Blisters and day 17

I mentioned earlier about the aches I'm getting from new techniques and how I feel like it means I'm finally "learning" guitar.  I guess I should go into that a little.  A lot of people gloss over that, but a lot of newbie players get turned off from guitar because of it.  I remember the blisters when I started bass.  Callouses do form, it just takes time.  Funny thing I should mention, bass players have different callouses than guitar players.  I obviously did not stick with guitar 10 years ago when I got Jasper but I did turn to bass playing.

Bass playing gives you what I call "cat pads" or "dog pads".  At least, from my experience.  They are broad and thick callouses made specifically for dealing with bass strings.  When I re-visited guitar a few years back, the guitar strings basically shredded these bass callouses.  I got blisters UNDER my callouses, and even tore a callous.  Over the years I still came back to guitar from time to time to play some very crappy versions of metal songs I noodled away on, and I did get an appreciation for blues, so I played some 4/4 blues rock from time to time too.  I no longer shred my callouses, and as of yet I have not got my blisters, but my fingers do still hurt, especially with bends on the thinnest strings.

I have no real advice on blisters and callouses.  There is no "magical" cure all with them.  If you moisturize, you're going to delay getting callouses, but if moisturize helps ease the pain and lets you practice, then do it.  .  I can just tell you that it gets better over time.  I also beg that you do not give up because of the physical pain.  Rocksmith has things you can do that don't involve your fretting hand, or at least let you fret with an alternate finger.  The Guitarcade is full of things that can still help out with practice even if you can't fret well.  Once you get your callouses, you can even not play for a few years and come back and the strings will not be so bad.  So its like a long lasting benefit.

Also, do not take a shower and go to playing guitar for like an hour.  Let your callouses dry completely, you can ruin months of build up by grating wet callouses on strings

Day 17

Just an uneventful practice day that is is probably boring to read.  Warm up, some palm mute practice, and then playing Everlong.  Hopefully something above is worth reading ha.

Playing Everlong over and over, at least the arrangement I have decided on playing.  Well, I still haven't decided completely on which arrangement I'm doing.  There are some signature sounds of this song that I could try and incorporate.  I don't have the technical build up of the song, but I won't be singing it, so I have to think about how bored people would get listening to the same parts over and over if I'm playing it for them.  So I'm going to do a ABC method.  A is the beginning, B is the buildup C is the chorus, D is the alternate picking method of A, and E is the finish I've devised with a little palm mute thing.  So I would play it like this: A B C D B C E.  There is a reverse version of C that I need to learn because I think I'm going to put that in as well in a 3rd chorus.  I don't know, I'll play around and decide.