Video Question:

June 20th, 2008 - Gregdiehl asks, "I've been playing a basic chord version but when I listen to the original song I would think he has a special tuning on his guitar. does anyone there know?" Return to Video Q&A Listing


Length: 2.53 | Instructor: David MacKenzie Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Toe Tapping - May 5th, 2008 (3 minutes, 13 seconds)

Mark0761 asks, "Hi Jim. How are you? Man,you are an amazing guitarist. Yourself and Steve Eulberg are my two favorite teachers. The two of you are who I have decided to learn from. My passion is acoustic, I got no desire to play electric. I'm a beginer and my question is toe tapping. Before I found you on the website I developed a habit of naturally tapping my heel on the floor for some reason it just felt natural. When I came across you, you said tap your toe on the floor, does it matter which one you tap in rythem ? Your heel or your toes?Also, when do you tap you said on the strumming down tap , do you also do this continually throughout a song or only on the downstroke? Thanks and Confused Mark" View Response

- August 5th, 2008 (4 minutes, 37 seconds)

Rwr_1play asks, "I would like to pose this question to Jim Deeming. First I have to say that your finger picking style is absoutley beautiful. I am a huge fan of Chet Atkins, and when I discovered you taught this style, I just had to try it out. O.K. first the three chords in lesson 7, G,C and D. I do fine with the C and D chords. It is the G chord that is giving my pinky a fit. Now I can grab the G OK using fore finger, middle and ring finger. They all are not perfect yet which brings me to the main question. When I fret a chord my fingers tips are soft and my finger nail hits the fret board causing some buzzing. Also I have small hands. For example, If you measure from tip of the finger to where it connects to the palm of your hand, my left hand fore finger is 2.5 inches long, middle finger is 3 inches, ring finger is 2 and 5/8 inches and pinky is 2 and 1/4 inches long. Will this be a problem in learning your style of picking. If I get a video response would It be asking to much for you to tell me the length of your left hand fingers. If I am in the ball park, sure would be a big incentive. Thanks Jim, really do appreciate you." View Response

- July 10th, 2008 (2 minutes, 60 seconds)

Robearle asks, "Dear Brad/Dave. I'm having some trouble stringing up my guitar. You know those little brass loops you get on the ends of the strings? Well, I have a hell of a job getting them through the tuning posts, in the end, i have to cut them off, just so's i can get the damned string through, and just when i'm at the point of of thinking Ernie Ball couldn't get any thicker if he ate a whale omlette, I discover that there is nothing at the other end of the string to keep it in the bridge. Do you know of any other makes that put the little brass loops at the other end of the string ? cheers, Rob. " View Response

Square Perpendicular Fingers - February 20th, 2008 (3 minutes, 14 seconds)

Dannychoo asks, "i had asked this question on the message forum and got a response, but kinda difficult to visualize it so i thought i'd ask here again. my problem is that i have a difficult time keeping my fingers square to the fret. i've seen videos of people playing scales and their fingers are very square to the fret. mine are always kinda leaning towards one side. i'm also having problems with fingers "flailing" around... as in when my pinky is down my index finger would be like 2 inches off the fret. help please! thanks." View Response

Callus - April 22nd, 2008 (3 minutes, 49 seconds)

Jdemail78 says, "I've been taking Steve's lessons for the past month and during the first week, my finger tips hurt each day I played but I kept on playing because I knew that eventually I'd build up callus on the ends of my fingers and the pain would go away. Sure enough, that happened for the most part but recently they've been starting to hurt again. Not as much when I'm done playing, more when I start playing. After I play for a little while, the pain goes away (like a numb sorta feeling) and then by the time I'm done, they are hurting again. I guess what I'm wondering is how long does this go on for? I can tell that I have callus on my fingers but some of the pain is still there. Does it ever go away completely or do you eventually just get used to it? Thanks." View Response