Ends' adventures on 6 strings...

[endsjustifymeans]

I've been playing for a year now and I have to say, I've really progressed quite a bit.

But there's something I'm struggling with and still find myself struggling with.

I always seem to hit strings I don't want to. Particularly the string one string above the string I am intending to hit. I try to mute the string above as much as possible, but it's not always an option depending on finger positions. Any advice for developing better strum accuracy?

[crofty]

i hear this.

[gaybear]

take up flute instead

[endsjustifymeans]

take up flute instead

skin flute count?

[James]

It depends what you're trying to play. For something that needs some balls like a punk tune, the best thing to do is use a slightly different angle on your index finger or whichever is closest to the string to mute it. Say I'm playing a power chord starting on the A string, I'll move my index finger a little so it barely touches the low E. That's the simplest example but I do something similar for other chords. Occasionally there'll be a chord where the A is left open but I still want to mute the low E, and then I'll likely use my thumb.

If it's not necessary to give it some balls, or it's a little more complex and that sort of technique doesn't work, you can just take it a bit easier with the strumming hand and aim for precision there. If you need to give it some but still need the cacuracy you can try not moving your hand so much. Think of it as the guitar version of the 'one inch punch'. Give it the energy by a short sharp stroke rather than a Townsend windmill.

[Mike]

Try and keep your picking hand more stable by the bridge perhaps and just move your fingers from that position?

Perhaps start including some single note runs up and down the strings into your practise regime.

[laterallateral]

I come across this problem fairly often, myself. Whenever possible, what I tend to do is look for alternate chordings that are more comfortable for me to pick and that emulate the notes I'm trying to play. Sometimes this means simplifying the chord to it's root note and a single overtone, other times it can it mean a completely different chord shape at a different place on the neck.

I'm far from being a technician guitar player, so this advice might come off rather self-evident but what can I say, it's how I do my shit.

[endsjustifymeans]

normally I'm just a powerchorder so I can just mute the string above so I've never really worked on not hitting it, this is all good advice.
The issue became obvious when learning the intro for Monkey Wrench. I suppose it's just another case of practice makes perfect.

[dumb donnie]

I've been playing for a year now and I have to say, I've really progressed quite a bit.

But there's something I'm struggling with and still find myself struggling with.

I always seem to hit strings I don't want to. Particularly the string one string above the string I am intending to hit. I try to mute the string above as much as possible, but it's not always an option depending on finger positions. Any advice for developing better strum accuracy?

I know this is a little off topic, but I was just curious. What made you decide (one year ago) that it was time to start playing guitar? A band, a song, a performance you witnessed? I always like to hear what gets people started.

[George]

How you holding your pic?

How much of your arm are you working when you're strumming?

[ultratwin]

This may not work for you, but I swear by it...

I started first playing on a Yamaha 12 string, and with my little girl hands and string spacing I had heaps of problems with hit-and-miss strumming. The trick that solved things for me was learning to arrpegiate with my pinky resting way down by the high E, halfway between the bridge and the soundhole. That gave my hand a virtual point of reference as I picked, an soon I could find the string I wanted with my eyes closed simply because my hand memorized where they all were.

I still pick with my pinky there, and feel full control over string spacing and (sometimes more importantly) my hand's height over the strings. The thing is, even when I pull up the "pinky landing gear" I honestly believe it all helps my strumming position just the same.

Save power chords for monkey rock and good times, but try working at those arrps for spacing precision.

[Mustang Melx]

It took me years to get this down, I strum like a mad dog, so over the years I've learned to position my hand and fingers so they mute the strings I don't want to hear, now I just do it without thinking, it's just the natural way I play and I find it hard to do the opposite now! a mate said to me the other day "play that chord but let those 2 strings ring out" and I couldn't because my hand was muting them 'automatically' ... all I can offer for advice is practice and find different ways to play the chord, you might find it easier to play it in a different position from how do now.

[endsjustifymeans]

I've been playing for a year now and I have to say, I've really progressed quite a bit.

But there's something I'm struggling with and still find myself struggling with.

I always seem to hit strings I don't want to. Particularly the string one string above the string I am intending to hit. I try to mute the string above as much as possible, but it's not always an option depending on finger positions. Any advice for developing better strum accuracy?

I know this is a little off topic, but I was just curious. What made you decide (one year ago) that it was time to start playing guitar? A band, a song, a performance you witnessed? I always like to hear what gets people started.

I was for all intents and purposes the guitar tech for my old band (I was the singer) because my guitarist knew nothing about them, knew nothing about tone, and really didn't care to learn. So I started developing his sound, setting up his guitar. I bought an amp that made the tone I wanted the band to have (my current mig 60). I learned everything there was to know about guitars except how to play them.
I've had guitars in the house for the past 7ish years now, but never did any more than learn a ramones song here and there. Last year I decided it was time to man up and just learn to play the fucking thing. I want to be in a band again.

A year on... I can still really only play power chords. I have such a hard time switching between chords that have drastically different finder placement.

It's like...

strum
struggle to place all my finger on the fretboard
strum again

A year on and I still have can't smoothly play a song. I hate sucking so bad, and I continuously think about giving up. But I love guitars. I love modding them. I love playing them. I love having one in my lap and just mindlessly noodling while watching tv. I think I just started too late to ever be a worthwhile guitarist.

[laterallateral]

I've been playing for a year now and I have to say, I've really progressed quite a bit.

But there's something I'm struggling with and still find myself struggling with.

I always seem to hit strings I don't want to. Particularly the string one string above the string I am intending to hit. I try to mute the string above as much as possible, but it's not always an option depending on finger positions. Any advice for developing better strum accuracy?

I know this is a little off topic, but I was just curious. What made you decide (one year ago) that it was time to start playing guitar? A band, a song, a performance you witnessed? I always like to hear what gets people started.

I was for all intents and purposes the guitar tech for my old band (I was the singer) because my guitarist knew nothing about them, knew nothing about tone, and really didn't care to learn. So I started developing his sound, setting up his guitar. I bought an amp that made the tone I wanted the band to have (my current mig 60). I learned everything there was to know about guitars except how to play them.
I've had guitars in the house for the past 7ish years now, but never did any more than learn a ramones song here and there. Last year I decided it was time to man up and just learn to play the fucking thing. I want to be in a band again.

A year on... I can still really only play power chords. I have such a hard time switching between chords that have drastically different finder placement.

It's like...

strum
struggle to place all my finger on the fretboard
strum again

A year on and I still have can't smoothly play a song. I hate sucking so bad, and I continuously think about giving up. But I love guitars. I love modding them. I love playing them. I love having one in my lap and just mindlessly noodling while watching tv. I think I just started too late to ever be a worthwhile guitarist.

You gotta plow trough this, bro. I remember my first year of playing was exactly like what you're describing. At this point, you can either consider getting some proper lessons or you could, by virtue of your own sense of asthetics, develop all kinds of "shortcuts" to get the sounds that you want to hear. It's all muscle memory and will, man. All you need is the desire to rock and an able body and you'll find your way.

[hotrodperlmutter]

yuuuup. lessons are good. but tbh, they stood in my way of what i actually wanted to do. which was play on my own, and then develop the stuff into these whack ass songs i could jam on with my friends. i have the attention span of a goldfish, and the discipline of a (insert something with zero discipline here), so lessons were my gateway into naming the things i was already doing. notes are good, but if you can't retain what the fuck is what, what's the fucking point?

the important thing is just to find what works, and do it a lot. then do it more. i still can't play any particular song all the way through, but i have a good time not doing that. tis what it'tis.

[tomin8r]

I think lessons are good for giving you a starting point, such as learning chord forms and the like, but if you really want to 'learn', persay, I went about it as follows.

Year 1/2 - strugggggle.
2/3 - lessons on chords and scales.
4 and up - using said knowledge to learn new songs and begin to write your own material if your into that kind of thing.

All it really takes is an investment in time and a lot of practice/dedication. But, if you choose to stick with it, its a rewarding experience in the end.

Cheers

[taylornutt]

Don't give up on it. The first year is tough and it stinks when the hands won't do what you want them to do. Keep working on technique and different types of music. My first year, I took a classical guitar class in college. I am not a classical guitar player, but I learned how to finger pick properly which is helping me now that I am making my second attempt at learning "Stairway to Heaven". If you are singing and playing simultaneously, that is really tough as well. I am a self-taught guitar player/singer and it will come. Find out the best way for you to practice and keep at it.

[Mustang Melx]

You gotta plow trough this, bro. I remember my first year of playing was exactly like what you're describing. At this point, you can either consider getting some proper lessons or you could, by virtue of your own sense of asthetics, develop all kinds of "shortcuts" to get the sounds that you want to hear. It's all muscle memory and will, man. All you need is the desire to rock and an able body and you'll find your way.

I agree with this, I also thing you are worrying over nothing... I suppose it depends on what you want out of this.. when I joined my first band I knew 4 chords, E, A G and D ..... seriously. I was about 20 and we did about 10 local gigs playing Cult covers and other songs with those 4 chords.. louie, louie etc... if it needed to be in a different key I would use a capo and play those same 4 open chords. .. if there was a bit on a song I couldn't play I'd just make some nice feedback in that bit or whatever, I didn't care about not being able to play properly because I was in a band and having fun... and that's the only reason I play now .. because it's fun. You don't need to be a great guitarist to write great songs in a rock context. I never learned scales, I still don't know them and I don't really care, I don't even know what chord I'm playing a lot of the time... I just know that I like how it sounds.

I would suggest laying off the power chords for a while though and learn to play as many open chords as you can, because I think that will help you get your fingers moving rather than playing with your arm... just grab a simple chord book or something like this beatles songbook.



there's no tab just the chord boxes and lyrics, it would help you get out of playing power chords and into something else.

I've only ever had two lessons and it just didn't work for me because he wanted me to play stuff how he showed me and I went home and worked out another way that suited me more, then when I went back he says 'what are you playing that's not right' ... and I say "well I figured out that if I stick that finger there and lean it back so it mutes the string under it I can change from this chord to that one by just moving one finger" and he was all like "well that's not correct because without that string it isn't the same chord, blah, blah, blah" ... so that was that.


anyway.. blimey I'm not here to type out my life story!!

[Bacchus]

A year on... I can still really only play power chords. I have such a hard time switching between chords that have drastically different finder placement.
It's like...
strum
struggle to place all my finger on the fretboard
strum again
A year on and I still have can't smoothly play a song. I hate sucking so bad, and I continuously think about giving up. But I love guitars. I love modding them. I love playing them. I love having one in my lap and just mindlessly noodling while watching tv. I think I just started too late to ever be a worthwhile guitarist.

Keep practising. Enough practise and you can play anything. It ain't sexy, but it's got teeth.

As for picking, I never really became all that neat with picking (apart from a year or two when I was shredding), instead I learned to mute things really well with my left hand. I get a percussive sort of sound that I really like. Have a go at 'Can't Stop' by RHCP. The guitar part jumps about between strings, but with every stroke he's hitting every string (or at least more than the one being fretted), and muting the other with the left hand.

[Chicago Mike]

Keep plugging away dude! You're nearing the hump at the top of the hill....don't put it down and you'll wake up one day and be fucking surprised at where you've ended up.

One thing that always got me back up on the horse in the beginning was getting someone to rekonize my development. If I went for a patch of working hard on stuff, chords, early songs, etc. etc. and nobody really was around, I'd make it a point to hang out with some of my buddies who played and they'd notice real quick I had made some big strides. That shit was like angel dust for me, made me go and continue to work on stuff. Dunno if that makes sense but it really helped me out.

In the end, fucking play with a passion and the rest starts to fall into place.