Everything Bianca

Fingertip Pain

My fingertips no longer hurt 'all day.' The ever-present tingling in my fingertips has pretty much gone away and has been replaced by a vague numbness. After playing chords or holding them for a while, especially if I've been playing for up to 45 minutes, the pain, when I feel it, is far more acute - just under the sensation of being pinched.

Chords & The Fret Board

Chord switching: I've gone from needing 3-4 beats (at 60 bpm) to maybe 1 to 2 beats (depending on the chord).  Last night, I remembered fondly how hard it was for me to hold C clearly. I can also play F so much better now.

On holding barre chords - I played them even when I couldn't hold them. I just kept trying and playing it. If I couldn't get it correct, I didn't sweat it. Just play it and let it sound horrifying. My opinion of holding my index finger along a fret while my other fingers were two frets down was, "You have got to be joking." No joke. The fingers will stretch. Give it time.

Hitting individual frets is also much better. My pinky has stopped completely missing the strings. Strength has gone up. I'm not much 'faster', but I'm certainly more accurate.  I've added some drills for doing hammer ons and pull offs. Those need work. My current assessment of that is "if you want me to use my first three fingers on neighbor frets, cool. Otherwise? You have got to be joking."

Strumming & Flatpicking & Fingerstyle

Strumming: My upstroke no longer sounds like I'm kicking a harp. Thankfully, I can get rid of that analogy. I can strum beautifully for about 10 beats until I get 'off' again. Vast improvement. I no longer loathe strumming. Yay.

Flatpicking: There was this moment while I was pushing through individual strings where it felt like there was this vast amount of space between the strings. I didn't trip over the bottom strings. I think I can say my control of the pick is getting slightly better, but complex crosspicking or strumming up on just a few strings is still tricky. 

Fingerstyle: Smoother. My thumb doesn't 'fat finger' the strings as much. Less hitting the strings too early (causing a buzz or muting the sound too early).  Again, I'm more accurate, but not 'too' much faster. A lot of the patterns I've been working on, I can play quite smoothly for a while. Oh, which brings me to another point.

Artificial Nails

I got tips on my fingers. Gel, not acrylic. I don't like them; I think they're ugly, but they're a beauty on the guitar. I didn't have any trouble at all playing with the nails, and my play sounded much clearer and prettier. Gels don't destroy the natural nail underneath (as long as the nail tech doesn't file it to death.) I don't play very 'hard' currently, so I didn't get the silk wrap (which makes the nail even stronger.) So, there.