"Bad" playing habits/techniques you couldn't get rid of?

[Cue Zephyr]

Originally Posted by guitarjamman

According to a lot of these self proclaimed "bad habits", this guy is failing miserably while playing! Thumb and index alone can create some pretty sweet sounding stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chLFi2cFxzo.

Awesome. I expected to see John Mayer when you mentioned that way of playing. In his case I'd call it flexibility though, I think he doesn't use this technique exclusively. Then again, I might be wrong on that.

[Shimmy]

Originally Posted by guitarjamman

According to a lot of these self proclaimed "bad habits", this guy is failing miserably while playing! Thumb and index alone can create some pretty sweet sounding stuff:

I could be wrong, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am, but my recollection of the Doc Watson DVD is that he seemed to use mainly thumb and index... So Mayer is in sme good company there! :-)

[Shimmy]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

I use 1 2 3 or the bluegrass 1234 with the 3 on the D note on the B string, but I can see the reasoning behind 2 3 4. With the 2 3 4 your index finger is free to SUS4 on the B string (along with the index moving to complete an Am for full effect), so there's some "folk" dynamics there (listen to the intro of Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" - The guitarist is using a 234 G and going in and out of a cool folk Sus). But it's not a matter of it being a bad habit or bad chord, it is a matter of playing style. Both are valid.

Oh, sometimes 234 is unavoidable, it's just never been my default position for a G which I noticed seems to be the norm for a lot of the fingerpickiers that got me into the style... But to be honest I don't lose too much sleep over it :-)

Now not being able to use my thumb over the top like some guys do because of my small hands is a pain in the arse!lol

[macmanmatty]

I have been told this is a bad habit but I can't see why but for all first position chords other than my A7th (002223) and sometimes D (x00232) I place my thumb extended outward towards the tuning pegs. Every one says it will slow my chord changing but I change first position chords VERY fast.

[3rdPillar]

My bad habit:

Playing rhythm parts: where there is a rest on the 8th or 16th my arm stops! Don't know why but it does. Throws everything out ...

[K-vegas]

...But at least we use two fingers some of the hacks around here use one one finger and there thumb.

wow. just wow. let's belittle the poor spelling and grammar hacks while we're at it..

Letting my pinky brush the pick guard whilst strumming. No problem until recording. Thump. Thump. Thump.

[barefooter]

My bad habit is picking up the guitar

My bad habit is not enough structured practice. I just grab the guitar and play away, or at least attempt to.

[blue]

If you are happy with your sound, nothing you do is a bad habit. It's your style Seriously. What makes you YOU is what makes you YOU. Albert King or Dick Dale with a normally strung guitar would never have sounded the way they did.

They still probably would have been pros because of all the rest of what goes into becoming a legend, but they would have sounded different. Keef without open tunings could still have played Start Me Up, or Brown Sugar, or Can't you Hear me Knockin'. But it would have sounded different.

By all means if something doesn't serve you or holds you back work to change it. But otherwise, be yourself. Anchor your picking hand if that's what you do. Wrap that thumb. Use a thumbpick to upsweep (one of my "bad habits" that works out great when I don't think about it but catches on the string, sometimes even ending up sliding up and down the string like an ornament when I try to teach someone how to do it ! )

[Cobby]

While all the other fingers on my fretting hand hover closely over the fretboard, eager to be called into action when they're not being used, my pinky curls up into a frightened ball when it's not being used. Then, when it's called upon, it has to uncurl itself and rush to the scene, barely making it in time. The moment it's done, it scurries away and curls into a ball again.

It's got some sort of attitude problem I think. It just seems to want to stay home and sleep, barely gets to work on time, just goes through the motions grudgingly, and can't wait to leave once the job is done. If you don't want to play the music, you should leave the hand...