Channeling My Inner Clapton Part II - Learning to Play Guitar

Let’s start with the basics. Some fundamentals. I’m left handed but, I have always done most things that require two hands, right handed. I shoot rifle right, bat right, play hockey, and golf right and so, I seem most comfortable playing the guitar right handed. I throw left but, I work a mouse right handed. I can shoot a pistol with either hand. When they say that all lefties are, at least, somewhat ambidextrous, it’s true.

Now, I do have certain physical challenges when playing guitar. My fingers are not particularly long and they don’t stretch particularly well. I have been told (promised) that these limitations can be alleviated with practice and, I believe that.

My left thumb does not work due to an unfortunate encounter with a table saw. The saw won. I still have the whole finger but, I can’t grip with it due to the loss of the tendon which controlled the joint. This thumb is used for leverage when fingering notes and chords so that will be an issue. However, if Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath can shred after losing the tips off of two of the fingers on his fretting hand … I’ll stop with the whining.

Then there is … the pick. I have difficulty holding a pick in a comfortable position that will feel right for playing while at the same time staying in place. They tend to shift as you play. I do understand that this is part practice and part … it is what it is. Even the best players have learned how to reposition their picks in the middle of a song.

That does not mean that there aren’t ways to improve this on this experience. I have bought so many different kinds of picks that my head’s still spinning …

Picks of different shapes and thicknesses
Picks with ridges
Picks with holes in them (different shapes and patterns)
I’ve drilled holes in my own picks
Little sticky grippy things that attach to picks
Picks that come with a rubber (removable, nice!) grip built in

Of these all, I have settled on the last two. Either can be used with my existing inventory of non-modified picks.

Learning to play

The last time that I tried to learn to play (back in the late 90’s), I took a few lessons from a co-worker and bought some books of sheet music. Obviously, that didn’t take. To get started, I invested in a DVD course from Gibson. It’s quite good but, it moves too slowly for my short patience/attention span.

Of course, in the 90’s we barely had the internet and particularly YouTube. I like classic rock and, right now, I am focused on chords. YouTube has proven to be my go-to resource for how-to videos and this has also led me to several other sites offering both free and paid lesson packages. I have both … lots of both.

Google has also been a life-saver particularly when it come to theory, technical questions, and evaluating new purchases. Google has never let me down. You also have mobile apps as well as sites for actual music. What I have found to work best for me is to print out the music and then listen to the song to determine actual chord change positions.

Practice, above all, makes permanent and with practice memory becomes reflex. Barre chords are still difficult for me but, I am, getting better. A better understanding the fret board allowed me to comprehend how barre chords allow me to use the same shape to get different chords up and down the neck. Power chords are similar.

Right now, I probably know 20 or so chords by heart. These are my building blocks. My strumming is getting better but, it still needs a lot of work. I have videos the I have purchased or bookmarked to help me with strumming but, like everything else that I have accumulated, they would probably be more beneficial if I used them.

I have not, yet, spent any time on learning to play single notes, lead. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to find an individual string and fret combination if my life depended on it. Yes, it’s that bad. However, I am now getting started by learning some picking patterns which will allow me to incorporate notes within my chords.

Becoming a metal shredder, while an interesting idea, is a very secondary goal for me. Still, I would like to play the intros to “Stairway to Heaven” and “Sweet Child O Mine”. This brings up tabs as opposed to notes. Tabs are the greatest invention ever and are super readily available. I’ll probably totally bypass sheet music and that idea appears to be widely adopted.

My biggest obstacle is focus. In retrospect, I should have started with one course, finished it, and then gone to the next. Instead, I have this huge resource library (its embarrassing) and the sheer size of it overwhelms me. Oh well. Still, if I could just set aside an hour every day to practice … I’d probably still suck but, I might suck less.

Stay tuned for my final article in this series … “Going Electric”. And I only thought that I had troubles up until this point. It gets worse 🙂

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!