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Old 11-13-2014, 01:11 PM
Alpione Alpione is offline
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Default Musings on this whole "playing acoustic guitar" thing...

After years of on-again/off-again playing and occasionally performing as more of a vocalist/rhythm guitarist in a duo with a lead player (which made me concentrate on learning dozens of songs rather than really practicing guitar), I decided recently that it's time to buckle down and learn to play.

To start, I sold my trusty Martin HD-28 strummer and moved to a generally more versatile new Martin OM-28. The OM-28 is fantastic and handles strumming with gusto as well as being wonderfully responsive for fingerstyle. I had gotten going on fingerstyle a little a while back but got sidetracked by my duo and the time that took. That's over and I want to get back into it - blues and acoustic rock (think Dear Prudence kind of stuff.)

So that's where I'm coming from and I've been thinking of guitar a lot recently. Here are the (random) musings I spoke of... Who has more to add?

- Working on fingerstyle can greatly help you with your flatpicking. Even just after a few months my right hand is far more accurate with a flatpick.

- Working with a thumb pick can really open up your tone possibilities. It took some effort, but now it's mostly second nature using one.

- Manufacturers of thumb picks make them all too darned long out of the box. I find that almost all of them require a good Dremel-ing.

- Callouses are finicky things. I play with thumb pick and bare fingers. Sometimes the finger callouses are hard and get great tone, sometimes they're soft and sound muted.

- Some days, fingers just no worky. If I get through 20 minutes and can't seem to warm up, I go do something else.

- Some small guitars can really make big sound.

- John Pearse strings, for me, are awesome ... for about 3 days. Then they're toast.

- Martin strings are much better than I remember. I had been using Dean Markley Helix on the HD-28. Try them, even though Markley doesn't get a lot of talk around here.

- There's almost too much good instructional stuff for fingerstyle - from Toby Walker's "Packs" to Jorma Kaukonen's Homespun stuff, I have to keep myself focused or I'll sample everything and never perfect any of it!

- There will always be passages that should be simple but stump me for a while.

- Metronomes are miracle-workers for polishing up tunes and techniques.

- I'm going to give away a few dozen different flat and thumb picks soon, when I decide what my final thumb pick of choice will be. Current frontrunner - Kelly Slick Picks.

- Keeping things fresh is the most important part of practicing. Even if I haven't gotten something down cold, I need to add new tunes occasionally to stay focused. Variety is also critical when The Wife and The Child have to listen to you play all the time.

What's everyone else thinking about these days?

Adam
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Old 11-13-2014, 03:03 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Hi Adam,

It sounds like you are learning a lot right now, and that's good.

I also use Fred Kelly Slick Picks and my bare fingers, though I combine my short nails with my finger tips to get a little more volume.

Regarding giving away surplus flat picks and thumb picks, I always put those away in a small box I have and then revisit the box every once in a while. Sometimes I find something that I can use.

Best of luck on your playing!

- Glenn
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