I just stumbled across this little video of a Nile Rodgers Masterclass and it really does make a great watch with some really interesting things to think about guitarwise. Really worth a watch and hopefully take away some ideas, especially about improving rhythm playing. The thing about Nile is that you can instantly know it is him playing, one of the very few whom you instantly can recognise.EnjoyPeaceNeil
Guthrie Govan interview - fantastic questions and advice
I just came across this fantastic interview by Guthrie Govan, and it certainly is very thought provoking and is without doubt one of the most down to earth and humbling interviews I have read. It just goes to show that you don't have to have a massive ego or be a total show off. In particular, I found this two sections very important and interesting
At the various guitar clinics he conducts, Guthrie Govan has a series of questions he likes to pose to attendees. "I find that knowing why you're playing helps to make all of the other questions disappear," he explains. "So I'll ask people things like, 'Why am I playing? What do I expect from my guitar playing? Do I want to be in a band? Do I want to write music? Do I want to be some YouTube god who just scares the other shredders?' These are all interesting things to consider."
They really are interesting things to consider, and I know I have been thinking about them a lot since I read the article. Personally, I feel that I want to slow down, concentrate more on note choice and getting more depth and tone from each note, trying to add my personality into everything I play.And this is without doubt one of the best things and piece of advice, I have ever read about guitar playing...
I don't think there is a 'best' guitar player in the world. People ask me at clinics, 'Who do you think is the best guitar player? Who's your favorite guitar player?' And I always reply, 'I know who my favorite Hendrix is.' [Laughs] Or 'I know who my favorite Django Reinhardt is.' "Really, I think the goal is to find your unique thing and then spend the rest of your life competing with yourself, getting better at crystallizing whatever it is that makes your musical voice special. So I don't subscribe to the whole 'best or worst' thing. Guitar playing isn't a sport."
You can read the full article here, well worth it for sure!!PeaceNeil
Amazing slow downer - best tool ever?
There is no denying that learning and transcribing is one of the best ways of learning and progressing with the guitar. But it does take a lot of time, patience and energy, and in the days of vinyl, a lot of wear on your record collection. The main parameters which any tool requires are the ability to loop an area of the track and slow it down, whilst retaining the pitch.There are plenty of tools out there on the market to help you do this, but I have been pointed in the direction of the Amazing slow downer by Ronisoft and it is fantastic! In particular it works on a Tablet or smartphone too. It is really one of the simplest tools in this area that I have found and it works really well. Well worth a look I would say.PeaceNeil
What do you think of when playing the guitar?
It has kind of struck me recently that a lot of time when I am practising or performing, my mind wanders (actually quite a lot). Sometimes, I am not actually sure what I am focusing on, partly due to muscle memory, where I (you) can get away with a lot, but it has dawned on me recently that because of this, sometime with new material you need to really concentrate on breaking the concentration gap and also the muscle memory. What do I mean by this? Well, if you try and play a new lick, but realise that you add in your own nuances to the lick, or even to some extent your own notes unintentionally, this might be down to a lack of concentration. If you find that when playing a scale for example, your aren't concentrating on each of the notes and then make the odd clanger, then perhaps you need to focus again on concentration.My issue is that I am not 100% sure at all what I am thinking about when playing, is it picking, fingering, note, I am focusing on the room in front of me and relying too much on muscle memory. When I stopped and tried to concentrate, I realised I had to do things much much slower (and important lesson there for sure!) and really concentrate on the notes. For example, playing a scale and naming each of the notes as I played them. I also found that closing my eyes whilst playing also really helped when trying to concentrate, and something I will certainly do more of in future.To help with my quest for concentration, I found these two sites very useful
What are your thoughts?PeaceNeil
Singing what you are playing or playing what you are singing? - Guitar Lesson
So I found this amazing video of George Benson and Robben Ford and it struck me about if George is actually singing what he is playing or playing what he is singing? I guess from a neurological perspective he must be playing what he is singing, given the pathways from the brain to the mount and the fingers, but perhaps it is the other way around! It is an important aspect of playing to practice singing notes and then finding them on the guitar and vice versa! I shall be mostly practising what i preach this week!Enjoy!PeaceNeil
What's your internal tempo? - Guitar Lesson
This is a bit more of a ponder/thought today. I have been beginning to notice that I seem to have a built in tempo (or should I say metronome), which seems to be configured to a set BPM. Of course we an inbuilt BPM, which is our heart beat, a varying metronome which keeps us alive. I sometimes wonder, given that the default heart-rate of a health adult is 60 BPM, is that is why a considerable amount of music is around 120bpm? (just a ponder).Anyway, what am I getting at? I have noticed that when I practice (and noodle around), I seem to always want to play at a set speed. It doesn't matter what it is, if I don't have a metronome present, I seem to have a default speed at which I play everything. Now I noticed this morning, that this isn't such a great thing, I was practising something which needs to be played at 110 BPM, but I was just wailing on it at around 125-130 bpm. I keep finding myself, telling myself to slow down, not everything needs to be played fast. So that's my lesson today, think about if you seem to have a tempo at which you play everything (when you don't have a rhythm source), think about if it is too fast, and then try and slow it down (or speed it up). Ultimately, take that metronome, change the speed and see how you get on!What's your internal tempo??PeaceNeil
What are you saying? Pt III - Guitar Lessons
Following on from the last couple of lessons which related to thoughts about thinking about what you are saying and how you are saying it. My thought and consideration now is to think of how this applies practically.So firstly, think of guitarists you like.On the whole you are probably doing this already, you might know a few Hendrix or Slash licks, you might actually be able to play the whole of Satriani's catalogue note perfect....so what are you doing in real terms?Basically, copying their famous speeches or phrases, and then incorporating it into what you are saying. I guess it is similar to throwing in Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" into a conversation you are having.Thinking of it like that certain has opened my eyes, part of the deal playing in a function band is that you basically re-enact famous 'speeches' that people want to hear, you might have some leeway to change some of the 'words', but on the whole you recite the speech. So my challenge is to think about something you want to say....in speech....say it and then copy it on the guitar. This may open up a whole new area of exploration for you. Of course, then go back and think of what your favourite players (e.g. Vai or BB King) are saying, how they say it and copy it, but perhaps only copy (learn) snippets of the sentence, snippets you like and try and incorporate them into your own lines.Good luck!PeaceNeil