1- Count. Always, always, ALWAYS start tapping your foot BEFORE you start playing. Sub-divide the beats, 1 AND, 2 AND. Guitarists, especially self-taught, TAB-bers tend to “feel” rhythms instead of counting. If you don’t know where the “One” is, in every bar and how many bars are in each section, you are guessing. Ask a friendly Drummer to explain it.
Eventually you will do all of this automatically. Practicing with a metronome my seem rigid and stifling but it is the best way to become consistent, and you can see when you are improving. You will be able to play pieces at increasingly faster tempos.
Playing fast, isn’t the point of music but I find being able to play faster, than required is a good way to practice scales and chord changes.
2- Visualize! Did you ever wonder why so many good musicians started out as artists? Being able to SEE music gives you an advantage. Less than 1% of the population has “Perfect Pitch”, so don’t depend on your ears, exclusively. Being able to see the difference between a Major and minor scale or triad, is the first step to hearing and controlling them.
3- Play Blind. Do the notes on your Guitar re arrange themselves when you look away? They will always be in the same place, whether you can see them, or not. The only time you should look down (at the top fret-markers, not the fingerboard) is to change positions.
If you can’t see the note’s in your head, there is no point to looking for them on the fingerboard. Watch a few different Guitarists and see what a difference it makes. If you are focused on the FB, you are introverted. It looks like the player is not confident where they are going.
4- Leave Space. I like to tell my students to stop playing when they inhale(air). This the easiest way to start leaving space. Use the call and response, or question-answer technique and leave a space for the answer. Make your spaces sound deliberate. In the case of 2 players with equal technical abilities, the one that can leave deliberate rests, will sound much more tasteful AND confident. What you DON’T play is as important as what you DO!
5- Don’t let your approach limit you. Don’t let words and technical terms limit you. Lead and Rhythm Guitar are terms that will effect your playing. It implies a very limited understanding of the instrument. Hybrid styles of music such as Rockabilly or Psychobilly would have never happened, if players were limiting themselves to being “Country” or “Jazz” players.
Also try to understand the Bassist and Drummer’s approach to Rhythm and Harmony. The rhythm section is not just there to accompany you and keep time. You will have to be able to communicate with them and know what they expect from you!
Bonus Point- Don’t learn FROM a teacher, learn WITH them. Make sure they deconstruct and simplify. Memorizing is useless, if you don’t apply it to solving problems. If you are learning to play by imitation, try to take chords, riffs and progressions apart. Most of the info on Music Theory a teacher gives you is available free on the web. Motivation, Visualization, Problem solving and Critical analysis are probably the most important things a teacher can help you with. These are things you can’t memorize or imitate.
Of coarse everyone starts off imitating someone. Eventually you will want to know why things sound the way they do and how do I control it? You will never sound like “you” until you can be specific about what you are doing. You don’t have to read Piano music to understand the simple math behind the Major scale! 2 +2+1+2+2+2+1 add up to 12.
Posted on November 8, 2011
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