New from Manchester, UK - and I also suck at this LOL

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hey all. Quick (hopefully) potted history of my playing:

Age 8ish - first picked up a guitar. Guitar teacher the school brought was classical and I hated it. I gave up.

Age 13ish - tried again. Picked up a Fender Squier Strat (they were still branded as Fender at the time). No real teaching available and no internet made learning slow and irritating. So… I gave up

Age 44 - got the bug again, so picked up a cheap acoustic off Amazon, and a cheap electric LP rip off from eBay. But, frustrated with lack of progress on some basics … you guessed it. I gave up.

Age 48 - tried again, and this time it seems to have stuck.

However, one thing that is holding me back is picking. I can navigate the fretboard reasonably well, and play some stuff. But, as soon as I need to pick up the pace, especially to play even a moderately paced lead part, my picking goes to hell and I think there’s something wrong with my fingers. I suck donkey balls at picking. This could be hard work.

Cue finding Troy’s YouTube channel. Watching the Cracking The Code series of videos was eye opening. Not decided yet whether to go for the Primer or the full membership. Any advice either way? Looking forward to learning from this place.

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#2

Welcome @6StringTrucker! In normal times we would not be too far away, I’m near Nottingham at the moment :slight_smile:

I think if you are undecided you could try the membership for one month, as it gives you access to everything including the Primer. If price is an issue we also have a scholarship program to get the subscription at a reduced rate:

Based on what you write above, I’d definitely start from these new chapters that we just put together:

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#3

Hey there! Biggest piece of advice is to not get frustrated; in my experience, it takes much longer than you think to be good at picking.

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#4

Hey, thanks @tommo. and @Pepepicks66 for your replies. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I still don’t know which way to jump. One month test of the full membership then decide membership or Primer only seems like the way to go.

One of the biggest problems is everytime I think I’ve got a handle on how to approach this another of Troy’s old videos pops up (like the one I saw last night for “Noise Control Secrets of the Flexed Form”) and I start thinking a) how will I ever play like that and b) how do people still reach the strings holding their wrist like that? LOL

Quick question, is this stuff still actually updated regularly by Troy? I notice from the YouTube videos that a lot of the content is older now. I’ve fallen victim before of someone selling something online and it turns out he’s now only really the marketing frontman and doesn’t really participate anymore.

Last point, honest. Wish I’d got in on the Kickstarter for the Magnet. that thing looks amazingly useful.

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#5

Quick answer… yes :slight_smile:

The last link I sent you (“test your motions”) is a new section that came out very recently.

@Troy, @Adam and myself are currently working on more material to be released as soon as we can!

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#6

@tommo Good to know. Might sign up for the membership for a month, see whether that’s too much information or not, then decide before renewal whether to swap to the download Primer.

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