How to play the Guitar - Avoiding famous BAD HABITS (and pressing strings correctly)

[@dresdenliam]

wow such a great video lesson.

[@davidhenry3938]

Very helpful

[@jalakarvad]

Making mistakes is also learning. Guitar learning is just dealing with different problems all the time. When you get better then you are limited by new things and we must develop new and cleaner technique. If you play lots of barre chords then sooner or later you play thumb over because its less straing for our wrist.

[@maongsam7292]

really valuable

[@AndreRMeyer]

👍🙏✌ Greetings from the sunny climes of Basle, Switzerland

[@liberalsrmentallyflawed3611]

One mistake is, not having a guirar that is properly set up and some 11s or lighter guage strings than 13s. Just learning guitar, those 2 things are very important.

[@matthewmaurysmith2486]

There really is nothing better than the sound of a 13 on the high E ! Sometimes I'll go a little lighter on the bass gauges but I've found a little truss rod tightening will bring those medium gauge strings closer down onto the neck. Try it! It's so worth it!

[@tomb1033]

Thank you, some of these I knew some I did not. I'll try the exercise and fret touch recognition.

[@somewherebound]

So, Ryan Adams is teaching guitar now ?And whaddaya know , he's a pretty good at it :)

[@matthewmaurysmith2486]

No no it's Austin Powers ;-)

[@humbledb4jesus]

here's my experience as a self taught artist: 1> i didn't learn it wrong - i learned it different from you. if you have technical skills that you can offer, then offer them... - don't insult your audience 2> self taught artists learn to play well with others because they learn harmony musicianship from playing with the songs - auditioned a guy who technically played metallica leads perfect but couldn't jam worth crap it isn't self taught vs trained - it's how well you write a song and how well you play with others...

[@awightman1221]

well of course you can be successful without perfect technique. that doesn't mean sub-optimal technique is equal to optimal technique. its a different conversation.

[@Opin10n]

As a person who teaches myself almost every skill that i know, step 1 is getting comfortable with said activity, and step 2 would be looking at bad habits that beginners make and correcting them from the start. Because we are self-taught we don't have that experienced person pointing out hey that will hurt you in the future. So we have to take it upon ourselves and because we are intelligent enough we can do it early. Self-teaching is a skill in itself gentlemen here has made a great video for beginner guitarists. Wish I had seen this video earlier so I could add it to my curriculum and build the habit quicker but it is never too late to start.

[@matthewmaurysmith2486]

@humbledb4jesus -- I'm confused... are you saying I insult my audience? Absolutely nowhere inside of my mind as I make these videos or teach my private students do I EVER have the intent if insulting anyone. I dedicate my life to teaching and I live for the moments when I see students get better and enjoy music and guitar. It makes me feel honored and proud. Being self taught is great. I was fortunate enough to have parents that sent me to a university music program where I studied under an amazingly great classical guitar teacher. I'm not smarter than anyone, just blessed and trying to share what I know.

[@matthewmaurysmith2486]

This came up recently so I thought I'd share. There is one glaring fundamental flaw with being self taught that may or may not occur depending on your motivations. SO MUCH guitar teaching out there operates on the fundamental concept that the player is best served by making learning the music that he/she wants to play the only focus. So, the player basically tries to learn music through an impromptu curriculum that is cobbled together by the randomness of what music that person is already familiar with. But if you look at any respectable method or approach to learning music, that modus operandi is never used. Instead, musical concepts are learned in a logical manner and the musical selections are of secondary importance at best. In training like that, the player learns concepts relating to music and ends up with a global understanding that allows that person to then approach and break down all kinds of music. The self-taught approach and the contemporary approach a lot of non-trained guitar teachers use instead focuses on imitating your favorite songs. The actual learning of musical concepts or fundamentals is either secondary or possibly non existent. Sometimes those players are exceptionally talented and creative in other ways that allow them to overcome this inherently limited approach, and they find a satisfying and sustaining niche in writing original music or playing in a band, etc. But after 30 years of teaching I can tell you that is a very small percentage of players. So, what happens is the players burn out and get stuck and inevitably lose interest, blaming themselves for their shortcomings. But it was the flaw in their learning method, not them! Had they learned to read music and understand fundamentals and break out of the box of only playing their favorite songs, they would learn a relationship to playing music that is unencumbered by limitations and full of possibilities and opportunities. Unfortunately, self-taught learning is likely to fall into that trap by its very nature. How can one teach themselves what they don't know? I do realize that most of us decide we want to play guitar because we think it's all about some style of music we love or a certain group of bands we want to play music from. But I don't think that's really why we play, we just think it is. We play because we want to learn MUSIC. Playing music, emotionally speaking, is nothing like listening to music. Listening is about nostalgia, memories, or the excitement of the listening discovery. Playing music operates on different levels.... it's about challenge and discovery and understanding and mechanics. Different factors are at play. I've known amazing players that could play every metal song ever and were in outstanding cover bands when young, and then completely burn out and walk away when life changes and they get older. That's sad to me. I have been playing for 35 years and since then I've gone from playing punk rock in high school bands, original indie alternative stuff in my college band, improv heavy jammy music in other bands, written original songs as a solo artist, had an extended career as a solo classical guitarist and in a guitar duo and played with orchestras, played electric guitar and bass in faculty jazz bands, and recently discovered old school country like hank Williams and George Jones and fell in love with the style, trying to write my own original songs as a solo artist. All the time I constantly challenge myself to improvise solos over any kind of music. I'm not smart, just blessed that I had good teachers who taught me MUSIC and how to LEARN. But the first 4 teachers I had were duds who just tabbed out intros to rock songs. It's a sad state that the current accepted level of guitar "instruction" I see 90 percent of the time... it's just bar band 101 and teachers don't even teach players how to read music!! It's even worse nowadays, as players won't even read TAB, they just watch videos. So, if you're stuck or unhappy with your guitar playing, don't buy into that BS those guys try to sell you on social media where they say you can just learn their system and you'll solo effortlessly. It's a lie and a scam. Music is deep and it takes real learning and work and it's worth it! Find yourself a real teacher with training and a degree from a reputable training institution. Being in a rock band and playing covers doesn't qualify you to teach music! Phew! Thanks for hearing me out, this issue means a LOT to me!!!

[@MeemDuud]

I started learning guitar about three months ago and have constantly had this problem with pressing hard and cramping. Thank god this video was recommended to me sooner rather than later, it would've been a whole lot worse. Thanks so much, dude. This was really helpful. 👍

[@matthewmaurysmith2486]

Your welcome! My goal as a teacher is to teach people better than I learned. It makes me so happy when my students learn WAY faster and better than I did. If I hadn't studied classic(al) guitar at University, it's doubtful I would have ever overcome so many bad habits.