who here plays guitar?

[BSM1]

I can play a guitar, as well as several other instruments. One thing with practice that might help with switching chords or notes, is to play to a beat, like a metronome. Have a slower beat at first, but try to hit the new chord on the beats. That trains the body to focus on the sound, and less focused on the shape of the fingers. It's like dancing. At first you have to understand where the feet go, but if all you do is focus on the feet, and not the rest of the whole body, you'll never actually be dancing.

Once you become relaxed with making the changes without focusing on them, then increase the rate. Start with 1/4 notes, increase to 8ths, triplets, 16th's, etc. Becoming relaxed is the key. This applies to any instrument you play.

Are you going to practice scales as well?

One thing that helped me believe it or not, was practicing in a mirror just to watch my fingering. I, also, encourage him to learn the scales.

 

[PureX]

Yeah, those are all good points and true. I don’t do any of them exclusively. You have to learn what to use when. Sometimes we get caught in doing something one way and don’t learn to think outside the box.

My bad habit has been with my right hand: keeping my pinky touching the deck, to keep my hand in place while finger-picking. That's a tough one to break. I could stop it to strum, no problem, but as soon as I want to go back to picking individual strings, my pinky wants to touch the deck to keep my hand in place. The longer I let it go on, the more difficult it is to stop myself.

 

[BSM1]

My bad habit has been with my right hand: keeping my pinky touching the deck, to keep my hand in place while finger-picking. That's a tough one to break. I could stop it to strum, no problem, but as soon as I want to go back to picking individual strings, my pinky wants to touch the deck to keep my hand in place. The longer I let it go on, the more difficult it is to stop myself.

The jury is still out over the 'touch not touch' question. It seems now most teachers are calling it a preference instead of a rule.

 

[Yerda]

My bad habit has been with my right hand: keeping my pinky touching the deck, to keep my hand in place while finger-picking. That's a tough one to break. I could stop it to strum, no problem, but as soon as I want to go back to picking individual strings, my pinky wants to touch the deck to keep my hand in place. The longer I let it go on, the more difficult it is to stop myself.

That's not a bad habit at all.

 

[PureX]

That's not a bad habit at all.

My classical guitar teacher would have claimed I need to keep that pinky free to pluck the strings with. Although, it seemed to me that it rarely was ever used for that. Almost all the finger picking I did involved the thumb and first three fingers, not the pinky. Yet he would say that's because my pinky was already occupied by my bad habit. Maybe so. It is what it is, I guess.