Hi,

Maybe someone can help me. I've been playing around 18 months self taught and joined the site a few weeks ago.

For the first few months I started playing I used a pick .5mm - this felt/feels ok in my hand. I really did not like strumming with the pick and eventually switched to fingers and spent some considerable effort learning to strum using my first finger and thumb; this sounds OK now but is certainly not brilliant.

On the advice of one of the instructors on the site I started to try strumming with a pick again and quickly realised why I stopped in the first place. Bear in mind, I'm not a complete beginner and I did put a lot of effort into using a pick for a fair amount of time but it never felt comfortable. And I have also put a lot of effort in the last few weeks - everyday, multiple practice sessions with strumming.

I've been following Better Strumming with Caren Armstrong and am really not enjoying using the pick, although I notice she uses her fingers. In fact, I'm getting to the stage where I'm not enjoying practicing at all because of how frustrating I'm finding this and actually put my guitar down today swearing to myself 'I've had enough' - that's how much of a nightmare I'm having

Current problems:[br]Very uneven sound due to hitting strings lighter or heavier (inconsistent)

Missing strings completely on both down and up strokes (randomly - especially when playing for example a D chord, might have something to do with me desperatly trying to miss the low e and a - I do mute the low e string when needed with my thumb)

Upstroke sounds consistently bad and feels alien

Pick get caught in the strings

The top e rings out so highly and annoying on the upstroke that I feel like cutting it with a wire cutter

Can't get anywhere near hitting/missing the right strings

...the list goes on...

The other thing is this, I can't switch between chords when using the pick because first of all it sounds so crap that it is making my ears bleed and second of all, I can't concentrate on more than trying to strum.

Can anyone advise please? I'm a pretty positive person but this is beating me at the moment and I don't want to throw away 18 months of daily practice (up to 2 hours and sometimes more of very dedicated hard work) due to this.

Thanks a lot in advance,

the(unhappy)Molster

ps please don't tell me to try a different instrument (I'm on an accoustic electric guitar)