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Hello,
I am a beginner and have a lot of trouble with my pick.
Instead of looking what my left hand is doing on the fretboard, I look most of the time to my right hand to get the right string.
I never see guitar players watching their right hand!
How can they touch the right strings while there is no reference for the right hand? There is no “beginning point” or so.
How does the right hand know where the strings are?
For me this is much more difficult then the left hand things at this time.
Is there a good way to practice string picking without looking?
I am curious what other members ( or Brian) have to tell about this.
Thanks for answers! -
When you watch someone else play, a lot of very subtle things are taking place with that hand. Some players anchor their pinky on the pick guard at times or they may feel the strings when resting their hand on the strings while muting. A lot of it is practice and muscle memory though. I’m still very much a beginner and I practice some things with fingers just because I find it easier. Some players switch back and forth while playng not only to get a different sound but some stuff is hard to get with a pick if your jumping strings all over the place. Some techniques may not be balanced between the hands as to difficulty. Maybe some of the beginning licks you have chosen have to high a level of difficulty at the time. Try licks that are more balanced in that way or that have less going on with the left so you can focus on the right. Also instead of working on licks using all six strings, try using licks that stay on the top three or bottom three, till you get better. Also there is a right and wrong way to hold the pick. I’m also a beginner so don’t put too much stock in what I say.
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Very well said droidlizard. It’s all muscle memory that only comes naturally by doing it over and over again. One thing you may want to do is to mute the strings with your left hand – letting them just rest on the strings instead of fretting notes… so that you get a nice muffled / muted sound.. and then practice strum patterns with the right hand. Try setting a metronome, tapping your foot, or even playing along w/ your favorite album… just strumming to the rhythm. This way you’re using your guitar as more of a percussive instrument. First start with only down strokes… then work it down and up strokes (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and …) then work in patterns like (1 and-a 2 and-a 3 and-a 4 and-a) – for that you’d use (down down up, down down up, down down up, down down up)
Just keep practicing – you’ll get it sooner that you think. You’re right though, a lot of the really difficult stuff when playing guitar is what the right hand does, not what the left hand does.
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LvdK,
Why don’t you try and playing the Ray Sharpe song Linda Lu. It’s a pretty basic song, but has a lot skills important to playing guitar.
The song is in the key of G, but for practice you can move it to the key A, that way the notes are closer together and little easier to practice the skills you’re having problems with. Ok, the song is in the 12 bar format (see Brian’s video, the turnaround is just two more bars of the first four). Use alternate picking (once down on the note and then up on the same note). The format for this song is Root x2, Root next octave x2, 7th x2, 5th x2.
Start by playing A, A, G, E, for four bars; then, D, D, C, A, for two bars; back to A, A, G, E, for two bars; E, E, D, B, for one bar; D, D, C, A, for one bar; and finally A, A, G, E, for two bars. Then it starts all over again. Remember, that second root note is the next octave up.
Start slow using alternate picking with your right hand on the correct strings. Like Brian said, tap your foot or use a metronome and concentrate on accuracy not speed. Once you feel you got it try it a little faster and keep doing this until you can play along with the song
Hope this helps and keep at it!
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