Picking Frustrations

One thing I’ve always had trouble with is hitting the wrong strings. I’m currently on guitar fundamentals 1 learning Five Miles Out and trying to keep pace with Lisa but it gets incredibly frustrating when I keep hitting the wrong notes and which throws me out of sync and then I have to start over. I’m a lefty and I would say I’m pretty good with using my left hand for riffs, it’s the right hand that doesn’t want to cooperate. As part of my practice routine I do the spider finger exercise with all four fingers and alternate picking up and down the guitar neck. I’m getting better at it but I fear I may never get over this, after awhile I have to take a break because I almost want to throw my guitar against the wall.

Does anyone have any tips?

I wish I had two left hands; it would be so much easier, lol

Hey Wolf.

I basically struggle with everything if that helps lol. You are not alone. I am begining to think of playing guitar is like playing golf. Keep at it and good luck.

Me on a good day

Angry!

Hey Wolfman.[br][br]I used to have trouble with this aswell (im sure every guitarist has had this problem).[br]I created a structure for myself where I will warm up my hands / forearm etc. Then I would practice exercises with the metronome set to 60BPM (Beats Per Minute).

[br]Here is an example image of something you could practice daily. Make sure you set the tempo to 60 and really take your time. Learning guitar requires patience, you must learn patience first. Even if you are playing each note perfectly, then you stuff up and hit the wrong string and this causes you to lose focus, you must know that its okay to make mistakes and then you set yourself up again and play at the next comfortable beat. Don't start again from the start of the song / exercise, just pick up where you left off.[br][br]Mistakes are a way for us to remember 'what not to do', even if you make the same mistake 3 times, by the 4th time your brain will register a pattern of mistakes and this will help you to not play that mistake. Patience is a beautiful teacher :)[br]Good Luck![br][br]

[br]Edit : Learn 1 Bar (section) at a time, repeat it until its comfortable to play before moving on to the next bar.

Originally Posted by: William MG

Hey Wolf.

I basically struggle with everything if that helps lol. You are not alone. I am begining to think of playing guitar is like playing golf. Keep at it and good luck.

Me on a good day

Angry!

That’s how I feel. Maybe a good tip is to have two guitars, one for practice and a another for smashing.

Hey Jorden,

Thanks for the tip, I have a Spider V amp that has a metronome built into it so I'll start using that to practice with.

I finally got past that lesson and I'm now learning melodies on all 6 strings. Like you say patience is the key.