I'm beginning again. I tried years ago, but shit kept getting in my way, and I finally have to freedom to try again. I asked you for tips not too long ago. I picked up an Ibanez acoustic/electric combo and a chord bible. I've order the Petrucci dvd since I read your article. I didn't know he had one.
I'm coming along better than I thought I would so far. I supposed I retained more from my original attempt than I had imagined.
Excellent! I smoke a lot of pot so I forget a bunch of things. Usernames and faces, I forget those.
Have you started reading tab yet?
I can read it okay. The shit looks intimidating at first, but it's not so bad. I can't read sheet music for shit though. I'll have to work on that later. Right now I'm really trying to get some exercises down and playing around with notes. I discovered part of Nothing Else Matters that way.
I'm having the same trouble I had last time though with curling my fingers. I keep touching the string below and it's driving me nuts.
Most guitarists won't need to learn to fluently read sheet music, so you can set that aside. It's helpful, but not necessarily something everyone needs to know, unless they're planning on transposing from regular western notation to tablature.
From your description, you're unintentionally muting strings. The solution for this is actually just practice and form. Ideally, and in most circumstances, you'll be able to brace your thumb on the back of the neck, hold your hand out away from the neck, and have little/nothing else touching the guitar with your left hand except your thumb and fingertips.
Of course, it's hardly ever ideal and that's not always possible - in fact, some styles will make that truly impossible. I do one piece where I actually need to reach below the neck and use my thumb (from in front of the fretboard) and make a 9 fret stretch to use my pinky at the same time.
At the very bottom of this article is a video and it will have some really great finger stretches and they'll also help you be more precise with your playing. I highly, highly recommend watching it - and more than once.
That link should take you to a place where you can just right click it and save it to your hard drive.
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