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Guitar Lessons Greenville SC

Avoid This Most Costly of Mistakes

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by PMI Guitar Instructor Chad Crawford

Can I Help You?

Having played and taught guitar for many years now I have accumulated a great deal of insight into what works and what doesn’t, both in regards to teaching methods and the approaches students take to learning music. When I started out with teaching I had a number of concerns as to how effective I would be at communicating, what materials I would use, how to organize and present them, if my gruff personality was suitable for teaching, and so forth. I was mostly concerned with things about me. What I have found with experience is that the number one obstacle I face as a teacher is not about me at all. It is, rather, something that is unfortunately beyond my control. It is something in my prospects and clients, which I should have known from general life experience would be the case, as it always is with everything in human affairs: attitude.

The Singular Importance of Attitude

Probably the single most important thing I have learned in my decades of musical endeavor is that music is not just about technical matters pertaining to managing the fingers or voice effectively. Rather, it is mostly a matter of cultivating the mind, and that means among other things that a person’s overall attitude about life, work, and people is going to have a great deal of impact on his or her accomplishment as a musician. As with any “rule” there will certainly be notable exceptions, but they will be notable because they are exceptions. Mastery of things technical is certainly very important, but the foundation of it all is mental attitude. Can I help you? Well … it depends very much on your attitude. That terminology is often used in a way to imply contempt, as in “He has an attitude!” That’s not the way I am using it here. I don’t say it here with any kind of judgmental intent. It is just an objective fact. To illustrate, let’s look a bit at some examples of how attitude effects musical results.

Why Me? – In my initial consultations with prospects I always inquire as to their expectations regarding time frames, because I know there are many people who for whatever reason think that they should be able to play guitar like a professional after a few months of lessons. That was something that caught me off guard when I started teaching.  I started playing very young and have been around musicians all my life, and it being thought to be quick and easy was never a part of the picture for me or any other musician I knew.

Early on in teaching I observed that a lot of people had very little patience for the process. Some would even blame my teaching if they could not play like a pro in a matter of weeks, and then quit. Others would blame themselves for “lack of talent” and quit. In both cases they were suffering from the “Why Me” syndrome, an idea that the challenges they were facing were unique to them, and either insurmountable, or else some else’s fault – such as their teacher.  They were completely off base in both cases, because their expectations had no basis in reality. I couldn’t help them because they were evaluating their playing skills according to unrealistic criteria.

Learning guitar is challenging, and it takes time. The loftier the goal, the harder it is, and the longer it takes. That’s the way it is, despite common claims from some web marketers. There are shorter and longer paths, and a great teacher can cut years off the timeline, but it is still going to take substantial time, effort, and commitment. Beginners should be thinking in terms of years rather than weeks. There will be times of mind-numbing repetition accompanied by apparent stagnation, followed by a shift in fluency, or occasionally a major breakthrough when a number of hard-won gains come together at once. That’s normal. You can’t take the struggles personally, as if it is something unique to you. If you do give in to taking it personally, the bad news is that I can’t help you.

The good news is that if you’re willing to discipline yourself toward working your way through an ongoing process, and choose to stay focused on your goals rather than the barriers of the moment, then I can help you a great deal!

Why Not Me? – Despite my never ending studies of books, lesson videos, and previous private lessons with a number of teachers, I am ultimately responsible for my progress and competence as a musician. Some of my sources were fantastic, but I still had to do the work. Some of my sources were not so fantastic, but it was still my responsibility to improve my skills, even if that meant eventually moving on to another resource or teacher.

As do all good music teachers, I teach music principles and not just song transcriptions. I can’t show students every note to play for the rest of their lives. I teach them how to develop finger control and how to figure music out for themselves. I provide a number of resources outside of my private lessons, such as articles like this one, backing tracks, and a private bulletin board with additional third-party articles covering everything from theory to playing tips to gear. I provide group classes to allow my clients an opportunity for applying what they learn in private lessons to making real music in real time.

What I observe is that very few actually take full advantage of these things. Some do the minimum they can to fulfill the practice schedule I provide (or even less). Some do a little more than that. A few go after every learning outlet I point them to, and it is evident in the results. Those who utilize all the tools I provide, plus doing their own research and study in addition to my lessons, which I fully encourage, those are the students who achieve the fastest and most significant results.

I’m willing to help clients who fit any of the above descriptions, because people have jobs, school, and family obligations competing with their time for music. I well understand all that because I share in the same struggles. If you are truly doing all you can do, then that’s all you can do and I do not intend to beat you over the head about it. If that’s you then I encourage you to stick with it and be patient.

I know that many students of music, not only mine but in general, could do more and they simply choose not to. Some former students have blamed their frustration with slow progress or stagnation on me or my lessons. Sometimes they have let me know this in one way or another, either through direct challenges to my lesson materials or methods, or else in more subtle ways. I do what I can to steer them out of this kind of self-defeating thinking, but I can’t force anyone to learn guitar.  I am responsible for providing an effective course of instruction, encouragement, and accountability, but I cannot be responsible for results. Responsibility for results lies with the student.

I can’t help those who blame others or circumstances for their results rather than buckling down and doing the work. Whether you take lessons with me or attend Berklee for eight years, your progress and competence as a musician is ultimately up to you. If you allow yourself to side-step that responsibility, I can’t help you.  

If you will commit to learning guitar up front and then persevere through the process, following the instructions and taking every avenue and opportunity presented to you toward improvement, and taking full responsibility for your results, then I can help you a great deal!

It’s My Hands! – No it isn’t, unless you have health problems that constrain them. Your hands are incredibly capable, stunningly engineered grappling machines. Beyond your instinctive programming for certain basic movements, your fingers do exactly what you tell them to do. Technique then is the result of a process of training your mind. You may object that you know what you are trying to do but you can’t get your hands to do it. I assure you that though it may feel that way, it is not the case. When you play guitar your hands are doing exactly what the messages from your brain are telling them to do. They are not capable of doing anything else. If your messages are flawed your results will be flawed. You have to repair and refine the messages, and the way you do it is through programming correct messages into your brain’s muscle memory. This means repetition of the right movements. In contrast to a computer, programming the brain takes a lot of repetitions. A lot.

However, it also means this: the subtleties of good technique are in timing and dynamics. This comes more from general musical sensibilities rather than muscle memory. Musical sensibility is a product of a well-developed ear for pitch and time combined with an overall sensitivity to flows of tension and release. Musical fluency comes from knowing what will sound good before involving your fingers. This comes from studying the music that others have made, and from experience with applying a high level of sustained mental focus to practice and playing situations. That’s why it is important to analyze great music rather than just practicing rhythm and phrasing. Physical control is essential, but the target is what you have programmed into your musical sensibilities from analyzing the masters. If you have no clear target then you will not shoot straight. So you must understand that the battleground for progress as a musician is in your mind, not your hands!  If you are committed to thinking your musical limitations are in your fingers, I’m sorry to say I can’t help you.

If you will embrace music as a whole body-mind phenomenon rather than just finger gymnastics, then I can help you a great deal!

It’s My Genes! – I started my musical journey playing bluegrass rhythm guitar with a family ensemble. I enjoyed bluegrass music and still do, but the first time I heard Eddie Van Halen’s monster guitar solo ‘Eruption’, I was bound for new pastures. I also quickly realized I had no idea how to extract any sounds like that from the guitar. At the time there was no Internet, so I didn’t have convenient access to virtually unlimited resources to explain how he was doing this stuff. I didn’t even know what “tapping” was. I quickly concluded that he was some kind of musical freak show and that his sort of playing was not accessible to me.

How I wish I would have had someone to explain things to me then! First of all it would have been helpful to know that Eddie Van Halen came from a family of musicians where he was vigorously encouraged, and even compelled against his will, to learn music from an early age. He was forced into piano lessons very young, then experimented with drums a bit before picking up guitar. It would also have been helpful to me to know that his signature tapping technique was stolen. Yes. Stolen! Like all guitarists, he did not just make up a new style of guitar playing that no one had ever heard of. He picked up the tapping technique from observing many guitarists who went before him, then developed it and put his own twist on it. It would also have been helpful to me to know that he developed his chops in a small-scale cover band before anybody knew he was a big deal, and also that he learned much from transcribing Eric Clapton songs by ear. The fact that he could do that in his teens had a lot to do with the early piano and drum experience.

If I had known all that then I would have also known that it had little to do with “natural talent”, but rather had a lot to do with POW – “plain ol’ work”. Then I would not have been inclined to give up so readily when I ran into difficulties learning my favorite songs, letting myself off the hook with the excuse, “I just don’t have that level of talent”. If I had just known that Eddie Van Halen also had to work at it for a long time, just that one little bit of information would have totally changed my approach to learning guitar and I would have become a much better musician much earlier in life.

Do you think that musical skill is reserved for the gifted few? If you do, and if I can’t talk you off of that motivation-killer, then you will not persist through the challenging times when your hands and memory seem to be defying your best efforts, and so, as much as I want to … I can’t help you.

If you will accept the fact that music skills are the result of persistent effort, and you will commit up front to doing the work until you get the results you seek, then I can help you a great deal!

Show me the Magic! – I see a lot of Internet advertising for guitar training featuring the appeal to the quick fix. There are two basic types: (1) “Click for the secret of instant guitar Ninja!”, and (2) “Play great guitar with just a few notes!” The first type is snake oil rubbish. The second type is technically true. There is a catch. You can indeed mine a lot of good phrases out of just a handful of notes, and will do well to learn how, especially for hobbyists with limited time for scale practice. If you do not also command finesse in pick attack, dynamics, bending, vibrato, tone, and rhythmic sensibility then the few-note phrases will sound like a hack slaughtering half of a scale.

The reason people publish these kinds of advertisements is because they work. It is standard marketing practice because it is more effective than laying out the cold facts about work and perseverance, hooking the attention of well-intended but uninformed, frustrated guitarists. Nor do I wish to come across as trashing all Internet marketers. Sometimes a perfectly legitimate service provider will utilize these kind of marketing gimmicks, not intending to defraud but rather hoping to grab the attention with the neon light of the quick fix offer. Then they divert toward a more substantial product. Between the snake oil and the legitimate providers forced to compete with snake oil for attention, I have prospects coming to me with expectations, sown by these prolific ads, that I will show them the “tricks” for rapid fluency.

I meet with all prospective clients for an initial consultation. One thing I am looking to communicate is that I do not deal in the music marketing crack cocaine of the quick fix offer. If they do decide to enroll they know that they are in for a long term process. I continue in the lessons to reinforce the idea that learning music is a long term endeavor. Despite all this pointed effort to clearly set myself apart from snake oil vendors, I still occasionally run up against the call for the quick fix even among my enrolled clients.

A passionate teacher with an organized program of effective learning materials and methods, combined with routine adherence to an effective practice schedule, is the shortest path to musical fluency. There is no magic. There are no tricks. There is no one isolated piece of knowledge or technique insight that is going to suddenly make a radical change to one’s musical ability. It is a process of cultivating mastery of bits and pieces over time. I don’t want clients who are looking for snake oil. It is not because I am mean, it is just that I already know it is going to be a bad experience for both of us. I can’t help those who are looking for magic.

If you’re willing to discipline yourself to working through a proven process which will deliver real results much faster than going it on your own, then I can help you a great deal!

My Way or the Highway!  – Having been around the music scene for many years now, I have observed much in terms of how human relations affects the process of learning and performing music. I have seen guitar players play way too loud, way too long, or just plain badly because they have not done their homework. I have seen drummers play so loud that it caused literal pain in other band members. I have seen bass players go off on a disruptive, meandering excursion into jazz fusion when all that was called for was a simple walking pentatonic. I have seen people who thought they were above rehearsal. I’ve seen folks rationalize mediocrity by citing the legitimate dangers of “perfectionism”, but by which they actually meant “me having to do anything that resembles work”. I have seen people who would make a commitment to be somewhere at a certain time, having no intention of fulfilling that commitment, and didn’t care about the impact this had on other band members. I have seen bands revel in silly pride over playing way too loud for the venue. I have seen sound techs who would not trouble themselves to really learn sound management, and so make an otherwise solid band sound like hacks due to a poor mix.

I have seen music teachers who had no real interest in teaching, nor interest in their clients beyond a check, nor anything close to an organized teaching system. I have seen music students who were chronically inattentive, and some who felt no obligation to treat their teacher as a person rather than just an information source. I have seen some who were combative about tuition, and some who didn’t have enough class to notify that they were going to miss a lesson. (As a matter of policy I do not allow these things to go unchecked in my school. If they persist then I decline further lessons.)

All of these troublesome things are symptoms of one underlying problem that is often the root of social tension: failure to practice respect for others.

It is important to recognize that both music training and performing are team endeavors. If you are playing with a band then the team is everyone in the band plus the management. You may not have thought about the team as it applies to other common aspects of musical endeavors. If you are playing with a band in a commercial music venue then the team is not just your band but also the sound tech and staff of the venue. If you are playing solo acoustic/vocal in a coffee shop then the team is you and the coffee shop’s staff. If you are working with a teacher then the team is you and the teacher, or the group and the teacher if you are learning in a group setting. As with all successful team endeavors it requires that everyone submit to a bit of restraint for the team’s success. This is called a win-win deal. It is very important to your success with and enjoyment of music that you strive to cultivate win-win deals with others who are likewise inclined.

There is a simple rule of thumb that will help anyone to cultivate win-win deals: don’t be a jerk, and don’t stick yourself in the mud trying to coax a win-win deal from a jerk.

Here are some of the ways I avoid being a jerk and instead demonstrate respect for my prospects:

I don’t try to entice folks into my programs when I know they want to play in styles that I am not fluent in, and interested in sufficiently, to stay passionate about their ongoing training. I do not proffer marketing claims that I cannot back up with substance, nor otherwise mislead as to what folks can expect from me. I do not allow clients to enroll in my programs without making an effort to communicate to them clearly up front what they are getting into in terms of the commitment required, and how long it will take to reach their goals.

Here are some of the ways I avoid being a jerk and instead demonstrate respect for my clients:

I do not wing it. I utilize an organized course based on personal experience, music teacher training, and countless hours of ongoing study as to what is relevant and effective. I set meaningful goals for the students and carefully track progress. I don’t waste time with gimmicks, filler, or otherwise try to drag the training out needlessly toward retaining revenue for which I am not providing real value. I do not stick clients into a creepy closet with me where they can barely move, nor drag little kids off to a concealed room where their parents can’t see what is going on. I don’t show up to lessons looking like a “rocker” stereotype who just crawled out of the dumpster behind the studio after a week of binge drinking. I avoid phone interaction as much as possible during lessons, and on the rare occasions when it is unavoidable I make it very brief. I don’t take up instruction time indulging my own playing beyond what is necessary for illustration purposes. I don’t allow clients to steer the lessons in directions that I know lead to a dead end, but rather try to balance their immediate interests with my larger view of what they need to reach their goals. I continually research and accordingly update my materials and methods, never letting up on improving my effectiveness.

I could continue, but for brevity’s sake I will stop there and hope I have illustrated that I take my obligations to my customers seriously. I want to enjoy the lessons and I need to make a living, but I put my clients’ results and enjoyment equal to my own interests. I also insist on respect from my clients in return, not only for fairness’ sake but because students get better results from a teacher they respect.

What does all this have to do with the practical realities of making music? It has everything to do with it. If you want to do something with music besides practice in your bedroom all the time then it is good policy to treat others with respect, and accept nothing less in return. If you are working with a teacher or plan to work with a teacher, consider first that the teacher demonstrates respect for clients in ways such as I have mentioned above. Demonstrating respect for your teacher will go a long way in your getting the best effort from your teacher, and consequently the best results for yourself.

I think it was Zig Ziglar who said, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude!” I’ve seen it often, and I’ve heard it from other teachers and coaches. In most cases a student with average or even below average talent, working with an average teacher, but with a good overall attitude, will in the long run surpass a more inherently capable student who is working with an outstanding teacher, but harboring some variation of self-defeating attitude. Can I help you? Maybe … depends on your attitude. Attitude is the foundation of success, and it is a choice.

In part two of this series next month we will take a closer look at how attitude affects the more technical aspects of developing musical skills.

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved

A Secret of Success

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By Chad Crawford

Catchy title, eh? Notice I said, “A secret”, as opposed to “THE secret”. The truth is, there are many elements that contribute to success in any endeavor. They are not really secrets either, they just seem that way to people who have not perceived them yet. We are going to discuss one “secret” in this article that will be of great value to you as you strive to improve your guitar skills. This will also apply to about anything else you do in life.

I am going to guess that when you saw the title of the article you might have been expecting I was going to provide some kind of short cut that would make it easy to improve your guitar skills in a very short time. Did you? Well, sorry about that. No such luck. Unfortunately, there are no easy ways to become a musician. There are only more effective and less effective methods.

If you want a straightforward bottom line about becoming a competent musician, the key concept is WORK. If you are one of these who has believed that it is all about “natural talent” I hope that I can dissuade you of that view. I won’t go deep into that topic in this article, but if you want to check it out for yourself you can do some research on some of your favorite musicians and how they got to be great.

If you have been a human being long enough then you have probably figured something out: we don’t like work much. Work is hard and boring. We would much rather play, right? As humans we all have an inherent aversion to work known as LAZINESS. If there is any one thing that is most likely to derail your musical aspirations it is laziness. Laziness manifests in many forms, some very obvious and some not so obvious. The obvious ones are such as this, “I would rather watch TV than practice guitar exercises”.  The more insidious ones might be along these lines, “I need to practice my harmonic minor scales, but it is more gratifying to just blast away on the Pentatonic Minor I already know, so I will do that for 30 minutes and practice Harmonic Minor for 2 minutes.” Or maybe this, “I know I need to follow my practice schedule but I will ‘warm up’ with my favorite songs first and then work on my practice schedule.” 45 minutes later … you know the routine. Another one, “It seems to me that I can get this piece played easier using my ‘natural’ technique rather than following my evil teacher’s more challenging technique recommendation which requires me to concentrate.” Yet again, “I know I am supposed to repeat this slowly and methodically, but I am going to disregard that and play it as fast as possible and hope that will work better today, even though I know it never has worked better.” The biggest killer of all, “I’m really busy today and one practice session won’t make a difference anyway.” Or how about this, “I really need to practice, but I will instead waste two hours having supper and spending quality time with my family”.

Ok, maybe that last one is a bit too extreme for you who are not REALLY committed just yet! Don’t worry, you don’t have to be that radical to get pretty good on the guitar. The point is that laziness is a deadly enemy to progress. It comes out in many ways and is always on your shoulder, whispering to you – take it easy, go the easier route, find a less challenging way to do this, take a short cut, if I had any talent this would not be hard so I might as well give up, etc. We must overcome this if we are to succeed. So, you might be thinking the answer is discipline, right? Well, yes. However, laziness is a powerful and deceptive internal adversary, and the truth is that most of us do not have the wits or the kind of internal discipline we need to overcome it – by ourselves.

And there in that last phrase is an age-old, very powerful secret of success, utilized by nations, armies, corporate leaders, athletic coaches, and other kinds of team leaders across times, places, and cultures. It is powerful enough to squash the roaring demon of laziness into a pile of goo.

Do you see it yet?

Imagine this. You are on the football team and the coach passes out a sheet at the beginning of the week. On the sheet is the list of all the agonizing physical torture he wants you to inflict on yourself this week. Since he knows you have self-discipline he trusts you to see to this, meeting adjourned, see you next week. You go home and look over the list while you are watching TV and eating donuts. If you are especially self-disciplined you might even memorize the contents of the list. You may even go out and run a half mile until you get winded and it starts hurting your legs. Then you give up. After all it is 90 degrees outside and this is boring, and besides who will know or care if you cheat?

Do you think a football team would get very far with this approach to preparation?  No, of course not. That is why you are going to stay at the field with all the rest of the team and torture yourself under the observation of the coach and the peer pressure of the rest of the team.

Hopefully by now you are seeing the principle that I am getting at, but if not, I will spell it out plainly here. The “secret” I am speaking of is COMMUNITY. You may hear it called teamwork or work group or network or some other name, but the basic concept is the same – the most effective way to combat laziness is to be part of a social network where you are inherently held accountable for the results of your work. Inclusion in a social network will provide negative feedback in the form of embarrassment if you fail to perform, and positive feedback in the form of praise and respect when you do perform. In addition, we all tend to have a competitive instinct such that we will almost automatically try to outdo the people around us. Furthermore, we have an internal mechanism that feels obligation to meet the expectations of our friends. And again, it is built into us to derive great satisfaction from being part of a special group defined by our unique successes. So we have all these very powerful motivators sitting inside us, ready to do battle on our behalf against our arch-enemy laziness. These are the same motivators that have brought victory to armies, athletic teams, companies, the list goes on and on. These motivators are inert until exposed to a group environment, then they rise up and start kicking down walls!

So you have something to do here. You have all this potential power inside, but it is up to you to get it activated. How do you do this? Well, you need to get involved with other musicians. Taking lessons is a great step in the right direction. Tell your family and friends that you are learning to play guitar and you are serious about it and you will not accept less of yourself than success. Try to get a friendly hobby band together if possible, or just hang out and jam as much as you can with other friends who are musicians. If you are in church you can see if they will let you join as a future back-up musician while you are learning, then you sit in on the weekly practice and try to play along. Get involved with a local musical fellowship through MeetUp.com. There are a hundred ways, but you need to do something to get yourself involved in some kind of group setting.

For my actively enrolled students I offer group classes. Get involved! You have to get known in an environment where people are doing the same thing you are doing. You must engage in friendly competition with people at your same level (you do not have to state this, it will happen automatically. I do not recommend telling people you want to compete with them unless you know them really well!) You have to let people know what your goals are and what you are doing to get there. You must show interest in their goals and progress and thus build mutual respect and goodwill. It will come back to you many times over.

This attachment to a group is CRITICAL, I cannot over-emphasize this. It will keep you going through the many times when the path of progress takes you through spots that are tedious and frustrating. If you decline to get involved socially this way then your chances of succeeding are greatly reduced. Contrarily, when you do connect with a group of musical peers you will not only achieve more but will also enjoy music much more. After all, music is a form of communication. It is rather pointless if you do not share it with others!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Demystifying Guitar Amplifiers

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Guitar amplifiers come in many brands, shapes, sizes, power levels, and with varying features. If you are new to guitar or even somewhat experienced, you may be overwhelmed by all the options. Here I will seek to organize your choices into categories that you can understand, so you can zero in on just the right amplifier for your needs.

 

We will start with a bit of general knowledge of guitar amplification. The wonderful sound that comes out of your amplifier begins with a tiny electromagnetic impulse in your guitar’s pick up coil(s). This tiny, constantly varying impulse imposes an electronic signal at the guitar’s output port which travels along the cord into your amplifier. The amplifier receives this signal and sends it through several stages of amplification to produce a signal powerful enough to drive your speaker(s).

The amplifier will typically consist of two overall stages of amplification: pre-amp, and power amp. The pre-amp stage is the one that receives the input from your guitar and processes it into a larger signal with tone alterations for presentation to the power amp stage. The pre-amp is where the amplifier allows you to alter specific tonal features such as bass, mid range, and treble, as well as apply built-in effects such as distortion (a.k.a. gain) and reverb.

The job of the power amp stage is to pick up the output signal from the pre-amp and magnify it up to a power level sufficient to drive your speakers via an output transformer. The purpose of the output transformer is to match the electromagnetic characteristics (impedance) of your amplifier’s power stage to the electromagnetic characteristics of your speaker(s), so that the amplifier will couple the maximum amount of available power to the speakers.

On some more elaborate amplifiers you may be able to pick off the signal at various stages of amplification for additional processing and/or routing. Many amplifiers have an effects loop which will allow you to insert patch cords that will route the signal to an external effects processor and then back into your amp. Some amps also have a patch port between the pre-amp stage and the power amp stage that allows you to completely separate the two stages. This would allow you for instance to use the pre-amp stage from one amp to provide a signal to the power stage of another amp.

Combo vs. Head/Cabinet

Guitar amps come in two basic physical configurations: combo and head/cabinet. A combo (short for combination) amp has the electronic circuitry and the speaker(s) all in one convenient box. Alternatively, you may wish to keep your amplifier itself separate from the speakers so that you have tonal options by matching up different amplifiers and speakers. In this case you would want the amplifier in a box by itself. We call these amp-only boxes amplifier heads, or head for short. So we attach the head via a speaker cable to a separate box that has only a speaker or multiple speakers. This is why many amp heads have several speaker output ports, so that you can use the head to drive speaker cabinets of varying impedance.

The most popular head/cabinet arrangement you should understand is the half-stack. The half stack is a head sitting on top of a large speaker cabinet with typically four speakers, usually 12 inch diameter speakers. The name half stack is a derivative of the stack, an amp with one head sitting atop two speaker cabinets with four speakers each. Hence the name stack – it is literally a stack of big boxes. A stack is a big, heavy, and loud amplifier arrangement that is only needed for the largest of venues, either a large arena or outdoors. A half stack, while still bulky and loud, is more manageable and thus is suitable for a wider variety of venues.

The combo amp may contain one speaker of sizes from 4 inch up to 12 inch. Some combos contain two twelve inch speakers, and some contain four ten inch speakers. More speakers means more power, and also more bass response. My rule of thumb … for good tone I recommend if the combo amp has only one speaker to stick with amps that have a 12 inch speaker, with the exception for the combos with four 10 inch speakers such as the Fender Super Reverb.

Take note of this: you do not need a half stack to achieve high volume levels. A good quality combo with two 12 inch speakers will produce volumes comparable to a half stack of similar power. For large live venues the sound that the audience hears is coming through the much louder P.A. system anyway, via a microphone on the guitar amp speaker. I have played outdoor venues with a combo with only one 12 inch speaker miced to the PA, and it sounds plenty loud. The reason I need a half stack for some situations is mostly so I can hear my guitar on stage over the drums, plus I prefer the more robust bass response of a 4×12 cabinet. In one instance I attended a jam session with my 80 watt combo with one twelve inch speaker along with another guitarist with a 50 watt Marshall half stack. Although he had more bass response with his 4×12 speaker cabinet I had no problem matching the Marshall’s volume with my little 1×12 combo, with volume to spare.

Tube vs. Solid State

Guitar amplifiers come in two primary electronic platforms: tube and solid state. You need not be an electronics guru to understand the critical difference: sound quality. Solid state amps use modern electronic transistors to amplify your guitar signal, while tube amps use the older vacuum tubes for signal magnification. Solid state amps are typically very rugged and reliable, and they are usually less expensive than a tube amp with comparable power and features. Tube amps are relatively fragile, expensive, and require more maintenance. So why do the majority of accomplished guitarists prefer tube amps? It is because of the additional characteristics that tubes add to the signal, which produces a certain quality of sound (tone) that guitarists prefer. Tubes add harmonics and compression in a way that solid state amps thus far have not been able to match, so guitarists stick with the traditional and outdated technology because the sound results produced by tubes is more attractive than the price and reliability advantages of the solid state amps.

It is important to note here that you need not purchase an expensive tube amp for practicing in your bedroom at low volumes. The advantages of a tube sound do not really show themselves at very low volumes, so there is no sense in spending the money and dealing with the maintenance hassles on a tube amp unless you are going to play with a group and in an environment that allows you to turn up. Solid state amps can produce very good clean tones and decent distortion tones, so they are fine for learning guitar,  routine practice, and playing small low-volume venues with cleaner guitar tones (although I prefer a tube amp for any kind of live performance).

Fender vs. Marshall Tone

There are two basic guitar amplifier architectures on the market, both based on amps designed around specific power stage tubes. One is the Fender sound which is a clean tone based on the 6L6 tube. The Fender amps are coveted for pristine clean tones at higher volumes (a.k.a headroom – the amount of volume an amp can produce before distorting). The Fender sound is great for Blues, Jazz, and Country styles. The Marshall amps are based on the EL34 tube which produces a desirable distortion or break-up at moderate volume levels. This makes them desirable for any kind of guitar music that features distortion, such as rock or metal. Since most guitarists use additional effects pedals to add various effects, there is some overlap between these tones. Most tube amps on the market today are some kind of imitation or derivative of the Fender or Marshall amps. Another popular tone is the EL84 tube tone associated with the classic VOX amps and often used on lower power tube amps. The EL84 tone has a sharp bright treble response and less bass response than the physically larger 6L6 and EL34 tubes.

If you want to know whether your amp is a Fender or Marshall type of amp, just check the power tubes. However, every amp consists of many components and built-in tone coloring characteristics, so you will not be able to know for sure what an amp sounds like without actually playing through it. There are many good quality amps on the market today besides Fender and Marshall. Let your ears be the judge. I prefer the tone of a Marshall, although I have heard great sounding tones coming from many other amps.

Amp Simulators

Modern computer technology has brought us guitarists the ability to include computers in our arsenal of music making tools. Popular simulators such as Guitar Port, Amplitube, and Guitar Rig allow us to plug our guitar into our computers via an interface box and play through the computer. This is a great tool for practicing, as the simulation software will allow us to mimic a wide variety of tones from different iconic amplifiers and effects, all with just a few clicks of a mouse. For practicing guitar and learning about various amps and effects, this is the best thing that has happened to guitarist in decades. These simulators, in conjunction with other computer programs, also allow for pro-quality recording of your playing right in your bedroom, at volumes that will not disturb your neighbors or even the people in the next room.  Assuming you already have a computer, these simulators are not nearly as expensive as a real guitar amp of good quality, so I highly recommend a simulator program for those new to electric guitar. After spending some time with a simulator you will have a better idea of the tone variation among the popular amps, so you will have a better sense of what you are looking for when you go to invest in a real amp.

Miscellaneous Considerations …

Guitar amps often have multiple channels to allow you varying tonal options from the same amp, from pristine clean to raucous distortion. In addition, each of these channels will usually have separate volume controls and maybe even separate input (gain) and output volume controls. Finally there will be one master volume control that controls the final output volume of the amp regardless of which channel you select. It is important to understand that there is a significant difference in volume from your guitar when you are playing rhythm versus solo. The multiple channels allow you to change for instance from a clean or slightly distorted tone for chords, to the richer harmonic content and increased sustain of distortion for playing individual notes of a solo. You will lose a significant amount of volume from the guitar when you change from playing chords to playing individual notes, such that if you set your amp up during sound check to match the band volume when you are playing chords, when you go to play solo at the same volume you will be drowned by the band. So you must set the volume on your solo channel significantly higher than that of your rhythm channel.

 

It is important to note that the amp tone will change drastically as you increase the volume. For instance, at low volumes the bass response will be weak so that you have to turn the amp up to get a balanced sound across the frequency spectrum. The electronic components will affect the tone to different degrees at different power levels. Power tubes deliver a certain coveted distortion that only appears when the tube is pushed to higher power levels. Speakers have a certain inherent stiffness so that they will only yield their best tones when pushed into lively motion to a certain degree (speaker excursion). Altogether, what this means is that the best electric guitar tones often come at the price of higher volumes. It is a never ending quest for guitarists to coax a good tone from our electric guitar amps at lower volumes, especially with distorted tones. It can be done, but it will take some time and effort learning how to tweak your amp.

Any given guitar amp is going to produce a wide variety of tonal qualities based on the options available on the amp, the guitar and effects plugged into the amp, and importantly the playing characteristics of the player playing through the amp. Pros often have their amps modified away from the manufacturer designs. So just because a certain guitarist you enjoy uses a certain kind of amp, that does not necessarily mean you will be able to reproduce their tone easily by purchasing the same amp. Before you rush out and buy the same amp as your guitar hero, be sure you play through a number of amps first. It may be that you will find your preferred tone coming from a box that you wouldn’t have expected.

Nature Vs. Nurture: The Secret to Overcoming Fatal Guitar Technique Flaws

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After a decade of teaching guitar and interacting with other teachers and many clients, I can make a number of predictions on what any aspiring guitarist will struggle with and how the various responses to these stumbling blocks will either help or hinder progress.  The guitar is a challenging instrument, and there are any number of areas where one might encounter a temporary roadblock. Of these typical areas, there is one I have enumerated in my previous “Top Ten” article that stands out above all others as the number one barrier to progress: not following the instructions.

Allow me to clarify this concept since the phrase alone may seem too broad and actually contrary to your experience. I doubt you have ever openly refused to learn a particular chord, for example, or a basic scale pattern. This is not the sort of thing I mean when I suggest that a significant percentage of guitar students often stumble in implementing course recommendations. It is not a matter of people intentionally side-stepping the instructions. Rather it is that certain aspects of optimum physical technique run contrary to our instincts. Most students tackling a challenge in physical technique tend to unconsciously default back to instincts rather than consistently apply good technique recommendations. For the record, I am guilty of this as much as anyone, although I have improved significantly over the years in applying what the guitarist community has found to be the most effective technique development methods.

Now let me narrow this down to the specifics items that I see over and over. If any of these seem to apply to you, keep in mind that I am not writing about any specific person or experience, but rather my collective experience as a guitar student and teacher. I assure you that although some of these may apply to you, they are universal themes in the guitar community, so don’t feel like I’m singling you out to give you a hard time!

  1. Tickle the strings rather than tackle them.
  2. For playing open or bar chord rhythms, use a wide, fast, and light-contact pick stroke.
  3. For playing individual notes or two-string intervals (fifth chords, double stops) keep the pick hand palm turned into the guitar so that the pick moves parallel to the plane of the strings with a mere flick of the wrist.
  4. Apply no more pressure to the strings/frets than necessary to sound out a clear note.
  5. Avoid grasping the guitar neck with the palm and thumb as if it were a baseball bat.
  6. Use your elbow to change the working range of your pick – not your wrist or your shoulder.
  7. When changing to an upcoming chord, avoid chopping off the last beat of the previous chord by releasing pressure too early.
  8. Unless you are practicing certain exercises specifically intended to develop speed, do not practice at a tempo faster than you can play with good note articulation and two-hand synchronization.
  9. When learning a new rhythm pattern, go slow and consciously count the beats and divisions of the beats, rather than trying to play the rhythm by “feel”. Once you have conscious mastery of the pattern only then should you work on keeping time by feel.

If you have taken lessons with me for any length of time, you will know that I teach these things routinely, so you may wonder why I am taking up a Newsletter column with this routine lesson fare. There is a reason I am emphasizing these things for you: between knowing good technique and doing good technique, there is a subconscious barrier that we all struggle with: instinct. As your teacher, one of the most significant challenges I face in helping you develop your skills is your own instincts. Your basic instincts tend toward moving the fingers as a unit, favoring the index finger, using much more strength than is necessary, and handling the pick as if it is a plow. Your secondary instinct is to do just the opposite of this. For example, when attempting to play scales for the first time, you will note that your fingers want to stay together and mute the string you are trying to pick, so you will then pull your other fingers way back from the fretboard. Then you have to slam the next finger down like a dive bomber in order to stay in time on the next note. This causes subtle delays that cap your top speed at limits far below your potential.

The first step in conquering this barrier is to be aware of these instinctive actions and over-reactions, so that you can be ready to spot them and counter with deliberate focused repetition of a balanced, optimum technique method that cooperates as far as possible with your natural physiology. Then, apply focused attention to repetitions of good technique. Repetition of good technique results in habits, such that good technique becomes increasingly automatic, enabling to you to move between chords and notes accurately with little conscious effort.

Here is where the process breaks down: the focused repetition of good technique, and namely, the focus part. Your hands will constantly try to resort back to instinctive positions and motions, even though your conscious mind is well aware of these issues. You must pay close attention to these details of technique when you practice. This can be tedious at times, but the pay off is more than worth the effort!

Can I Help You? – Part II

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In part I of this two-part series we considered some generalities of how an aspiring musician’s overall attitudes about work and people affect musical accomplishment. In this part we will consider how attitude more specifically affects the technical details of cultivating music skills.

Review from Part I … (hint – I am reviewing this section because it is very important!)

The Singular Importance of Attitude

Probably the single most important thing I have learned in my decades of musical endeavor is that music is not just about technical matters pertaining to managing the fingers or voice effectively. Rather, it is mostly a matter of cultivating the mind, and that means among other things that a person’s overall attitude about life, work, and people is going to have a great deal of impact on his or her accomplishment as a musician. As with any “rule” there will certainly be notable exceptions, but they will be notable because they are exceptions. Mastery of things technical is certainly very important, but the foundation of it all is mental attitude. Can I help you? Well … it depends very much on your attitude. That terminology is often used in a way to imply contempt, as in “He has an attitude!” That’s not the way I am using it here. I don’t say it with any kind of judgmental intent. It is just an objective fact. Let’s look a bit at some examples of how attitude effects musical results.

Now, on to Part II proper …

Give Me the Giggles! – I have observed many instances, particularly with kids and their parents, of music students or prospects who approach learning music purely as entertainment, similar to sports. Professional athletes must of course work hard for many years to achieve a world class level of performance. However, much of the fun of sports for kids is simply running around excitedly on a field or court. A coach can train a kid in the basic rudiments of a sport within minutes and the kids can begin to enjoy the fundamental physical activity of the sport immediately, even if they are actually comically terrible at it in the beginning.

This is not so with music. While making music can and should ultimately be a very satisfying experience, reaching this level of musicianship is a process more along the lines of learning math, science, or language. No one expects to start a science class and be a functioning research scientist before completing the first class. For whatever reason, many people who have an interest in music lessons, and this is the worst with guitar in particular, seem to have some idea that it is something along the lines of an alternative to sports or watching TV, something that is purely a form of entertainment. I suppose this has something to do with so much of the advertising for guitar training that appeals to the quick fix – click here, or come take my lessons, and you will be playing your favorite songs immediately!

Let me be clear here that I am not suggesting it isn’t possible to learn to play some great music without submitting to twelve years of education. That would be one extreme. I am addressing the other extreme, where the prospect or client feels that the whole process should be an experience similar to sports – giggles out of the gate, with the real work required only for the elite. Well, it isn’t. For a typical hobbyist level musician with a good work ethic and a good teacher, pursuing fluency in popular music styles, it is going to be a multi-year process to get to a point of functioning predictably and comfortably in a group playing setting such as a band or open jam session. Up until that point, it is going to be like school. Go to class. Do homework. Repeat. When you get through first grade, then you go to second grade. There is no way to jump from day one to diploma, or third grade to eighth grade. It is a process consisting of many small steps, and if anyone is telling you otherwise, be sure to keep an eye on your wallet until you get clear of them, because they know better and they are only after your money.

If you are looking for giggles out of the gate, I can’t help you. If, on the other hand, you are willing to approach learning music as an educational endeavor with great rewards on the far end of some work, then I can help you a great deal!

I Can’t! – Yes you can, if you are willing to persist in an informed approach to working at it. There is no “I can’t”. There is only, “I haven’t yet”. Students of guitar all experience the same struggles with finger control, comprehension, and confusing the two issues. For instance, chord changing exercises can be quite frustrating in the beginning, and many feel that they will never be able to accurately and rapidly place fingers in the correct location fast enough to keep up with the rhythm. This is simply an illusion, arising from unrealistic expectations. Fluent chord changing requires a well-developed muscle memory for each chord, and that means lots of repetition over time. It is a process, and the desired results are inevitable.

Similarly, when I introduce students to the concept of resolving solo phrases to target scale notes, it is universal for students to struggle with tracking the chord changes while also trying to remember finger placements. With the introduction of each new level of complexity as we move through alternate resolving notes and various positions along the fretboard, it is a recurring struggle to get one’s mind and hands around the ability to accurately place the right note at the right time. This does not mean anything is wrong or that you have no talent. It is just something that you have to work at until you have cultivated the totality of it into your thinking, and then it will work.

Let me share with you an example of a common experience I observe in teaching. I was once teaching a teenage a girl who was struggling with her chord changes. She came in for her lesson one week and went through the exercises. She kept fumbling the chords, but I knew she had been working with them long enough to get them right. So we kept going over them with me leading her through a series of steps to get her reservations out of the way and let her muscle memory take over. Toward the end of the class she started playing through the exercises smoothly, to her great amazement and delight. However, what I remember most is the look of surprised understanding on her face when I pointed out to her that she was able to do those exercises well when she walked in the door that day. The only thing that was preventing her from peak performance was that her mind was closed to the possibility that she could do them well, and so she had been unconsciously choosing to perform habitually sub-par chord changes in fulfillment of her expectations.

Do you see how important attitude is? You can literally prevent yourself from doing something that you are in fact presently capable of doing, by convincing yourself that are not able to do it! This is what performance coaches mean when they speak of believing in yourself.  It does not mean some kind of voodoo such that you can wishful think yourself into doing something that you can’t actually do. Rather, it means you choose to be confident in your potential to do a thing, and you cling to that belief tenaciously through the struggles of the building process until the work finally delivers the desired results. It is not magic. You still have to do the work. But you can do the work and still suffer less than desired results due to a self-defeating, “I Can’t!” attitude.

Besides talking yourself out of doing something that you can actually do, an “I can’t!” attitude will also give you an easy escape when you are faced with some work. It is an unfortunate fact that all of us human beings are inherently lazy, and we will jump on any excuse that presents itself to get out of doing some work. If you can convince yourself that you can’t, well then there is no point doing all that work, is there? I can’t, so I won’t try, and then I won’t be able, and that will prove that I couldn’t, and then I can watch TV and eat marshmallows instead. See how that works?

Are you inclined toward believing that lying internal voice that whispers, “I can’t!” Well, if you do give in to that suggestion, then you will choose to make it so, and then I can’t help you. If you will instead choose to believe, “I can!” regardless of the struggles of the moment, then I can help you a great deal!

When Does it End! – I get all manner of people with all kinds of ideas about music coming to me for lessons. I conduct pre-enrollment interviews with all prospects for a number of reasons, one of which is to identify what they may be thinking in regards to how long it takes to learn music. The answer will vary a great deal depending on goals, but some folks have really unrealistic ideas such as a few weeks or a few months. I never let these folks enroll thinking it is going to be a few weeks or months. Some of them do not enroll, either because they think I don’t know what I am talking about, or else they are just not willing to commit a realistic amount of time to it.

Then I have prospects who enroll and get started. Some of them come in with a great attitude driven by a passion for music, and they stay enrolled for multiple years and become potent musicians. Others stay for a few weeks or months until they realize I wasn’t exaggerating about the commitment required, then they give up and quit. Unfortunately those folks are a lost cause before they even start, not because of their inherent potential but rather because of their attitude.

Then there is the mid-range group. They get off to a good start and make rapid progress, but then get bogged down somewhere between six months and a year. They may continue with lessons, but they get stuck at a certain level, often with learning improvisational soloing. This is where the weight of a self-defeating attitude begins to take its toll. They fall into a habitual routine of practicing the same mistakes over and over rather than truly applying intense focus to solving problems, and then they get stuck. It feels to them as if they have reached a limit they can’t pass, then they either resign themselves to current limits, or else give in to frustration and quit.

This is where attitude becomes the critical factor in success. When you reach that point where you feel you are stuck, you can do one of three things. Quit, keep doing what got you stuck, or do something different that delivers better results. I can tell you from much experience that the thing you need to do different is to focus more closely on the details of the specific problem you are having, rather than simply practicing the same mistake over and over and hoping it will resolve itself. I can also tell you from experience that most folks won’t do the extra work most of the time. They will instead either go on repeating the mistake or else give up.

When does it end? When you choose to focus intently on correcting the details, conquering the problem instead of letting it conquer you. If you choose to give up, or try to side-step the work necessary to succeed, then I can’t help you. If you love music enough to commit up front to working at it until you can do it well, then I can help you a great deal!

The Grass is Greener Over There! – Question: “When do I get to stop practicing all the time and just enjoy playing?” Answer: “The instant that you stop thinking in terms that ‘real music’ is limited to stuff that you can’t already do.” Music has been around since the dawn of time. You are not ever going to run out of “stuff that you can’t already do”. If you learned every song that has been played in the history of Western civilization, then you would have just got started with the possibilities. There is always going to be some new hill to climb. You will never get past needing to practice, if for no other reason than to maintain your technique. However, this does not mean that you are not in fact a capable musician. The first time a student plays through my first exercise, they are in fact making real music. Consider that if you know your open position major and minor chords, power chords, and command basic rhythm skills, then you can play literally thousands of popular songs. Maybe tens of thousands. But for some folks, they tend to set the bar of “real music” or “good music” so arbitrarily high that they can’t ever just relax and enjoy what they can already do, even if it is songs that are literally million-sellers.

Here’s the hidden source of this attitude problem: vanity. A lot of aspiring musicians, especially guitarists, are more interested in acclaim than self-expression. I have had prospects at pre-enrollment interviews outright tell me that what they most want from lessons is to impress others with their guitar playing. I don’t enroll these folks if they can’t also express some other more substantial goal, because I know that if this is their sole motivation then they are wasting their time and mine.

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to move others with music. But there is wanting to reach people through music, and then there is wanting applause for musical accomplishment – two different things. The former is the core of what the phenomenon of music is, the latter is empty egomania. Folks in the former camp will be quite happy to see folks enjoying their simple 12 Bar progressions and Blues phrasing as much as they will enjoy ripping out some Dream Theatre symphonic rock. Those in the latter camp will always experience music as something along the lines of eating burned oatmeal, because they will always be consumed with the feeling that others are not impressed with their technical prowess.

Let’s not go to either extreme. As with all good art, you must achieve pleasing quality, proportion, and symmetry for beautiful results. Of course you need to be in time and on pitch if you wish to make music that is “good” by any reasonably objective criteria, and that means there is some work to be done. The farther you want to go, the more work you have to do. At the same time, if you can’t enjoy the plateaus on the way to the peak, you will probably not be able to keep up enough steam to make it to whatever the peak is for you.

Consider an artist like B.B. King. He does not play technically complicated music, but what he is really great at is expressing himself with his library of simple Blues licks. If you watch him play you can see it on his face quite plainly. People do not go to see B.B. King perform because they want to hear someone rip scales at supersonic speeds. They enjoy B.B. King because they connect with the feeling he is able to convey through his simple music. That is what music is all about, and he is a master at it. Artists like Yngwie Malmsteen need much more technically complex music to fully express themselves, and that is also perfectly valid. What is not valid is to suggest that one is “better” than the other. Those kinds of arguments are a waste of time.

Many widely acclaimed musicians moved millions of people with relatively simple music. Johnny Cash. Kurt Cobain. Bob Dylan. Eric Clapton. Tom Petty. I could go on and on listing names. The point is, as a student of guitar you are not doing yourself any favors by refusing to allow yourself enjoyment of the music that is currently accessible to you. Of course keep striving for that next level, but at the same time give yourself a break and allow yourself to enjoy what you can already do!

Let me clarify that I am not meaning to express contempt for those who are suffering inability to enjoy their music due to vanity. We all suffer from it a bit, myself included. It is a major barrier for many aspiring musicians, and one of my goals as a teacher is to talk people off it, not because I have contempt for people but because it hinders their realization of their musical goals. Indeed, there is a certain level of musicianship we need to achieve before we can do anything more than annoy others with our guitars. Once you reach the level that you can change chords quickly and hold a rhythm through twelve or sixteen bars, get busy making music and enjoying it while you continue climbing toward the next plateau!

Do you find that when you play music you are more involved with what others are thinking of your performance than you are the music itself? If so, and if I can’t persuade you off that approach, then I’m sorry to say that you will never enjoy music enough to persevere, and so I can’t help you. If you will instead recognize that music does not have to be “impressive” to be good, then I can help you a great deal with both simple and complicated music!

Show me the Low Road! – We speak of “taking the high road” as a colloquialism for doing the right thing or doing the better thing. The idea is based on the understanding that taking the high road will be harder, but there will be a reward for it at the end of the road, so it will be worth the trouble. This is certainly true in music training. Choosing the low road might be easier in the present moment, but in the long run it is going to lead to frustration, and drag the process out longer than it has to be.

So what does it mean to choose the high road in music training? I will give you an example that illustrates the concept. Every student of guitar reaches a point of wanting to play scales much faster. There is a process for this with predictable, guaranteed results. The process starts with slowing the scales down to very, very slow speeds and working with painstaking attention to detail on perfecting technique. It is very tedious and requires a great deal of sustained mental focus on multiple aspects of technique. Very few actually submit to this part of the process and see it through, but rather try to push through it as quickly as possible. This renders the exercise useless or far less effective than it could be.

I have seen this over and over. A student tells me they want to play faster. I lay out the exercise. I follow up later only to find that they haven’t done it. What would you think if you put a hundred dollar bill on the table and told someone they could have it if they would just pick it up, and they told you they really wanted it bad, but would not reach out and pick it up? This is what students of guitar do with developing speed. They tell me they want to play faster. I tell them in great detail exactly what to do. Then they don’t do it.

Does this mean they don’t really want to play faster? No. What it means is that during the exercises, they repeatedly allow themselves to fall apart over maintaining sustained mental focus. They take the low road.

This sort of thing comes up in numerous ways, anytime there is a decision to be made over doing the harder thing or the easier thing. Another good example … experimenting with new phrasing paths rather than just rehearsing paths you already know. Are you guilty of this? Playing phrases in straight time rather than making a pointed effort to mix up the timing across a phrase. Guilty? I bet you are. I am, although more so in times past than recently.

There are a hundred ways in any practice session that you can take the low road. I won’t take time to present an exhaustive list here, but generally you probably know if you are doing this. It is very simple to see if you pay attention to it. Are you avoiding the harder thing and doing the easier one instead? If so then you are taking the low road. Though it might make your practice seem more entertaining, it is slowing down your overall progress rate by multiples.

I can help you learn to play guitar even if you insist on taking the low road, but what I can’t do for you is help you achieve the maximum results you are capable of in the shortest possible time. If you want that, then you will have to take the high road, and in that case I can help you a great deal!

Conclusion – I could go on and on with this matter of how attitude translates into results, but as you can see it is already quite a bit longer than my usual articles. Hopefully I have got the point across enough to help you identify ways in which you might be harboring some kind of attitude that is hindering your progress.

Please bear in mind it is not my intent with this article to beat anyone up. It is difficult to speak on the subject of attitude without stepping on some toes, but it is such a critical component of success with music that I feel an ethical obligation to address it, even it makes some folks mad or costs me some clients. If you are one of my active or former clients and feel like I wrote this thinking of you, I assure you I didn’t write any of this article, or part 1, with any one person in mind, except the one illustration with the teenage girl struggling with chord changes. This is all about generalities from my overall experience as a developing musician, and observations as a performer and teacher. If you do feel that any or all of this applies to you personally, well, then it probably does. Don’t give in to “an attitude” about it. Instead, take the high road and use it to identity and eliminate any such hindrances, so you can get on with that which works. To that end I wish you the best.

The Power of Simplicity

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Learning to play an instrument well is a long term endeavor. There is no short cut to overnight success, but there are longer and shorter paths. For intermediate level guitarists one of the most common areas of weakness is the tendency to want to throw everything they know, and at super sonic speeds, at every solo. While there may be some level of personal gratification in noodling around with flying fingers, and this is indeed a useful tool in the process of developing an overall skill set, bear in mind that speed apart from other elements of musical fluency typically does not lead to smooth, flowing phrases but rather sounds like what it really is … scale practice. When you get to that point in your playing when you have moderate speed but your phrasing feels unsatisfying, that is a good clue that you need to look more closely at the details of your phrasing. There is more to good phrasing than simply placing your finger on a note in a scale and getting it plucked at the right moment. Consider these elements of good phrasing …

Appropriate speed – many aspiring guitarists tend to play phrasing at speeds that are beyond their capabilities. Remember, you are going to play what you practice. Sloppy practice = sloppy playing. Sometimes it is needful to focus specifically on speed during practice, and at those times it is useful to attempt speeds beyond your current skills. At all other times, practice within a tempo that allows you to play well. Practice slowly and with good note articulation, two-hand coordination, and mental focus. Speed up only as your increased mastery permits you to play accurately and intelligently at higher speeds.

Note development – when you first learn scales the challenge is just to get through them, playing the right notes in the right order. Once you can do this predictably then the next logical step is to work on increasing your speed. However, this is where things can begin to fall apart. Before moving on to increasing speed, consider examining these elements:

        Legato – not to be confused with the term as used in the limited sense of describing the physical technique guitarists use to create a legato feel – hammers and pull-offs. Here we are talking instead about the musical ideal of smooth flow between notes. Make sure you are “connecting” each scale note smoothly, holding each note you play until it is time to pluck the next note, then carefully timing the placement of the fret hand finger with the pick attack on the new note, such that there is no unintended dead time between the notes.

        Dynamics – this refers to changes in volume in the most basic sense, but with guitar we alter volume from note to note with changes in the strength of the pick attack, and this in turn makes subtle changes to the overall quality of sound coming from the guitar/amp. Generally, for cleaner tones we need a more aggressive pick attack, and for distortion tones the distortion does a lot of the work so that we do not need to be as aggressive with the pick. Given those generalities, play to the song. We will not need to be as aggressive with Jazz as we would with Rock. Also, we can create a flow of dynamics within a phrase, such as picking easier at the beginning of the phrase with increasing aggressiveness toward the peak tension just before the resolution. Experiment with dynamics and see for yourself how it assists the sense of tension and release within a phrase.

        Duration – when you first learn scales and start practicing them with a metronome it becomes habitual to play in straight time – every note gets the same allotment of time. This habit then spills over into playing, so that your phrases are all rhythmically identical. Make it a point when practicing phrasing to vary the timing within phrases between half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and triplet timings, using bends and vibrato to embellish the longer notes.

Space – resist the temptation to fill every perception of space with extra notes. There will be points in the song where it makes sense to linger on a resolving note, such as at prominent chord changes. Good phrasing follows the pattern of speaking – a burst of words followed by the emphasis created with space. Then another burst, then another space. Experiment with imagining vocal phrases you think would fit well over a track, then try to match the vocal phrase you imagined with your guitar. It does not have to be a perfect match. The idea is to develop a capacity to create a flow of vocal-like phrases that match the flow of tension and release in the song you are playing over.

Vibrato – holding a note at the end of a phrase will indeed make your phrase sound like it has died unless you apply a robust vibrato. Vibrato is a powerful tool for maximizing the impact of resolving notes at the end of your phrases. Work on developing and refining your vibrato. Then you will enjoy the sound and feel of your resolving notes and this will alleviate the pressure to rush off prematurely to the next phrase.

Motive variation – this is a very effective way to cultivate a habit of getting the most musical value from few notes. Select an appropriate resolving note, such as the root note of the key. Then make up a phrase of four or five notes from the appropriate scale revolving around this resolving note. This reference phrase is your motive (theme). Then experiment with variations on note choice, note sequence, timing, and embellishments. These types of experiments will enable you to see the many possibilities for squeezing the most musical value out of few notes, rather than always running in a panic all over the fret board and hoping a good phrase will come out. Some of the most widely acclaimed guitar solos are also technically simple. Listen to B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, and similar Blues masters for abundant examples of phrasing that is technically simple, yet loaded with powerful emotional expression. When you are developing your solo phrasing do not strive for maximum speed at first. Instead, strive for maximum impact of every note. Practice technically simple phrases with good timing relative to the song rhythm, deliberate note development, appropriate planned spaces, and a carefully controlled vibrato. Experiment with motive variation in order to cultivate a habit of achieving maximum impact from few notes. When you can do these things without being distracted by them then you will be ready to move on to more complex and faster phrasings. Until then … keep it simple!

Besting the Beast of Boredom

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The process of learning to play guitar involves some basic training exercises that are designed to increase knowledge and physical skills in numerous areas. Most of us are impatient to play at the level we envisioned when we started this process. The repetition of basic concepts and physical exercises can be tedious at times, especially when we do not feel we are seeing any measurable results.

This is quite normal. All musicians go through this, and the truth is that it never ends. Once we master some new skill or technique, there is always another one waiting in line to challenge us again. It is critical to learn to maintain your motivation to work through boredom and get on to playing like you want to play.

So let’s consider how boredom develops, and then how you can combat it. Your teacher gives you a new exercise. You begin to practice it. It is exciting at first because it is new and you know it is a direct step toward your goal of fluent playing. But then after a number of repetitions you have it memorized. Eventually you are just going through the motions mindlessly. It becomes less and less interesting and eventually turns into something that feels more like work than entertainment. You may even get to the point that you hate to even think of doing the exercise again and you feel reluctant to even pick up the guitar at all.

This is the critical point where you have to make a decision. You can give in to the beast of boredom and quit, or you can work to find a way around the beast and eventually reach a point where your playing is quite gratifying. It is important to realize this – becoming bored is a natural consequence of the human condition, but staying bored is a choice, and you have the power to choose otherwise.

What to do?

1- Substitution: The first thing you should do is to inform your teacher that you are struggling. It may be that the teacher can substitute some other song or exercise, or work with you on some other area that is more satisfying to you for the time being. However, you should consider input from the teacher before making the final decision on this. It may be that it is best for your long term goals to finish mastering the material you are currently struggling with. Your teacher should be able to offer some kind of explanation as to the value of the material you are working with and this may help you in maintaining your interest in working through it.

2 – Alteration: If you have become bored with an exercise or some other aspect of your practice routine, trying altering it in some way. This is particularly important in improvisational soloing. It is very easy and very common to fall into the trap of playing the same note sequences with the same embellishments and the same timing. Straight eight notes is the bane of many aspiring soloists, and it is the easiest trap to fall into since timing choices (or lack thereof) are not as readily apparent as note choices. Try changing the timing of your collection of stock phrases, then work on changing timing mid-phrase, hold one note noticeably longer than the rest, etc. This is much more challenging than playing straight time (same time value for every note) and may seem impossibly difficult at first, but it will certainly shake up the feeling of boredom and will also make you a much better improvisational soloist.

3 – Inspiration: Every aspiring guitarist has a reason (or combination of reasons) that inspires the effort to learn guitar. Often it is a parent or other significant figure who plays an instrument. In many cases it is admiration for some notable professional guitarist, or a particular song or type of music that the student wants to play. Whatever the case may be, it is important to keep that motivational reason in the front of your mind while going through the learning process. Boredom is a feeling – a feeling of restless dissatisfaction. When you are confronted with boredom reflect on the satisfaction you will feel when you reach your goal. Combat the unproductive feeling of boredom by choosing to meet it with one that inspires you to keep working toward your goal.

 

4 – Challenge: Another way to combat boredom is to find a new challenge in whatever you are doing. So you are working on some exercise and you have repeated it enough times that you know every note, every motion, etc., so that it begins to feel uninteresting. So what can you do to change it so that it is challenging again? Look for ways to improve the details of your performance. For instance, you have played through a chord change exercise for what feels like a thousand times and you feel like you are done with it. Is it possible you can improve the speed at which you execute the change from one chord to another? Probably. Are you inadvertently muting any strings while strumming the chords? Probably. Is it possible that a metronome will reveal that you are not keeping good time throughout the progression? Probably. Break out these details and set small goals within the overall exercise, and then challenge yourself to improve in these details. As you focus on these parts within the overall goal you will find satisfaction in challenge and accomplishment. You can not be bored when you are intently focused on solving a problem. In fact, you might just find that your main problem is that you do not have as much time for practice as you would prefer!

Substitution … alteration … inspiration … challenge … these four powerful weapons will help you cut the beast of boredom down to a manageable size. Keep these things in mind, and review this article if necessary when you find yourself feeling dreadful of your practice routine. Remember that perseverance is the key to success. It is your choice whether to excel or expire, but with the right tools in your toolbox the road to excellence will be a lot smoother. Choose well!

Overcoming Overwhelm

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If you are new to guitar, or especially if you have been playing for a while then you may already be acquainted with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that there is a long road ahead and you are not sure you can see the destination. If you have attempted any kind of lesson program you have surely observed that there does not seem to be any one clear thing or few things that you can do to get the results you seek. Maybe you have sensed that there are a LOT of things you need to accomplish. If you are currently involved in a program of instruction, you may have a pile of those things on your desk right now.

As with other impediments to eventual success with music, this feeling is quite normal. Once you get deep enough into this to realize how much is involved with fluent guitar playing, it is easy to become awed by the amount of information to learn and tasks to work through. You may then conclude something like this … “I am not able to do this”, or “I could possibly do this, but I do not have the time”. Then the next logical step is, of course ….giving up.

So let’s consider how we get stuck in this trap and then how we can avoid it, or work around it. The first thing we need to know about overwhelm is this – it is a state of mind, not an objective reality. Particularly, it is a feeling … a feeling that we are not up to the job ahead of us. It is also a false feeling. Unfortunately, there is enough of reality inspiring this feeling that it may be difficult to see the falsehood in it. Let’s put on our reality glasses and take another look at this self-defeating false feeling of doom.

The Facts: The first thing we need to do is address the truth – that learning to play an instrument well is a big task. Although I am a proponent of “positive thinking” to a reasonable extent, a positive attitude does not change the immediate reality of things. We can sit all day and think positive thoughts about being a great musician. Other than a fleeting feeling of self-satisfaction, this will accomplish nothing unless we allow this positive framework to motivate sustained action toward a specific goal. A positive outlook combined with focused action will indeed yield impressive results, possibly far beyond what we would have thought ahead of time. So, let’s start by rejecting the sense of doom and replacing it with a positive outlook that we are indeed potentially capable musicians. Let us also combine that mental framework with the willingness to do some work toward our goals.

Properly Balanced Perspective: Second, let’s narrow down our goals to something realistic. Let us not go to either extreme. One extreme might be what I call the “moon child”. In other words, shooting for the moon. Example, “I’m 38 years old, know three chords, work sixty hours a week, have a wife and three kids, and I want to play like Eddie Van Halen within 18 months of dusting off my old high school guitar”. Here is another example that I see routinely in my pre-enrollment interviews, “I want to be able to play expertly in any style from classical to progressive rock and everything in between” (have you ever taken note that well known accomplished guitarists only play in one very narrow range of style?) The other extreme might be, “Since I can’t play like Joe Satriani my playing is worthless”. Really? Try telling that to B.B. King – one of the most acclaimed guitarists who has ever lived, who made a long, lucrative career and legacy out of simple repetitive blues licks.

So let’s face some facts – some goals are completely off the chart unrealistic, and some goals are simply not appropriate for some persons. On the other hand some folks go to the other extreme and assume that ANY goal is beyond their reach. Here is the balance of truth in the middle of the extremes – there is plenty of fun to be had with guitar at skill levels within the reach of the average person. If you set a goal that is out of proportion to the amount of time you can and will invest into guitar, that is a set up from day one for overwhelm. If you give in to overwhelm at the slightest appearance of difficulty, you are robbing yourself and others of the great satisfaction to yourself and others that comes from you expressing yourself well with an instrument. Let’s avoid both extremes. Balance is the key.

Effective Goals: So what is a realistic goal? That is of course going to vary greatly from person to person according to any number of factors. We can look here at some of the common factors. It is very important to pick a range of style to focus on. For instance, classical guitar is a very different approach to guitar than rock. It is unlikely that anyone, and particularly a hobbyist, is going to achieve great things in both of these styles. Even professional musicians tend to focus on one style. So pick the one you like most – the one that has the most songs that you enjoy hearing. In doing so you have eliminated a great deal of material that you need to bother with learning.

Now let’s narrow it down some more. For instance, within the Blues style, we have a number of even more specific styles …. Delta Blues (acoustic slide), Chicago Blues (low gain electric guitar), Texas Blues (medium gain electric guitar with a rock flavor). If you want to play Texas Blues, you do not need to master alternate tunings for acoustic slide guitar. So you see, when you narrow down your goal, you eliminate a LOT of material that you would be wasting time to pursue. This does not mean you are permanently eliminating the possibility of playing songs from any other style. Contrarily, learning to play well in one style will undoubtedly leave you potentially much more capable to approach other styles with better results, especially closely related styles such as Blues and Rock.

Ok, so we have narrowed things down to where we can see some outer limits to what we have to accomplish to reach our goal. There is still a lot left to do. So how do we look at all this and avoid a sense of doom? Very simple. There is an old adage I am fond of repeating to my clients: How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time. Rather than look at a whole body of knowledge and tasks with awe and overwhelm, we break the project into parts that we can manage and set up a plan to start building up fluency in each of a number of targeted areas.

If you have been at this for a while you have probably accumulated a lot of material and it becomes practically impossible to study all of it routinely. So what do you do? You have to look at your short term goals and see what material will help you reach those goals. If you have material that is not pertinent to your short term goals, set it aside for now and focus on things that are directly relevant to the closest goals. For instance, if your near term goal is ability to play pop rock solos, you do not need to practice exotic scales and diminished arpeggios. Focus on pentatonic scales, embellishments, and phrasing. The more advanced materials can wait until you have mastered the basic stuff to an extent that you can yield more practice time to exploring new ideas.

Essentially the problem of overwhelm yields to these things: positive attitude combined with positive action, goal-oriented organization, and targeted elimination of non-essentials. Push aside incapacitating thoughts. Replace them with enthusiastic action. Organize your practice time and materials around your near term goals. Eliminate (for now) those things that do not contribute to these goals.

Finally, as with all things guitar, practice well and often!

 

Defeating the Scary Guitar Clown

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If you are in my age range or better then you may  remember IT. IT was a millennia-old creepy space alien featured in the 1986 Stephen King novel of the same name, and a TV miniseries in 1990. IT manifested itself to the neighborhood children in the form of a circus clown. IT would appear in a benevolent clown form and woo the neighborhood children with laughter and promises of balloons and parties, and then when he had their confidence would morph into a scary clown and steal them away to a creepy underground bunker.

In the novel and film the surviving neighborhood kids grew up and came home to band together and defeat IT once and for all … or so they thought. The fact is, in teaching guitar to beginners and up for some fifteen years now, I have found that IT is hanging around my studio. He pops up all over the place. For example, when providing feedback on technique refinements I often hear responses such as, “I’m trying, but IT (“my hand”) wants to do it this way,” or “IT wants to tense up when I try to move that fast,”, or “IT (the pick) shifts around when I try to hold IT this way.” “IT (my thumb) wants to hook ITself over the top of the neck.” “IT (my pinkie) wants to curl up into a popcorn shrimp when I make a fifth chord.”

Indeed. Creepy IT seems to be the number one barrier to progress for many students of guitar. This need not be so, because the fact is … there is no IT. There is only YOU. YOU are the Scary Guitar Clown. It is YOU who is permitting excess tension, allowing the fingers to fly and flop around chaotically, plowing the pick through the strings like a bulldozer, allowing mental focus to drift, and generally making the hands and fingers wrestle against the strings rather then dance with them.

If you like your IT you can keep IT! However, if you want maximum results in the shortest possible time then you will have to deal IT a crushing death blow sooner rather than later. The first step in conquering IT is to acknowledge that IT is YOU. If your fingers are doing anything at all other than totally relaxing, then YOU are doing it. Apart from direct physical manipulation by someone or something other than you, your fingers can not do anything except exactly what your brain tells them to do. Pinkies do not curl up into a tight ball on their own. Likewise, if you are locking up your wrist and clamping too firmly on the pick during rhythm strokes, it is YOU tightening up the forearm muscles that control the wrist. YOU are doing that, not IT! So take responsibility and avoid passing the blame to IT!

Now let us discuss for a minute why IT gets the blame for so much technique chaos. We come from the factory equipped  with several levels of control over the muscular systems. Level 1 is the autopilot mode. The heart, for example, will continue to beat at the set tempo regardless of our consciousness of it or efforts to manipulate it through focused attention. Level 2 is the autopilot with manual override. The eyelids are a good example of this one. When we are awake they close and open without any conscious attention, and when we sleep they remain closed. However, we may at any time take full control of them, either blinking, holding open, or holding closed as we prefer, until we release them back into the control of the autopilot mode. Then we have the skeletal muscles on Level 3. They run mostly in manual mode with autopilot override for special circumstances, such as the knee jerk reaction when the leg responds to a strike to the knee joint.

Then we have the fingers. How do we label the control mode of the fingers? I think most entry level guitarists would say something like, “Manual mode until I try to play guitar, then Scary Guitar Clown mode,” buy which they mean that it seems impossible to fully control the fingers when trying to manipulate them individually, when IT appears to take over. Is this really true? It is partially true and partially not true. The fingers run on a mix of all the above modes, but mostly on manual control. If you don’t think they have an autopilot override, try putting them on a hot stove burner and you will see how quick they go into autopilot override.

So how does this examination help us to defeat the Scary Clown Mode? We must understand four important things about the control of the fingers:

(1) The default control mode of the fingers is a hybrid of manual control of the fingers as a group, with autopilot control of the other fingers when trying to use one independently.  To illustrate, put the tips of all four fingers downward facing on the edge of a table and then use the other hand to curl the pinky until the tip touches the palm. It is quite easy, with no strain on the knuckles,  muscles, or skin. Now try to do that same test with your fingers free from outside constraints, using only the control offered by your mind. You will observe that the ring finger follows along with the pinky, no matter how hard you try to separate the two. Why does this happen? Mechanically the two are completely independent. It is the default programming of the brain making the ring finger follow the pinky. The default program is to use the fingers as a group. This is great for grasping things firmly, but it is totally contrary to what we need to do as guitarists. This is the deadly IT of which we speak, and the one we must overcome in order to develop a great command over guitar technique.

(2) In addition to the limited degree of manual independent control we have over the fingers by default, we can cultivate greater individual finger control through focused repetition of specific movements. This is why scale practice should always be near the top of your guitar practice priorities. Scale practice is not simply a tool to remember note placement. Among other things, if done correctly it is the most powerful technique improvement tool available. With enough practice we can not only  cultivate finger independence, but we can actually reprogram the autopilot portion of our finger control so that it does new things in autopilot mode, such as play through scales accurately and efficiently. This is the secret of mastering guitar technique. It is important to note here that we are reprogramming the autopilot every time we practice, regardless of whether we are practicing great technique, good technique, or slop. This is why it is important to pay attention to the details while practicing scales!

(3) Regarding the pick hand, it is very important to understand that you have already spent many years cultivating an alternate autopilot program that takes over when you attempt to exercise fine control over the pick hand – writing. Writing is similar to picking, but not the same, so when you allow the writing autopilot to take over when you go to pick, you will have poor control over the pick.

(4) Ultimately, we DO in fact have a great degree of control over individual fingers, but we must consciously choose to exert this control in defiance of the default and writing programs. For example, I often see a tightly curled pinky when making fifth chords (power chords), and I always advise that this creates unnecessary tension, which further causes unnecessary levels of finger pressure and undue difficulties in changing from one location to another. I then advise to manual override the pinky popcorn shrimp of death while making the fifth chords. It is always a struggle at first, but I have yet to observe a student who can not eventually cultivate a new habit of keeping all the fingers straight and relaxed while executing fifth chords. Likewise, the pick hand technique always starts out with a sort of stabbing motion coming from pushing the index finger and thumb out from the side of the hand which is planted on the bridge, and then curling it back in to make the pick stroke – just like writing. With enough focused effort the student can defeat the writing program and develop a new autopilot mode of efficiently picking from the wrist, with the fingers immobile and the base of the hand planted on the guitar or strings. (See my pick technique video for in depth analysis)

Don’t let IT ruin your technique. IT is a formidable enemy at first, but by consciously choosing to control your fingers until they do what you want, you can send IT packing and make beautiful music instead. Get to work!

Keys to Mastery: Attention to Detail

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Don’t sweat the small stuff! So goes the old saying, and within its sphere this is a sage piece of advice. When playing guitar the ability to cruise past mistakes without getting derailed is critical.  However, we need to keep in mind that playing guitar and practicing guitar are very different things. When  practicing guitar we very much need to sweat the small stuff. Practice does not make perfect unless it is perfect practice! Repetition of slop guarantees playing slop. So when practicing we need to perform every detail of our technique as perfectly as possible. Of course “perfection” by its nature is not a realistic goal. The point is that we need to be continually striving to improve on the details of how we interact with the guitar. If we make “perfection” the target of our technique endeavors then our actual results will be far superior to those resulting from a vague goal like “doing the best I can”.

While doing our best is not a bad ideal, in practical application this kind of ambiguously defined goal leaves us a lot of room for actually not doing our best. If we measure doing our best solely by subjective criteria such as “this felt difficult so I must have been doing my best”, that is a well-intended but flawed yardstick by which to determine what is our best. Our best practice will result when we apply focused attention to the smallest details of our technique, measuring by objective criteria rather than by our perceptions of difficulty or success.

It is important to understand that people do not deliberately set out to practice in ways that are less than productive. Rather, focused concentration for extended periods is not our default mode of thinking, such that errors creep in just under our notice despite our general intent to “do our best”. So it is important to make a conscious effort to pay attention to the details!

Let us then look at some specific details of common technique flaws I observe among students of guitar. Keep in mind, the goal of this discussion is constructive feedback toward the end of helping you to identify problems and correct them. Merely adopting the ideal that it is good to pay attention to detail will make no difference in your progress. You have to actually make the conscious effort implement!

1 – Harsh Chord Changes: chord changes is one of toughest challenges for beginning guitar players. Just getting the fingers to work separately from one another at all is a full agenda. Once you get past this then the next step is to work on changing chords while keeping a rhythm pattern going. This is where the problem with attention to detail begins to show. Specifically, I observe a tendency to release tension on the last beat of the current chord in anticipation of the finger shifting for the next chord, such that the pick stroke yields a buzzy thud instead of a clear harmonious ringing. Most do not realize they are doing this until I point it out. Why? Because they have already shifted their focus off of the details of the current chord and onto the chord that has yet to happen. This is a perfect example of how lack of attention to detail results in undesirable sound. If you want your chord rhythms to flow nicely so that they sound smooth then pay close attention to the last pick stroke of each chord and make sure you are retaining the fingering of the current chord until it is time to change. If this means you have to slow down to execute the chord change properly then do it. Speed up gradually as your muscle memory of the finger positioning allows it.

2 – Choppy Scales: for scales to sound their best we need to play them with no time lapse between notes. This requires consistent finger pressure on each note until the precise moment of the change to the next note, and then a coordinated execution between the fret hand finger and the pick stroke as we shift to the new note. One common problem I observe is releasing pressure on the current note just as soon as the note is made. The cause is the same as the chord changing issue … preoccupation with the note ahead to the detriment of the one currently ringing. It is critical to pay attention to keeping the current note “live” while maneuvering both hands to set up the next note. Another common problem is lack of precise coordination between the two hands such that the pick strikes the string either before or after the placement of the fret hand finger on the upcoming note.  Again, both of these issues respond well to slowing down and paying attention to the details of your fingering and two hand synchronization, such that you execute notes well. Then after sufficient repetition to enforce the habits of hand, speed up gradually as your mastery allows while continuing to pay attention to these details.

3 – Bends and Vibrato: bending along with its cousin vibrato are the most powerful, expressive techniques we have as guitarists – when they are executed well. They are also among the most difficult things to master since they are entirely under your control, unlike simply fingering a single note or chord where you have the frets to help you with pitch accuracy. The common problems I see with bending and vibrato are bending up to an out of tune pitch, and then releasing the bend to a pitch other than the original unbent note. Again, these both respond well to slowing down and paying attention to the peak and trough of the bend, then repeating until accurate bends become a habit while continuing to monitor the accuracy of peaks and troughs. Then speed up as improvements in muscle memory permit.

4 – Pick Hold & Orientation for Single Notes: the pick should be located between the pad of the thumb and the side of the forefinger,  and the wrist should be relaxed such that the pick makes roughly a 30-45 degree angle to the strings. Then play with the base of the hand parallel to the strings, with a sharp but relaxed bump of the wrist to make the pick stroke. While this is physiologically the easiest, most comfortable way to hold and maneuver the pick, we tend to bring a lot of hangover from our handwriting habits into picking. This results in all manner of difficulties, such as bringing the middle finger into the pick hold, trying to pick from the far side of the hand (as with writing), and all manner of wasteful sweeping and swooshing motions where the job requires only a straightforward 1/4 inch arc of the pick. These handwriting habits are hard to break, but it is possible, and essential for fast and accurate picking. While practicing scales pay attention to these details and force your pick hand to comply until it becomes a habit.

5. Pick Hold & Orientation for Strumming: the pick hold is the same as for single notes. However, the pick stroke for strumming should come from the elbow, with the pick making a straight line across the strings. For the best tone we need light contact with the strings and a fast moving pick coming from a controlled flick of the wrist. Common problems with strumming are locking the wrist and then plowing harshly through the strings, trying to make an arc from the wrist rather then the elbow, and playing an arch or angle rather than a straight line parallel to the strings. Pay attention to these details for a smooth, chimey, shimmering tone from the strings while strumming.

6 – Excess Tension: this is a universal problem among beginner and even intermediate level guitarists. Playing with too much muscular power results in mashing fretted notes too hard, often bending them out of tune. A heavy handed pick attack results in notes and chords that sound harsh. Excessive muscular tension is an automatic nervous  system response to physical challenge arising from our instinctive “fight or flight” mechanism. While this response is very useful when we encounter a bear in the woods, it is a disaster to our guitar technique. Playing guitar is a dance, not a fight. We must play with finesse, not power, if we want our guitars to yield up pleasing sounds in response to our manipulation. All of the problems above are at least partially a result of playing with excessive muscular tension. You can counter the fight or flight response with deliberate focused attention on the state of muscular tension in your hands, arms, and shoulders while practicing scales and chord rhythms. Make it a habit to play with as little muscular tension as possible.

Finally, be sure to practice as often as possible! Learning guitar is all about memory in terms of both mental recall and physical muscle control. Every day that you do not practice you lose a bit of recall and muscle memory. That is just the way the human machine functions and there is not much we can do about it. Therefore, it is best to practice every day. This is not feasible for many hobbyists. In this case, make it a point to practice more days than not … at least five days a week.

Pay attention to the details to ensure that your practice routine is leading to progress rather than frustration!