Couldn't play, now I can. Weird.

[Duncan_Wood]

Well this is weird.

I've been really frustrated with my guitar playing for the last couple of months. I've only been playing 6-string for two years, but I obviously made a step backwards. For some reason my pick hand got really clumsy. I could seldom hit the strings that I wanted to anymore. Songs that used to be pretty easy were now very hard to play. Fretting with my left hand seemed to be OK, but my right hand sucked. I blamed it on carpal tunnel.

I practiced and practiced and practiced. Picking exercises, string skipping, scales, still I was clumsy.

I started rethinking my guitar hobby. Maybe switch styles from metal to blues. Maybe more legato playing. Maybe drop way back on my expectations.

What was even more frustrating was that I'd just gotten a DK2 and couldn't do crap with it.

Then... last week I got treated for a lingering back injury. Went to physical therapy and they made a lower back adjustment. I left feeling better than I had in WEEKS.

Went home after work, picked up my cheap acoustic, and WOW! I could play again! Tried my Jackson, same thing. Yee-haw! Suddenly everything just works again.

Isn't that strange?

[Vass]

Yeah, it is strange. Who knows though, the body is a complicated instrument itself...who knows how an adjustment in one part is going to effect another.

Part of it may be that you busted a mental block- Mistakes beget more mistakes, rough passages do the same....As we've all experienced, sometimes putting the thing down & doing something else for a while is the right decision- Whether it's your hand or your head that needs the break.

Glad to hear you're back on track.

[Spivonious]

Awesome. Maybe it was a nerve being pinched or something. I recently realized that my picking style was preventing me from playing clean and fast. It's like learning the guitar all over again.

[Duncan_Wood]

I noticed something else -- I've started learning keys as well. I taught myself to play a major scale with both hands at the same time. And then, starting a few weeks ago, I couldn't. I kept practicing, playing it over and over but I always screwed it up. And now I CAN play it. Again, weird.

I thought I'd share in case someone else runs into the same problem. It's not always mental.

[VitaminG]

Awesome. Maybe it was a nerve being pinched or something. I recently realized that my picking style was preventing me from playing clean and fast. It's like learning the guitar all over again.

me too! I've always had my pinky anchored to the face of the guitar as a reference point. Sometimes exerting way to much pressure too, which I'm sure has not helped my playing at all. For the last month I've been training myself to keep the picking hand fingers curled. It has been quite an adjustment and I still occasionally revert to the old picking style at a gig but it's getting better. I'm still slow & useless but my playing somehow feels freer now.

[Endrik]

The key is looseness, just check out how lose are the muscles on 100m sprinters, the same applies for playing an musical instrument as it's a physical activity. If you watch legendary drummers who play at lighting fast speeds, then you see how relaxed they are, the rule of thumb is the more relaxed you are the faster you can play. These younger drummers trying to do fast shit strain and stress the muscles so much that by the end of the song they are out and often end up injuring themselves.
The same principles apply to guitar. Those crazy ass drummers like Buddy Rich and Joe Morello used Billy Gladstone method which is holding the sticks as loose as possible and letting the rebounds do the work instead of wasting energy on pull outs. Holding the pick loosely yet firmly and playing it more with the feel like you'd do some James Brown chords causes very little stress and helps you to build up more speed. The master of picking - Al Di Meola has very loose and relaxed technique yet he has incredible speed and attack.

[Spivonious]

me too! I've always had my pinky anchored to the face of the guitar as a reference point. Sometimes exerting way to much pressure too, which I'm sure has not helped my playing at all. For the last month I've been training myself to keep the picking hand fingers curled. It has been quite an adjustment and I still occasionally revert to the old picking style at a gig but it's getting better. I'm still slow & useless but my playing somehow feels freer now.

I'm trying to stop anchoring on the body of the guitar too. My big problem was that I was holding the pick at an angle, which made downstrokes easier but upstrokes a mess. I guess that's what I get for teaching myself to play by learning all Metallica songs.

Endrik, great insight. My old teacher always says that your fingers should be gripping the pick very hard but your wrist and arm should be super loose. It's work, but I'm getting there.

[Trussrod]

Then... last week I got treated for a lingering back injury. Went to physical therapy and they made a lower back adjustment. I left feeling better than I had in WEEKS.

Maybe it was the first time you could relax in weeks. IMO you have to be able to relax to play well.

[TVTiZtiK]

Meh, I've been having the same problem. I learned this piece called Pinwheel a few months ago. It was my first real shredder piece. High speed, sweeps, alternate picking, etc. Had a real Neo-classical feel to it, sounded killer. I was super proud of myself and had it down for about a month... and now I can't play it for shit. Like one day everything just fell apart. I'm not sure what it is, probably a mental block. Worse yet; I'm in an experimental electric guitar ensemble that's supposed to do a performance the 21st of this month, but the guy organizing it doesn't know if it can be fully ready by then, and if it's not then he wants to do a duet of that piece I can't play for shit anymore with me.

Anyway, congrats on your renewed playing abilities! You're giving me hope that I can cure my problem too!

[Duncan_Wood]

Maybe it was the first time you could relax in weeks. IMO you have to be able to relax to play well.

Heck, you may be right. I'm feeling better, but my guitar technique is feeling GREAT. Now a week after getting "fixed", I can still pick up my guitar and hit my spots. I can really tell how much looser my pick hand is.

I've known that being loose was important, but just couldn't get there 'til last week. I tried everything I could think of, especially the "Petrucci stretches" but it would still take me an hour of playing until I would start to feel normal.

I'm just happy to be back to learning new things & techniques instead of trying to figure out why the old stuff wasn't working.

[horns666]

WTF????!!!!

I didn't read ALL the bullshit advice from my fellow brosephs...but I did read the intial whateverthefuck!

I did put that jamband whaterdafuggin' link in my favorites tho..for my kid. So he can learn to solo over shit. So that's cool..

What ya gotta learn is how to anchor your hand to your pud..and pull it 'til it skeets all over yourself ..while watchin' some nasty ass internet porn.. Now THAT'S inspiration. It works for me..and for everyone else on this fuggin' forum and elsewhere.

Even better..maybe have your woman anchor her big ass on your fuckstick! ..I play like a fuggin' methed up Steve Vai in early Megadeth after that shit!

Now that's good advice right there..from your uncle Bubz!!!

My work is done here..NEXT!

Bill SKEETMASTA Z..




...

[horns666]

Jesus!!!!...WTF???!!

I responded to the wrong fuggin' thread!!!:think:

This new format got me all fucked up..when I'm already F'd up..that's not good.

Oh well..it's still good advice tho.

Please..continue!

[Duncan_Wood]

I'm speechless.

[RacerX]

I'm speechless.

You've just been "Billzed"

[Vass]

Hahaha classic. Funny thing was somehow it all made sense except for the jam band part, and I just kinda let that one go by me