Day one

[Mitchell Matossi]

Hey everyone!
My names Mitch, from the greatest place on earth, Alberta. Or at least I think so (except the 9 month of bitterly cold winters).
Anyways, I’m really glad I found this website, looking for online places to learn how to play guitar I so many different sites it was almost a bit discouraging not knowing what’s the best route to go, but the emphasis on the community here struck me as a fantastic idea. Where most sites you watch a video and that’s the end, here you can ask questions, get help and in return help others.
I guess I just wanted to introduce myself. Any advice for someone on day one? I appreciate you taking the time to read this!
Mitch

 

[Dan Shipway]

Hey, so glad you decided to become part of the family, this site is amazing and full of people who offer loads of help and support who all want to see you succeed.
What I would say is, don’t rush the lessons, these take time and in order for you to benefit the most out of these you may need to rewatch them over and over but it is sooo beneficial in the long run.
I look forward to hearing you play sometime brother!

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

I appreciate the response!
I definitely think you’re right about not rushing things! There’s so much to learn between theory and technique I think you’d go mad trying to power through everything and end up with poor results.
I’m fortunate in the fact that I’m a long haul truck driver so finding time to put in lots of practice shouldn’t be an issue!
Just been looking through a few pages of the community here and it’s quite olbvious there such a wealth of knowledge!
It’s funny because the internet is can be such a great resource, but can be quite the opposite as well. For example the guitar I’ve got has a Floyd rose, not knowing a whole lot about it I started to do some research, and most things I found said to avoid buying one as a beginner due to the pain the can be to tune and what not. But you work with what you’ve got.
I’m really glad this place has such a great community, and I think that’s something that elevates this platform to a higher level above the rest





This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by  Mitchell Matossi.

 

[Ed Seith]

Welcome, Mitch!
A Floyd can be more difficult to work with, not “because it’s a Floyd Rose,” but just because it’s a floating bridge system. Any and all of them have the same tuning pitfalls, but the Floyd is the most stable once it’s in tune, so it’s the best if you like having a whammy bar and doing silly Vai/Dime/Satch/Gates tricks with it.
You get used to it, and you learn its nuances over time. I’ve been playing Floyds for almost 30 years, and though I don’t buy new guitars with them anymore, I still enjoy the ones I have. Ask away – we’ve got knowledge and experience.
And I do hope you’re enjoying your three weeks of summer!

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

I took it in, got it set up. They said it should stay In time and just have to make fine adjustments here and there, I also looked at putting one of those tremol-no systems in if it does start to cause me headaches.
I’m definitely happy to have summer back, even though it snowed briefly last week, but fortunately I go down to Texas a fair bit so it’s like a bit of a winter getaway.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Welcome Mitch! I dare to say you found an awesome place to learn
My beginner tip? Post your Work and Videos here, even If it doesn’t seem like much. It helps and boosts you immensely to get feedback from Other players

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

Definitely! Im going to start lesson 7 tomorrow, when posting videos do I upload them to Youtube and then post that in here? Or is there a different way to do it?
Ideally I’d like to post videos after every lesson, but ill have to see how well my cell phone can record videos.

 

[AGA]

Welcome Mtitch! I’m also from Canada! B.C. so I guess we are neighbours!

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

Right on! I was born on Vancouver island, but moved out here once i finished highschool.
I’m thinking my best bet for uploading videos would probably be to just put them here instead of making a new topic everytime? If someone could weigh in on that it would be great!

 

[Ed Seith]

If you can get verified, upload them to your riffs page. It’s hit and miss for accomplishing that right now – the administrators are working on fixing several user interface issues.

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

Ok, it says pending verification or something of the sort. When i xlicked on create riff it says to put in the Youtube url a title and descriptio , so then after that it’ll be saved under my riffs?

 

[Ed Seith]

Correct!

 

[idssdi]

Good to have you here!
I guess the advice for day one would be start at the beginning and take everything slow.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Lived in okotoks for a year. Alberta is beautiful. But man.. when I drove through the mountains to go to Nelson the scenery blew me away. I wish I had a pic for an album cover in the future.
… I do miss driving home with the scene of snowy mountains in my face the entire time tho.

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

So I tried to create a riff for lesson 7 I just finished, but no luck with the verification issue. So I guess my best bet would be to do something like Nick is doing and just put it all in here?
Anyway heres a short clip for lesson 7 the major scale. After going over the video serveral times this is where I’m at.
Some things I’ve noticed:
– Picking is definitely incredibly awkward, and will definitely take getting used to.
– im not sure if the video sound really picked it up but theres a lot of buzzing from the frets. Im not sure exactly how to correct this.

Anyways thanks for taking to time to read this!





This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  Mitchell Matossi.

 

[Firsty Lasty]

There are multiple reasons why fret buzz can occur, and most of them are not serious problems. I wouldn’t feel stressed about it.
One thing I see technique-wise that will help you play more clearly is to focus on playing the notes closer to the appropriate fret. Hit play on your video and really watch where your pinky is. It is playing notes at the fifth fret, but you keep it very close to the fourth fret. At 0:58 you even get on it by accident. At first this will feel more difficult, but as your body learns to move correctly and be relaxed it will start to feel natural and comfortable.
I hope this helps, and I hope you have fun!

 

[Mitchell Matossi]

That absolutely helps! Makes sense when i go back and rewatch it. Ill definitely have to work on that, it just seems like such a stretch going so far over. I suppose you would get used to it after a while.
Another thing i forgot to mention, the picks the gave me with it are 0.43mm they seem super thin, like i can bend it in half almost so im thinking that might be a bit of the issue with the picking and having a lack of control of it?
I ordered some thicker ones one to try and see if that’ll help.
Thanks for the advice!

 

[Firsty Lasty]

Usually when something feels like a “stretch” on guitar what really matters is being relaxed and having experience in how to position yourself in relation to the guitar. There are many details that matter- the hand, the wrist, the arm, the angle of the guitar, etc.
Almost nobody uses .43 picks. I would never be comfortable with that. A good pick to start with is the standard green Dunlop .88 with the turtle on it. It deserves its place as one of most popular picks ever.

 

[Ed Seith]

Agree totally, and you definitely want a thicker pick. Before you set down to practice, try some finger stretches. There are more in-depth stretching exercises, but probably the only one you really need is for that reach.
Take the pick-holding fingers on your picking hand – the thumb and the pointer finger. On your left (fretting) hand, spread each pair of fingers apart as far as you can, then use the two fingers from your right hand to pry them a little farther apart. Hold for a couple seconds, then move on to the next “V.” You should do this for all three “V’s” on your left hand – pinky/ring, ring/middle, and middle/pointer.
Light stretching, just like you’d do on your legs before a run or something. That might help you grow your spread over time, as well.