Homeschooled Menace Couldn’t Hold The Pencil Right

Here’s an embarrassing little tidbit about what I’ve been going through lately…

I think you can use this info to help you play guitar better and improve faster.

When I was a kid, I was homeschooled. Grade zero all the way up through high school, until I went to college at UCLA for music.

But early on, and probably still to this day, I was a little nuisance. Kinda like Dennis the Menace. Remember that show?

Anyway, my mom hired various tutors to teach me, as well as herself throughout my early years. One day my tutor was showing me how to hold a pencil and write with it. 

Now, there are basic principles for a good pencil grip. It should be held in a stable position between the thumb, index, and middle fingers. But being the little shyt I was. I didn’t do this. I grabbed the pencil like a monkey and wrote however I wanted.

I remember the teacher telling me, “No Jonathan, hold the pencil like this” as she demonstrated.

I was so bad, they got me one of those plastic grippers that goes onto the pencil. It’s kinda like training wheels to learn proper technique. When the teacher was looking, I would use it for a few moments. Then when she’d look away I would rip it off and just do whatever I wanted.

(I know, I know. I pray that this doesn’t come back to haunt me with my own children one day.)

So I never corrected this, and it continued for 37 years. 

Recently I wanted to learn how to write better. So I joined a online course to teach me. (I’m not going to waste my time trying to learn it on my own.) So I found a great coach, took his course, and hired him to start teaching me right away.

One of the first exercises I had to do was to handwrite out specific drills each day for one hour every morning. Then I had to take a picture of it and submit it in.

Yup. Old school notebook. Pen and paper.

The first day I started handwriting for an hour I got all these aches and pains in my writing hand. It became very clear how awful my technique was. This caused me to be slow, and debate whether I was wasting my time or should quit.

Coming to grips with how much of a little turd I was as a kid. I finally decided to correct this once and for all.

So I forced myself to go back to the beginning and practice with the right fundamentals. No matter how ugly my handwriting looked, I practiced with perfect technique. Even simple words were hard at first.

But I continued practicing this for 90 days straight. (To be honest, though I did miss two days. Oops nobody's life is perfect.) 

What happened in the end?

Well, I completely banished my bad technique. I now no longer have any aches and pains, and my form looks incredible. After 90 days the habit became ingrained in me and it feels natural. Way better than the old monkey grip I’d been using for the past 37 years.

This is a lot like guitar.

Particularly for students who are just getting back to it, or after a long break. Or if they’re just not sure if they have mistakes or gaps in their playing knowledge. Little mistakes that can keep them from ever playing like how they’ve always dreamed.

You want to make sure you learn the proper foundations and correct these mistakes. This means you can get the most from your music for years to come. And you won't get stuck with aches and pains like I ran into 37 years later…  And you won't get stuck with aches and pains like I ran into 37 years later…

One of the best foundational concepts you want to have down is knowing your fretboard. And so I put together the simplest guide you'll ever see for this. It's the ultimate approach that works for rhythm and lead. You can get your hands on it  completely for free here:

Jon MacLennan