physical limitations

[rictus01]

well I do have a yamaha HS-7 here that Beth no longer uses, but I'll stick to the guitar for now.

learnt one scale and 2 chords, and alternate picking, nothing particularly good and even worse when I add any speed to it, sticking to 15 minutes 4 times a day for now, seems to be about right.

Cheers Mark.

I tried guitar before, while I was still at school.

Was progressing nicely actually, but then just lost interest. Probably just preferred hanging out with my mates on dodgy street corners back then!

I accomplished my goal though, and that was to play the starting riff of Guns 'n Roses Sweet Child of Mine.

[rictus01]

well it's been a couple of weeks got a couple of scales down, still learning others, and chords, trying really hard to keep to the schedule I've set myself, for my second session today I tried something a bit different, though pretty badly I'll admit (for now) I can make a sound not totally unlike deep purples smoke on the water opening rift, first go and all that and only the very first part, but it's something to aim at.

Having fun with it though; which is the main thing.

Cheers Mark.

Dedication's what you need. I didn't have it unfortunately.

I hope we'll all get cheap tickets when you're filling Wembley!

You've made a good start by the sounds of things. Its the next bit which is the hard bit (don't mean to sound demotivational). As in you might see your progress slow slightly, but do not dispair and continue. As said above you need dedication.
One technique I found really helps, is the "caterpillar". I found doing that at the start and end of each session, sort of like a warm up and cool down, helped me find and remember the location of frets, strings and improved my stretch and flexibility loads.

Keep at it.

[rictus01]

well I learnt a long time ago, you keep plugging away and at some stage all the hard work pays off....hopefully.

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by ChrisSV

One technique I found really helps, is the "caterpillar". I found doing that at the start and end of each session, sort of like a warm up and cool down, helped me find and remember the location of frets, strings and improved my stretch and flexibility loads.

not sure what you're on about here, I do the chromatic scale at the start and finish of each session which is a 4 fret spread, makes the left hand ache so a fair amount of stretching involved.

Cheers Mark.

If you already do the chromatic scale, then you don't really need to do the caterpillar, they both hone the same thing in essence. Except the chromatic scale is possibly better.
I just found the caterpillar first, since I didn't really learn any "musical theory" or anything until I'd been playing about 3 years. (Yes I know I did it backwards lol)
This explains the caterpillar in its most basic sense, purley on the sixth string, but it can be done on all.
http://hawaiiguitarlessons.com/extra...-exercise.html
HTH

[rictus01]

well tonight was a milestone for me anyway, played along with deep purple on a backing track, OK only the first 12 notes, but everytime they were repeated, yeah I know it's not much, but I was chuffed with it.......

Good fun this.