Retraining.
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Retraining.
I have a weird playing habit; I hold a flatpick between the tips of my thumb and middle finger. It's fine for acoustic strumming but it really messes up attempts at hybrid picking. And I've long suspected it's slow as well. I also fingerpick with bare fingers so I've just had these two separate techniques which don't fit together.
About a year ago, I started trying to hold a pick in the conventional manner. PITA, couldn't get it to work. Tried for a while every time I played, but it wasn't happening.
A couple of days ago, I was noodling and suddenly noticed the flatpick grasped in the approved manner! I fired off a few licks - definitely faster and more controlled. I tried some hybrid picking - not bad for a start.
So I put a little effort over a long time into changing an ingrained habit. The result was like flicking a switch; one day, I could just do it without any prior warning at all.
It's like having a new toy to play with.
About a year ago, I started trying to hold a pick in the conventional manner. PITA, couldn't get it to work. Tried for a while every time I played, but it wasn't happening.
A couple of days ago, I was noodling and suddenly noticed the flatpick grasped in the approved manner! I fired off a few licks - definitely faster and more controlled. I tried some hybrid picking - not bad for a start.
So I put a little effort over a long time into changing an ingrained habit. The result was like flicking a switch; one day, I could just do it without any prior warning at all.
It's like having a new toy to play with.
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Re: Retraining.
I have this bad habit of pivoting my strumming hand on my pinkie, and fixing that has been on my to do list for many years now. With zero results, because I'm kind of lazy.slowfingers wrote:I have a weird playing habit
Good on you for sorting your bad habit out.
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Re: Retraining.
I'm sitting here with a guitar trying to do that. Not quite managing it.Molly wrote:My bad habit is sounding the high E with the side of my left index finger by the knuckle.
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Re: Retraining.
I'm hoping this.Molly wrote: Might open all sorts of doors.
My right hand has been evolving and it's nothing I've planned or intended. I've gone from using all sorts of flat and finger picks to just the skin on my fingertips and a bit of nail. I'm starting to like the tones it gives, especially on electric. I can get lots of pop and pinch but it also fattens up single coil tone in a good way.
But a flatpick still has its own thing going on and until now, I haven't been able to use a flatpick and my fingers together - had to use a thumbpick which is another beast entirely. I really am a slow player but any speed I have is in my picking hand and nailing the hybrid style is definitely going to change things.
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Re: Retraining.
I had to google for an image of the 'correct' method. I tried it, noticed the rhythm & feel had a subtle sort of shift, less string jangle, more solid. I've always pinched pick between thumb & fingertip and over the last few years got the hybrid thing going. Can't say this makes it any easier, I'll see how it goes if I can force the change.
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Re: Retraining.
Molly wrote: Sorry for the hijack. I too find it near impossible to break out of my usual patterns and habits. I sometimes just want to play something that looks so, so simple but because it's not within my usual 'template' my fingers won't play ball. Good on ya for managing it. Might open all sorts of doors.
I discussed this issue with my brother many years ago and we agreed, we train ourselves through repetition and by the very fact that we have our favourite licks and tricks, we can play those with ease, because we've been playing those, or the foundations of those, for years...
So you try and copy someone else, who does a neat, simple little fill or solo, but you can't do it, because the foundations aren't there. Bu the guitarist you're admiring has been playing that for years, he has it beaten into his brain, especially if he's one of those oddly dedicated types that practices for hours a day.
My last guitar teacher (shredder type) said something to me that made sense, he reckoned he could teach me a new lick and I should be able to play it within a week or so, but it would take a year for it to become second-nature enough for that lick to be part of my "peel it off at an instant, throw it into any solo" bag of tricks. I finid the more simple stuff takes more like a few months, but I swipped an Andy Timmons lick off youtube over a year ago and only now it's something I can play without thinking.
The older I get, the more disappointed in myself I become.
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Re: Retraining.
Congrats on your success SF, I sometimes play with the Thumb and middle for tapping those harmonics, but not often. The hybrid method is worth working on, it comes in handy for so many things and eventually you will do it without even thinking about it. I like experimenting with different picks and the other day had not picks as they were packed up with my band stuff, so looked around and found a button cell battery, that was mostly dead, but I got these funny sensations from it as a gripped it, not a sock as such, probably just a low level voltage. Retraining myself to play with a battery has been interesting.
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