Hi Everybody. My name is Eric and I recently signed up for Pebber's Online Video Lesson program. I'm happy to join you all on our quest to become better players. He said I should post my progress on the forums so here goes... Any feedback it appreciated and it will become obvious when you watch that I am every bit a beginner so please be gentle:)

Part 1
http://youtu.be/1OHoFVDfkrc

Part 2
http://youtu.be/Sbx38fUCRvk

This is for my right hand exercises. If there are any ways you guys can suggest I can improve I am open to trying them out. One thing I notice already is my pick scratching against the string especially when using the scalpel method. Is the goal to try to minimize this or eliminate it altogether?

Will keep practicing,

-Eric

Welcome to the crowd Eric!

The first thing I recommend is that you should invest in a guitar tuner. Probably at this point anything that has a microphone built in so that you can tune both an acoustic and an electric. If you have one already, bust it out. You're going to always want your guitar fairly well tuned when you practice because a big part of practicing will be to train your ears.

The second thing I recommend is that you should invest in a metronome (or download a free one on a phone/PC/laptop) and do these exercises with it on. Always. For months. If you have one already, bust it out. In the first video, very often you'd play a set of notes (for example 4) and then there would be a pause when you'd move to a new string. Then you'd play again. etc. You're goal just starting out would be to play at a slow, but constant and clear, pace. Not rushed, then pause, then rushed, then paused. That's not what you want. Do it like Pebber instructs in his videos. If his tempo is too fast to start out, then go slower. Maybe 40 bpm is a good setting.

I don't think you should worry about the scratching sound too much at this point. It scratches because your pick is tilted at an angle and when it scrapes over the wound strings you can hear the scratch. Tilting slightly less will limit the scratch and also change the tone of the attack. If you can try to ignore that until you spend a lot of time with the metronome, I think the tone of your picking will gradually improve automatically.

Bust out that metronome.

Oh, and we all suck. That's why we're here. So don't be nervous when you're posting videos :) Just keep working and you'll see results in time.

Bust out that metronome.

Finally, from the last year that I've been lurking/posting this forum, the general (and very wise) consensus is to place every bit of instruction that Pebber and Ursin offer you as infinitely more important than everyone else's on these forums. And when you eventually get to Sarod picking, add Frakh to that list.

Good luck!

Thanks dlraben! I actually did tune beforehand, my guitar has a built-in tuner. But if you don't think it was in tune then maybe its the tuner, or strings or something else. All I know is that all the light went green when I plucked each string. My ears are not trained enough to tell. Maybe it's just a cheap guitar, I have a very low end (~ $200) acoustic that I bought just to learn on.

I do have a metronome so I think what I'll do is be sure to use it for every practice session.

Will keep your points in mind. Thanks again.

-E