What Are Your Weaknesses Options

[Daniel Robinson]

Everyone always wants to be the best they can be, but as humans we tend to play to our strengths and ignore our weaknesses.

The same holds true for guitar playing, do you know what your weaknesses are as a player? I would assume most of you know where you are weak in your playing.

I would ask you all.

What are your weak spots in your playing and what can we do to help you overcome them?

Some weaknesses are relatively simple to correct, some are very difficult but until we admit to what we have to work on we will continue to ignore them and our goal of mastering the instrument will become very difficult and frustrating.


I will go first and tell you all that my legato technique is not what it should be, i tend to use my picking skills as a crutch in alot of circumstances. Don't get me wrong i can play legato but its not as smooth as i would like it to be so i have set aside time in my practicing schedule to really get down and dirty to put this problem area to rest.

I have started working on just strengthening my fingers doing trills and hammer on drills, to facilitate this i have also put 12's on my second guitar so i have to work harder to acheive the legato sound in the end i think i will make my fingers alot stronger. Even the last few days i have done this i have seen remarkable increase in finger strength.

Daniel

[Alex87]

my weakness on the guitar is picking. some days are very very good. and every once in a while there are 1 - 3 days in a row, where it just wont succeed no matter how slow i do it and how much i warm up, it just doesnt stay tight. sad thing

[Daniel Robinson]

my weakness on the guitar is picking. some days are very very good. and every once in a while there are 1 - 3 days in a row, where it just wont succeed no matter how slow i do it and how much i warm up, it just doesnt stay tight. sad thing

What is it specifically your having trouble with in your picking Alex? Its also possible to that your overworking yourself this can contribute to "bad days" your muscles need time to recover from extended practice sessions. If you don't allow yourself to recover your muscles will have a tough time obeying you.

But if you can give some specific about what it is your having trouble with maybe we can help you better.

Saying your picking isnt tight for example...what isnt tight about it? Are you having difficulty sounding notes cleanly? or is your picking rhythm inconsistent? Its just too vague for me to offer any advice.


Daniel

[Alex87]

What is it specifically your having trouble with in your picking Alex? Its also possible to that your overworking yourself this can contribute to "bad days" your muscles need time to recover from extended practice sessions. If you don't allow yourself to recover your muscles will have a tough time obeying you.

But if you can give some specific about what it is your having trouble with maybe we can help you better.

Saying your picking isnt tight for example...what isnt tight about it? Are you having difficulty sounding notes cleanly? or is your picking rhythm inconsistent? Its just too vague for me to offer any advice.


Daniel

Hi Daniel, sorry for the slow reply.
Its mostly timing that's the problem, when doing alternate picking. ofcourse its easier to follow a metronome at slower tempo but in general it can be hard to keep it up when i for example practice a pentatonic scale up and down maybe 10 times in a row. but i think you are right about letting your muscles relax a bit, because it helped already.

[Daniel Robinson]

Hi Daniel, sorry for the slow reply.
Its mostly timing that's the problem, when doing alternate picking. ofcourse its easier to follow a metronome at slower tempo but in general it can be hard to keep it up when i for example practice a pentatonic scale up and down maybe 10 times in a row. but i think you are right about letting your muscles relax a bit, because it helped already.

Sounds like your on the right track Alex,

This is a typical problem when starting out because you are training your fingers to do what you want them to do. Your brain has to keep trimming the neurons for your reflex. Just stay relaxed, and focus on the task at hand. Before you know it you will be ripping that Pent box up. In the early stages your gonna get pauses and hiccups just because its not a reflex action yet. Repition will help you get to the point where you dont have to think about it anymore and it will become more fluid.

After that you just have to keep doing it to speed up. Like i said before your brain has to constantly trim the neurons for the action so that its a smaller and smaller distance.

Daniel

i can't play long AP runs. my hands seem to go out of sync about halfway through or i pause.
im just playing it slower, hopefully ill get past it. seen some improvements already.

at lights end,


Just like i told Alex just stay relaxed and practice. Syncing your hands for AP takes some time. Another thing that can help is altering the amount of notes your picking. If its a real sync issue that is. Try doubling the notes so you play it twice then switch.


Like this

E--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5--5--6--6--8--8-----
B-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------5--5--6--6--8--8--------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------5--5--7--7-----------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------5--5--7--7--8--8-------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------5--5--7--7--8--8---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--------5--5--6--6--8--8-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


When learning to AP you have to train your fretting hand and picking hand to play it multiple ways. Typical 3nps patterns your moving to the adjacent string on an upstroke. In this excersise your moving to the adjacent string on a downstroke.

The whole point of course is to teach your right and left hands to be on the same page so to speak. Just keep working at it you will get it. Also if you didnt know, this shape is an A Phrygian box shape.


Daniel

women....

Its a big weakness for me too Outlaw, my advice is not to give you any because that would mean i know what i am talking about on this subject, which i clearly do not. If you want advice on this subject i suggest you look to the Ladies forum.

Or better yet just live in your ignorance.....sometimes we just have to let go


Daniel

This post has been edited by Daniel Robinson: May 20 2008, 09:24 AM