Hey, first off, this site kicks ass.
Second, I'm completely new so I want to make sure I don't develop any bad habits.
I'm trying to make sure not to palm the neck and come straight down with my fingers but I'm still getting use to it.
When I play, I tend to always look at the strings I'm picking. Is this good or bad? Should I not look at anything or at fingering the notes?
When I look at the notes I need to play it seems to slow me down. If I don't look at the strings I miss them sometimes. Will I start getting muscle memory on where the strings are?
I'm working on the scales right now. I'm still kinda confused on how to incoporate those into the tabs an such but I JUST started playing electric like 2 days ago and played a little acoustic with no formal training before that.
I figure I'll just get it to where I can run up and down the scales real well without making almost any mistakes then I can start messing with them. It's the mechanical way, I know, but you can't improvise stuff you don't know.
Thanks for the help and I hope I have this in the right place.
Hi & welcome to gmc, I hope you have a good time!
To answer your first question: it's completly okay if you put your palm on the neck, but you mustn't mute the string(s) you're playing with ( exception: you're using the palm muting technique ).
to answer the second question: there aren't any rules, but for sure, it's better to play without looking to your hands, fretboard etc... exspecially when playing frmo tabs it'll make you slower and additionally there's danger to lose the correct position where you are in the piece of music.
But when you play things learned by heard, I would suggest you to look at the fretboard, when needed, f.e. when changing the fingering position ( f.e. index finger from fret 1 to 7 ) or at a position you don't feel confident. But as long as possible you should try not to look at the fretboard. Looking at the picking hand I'd never do, after a short while played, it will ( no joke here! ) work better without looking at the picking hand, and when looking at it, you'll get confused... so don't habitude to look here.
Yes, you'll get "muscle memory" in where the strings are. Train, train, train. But except some complicated string skipping exercised it won't take too long. Important: I couldn't figure out whether you play with plektrum or not. With eguitar you have to. So try playing with picks if you don't already do.
To get the scales in the fretboard there are "boxes" in which you can find all notes of the scale at one fingering a time ( f.e. fret 7-10 ). Just look it up, you'll find quickly. ( Send pm shouldn't you be sure about it )
Yep, you should know the scales mechanically but by using them in improvisations you'll get confident with them faster then just running them up and down. Good luck and fun with your guitar!!
I hope I could have helped.
Tobi
Thanks for the help. I'm already getting it to where I don't have to look at the strings. I can "feel" them better now (there's an underlying sexual feeling in my posts, isn't there ).
I'm not having a problem playing the scales and I slightly understand how it works but I'm probably going to really have to read up on the theory to be able to use them.
Ya, I use a pick btw. And I'm working to get the scales down smoothly so I can move on in the beginner's lessons.
Thanks again and expect a few more questions from me, I'm sure.
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