The ShadowMusic Web Community

Hi
It's now been about 6 weeks since I first posted about beginning to learn acoustic guitar so thought I'd post an update to show I'm still at it.

1. Can pick out (bits of) Atlantis, Wonderful Land, Man of Mystery, Apache, Theme for Young Lovers and Dance On ...
BUT can't play them at the right tempo yet, still stumble and miss notes, and this doesn't include any chords or string bending (can you do that on an acoustic?). It's just the notes of the main melody and then half the time I realise they need to be an octave higher or lower so I have to start learning them again (but this is all good practice, isn't it?)

2. Can play quite a lot of chords now but can't move quickly between them yet and still produce lots of dead notes and odd buzzing sounds. Some chords are proving very challenging - in particular E flat major. Have been struggling with that one for weeks but might be close to a solution.

3. Don't think I'm holding the pick properly so need to work on that. Have also managed to drop a pick in the guitar and can't get it out until I change the strings (which I'm trying to put off as long as possible because it's such a terrifying thought!)

4. Have bought Hank's Guitar Instruction Book so will work through the CDs and exercises soon.

5. Am hoping that when I'm on holidays and can't play for a week I won't forget everything and have to start from scratch again.

6. Am still enjoying learning and our cats like the sound!

Best wishes
Rosemary

Rosemary you seem to be going through everything that the rest of us did !

Patience and persistence. If you really love the music you will carry on till your fingers bleed ! LOL

Thanks for the encouragement, Dave and Roger.
Am tackling Sacha tonight and still fighting with E flat.
best wishes
Rosemary

Hi Rosemary
They say that practise makes perfect, well I've been practising for 46 years, and I still struggle with E flat major, I find D sharp easier!!!
Seriously, just keep on changing chord shapes, and eventually you will find that your fingers fall into place without you thinking about them, and your tempo will improve as well.
All the best.

Thanks Paul. Any suggestions for alternative fingering of Eb graciously accepted. I've tried the conventional shapes and am now relying on imagination.
All the best
Rosemary

Eb is very similar to D. You could (sometimes) get away with playing an open D shape one fret up and just strumming the top 3 strings.

Alternatively, while (slowly) practicing in the keys of D, A or G finger the open D the same as for an Eb with the little finger on the fourth string and fourth fret to get used to the shape and to playing just the top 4 strings.

Bob.

Thanks for the tips, Bob. I'll try them out tomorrow night. I can get the shape but it's a physical problem with the length of my fingers. They're not long enough for the little finger to reach the lower G although if I swap the 1st and 2nd fingers from the standard fingering (in the books I have), I can almost reach but the notes aren't clearly defined. I've also tried using the Barre shape between Bb and G but that doesn't work for me either. I know there are trickier chords ahead too but Eb is one I really want to master as it's pretty useful.
Best wishes
Rosemary

A couple of good tunes for mastering barres:

Walk Don't Run - try it in different keys but don't try it for too long at one time otherwise you can damage your fingers at this stage.

Stairway To Heaven - Not easy but worth doing as it will help you enormously with barres and using the remaining 3 fingers in different positions while playing.

Bob.

No, you definately only try 'stairway to heaven' when buying a new guitar, or even 'smoke on the water'. Having heard about 3000 attempts on that progression! Only joking of course!

Mike