Guitar Update #2

Not much is new, but this is overdue.

I posted my first update on my Squier Affinity Stratocaster way back on October 9. This unfinished post has been sitting in drafts for quite a while waiting for me to finish it up. I’m posting it more or less as-is just to get it out of the way.

First thing: I’m keeping a notebook of what I’m working on and my progress and thoughts and complaints, as well as some rough tabs for things to fool around with.

The guitar and amp were in a box when I picked it up and they seemed fine when I got home, but I did want someone to look the guitar over at some point and make sure everything was as it should be. Campbell River is the closest city — roughly 150 miles south of us. There is a music store there and because we had a few other “big city” errands to do, we drove down on December 13. I had the strings replaced (Elixir 09-42) and the action (the height the strings are raised from the neck) lowered slightly. I bought a capo and five picks of varying thickness.

My practicing was complicated by a painful left thumb, which pre-dates the acquisition of the guitar by several months. There are a couple of motions I do with my left thumb when typing that causes tendon pain. So I’ve had some level of discomfort/pain for all of my practicing time. I was taking Advil and applying diclofenac (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) with marginal results. A physical therapist suggested a specific type of brace which allegedly would prevent me from doing the ill-advised motion. I actually considered bringing my guitar to my appointment with him, so he could see exactly what my hand is doing. I didn’t do that, but when I mentioned the guitar, he went off to get his acoustic! As soon as I made a chord, he saw what was going on, how my wrist was bent, etc.

I have also been hoping to get a cortisone shot for months. My general doctor was hesitant to do it himself, but he sent a reference to a clinic in Campbell River. I called them about three weeks later to get a rough idea of when an appointment might open up and they told me it could be 9-to-12 months. (Canada spends less money per capita on health care than many nations. In the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, it has dropped from 6th to 8th to 12th among the 38 OECD countries.) For decades, this has been the story: Conservatives and Liberals [sic] underfund the health care system, causing a shortage of doctors and extensive delays, which is then pointed to as proof the system is broken and needs to be privatized.) The clinic put my name on a cancellation list and apparently the snow storms down island led to cancelled appointments (and maybe that list wasn’t so long), because someone called me on March 4 and said we have a spot the following day. So off I went!

Also: I realized in mid-November that I needed to go back to the beginning of various lessons. This was a good idea. I was surprised to discover that at some point, my index finger had shifted ever so slightly and I can play several open chords naturally without muting the low E string — which is exactly what I read would happen with continual practice. And I swear my fingers are able to stretch a little bit more than they could a few months ago. The cortisone shot took away at least 90% of the pain.

I’m slowly going through the lessons plans at Justin Guitar. He has re-done the site (and courses) over the last few years. He is also sharing videos of himself learning how to play guitar left-handed for the first time. His struggles with learning the basics playing lefty helped him see how his courses should be restructured.

He suggests practicing making perfect chords, deliberately making sure each finger is in the exact place it should be. He also advocates one-minute chord changes, in which speed is the goal, not worrying if some (or a lot) of the chord sound like shit. These two routines will reinforce each other. My chord-change numbers have increased significantly.

One example is A to D:

September 30: 18
October 15: 26
November 12: 34
December 20: 40
January 13: 44
January 22: 49

D-to-Dm is similar: 19 > 30 > 37 > 50.

Various other routines: watching your fingers go from one position to the next, without strumming; putting all of the fingers for a chord on the strings at the same time. This has been tough, especially when the pinkie is involved, but things are slowly getting better.

Justin has several three-chord songs to play at this stage, including Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” and Tom Waits’s “Chocolate Jesus”. I’m still not fast enough to cleanly change chords, so my first strum on the new chord is usually crap. (Also, I feel under pressure to quickly change, which is nuts, because I’m alone and no one is grading me.)

I need to make a greater effort to practice every day — and to stay with a structured plan. I’m not sure if practicing at the same time each day will work. I’ll have to try a few options to see what works best.