Stupid guitar. We are sick of it.
I made myself a promise when I bought my shiny new ESP. It's a "real" guitar (the first I've owned, really) and I'm going to learn to play it for real. I've been faking my way through with power chords, a couple of scales, and a handful of open chords for years. I've essentially treated guitar like a bass with teeny strings that are close together. My technique is terrible. That was OK for recording (ah, the magic of digital editing) with my cheap Les Paul and Strat knockoffs, but I've reached the point where my lack of ability is really starting to hurt my songwriting.
Now, I've been playing stringed instruments for almost 30 years. Violin until high school, electric bass after that. I consider myself a competent musician. But the basic, beginner exercises I'm doing - simple three-string chords like Asus2 and G7 - are frustrating the hell out of me. My fretting hand position is different enough from a bass that I have to fight 20 years of muscle memory...and the chords still aren't clean half the time. My picking hand can't find the right strings unless I'm looking down. Reading the tab is all screwy because there are two too many strings, and chords to boot.
I know I'll get the hang of it after enough practice. I just didn't think I'd be this far behind.
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