Question for Aspie Guitarists

Post Reply New Topic

Did you have any problems (at first) with hand-motor skills when you began playing the guitar? If so, how did you get better at playing the instrument?

hours & hours of practice.

no problems at all. In fact, I was told I was a very quick learner, I picked it up very fast. I'm decent at it, though no expert, but I am entirely self taught. I mean, yes, it can be painful before you develop callouses and awkward with your hands, but I didn't struggle with it beyond what an NT would struggle with. But one thing that helped is that I made up my mind that I wanted to do it, so my having aspergers meant I was absolutely devoted to it, when I first was teaching myself I would spend hours at it a day and kept it up for weeks. I've known lots of people who said, "I got guitar 'cause I thought it would be cool to learn but I gave up pretty fast".

have you started to play or are you thinking about it? Definitely try using tabs to start off. www.chordie.com is a good website. I cannot read sheet music at all.

i still have problems....it's just working on it....lots of work.

but that's on the advanced technical stuff. learning music and notes and all was a breeze and i blasted through the assignments my guitar teacher would give me.

One thing I notice is that I'm usually playing faster than I should. Yes, practice is the key, but the most important thing is CORRECT practice. If you're practicing the wrong way to play something, the results will be typical...

Play slower. Ridiculously slow, and with a metronome. Find the slowest speed you can play the entire piece you're practicing, and start from there. If it's a song, remember to play the entire song that slow. Too often people learn the beginning of a song, and get comfortable with it. So they start out at a tempo that results in the song falling apart once they get to the harder middle part. So, whatever the slowest tempo you can correctly play the hardest part should be the tempo for the entire piece. The metronome will help because some parts are easier than others, and you have a natural tendency to speed those parts up.

I have a big yellow sign on my music stand that says "Play Slower".

A couple of things to consider though: I don't have many of the motor coordination problems many Aspies do.
However, I do play classical guitar, which requires a very high degree of perfectionism, so it all evens out I guess.

I started out with issues, mostly due to my young age (12 at the time I first picked up a guitar)

Nowadays I have the skills to play stuff as difficult as Death Metal (The hardest genre of music on a guitar) and play with great agility and grace.

No problems with coordination on the guitar here. But I can't seem to coordinate on a violin. The bowing motion and fingering the notes bewilders me.

the serious coodination problems for me were with piano....i just couldn't play two hands together. it felt weird...unnatural...and couldn't keep up to where i could actually play anything.

I sometimes it hard to play with a plectrum

It's still very difficult for me to play anything terribly fast. The quickest song I can play is Lifer by Down. I couldn't sweep pick to save my life. However, I am excellent at memorizing chords and accurately switching to them. With practice you'll get better, just don't give up.

I've been playing for 30 years or so

I don't recall problems with co-ordination etc but you certainly need to practice lots, aspie stubborness is very good for that

my motor skills deficits manifest in different ways - I 'm a skilled artist but my handwriting is a disaster and always has been


I think my playing style is affected by possible AS though, it's seems somwhat 'linear' - although I can improvise freely I always seems to follow the same patterns when I do, jazz style riffs etc are just foreign to me, these days my playing tends more towards a country feel as I like people like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash

I also play mandolin, which is very small and fiddly

muscle memory ftw

seems more like my brain choosing ways it wants to express itself - controlled spontaneity, sort of

If my guitar playing was a 3D object it would look like a multi-layered grid made out of silver light



it wouldn't have lots of different colours and shapes



I like it, it suits me

....of course, it's just like the training wheels on a bike...just be persistent, and be sadistic with your finger tips.

I,ve noticed some minor problems with my hand writing but have never never been able to link it with any conventional lack of coordination. during a trip to some specialists among other things i recieved a handwriting evalution and was told around 80% of my poor hand writing was atributed to a lack of mucle strength.

relating this to guitar theres no reason for the averge AS to suspect uncoordination as the reason for poor guitar skills. What can i say practise read use the net do what we do best colect theory and practice.

not sure if any of ya like punk but even if you like weird al you should definitely check out the official web site of comedic punk band Toy Dolls. This guys the only famous guy I know who actually has videos teaching you how to play their songs he’s a good teacher and a very good guitarist and one those people you can’t help wondering about.

My first guitar was lying around the house since I was a toddler,, I have memories of my mum, paying this monotnous, et soothing tune on the odd occasion.

Every so often she would shove the guiter to me,,, her you try. I did, the frist time , the sond time and the third time,,, but I never picked up the guitar on my won accord... that is untill

Highschool.... choose an instrument, ther a pamphlet like on your second day in school with wors like violamamin, saxamaphone, clarinettelettet....
i chose the clainet becsue that's the Leter my name starts with. -at least it was cheaper than a violin!

Anyway,,, soon the Little aucustic with shotty ten year old strings became a hoby horse for, oh 4 years...

In the meantime as an aspie would, I tried other intruments... drums, flute, keyboard (family bought one) tamborine

Yeah about violins ,amn even when ouve learn it for 4 years it still sounds like the cat - I am sure my parents are forever happy I din't make that choice!! ! ,although an eletric guitar with an effects pedal,,, probably gave them the irrates.