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So......bad habits....


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Posted

Raising the pinky finger and only freting three fingered. When I was young, I was fast enough for the styles I played to not need all four fingers ready on the fretbroard. Now, because of age and a more mature taste in musical styling, I'm having to force the pinky down closer to the strings, rather I'm using it on a piece or not, to retrain my hand.

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Posted

Well, I'm self-taught, and I started out with a few pretty bad habits...

    For a long while I played everything using all downstrokes. Everything. Severely limited my speed, but eventually I saw the light and developed my alternate picking and etc.

  • When I first started doing bends, I used to always do them by "pulling" the strings rather than the typical way of "pushing" them. That was a pretty tough habit to break.

  • I started out holding my pick with my thumb, index finger and middle finger. This wasn't a huge error (I heard Clapton holds his pick this way), but I did eventually realize that holding the pick with just two fingers worked a lot better. Plus it made hybrid picking a hell of a lot easier :thu:

  • I relied too heavily on tabs and not enough on my ear in the early years. I also waited too long to learn theory.

So yeah, I was pretty much a mess. I'm doing better now though :D

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Posted

1) not doing alternate picking from the beginning...took me a bit of time to break this habit...

 

2) not learning to fingerpick using my pinky as in classical style...

 

3) only using three finger to fret and not the pinky...

 

I think people tend to break these habits once they encounter a piece that is beyond their reach that requires one of these skills. Then they realize their deficiency and correct it...

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Posted

Using my pinky to fret "A" shaped barre chords (Probably due to hands and fingers being broken many times in my hockey playing youth) - still trying to break that one.

Sloppy picking - loosely holding the pick instead of attacking the string (getting better here).

Not learning theory early on. :blah:

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Posted

My bad habit was not taking lesssons early on. Time, money etc were the main reasons why but as a result I never really developed into a "guitar player". I just noodled around on my own. Lately I have been taking lessons and reading a lot of stuff here on the forums and other places. But almost 3 decades have past since I got my first acoustic and that it time lost that I'll never make up.

Also as a result of not getting much in the way of instruction early on (either formal or informal) I bet I have all kinds of bad habits that I don't even know are bad habits

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Posted

I used to start every new string with a downstroke. I was trying to learn this wierd rhythm and finally figured out my problem. Got that fixed a about a week.

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Posted

1. Holding the pick with my thumb, middle, and index finger.

 

2. Not using my pinky.

 

3. Using only downstrokes to pick.

 

4. Poor economy of movement.

 

 

Got all of them fixed except for the last one which I am currently working on.

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Posted
What bad (guitar) habit (if any...hell you might be perfect...) did you pick-up that you wish you'd have never started and had (have) a hard time kicking?



I am far from perfect, I will never be even what I considered to be a GOOD level :p

Nevertheless, I don't think I have specific bad habits... I rather lack skills as a whole :rolleyes: but that's only due to the fact that guitar is only one part of my life, and I don't dedicate as much time to it as I wish (which is valid for everything else I do as well... :freak: ).

I used to have at least two bad habits:
1) being tense and not understanding what it means to be relaxed
2) moving my pinky too much

but I got rid of them with the proper approach.

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Posted

It is interesting to note that there are legendary GREAT players who have "bad" habits mentioned here:

 

Joe Pass (voted best jazz guitarist during his prime) - starts all new strings on a downstroke, even while descending vertically (from high E to low E) on the fretboard.

 

Wes Montgomery & James Hetfield - only downstrokes

 

Eric Clapton & many blues/rock greats including Eric Johnson & Jimi Hendrix - 3 finger fretting

 

Albert King - Pulls his bends

 

Michael Angelo Batio - anchors picking hand with TWO fingers (pinky & ring)

 

:badump:

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Posted
These "faults" are what make them unique.


And please don't tell me their great natural ability enables them to "overcome" these faults.


The fact is they are not faults. Just a different way of getting from A to B.


:badump:

True, but, at least I know that in my case, I didn't ditch those habits because they weren't considered "proper;" I ditched them because I found them to be a problem and I needed to find a better method to suit my needs. So, to me at least, it really boiled down to those old habits just being plain "bad."

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Posted

True
, but, at least I know that in my case, I didn't ditch those habits because they weren't considered "proper;" I ditched them because I found them to be a problem and I needed to find a better method to suit my needs. So, to me at least, it really boiled down to those old habits just being plain "bad."

 

 

S'cool Dubb. I'm editing my post because it was obnoxious.

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Posted
It is interesting to note that there are legendary GREAT players who have "bad" habits mentioned here:


Joe Pass (voted best jazz guitarist during his prime) - starts all new strings on a downstroke, even while descending vertically (from high E to low E) on the fretboard.


Wes Montgomery & James Hetfield - only downstrokes


Eric Clapton & many blues/rock greats including Eric Johnson & Jimi Hendrix - 3 finger fretting


Albert King - Pulls his bends


Michael Angelo Batio - anchors picking hand with TWO fingers (pinky & ring)


:badump:




Wes Montgomery actually used alternate "picking" but the insanity of Wes is that he used his thumb.
I have a very difficult time conceptualizing anyone "picking" up and down with their thumb. Then I listen to him and I'm floored by his precision.

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Posted

1. I used to pick way too hard

2. I used to fret way too hard

3. I used to pick from my shoulder

4. When I would try to learn a riff, I'd try to play it fast, thus never building accuracy

5. If something didn't work right I'd get mad and put down guitar, rather than evaluate what I was doing wrong and fixing it

 

Needless to say I was a mess on guitar!!!

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Posted

One bad habit I have is learning songs all at once, rather than breaking it down into small pieces and learning it bit by bit. It takes me much longer to learn songs that way, I really need to work on not doing it.

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Posted

5. If something didn't work right I'd get mad and put down guitar, rather than evaluate what I was doing wrong and fixing it

 

 

1st...welcome to HC...you'll love it here! and, like you, I'm still guilty of that one. I'm easily frustrated and have a short attention span.

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Posted
It is interesting to note that there are legendary GREAT players who have "bad" habits mentioned here:


Joe Pass (voted best jazz guitarist during his prime) - starts all new strings on a downstroke, even while descending vertically (from high E to low E) on the fretboard.


Wes Montgomery & James Hetfield - only downstrokes


Eric Clapton & many blues/rock greats including Eric Johnson & Jimi Hendrix - 3 finger fretting


Albert King - Pulls his bends


Michael Angelo Batio - anchors picking hand with TWO fingers (pinky & ring)


:badump:



He actually anchors with his middle finger as well!

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Posted
He actually anchors with his middle finger as well!




You are right. I just checked out the video again.

If only he did it the right way he might get better. :freak:

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Posted

I am curious . . . why do you guys consider holding the pick with the thumb, index, and middle fingers a bad habit?

I hold a pick this way; I realize its unconventional, but I never had any difficulty playing anything as a result.

As a matter of fact, I've found lots of great advantages to holding the pick this way, such as being able to bend the pick to make it more stiff to increase attack and things like that.

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Posted

I have much more control when I use my thumb and index finger only. I'm much faster too, about 50 BPM faster actually. Give it a try MadCapLaughs, I bet you get much better. Just give it a couple weeks, it definately takes some getting used to.

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Posted
What bad (guitar) habit (if any...hell you might be perfect...) did you pick-up that you wish you'd have never started and had (have) a hard time kicking?



I can honestly say I can't think of one... my technique has changed and subtly evolved over time as need dictates and will continue to do so :). My picking technique for example is quite different to how it was a few years back. But it's just evolved as I've slowly changed little aspects of it to meet new challenges/overcome limitations. Just a matter of listening to what you're body's telling you and being aware of what is seems to be holding you back.

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Posted

One of the biggest mistake I made for a long time was not using enough open string notes in my scales and riffs.[too hung up on the box system with fretted notes]
All upstroke picking motions until I learned the alternating pick stroke and hybrid method.
Not learning the circle of 5th's or memorizing the fretboard up front when I started playing.
Played too much with my eyes and not enough with my ears.
OVERPLAYING which is probably the biggest bad habit many excellent guitar players cannot kick.

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