If you ever feel like your hands are getting overwhelmed as you learn a piece of music…
Or you feel like you want to tear your hair out trying to play something new and tricky…
…Then here’s a really simple tip that will help…
Work on only the fretting hand movement on its own for a bit
Yep, it’s simple, but here’s how it works…
Stop trying to play the strumming/picking pattern while doing the fretting hand movements.
Instead:
- Rest your picking hand on the strings (this will ensure you don’t get tempted to pluck or strum!)
- Choose a bar or two from the music and make the movements with the fretting hand. These movements can be the chord changes, the scale notes, the melody, etc.
That’s it.
This method will work for anything, and training one hand at a time like this can be pretty powerful.
We’ve all sat there at various points feeling the urge to throw our guitars out the window (do I exaggerate? Maybe just a little!), but it’s being overwhelmed that can be a big cause of such feelings.
Simplifying things and stripping them back like this can and often does begin to help.
At the very least, it will give you clarity in your mind about what your fretting hand can and needs to do.
You can use this idea when learning anything new or just to refresh and refine older stuff.
What’s the last thing you’ve been learning or practising?
Try this method with it!
Hope you enjoyed that and have a fun-filled Friday
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. For more help, tips, advice, and simple methods, check out the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy. If you join before the end of March, you’ll get two books posted to your door for free as a welcome gift just for joining…
Find out about the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
P.P.S. Don’t just join for the free books though, join because you want to make big improvements to your playing – if you follow the lessons and commit to it for a bit of time each day, you absolutely will make these improvements.
P.P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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