Resources and methods for improving on guitar

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musicdavid

Member
I've been playing guitar for 25 years and while I've got to a good level, I'm at the stage where I want to push myself further...but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it.

I'm entirely self taught, having started off with a few books but mainly learnt by ear, picking out songs. I hardly gave any attention to lead playing until a few years ago when I got a book about the CAGED technique which opened my eyes about understanding the fretboard. I would particularly like to take my lead playing further.

At one point I decided I would simply sit down and learn parts from records but this isn't happening. I need something more structured. I'd still prefer to work from something at home rather than going to a teacher (although I'm not totally opposed to that) so I'm thinking maybe a DVD or a book.

I once saw a DVD by Allan Holdsworth but all he did was to play through a few chord progressions and scales. It was more like an insight into his technique rather than a tutorial. I'd like goals to work towards, specific exercises etc.

Any thoughts would be welcome.
 
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Check out Guitar Techniques Magazine | MusicRadar

It's UK based. It is available on iPad via the Newsstand, not sure about other tablets. Much better (and cheaper) than the print version because you can just tap on the screen to hear the examples or backing tracks vs. managing a CD player plus propping up the mag and turning pages somehow.

It is very, very good and it will improve your playing even if you just do a few of the lessons. I buy an issue every few months. The reason I don't have a subscription is that each issue is so jam packed with stuff I can't get get through it all before the next issue is out.

J
 
JMac52 said:
Check out Guitar Techniques Magazine | MusicRadar

It's UK based. It is available on iPad via the Newsstand, not sure about other tablets. Much better (and cheaper) than the print version because you can just tap on the screen to hear the examples or backing tracks vs. managing a CD player plus propping up the mag and turning pages somehow.

It is very, very good and it will improve your playing even if you just do a few of the lessons. I buy an issue every few months. The reason I don't have a subscription is that each issue is so jam packed with stuff I can't get get through it all before the next issue is out.

J
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Thanks, I'll check it out.
 
You know, the best way to get better is to play more. You've been playing for a long time, but do you actually play as often and as long now as you did when you were younger? In high school I played for several hours every day. Pretty much any time I wasn't at school or hanging out with my gf I had a guitar in my hand. Nowadays with work and kids and everything else I find I really have to make a conscious effort to pick up the guitar and just play. For a while I tried to make a rule that I would play my guitar at least as often as I jerk off. Discipline is hard...

Play more. Play more different things. Don't know what genre you're into. CAGED as I learnedly it focuses mostly on pentatonics, and lends itself well to rock and blues but also country and rockabilly and even reggae and Latin music. But it's not a big leap either to start learning where the other scale notes are around the pentatonic boxes, which can open up some new avenues.

Play more. Play with other people. Especially with people who are a bit better than you. Try to get out to a local open jam or something, look for opportunities. You must have enough chops not to embarrass yourself too much, and if you find the right group you will be both inspired and encouraged to try new things and improve.

Now here's just an anecdote that may not apply to your situation. I was in a "working" band for a while. We had a residency at a local dive. Played there every Monday night for a couple years plus Saturday practices. And we drank the whole time. The other guitarist was decent, but not quite up to my level. Our bassist, though, was a little beyond me in terms of solid and consistent and our vocalist had a great voice that really made me want to step up. I could feel myself getting better in fits and starts. Things seemed to come more easily more often, but I still felt like I was barely holding on by my fingertips half the time. Then I stopped drinking. The first time I played sober I kinda blew myself away. Holy shit I can play guitar! It was like I'd been running with ankle weights for years, and my "muscles" were building, but I didn't realize all of what I'd gained till I took the weights off.

Anyway. Play more.
 
ashcat_lt said:
You know, the best way to get better is to play more. You've been playing for a long time, but do you actually play as often and as long now as you did when you were younger? In high school I played for several hours every day. Pretty much any time I wasn't at school or hanging out with my gf I had a guitar in my hand. Nowadays with work and kids and everything else I find I really have to make a conscious effort to pick up the guitar and just play. For a while I tried to make a rule that I would play my guitar at least as often as I jerk off. Discipline is hard...

Play more. Play more different things. Don't know what genre you're into. CAGED as I learnedly it focuses mostly on pentatonics, and lends itself well to rock and blues but also country and rockabilly and even reggae and Latin music. But it's not a big leap either to start learning where the other scale notes are around the pentatonic boxes, which can open up some new avenues.

Play more. Play with other people. Especially with people who are a bit better than you. Try to get out to a local open jam or something, look for opportunities. You must have enough chops not to embarrass yourself too much, and if you find the right group you will be both inspired and encouraged to try new things and improve.

Now here's just an anecdote that may not apply to your situation. I was in a "working" band for a while. We had a residency at a local dive. Played there every Monday night for a couple years plus Saturday practices. And we drank the whole time. The other guitarist was decent, but not quite up to my level. Our bassist, though, was a little beyond me in terms of solid and consistent and our vocalist had a great voice that really made me want to step up. I could feel myself getting better in fits and starts. Things seemed to come more easily more often, but I still felt like I was barely holding on by my fingertips half the time. Then I stopped drinking. The first time I played sober I kinda blew myself away. Holy shit I can play guitar! It was like I'd been running with ankle weights for years, and my "muscles" were building, but I didn't realize all of what I'd gained till I took the weights off.

Anyway. Play more.
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Good advice. I particularly relate to the first paragraph. I definitely don't play enough but that's largely due to being uninspired and needing a better practice regime, set of lessons etc. I play with a jazz-blues band but we don't play or gig enough at the moment.

My usual genre of playing is broadly art rock/prog/jazz/classic rock but I would like to explore other genres to blow off some cobwebs.

I will try and go to more jam sessions and the like though my free time is limited so home practice is what I want to try and devleop more.
 
musicdavid said:
Good advice. I particularly relate to the first paragraph. I definitely don't play enough but that's largely due to being uninspired and needing a better practice regime, set of lessons etc.
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Those are lame excuses. I have plenty of my own, believe me, but that don't make it right. Just pick up the damn thing and play while you're watching those cat videos on YouTube or whatever. You seem to be the type who prefers structured practice (something I just can't ever do), but I still say if you just make the effort to pick it up more often it will make a difference. Even just noodling around is better than not playing at all.
 
The problem with noodling is when you noodle, you just noodle the shit you already know how to noodle. I don't know how to get better, but I know how to stay the same, and that's by just playing. I've been doing it for 25 years. I'm no better than I was at 15 because I just play all the time. It doesn't make me any better, it just maintains what I already know, so maybe this guy is the same.

If you need lessons, take some lessons. There's also a ton of shit online that can guide you through new ideas and techniques. Try them.
 
I guess I'm thinking that if you keep just playing, then you don't atrophy as fast, and when you do get into something like a lesson, or a jam session with some cats that are better than you, then you're not trying to first get back up to speed before you can assimilate the new stuff. I'm also about 25 years in, and I personally can't imagine sitting there while somebody tries to teach (or more likely unteach) me at this point in the game, but I'm well aware that other folks might have different needs.
 
I agree with you ashcat, playing as much as possible helps keep's the chops fresh. However, I'm not that great myself and having a good resource or teacher could help a lot. I've taken lessons in the past, but at this point it would be nice to find a good site to help out. The one JMac recommended looks promising.
The one thing I hate about DVDs, magazines, and websites is that I've never found one that can help intermediate players without assuming you know a ton about theory, etc. and if you don't they make you start out with..."this is the A chord, this is the G chord..." I know the chords and can play songs, I need something that explains what the hell I'm doing without going from A then ending up on Z after a few lines.

It reminds me of math. Every math book shows all these examples, then when you go to do the practice problems there is always some that are nothing like the examples! I always hated that and that's what frustrates me in the way some resources teach. Ok, done with the rant!
 
Yeah...if you just play your same things over and over....your chops will be fresh/tight, but that alone doesn't make you a better player.
You have to find new/fresh ways of approaching the things you've been doing. It's not easy without some formal planning/lessons, because like Greg said, just noodling mostly leads to more noodling.
Examine what you are doing....the way you move from position to position, the notes you use, etc.....then find way to invert those things. Instead of starting from the same spot, start from a middle point...hum out melodies and then find them/learn them the same way you hum them.

I fight the repetition all the time, but it's so easy to fall back into the well known "grooves"...so it take time for your brain and fingers to get comfortable with new things, and when they do, you probably need to find more new things.
I play better now than I ever did....but not anywhere near what I know I could, but then, I just don't play that much at all....if can get in an hour here and there, that's about it. :(
I'll plan to play, and then I'll spend most of my studio time working on some recordings.
 
Mr. C said:
I agree with you ashcat, playing as much as possible helps keep's the chops fresh. However, I'm not that great myself and having a good resource or teacher could help a lot. I've taken lessons in the past, but at this point it would be nice to find a good site to help out. The one JMac recommended looks promising.
The one thing I hate about DVDs, magazines, and websites is that I've never found one that can help intermediate players without assuming you know a ton about theory, etc. and if you don't they make you start out with..."this is the A chord, this is the G chord..." I know the chords and can play songs, I need something that explains what the hell I'm doing without going from A then ending up on Z after a few lines.

It reminds me of math. Every math book shows all these examples, then when you go to do the practice problems there is always some that are nothing like the examples! I always hated that and that's what frustrates me in the way some resources teach. Ok, done with the rant!
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I'm kind of like this. I'd love to better at everything, but I can't. I don't have the patience or attention span to sit and learn on my own anymore. Just noodling around for 25 years has mostly gotten me nowhere. I need actual real world concrete examples of how what I'm potentially learning can be applied in real world situations. Like drum rudiments. I've been drumming for 25 years and don't know any rudiments. Better drummers than me always say "you gotta practice your rudiments". WTF for? I could practice them all day long and still not get anywhere because I don't know how to apply them. I need to be shown how, why, where, and when those rudiments will make me a better drummer. The way I see it, I'll just be good at playing rudiments. I don't know how to apply them to the kit. Where do I fit a ratamacue flam-diddle into a 240 bpm 4/4 punk rock song?
 
As a teacher, Greg, I would say you sound like a visual learner like myself. I do much better when people actually show me what they are telling me and demonstrate how to apply it. My problem is that I began playing in high school, then took 20 years off before picking up the guitar again. Despite some lessons several years ago I don't feel like I've made much progress. I will say that when I play in a band situation, if the drummer is really good then it just makes me that much better. Anyways it would be nice if I could find a resource that teaches what I want to know and as you point out, can hold my interest.
 
Mr. C said:
As a teacher, Greg, I would say you sound like a visual learner like myself. I do much better when people actually show me what they are telling me and demonstrate how to apply it. My problem is that I began playing in high school, then took 20 years off before picking up the guitar again. Despite some lessons several years ago I don't feel like I've made much progress. I will say that when I play in a band situation, if the drummer is really good then it just makes me that much better. Anyways it would be nice if I could find a resource that teaches what I want to know and as you point out, can hold my interest.
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Yup, pretty much. I just need to see/hear it in action. Youtube "lessons" are a joke because pretty much all of them are little more than some jackass showing off.
 
I've been playing bass since 74 and guitar since 76 - neither well.
I had 3 bass lessons and in those learnt Black Knight & was on the way from there. I still play that riff a lot. No one showed me how to do any bass stuff after that so it's been a long slow developmental curve since then. The day I "discovered" the octave jump did put a spike on that curve though.
Guitar - I was shown 7 chords in 76, thanks Eric, and some of them were simplifies versions. I have only added about 5 since then or another dozen once I accidentally discovered power chords (I didn't know they were p/chords until the year before last - it was just something I discovered while playing) - one I learnt from a guitar book, (the B thing that James Brown used a lot) & it's really cool sounding but I have trouble changing to it from almost any other chord.
I've looked at how to vids and books but, I know this is stupid, decided that playing within my limitations is what informs my chord progressions and songwriting so I determined that I wouldn't fiddle with the muse for fear of sounding more normal.
 
Greg_L said:
WTF for? I could practice them all day long and still not get anywhere because I don't know how to apply them. I need to be shown how, why, where, and when those rudiments will make me a better drummer.
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I started playing at 15 - I practiced scales and arpeggios like crazy - I would skip school and practice for 8 hours a day sometimes. I got tendinitis pretty bad and I would have to take breaks for a few weeks to heal up. As I got older, I chilled with the scales and started enjoying playing a lot more.

A couple of years ago, we had a phenomenal guitar player (Jake Langley from Austin) teach a "master class" associated with a jazz festival I was involved with. I went, and one of the things he said was to never practice scales, because [something like] "when would you ever actually play something like that in a song/performance? Practice what you're going to play..."


(edit - I believe that warming up is important, and I still think that scales (played slowly and clearly) are an efficient way to warm up - but there's probably a better way)
 
I signed up for the free trial at TrueFire and actually picked up a few techniques that helped in the "working" band situation, but I have no discipline for that kind of thing, and new that I wouldn't sit down with it often enough to make it worth paying for.

I know Berkeley has some online courses/resources you might check out.
 
ashcat_lt said:
I signed up for the free trial at TrueFire and actually picked up a few techniques that helped in the "working" band situation, but I have no discipline for that kind of thing, and new that I wouldn't sit down with it often enough to make it worth paying for.

I know Berkeley has some online courses/resources you might check out.
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I might give TrueFire a go. It looks like it has a good range of videos.
 
musicdavid said:
I might give TrueFire a go. It looks like it has a good range of videos.
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Trufire are good. I have never followed any of their course personally but know a few that have, specifically some of the Swing and Jazz stuff. I have had a lot good recommendations for their dedication and support to members as well. Good luck...
 
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