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  #16  
Old 03-04-2010, 01:45 AM
Craig_S Craig_S is offline
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Originally Posted by Glennwillow View Post
If you are playing 6 hours a day, you are REALLY hooked. That sounds like me as a teenager.
Sounds like me too!

I had an old acoustic I bought for $10.00, when I was 11 years old. The action was so high. It didn't matter to me. I played every spare minute I had. My fingers hurt so much. I'll never forget the first time they actually bled. I wanted to play so badly. I was just driven.

I wish I still had that same drive to play as when I was a youngster.

I admire your love for it. You'll get through the pain and blisters, soon enough.
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  #17  
Old 03-04-2010, 04:39 AM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Originally Posted by daysailer View Post
This is a good idea..... but only if you also play with less fingertip pressures.

As a new player I always used too much pressure to get clean notes. This finger pressure is not necessary, and a bad habit that will require you even more practice to break.

Heres the real deal. IMHO
Since you need to take a break anyway, find a good local guitar tech and get your guitar 'set-up'. This will adjust the guitar for optimum string heights and "playability"
All that means far less finger pressure is needed to make good clean notes.

When you get the guitar back, hopefully, you will be fully healed and, I'm sure, still hopelessly motiviated to become the next "guitar hero". Now when you practice, also think about how much you are squeezeing and try to find and use the least pressure needed to make the notes.

Get guitar set up
Play with less muscle.

I wish someone had offered me that info at the beginning. I still am working on defeating the "death grip" style of freting some chords. Down the road, excess squeezing will limit your skills and music.

Good luck and never loose that enthusiam for makin' music.......ds
Actually, that sounds very possible.. I do seem to press too hard because I really don't want that shaky sound that comes out when you don't press down hard enough. I'll work on pressing at just the right amount of pressure!

And I'm in college 3 hours from home, without a car. So actually I probably will have to make do with what I have for at least the next 2 weeks. Although from what you are saying, it sounds like guitars can have varying degrees of "playability." I'm guessing mine might be a bit more on the harder side, as it feels like I really need to push it down pretty hard to get the right noise without any buzzing. I have no idea about anything about the guitar, as it was just a hand me down from me brother that he gave me last week.

So I guess as of now, that plan is to just wait until the weekend comes around to pick it up again!

Although I must say, after not playing for two days my finger feels ALOT better.. maybe I'll try it out tomorrow! thanks again for all the input guys!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig_S View Post
Sounds like me too!

I had an old acoustic I bought for $10.00, when I was 11 years old. The action was so high. It didn't matter to me. I played every spare minute I had. My fingers hurt so much. I'll never forget the first time they actually bled. I wanted to play so badly. I was just driven.

I wish I still had that same drive to play as when I was a youngster.

I admire your love for it. You'll get through the pain and blisters, soon enough.
thanks! although right now I'm hoping for the "soon" rather than the "soon enough"
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  #18  
Old 03-04-2010, 04:48 AM
Mike_A Mike_A is offline
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Originally Posted by Tuffythepug View Post
After the blisters came open sores oozing blood all over the strings and fretboard.
Eeewww, thats just graphic man...hmmmm, just had an idea! pictures of your blisters anyone? me as soon as I get my hands on a camera
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Taylor 114ce
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  #19  
Old 03-04-2010, 09:09 AM
buddiesorg buddiesorg is offline
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The natural tendency when getting an improper note is to press harder, but you really get the cleanest note if the pressure is exerted perpendicular to the fretboard, and you'd be surprised how little pressure it takes, even on a guitar with high action. Also, it may have nothing to do with your fretting hand, but your picking hand.
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  #20  
Old 03-04-2010, 11:07 AM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Originally Posted by buddiesorg View Post
The natural tendency when getting an improper note is to press harder, but you really get the cleanest note if the pressure is exerted perpendicular to the fretboard, and you'd be surprised how little pressure it takes, even on a guitar with high action. Also, it may have nothing to do with your fretting hand, but your picking hand.
Yeah i guess i gotta work on that. I'm trying to teach myself but its kinda hard cause there's nobody to tell me if i'm doing anything wrong
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  #21  
Old 03-04-2010, 01:20 PM
buddiesorg buddiesorg is offline
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I'm self-taught, too. I suppose there are a few things that are transferrable from piano. I grew up with my piano teacher's voice in my head ... wrists up, no flat fingers. I stumbled on it several years ago when I started playing 12-strings and I was pulling strings sharp.
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  #22  
Old 03-04-2010, 01:24 PM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Originally Posted by buddiesorg View Post
I'm self-taught, too. I suppose there are a few things that are transferrable from piano. I grew up with my piano teacher's voice in my head ... wrists up, no flat fingers. I stumbled on it several years ago when I started playing 12-strings and I was pulling strings sharp.
Oh really? How did you go about learning? I just pulled up a couple songs and started playing.. with pretty disastrous results haha. But I guess it's kind of working..

Although my singing voice is terrible.. I've been trying to sing How to Save a Life and I can't even get high enough.. and it's not even a high song at all!
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  #23  
Old 03-04-2010, 09:59 PM
buddiesorg buddiesorg is offline
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I just got our church youth group's songbook ... copied down chords ... practiced for a couple months until I could hold a rhythm and change chords ... then brought my guitar to youth group meetings. At first, I just played along with the song leader. When I got more proficient, I started leading once in awhile.

Never took any lessons, though I learned alot when I played at church, but it wasn't like regular lessons (couldn't interrupt in the middle of a song or do something over again ... just had to play all the songs straight through ... which meant I just had to ignore mistakes).
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  #24  
Old 03-04-2010, 10:32 PM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Oh that sounds like alot of fun. My brother is the leader of worship at my church, but I don't know if i'm gonna be doing anything over there.

Anyways I tried playing today and the blister immediately reappeared again, and larger than before.. Must keep away!
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  #25  
Old 03-05-2010, 12:27 AM
rcadian rcadian is offline
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When I started to learn to play, after every practice session - which usually only ended because my fingers were sore - I would get a couple of ice cubes, wrap them in a paper towel, and press my fingers against that. Soon the cold would numb my fingertips and take the sting away. Then I'd go to bed or lay off the guitar for a few hours, then do the whole thing again later or the next day.

I also used a Qtip to put rubbing alcohol on my finger tips every day. I have no idea if if did speed up the development if the callouses, but it didn't fo any harm.

Good luck,

Rc
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  #26  
Old 03-13-2010, 07:47 AM
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jgmaute jgmaute is offline
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Another thing you can try is instead of actually playing with your left hand, just move your fingers in the chord positions. One of the things your left hand needs to learn is how to play all the fingers of the chords at the same time.

So, you can put your fingers in a chord position on the frets but don't press all the way down. Say you start with an A, then spend one or two minutes picking up the fingers and putting them right back down again...A up A up A up etc. This gets the fingers used to working together as an A. You'll be amazed as how just one or two minutes helps your fingers get that kinesthetic memory.

After a couple of minutes of A, do the same thing with D. After a couple of minutes of D, then move to A up D up A up D up.

If you do this with chords in a song you're learning, in the order of the chords, you'll find you can get your fingers working together as a unit for each chord yet you're giving them a break since you aren't actually pressing all the way down.

Have fun but take care of your fingers. joan
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  #27  
Old 03-16-2010, 03:04 AM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Well, today I tried another guys guitar. for the past couple weeks i've only tried my guitar and haven't had the chance to try anyone else's but yesterday my neighbor in the dorms heard me playing and came in with his guitar to teach me some stuff

by the way, he is probably one of the best guitarists I have ever heard.. it was amazing and motivating.

anyways, I tried his guitar. His guitar, the strings were WAY closer to the fretboard. and I mean WAY closer compared to mine. also it was much much easier to press down his strings without getting a buzzing sound. Is there any way I can make my guitar more like his was?

thanks guys
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  #28  
Old 03-16-2010, 03:49 AM
Mike_A Mike_A is offline
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this is a good time to try left-handed...

just kidding...


and man 6 hours...wow...i spend like 6 mins practicing...and 6 hours on AGF online...and my fingers hurt too...typing...
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Taylor 114ce
Epiphone AJ220SCE
Epiphone IB64 Texan FT-79
Ibanez Artwood AW15
Ibanez AEG10NII
Ovation CC44-4q

Takamine EG440C STRQ (gone)
Ibanez Artcore AG75 (gone)
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  #29  
Old 03-16-2010, 03:55 AM
Mike_A Mike_A is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mr.meeogy View Post
Well, today I tried another guys guitar. for the past couple weeks i've only tried my guitar and haven't had the chance to try anyone else's but yesterday my neighbor in the dorms heard me playing and came in with his guitar to teach me some stuff

by the way, he is probably one of the best guitarists I have ever heard.. it was amazing and motivating.

anyways, I tried his guitar. His guitar, the strings were WAY closer to the fretboard. and I mean WAY closer compared to mine. also it was much much easier to press down his strings without getting a buzzing sound. Is there any way I can make my guitar more like his was?

thanks guys
you need to bring it to a luthier or guitar tech for a setup. your guitar seem to have "high action", and your friend's has got lower action. Action refers to playability and how high the strings are above the top of the frets. but there are a lot of factors, like neck relief, bridge and saddle height, nut height, topwood condition (flat, bulging, sinking), humidity, that affect the action. so easiest is to bring it to a luthier or guitar tech.
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Taylor 114ce
Epiphone AJ220SCE
Epiphone IB64 Texan FT-79
Ibanez Artwood AW15
Ibanez AEG10NII
Ovation CC44-4q

Takamine EG440C STRQ (gone)
Ibanez Artcore AG75 (gone)
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  #30  
Old 03-16-2010, 07:18 PM
mr.meeogy mr.meeogy is offline
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Originally Posted by Mike_A View Post
you need to bring it to a luthier or guitar tech for a setup. your guitar seem to have "high action", and your friend's has got lower action. Action refers to playability and how high the strings are above the top of the frets. but there are a lot of factors, like neck relief, bridge and saddle height, nut height, topwood condition (flat, bulging, sinking), humidity, that affect the action. so easiest is to bring it to a luthier or guitar tech.
Where exactly could I find a luthier? I was just thinking of bringing my guitar to a guitar center or something the when i went home for spring break next week... would that work?
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