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Date Posted: 17:37:07 03/03/05 Thu
Author: Waldo
Subject: A couple of thoughts on your right hand...
In reply to: chamberlain 's message, "bass...." on 06:54:50 03/02/05 Wed

Not that I'm any expert, just a guy who's played for a long time - and learned some by lessons, some by just playing....

1) Get yourself a beginner's book to classical guitar. You don't have to want to learn to play classical guitar (although it's cool if you can). But a beginner's book will teach you left-hand and right-hand at the same time. This will get you used to doing different things with your right fingers, and prepare you to finger-pick. Even if you simply want to strum chords, some limited ability to finger-pick with your right hand will probably make your right-hand rhythm better. And you can pick up chord-based songs that are picked pretty quickly (think "Stairway to Heaven" or "Dust in the Wind").

2. If your primary issue is difficulty staying with a new strum pattern, but you always find yourself trying to fall back into something familiar... then SLOW DOWN... A LOT. I think a big mistake by beginner musicians, particularly learning to play by ear, is to try and play a new song at tempo. What is most important when learning is to keep your tempo STEADY, not necessarily correct. It's a mistake to play the chord you know at the right speed.... stop... figure out where your fingers go... and start playing the next chord at the right speed again. Instead, play the song as slowly as you have to to be able to change chords and maintain a strum pattern without slowing down.

If you get to where you can play the song beginning to end, play it faster. If you don't... play it slower. It may sound like a funeral dirge, but who cares? You'll get there.

It will help you start to know the song as an entire piece, and feel the connections of melody, harmony/supporting chords, and rhythm... rather than think of a song as being broken up into a zillion pieces, each which is allowed to start or stop at the next chord change.

If either or both of these ideas don't help you, then you might as well start beating off with your left hand, cuz you fucking suck.

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