Playin’ geetar…
So I've had my guitar for a week now. The right hand stuff is coming back fast, the left hand is soft and weak. Hand strength is improving, but I need better calluses.
I'm really liking The How and the Tao of Folk Guitar by Patrick Costello.
When I played guitar for four years, fifth to eighth grade, I really didn't like it. It was just another class to take, and I was never comfortable with the guitar or any good at it. I just wasn't interested in guitar music, and I never had any real individual instruction. I just muddled along with the rest of the class.
I love Patrick's approach. Working in an open tuning, where all the major chords are simple barre chords, means I don't have to worry so much about the left hand while I concentrate on learning to do something interesting with the right hand.
Barre chords have their limitations... in open G, an F chord is high pitched compared the open G chord, which makes singing along awkward. But it's a quick starter, and I think the most important thing at this stage is being able to have fun... and it's easy- to noodle around in this mode, because the chord fingering is dead obvious and easy to reach. (A tad difficult to play, holding all six strings flat with one finger, but that's getting better as my hand strength improves.) (I need better calluses because I'm trying a few non-barre chords, and my middle finger is too fat... I need the callus built up so the string doesn't press so deep into my finger, which in turn will keep the thick pad of my finger from descending into the plane of the strings.)
So I'm taking it slow through the book... I'm "stuck" at the alternating bass note and getting smooth chord changes (not so hard to find the chord, but to get all the strings to ring out clearly). But that's okay, I'm having fun and want to get this part down solid before I move on. Which is what Patrick says to do... (paraphrasing) "it may take you a couple of weeks, but don't come back until you can do it like I showed ya." In his free online videos, he stresses over and over the importance of having a solid foundation.