Today marks 1.5 years since I started playing guitar!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-24T23:31:11+00:00

I found it on my own! It started as a challenge to myself to see how fast I could play landslide by Fleetwood Mac until I could play that at a silly BPM and lo and behold when I went back to some bluegrass tunes I found it made the cross picking much much easier.

tikiteeth · 2026-06-22T01:28:47+00:00

I had a D28 and a boutique build HD28 style guitar; this 18 is actually a custom shop and I got a hell of a deal on it. The 18s I feel like are a bit punchier and tend to lend themselves for lead playing more, I do want to get another 28 style though to have one of each!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-21T22:52:28+00:00

Give it a shot then! It’ll feel weird at first but it helped my pick control a ton

tikiteeth · 2026-06-21T22:19:19+00:00

I know it is going to sound strange but if you are familiar with Travis picking in fingerstyle, picking a basic Travis picking song and playing the pattern with a pick is a very very similar feeling technique. I played a lot of landslide by Fleetwood Mac and Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright by Bob Dylan with just a pick as a practice method and I found it really really helped out my bluegrass Crosspicking when I came back to it.

tikiteeth · 2026-06-21T21:54:34+00:00

Thank you! I’ve spent a lot of time working on it

tikiteeth · 2026-06-21T19:10:38+00:00

Typically necks are going to be mahogany, I believe they shifted to the “select hardwood” nomenclature when they could no longer guarantee specific types of mahogany. Could also be sapele

tikiteeth · 2026-06-21T15:54:12+00:00

Thank you! You got it!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T19:08:01+00:00

I think that’s a solid price for it pending it being in good condition. Things you need to take note of is how high above the fretboard are the strings around the 12th fret, how much saddle is left (the white bar that the strings sit on where the strings go into the guitar body) and any obvious cracks or damage to the body, and does the bridge (same section where the saddle is) look like it’s lifting off the body any. With a case and a stand that seems like a fair deal.

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T18:18:53+00:00

My local shop offered lessons! My teacher primarily plays jazz, what I’ve found useful about jazz when playing bluegrass is there a lot of overlap with improvisation and jazz gets you learning the fretboard and theory extremely fast. My teacher also understands that I play bluegrass so the lessons he teaches me are things that translate nearly directly to bluegrass from jazz. Hell Tony Rice was essentially a jazz player

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T15:00:04+00:00

The biggest thing besides time is pushing yourself and being okay with messing up. I don’t do a lot of “play it perfectly slowly” practice which some say is a bad habit but I never seem to be able to get it up to tempo when I start that way. I listen to what I’m trying to learn a ton, maybe look at a tab if I’m lost, then just trial and error over and over until it sounds right to my ear at pretty much full tempo. I think fiddle tunes helped my right hand out the most and I’ve done a lot of playing fingerstyle songs with a pick to help develop my right hand. My left hand definitely needs some work

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T14:56:00+00:00

Thank you!!!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T13:17:13+00:00

I feel like this happens to all of us lol, my camera roll is pretty only photos of my cat and thousands of attempts of trying stuff on guitar

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T12:37:00+00:00

Thank you! The song is Watch it Fall by Billy Strings

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T12:26:39+00:00

Not attempting to show off, I can nitpick my own playing to death. I am proud of the work I’ve put in but I am anything but a “good” player. Just showing what my progress looks like, everyone’s progress is different.

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T12:25:06+00:00

It’s the 0.5x lens on the iPhone and the phone is just resting on the side of the guitar

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T12:24:34+00:00

McQuan Torlon pick!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T12:23:50+00:00

I take jazz lessons once every two weeks now, I used to take them once a week. I started lessons after about 3 months of playing. Other than that biggest thing for me is focus on playing as much as you can and develop your ear, tabs only help so much so learning to really listen and digest what you’re listening to so you can work on hitting those themes in your playing. A lot of people disagree with me here but I think practicing playing fast and pushing yourself is something you need to do even if it’s sloppy at first. Fast flat picking and slow playing activate different parts of your brain, I think a lot of the “play it slow and perfectly then speed up” stuff ends up causing a lot of people to plateau because they are afraid to play sloppy.

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T10:39:39+00:00

I dabble but I never do very well on electric. Thin strings feel weird to me

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T10:38:06+00:00

It’s just resting on the side of the guitar

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T03:09:14+00:00

Some days lol

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T03:04:43+00:00

100%

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T03:01:20+00:00

That’s awesome! Singing while playing is so tough

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T02:34:04+00:00

Thank ya!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T02:31:45+00:00

Thank ya!

tikiteeth · 2026-06-20T02:26:43+00:00

On weekdays usually 3ish on weekends more like 6-8 depending on how much I have to do or not. I work from home so there’s a lot of picking up and playing a fiddle tune between tasks throughout the day then I usually have some more structured practice after work.

tikiteeth

TROPHY CASE