WhyISuckAtGuitar.com - Challenging Assumptions

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

@BlastFromYesterday ... have to fret all the notes at exactly the same time. Use your second finger as a pivot and make sure you place the note on the A string first and just strum those bass notes first. Then place the notes on the G and B strings after that before your next strum. This way you don't have to do everything at once and you can focus more on the rhythm of the strumming pattern. Hope this helps.

[@risheyrsp2015]

🙌 Series keeps getting better💫

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Thanks! These are from many years ago. Glad you like them. I've recently rebooted the channel so there's new content now and more to come!

[@MrOtisotis]

...shapes that i have just in my head and when i find a shape that agrees with what im hearing or interests me, ill figure the intervals of the chord out on the piano/guitar and figure out the meaning, what scales its related to, how its voiced, doing this i find opens yourself up to trying more original techniques and gets your imagination flowing with new ideas and fleshing out existing things you know

[@BlastFromYesterday]

@dvuksanovich Thanks. I had my lesson and played this, and everything went well.

[@MrOtisotis]

i usually dont like most youtube style music lessons cause they focus mainly on the person giving the lesson's preconceived ideas of what kind of musician you should be, however im watching all your videos right now and you preach a very rational approach to practicing and what you get out of honing your skill on an instrument. Most teachers try to do the motivation speaker thing thats great and all but its more motivating to hear from someone to be dedicated but keep your head about it

[@MrOtisotis]

oh yea also a thought about approach, as someone who likes playing and practice by feel sometimes you might be trying the correct approach at the wrong stage, like you might be trying to learn something that involves a level of coordination thats 2 or 3 steps ahead of where you are, the key is when your learning something like that is dont be so microscopic, its the slow it down with a metronome thing again, that aproach is only useful when you know the exactly technicalities of what your....

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

@BlastFromYesterday Great song! I never learned to play it but I took a look at it for you. I think you should actually be on the 2nd fret of the A string. It's a cool effect because you've got an Em7 chord but with a flat 5 thrown in on top of the perfect fifth. Very dissonant. Then they go to the C7. So The way I'm playing it it's actually my second finger that doesn't move (on the 2nd fret of the D string). The next step would be to look at your strumming pattern and realize that you don't...

[@airbloomamplifiers]

You describe me as well. I've been playing for 51 years and began with surf music, the British Invasion , and blues. I've never been able to do anything but pick down (like Paul Gilbert when he started). I have really tried hard but my old bad habits are more ingrained than I wish. The difficulty presents an important question: How real is the risk of ruining what I can do by demanding a new technique that so far is elusive?

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

@BlastFromYesterday Sometimes you need to go deeper than just slowing down... in this case by looking at each chord shape individually. What do your fingers need to do to make each chord shape? Are you creating unnecessary tension in one or more of the chord shapes? How do your fingers need to move to get from one shape to the other? Sometimes I take my hand away from the guitar to work on stuff like this. Which chord shapes are we talking about, specifically?

[@MrOtisotis]

... practicing, it would be insane to try and learn something where either you dont have any notion of what you want it sound like or you know EXACTLY how its played. I don't know if im making sense but i guess im trying to say that if you have an idea of something you think you can figure out playing physically its going to involve aspects most likely that relate to techniques and music theory you currently know but with a variation or a concept attached to it that you might not understand yet

[@MrOtisotis]

...new ideas, rarely do i have an idea in my head that i want to be able to play where i know it note for note at a really awkward slow speed (rythymic components can sound really odd when slowed down) and alot of the times ill have the idea and ill try it and it comes out a certain way instinctually, THEN i learn really what im doing cause if you feel a technique naturally your gonna play alot better with it, even chords and harmony all the time I'll experiment around with certain chord ...

[@BlastFromYesterday]

@dvuksanovich I'm learning to play "Big Empty." So I go from a chord i don't know the name of: my 1st finger on the 1st fret A string, 2nd finger on fret 2 of D string, fingers 3 &4 on fret 3 of the G and B strings respectively. I play that then switch to a C7 chord. I realize I don't have to move my 3rd finger. I've gotten better, but it's still not that great.

[@BlastFromYesterday]

I think i'm insane by trying chord changes slowly at first, and then trying to speed them up. when i try to speed them up, i never put my fingers on the correct frets. sometimes i even have troubles doing a change slowly.

[@MrOtisotis]

also sorry im kinda ranting but your videos have also made me realize that these days alot people are told very often that they are special and talented in their own way and uniqueness is awesome and a big part of learning is definitely about your limitations but you really hit alot of the points dead on, like i see the common advice of 'slow it down with the metronome and work your way up' you cant really have a blanket statement for learning like that, alot of the time that apporach ....

[@MrOtisotis]

... is a total waste of time, usually if im learning something (i practice multi instruments btw) if i already have the sound or the idea in my head I'll just try it out at the speed and level that i hear it as if I get it I'll usually slow it down after and it has a double effect first slowing it down after you got the technique down forces you to think it out mentally and once you figure out exactly what your doing it almost always leads to you wanting to try different vartions or entirely...

[@MrOtisotis]

because how often does someone learn something thats completely new to them? lol it doesnt happen, information and practiced techniques always come with concepts that we atleast vaguely understand, I don't think many of us know quantum pyshics but we probably know 2+2, see where im getting at? it would be idiotic to state ok i want to learn quantum pyschics and recite 2+2, 3+3 and all the microscopic variations of math, you would start at a level your comfortable with and figure out using logic.

[@MrOtisotis]

lol that was kind of a rant sorry about that dude!