What are you saying? PT II

I wrote a piece about thinking about what you are trying to say as a guitarist, and how guitar playing should be considered like speech. The more I think about this, the more I realise that it is also relevant to what I am saying in everyday talking. I do tend to say the same things, in the same way. I say a lot, I sometimes talk quickly, I use the same inflections, the same old jokes, the same banter, the same platitudes, exactly as I do in my guitar playing! So this lesson is relevant in both my guitar playing and my actually life. I feel I need to do some of the following :-

• Slow down
• Don't rush to get words/notes out
• Pause
• Breath
• Adjust timbre of words/notes
• Use more considered words/notes
• Think about emphasising certain words/notes
• Trying saying something I wouldn't normally say

Time to investigate and research techniques which help change the way we speak, and how we speak and apply them to the guitar!I am now making a concerted effort to think about what I am saying and more importantly, how I am saying it....both in life and on the guitar!PeaceNeil

Memorising, Memory Techniques and learning

How to memorise material is something that I am constantly being asked about by my students, and generally I find the most effective technique which works for them is either, Mind mapping as developed by Tony Buzan, or visualisation using drawings or your own personal stories and symbols. But, ultimately it is the proces of learning which is most important, and by that I mean actually really understanding what is happening, rather than the act of being able to recite something at will, without actually understanding the process. Now, this is all fine and good, and it certainly helps me to understand and remember information.....but there is one area where I tend to struggle is with songs. I can play a song a hundred time, and then a couple of months later, totally forget how to play it and I am really not sure why.Then I stumbled across this piece online and I think it makes some really important points and I am looking forward to trying some of them out. It starts by suggesting that if you first learn a piece then memorise it, you are basically doing the same work twice! Of course, when approaching a new piece for the first time, you have to use your ear/sight read the notes, fingerings, articulations, phrasing and dynamics etc, and once you have done this, then you site down go over it time after time to 'memorise' it. Now, I have no problem with the first bit and memorising it for the short term, but how to you do this for the long term? This could be the solution....

Conscious Practice...Always tell yourself what you are doing when you practice eg

• learning a new fingering? Then, say the finger out loud to yourself.
• recognize a cadence? Then, tell yourself the cadence.
• play a sequence? Then, identify the sequence and how the melody is used.

The reason why it takes many a long time to learn music is because they just play through it! They don't actively tell themselves what is going on. If you just play through it over and over again, you are not practicing. You are not reminding yourself about what is going on. You have to be active! Your mind must be involved. Count out loud, sing the musical lines, work small sections, tell yourself the harmonic progressions... even something as simple as reminding yourself about how the theme repeats will help you memorise and understand the piece. When you are playing a crescendo, tell yourself! This way you associate the dynamic with the musical line and the fingering.Set a  goal to memorise something every day!Muscle memory is only good to train the fingers where to go but you cannot rely on that when you are stage!  By reminding yourself what you do, telling yourself, verbalizing what you practice will improve your time at the your instrument. The verbalisation reinforces what you are doing physically by activating your brain.

I hope this helps!!PeaceNeil

The art of playing the blues

So I am 4 weeks into the Blues Guitar course at Berklee and I am having the most amazing experience, and the biggest surprise is that what I am taking away from the course isn't in the area I was expecting it to come from, i.e. guitar technique. I feel, the biggest challenges I have faced and the areas if feel I have learn most from, have not been from a technical guitar playing perspective, but from a life affirming mental perspective. What do I mean by that? Well, the art of the blues or should I say the root of the blues is in suffering and out of suffering hope, it is a heartfelt art form, full of story telling and emotion. It isn't about technical prowess, it is about conveying the emotion that the musician is feeling....but then again we know this stuff already, so why has it come as a surprise? Well, firstly I have found that I am really, REALLY, having to concentrate on these parts of my playing, and I am nowhere close to mastering them (and perhaps mastering isn't the right word, feeling them might be better). In particular, I am taking away that I need to work on the the followingPhrasingWhen you have spent 20+ years practising 16th notes to a metronome, it is really hard to break out of that patterning, being a bit 'lazy' in the phrasing is very difficult. Nuanced slides, ghost notes, 'sloppy' runs, 16th note runs to a shuffle feel, slides with no real start or end. I feel now that my actually playing at this point in time is so robotic, I am feeling I am going to have to unlearn all those years of metronomic precision.BreathingSo what has breathing got to do with guitar playing? Well this is the area of this course which is also having a direct wake up call on how I also live my life and how that actually impacts on my guitar playing. What do I mean?Well, I have noticed that I tend to fill all my guitar parts to the brim, never really taking room for a breath, filling every bar with a note (or many many notes!) and wow.....I guess it is symbolic of my life too, I fill every second with doing something.The Blues is teaching me to slow down, take a breath, not fill every second with something, take time to ponder, time to breath!! What am I saying?I think the key issue I have taken away from this is to think about what you are saying and what you want to say, say it with emotion. Pause and reflect and make every moment (note) count. It is exciting that learning the guitar (after all these years) also relatedListening to what you are saying. You are telling a story! I did post a lesson on this topic before, but it is becoming more and more important to me and my playing! PeaceNeil

Practising blindfold - Quick ways to improve your guitar playing

Practising blindfold

Okay, this might sound like a really odd lesson, but please bear with me as I think it will really help your playing.This lesson might all sound a little zen or karate kidesque, but it certainly works for me.

So what does it involve?

Well, basically it involves either, closing your eyes, blindfolding yourself, playing in the dark, or not looking at the neck of the guitar. I think having the eyes closed or blindfolded is probably a better approach to this exercise.

So what is the point?

Well, one reason is that when performing on stage, you need to be able to play without looking at your instrument, as you have to engage with the crowd, usually by looking at them, also on stage it can be quite common for it to be very dark, thus knowing where notes are on the instrument is a really big help. But, I think the other reason more importantly is that it helps you focus both on the sound of the note you are making and you get to hear the interval (or at least think carefully about the interval you are about to make).

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung

By removing one of the senses, you are so much more reliant on the others, and in this case as a guitarist or musician, I think there a focusing on the sense which should actually be primary in the activity of music making....your ears. Why I think this works1)You slow down and think, this is something we should probably do more of when playing guitar2)The sound of each note and each interval becomes the key focus3)You start think of each note as it's own entity and it's relation to the others, thus appreciating intervals.Give it a go, you might be surprised at the results.For similar concepts and ways to improve your playing NOW, download a copy of my book.

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 PeaceNeil 

Pros and Cons of Guitar Tab on the internet

I had to look at an online tab today, why? I had to learn something very quickly (is it any different than turning up to a show and being given a lead sheet?...well yes because a lead sheet will generally be right!), so I google the song and tab....and there it was, and I was able to learn it very quickly....but had I really learnt it? I think (and I am guilty of this), than in the internet age, we simply google 'how to play XYZ' or 'XYZ tab' and look at the piece and learn it, rather than listen to the piece and understand it.So Pros

• Quick
• 24/7

Cons

• Don't actually learn the song
• Doesn't help improve your ear
• Might be wrong

What are you thoughts?PeaceNeil

Martian Love Secrets - Steve Vai - Tocal Day 12

Isn't it funny how synergies or serendipidies occur? I am just getting ready to start the Specialist Blues, Rock and Jazz guitar program at Berklee on Monday (so excited) and I was clearing out some old guitar lessons and I came across some photocopies of the Martian Love Secret lessons by Steve Vai from 1989 (!!!). I actually had the original magazine (from which I made the copy) and I remember reading and devouring the lessons as a teenager. There was something about these lessons which really spoke to me, and changed the way I approached the guitar and even more dramatically life. I really recommend you give them a read if you need to be inspired and are looking for something beyond some simple guitar exercises.I had seen Steve Vai performing the year previously (1988!) with David Lee Roth on the Skyscraper tour and that had been a revalatory experience too, it is funny that all these years later I am finally embarking on the course I wanted to all those years ago.Believe in yourself and your dreams"I am that....."PeaceNeil

Inspiration Lesson in Creativity by Steve Vai | Tocal Day 9

Just stumbled across this video clip by Steve Vai on How to be successful and wow it certainly is a very inspirational piece and lesson, I think no matter what creative art you pursue, or in fact whatever career path you follow, I think we could all take something from watching this video. Thanks Steve Vai...what an nice little boy....Follow the dreamPeaceNeil