OK to use thumb instead of pick to locate correct strings?

For the first question - don't worry about it. Soon enough you will *know* where the strings are without having to count, look or feel.

For the second - hmm . if you are playing with your thumb only you will have to stop doing it soon enough anyway. It sounds like you are playing single melodies? Try to form a chord and pluck the lowest strings with your thumb and the treble strings with your index, middle and ring finger. That is what you have to practice for finger picking. For single note playing you should problably suffer through the frustrations of using a pick. You will pick it up(!) soon enough. Not everybody would agree with me however - e.g. mark Knopfler :roll: (and Vic Lewis :) )

Welcome and dont hesitate to ask again!

Thanks lars.
I think what I'm begining to understand is that it doesn't really matter if I use a pick or my fingers. I'll try alternating with both so that eventually I get them both down. I am just playing single melodies with a few very simple chords thrown in. mostly alfred's max book 1 if you are familiar with that. By the way, is there a specific book or series that people would really recommend? I can't afford lessons right now and probably don't have the time for them anyway.

so is mark knopfler a fingers only player?

should I keep muting the string with my thumb/finger, or should i try to use the base or side of my hand every time?

Perhaps it is all just personal preference but i remember from my piano days that developing bad habbits can be hard to overcome. I'm not looking to be the next knopfler but i want to play comfortably and not limit my potential through improper technique.

I played without a pick for the first 6 months-1 year I played. Then I learned to use a pick. Nowadays, using a pick is my default option on electric guitar, but I prefer the sound of pickless, so I'm working on that.

As far as anchoring your hand by resting your fingers softly below the strings - I sometimes do that, lots of accomplished professionals do that, and I've read many books which tell you to do that. In short, don't worry about it. If you can try to develop your accuracy without resting your fingers there, that would be better in the long run, but you can work on this over time. It is far from being the worst "bad habit" you can develop (i.e. it is fairly easy to rectify in the future), and it has actually served some players very well. It becomes more of a problem when you move to more complex rhythm playing, and particularly faster soloing.

I wouldn't try to dampen strings using my pick though, that would produce unwanted noise (although you can use picks to create interesting "sound effects" in this kind of manner - the key is using those effects sparingly). You should learn to mute string by using the palm of your hand. This goes equally for when you are not using a pick, although when going pickless you can also use your fingers/thumb to dampen strings. In fact, I believe it is common practice among classical guitar players to dampen strings using their fingers rather than the side of their hand. So it isn't bad technique at all! But having both muting options available to you will expand your possibilities on the guitar.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and you can add Jeff Beck to that list of quitar players using their fingers (check his version of Drown In My Own Tears on youtube...).

I'd say switch between using a pick and using your fingers. Personally, I found it harder to learn to use my fingers again than I did to learn how to use a pick when I'd been learning pickless. But that might just be me. I don't know many guitarists who have tried both options.

As for learning materials......this site is excellent for the beginner. The lessons are sometimes less useful (or I have to spend more time searching...) for the more, um, experienced player. But I wish I'd found this place when I was starting out! I can't really recommend books to you since I didn't use many of them. A key thing is to make sure the book is aimed at the style(s) of guitar/music you want to learn. There's no point learning to play bebop jazz, for example, if you hate that music and just want to be able to strum some Backstreet Boys songs.

Edit: heh heh, I missed out one of the most important things I meant to say... Welcome to the forums! I look forward to hearing about your progress on guitar.

hey, thanks for all the advice. great video also. frankly, i'm interested in almost all styles of music (except perhaps backstreet boys :) ). i think i'll stick mainly with my fingers for now, using pick occasionally so i don't get too rusty there. the fingers seem easier at this point, so perhaps i'll progress faster...

We're agreed on the B-Boys! I just knew I if said something like Chuck Berry instead someone would post arguing that he was influenced by bebop or something.

I really can only speak from personal experience when saying this, but I definitely found it easier to get used to using a pick than get used to using fingers, so I'd advocate using fingers from the start as much as possible.

Oh, and I also meant to add that I wouldn't worry too much about reading music for everything straight away. I may be deviating from the "received wisdom" here, but the important thing is to enjoy playing guitar enough to keep working at it. So, if it helps you stick with it, mix in some practice where you look at your strings. Also, as someone who learned to read music after leaning guitar, I found it easier to develop my reading skills being comfortable with my guitar skills. I imagine learning the two skills at the same time could make things more complicated/frustrating than learning one first, then developing the other.

When I'm sight reading, I sometimes find reading the pitch values and rhythms simultaneously results in me messing up both. When that happens, I stop and just read the rhythms a few times, playing them by muting my strings and just picking the rhythm on one string. Then I'll run through the pitch values a few times, so I know where my fingers are going. Then I'll bring both parts together.

By no means take that as me saying "yeah, forget about sight reading, it isn't important, you can learn it years from now." I rather mean something like...

If you practice 1 hour per day, maybe spend 30 minutes sight reading, and 30 minutes practicing guitar without sight reading (either learning a song in a way that you memorise it, or improvising along to backing tracks, or something like that). Obviously, the balance between sight reading and not sight reading is up to you - depending on your frustration levels, desire to make progress, success with doing both simultaneously, whatever. Just don't feel bound to spend all your practice time sight reading. Don't ignore it completely either, and you should progress better than many guitarists.

Well yeah most of everything has been answered here but I just want to add:

Maybe you should try arpeggios what you do is you use your thumb to hit the bass notes ( E A and D) and use your three other fingers to play the other 3 strings, there are lots of lessons here about finger picking look em up :D.

And the fingers in the pick guard that is what I do when I'm playing with a pick, I put my pinkie in the pick guard for balance, support, and orientation as to where I am with strings.

And yeah the pick feels akward at first but remember to try and grab it correctly:

Ok there are many ways to grab the pick correctly but here is what i do. You grab the pick with your thumb and # 1 finger ( i really don't know the names of fingers in english so :P ) forming a bit of a cross or a t <--- with your #1 finger going downwards and your thumb pointing left and you put your pinkie down in the pick guard when you are playing maybe Power chords or single strings or maybe something that you can't strum all the strings and need more precision you put the pinkie, but if you are just strumming away for some kinda rhythm then just close your hand ( kinda ) and strum away :P.

So, those are my 2 cents if I said something wrong some1 correct me :P and welcome to the forum hope u learn lots.

Hope u can be like Max Kopfler, whoever that is xD

Hope u can be like Max Kopfler, whoever that is xD

Ummm...
He's the guy with the red Strat