Physical Therapy. Great video I will have o go back, and rewatch.
I've been playing for over 35 years. Always good to watch a video like this , just incase you may have forgotten something obvious over time. I still tend to switch picks depending on what I'm playing ,but if I had to choose just one guage of pick for everything ,it's the Herco Flex 50 for me 👍
Man i have been playing for 4 years and i always had problems with the hand synchronisation but i saw some other lessons that you've mentioned like the spider one and im having big improvements to my guitar playing! And also ive realized not so long ago that using metronome as you practice is waaaay better than not using one.
Nice tips, I teach the anchor idea as well. I always like to have the anchor taught on the lowest string as usually beginners will strum top down. This buys them a little extra nano-seconds to get positioned even if they begin strumming while getting fingers positioned.
Can you please do a video analyzing and breaking down Kiko Loureiro's fluid and yet percussive picking technique and his super relaxed fretting hand? 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Guitar hack- don’t play a cheaply made guitar. Now I don’t mean get a Gibson les Paul, but don’t get a cheap guitar off of wish. Get like a bullet strat and a practice amp to start out, so if you don’t like it, it won’t put a dent in your bank account.
Thanks Mike for another great video. I have been playing for 18 months now and I have a few areas that need correcting so these videos are great. One question I have is when I play triads like the chords at the beginning of Substitute by The Who. I need to barre the high E and B strings at the Fifth Fret and play the 6th fret of the G and strum the strings 4-1. I can't do this comfortably using my first finger for the bare and second finger on the G string, its really awkward and uncomfortable so I swap my second finger for my third and I can play it that way no issue. Is it ok do it this way or should I persevere with fingers 1 and 2? Any tips?
Just learning triads myself, and I don't have the trouble you're having with the majors, but I do start to use barres on the D shaped ones at higher frets, and I use all sorts of combinations on the minors. I think once you reach a certain point in your playing, use whatever fingering suits you best. It can even vary from song to song. No-one is going to tell you it's wrong if it sounds good.
Maybe its odd but i always used my pinky for chord made it alot easier to switch to barre chords later on to . Though i'm new myself only been playing for lose to 1 and a half month now
Light pressure for fretting... (Looks at '89 Metallica show.) Kirk Hammett just chokes his guitar And stabs it with his pick and that's where the sound comes out . Neat.. Lol.
Gibson extra heavy picks are the best. Theyre like 1.3 so not actually THAT heavy (my boyfriend insists on using those transparent purple dunlop 2mms, despite me getting him all sorts of nice picks, but he played bass for a long time so i forgive him lol)
Dyers eve, master of puppets (correctly played), blackened intro riff, ride the lightning spider riff, battery, fight fire with fire and almost every kill em all riffs
Have to disagree on the pick thickness - the longer I play, the more connected I feel to the instrument when I use paper-thin picks, espeically Nylon. Sort of like the EVH tremolo picking thing, I feel that it allows alternate picking to flow more effortlessly. Any time i use a 1.00 or thicker pick, it feels like i'm fighting with the instrument and wearing on the strings. .60 or .46 Dunlop Nylons for me :)
Just started learning a week ago and find it super easy to get the chords right, at least the beginner ones. It's switching between them that's killing me. Will definitely try the spider exercises, thanks for the tip!
The switching can be hard to start with, but it's just practice and repetition. Take pairs of chords and each day just see how many times you can switch between them in a minute. Keep that up for a few weeks and you'll notice a big improvement. Keep going until you can do 60 changes a minute. Sounds impossible? Nope, just practice. Start with E, A and D - you'll find you can keep your index finger anchored and just move the other two. Then start to add in G and C, E minor, A minor, D minor. Even with just E, A and D once you can change at 20-30 times a minute you can already play some simple songs. And an extra piece of advice, once you have these simple chords nailed, start working on the full barre chord version of F as soon as you can, it will pay off in the long term I promise :)
Are saying that is it okay to put alot of pressure to strum the guitar? If so i dont think you need that much force to just strum. Its more like you glide your pick on the strings with a bit of resistance i suppose. And your wrist should not be stiff when you are strumming.
He does looks young but if you really look and pay attention to his face you will see a bit of fine lines and wrinkles though they're barely noticeable so I would say he looks 25 but he's probably 39 or 40
