Need a little chuckle?

Subject: Need a little chuckle?
From: sore fingers
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 08:18 PM

Hello everyone, I am new to the site, (urged to join by Night Owl.)I am also a new guitar player, less than a year. Up till now I have been playing exclusively with a flat pick. The other night I decided to get out my new finger picking book and see how I could do with it. It went fairly well and I was pretty excited about it when I told my husband in the morning,"I started doing some fingerpicking last night. He gave me a strange look, and said,"Fingerpainting? Oh....Nice."

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 08:42 PM

Welcome to the Mudcat, Sore Fingers! Any recruit of Night Owl's is a friend of mine! Maybe your husband realy meant you'd painted a picture in his mind? **BG**

Glad to have you join us!

kat

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Robin2
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 08:43 PM

LOL...Welcome sore fingers!

well, didn't mean for you to welcome sore fingers, but welcome, oh never mind, just welcome!

I used to get sooo excited about learning a new fingerstyle piece on the guitar, I would play until my fingers blistered, then put bandaids on them and keep playing. My husband would come home from work, and I'd grab him and say "Listen to this", and my fingers would be too sore to play. He's just say, "that's nice, Hon" as well.

I hope your excitement for fingerstyle never grows dim, in spite of "sore fingers"

Robin

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: 53
Date: 19 Oct 01 - 09:43 PM

welcome sore fingers, i've been playing 37 years and i've just started to learn to fingerpick also.

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Gillie
Date: 20 Oct 01 - 11:16 AM

Hi Sore Fingers,

A tip to help ease the pain of "new Fingers" is to dab them with a little bit of metholated or surgical spirit. It helps to harden the tips. In time you will form callouses on the tips of your fingers, that will stop them getting sore!!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Oct 01 - 11:23 AM

Painting musical images with your fingers
Yep, your husband was closer than you thought!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: BlueJay
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 03:38 AM

Welcome, Sore Fingers! Most everyone at the Mudcat would be delighted to answer any questions you may have about guitar playing or music in general. Or computers. Or politics or anything else even vaguely scatological.

Night Owl has directed you to a resource of infinite variety and experience, and most of us are anxious to help. Ask, and ye shall receive. Use it! Remember-the only stupid question is the unasked one.

I know you didn't ask for my advice, but with a name like "Sore Fingers", you've left yourself wide open. The way the guitar is adjusted makes a tremendous difference in the sore finger category. Many guitars, if not most, that are sold out of music stores are not properly set up for anyone but Superman to play. A trip to your local luthier or repair technician might be very illuminating.

Regarding fingerpicking, one of the best tips I got early on is to practice a fingerpicking pattern like a roll or Travis picking without a guitar- practice the pattern against the side of your leg, or your belly, or against a tabletop, anything with a little resistance. You can do this anywhere, and it really does add memory and speed of the pattern to your fingers. It's not as good as actual guitar practice, but I've found it can help quite a bit.

Thanks, and welcome again, BlueJay

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Justa Picker
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 11:30 AM

Welcome and enjoy!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 02:29 PM

Well...welcome, sore fingers! I don't have any advice for you...just enjoy!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 02:59 PM

Hi SF......Glad to have you and any friend of Nighties is okay by me. But then again, I'm an asshole so you're probably in trouble here. Now when you ask the Owl who the hell I am, tell her to get herself back in here more often too....Okay?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Night Owl
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 01:12 PM

HOORAY!!!!!! welcome aboard "sore fingers"....GREAT to see you here....LOTS for you in these threads...ENJOY!! Mudcat Radio show's on tonight...just click on "radio" up above there. And, DON'T believe EVERYTHING you read...catspaw is NO asshole.....he's often the glue that holds us together when times are tough.. Gillie...what is "methalated or surgical spirit"??

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 01:40 PM

Great story, and (thread creep alert - might as well throw you straight into the deep end) AMERGIN how delightful to read you again!

See, Sore Fingers, we are a commUNITY.

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Marymac90
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 01:57 PM

Welcome, Sore Fingers! And Nightey, ( Nice to see spaw calls you that, too!)I'm glad to see you're looking forward to the radio show. If Max lets me, I'm gonna go on stage and sing tonight! You can PM me while I'm on here at work, but I don't have icq on this computer.

Marymac

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 02:46 PM

Welcome to the most wonderful zoo in the world!

Steve

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: MMario
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 02:50 PM

welcome sore fingers - are you on Cape Cod as well?

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 04:48 PM

I don't have much to contribute to the fingerocking concept, except to say Good Luck - but I do have a funny story in a similar vein.

At the Ft. Donelson battlefield here in Tennessee, there's a sign at the visitors center that says, Do Not Step on Earthworks.

I swear, the first time I looked at it, it said Do Not Step on Earthlings...

Speaking of fingerpaints, though, you know they make those edible fingerpaints for grown-ups.

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Oct 01 - 05:06 PM

Greetings from Pennsylvania, and welcome!

More unsolicited advice about fingerpicking on guitar: BlueJay's right; have a luthier or knowledgable guitar-shopkeeper check the action on your guitar (distance from strings to fretboard) and adjust it as necessary for your comfort and your playing style. You may also want to consider a lighter-weight string than you are using, at least until your fingers become accustomed to picking (especially if you are using bare fingers rather than plastic or metal fingerpicks). Don't forget to change your strings occasionally; a "dead" string requires more fingerpicking pressure to make it vibrate, whereas a nice, new, supple string will vibrate more easily and also give you a better sound quality when it is struck.

Enjoy fingerpicking, and enjoy the Mudcat!!!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: alison
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 01:30 AM

welcome sorefingers....... you're going to like it here....

any any friend of nightowls..........

anyway welcome from me too all the way over here in sunny Australia (hear that Nightowl??? sunny.... must go jump in the pool..... *grin*)

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Crazy Eddie
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 06:13 AM

Night Owl asked
what is "methalated or surgical spirit"??
Methylated Spirits ("Meths") is almost 100% alcohol. Because some of the alcohol is "Methyl" rather than "Ethyl" aalcohol it wouldn't be wise to drink it, (side effects include brain damage, blindness, & death).
In the UK & Ireland it is usually coloured a sort of violet/ purple to make it quite distinctive. It can be purchased at a pharmacy or hardware shop, and is used as a cleaning solvent, de-greasing agent, antiseptic, and of course it also burns well.
Surgical spirit is also an antiseptic, obtainable from a pharmacy, but I don't know what it is made of.

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: Gillie
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 07:28 AM

Surgical spirit is purer than metholated spirit, once again it is not advisable to drink it, it gets your worms fuddled. Don't lick your fingers!!

Subject: RE: Need a little chuckle?
From: LR Mole
Date: 24 Oct 01 - 10:22 AM

It is, however, good for cleaning icq off the computer. I have no advice about fingerpicking because I use only index and thumb. I use the index/middle crevice to tuck a flatpick into for the chords I want to hit harder. And I brace my pinky against the scratchplate when I'm flatpicking quickly. And all this with never a lesson!Welcome, anyway.