Hi

Hi,

I am Markus from Germany. Finally i am a member! I've been lurking around this site for like half a year now, and always wanted to join. So I created a paypal account only to notice i still can't joind without a valid credit card. now i even got me a credit card for guitarmasterclass ...
but i must say this is worth it! i've joined yesterday evening and have been playing guitar the whole night.

I am 23 years old and started playing guitar in 2002. Before that i had some keyboards to play on, but never had any lessons at all. so now i'm pretty good playing by ear but my technique lacks a lot (at least i think so).
At one point i stumbled across economy picking and thought this was the way to go. later i kind of felt it actually hindered me in developing speed and didn't quite sound as good as alternate picking.
when i first started to use a pick (i started with a classic guitar) i held it kind of like Lian Gerbino. a friend of mine said it was wrong so i changed the grip. seeing Lian play guitar i think i should have sticked with it.

some weeks ago someone joined complaining that his thumb was totally flexible. i have exactly the same problem. with such a thumb i think applying pressure on the back side of the neck needs a lot more muscles. that's why for a long time my hands got really tired even after playing only for some minutes.

oh and i've been reading many of the theory lessons and learned a lot of it. thanks for them!

so what i want to put a lot of energy in will be hand synchronization, finger independence, picking technique and i want to learn more jazz-stuff.

i'm happy to be here, so see you around!
- Markus