Newbie Questions

Hi,

1. I seriously doubt the size or you hands is a problem. It just takes practice. A position that is barely possible to fret cleanly will eventually become easy. Yes your thumb should be mobile, moving to make each chord shape easier. The best advice is to relax and do not choke the neck.

2. Muting the high e with you fretting hand is a little unusual. I do it intentionally on some chords. To do it I have to choke the neck. Could you be choking the neck? There should normally be space between the your hand and the neck, the only exception is an open D.

3. Power chords, do you mean barre chords? If you mean power chords it is just a matter of getting used to hitting the correct strings when strumming (usually fretting is not the problem) and if you mean barre chords it takes quite a bit of time and practice for most people.

4. Yes there are many tried and true strumming patterns. Eventually you will be able to either hear the pattern or create one that is complimentary. Your ear will get better.

Try this site

http://www.grouptherapy.guernsey.net/strumming.html

1.&2. moving your thumb to the middle of the neck will help or fix these problems, with practice.

3. Sorry I don't play power chords.

4. Strum a few down strokes then strum a few up strokes, train your ear to those sounds. When you can tell the difference between the two with your ear it will be easier to figure out strum patterns.

(most of the problems may be related to the fact that I have small hands...or may be not).Welcome aboard. Have you checked out any of David Hodge's "Easy Songs For Beginners" lessons? I ask that because besides the fact that they're great (fun) to learn with, David has mentioned at least once that he has small hands. I do too, and like David, I play a 12-string.
With time (spelled p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e), I think you'll find that the hands are limbering up, and you'll develop some new dexterity that will help you get around the fretboard a little better.
1. Difficulty reaching over three frets consistently without buzzing or muting other strings (F chord and C chord, though I'm getting better with the C). Will changing my thumb position help? Are there other suggestions?There's another thread running about this, so I won't duplicate what others have said except to say "yes, changing thumb position can help."
2. I occasionally am (unintentionally) muting the high E string with my fretting palm.To quote Forrest Gump, "It happens." It's not exactly what is meant by "palm muting," but controlled mutes may eventually turn out to be a Good Thingâ„¢. With more practice, the unwanted ones will probably go away.
3. Power chords...hard to play and even harder to get them sound like something other than torturing a cat.Yup, and that's the effect some people may be looking for when they play 'em. :lol:
They're kind of "an electric thing," often with distortion and/or palm muting thrown in. One more thing that shoud smooth out with time and practice.
4. Strumming....I have trouble figuring out the strumming patterns on songs that I'm fiddling with. Are there any tried-and-true default patterns and what can I do to get better at figuring out the best patterns.I don't know about the best patterns, but if there's a particular song you want to work on, you can try taking it reeeeaaalll sllooowww at first, and building up speed as you go. Initially, it may just sound like some chords in a vague pleasant sequence, but if some day a bystander says "Hey, that's (song title)!" then you'll know you've got it. 8)
Again, David Hodge's "ESB" lessons are good, because he diagrams strumming patterns, sometimes different ones for the same song.
I'm sure I'll have a million other questions, but these are the ones bugging me a lot right now.It's a huge learning process, but it can be a lot of fun. In fact, my instructor is a great advocate of the concept that playing music should be fun. The more fun it is, the more likely we are to practice. As we practice, we find we sound better, and that makes it more fun. See where I'm going with this? :wink:
I've been playing about thirty years now, but with no particular "dedication" until recently. Even now, I don't pick up a guitar and practice as regularly as I should, but I do try to get in some "fret time" every day. Even if I'm giving the fingertips a break, I may be doing some casual stretching exercises with my hands while watching TV.
One of the great things (sometimes frustrating, but still great) is that there's always something new to learn.
Oh, about those stray buzzes and mutes you mentioned in question 1, here's two more things I learned from my instructor:
1) The "bad" notes do fade off into the atmosphere, so just keep replacing them with "good" notes. It's qute possible that nobody else noticed them.
2) If you play a simple song really well, it appears that you're doing something more complicated.
Play on!

--
Doug C.

I was just playing a little and I noticed that most of the time I do choke the neck on the D major chord but not all the time. So I would change my earlier advice and recommend that you avoid choking the neck on any chords.

Something else found while looking up other things: http://www.cyberfret.com/chords/primer/page2.php . If you don't already have RealPlayer to view the videos, I'd suggest something like Real Alternative. (But maybe that's just me. :wink: )

Just a thought on muting the first (e) string - I used to do it unintentionally. Solution was to keep the guitar more upright and lean my head over to see the frets. There is a temptation to lean the guitar backwards to see the frets and this usually causes the palm to mute the E string.

Thanks for all the tips. I tried moving my thumb position last night and it definitely helped with both C and F chords....just have to do it consistently, now.

Just a quick cheat for you on those power chords/barr chords.Just play the first three notes and forget about the full barr until you get more comfortable with it.
example: A chord

Index finger E string 5th fret
Ring finger A string 7th fret
Little finger D string 7th fret

*Just strum these three strings and forget the rest.

*Unless your playing something that specifically requires a Major or Minor Barr chord then you'll have to practice that barr!
I know some purist's will tell you you shouldn't learn this way but it will help you play a lot more songs and make you feal like your making progress and most importantly keep you motivated!

Hope this helps.

1. Difficulty reaching over three frets consistently without buzzing or muting other strings (F chord and C chord, though I'm getting better with the C). Will changing my thumb position help? Are there other suggestions?

3. Power chords...hard to play and even harder to get them sound like something other than torturing a cat.

4. Strumming....I have trouble figuring out the strumming patterns on songs that I'm fiddling with. Are there any tried-and-true default patterns and what can I do to get better at figuring out the best patterns.

I had the same problem with the "C" chord. It went away in time.

I still can't play power chords either? Someone posted to make it sound good it has to be on an electric guitar and LOUD.

For Strumming - sometimes I can't figure it out either? But I've learned that, when I try to make it sound "just like the song" it's impossible because there may 2 or 3 guitars in the song and you can only play 1 part. There are couple of good posts about timing and strumming patterns and I THINK (Nils?) has a web page with strumming patterns.

A song like, "Daughters" by John Mayer. When I listened to it I'm thinking I can do this. I pulled down the tab and after about 15 minutes I know I got it right (D DUDU) but I can't fit the lyrics in? There is a trick in their somewhere but until I get a teacher it's going to take time to figure it out?

David's lessons are very good. "Happy Christmas", "For what's it worth" , "Ellenor Rigby(sp?)". it's all timing....

Bob Jessie