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"The hardest thing to do in the world...ever!"

Go and grab yourself a guitar of any description and play the intro to All My Life by the FooFighters. Basically its just a G power chord but if you're rubbish at playing the guitar just play a G note. Listen to the song for the rhythm if you dont know it.

Now for the hard part.

Try singing along to it. Doesnt sound hard but it is. Singing and playing it at the same time is nearly impossible. It makes Dave Grohl even more of a ledgend IMO.

Lord Funk wrote:
> If thumb and claw refers to playing with your hand, then it will only
> restrict you in that the sounds is not as clear as playing with a
> pick

> And your hand has a tendeancy to brush against the other strings,
> especially noticeable when playing through an Amp. If you get good at
> it then this obviously won't happen.

I know when I get it wrong, as you say, cos the amp picks it up. I'm pretty good it at it though, so you rarely hear a mistake after I've warmed up for a couple of minutes.

Besides I like this slightly impure sound. It shows that it's being played, not generated, plus mistakes with getting patterns wrong from fingering has helped me create some good riffs of my own.

> I hope I got the right thing and haven't waffled for nothing

Nope. Right thing.

True, but your hand isn't really as well adapted as the pick in terms of playing notes clearly. Some of the faster paced finger techniques are harder to distinguish between

The pick can be particularly fiddly for some songs, and I prefer using my hand for playing a lot of notes and bars quickly

However you do need to learn with the pick ... I suppose the alternative would be to grow your thumb and index finger nails though

Memorandum! wrote:
> Starting off with quite difficult stuff isn't too much of a problem.
> Obviously the solos are going to be well beyond you, but the rhythm
> shouldn't if you get your alternate picking up to scratch. Look up
> finger and picking exercises as well as playing from tabs. Building
> good finger strength and independence is absolutely essential if you
> want to progress quickly.

Alternating is proving to be a bit tricky. I've got strong forearms and wrists, but it's not helping much. I simply can't move my hand quickly enough to play some of the stuff I want to.

I've always noticed just playing with nails, edge of finger or main part of thumb each produce different sounds. I just find it irritatingly hard to pick with a pick. Atleast with 4 digits I can be in four places at once, so I can play more complicated patterns more quickly.

If thumb and claw refers to playing with your hand, then it will only restrict you in that the sounds is not as clear as playing with a pick

And your hand has a tendeancy to brush against the other strings, especially noticeable when playing through an Amp. If you get good at it then this obviously won't happen.

I hope I got the right thing and haven't waffled for nothing

it depends on the style you want to play!
if the thumb and claw is what you like, go for it mate, cheers.

I far prefer using the "thumb and claw" technique for picking.

Will this restrict my future ability in anyway?

Chr1s wrote:
> I decided to start at the deep end with some Metallica, which turned
> out to be a crap idea as the majority of it's rather tough. Didn't
> really feel like starting with anything simpler like Blink 182
> because I detest it.

Starting off with quite difficult stuff isn't too much of a problem. Obviously the solos are going to be well beyond you, but the rhythm shouldn't if you get your alternate picking up to scratch. Look up finger and picking exercises as well as playing from tabs. Building good finger strength and independence is absolutely essential if you want to progress quickly.

Absolutely. I've always found that motivation and inspiration has been the key. I'm off to Download in a few weeks, if that doesn't motivate me to get better then I might as well sell the guitar.

I'm self-taught and I can play fairly difficult stuff.
All it takes is perseverance and motivation. Most of the time fast stuff isn't as hard as it sounds.