What bad habits have you eliminated?

[dubkitty]

fixed:
not using the small finger on my left hand.
sloppy octaves.

have to work on:
cleaning up my fast picking on guitar
picking notes too hard on the bass
over-singing...i'm fine when unamplified, but when singing over live amplified music i push too hard and sound like Michael Stipe fucking a sheep.

[Achtane]

Hey, when playing octaves on geetar, do you guys use the ring finger? I mean if you were just playing the two notes, not as part of a chord.
I always use my pinky to do it 'cause that's how I do it on bass, but I feel like it'd probably be better to get used to the ring.

[theavondon]

Hey, when playing octaves on geetar, do you guys use the ring finger? I mean if you were just playing the two notes, not as part of a chord.
I always use my pinky to do it 'cause that's how I do it on bass, but I feel like it'd probably be better to get used to the ring.

Yeah, I do it with the ring on guitar but pinky on bass. It helps with spacing, at least, for me.

[mathias]

I try to always follow a 1-2-3-4 fret assignment, keyed off my index finger, and had to work to eliminate my ring finger "helping out" by clobbering the fret that the pinky is responsible for. Building up my pinky helped.

So the octave gets the ring finger in my playing.

[D.o.S.]

I use the ring because I have tiny ass hands and the pinky won't pull that shit off.

[Ghost Hip]

Bad thumb positioning on the back of the neck. To fix it you really just need to focus on always being aware of it.

Bad


Horrendous


Good (ish, just a touch high but close enough since I can't find a great picture of perfect form)

Going to have to completely disagree with this.
I'm usually either number two or three, but there really isn't anything wrong with number two.
Lots of country players will even go further and use their thumb to play bass notes of chords they couldn't reach with their fingers.
I think the trick is generally just moving your hand around until you get something comfortable.
You really don't need classical style grip for everything.

Word, if you can play the chord and go to any other chord comfortably, musically, and efficiently then who cares? Not to mention different hand/finger sizes. I have long fingers and I use my thumb a lot while playing to mute lower strings and usually had that inverted 3rd on the D chord. I understand for certain styles of playing, this can be crucial, but on the other hand there are a ton of different ways to play guitar, and not all of them require dexterity and endurance.

[Ghost Hip]

Hey, when playing octaves on geetar, do you guys use the ring finger? I mean if you were just playing the two notes, not as part of a chord.
I always use my pinky to do it 'cause that's how I do it on bass, but I feel like it'd probably be better to get used to the ring.

Yeah, I do it with the ring on guitar but pinky on bass. It helps with spacing, at least, for me.

I use both (on guitar), it really depends on the context of the song. If the riff is all double stop octaves I use either, but the pinky helps in letting my first finger change the bass note, or my pinky can slide further up the neck. Getting used to this makes the octaves on the D/B and G/e strings easier to learn as well. Get yer rivers cuomo on. I used to only do power chords with just my first, ring, and pinky. But over time I've combined using just first/pinky, first/ring, etc. It really all depends on where all the notes are heading towards.

[snipelfritz]

Bad thumb positioning on the back of the neck. To fix it you really just need to focus on always being aware of it.

Bad


Horrendous


Good (ish, just a touch high but close enough since I can't find a great picture of perfect form)

Tell that to this guy:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE3FAY-NOiU[/youtube]

I'm lazy and sloppy and I've learned not to care.

[jfrey]

Tell that to this guy:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE3FAY-NOiU[/youtube]

I'm lazy and sloppy and I've learned not to care.

Hendrix was good because of his songwriting and style - not because of his technical ability, which while very good for the time in rock, wouldn't be amazing or anything by today's standards. Perhaps irrelevant, but considering this is a thread about playing habits...

I really don't understand why so many musicians consider being lazy and sloppy a good thing. Even worse, not caring about it.

Knowing different techniques, having good form, understanding theory, etc. These are all tools for your playing. No one was ever able to do less by having more tools. They are the means by which you articulate what you want to 'say'. And if you can't say something well, then what's point? All the "emotion" in the world that you might have for what you want to play won't count for anything if you can't translate that onto your instrument.

[Chankgeez]

I really don't have anything to contribute here, other than to say that I don't consider any habits "bad" unless they're causing you physical harm.

[snipelfritz]

Tell that to this guy:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE3FAY-NOiU[/youtube]

I'm lazy and sloppy and I've learned not to care.

Hendrix was good because of his songwriting and style - not because of his technical ability, which while very good for the time in rock, wouldn't be amazing or anything by today's standards. Perhaps irrelevant, but considering this is a thread about playing habits...

I really don't understand why so many musicians consider being lazy and sloppy a good thing. Even worse, not caring about it.

Knowing different techniques, having good form, understanding theory, etc. These are all tools for your playing. No one was ever able to do less by having more tools. They are the means by which you articulate what you want to 'say'. And if you can't say something well, then what's point? All the "emotion" in the world that you might have for what you want to play won't count for anything if you can't translate that onto your instrument.

I guess Hendrix also had the hands of a giant so whatevs...

I've spent enough time on Ultimate-guitar.com to know that you can be the most technically adept player that has ever existed but have absolutely no understanding of musical style. The best way to learn that is to listen to others' playing, not yourself. (Generalization alert) most "technical" guitar players I've met have the breadth of musical knowledge similar to a 14 year old girl, just substitute Backstreet Boys for Rush.

Sure, I wish I was better and could throw the sporadic run or whatever into songs, but for the most part, my abilities are satisfactory for what I need and I don't need to learn how to shred. Technical ability is only one side of the coin, and I believe many people miss that point. Most "sloppy" guitar players are actually better than people make them out to be. Guys like Joey Santiago and J. Mascis don't shred but they reinvented the way the guitar is used and showed mastery of balancing dissonance and melody in rock music.

That said, I abhor minimalism in principal. Nothing like a solid middle ground.

[jfrey]

That said, I abhor minimalism in principal. Nothing like a solid middle ground.

I'm the total opposite. I dislike middle grounds - in anything - on principle. I gravitate towards minimalism, and then at the other end of the spectrum crazy complex stuff.

[mathias]

People get all up in arms about thumb position, but honestly, the training I've done to get my 1-4 fingers to stay aligned, be independent, and remove extra movement / sympathetic movement is far more important to my playing IMHO.

[RR Bigman]

this thread is bumming me out. I always considered most of my bad habits part of how I play I've spent the better part of a decade honing them into musical killing machines and I would feel bad trying to change them now. That said, if it's painful I attempt to change them just for the sake of physical comfort.

[mathias]

this thread is bumming me out. I always considered most of my bad habits part of how I play I've spent the better part of a decade honing them into musical killing machines and I would feel bad trying to change them now. That said, if it's painful I attempt to change them just for the sake of physical comfort.

We're all on the same journey, we're just taking different paths.