I am using a Yamaha G225A classical guitar that serves the purpose of being my "stunt" guitar in terms of practice. I do own a second Martinez Electro-Classical guitar which will be utilised when I become competent as a guitar player.

Should I be using a finger style or plectrum for the 2, 3 and 4 chord progression practice drills -down strokes and upstrokes?

Happy strumming Y'all, peace out. 🙂

Just wanted to table something for beginners and intermediates (like myseld).

I was looking at the  excellent NGA fingerstyle course.  Two tutors there MK and Jack with 1000s of hours teaching experience.

MK mentions two methods of playing with the right hand early on (anchoring and free style).

There is a third which I over use …anchoring with the fourth (pinkie) finger.  You can see Jack occasionally uses it in the course.

 You can also see how he uses free a lot eg when hybrid picking…..(I wish)

Sadly  although I have found pinkie anchoring VERY useful for complex fingerpicking it does hamper me now

I am trying to use percussive and hybrid/plectrum work.

(I think at one Livestream MK mentioned that those who used plectrums

early on seemed to advance more rapidly?

I have noticed that some pros use a thumb pick (e.g. Chet Atkins) and their fingers or just their fingers but most have their hands free

and not tethered.  

https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/chet-atkins-fingerpicking-country-guitar

Mark Knopfler is another one to study and features here too… You can see Chet occasionally is tethering during his solo work…..

It is going to take a LOT of work to wean me off this but I would still recommend beginners explore it as ONE method to try at the

start of their journey. I would recommend they try all three though…..

I have ccd MK and Adam who will have very vaiuable insights I am sure.

Not sure if this warrants a Livestream btw...

View please

@Mike Kennedy 

@Adam

@Chris

Doesn't most music mix chords and arpeggios?

Sorry folks, the pest again - in the diagram below, I understand this is a fingerpicking exercise, BUT,  when doing the exercise, should I be making the chord fully when fingerpicking the notes? The diagram only shows the strings and frets to pluck...not necessarily with that chord made, only a couple of notes within the chord?

Is this correct? These are exercises for the thumb and Index Finger so I am assuming here. I am Brand new to reading Tabs so I want to

be sure I am reading the diagrams correctly - hence doing the exercises properly

Striking (not plucking) the strings of a chord with the nails of all four fingers (perpendicularly) as though you were holding a pick produces a ringing sound I have heard in a lot of early blues songs. It's very nearly like the sound of a twelve string guitar, but more so, because each note rings out four times in a single stroke. It's a cool sound, whether played using hard strikes or light and on a dobro, forget about it! Damn, I love a guitar. 

Is this correct? These are exercises for the thumb and Index Finger so I am assuming here. I am Brand new to reading Tabs so I want to

be sure I am reading the diagrams correctly - hence doing the exercises properly

I have the blues in my head, melodies I want to play, but didn't know how to make the sounds. So I started playing various scales in different keys until I found the sound that worked. 

So I have a simple little melody. I have a few alternate versions of what I've titled Blues in G #1 but put together one of them for review. It should be played slowly and I'm considering playing the slide tones in half notes instead of quarters. I'm still working on lyrics that will give it a name, and paired the melody with seventh chords in a 12 bar blues progression.

Any feedback from anyone, even if it's a bit harsh, is welcome. I'm still working on how each chord is played and need suggestions on how to notate/depict the rhythm--because I use the partials that Mike suggested in one of the lessons. But, if anyone has a suggestion about playing the chords, please do. And, recommendations for songwriting software are badly needed.

BTW--I tune my guitars to open D. If I can make music with the forms in that tuning, I will have fulfilled my ambition.

I thought I'd table this as an annual action. What about "spring cleaning" the site once a year? There is duplication of posts as people comment, which makes it ungainly, that alone would make it more useable? 

Perhaps key postings with attachments could be catalogued somehow? 

Let's see what others think? 

Sorry for the drawn out babbling, But it is so good, here at 6:30 am, I couldn't sleep so I watched 4 sessions of the Barre Chord Course while lying in bed awake since 4:30 am 😳😳

So I've dipped in and out of a few courses trying to find my level 🙃. 

Set a couple of Goals 

But TheoryMaster is somewhere I need to stay more in than out, getting to know the Notes, The Fretboard and Scales...plenty of more lessons in front of me still to view. Just practice practice practice now.

How did everyone tackle the theory ? 

Griff 🎸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

One topic that is frequently mentioned is practicing by playing along to a backing track or the original recording. I understand this conceptually and how to find the recording (my music library) and a backing track (various guitar websites etc) but I find that when I think about actually doing it - my mind goes blank - I don't know where to begin.

It would help me if you could demonstrate how a beginner does this using a simple song.

Might sound too obvious to put on a video but it would really help me if I could see a demonstration.

Regards from south Oxfordshire,

John.

When Mike adds upstrums to the powerchords I can't quite figure out the strumming pattern - would you be able to spell it out for me!

The other issue is when playing powerchords with upstrums my pick is snagging on the strings. I've gradually moved up pick thickness with open chords from 0.38 to 0.71 so should I go back to 0.38 until I've got the hang of it? I also wonder if I'm showing too much of the pick to the string - how much pick should extend from my fingers?

Any advice gratefully received.

John (near Oxford but originally Manchester)