subject: 3 Common Mistakes Made When Playing Guitar [print this page] 3 Common Mistakes Made When Playing Guitar
One of the dangerous things about teaching yourself guitar without a teacher is that you'll miss some of the small fixes that can make a big difference in your playing. Here's three of the most common mistakes that you can fix quickly and easily.
Easy Fix #1: Holding your pick correctly. An incorrect pick grip means lack of control and hearing a kind of floppy, slapping sound when you strum. While you'll see different techniques out there, this is the one I've found most beginners are comfortable with.
You'll hold the pick between the pad of your thumb and the side of your index finger, with the point of the pick toward the strings. Not the tip or pad of your index, but the side. Your thumb should cover most of the wide part of the pick. Your index cover the back part. You should only have about a quarter inch of the tip of the pick sticking out. More than that gives you that slappy sound you don't want.
Eventually, you'll adjust your pick grip for different situations. For instance, when I'm playing a melody, I'll use even less of the pick sticking out. Just the barest tip. When strumming I'll use a little more.
Hold the pick tight enough so it doesn't flop up and down a lot when you strum, but not so hard that your playing is stiff either. If you hand gets tired, you're holding it too tight.
If you're having trouble picturing how to hold the pick, Dunlop makes a line of training picks that have grips in the right places to teach you how to hold it.
Easy Fix #2: Your picking direction. The direction of your pick strum can make a big difference in how solid your groove sounds. There are always exceptions to the rule, but these guidelines will always put you in the right place.
When you're playing quarter notes: 1 2 3 4
Use all downstrokes.
When playing eighth notes: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
These should alternate starting with a downstroke on 1. Each down beat (the numbers) will be a downstroke. All the "ands" will be upstrokes.
Possible Exception: In metal and hard rock music, eighth notes are usually all downstrokes because it makes them sound more aggressive.
When playing sixteenth notes: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
You'll play these with alternate picking as well. This time the downstroke with be on the 1 and &. the upstroke will be on e and a. The main difference here is that the "&" gets a downstroke instead of up.
If you have a rhythm that leaves out note such as 1 _ & a, you will still stick to the normal picking pattern. Down on 1, down on &, up on a.
Keep you right hand moving in an up/down fashion the whole time and stick to your rhythm that way. It will make your rhythms sound more "connected".
Easy Fix #3: Where to put you left thumb. This may be the hardest bad habit to break, but you'll thank me when you do. Your thumb on your fretting hand should be in the back of the neck, nearly pointed towards the ceiling. It should not be flopped over the top of the neck. And if someone standing facing you can see your thumb it's too high.
By putting your thumb in the right place you'll expand your stretch. You'll also be using the big strong muscles in your thumb to fret notes instead of the tiny muscles just below your fingers. You should always fret a note by squeezing it between your finger and thumb, like squishing a grape.
Possible Exception: When you're bending notes, you'll often bring your thumb over the top of the neck for leverage. There are also the Hendrix style chord forms that have you playing a partial barre chord on the top few strings with the thumb holding a bass note. It's unorthodox, but works best for some of his lines.
If you make a conscious effort to fix any of these 3 problems that you might have, I guarantee you'll be a better guitarist quickly. Good luck!
