You can try a site called JustinGuitar. It has a ton of lessons for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players with practice guides, schedules, and videos dedicated to learning specific songs and concepts. It's all organized in a way to help keep you motivated by progressing from easier things to harder things. At least, it keeps me motivated. You can even keep track of everything you learned as the site lets you mark things you're working on or have completed. I've been playing very on and off for a year, but I've recently started trying to do it every day and I'm already seeing progress. You could put it on top of what you know if you like. Or anyone else reading.
I've been playing for around 9 years. The first probably 4-5 were extremely tedious: G (plunk)-E-D(screw up)-A(rrrrrt) etc. all at micro-speed. Now I'm finally starting to get pretty decent. Here are the best things I've learned to do: -Go slowly enough that you can play cleanly and work up on speed, not vice versa. Take your time and get the correct fingering, then speed will come. -For a given song, the best thing to learn to play it clean and fast is to memorize it. -Angle your pick so it slides over the strings making a mellow sound, not flat so it makes a twang. You can play much faster with less effort because the pick does not catch on the strings. Some songs of course you might want the twang but as a rule of thumb (npi) keep your pick at somewhere around 30 degrees to the strings. And the main thing: Persevere! Persistence is the precursor to success.
In order for this thread not to die, I think we are going to need a way to post recordings of our own playing. Does anyone know of a free website where we could record something and then post a url here?
This is a classic that I've been working on for a while. If you want to hear what it sounds like when I play this song, put it at .75 speed and then imagine midway between that and full speed.
Switched over so as not to hijack his thread. What kind of music do you play? I'm into bluegrass, flat picking style, like this is the song I'm currently working on
That sounds really nice! How long have you been playing? I like to play finger style. I like open tunings. Been playing stuff from Andy McKee and John Butler lately.
Thanks, I've been playing for about 10 years now I think. Mostly fast paced bluegrass songs. That's cool. There is a lot of stuff fingerstyle can do that I would love to be to do but can't with a flatpick. What do you mean, open tunings? like DADGAD? Yeah those guys are really good. How long have you been playing?
I started over twenty years ago, but lost interest and just stopped for many years. Just started getting back into it a year ago. I just started learning finger style. It’s a challenge, but a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. Yep, DADGAD is one tuning that’s fun to play around with. I like open C and G as well. I should probably learn some songs in standard tuning some day. Lol!
That's cool. I only know songs in eadgbe except one where I tune the 6th string down to D Spoiler: D string song Here it is if you are interested. The guitar starts at 0:33 and then the minor part with the string tuned down at 2:09. I'm not as fast as the guy playing. Tuning differently totally messes me up because I can't keep the notes straight . Keep up the good work!
Yup, most people don’t like to stray far from standard tuning. It surprises me because open tunings are so much fun to play. That song is definitely fast! Hardest part about playing is getting it up to speed and keeping the rhythm.
Yeah. My top sustained and clean speed as of last time I tested is around 220-230 bpm so its pretty hard for me to keep up. My picking hand just gets really tired after the first half or so. Would you mind giving me an example of an open tuning song you like and/or play?
Yeah, I’d imagine you’d get tired keeping that pace, but it’s also hard to put it down. I get tired too, so what I do is play 20 or 30 min, take a break for 10, and then do another session. I don’t know how to post YouTube vids here with my phone because I’m technologically retarded, but I’ve been working on a song by John Butler called “Ocean”. It’s played on a twelve string in open C (CGCGCE) with a capo on the fourth. It’s an improv song so he plays it different every time. There’s tons of videos of him playing live. Fun song to learn.