Hello all
It’s been a wile coming but I’m close to committing to a personal challenge - *** long post alert ***
Now nearing 50 years old, I started playing guitar at 16 just by having a shot or two on my fiends guitar whenever I could. When I got my first job I bought myself a guitar and at the time listened to GNR and Metallica (the latter being forced upon me by my peers, I didn’t much enjoy it to be fair).
Within weeks of buying a guitar, I heard Extreme (Decadence Dance) for the first time - I was hooked.
I bought the Pornograffitti tab book and my friends didn’t see me for months. I got to a point where I could stumble my way through the album, then I learned a fair bit of the first album, then 3 sides came out so learned what I could of that.
Then, at 18, I met my now wife - we had kids early and by the time I was 20 I had completely lost interest in the guitar.
Fast forward to 2007, and (just like before) after messing around on a friends guitar I decided to have another go - within no time I’d bought a Washburn N4 and began relearning what I’d forgotten.
Fast forward again to present day, I’m still a Nuno fanboy and frustrated at not getting near the ability I have been chasing for years. Mostly due to my lack of picking fluency.
I have always, quite literally ‘picked’ at the notes, and in the last few months (after idly practicing Paul Gilbert’s 6 note two string pattern) have ‘unlocked my wrist’ - for the first time since I started playing it’s now what I believe to be a picking motion almost worth having. But, it’s out of control, the beast has bolted the cage and it’s doing what it wants.
Basically, hand sync isn’t great, and changing strings on from a trapped position results in lost of unwanted dead notes in between the notes I want.
I’m a natural DPS, although I’ve been training myself position neutrally to mitigate unwanted noises.
Last week, I took my guitar to be serviced and the tech guy played it…made noises on it that it’s never made before. It was a major wake up call.
So…I’m looking at CTC, and at the moment I’m only at the Basic membership stage (we’re all feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis), and more than willing to invest if I know I’ll benefit from it.
I guess I need someone to look at my technique and and say “ah! you’re doing [this], so try [this] instead”.
I hope I can find inspiration here, having read through some posts you all seem a great bunch.
Looking forward to chatting 