can someone explain...

can someone explain to me how picking is done. i can only play two songs which involve the lowest e string the white strips - 7 nation army and the intro of deep purple- smoke on the water
ive searched up other songs but on some u have to use all 6 strings and i only have 4 fingers that are able to play and a thumb to hold up the guitar lol and then there is songs that have the a string on the second fret and the e string on the 6 fret and my fingers cant reach that far lol can someone help me :( :o :confused:

if you post a tab, we can probably figure it out with you. A lot of the times tabs have really bad fingering, but we can rework that into something you can learn to play.

As for just playing songs on one string haha, don't worry with some consistent picking practice, you'll feel a lot more comfortable changing from string to string, it's no big deal.

Originally Posted by: jessica325can someone explain to me how picking is done. i can only play two songs which involve the lowest e string the white strips - 7 nation army and the intro of deep purple- smoke on the water
ive searched up other songs but on some u have to use all 6 strings and i only have 4 fingers that are able to play and a thumb to hold up the guitar lol and then there is songs that have the a string on the second fret and the e string on the 6 fret and my fingers cant reach that far lol can someone help me :( :o :confused:

Looks like picking isn't your only problem. I'm going to answer your questions about fretting first.

I'm going to assume you're right-handed, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Your left hand is your fretting hand (the hand you use to press down on the strings). Even songs requiring all six strings will not require you to use any more than four fingers (some will say you can also use your thumb, but that is horrendous technique, so please don't listen to them). I'll explain how to play them (theoretically at least, I don't know the exact songs you're talking about). Some chords require you to play more than 4 notes, but as you only have four available fingers, the guitar has been designed to accomodate you. Many chords require you to do something called "barring," which allows you to play multiple notes with only one finger. To teach you barring, I'll give you an example: lay your first finger across the fifth fret of every string. Now press down with your entire finger and strum the strings, making sure all six notes ring out properly. That's how you play multiple notes with one finger.

Are those songs playing the A string on the 2nd fret and E string on the 6th fret at the same time? If not, you could play the 7th fret on the E string instead of the 2nd fret on the A; it's the same note. If the two ARE played at the same time, then you need to start stretching your fingers to reach that far, although I'm not sure why you'd have to play those notes at the same time, it's terribly dissonant...

Really sounds like you are mis-reading the Tab.

Originally Posted by: jessica325can someone explain to me how picking is done. i can only play two songs which involve the lowest e string the white strips - 7 nation army and the intro of deep purple- smoke on the water
ive searched up other songs but on some u have to use all 6 strings and i only have 4 fingers that are able to play and a thumb to hold up the guitar lol and then there is songs that have the a string on the second fret and the e string on the 6 fret and my fingers cant reach that far lol can someone help me :( :o :confused:

this will sound strange, but keep practicing, ive been playing for 2 years now, im not that great, but over that time, my hands couldnt really stretch that well eitehr, but over time, the small muscles in your hand will get stronger, and expand, youll improve, just gradually. now, it takes a while to learn the chords, but practice them alot too, your not gonna learn in one year. some chords do require like the full 6 strings to be covered, that requires normally one finger to hold 1 full fret down, and the other three to hold sepearate imagine this (223452) those being frets (ps, if that is a chord, then haha)
i started with smoke on the water, then to beatles day tripper, then to like iron man, just start with simple songs until you catch what your doing

This will probably take a lil time(make that alot of time)
You seem to be on the right track with the single string songs, and asking here for help will always yield good results.

I think the next step for you is to learn a major scale and then start playing the single string songs you know as root and fifth power chords...for this, place your index finger on the original string and fret that you would have to play the son on just one string...then add your ring finger to the string directly above(in pitch, below in actual distance and physical position) that string,but two frets higher on the fretboard...so as the songs you know use only the lowE string, you will place your ring finger two frets up, but on the Astring...you with me? start very slowly, and dont worry, you wont be able to play with seamless changes initially, infact, you will probably not be able to move this chord position at all to begin with, but take some time on it and it will progress...
sorry if that is a bit hard to understand, it is rather hard to explain these things without being able to show you what I am talking about...

Good Luck.