Hello all!

I made the mistake of not starting to play they guitar until I was in my late 30s and after my first child was born. As a result, I was short on time and ended up being "self taught" on my couch for a couple years. I've improved for sure but I find I still struggle with a basic skill that is really hampering the kind of music I want to play (blues and rock): poor flat picking accuracy! The "internet" convinced me early on that anchoring my picking hand would be counter productive and I tried for a couple years to get better with a a floating hand. That hasn't panned out as much as I wanted and I started anchoring my pinky down on the pick guard in the last 8 months with some success. What I am looking for now is a couple of exercises I could do for 10-15 minutes a day for a year or two to try and really improve on this so I can stop thinking about it while I play so much.

Any suggestions? I had made up random string skipping exercises in the past which helped early on but they were a little to "formulaic" and didn't translate to actual improved playing of songs. I read that classical etudes would help and I picked up a Carcassi peice I really liked (and it helped) but I seem to be stalled again.

I could really use some expert guidance from someone who feels they've overcome this roadblock.

Thanks!

Older but newbie