# Bad habits you wished you never picked up?



## iamthewalrus (Oct 5, 2009)

Almost everyone that considers themselves self-taught or negligent of what their teachers tells them they should do, seem to complain about bad habits they're trying hard to get rid of. Since I'm fairly new, and for now I'm learning alone(later I may consult a pro), I was just hoping to avoid the problems a lot of people face. Right now, I'm experimenting with different things without formal education and hoping to not pick up bad habits that I would spend a long time trying to get rid of.

List away!


----------



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Buying too much gear....hwopv

Cheers

Dave


----------



## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Smoking! :smile:


----------



## Eager Beaver (May 31, 2009)

I never used my pinkie finger enough when playing, and now that im getting into alot of harder stuff, I find it really hard to get used to.


----------



## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

baseball bat grip. I also wish I had started to learn to read music right away- so tab is another bad habit.


----------



## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Thinking that more notes per second = better.


----------



## geezer (Apr 30, 2008)

Staying relaxed with my picking hand, when playing fast alt. pickin' stuff.


----------



## GuyB (May 2, 2008)

iamthewalrus said:


> ... Since I'm fairly new, and for now I'm learning alone(later I may consult a pro)


This might become a bad habit : don't wait, you're at the starting line and NOW is the time to get a good teacher.


----------



## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

a) didn't follow through on sight reading, theory, transcribing, etc. when I started out. Now most of that stuff is lost to me.
b) don't practice often enough. Not very regimented when I do practice.
c) I find myself playing with my pinkie tucked behind the neck a lot. It only makes an appearance when strictly required. That _can't_ be very efficient.


----------



## iamthewalrus (Oct 5, 2009)

GuyB said:


> This might become a bad habit : don't wait, you're at the starting line and NOW is the time to get a good teacher.


True, I did take a few lessons in keyboards, classical guitar, basic rhythm guitar, but I wasn't very much into music and I was a lot younger. It's hard to play an instrument when you have superficial love for music. Now that I'm a much bigger music lover, I'm trying to find my place, and what exactly I'm trying to get out of this. 

I did realize one thing of listening to my idols, they all have foundations in Blues, and I'm listening to as much blues as I can. I think sooner or later I want to take formal lessons. But, for some reason I feel as if I need to hear a lot more blues music before I can learn it. 

Also finding a blues teacher is a bit difficult. I know of lot of people who say they play and teach blues, jazz, rock, but I'm not sure how much they are into it. I guess these are the reason I'm a bit apprehensive about taking lessons.


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I play a lot, but I don't necessarily practice too much--that's what I needed to do with certain techniques I never really mastered.

And I need to practice songs-as in learning them all the way through, more than just noodling around, or riffing--although, that's a lot of fun.

And practicing classical would be cool to do, but I don't stick with it, even though I really enjoy it.


----------



## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Bad habits I wished I had never picked up....hmmm...my wife? lol. Just kidding of course (in case she reads this thread). lol


----------



## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

Listening to blues will help you to create great blues music but a guitar teacher with structure will teach you how to play, period. What to play will be up to you. 

When you're sad, whistling will make you happier. You don't necessarily have to whistle totally happy songs. 
$5 says that if you take lessons (that include ear training especially), regardless of the style, your ability to play blues will increase dramatically. 

Oh and listen to Wes Montgomery.


----------



## PEImatrix (Jan 27, 2007)

Here are a few tips.

Left hand finger position - this \ll/ not \\\\
Left hand - If you look in the mirror, you shouldn't see your thumb
Left hand - thumb behind 2nd finger
Fingering - 1 2 4 is better than 1 3 4 when playing over 5 frets
Left hand - Reach with your 1st finger not your 4th
Never rest your left arm on your leg when playing n a seated position

Good luck


----------



## iamthewalrus (Oct 5, 2009)

zontar said:


> I play a lot, but I don't necessarily practice too much--that's what I needed to do with certain techniques I never really mastered.
> 
> And I need to practice songs-as in learning them all the way through, more than just noodling around, or riffing--although, that's a lot of fun.
> 
> And practicing classical would be cool to do, but I don't stick with it, even though I really enjoy it.


That's an excellent point. I think once you can make a decent sound, practice just turns into playing what you know and poking around tabs for new stuff. Most of the people I know that are "average" guitar players haven't really progressed in the last 10 years or so from what I've seen.



sambonee said:


> Listening to blues will help you to create great blues music but a guitar teacher with structure will teach you how to play, period. What to play will be up to you.
> 
> When you're sad, whistling will make you happier. You don't necessarily have to whistle totally happy songs.
> $5 says that if you take lessons (that include ear training especially), regardless of the style, your ability to play blues will increase dramatically.
> ...


You're right about the blues, listening is important but backed by good fundamentals. I don't exactly play any blues right now, besides some simple shuffles that I got tabs for some blues scales, in fact I wouldn't know where to start. 

I'll definitely look into Wes Montgomery. So far I've been listening to mainly Albert King, BB King, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Allman brothers, and whatever Robert Johnson I can find.



PEImatrix said:


> Here are a few tips.
> 
> Left hand finger position - this \ll/ not \\\\
> Left hand - If you look in the mirror, you shouldn't see your thumb
> ...


Great info here, just a few questions:

I notice when practicing scales and barre chords my fingers look like this \||/ but when I play open chords my finger look like \\\\ and the thumb shows. Is this acceptable or make any sense?

I did get a few lessons in classical a long time ago, and I find hiding the thumb easier with that playing position, kinda awkward with the guitar on the right leg. 

I don't really understand the 1 2 4 over 1 3 4 thing or the reach with the 1st not 4th?

Resting the left arm, I'm glad you brought it up. Practicing on higher frets(10-14 on acoustic) I tend to run out of room and find my elbow crashing into my side, and it basically rests. I'm slowly getting rid of it, but trying to be more loose and altering positions. I do find it a little awkward because I was a little more used to the classical position.

Thanks for all the help guys!


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

iamthewalrus said:


> That's an excellent point. I think once you can make a decent sound, practice just turns into playing what you know and poking around tabs for new stuff. Most of the people I know that are "average" guitar players haven't really progressed in the last 10 years or so from what I've seen.


Well it's not that I never practiced--but I always did better when I had a goal or a purpose-some incentive--like when I was going to record some demos, or for a band--that sort of thing.

Otherwise I just go back to noodling--which sometimes does help--as I have come up with new ideas, and discovered I can do certain things.

But to get better, practice with a goal in mind--as opposed to practice for the sake of practice, is a good thing.


----------



## PEImatrix (Jan 27, 2007)

iamthewalrus said:


> Great info here, just a few questions:
> 
> I notice when practicing scales and barre chords my fingers look like this \||/ but when I play open chords my finger look like \\\\ and the thumb shows. Is this acceptable or make any sense?


Just try your best. When playing an open C chord, place your 3rd and 2nd finger in good position, and then reach back with your first.



iamthewalrus said:


> I did get a few lessons in classical a long time ago, and I find hiding the thumb easier with that playing position, kinda awkward with the guitar on the right leg.


Classical guitars have a shorter string length, and the neck joins the body at the 12th fret, so having the guitar on your left leg works nicely. If I'm playing a dred, I sit more like a flamenco player (right leg crossed over left)



iamthewalrus said:


> I don't really understand the 1 2 4 over 1 3 4 thing or the reach with the 1st not 4th?


What I ment was if you have to play a riff that goes 12th 14th 16th fret, then use the fingering 1 2 4, not 1 3 4.

Practicing and playing are 2 different things IMO. When I practice, I always use proper technique. In the heat of battle, somethings go out the window, but I try my best to keep things proper.


----------



## Canadian Charlie (Apr 30, 2008)

Playing in front of a computer, 80% is surfing and 20% is playing:smilie_flagge17:


----------



## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

Not playing with other people is another bad habit. Other players force you out of ruts, make you play in time and it becomes very clear very fast if your soloing is in the right key.


----------



## maplebaby (Oct 26, 2008)

trying to work up tunes too fast and getting sloppy and muscle memory making it hard to 'unlearn' the sloppy and re-learn the correct way. Took me a couple decades to get this on under control!!


----------



## johnsatrimayer (Oct 14, 2009)

bad habit is having no habits at all. I NEED TO PRACTICE! :sport-smiley-002:


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Internet forums. Man...the addiction continues.

Oh, not practicing enough.

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

iamthewalrus said:


> True, I did take a few lessons in keyboards, classical guitar, basic rhythm guitar, but I wasn't very much into music and I was a lot younger. It's hard to play an instrument when you have superficial love for music. Now that I'm a much bigger music lover, I'm trying to find my place, and what exactly I'm trying to get out of this.
> 
> I did realize one thing of listening to my idols, they all have foundations in Blues, and I'm listening to as much blues as I can. I think sooner or later I want to take formal lessons. But, for some reason I feel as if I need to hear a lot more blues music before I can learn it.
> 
> Also finding a blues teacher is a bit difficult. I know of lot of people who say they play and teach blues, jazz, rock, but I'm not sure how much they are into it. I guess these are the reason I'm a bit apprehensive about taking lessons.


You can find a good teacher here that teaches blues with a bit of looking. I would listen to the good advice the previous poster gave you and do it now. Regards, Flip.

http://mississauga.kijiji.ca/f-services-music-lessons-W0QQAdTypeZ2QQCatIdZ86


----------



## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

bagpipe said:


> Thinking that more notes per second = better.


I can relate. I am always working on that.


----------



## ZenJenga (Nov 19, 2009)

Using too many 7 chords.


----------



## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

I add vibrato to every note of a melodic line that I keep longer than the others, and I have to make a conscious effort NOT to add vibrato. It's a bad habit, since it doesn't work all that much in the type of music I play.


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Were We Brave? said:


> I add vibrato to every note of a melodic line that I keep longer than the others, and I have to make a conscious effort NOT to add vibrato. It's a bad habit, since it doesn't work all that much in the type of music I play.


I went though a phase like that--and another where I would bend the last note in each line.

Eventually you can overcome it if you think about it, and then you won't need to.

Still nothing wrong with vibrato used wisely.

I tend to use a lot of it--but I mostly play bluesy type stuff.


----------



## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

zontar said:


> I went though a phase like that--and another where I would bend the last note in each line.
> 
> Eventually you can overcome it if you think about it, and then you won't need to.
> 
> ...


That's the thing: I've loved blues since I was a kid, but I don't play it.

Back in 1994, what you'd find in my Walkman was a cassette with Clapton's _MTV Unplugged_ on side A, and Green Day's _Dookie_ on side B.

Now I'm 23, still playing punk-rock'ish guitar for a friend's band, but I'm the dorky kid with the Tele, bending the notes all over the place... Sometimes, it just doesn't work


----------



## Lester B. Flat (Feb 21, 2006)

Half the battle with playing blues isn't about notes, just play major and minor pentatonics. It's all about phrasing, and you're just as likely to learn that from great blues singers as anyone else. A slow blues is the most challenging because with all that time to fill it's very tempting to overplay. You gotta leave some negative space. Singers have to stop and breathe once in a while and guitar players need to learn that, too.


----------



## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Lester B. Flat said:


> Half the battle with playing blues isn't about notes, just play major and minor pentatonics. It's all about phrasing, and you're just as likely to learn that from great blues singers as anyone else. A slow blues is the most challenging because with all that time to fill it's very tempting to overplay. You gotta leave some negative space. Singers have to stop and breathe once in a while and guitar players need to learn that, too.


Yeah, that's another thing to learn.

I can't play real fast--so I tend to leave holes.


----------



## whammybar (May 7, 2008)

The 'grip of death' giving my frets about a year before they are as flat as the fret board so it's 'beaters' for life. And as bad as that is, what's really killing me is alternate #@!%!* picking. It was great for years when we thought 'Who would ever play blues better than Clapton?' But the new blues players, Bonamassa, Duarte, even Mayer (gulp) to some extent, have picking that goes in any direction and is anything but alternate. It is one of the hardest habits I have to break but try staying up with Bonamassa using only alternate picking. Not gonna happen.


----------



## LPguy (Oct 6, 2009)

For me it was taking too long to learn the full major scale and where to play it anywhere on the fretboard. I learned the blues scale early which was a quick route to the kind of music I like to play, but I now realize if I'd learned the major scale really well, everything else comes easy. 

Richard Lloyd has some great theory on how to play scales and learn the fretboard everywhere. I found it "filled in all the gaps" I had - although I'm still working on assimilating it all so I don't have to think about it anymore. You can find his lessons here: http://www.richardlloyd.com/lessons/index.htm. There are also a few great videos of his lessons on YouTube.


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

bad habit...falling back on pentatonics instead of learning somethign different.


----------



## NewGuitarGuru (Oct 14, 2006)

Relying on electric tuners. I've stopped in the last couple weeks, and I think my ear has gotten much, much better. Singing's improved too.


----------

