Leaderboard

Welcome Jogarman. You have advance quite a ways in the LMG course so you have considerable skills under your belt by now, so to speak. Just as you started learning how to strum rhythmically to a metronome, whole notes, half notes, quarter and so on-one- step at a time-so might you consider learning to sing along with your playing. Select a simple 3 or 4 chord song that you know well lyrically (or have the lyrics and chord chart visually close at hand) and go back to square one with your rhythm playing. Keep your strum playing simple, slow down and focus on the melody, hum at first if you need to, use the metronome. As you become more comfortable and familiar with integrating a third task while both hands are working their own actions, you can begin to advance to a more accurate tempo and advanced strum pattern. There is no fast track, just as there is no quick way to "learn and master" guitar but dedicate a small part of your practice each day to the task, perhaps at the end of your dedicated practice schedule. That said, I know some very skilled musicians who simply can't sing while playing, and it does become more difficult as the chord progressions become more complex. It is a learned skill however, so don't be discouraged if the challenge appears too daunting at first. Practice and patience is a virtue. Best of luck on this. Greg

This is the reason I wish I knew about carbon fibre guitars earlier in my journey and how they're unaffected by humidity. I would replace my three wood acoustics with one Emerald X20 (or a Rainsong) in a hearbeat. Now it's too expensive to sell off the guitars and buy a carbon fibre one. They're hard to find on the used market too.

@Limatje yes but how's your music theory and finding notes on the fretboard? Session 1 and 2 are easy enough, but Steve doesn't spoon feed in this course He'll rattle off a lick in say in the 7th position on the video and he's not giving you a note/tab reference. And you have to play along He expects you to know you root, flat 3rd, flat 5th notes in any key quickly and be able to play them

You could tune it down a 1/2 step to Eb, of whole step to D to reduce the string tension and just play it until you find a luthier to look at it. You coulalso contact Fender for advice.

First, thanks to everyone that commented on this thread. It's always great to get advice from guitarists that know more than I do (which is probably most of you). By way of winding up this thread, I wanted to correct my original assumption that Steve uses 10s on his J45. I must have misunderstood his comment, leading me to believe he used lighter strings. During a recent lesson with Steve (more on that later), I was able to confirm that he uses Elixir 12s on his J45. 10s on his electrics. So on the one hand, I'm sorry if my misunderstanding caused any confusion, but on the other hand we were able to share a lot of great information, and for that I am thankful. Now - if you've never signed up for a personal lesson with Steve, you're missing out! If you are struggling with any guitar related topic, it's a fantastic investment!

Ha! It's all part of my evil plan! - Steve