I'm stuck! Please help me

[juliancs]

I've been seriously playing for about 3 and a half years...I'm a metalhead and love nothing more than music, and it's what I want to study at college. I'm 17 now.

I can play my modes, can read music at a very basic level, and have decent 'theory' knowledge - i.e if somone says play a 1 4 5 progression in G major I know what to do. My classical playing is coming along slowly, as are my chords.

 

As far as my lead/fun playing (I'm learning the other stuff for the 'long' run) I'm 100%. When I try to write stuff, I always write the same stuff, or a COMPLETE rip off of something else. I'm not happy with anything I write. Soloing, I'm STILL stuck in the minor pentatonic, aeolian and phrygian. I cannot play fast or sweep, and while I know these are not important, I want to be able to.

 

What I'm saying is when I pickup the guitar now I get bored very quickly if I'm not playing along to songs. Do you guys have any tips/EXCERSISES/ideas etc that are very hard but i can work at slowly that really show great improvement at a later date?

I just dont' know where to go with my playing as fasr as improvement goes! Like is there a certain thing to do to build more speed etc...Laugh at me at my state, but I want to, as in, really, really really, want to be able to play like John Petrucci one day. I am willing to work as long as it takes...

 

Thanks so much in advance

 

Julian

[Li Shenron]

First, cheer up

 

You're asking help in very different areas... I'll give you some general comments on the top of my head.

 

1) Writing song is a very difficult thing. It's hard even to figure out what it really takes to improve one's composition... some of the best rock composers (e.g. Pink Floyd) did not have much theory background for instance. Too much study may actually result in pedantic compositions.

What I suggest is that at least you consider broadening your listening habits. Borrow as many cds as you can from friends, and expose yourself to different genres (but don't force yourself into listening to things you really don't like). Enough background should at least make your composition less obviously related to something in particular.

 

2) Soloing can be extremely hampered by your theory. A lot of players, including myself, are bounded by their fear of "going out of scale", and end up playing with their fingers instead of playing with their ears, and their brain gets basically disconnected

If you recognize this as your problem, disconnect the fingers to reconnect the brain. That is, stop playing for a second and THINK of a phrase which may sound nice on top of the song; when you have thought of something nice, immediately find how to play it on the guitar, then write it down in TABs on some paper. Next time you improvise over the band, keep the paper in front of you and try using those phrases here and there.

Think that most great improvisers do not truly "invent" anything during the gigs, but their improvisation is the result of hundreds of hours of trying different things.

 

3) To improve technique you especially need to focus on what you're doing. Be smart, and learn to recognize where you have problems or need to improve. Don't just dabble for months on the same thing because someone says you "must" do it at a certain speed. Focus on the usefulness of what you're practicing, and then pay attention to why you can't currently do certain things. This way you will use your time better, whatever how much time you have.

Then there are infinite useful exercises, but none of them is necessary to the point of being essential.

[Little Dreamer]

To improve your songwriting, just write a short chord progression each day. Use your knowledge of theory to figure out what chords work together. Don't just use 5th chords. Put this on your 4-tracker and use it for a jam track. Soon you'll start to see which types of progressions make for stuff YOU really like to play over. Then sit down and write a bunch of progressions/riffs based on a central theme, then start figuring out which order they should go in, which should be the verse, chorus, bridge, intro, outro, etc.

 

I often find that if I've got a rhythm part I'm happy with, I can just steal the general strumming pattern from another song with a similar mood.

 

For speed, pick up Speed Mechanics by Troy Stetina. And a metronome if you don't have one already.

[PRSnotPOS]

Originally posted by Li Shenron First, cheer up You're asking help in very different areas... I'll give you some general comments on the top of my head. 1) Writing song is a very difficult thing. It's hard even to figure out what it really takes to improve one's composition... some of the best rock composers (e.g. Pink Floyd) did not have much theory background for instance. Too much study may actually result in pedantic compositions. What I suggest is that at least you consider broadening your listening habits. Borrow as many cds as you can from friends, and expose yourself to different genres (but don't force yourself into listening to things you really don't like). Enough background should at least make your composition less obviously related to something in particular. 2) Soloing can be extremely hampered by your theory. A lot of players, including myself, are bounded by their fear of "going out of scale", and end up playing with their fingers instead of playing with their ears, and their brain gets basically disconnected If you recognize this as your problem, disconnect the fingers to reconnect the brain. That is, stop playing for a second and THINK of a phrase which may sound nice on top of the song; when you have thought of something nice, immediately find how to play it on the guitar, then write it down in TABs on some paper. Next time you improvise over the band, keep the paper in front of you and try using those phrases here and there. Think that most great improvisers do not truly "invent" anything during the gigs, but their improvisation is the result of hundreds of hours of trying different things. 3) To improve technique you especially need to focus on what you're doing. Be smart, and learn to recognize where you have problems or need to improve. Don't just dabble for months on the same thing because someone says you "must" do it at a certain speed. Focus on the usefulness of what you're practicing, and then pay attention to why you can't currently do certain things. This way you will use your time better, whatever how much time you have. Then there are infinite useful exercises, but none of them is necessary to the point of being essential.

 

This is very good advice!

[dan_plus_o]

For making songs I like to use Modes as guide lines.

 

If you like the sound of the Phrygian scale then just change the notes to power chords, and try and make stuff up that way. Also try playing the modes on one string that way you get an idea of where you should play a power chord.

 

If you remember the Whole steps and half steps for the modes then when playing power chords just follow the Whole and Half steps. Don't know if I am making sence, but that is how I look at it when I try making up rythm parts.

 

I am also 17 years (soon 18) and I have been playing for 6 years and am also wanting to go to college. I am also a metal head and my favorite band is Pantera, but the past year I have been playing clasical stuff and have gotten good with finger picking and what not. So my advice to you is to learn more then just metal, because in the future it will come in handy.

[red|dragon]

Julian,

 

#1 Are you taking private lessons with anyone?

 

#2 How many hours a day do you practice?

 

#3 Who are your top ten favorite guitarists?

 

#4 How many instructional videos do you own?

[juliancs]

I feel so special with these replies..thank you guys

 

Originally posted by red|dragon Julian, #1 Are you taking private lessons with anyone? #2 How many hours a day do you practice? #3 Who are your top ten favorite guitarists? #4 How many instructional videos do you own?

 

#1 Yes I am. I have a very good guitar teacher that I do classical reading and chord stuff with.

 

#2 That's the thing, its gone down hill. I'm in the middle of my I.B Diploma at the moment so there is not much time for anything, but I'm terribly embaressed to say not more than 7 hours a week.

 

#3

John Petrucci

James Hetfield

Yngwie Malmsteen

Kirk Hammet

Dave Murray

Jon Schaffer

Mick Thompson

Dimebag Darrell

The 2 from Primal Fear

(no order there)

 

#4 Not many, Rock Discipline, and that's it I think. I do have alot of guitar magazines and instructional books from Musicians Institute press, that I haven't really worked through.

[RaVenCAD]

#1 Yes I am. I have a very good guitar teacher that I do classical reading and chord stuff with.

 

Excellent, teachers are great. I've been playing almost 20 years and I'm currently looking for one again myself. Death is the only acceptable excuse for cessation of learning.

 

#2 That's the thing, its gone down hill. I'm in the middle of my I.B Diploma at the moment so there is not much time for anything, but I'm terribly embaressed to say not more than 7 hours a week.

 

Of those 7 hours, how much is noodling and how much is hardcore study? Personally, I'm a noodler and I can spend hours jamming over a single backing track. Good for dexterity, but it does jack to grow me as a player.

 

#3

John Petrucci

James Hetfield

Yngwie Malmsteen

Kirk Hammet

Dave Murray

Jon Schaffer

Mick Thompson

Dimebag Darrell

The 2 from Primal Fear

(no order there)

 

If you really want to progress beyond your current limitations, you need to remove those limitations. By that, I mean you need to listen to other types of music that are out of your comfort zone. I know it'll be tough, but it's worth it. A few ideas:

 

Vince Gill

Brad Paisley

Joe Pass

Al Dimeola

Marty Friedman

Larry Carlton

David Gilmour

Robert Cray

 

Consider also ethnic and native music. Native American music is a very good way to hear stuff that is no where NEAR "the box" you are stuck in at the moment. Flamenco, much like classical, will make your right hand move in ways you never knew were possible. Atmospheric music, such as Enigma, will REALLY push the way you look at song structure. Pop in Enigma's Sadness and start wailing over it. Don't forget to breathe

 

#4 Not many, Rock Discipline, and that's it I think. I do have alot of guitar magazines and instructional books from Musicians Institute press, that I haven't really worked through.

 

Videos:

Marty Friedman

Al Dimeola

Joe Pass

Matt Gurman

 

Books:

Fretboard Logic - get the DVD too

Fretboard Roadmaps - get the DVD too

the Berkley books

Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene

Guitar Grimoire Scales and Modes - Great reference for scales. Not really instructional though. - I hear the DVD sucks

 

Software:

D'accord chord dictionary - Almost replaces the Guitar Grimoire books. Quickly identify a chord you've found, and find other inverstions of it. $25 WELL spent.

 

Backing tracks:

Get backing tracks from multiple genres and play over each one, even if you don't like the genre. Don't be so focused on metal. You think guys like Petrucci and Malmsteen only play the stuff you hear on the CDs? Nope. They study all kinds of music. It expands your mind as a musician and gives you new approaches to songwriting.

[red|dragon]

Good post RaVenCAD.

 

Julian,

 

The key to everything is not to put all your eggs in one basket. Learn from everyone! No matter hoe much you hate them, no matter how much they suck, you can always learn something new from just about anyone. Even if you meet a more worse guitar player than you. You can teach them to be better, and while you are doing so, you will learn and reinforce the things you already know. How do you know when you clearly understand something? - When you can teach it to someone else.

 

So lets pick on ol Yngwie again. You might like him, might hate him. Who cares. But you can still learn from him. He's all about speed, just running up and down on the neck with the harmonic minor scale and doing arpeggios really fast. Incredible isn't it? But the above average guitar player will notice, hey he does the same god damn thing in every song. All the songs are way to similar, all the solos sound the same. None of his playing has emotion in it, its just a contest to see how fast he can play (and he's still not the fastest ). Boring huh? Yeah...

 

BUT, look at the situation and steal something from it. Suck it dry of information like a vacuum cleaner. Look at his strengths, not his weaknesses. Steal his strengths. How does he play fast? Really dig into the music, play his solos, conquer him. At first you will tell yourself you will never be able to play that fast. YES YOU CAN. It's not hard. It just takes practice and developing a certain technique that allows you to move like Yngwie does. Take the strength and then move on. Take the strength and then move on.

 

Do this with ALL guitar players.

 

Stop listening to music for enjoyment, listen to the music as a challenge. If you can't play it YOU SUCK. If you CAN PLAY IT, THEY SUCK. Get this inside your head. Everyone is human, nobody has magical powers or anything. Anything they can do, you can do.

 

You must become the artist. Try to get their exact sound and learn their solos note by note.

 

Transcribe. Screw the tabs, screw these programs that slow down the sound so pussies can figure out what people are playing. Listen to the solos at normal speed. Listen and try to mimmick what you hear. This will require you to hit pause and play on your cd player OVER AND OVER and OVER again. You could spend 1 hour doing only the first 30 seconds of a song.

 

This is very good for your ears. You are training your ears to recognize sounds very quickly. When you train your ears you will be able to zoom in and hear EVERY NOTE PLAYED. To everyone else it will seem like a blur to them. They won't hear it. They won't get it. You have to train your ears. Takes time and practice. Learn your intervals as well.

 

So go thru all the guitarist that you know, one at a time and rip them to pieces. Be able to play all their solos. Mimmick them. You are them. You can play their solos better than they can.

 

I suggest doing this with your guitar teacher. I'm sure (if he's any good) that he has done this before and can help you will some guitarists.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

Learn how to read music. You won't last long at all in music school unless you can read music well. So many {censored}ing idiots run around calling themselves musicians because they come up with a cool "guitar riff" and call it a "song". Thats not a musician. That's called a bum.

 

A real musician is someone who can write music and read music. They need to have the ability to write the music they create on paper. Can you do that?

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

***You will never understand rhythm unless you can read music.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

Practice:

 

1 hour a day of noodling is doing absoultely nothing for you.

 

***The minimum you should be practicing is 3 hours a day.

***If you want to be good practice 5 hours a day.

***If you want to be better than your peers, practice 6+ hours a day.

 

At Berklee Petrucci and Myung used to force themselves to stay in the practice rooms for hours and hours.

 

Look at guitar as your job. It is your job. It is your craft. Your mom and dad get up in the morning to go to their job. 8-5.

 

That is the same thing you should do. Being a student, you might have to switch it to 5-11.

 

6 hours IMPOSSIBLE!

 

No it's not impossible, I'm not talking about sitting their in your crappy computer chair for 6 hours playing scales until your ass flat'ns from sitting so long. Divide the hours up.

 

10 min break between each interval so you can get a drink of water and take a piss.

 

50min - practice scales

50min - arpeggios

50min - chords

50min - learn a new song

50min - transcribe

50min - improvising

 

You need to have your guitar with you all the time. If should always be in your hands. When you are watching tv, it should be in your hands. Your skin will start to grow into your guitar. The guitar will become a part of you, almost like arm. It is you. You have to know your instruement well. It is your instruement. Things should happen instantaneously without thinking. You should recognize things just how you recognize the sound of your mommy's voice.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Your 10 inspirations are fine, but there are better guitar players out there. It's not your fault though that you havent heard them, must people only listen to what is popular so they can talk about it with their friends. Now is the time to start listening to music that others have never heard of. (us people in the guitar world have though ;p)

 

Here is just a list of people you need to check out:

 

Greg Howe

Marty Friedman

Jason Becker

Guthrie Govan

Scott Henderson

Pat Metheny

Al Di Meola

Paco De Lucia

John McLaughlin

Mike Stern

Joe Pass

Pat Martino

Tony MacAlpine

Django Reinhardt

Rosenburg Trio

Frank Vignola

David Grier

Tony Rice

Charlie Christian

Wes Montgomery

John Scofield

Joe Satriani

Frank Gambale

Alan Holdsworth

Larry Carlton

Blues Saraceno

SRV

Pat Martino.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

You cannot limit yourself to anything. You must listen to and learn from all kinds of music. There is no degree in metal guitar.

------------------------------------------------------

 

And those are just guitarists!

 

What people fail to understand is one of the most important ways to get better at YOUR instruement is to listen to OTHER INSTRUEMENTS. NOT GUITAR.

 

Drums? - Dennis Chambers?

 

Bass? - Jaco?

 

Piano - Rachmaninov? Chick Corea?

 

Sax - John Coltrane?

 

Bandoneon - Astor Piazzolla?

 

I suggest you do the same for all these people also like I said for the guitarists.

 

Who inspires you? Is the rest of the band just playing background music for you? Are you the guitarist the only one who matters?

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

Videos: You should have tons and tons of videos. Any video you hear or read anyone talking about, you need to check it out. View all videos. Most of them you can download, buy the ones you can't find on kazaa and bit torrent. A lot of them arn't produced anymore and you can't even find them - so I have to problem downloading them.

 

Videos to check out (some that just come to my mind):

 

Paul Gilbert's

Joe Pass's

Marty Friedman's

Scott Henderson's

Ross Bolton's

Don Mock's

Mike Stern's

Vinnie Moore's

Al Di Meola's

John Abercrombie's

Greg Howe's

Pat Martino's

Frank Vignola's

Eric Johnson's

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

 

Learn from everyone.

Learn from everyone.

Learn from everyone.

Learn from everyone.

Learn from everyone.

 

Learn to read music.

Learn to read music.

Learn to read music.

Learn to read music.

Learn to read music.

 

Practice 6+ hours a day.

Practice 6+ hours a day.

Practice 6+ hours a day.

Practice 6+ hours a day.

Practice 6+ hours a day.

 

Have fun.

Have fun.

Have fun.

Have fun.

Have fun.

Have fun.

 

Consider another career.

Consider another career.

Consider another career.

Consider another career.

Consider another career.

[can't remember]

All this great advice on practicing and learning...

 

 

But no one has mentioned playing out...jamming with other musicians!!!! We can only practice in our bedrooms for so long. We all need to apply our craft and express our art. I hate to practice but do because it makes the next jam that much better.

 

Find someone to jam with. Players under your ability will help you learn as well, but players above your ability is what you're really after

Even if you have to suck it up and strum the rhythm longer than anyone else. It'll be worth it!

 

:jb

[Auggie Doggie]

Originally posted by juliancs What I'm saying is when I pickup the guitar now I get bored very quickly if I'm not playing along to songs. Do you guys have any tips/EXCERSISES/ideas etc that are very hard but i can work at slowly that really show great improvement at a later date? I just dont' know where to go with my playing as fasr as improvement goes! Like is there a certain thing to do to build more speed etc...Laugh at me at my state, but I want to, as in, really, really really, want to be able to play like John Petrucci one day. I am willing to work as long as it takes... Thanks so much in advance Julian

 

I've done a 'Speed' series in this forum over the past couple of years that takes a different approach to the fundamentals of technique (and technical development). Unfortunately, the pdf attachments are now all corrupt, and I haven't gotten all of them back together yet. Once I get them all collected, I'll host them elsewhere so that the next HC 'maintenance' doesn't destroy them.

 

Also, check out my books (first link in my signature) for stuff that has more long-term benefits and little in the way of instant gratification.

[dan_plus_o]

 

Originally posted by can't remember But no one has mentioned playing out...jamming with other musicians!!!! We can only practice in our bedrooms for so long.

 

 

That is why I am going to buy a digitech Jamman soon.

[juliancs]

AutoCad and Red-dragon (and everyone else!) - thank you. Honestly. I can't believe you would take so much time to reply to me. It's nice to see other guitarisits come down from their high chairs for once!

 

As far as listening to other people, I have noticed the benefits of it. Those 10 are my favorites, but I do have a few CD;s of some of the other ones you mentioned (I can;t turn Mike Stern off recently ).

 

I deceided a few days ago that I want to learn 1 song by ear everyday, and so far so good - I'm starting with stuff just by the red hot chili peppers etc, but it's helping my ears already. I ave been taking ear training for a year and a half with an instructor so hearning intervals and rhythm is something I'm fairly good at.

 

As far as videos go, I'll follow what you said. I want to work though JP's Rock Disicpline, then I'll start getting some more stuff and really grind through it.

 

My music reading is coming along, with my classical playing. My classical playing is still VERY elementary by any means, but I value it greatly. Those 50 minutes slot things you suggested sound good, but I'd had to get classical playing in there somewhere .

 

The thing is, with all the arpeggios, scales and stuff to learn, I don't have a reference for that stuff...

 

Sure Yngwie sounds the same all the time, but I love his work

 

I just finished my last exam so I'm exauhsted, I might write a better response a little later, but honestly - thank you so much. I am very humbled and greatful, and have alot to think about.

 

 

On a last note, do you think there are any essential practice tools that could help me? (Apart from my tuner and metronome!)

 

A Digitech Jamman? (know nothing about them but heard they were great ) EDIT: Like dan-o-man up there!

A Tascam CD-T1MkII CD trainer thingy...

 

thanks so much:thu:

[red|dragon]

Originally posted by juliancs It's nice to see other guitarisits come down from their high chairs for once!

 

Ah yes. Well I am 2nd generation Mike Stern and Joe Pass and also 4th generation Igor Stravinsky(I swear to god), So I sorta feel inclined to pass on the knowledge that I have collected.

 

Originally posted by juliancs I can't turn Mike Stern off recently .

 

What Mike Stern album are you listening to?

 

 

Originally posted by juliancs I want to work though JP's Rock Disicpline, then I'll start getting some more stuff and really grind through it.

 

Honestly, I didn't think much of JP's video. I like him as a guitarist, but I thought his instructional video was lacking...

 

Check out Scott Henderson's Jazz Improvisation (not jsut jazz, can be used in all music). Chock full of theory and info.

 

Originally posted by juliancs The thing is, with all the arpeggios, scales and stuff to learn, I don't have a reference for that stuff....

 

I recommend the caged method.

 

Throw your tuner away. You've been playing for 3 years, you're a big boy now. You should be able to tune your guitar by ear. (or atleast try)

 

Always practice with metronome or drum machine.

[juliancs]

 

Originally posted by red|dragon What Mike Stern album are you listening to?

 

Jigsaw mostly, but odds and evens as well

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted by red|dragon I recommend the caged method.

 

Isn't that some online thing? I bought some "guitar grid method" and it was a load of crap....

[Nightmare Made]

Originally posted by red|dragon Good post RaVenCAD. Julian, The key to everything is not to put all your eggs in one basket. Learn from everyone! No matter hoe much you hate them, no matter how much they suck, you can always learn something new from just about anyone. Even if you meet a more worse guitar player than you. You can teach them to be better, and while you are doing so, you will learn and reinforce the things you already know. How do you know when you clearly understand something? - When you can teach it to someone else. So lets pick on ol Yngwie again. You might like him, might hate him. Who cares. But you can still learn from him. He's all about speed, just running up and down on the neck with the harmonic minor scale and doing arpeggios really fast. Incredible isn't it? But the above average guitar player will notice, hey he does the same god damn thing in every song. All the songs are way to similar, all the solos sound the same. None of his playing has emotion in it, its just a contest to see how fast he can play (and he's still not the fastest ). Boring huh? Yeah... BUT, look at the situation and steal something from it. Suck it dry of information like a vacuum cleaner. Look at his strengths, not his weaknesses. Steal his strengths. How does he play fast? Really dig into the music, play his solos, conquer him. At first you will tell yourself you will never be able to play that fast. YES YOU CAN. It's not hard. It just takes practice and developing a certain technique that allows you to move like Yngwie does. Take the strength and then move on. Take the strength and then move on. Do this with ALL guitar players. Stop listening to music for enjoyment, listen to the music as a challenge. If you can't play it YOU SUCK. If you CAN PLAY IT, THEY SUCK. Get this inside your head. Everyone is human, nobody has magical powers or anything. Anything they can do, you can do. You must become the artist. Try to get their exact sound and learn their solos note by note. Transcribe. Screw the tabs, screw these programs that slow down the sound so pussies can figure out what people are playing. Listen to the solos at normal speed. Listen and try to mimmick what you hear. This will require you to hit pause and play on your cd player OVER AND OVER and OVER again. You could spend 1 hour doing only the first 30 seconds of a song. This is very good for your ears. You are training your ears to recognize sounds very quickly. When you train your ears you will be able to zoom in and hear EVERY NOTE PLAYED. To everyone else it will seem like a blur to them. They won't hear it. They won't get it. You have to train your ears. Takes time and practice. Learn your intervals as well. So go thru all the guitarist that you know, one at a time and rip them to pieces. Be able to play all their solos. Mimmick them. You are them. You can play their solos better than they can. I suggest doing this with your guitar teacher. I'm sure (if he's any good) that he has done this before and can help you will some guitarists. -------------------------------------------------------- Learn how to read music. You won't last long at all in music school unless you can read music well. So many {censored}ing idiots run around calling themselves musicians because they come up with a cool "guitar riff" and call it a "song". Thats not a musician. That's called a bum. A real musician is someone who can write music and read music. They need to have the ability to write the music they create on paper. Can you do that? -------------------------------------------------------- ***You will never understand rhythm unless you can read music. -------------------------------------------------------- Practice: 1 hour a day of noodling is doing absoultely nothing for you. ***The minimum you should be practicing is 3 hours a day. ***If you want to be good practice 5 hours a day. ***If you want to be better than your peers, practice 6+ hours a day. At Berklee Petrucci and Myung used to force themselves to stay in the practice rooms for hours and hours. Look at guitar as your job. It is your job. It is your craft. Your mom and dad get up in the morning to go to their job. 8-5. That is the same thing you should do. Being a student, you might have to switch it to 5-11. 6 hours IMPOSSIBLE! No it's not impossible, I'm not talking about sitting their in your crappy computer chair for 6 hours playing scales until your ass flat'ns from sitting so long. Divide the hours up. 10 min break between each interval so you can get a drink of water and take a piss. 50min - practice scales 50min - arpeggios 50min - chords 50min - learn a new song 50min - transcribe 50min - improvising You need to have your guitar with you all the time. If should always be in your hands. When you are watching tv, it should be in your hands. Your skin will start to grow into your guitar. The guitar will become a part of you, almost like arm. It is you. You have to know your instruement well. It is your instruement. Things should happen instantaneously without thinking. You should recognize things just how you recognize the sound of your mommy's voice. ------------------------------------------------------------ Your 10 inspirations are fine, but there are better guitar players out there. It's not your fault though that you havent heard them, must people only listen to what is popular so they can talk about it with their friends. Now is the time to start listening to music that others have never heard of. (us people in the guitar world have though ;p) Here is just a list of people you need to check out: Greg Howe Marty Friedman Jason Becker Guthrie Govan Scott Henderson Pat Metheny Al Di Meola Paco De Lucia John McLaughlin Mike Stern Joe Pass Pat Martino Tony MacAlpine Django Reinhardt Rosenburg Trio Frank Vignola David Grier Tony Rice Charlie Christian Wes Montgomery John Scofield Joe Satriani Frank Gambale Alan Holdsworth Larry Carlton Blues Saraceno SRV Pat Martino. ------------------------------------------------------ You cannot limit yourself to anything. You must listen to and learn from all kinds of music. There is no degree in metal guitar. ------------------------------------------------------ And those are just guitarists! What people fail to understand is one of the most important ways to get better at YOUR instruement is to listen to OTHER INSTRUEMENTS. NOT GUITAR. Drums? - Dennis Chambers? Bass? - Jaco? Piano - Rachmaninov? Chick Corea? Sax - John Coltrane? Bandoneon - Astor Piazzolla? I suggest you do the same for all these people also like I said for the guitarists. Who inspires you? Is the rest of the band just playing background music for you? Are you the guitarist the only one who matters? --------------------------------------------------------- Videos: You should have tons and tons of videos. Any video you hear or read anyone talking about, you need to check it out. View all videos. Most of them you can download, buy the ones you can't find on kazaa and bit torrent. A lot of them arn't produced anymore and you can't even find them - so I have to problem downloading them. Videos to check out (some that just come to my mind): Paul Gilbert's Joe Pass's Marty Friedman's Scott Henderson's Ross Bolton's Don Mock's Mike Stern's Vinnie Moore's Al Di Meola's John Abercrombie's Greg Howe's Pat Martino's Frank Vignola's Eric Johnson's ------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Learn from everyone. Learn from everyone. Learn from everyone. Learn from everyone. Learn from everyone. Learn to read music. Learn to read music. Learn to read music. Learn to read music. Learn to read music. Practice 6+ hours a day. Practice 6+ hours a day. Practice 6+ hours a day. Practice 6+ hours a day. Practice 6+ hours a day. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun. Consider another career. Consider another career. Consider another career. Consider another career. Consider another career.

 

That was the a huge inspiration to me, that one post. Just reading through these forums and I come across this... Blew me away. THANK YOU! I have this saved on my desktop now.

[dan_plus_o]

Originally posted by juliancs A Digitech Jamman? (know nothing about them but heard they were great ) EDIT: Like dan-o-man up there!

 

A Jamman is a looper. you can play a rythm part then make it play over and over and over and over and over and.... wll you get the idea, Then you can do some soloing over an stuff. With the jamman you can even speed up stuff that you have already recorded. They are $350 CAN though.

[dastardlydrvish]

I'm sure that others will point this out eventually, but forcing oneself into marathon practice sessions every day is about as useful to an aspiring creative artist as pissing into a ceiling fan. If you're practicing 6 hours a day and loving it, that's wonderful. If after two hours you find yourself wishing you were doing something else, call it a night; the usefulness of your practice session has come to an end. One hour of focused, creative, musically-oriented practice is better than 6 hours of wanking warm-ups (unless your goal is to play like a wanker, in which case, happy wanking).

 

I wouldn't listen to ANYONE who tried to tell me what my minumum daily practice time should be.

 

Don't get me wrong: It's very important to practice ALOT, but if you have to force it, the game isn't worth the candle. Do you play because you love it, or because you want internet forum denizens 10 years from now to rave about your technique?

-dd

[simeon]

some excellent advice from everybody so far - here's my tuppence...

 

yes, it's good to have a practice structure, but 1 hour of GOOD practice is better than 6 hours of noodling...

 

the best advice i can give, is once you've learnt something, stop practicing it

 

that might sound a bit obvious, but the number of times i've seen people going over and over the same old thing and never getting any better...

 

i would also say, divide your time up, so you get to have a bit fun too...it shouldn't all be work. i would heartily recommend buying a looper - they're fantastic for jamming over chord sequences.

 

and learn as many chords as you can - so many people focus too much on lead playing and neglect the rhythm side...knowing lots of chords will also improve your songwriting.

 

and if you can...get in a band - one 4 hour jam session is worth a month of practicing - and it's great fun!

 

we all get stuck once in a while...just don't stress about it...something will come along (an idea, an artist, a song etc) and it'll inspire you and spur you on

 

all the best to you sir - it's refreshing to hear from someone who is obviously enthusiastic, keen and most importantly prepared to put in the work to get better....so many people come on this forum looking for quick fixes...!

 

cheers

 

sim

[MorePaul]

But no one has mentioned playing out...jamming with other musicians!!!! We can only practice in our bedrooms for so long.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

That is why I am going to buy a digitech Jamman soon.

 

Loopers are nifty tools (sort of like practice play alongs)

 

but ain't no replacement -- it isn't just learning to play with accompaniment (hell, we have music minus one for that )

 

put it's getting pushed out of your comfort zone, learning to interactively negotiate a piece of music, saying "wow! never seen that before..hey, how did you do that?", "so what's the deal with that cello?", "Man, that guy set a steep tempo! here we go!", "he plays pretty subtley, I've got to back it off a bit when he solos / you push her during her solos and she lights it up and drills her own hole!", "what do you mean a harpsichord is in Kirnberger III??"

 

all that and more

[MorePaul]

hmm, but on to the original question

 

for the performance work, have you considered playingoutside your comfort zone -- maybe getting some of the Aebersold Jazz play along (there you have the charts and the accompaniment in a "minus one" format)

 

I'm sort of pro-theory for the compositional help -- I think there can be a problem with the old "I know enough just to be dangerous" or not really well integrated theory...which can limit the horizons or mistake descriptive things for predictive things.

 

One problem with "guitarist theory" is that they (we ) can tend to think of theory soley in terms of "how do I put a melody over this series of chords" -- there can be alot more to it than that and funny thing is, you'll work almost exactly BACKWARD from the ("harmonize this CF") in your first couple of theory classes

 

Anoher thing that might help is to try to work melodically for a bit (as opposed to through "guitar mechanics" as such) by this I mean try taking a structure and SING a melody...THEN transpose that to guitar

 

 

Try working outside your "native style" and then maybe incorporate elements of your explorations back into "home base" -- "hey look guys, I went to Asia and found noodles!"