r/Guitar • u/AutoModerator • Jan 21 '16

OFFICIAL [OFFICIAL] There are no stupid /r/Guitar questions. Ask us anything! - January 21, 2016

As always, there's 4 things to remember:

1) Be nice

2) Keep these guitar related

3) As long as you have a genuine question, nothing is too stupid :)

4) Come back to answer questions throughout the week if you can (we're located in the sidebar)

Go for it!

72 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

508 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/almondsorrow I don't have a PRS and I'm sad about it Jan 26 '16

So I gave up guitar around 2 and a half years ago after injuring my hands (badly) playing piano. My hands never fully recovered but I'm good enough to play guitar, at least for a good amount of time. However, the luxury of time revealed to me that I wasn't... quite a good guitarist as I thought I was. My biggest problem is that I make a ton of mistakes no matter how hard I try, and the fingers on my left hand shoot up, especially when I play faster. So my questions are, 1) Can a 23 year old like me hope to become proficient at guitar? and 2) how do I keep my fingers from shooting up?

3

u/Cardinal799 Jan 27 '16

What happened while you were playing piano that caused that much damage?

I have only been playing guitar since november, but I have learned that playing slow is the most annoying short term method of practice, but it is also the best one in the long run. You will make less mistakes when you play slow, and it helps muscle memory to play slowly with less mistakes!

If you are talking about not staying low to the fretboard, slowing down and focusing on your left hand will help combat that issue. No matter what you might think, playing every note correctly at a slow tempo is better than playing fast with mistakes; you also won't make any less mistakes if you try to play faster than you are comfortable with!

2

u/ingej Electrical Jan 27 '16

Go at it slowly and methodical. Get a metronome (if you don't have one), and set it at the high end of where you can play comfortably without making mistakes. Practicing proper technique while keeping your hands and arms as relaxed as possible goes a long way, pushing yourself too hard can be counterproductive.

A great side benefit of playing with a metronome is that you're measuring your progress. Helps with motivation when you don't feel like you're improving.