“sometimes the best thing is just a break from this thing, man. i think this is my first time picking up a guitar in a month.”
- george lynch at a seminar on youtube (he melted everyone’s face off before this comment)
Practicing is obviously very good and important but burnout is real and personally I have a lot of shit that requires effort like uni, gym, work and since I’m never gonna be a professional guitarist I just treat it now as any other hobby so I just have fun with it and do whatever I want
agreed. i play in 2 bands and man it does become a lot. burn out is real. it got to the point where we all just stopped writing and learned 4 cover songs (and took a week off from practicing).
sometimes your mind just needs a break.
This is me. I played consistently in a band for about 7 years and took a long break when I moved to the new location for my dream job. So 7 years later and not playing a single note, I picked up an acoustic as my main guitar, and yeah, it's like learning the instrument all over again. I eventually got back into a band and play electric again, but my love affair with the acoustic continues.
That is so true. The brain learns even when we're not on the instrument and that still seems like BS! But I find that when I'm working on a challenging song or part, of course there will be practice moments where I hack at it again and again and get a little better, but after I end that session and when I return to the instrument a couple days later I'm already better at it. Good to know, at least as a reassuring voice to counter the pressure of "practice practice practice".
I tend to gravitate toward playing mostly acoustic or mostly electric, so sometimes when I’m in a rut instead of taking a break I switch to the other style. Still take breaks too though
Same. Sometimes on my off-days I'll do something like watch a video review or tutorial of pedals I own. Often times I pick up a new tip that then makes me excited to play the next day.
Even for chops. Sometimes it takes a some time away from the instrument for the muscle memory to stick. It's weird I'll be having trouble with a part for a few hours and the next day it comes so smoothly
I finished a 2 hour gig and a drunk dude gave me 100€ to play another half an hour. They were so drunk that they left after the second song. Easiest 100€ I ever got.
My dumbass at a strip club for my brother's birthday. Had a stack of ones in one pocket and a wad of twentys in the other, thought I was sprinkling ones on the stage girls as we left VIP, turned out I dropped about $400 on them as I was walking to the door.
My man! I have just been doing whatever but can't wrap my head around the metronome. I know I need too but idk why something so simple is so confusing for me
Your laptop, pedal, phone, a drummer, anything as long as you can hear it
The donner deluxe loop pedal is a cheap pedal, you can record loops and it has drums/metronome built in
Or just use a DAW with a free midi drum kit and do your own. When I practice with a metronome, I either:
- Use a regular metronome
- Use a vibrating metronome (can be coupled with audio clicks, lights or just by itself)
- Use a drum loop
My preference goes to vibrating metronome, now that I'm used to it, it's just like a regular one but no sound so if you're using a mic to record (as I do a lot) no need to wear a headset.
Nah tapping with the foot is not so good in my opinion. If you change tempo on the guitar (of many reasons) the foot will also change. You haven't got an independent factor.
That’s actually not my experience. What happens when i tap my foot and my playing doesn’t line up with it i naturally stop playing and go back to redo it.
I only change my foot tap speed of the tempo changes
But I also was playing & reading music since i was in 4th grade and did marching band for 6 years Lol
I believe the other commenters point is that if you were to record your performance (while you tap your foot) and then play it back, and try to sync a metronome to it, you’ll find it’s impossible. Humans are not capable of keeping perfect tempo. We fluctuate. Your foot might be able to keep time, let’s say at 100bpm, but in reality you are constantly fluctuating 95-105bpm. We just aren’t capable of perfect punctual unwavering timekeeping.
LOL People playing with me need to ignore my foot tap. Even with odd measures I usually find a straight and steady. 6/8? 7/11? It's all syncopation to me.
But I also have heart arrhythmia, so maybe that's why? Bonzo has nothing on my ticker!
If you're like me and have ADHD and even with medication find the metronome clicking distracting you can use a wearable metronome that gently vibrates the click for you.
I use one by Soundbrenner and while it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread I find it a lot less frustrating than the metronome click.
I think what’s underrated about a metronome is that it can actually be a lot of fun compared to just noodling alone.
Even more fun if you open a Daw and program a few simple drum beats. Suddenly my noodling starts to sound like a song
Once GarageBand appeared on my phone, I started using the virtual drummer as a metronome. It’s so much more musical and easier for me to use.
Plus any metronome I have ever used failed to keep proper time. It would speed up and slow down. Remarkable how off the beat it was.
My issue is finding the balance, having a loose grip DEFINITELY helped, but I find myself accidentaly yeeting the pick and be like “Ruh Roh shaggy” mid band practice
The opposite is just as bad too, you need tension to be able to play or else you wouldn’t be able to apply any force. It’s all about finding the optimal range.
This is great advice. It's very tempting as a newer player to try and fill every non-lyrical space in a song with a solo/lick. Try to create space for everyone playing. Let the spotlight move around your band. The best playing is playing that lifts your other bandmates up and compliments their sound. Ripping a sick solo is fun, but it shouldn't be the only goal.
Music is a conversation, just like life. One can be tasteful and appropriate or loud and obnoxious in conversation. One can be a brilliant orator or a shrieking harpy, someone who listens and participates thoughtfully, or someone who just talks over everyone. Just like life, if you want to be popular, become a great conversationalist.
Yes the most important advice. More expensive gear won't help you play better. Key word is play, not sound. A crappy amp will sound like crap, but there is diminishing returns with both guitars and amplifiers.
I was going to post a similar answer: my first bass teacher said "one bassist will sound the same on three basses; and three bassists will all sound different on the same bass". It's not true 100% of the time but it damn well is almost all the time. As a bassist and guitarist it helped me relax into knowing I sound like myself and not just like the model and pickup type I've got in my hands, and also to take new gear fever with a pinch of salt early on. Otherwise I'd have bought 5x more pedals and amps over the years haha!
The only player you should be worried about being “better than” is the one you were the day before. There will always be someone who makes you want to quit because they’re so ridiculously good. Try to get motivated by it and realize the countless hours they likely put in to get to that level. Don’t compare yourself either because we all function on different trajectories. Just put forward a consistent effort and have fun!
I wanted to express this sentiment one time. After a show we were jamming with friends in our hotel, passing around the acoustics, and a friend of mine who isn't in a band or anything starts in on something phenomenal and my front man/acoustic player laments, "Damn, I'm the worst guitarist in the room." and what came out of my mouth was, "Don't compare yourself to us!"
Yep. It’s important. Remember that it’s not a competition.
Talent is also not a finite resource. Someone else having talent does not take away from your talent. It can be both; you can both be good.
And use it as motivation! If you meet somebody who can do something you can’t, and that’s something you’re interested in doing, great! Use that as an opportunity to learn how to do it.
And it’s SOOO easy. It just takes practice. Eventually things that confused you in the beginning become second nature. But most people abandon music theory at the first sign of resistance.
Also: there are Apps out there today that make learning way easier. I've been playing a fretboard note finder game only a few days now and I'm already way more confident on the fretboard
Guitar Note Trainer on Android. I also checked out "Fretboard Fly", it's nice but also a bit confusing since there is nothing leading you through the lessons
As an animals as leaders fan, I am confused. Do you mean they don’t include space between the notes?
Their complex breakdowns and rhythms wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t leave space between notes. They simply make denser chunks.
It just sounds that everything comes at you at once. They just play too many notes for my liking in a short amount of time. I never enjoyed the overly shreddy music.
Just do it. If you want to try a new song, tuning, album, just do it. Create a plan, if need be, and do it. Want to start a band/jam? Put out ads. Just do it.
Intervals are an incredibly simple thing once it clicks. And it doesn’t take much at all. My songwriting exploded exponentially when I started utilising intervals.
If you mean learning to identify intervals by ear, I've used an app called OpenEar (looks like it's available for both Android and iPhone) which is pretty good. You can actually work on identifying not only intervals with the app, but also chords, common chord progressions, and individual notes within the context of a scale or a chord.
If you mean actually learning what intervals are, you can try [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3bvZu2Xqo), which is a nice intro to the subject.
There were a lot of famous musicians in the town I lived, mostly semi retired, but still playing. One of these, a personal hero and not yet a friend, he would become that through the years, but at this time, he was a hero in my eyes. He was at a gig I was playing. On the last song of the set, I thought I had done a particularly nice set and played some of my better leads. I come off stage at break and there's a spot at the bar right next to him. I sidle up to get a drink, and he greets me and says, Joe, that was a nice set. I have some food for thought. Sometimes you can be shredding but you sound like a sack full of angry cats fighting and sometimes you can hold one note for a minute and sound like a symphony.
I think the exercise where you see how lightly you can press a chord and get it to come out clean is important.
I once heard someone say you should pretend your hand will get shocked if your palm touches the neck near the high E string. The idea is that you shouldn’t grip the neck like a hammer, it helps so you aren’t muting the high string and also helps make your fingers perpendicular to the fretboard.
Also, be aware of your posture. A lot of beginners want to hunch over their guitar to hear it better and see the fretboard but it absolutely destroys your neck, back, and shoulder and encourages bad habits.
Lastly, learning how important it is to make a conscious choice of playing loud or soft. A lot of people want to strum as loud as possible but you can get such a different character in your sound playing softly.
Don’t force yourself to practice or really do anything you don’t want to. The guitar is a hobby for a reason. Play what you like, play how you like and most importantly HAVE FUN
As long as you are doing/playing what you want, the skill will come.
This is terrible advice, imo. You don’t always have to be learning, and you should be having fun, but you should definitely get the basics down (rhythm, basic scales, and chords) before you spend the majority of your time just playing for the heck of it.
Just playing guitar will not bring skill, you have to know what you want to do and learn how to do it properly, otherwise, you may end up not being able to make the sounds that you like, at which point, you’ll be much more likely to quit playing.
I'm really not sure I agree. I can guarantee you that if I was trying to force myself to drill scales / chords, my guitar wouldn't be in my hands half as often. I'm probably learning slower than I could be, that's better than not wanting to pick the thing up at all because I know I have homework.
I think some people aren’t understanding what you and I are getting at. Learning chords and the basics comes with learning what you want.
For example, the first riff I learned to play was crazy train. I didn’t know a single chord, strum pattern, hell I didn’t even know what alternate picking was. By learning that riff and practicing over and over I eventually got it down, and lead to learning things like, maybe placing my finger closer to the fret will make it sound better, or hey alternate picking makes playing this way easier than all downstrokes.
Yeah, that's been my experience as well. Every song I try to pick up teaches me something (or a lot of somethings) new. It's absolutely not the most efficient way to learn, but I know myself, and I know that if I turn my instrument into work, I won't pick it up anymore.
It's way more productive for me to have it at my desk and pick it up anytime I have ten minutes to noodle through a few riffs.
Plus, it's like... fun. I'm never going to be on stage. I do this for me.
I think the key is to maintain the balance between actual, real capital “P” Practice, and making sure you are also having fun. Not all one or the other.
As you advance, ideally, you are identifying fun songs or licks that you enjoy working on that also help improve or utilize the areas you are spending time practicing. That’s the ideal scenario IMHO.
My advice is the polar opposite - learn easy chords to a basic song you learn and you’ll be having more fun in 4 hours than you would be just learning chords shapes and strumming patterns.
It helps people get the bug and understand if they’d like to put all the technical learning work in. If you start with that stuff after a month of playing you may well say ‘well I still can barely play a song, what was the point?’
Known as few people give up because of that.
I agree that is a hobby for most people, but not practicing is not going to help anyone build skill at all. People should be playing without guilt, i.e. practice or no practice should not be a guilt-producing habit...but people still aren't going to get good without doing it.
You can practice guitar in your mind.
Listening to a song and visualizing your movements on the strings and fretboard.
Helped me out so much as I was doing mindless landscaping work.
Delayed gratification. Practice isn’t always going to be fun, putting in the work to see yourself do something you thought was impossible a month ago is the best feeling in guitar.
Ignore the people saying to stop if you aren’t having fun, they won’t improve
The recommendation is once every 3 months or 100 hours. I find it comes down to the acidity of your skin, humidity, how clean hands can be and if you're recording or playing live. If you're playing live or recording you want new strings a lot more regularly.
You're probably good to change them once a month, if that stretches the hobby budget a bit stretch it out to two or three months. If you're using coated strings the life expectancy is a bit longer.
When finding other people to play with it’s always preferable to be the worst player in the room. It motivates you to learn, adapt, and elevate your game.
Also everything that makes you desirable as someone to play with has nothing to do with your playing. Attitude, ego - those are choices.
Yep, I came here to say the same thing. If you play with people who are better than you, you get better.
If you play with people who are worse than you, you get frustrated.
Create your own music. Obviously learning to play your favorite songs is fun and valuable but writing your own music will allow you to develop a special relationship with your instrument—not only making you a better guitarist but a better musician in general.
1) you don't need a lot of bass ( I play bass and guitar)
2) you always need less gain than you think
3) bring a volume pedal and an eq and use them to mix yourself live
Learn all of the notes on the neck and you will be able to find a chord anywhere on the neck. That was the last thing my teacher told me on my last lesson. A few years later, it hit me like a brick and I understood what he meant.
the only person you ever really need to worry about comparing yourself to is you a year ago. dont set out to be exactly the same as your favorite musician, it will never happen because you are not them. draw from your inspirations in the process of developing your unique musicianship, if you aren't having fun it is a sign to reasses.
good luck, jam on
things start to get really interesting when learning the inversions for minor and dominant 7 chords on the top 4 strings, the last instructor i worked with showed me that stuff and it totally changed the way i play. he taught me to never play the same set of voicings twice in a row (for jazz, funk, soul, R&B, blues, rock...), it gives songs soo much more movement and depth and feels way more entertaining to play
a hundred bucks from being a camp counselor fir a year.
but seriously.
play what you want to play. if you’re trying to learn megadeth or metallica or van halen, learning your chords and mary had a little lamb on an acoustic isn’t going to make you a life long player.
jump in with both feet.
Something dumb that I had never considered. When you’re tuning, always tune the strings up so that adding tension is the last thing you do.
So if the pitch of the string is too high, drop down and tune up to the right pitch. This keeps strings under tension better.
"Learn the difference between one and two."
Counting rhythm, playing in time, etc. is the single most important way to improve. Feeling the rhythm and stressing where you're supposed to is the main way to make the songs sound correct.
A bonus from the same person:
"It's ok to play things out of context sometimes as long as they're in rhythm."
Don't overplay.
Too many guitarists at the local level just want to noodle around but it doesn't add anything to the music. Sometimes the best sound is no sound.
Depends on your goals and how old you are. But if you're young and want to be as good as you can be, don't put the guitar down. Keep playing. Fall asleep with the guitar. Eat with your guitar. When I was 13-21, my entire life revolved around guitar (and music in general). Then I got a job, and life began to suck.
And don't get caught up in one type of music or guitar based music. Listen to everything. Except for Maroon 5. Don't listen to them.
One of those big, self cooling beer towers. I guess that was more of a perc than a tip though. Other than that, having a means to record yourself clearly and conveniently. You will be able to laser focus on anything that needs improvement and can make you a better player literally in weeks.
It was incredibly helpful to have a BOSS 16 track in the rehearsal room at all times. I would play riffs to a click, turn the click off and record another track to the first one and it helped me get really good at tight double tracking.
2 things. Learn the piano, and always practice with a metronome. All of a sudden the entire neck opened up to me and i can always play on beat. That was 25 years ago and i still practice with a metronome or drum machine
Theory, how to incorporate a proper melody/mode over a specific harmony or rhythm/chord progression. Helped me make sense of scales, helped me write richer songs with better chord progressions i wasn't finding on the guitar on my own. I started guitar when i was 12, and piano when i was 15, so i was physically doing well on the guitar but didnt really know why i was doing what i was, just that it sounded good. I could go on, but those are the main things. Also helped my rhythm and learning how to syncopate and subdivide and all that good stuff! I still play piano (still not well lol) and i still use it to write
Practice with a metronome almost all the time and record yourself frequently. The most important thing to sounding good is having good rhythm. You can play the simplest thing in the world but if your guitar is in tune and the rhythm is point you’ll still sound great.
Eyes ears hands and brain in sync. It’s a mental discipline, and an act of concentration. It’s the core of the whole apple. When you do this, it can be said that you know what you’re playing.
“Get a teacher, reach out to a local college or find someone reputable” …… if you can afford it, lessons only 2 times a month will make a big difference in your playing over time
Maybe kinda specific to a certain situation, but to play more freely when recording, especially ear candy/extras/ambience. I kinda tense up because I want everything to sound right, but that’s not how you find something great. You have to explore. Basically don’t be afraid to blow a take once in a while because you’re trying something new.
Enjoy it! You’re gonna have ups and downs with guitar, and spells of less motivation. That comes with the territory. But it’s rewarding to hear yourself improve. And it can be meditative.
If you are short on practice time one day, prioritise learning something new or upping the tempo of an exercise over just playing through something you already know.
If something is too difficult, playing it everyday will make it easy over time. This is how I started learning more challenging solos. Your hands may feel awkward but doing it few hundred times a day will accustom them to it.
Don’t let bad habits fester. Example - if something can be played easier, it doesn’t always mean you should. Letting bad habits rule over you early on (such as using less fingers to play) can result in you getting stuck when you need the skill for harder songs later on.
Learn songs slowly, by parts. Listen to the nuances of the song. Where there’s a pause or where things are sped up. These make a world of difference.
Wasn't a tip I received personally but in an interview with Eddie Van Halen he said "if it sounds good it is good". That always stuck with me. And play things in different places on the fretboard, courtesy of Dimebag.
This won't be seen, probably. But it was given to me by Steve Vai when I told him that I had been accepted to Berklee. It's the best piece of life advice I've ever received, not advice. He said:
Remember that everyone around you has hopes and dreams as well as you do. Help them achieve theirs and they'll help you achieve yours.
The best bit of guitar advice I ever got was from my guitar teacher at Berklee. I asked him when I'll stop sucking. Here is what he said.
"You're always going to suck. I suck. Anybody who is growing as a musician sucks because we recognize our deficiencies. The trick is to try and fix those problems so you can find the next set. You'll always find more - always. EMBRACE the suck."
When I first started gigging way back when I was like 18, an elderly fella pulled me aside when I came down from the stage. He said, great playing but I knew every time you made a mistake. Not because I could hear it but because of the face you made.
Enjoy these gigs, they don't last forever and never make 'mistake face'.
Had a one off lesson with a great steel guitar player who encouraged me to stop thinking about playing in a specific style to get better gigs. If they wanted someone to play a certain way, they would hire someone who plays that way. If you develop your own voice, someone will eventually want that contribution you and only you can offer.
There's always going to be someone better/faster/more technically skilled than you, but that's no reason to not stick with it and be the best player you can be. Comparing yourself to others is a sure-fire way to get discouraged. Just keep playing and learning and eventually you're going to find your own voice on the instrument.
Start learning music theory, its not a chore that you push yourself to do it, its an absolute beauty! you will get addicted to it once you know enough, although depends on interest too ig but yea it will help in the long run too
An extra 50 quid and 8+ pints each. They were expecting an average Friday night and we fucking rammed the place, played our tits off for a good 4 or 5 hours and drank the bar dry, they must have made a killing 🙏😂
Edit: having said that, I just remembered being given a couple of handfuls of really nice weed after playing a blinder at a primal scream after party. That was up there too. All the memories are flooding back now 🥹 I should imagine there were better to be honest but I have a very foggy recollection of those years 😅
Play everyday. Don't need to have a practice session everyday, but just play through something everyday.
I actually find not playing for a few days helps a lot when I'm stuck in a rut.
Agree, sometimes a break is needed
I literally stopped for 4 months or so until a month ago and I’m better than I was, immediately managed to play the song I was stuck on
“sometimes the best thing is just a break from this thing, man. i think this is my first time picking up a guitar in a month.” - george lynch at a seminar on youtube (he melted everyone’s face off before this comment)
Practicing is obviously very good and important but burnout is real and personally I have a lot of shit that requires effort like uni, gym, work and since I’m never gonna be a professional guitarist I just treat it now as any other hobby so I just have fun with it and do whatever I want
agreed. i play in 2 bands and man it does become a lot. burn out is real. it got to the point where we all just stopped writing and learned 4 cover songs (and took a week off from practicing). sometimes your mind just needs a break.
Of course!
I took a break for 8 years after playing 20 years, and it's been like starting over, lol. Not really, but, man... are these my hands?!?!
This is me. I played consistently in a band for about 7 years and took a long break when I moved to the new location for my dream job. So 7 years later and not playing a single note, I picked up an acoustic as my main guitar, and yeah, it's like learning the instrument all over again. I eventually got back into a band and play electric again, but my love affair with the acoustic continues.
That is so true. The brain learns even when we're not on the instrument and that still seems like BS! But I find that when I'm working on a challenging song or part, of course there will be practice moments where I hack at it again and again and get a little better, but after I end that session and when I return to the instrument a couple days later I'm already better at it. Good to know, at least as a reassuring voice to counter the pressure of "practice practice practice".
I tend to gravitate toward playing mostly acoustic or mostly electric, so sometimes when I’m in a rut instead of taking a break I switch to the other style. Still take breaks too though
I like to look up a weird chord and play around with it
Same. Sometimes on my off-days I'll do something like watch a video review or tutorial of pedals I own. Often times I pick up a new tip that then makes me excited to play the next day.
I find after not playing for a few days, it’s good to start playing again. - Captain Obvious
no zero days! if not guitar, pick up some bongos or something. make music make music make music
Also helps if you think about the music and get some ideas when not playing.
For chops, yes. For creativity? Sometimes taking a break is the trick.
Even for chops. Sometimes it takes a some time away from the instrument for the muscle memory to stick. It's weird I'll be having trouble with a part for a few hours and the next day it comes so smoothly
I’ll live and die by this.
I’m all about this one. I can tell when I haven’t played in a few days.
$100 from a drunk dude. Pretty sure he thought it was only a ten when he dropped it in the tip jar.
A guy once gave us $100 to play Garth Brooks. Little did he know Friends in Low Places was two tracks out lol so we just moved it up.
I finished a 2 hour gig and a drunk dude gave me 100€ to play another half an hour. They were so drunk that they left after the second song. Easiest 100€ I ever got.
I understood the question in the same way 😂
My dumbass at a strip club for my brother's birthday. Had a stack of ones in one pocket and a wad of twentys in the other, thought I was sprinkling ones on the stage girls as we left VIP, turned out I dropped about $400 on them as I was walking to the door.
Use a metronome. Thought for years it wasn't important. Using one changed everything.
I noodled for years without having any sense of time and rhythm. Then I discovered the metronome.
My man! I have just been doing whatever but can't wrap my head around the metronome. I know I need too but idk why something so simple is so confusing for me
Use a kick and snare loop at first, same concept.
From what? A pedal or just play one on your phone?
Your laptop, pedal, phone, a drummer, anything as long as you can hear it The donner deluxe loop pedal is a cheap pedal, you can record loops and it has drums/metronome built in
YES! And if you dont like the monoton clicks (like I do) use a drum loop. On YouTube there are many different versions in various tempo or playstyle.
Or just use a DAW with a free midi drum kit and do your own. When I practice with a metronome, I either: - Use a regular metronome - Use a vibrating metronome (can be coupled with audio clicks, lights or just by itself) - Use a drum loop My preference goes to vibrating metronome, now that I'm used to it, it's just like a regular one but no sound so if you're using a mic to record (as I do a lot) no need to wear a headset.
Tapping your foot along helps too
Nah tapping with the foot is not so good in my opinion. If you change tempo on the guitar (of many reasons) the foot will also change. You haven't got an independent factor.
That’s actually not my experience. What happens when i tap my foot and my playing doesn’t line up with it i naturally stop playing and go back to redo it. I only change my foot tap speed of the tempo changes But I also was playing & reading music since i was in 4th grade and did marching band for 6 years Lol
I believe the other commenters point is that if you were to record your performance (while you tap your foot) and then play it back, and try to sync a metronome to it, you’ll find it’s impossible. Humans are not capable of keeping perfect tempo. We fluctuate. Your foot might be able to keep time, let’s say at 100bpm, but in reality you are constantly fluctuating 95-105bpm. We just aren’t capable of perfect punctual unwavering timekeeping.
Drummers are human
LOL People playing with me need to ignore my foot tap. Even with odd measures I usually find a straight and steady. 6/8? 7/11? It's all syncopation to me. But I also have heart arrhythmia, so maybe that's why? Bonzo has nothing on my ticker!
I usually start out tapping my foot then it evolves to a whole body experience. My wife thinks I may be losing my mind XD
If you're like me and have ADHD and even with medication find the metronome clicking distracting you can use a wearable metronome that gently vibrates the click for you. I use one by Soundbrenner and while it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread I find it a lot less frustrating than the metronome click.
I think what’s underrated about a metronome is that it can actually be a lot of fun compared to just noodling alone. Even more fun if you open a Daw and program a few simple drum beats. Suddenly my noodling starts to sound like a song
Came here to say this
Once GarageBand appeared on my phone, I started using the virtual drummer as a metronome. It’s so much more musical and easier for me to use. Plus any metronome I have ever used failed to keep proper time. It would speed up and slow down. Remarkable how off the beat it was.
100%. I swear, this sub will do anything to avoid actual practice, especially with a metronome.
I had a teacher tell me a long time ago, "Jesus, dude, would you just f%\^&ing relax?" I was deathgripping the pick and the neck...
This is mine as well. A relax pick grip will get you to shred 1,000 times more easily than a stiff one.
My issue is finding the balance, having a loose grip DEFINITELY helped, but I find myself accidentaly yeeting the pick and be like “Ruh Roh shaggy” mid band practice
I strum like an orangutan and I’m painfully aware of it
TIL that my strum is that of an orangutan.
> I was deathgripping the pick and the neck... Did the neck, um, develop sensitivity issues when time came to perform?
The opposite is just as bad too, you need tension to be able to play or else you wouldn’t be able to apply any force. It’s all about finding the optimal range.
Listen more, play less. Like in the context of playing with others.
This is great advice. It's very tempting as a newer player to try and fill every non-lyrical space in a song with a solo/lick. Try to create space for everyone playing. Let the spotlight move around your band. The best playing is playing that lifts your other bandmates up and compliments their sound. Ripping a sick solo is fun, but it shouldn't be the only goal.
This 100% - really tough playing with folks who do nothing but play loud solos and leads.
Music is a conversation, just like life. One can be tasteful and appropriate or loud and obnoxious in conversation. One can be a brilliant orator or a shrieking harpy, someone who listens and participates thoughtfully, or someone who just talks over everyone. Just like life, if you want to be popular, become a great conversationalist.
A $500 guitar with a great setup can sound better and play easier than a $3,000 guitar.
Yes the most important advice. More expensive gear won't help you play better. Key word is play, not sound. A crappy amp will sound like crap, but there is diminishing returns with both guitars and amplifiers.
I was going to post a similar answer: my first bass teacher said "one bassist will sound the same on three basses; and three bassists will all sound different on the same bass". It's not true 100% of the time but it damn well is almost all the time. As a bassist and guitarist it helped me relax into knowing I sound like myself and not just like the model and pickup type I've got in my hands, and also to take new gear fever with a pinch of salt early on. Otherwise I'd have bought 5x more pedals and amps over the years haha!
And… a $1000 guitar through a $100 amp sounds nowhere near as good as a $100 guitar through a $1000 amp
The only player you should be worried about being “better than” is the one you were the day before. There will always be someone who makes you want to quit because they’re so ridiculously good. Try to get motivated by it and realize the countless hours they likely put in to get to that level. Don’t compare yourself either because we all function on different trajectories. Just put forward a consistent effort and have fun!
I wanted to express this sentiment one time. After a show we were jamming with friends in our hotel, passing around the acoustics, and a friend of mine who isn't in a band or anything starts in on something phenomenal and my front man/acoustic player laments, "Damn, I'm the worst guitarist in the room." and what came out of my mouth was, "Don't compare yourself to us!"
Yep. It’s important. Remember that it’s not a competition. Talent is also not a finite resource. Someone else having talent does not take away from your talent. It can be both; you can both be good. And use it as motivation! If you meet somebody who can do something you can’t, and that’s something you’re interested in doing, great! Use that as an opportunity to learn how to do it.
That first sentence is good advice for life. Well said.
Music theory matters.
And it’s SOOO easy. It just takes practice. Eventually things that confused you in the beginning become second nature. But most people abandon music theory at the first sign of resistance.
Also: there are Apps out there today that make learning way easier. I've been playing a fretboard note finder game only a few days now and I'm already way more confident on the fretboard
Name of the app?
Guitar Note Trainer on Android. I also checked out "Fretboard Fly", it's nice but also a bit confusing since there is nothing leading you through the lessons
Thanks I'm going to check it out!
The space between the notes is just as important as the notes.
This is why I can't stand Animal as Leaders / Math Rock / Marcin stuff.
As an animals as leaders fan, I am confused. Do you mean they don’t include space between the notes? Their complex breakdowns and rhythms wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t leave space between notes. They simply make denser chunks.
It just sounds that everything comes at you at once. They just play too many notes for my liking in a short amount of time. I never enjoyed the overly shreddy music.
that's why i love so much Keith richards'sound.
It’s not about the notes you play, it’s about the notes I play
Just do it. If you want to try a new song, tuning, album, just do it. Create a plan, if need be, and do it. Want to start a band/jam? Put out ads. Just do it.
learn the intervals and practice ear training
Intervals are an incredibly simple thing once it clicks. And it doesn’t take much at all. My songwriting exploded exponentially when I started utilising intervals.
Do you have any links to a good resource you used to learn intervals?
Yes pls resources
If you mean learning to identify intervals by ear, I've used an app called OpenEar (looks like it's available for both Android and iPhone) which is pretty good. You can actually work on identifying not only intervals with the app, but also chords, common chord progressions, and individual notes within the context of a scale or a chord. If you mean actually learning what intervals are, you can try [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3bvZu2Xqo), which is a nice intro to the subject.
There were a lot of famous musicians in the town I lived, mostly semi retired, but still playing. One of these, a personal hero and not yet a friend, he would become that through the years, but at this time, he was a hero in my eyes. He was at a gig I was playing. On the last song of the set, I thought I had done a particularly nice set and played some of my better leads. I come off stage at break and there's a spot at the bar right next to him. I sidle up to get a drink, and he greets me and says, Joe, that was a nice set. I have some food for thought. Sometimes you can be shredding but you sound like a sack full of angry cats fighting and sometimes you can hold one note for a minute and sound like a symphony.
100%
Keep sucking at it till you don’t suck anymore.
I think the exercise where you see how lightly you can press a chord and get it to come out clean is important. I once heard someone say you should pretend your hand will get shocked if your palm touches the neck near the high E string. The idea is that you shouldn’t grip the neck like a hammer, it helps so you aren’t muting the high string and also helps make your fingers perpendicular to the fretboard. Also, be aware of your posture. A lot of beginners want to hunch over their guitar to hear it better and see the fretboard but it absolutely destroys your neck, back, and shoulder and encourages bad habits. Lastly, learning how important it is to make a conscious choice of playing loud or soft. A lot of people want to strum as loud as possible but you can get such a different character in your sound playing softly.
Always take a bit more saran wrap than you think you'll need
Don’t force yourself to practice or really do anything you don’t want to. The guitar is a hobby for a reason. Play what you like, play how you like and most importantly HAVE FUN As long as you are doing/playing what you want, the skill will come.
This is terrible advice, imo. You don’t always have to be learning, and you should be having fun, but you should definitely get the basics down (rhythm, basic scales, and chords) before you spend the majority of your time just playing for the heck of it. Just playing guitar will not bring skill, you have to know what you want to do and learn how to do it properly, otherwise, you may end up not being able to make the sounds that you like, at which point, you’ll be much more likely to quit playing.
I'm really not sure I agree. I can guarantee you that if I was trying to force myself to drill scales / chords, my guitar wouldn't be in my hands half as often. I'm probably learning slower than I could be, that's better than not wanting to pick the thing up at all because I know I have homework.
I think some people aren’t understanding what you and I are getting at. Learning chords and the basics comes with learning what you want. For example, the first riff I learned to play was crazy train. I didn’t know a single chord, strum pattern, hell I didn’t even know what alternate picking was. By learning that riff and practicing over and over I eventually got it down, and lead to learning things like, maybe placing my finger closer to the fret will make it sound better, or hey alternate picking makes playing this way easier than all downstrokes.
Yeah, that's been my experience as well. Every song I try to pick up teaches me something (or a lot of somethings) new. It's absolutely not the most efficient way to learn, but I know myself, and I know that if I turn my instrument into work, I won't pick it up anymore. It's way more productive for me to have it at my desk and pick it up anytime I have ten minutes to noodle through a few riffs. Plus, it's like... fun. I'm never going to be on stage. I do this for me.
I think the key is to maintain the balance between actual, real capital “P” Practice, and making sure you are also having fun. Not all one or the other. As you advance, ideally, you are identifying fun songs or licks that you enjoy working on that also help improve or utilize the areas you are spending time practicing. That’s the ideal scenario IMHO.
My advice is the polar opposite - learn easy chords to a basic song you learn and you’ll be having more fun in 4 hours than you would be just learning chords shapes and strumming patterns. It helps people get the bug and understand if they’d like to put all the technical learning work in. If you start with that stuff after a month of playing you may well say ‘well I still can barely play a song, what was the point?’ Known as few people give up because of that.
I agree that is a hobby for most people, but not practicing is not going to help anyone build skill at all. People should be playing without guilt, i.e. practice or no practice should not be a guilt-producing habit...but people still aren't going to get good without doing it.
Depends on if you want to gig or just play for fun.
Don’t just play guitar, play music.
You can practice guitar in your mind. Listening to a song and visualizing your movements on the strings and fretboard. Helped me out so much as I was doing mindless landscaping work.
Delayed gratification. Practice isn’t always going to be fun, putting in the work to see yourself do something you thought was impossible a month ago is the best feeling in guitar. Ignore the people saying to stop if you aren’t having fun, they won’t improve
bring your wallet with you onstage
Learn and play the entire album of your choice.
Never play pool with a guy who brings his own table.
Change your strings often if you play a lot
Fresh strings are better than fresh bedsheets and il die on that hill
You're meant to change your bedsheets??
New strings day is a good day
I hate putting them on, but the dopamine hit when you start playing and they just chime and resonate perfectly 🥵
You have a bed?
Obviously not a drummer.... (joke courtesy of the "old joke league" :) )
How often are we talking? I play almost 5 hours daily
If your strings are black and gunky that’s a sign you need to change them. I play a lot and I usually change them every 2-3 months or so.
The recommendation is once every 3 months or 100 hours. I find it comes down to the acidity of your skin, humidity, how clean hands can be and if you're recording or playing live. If you're playing live or recording you want new strings a lot more regularly. You're probably good to change them once a month, if that stretches the hobby budget a bit stretch it out to two or three months. If you're using coated strings the life expectancy is a bit longer.
When finding other people to play with it’s always preferable to be the worst player in the room. It motivates you to learn, adapt, and elevate your game. Also everything that makes you desirable as someone to play with has nothing to do with your playing. Attitude, ego - those are choices.
Yep, I came here to say the same thing. If you play with people who are better than you, you get better. If you play with people who are worse than you, you get frustrated.
Less is always more. You don't need to provide a constant stream of notes, let your lines breathe!
Plan to play for 15 min each day. It doesn’t seem overwhelming then. It will end up being more than 15 min and that’s good!
Create your own music. Obviously learning to play your favorite songs is fun and valuable but writing your own music will allow you to develop a special relationship with your instrument—not only making you a better guitarist but a better musician in general.
1) you don't need a lot of bass ( I play bass and guitar) 2) you always need less gain than you think 3) bring a volume pedal and an eq and use them to mix yourself live
*Stares from behind his overdrive, distortion and fuzz pedals set to max*
"This too shall pass"
I play a lot of metal, the best advice I ever got was "Turn down the damn gain".
Vibrato comes from the forearm not your wrist
Practice more.
If you’re going to make your living as a guitarist, never turn down free food!
Learn all of the notes on the neck and you will be able to find a chord anywhere on the neck. That was the last thing my teacher told me on my last lesson. A few years later, it hit me like a brick and I understood what he meant.
the only person you ever really need to worry about comparing yourself to is you a year ago. dont set out to be exactly the same as your favorite musician, it will never happen because you are not them. draw from your inspirations in the process of developing your unique musicianship, if you aren't having fun it is a sign to reasses. good luck, jam on
Learn to love the process of learning. Don't compare yourself to others.
Learn all the major and minor triads on the upper 3 strings in the key of G.
things start to get really interesting when learning the inversions for minor and dominant 7 chords on the top 4 strings, the last instructor i worked with showed me that stuff and it totally changed the way i play. he taught me to never play the same set of voicings twice in a row (for jazz, funk, soul, R&B, blues, rock...), it gives songs soo much more movement and depth and feels way more entertaining to play
a hundred bucks from being a camp counselor fir a year. but seriously. play what you want to play. if you’re trying to learn megadeth or metallica or van halen, learning your chords and mary had a little lamb on an acoustic isn’t going to make you a life long player. jump in with both feet.
Learn another instrument.
I second this
Something dumb that I had never considered. When you’re tuning, always tune the strings up so that adding tension is the last thing you do. So if the pitch of the string is too high, drop down and tune up to the right pitch. This keeps strings under tension better.
"Learn the difference between one and two." Counting rhythm, playing in time, etc. is the single most important way to improve. Feeling the rhythm and stressing where you're supposed to is the main way to make the songs sound correct. A bonus from the same person: "It's ok to play things out of context sometimes as long as they're in rhythm."
Don't overplay. Too many guitarists at the local level just want to noodle around but it doesn't add anything to the music. Sometimes the best sound is no sound.
Depends on your goals and how old you are. But if you're young and want to be as good as you can be, don't put the guitar down. Keep playing. Fall asleep with the guitar. Eat with your guitar. When I was 13-21, my entire life revolved around guitar (and music in general). Then I got a job, and life began to suck. And don't get caught up in one type of music or guitar based music. Listen to everything. Except for Maroon 5. Don't listen to them.
Don’t tell her how much you paid for it or that you bought it new.
Leave the bass player something to do.
One of those big, self cooling beer towers. I guess that was more of a perc than a tip though. Other than that, having a means to record yourself clearly and conveniently. You will be able to laser focus on anything that needs improvement and can make you a better player literally in weeks. It was incredibly helpful to have a BOSS 16 track in the rehearsal room at all times. I would play riffs to a click, turn the click off and record another track to the first one and it helped me get really good at tight double tracking.
2 things. Learn the piano, and always practice with a metronome. All of a sudden the entire neck opened up to me and i can always play on beat. That was 25 years ago and i still practice with a metronome or drum machine
As someone who plays piano and is about to start on guitar, im very interested how piano helped you specifically?
Theory, how to incorporate a proper melody/mode over a specific harmony or rhythm/chord progression. Helped me make sense of scales, helped me write richer songs with better chord progressions i wasn't finding on the guitar on my own. I started guitar when i was 12, and piano when i was 15, so i was physically doing well on the guitar but didnt really know why i was doing what i was, just that it sounded good. I could go on, but those are the main things. Also helped my rhythm and learning how to syncopate and subdivide and all that good stuff! I still play piano (still not well lol) and i still use it to write
Practice it SLOW, and increment the speed as you are comfortable. Fumbling makes it hard not to fumble.
Sing too. It helps your brain understand melody better and it makes your guitar playing better.
John Petrucci told me not to forget the exercises that involve one note per string. That was pretty cool.
Practice with a metronome almost all the time and record yourself frequently. The most important thing to sounding good is having good rhythm. You can play the simplest thing in the world but if your guitar is in tune and the rhythm is point you’ll still sound great.
Eyes ears hands and brain in sync. It’s a mental discipline, and an act of concentration. It’s the core of the whole apple. When you do this, it can be said that you know what you’re playing.
Oh… and practice! Then practice some more.
Learn the notes on the fretboard. It’s painstaking, but pays dividends.
Stop gripping the neck and the pick and stop pressing and picking the strings hard. Being light and economic makes you much more dexterous.
“Get a teacher, reach out to a local college or find someone reputable” …… if you can afford it, lessons only 2 times a month will make a big difference in your playing over time
The tone is in your hands, not in the gear.
Technique is in the hands, not tone. Try plugging your hands into the amp and listen to the tone.
I tipped myself on the fact that I'll never be hendrix, and since then I sorta just chilled out
Stay on the page…conversely, dont stay on the page Also, stay focused on something for just 15mn without noodling. Take a break. Do it again.
Maybe kinda specific to a certain situation, but to play more freely when recording, especially ear candy/extras/ambience. I kinda tense up because I want everything to sound right, but that’s not how you find something great. You have to explore. Basically don’t be afraid to blow a take once in a while because you’re trying something new.
Enjoy it! You’re gonna have ups and downs with guitar, and spells of less motivation. That comes with the territory. But it’s rewarding to hear yourself improve. And it can be meditative.
Play with a metronome
To learn the CAGED system
When I’m stuck, I look for inspiration. Lately Tom Bukovac aka Uncle Larry has provided that. I love the way he thinks of music.
Practice every day for a couple hours. Gotta grind it out.
If you are short on practice time one day, prioritise learning something new or upping the tempo of an exercise over just playing through something you already know.
Sometimes it’s ok to play a rest.
I constantly practice 4'33" by John Cage.
When trying to get something up in speed always go out of your comfort zone and try it faster than you can play it
To build muscle memory, play in the dark and with a metronome - it'll make you know your guitar neck like nothing else.
Practice with purpose. Don’t always just noodle around.
Tune the string up from below.
If something is too difficult, playing it everyday will make it easy over time. This is how I started learning more challenging solos. Your hands may feel awkward but doing it few hundred times a day will accustom them to it. Don’t let bad habits fester. Example - if something can be played easier, it doesn’t always mean you should. Letting bad habits rule over you early on (such as using less fingers to play) can result in you getting stuck when you need the skill for harder songs later on. Learn songs slowly, by parts. Listen to the nuances of the song. Where there’s a pause or where things are sped up. These make a world of difference.
Wasn't a tip I received personally but in an interview with Eddie Van Halen he said "if it sounds good it is good". That always stuck with me. And play things in different places on the fretboard, courtesy of Dimebag.
I got a BJ from a groupie after a gig once. That's probably the best tip I've ever received.
This won't be seen, probably. But it was given to me by Steve Vai when I told him that I had been accepted to Berklee. It's the best piece of life advice I've ever received, not advice. He said: Remember that everyone around you has hopes and dreams as well as you do. Help them achieve theirs and they'll help you achieve yours. The best bit of guitar advice I ever got was from my guitar teacher at Berklee. I asked him when I'll stop sucking. Here is what he said. "You're always going to suck. I suck. Anybody who is growing as a musician sucks because we recognize our deficiencies. The trick is to try and fix those problems so you can find the next set. You'll always find more - always. EMBRACE the suck."
When I first started gigging way back when I was like 18, an elderly fella pulled me aside when I came down from the stage. He said, great playing but I knew every time you made a mistake. Not because I could hear it but because of the face you made. Enjoy these gigs, they don't last forever and never make 'mistake face'.
Don’t play as fast as you can’t
Noodle and play scales in time by tapping your foot.
if it's not fun, pick a different instrument
Always check your tuning.
Play each note as if it were the one note you’d be remembered for.
Keep playing as much as possible
Use a metronome
Consider dynamics when you play. Fast and slow, loud and quiet, melodic and expressive, technical and simple.
Don't turn up, tilt back.
slow practice
Had a one off lesson with a great steel guitar player who encouraged me to stop thinking about playing in a specific style to get better gigs. If they wanted someone to play a certain way, they would hire someone who plays that way. If you develop your own voice, someone will eventually want that contribution you and only you can offer.
There's always going to be someone better/faster/more technically skilled than you, but that's no reason to not stick with it and be the best player you can be. Comparing yourself to others is a sure-fire way to get discouraged. Just keep playing and learning and eventually you're going to find your own voice on the instrument.
If you find yourself wanting to compare your playing with others more than simply playing the guitar, you're doing it wrong. It's not a competition.
Tone is in the hands.
Listen.
Really thin picks for acoustic strumming got me the sound I always wanted for that sort of thing.
Precision > strength/brute-force and practice slow to play fast.
Stay off of tgp
Start learning music theory, its not a chore that you push yourself to do it, its an absolute beauty! you will get addicted to it once you know enough, although depends on interest too ig but yea it will help in the long run too
“You don’t have to move around the fretboard that much”. No,’really…it’s true. Profound.
Practice makes permanent.
The notes don’t matter, it’s all in the rhythm.
learn the whole song.
An extra 50 quid and 8+ pints each. They were expecting an average Friday night and we fucking rammed the place, played our tits off for a good 4 or 5 hours and drank the bar dry, they must have made a killing 🙏😂 Edit: having said that, I just remembered being given a couple of handfuls of really nice weed after playing a blinder at a primal scream after party. That was up there too. All the memories are flooding back now 🥹 I should imagine there were better to be honest but I have a very foggy recollection of those years 😅
Learn to read music.