The secret of guitar playing

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monkie

monkie

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I've been reading and hearing so many things online about the guitar that there are actually some secrets to becoming a great guitarist. Are there really that many secrets or are they just out there to make profit out of amateur guitarist? Is techniques and secrets the same thing? I mean, if you play the guitar long enough you will probably have developed your own little secrets/technique to playing the guitar. You know what works and what doesn't work, you know how to achieve a specific goal by doing a some kind of special technique.

Seriously, is there such things as secrets in guitar playing? Meaning if I don't know the secrets then I will probably can never play as great as the other person who knows the secret? Maybe I just read too much online crap. I think the only secret is to practice as much as you can. Even if there are secrets that can make a player great in a short period of time, he or she still need to find the time to practice that secret until they get it down correctly. There's a lot more to this that I want to say but I don't feel like I'm wording this correctly and time is running out so I gotta go now.

What are your guitar playing secrets (if any)?:)
 
You just read too much online crap.

There are two secrets.
1. Practice
2. Play with other people who are better than you

BTW. that will be $10. I take PayPal.
 
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Fairview's right. Ain't no pixie dust, no matter how much the promoter charges on your credit card.
 
Yep, their both right.

Though i would add a third secret, closely guarded by all guitarists.

3. Know when your shit at playing

Many guitarists i meet are full of themselves because theyre in a band or they can play x solo by this person, you just have to realise your no good, even if you are great.

BTW, I'm not currently in a band, but i can play "I am a viking" by Yngwie J Malmsteen. but i'm still shit.
 
Practice practice practice

With it, you have a small chance of becoming a good player. Without it, you have no chance at all.
 
Danger

My first guitar book had nothing in it but blank music staffs and blank chord block diagrams. It did have a chord glossary and the guitarists credo "If I don't learn my chords I'll never play enough guitar to be dangerous."
 
Yeah I got a secret, its called doing finger excercices on your fretboard for at least 30 minutes daily.
I got another one, learn your scales (pentatonic mayor and minor, mayor and minor, and blues) and know where the root notes are on each scale, then MEMORIZE all 5 positions until you can play them in your sleep in any given key (no problem if you memorized your root notes).
I got another one, learn all the chords. Not just the open ones, but also the barre ones. Majors, minors, 7s, mayor 7s, soak it all up.

In summary
1) learn scales
2) learn chords
3) go over scales and chords everyday for at least an hour


Mike
 
I'd suggest a couple of things:

1) Be mindful of your body. Develop a comfortable, efficient playing technique.

2) Practice at least one hour a day.

3) Play the right notes at the right time. :)

Cheers,

otto
 
Get a decent guitar and practice till it sounds good. Get a better guitar and practice till it sounds better. Keep repeating this process until you have a nice collection of guitars and you become a good player. And, don't forget to practice a few gimmics and tricks, those always impress someone.

Knowing the secret is not as important as knowing how to apply it, and even with secrets that takes practice.
 
I think the bottom line is you can't develop technique (bends, vibrato, picking dynamics, etc.) overnight. These things literally take years to become natural and sound good. You have to pay your dues.
 
Find a top notch teacher that teaches music and applies it to the guitar.

Forget about rock music until you have a real grasp of what music actually is.

Practice and in between take time out for a life. Try to keep your real life relationships away from the music. When you practice shut out your real life and practice.
 
Every day think of a melody you know well in your mind... Even a simple melody and try to play it from memory with no tab or sheet music. Over time you will learn to play what you can imagine. For me training your inner musical ear is more important than training the speed of your fingers. Once you have a note in your mind you need to be able to find it on the fretboard fast. It's like the movies.. A sequence of flicking images creates the illusion of motion. Creative guitar playing is a series of notes imagined and found. Done fast enough the melodies just flow out your mind to your fingers.
 
I think too many people just say "practise" Personally i'd say you need to find a method of practise that works for you, that actually makes you a better player. I used to try and play licks faster by playing them over and over again at high tempo's then i read somewhere its better to practise them over and over again at slow speeds untill your fingers know exactly what they're doing. That helped.
 
The biggest impact on my playing came from a program I saw on the Discovery Channel about how it has been scientifically proven that visualisation improves certain physical activities. In the program they had a gymnast imagine a very difficult move that she couldnt master, she spent a few minutes with her eyes closed imagining every detail of the move from start to finish a few times in a row. Then when she tried it she nailed it first time - this was then replicated with a golfer, a footballer and a pianist. Normally you have to play the same run over and over a huge number of times before your mind creates a pathway that makes the run easier to perform. Apparantly scientists have discovered that you can create strong neural pathways in your mind through visualisation without having to physically repeat it (assuming you are physically capable eg have the strength and flexibilty etc). So I tried this with guitar and my playing improved more in 6 months than the previous 12 years combined.
 
Superhuman said:
The biggest impact on my playing came from a program I saw on the Discovery Channel about how it has been scientifically proven that visualisation improves certain physical activities. In the program they had a gymnast imagine a very difficult move that she couldnt master, she spent a few minutes with her eyes closed imagining every detail of the move from start to finish a few times in a row. Then when she tried it she nailed it first time - this was then replicated with a golfer, a footballer and a pianist. Normally you have to play the same run over and over a huge number of times before your mind creates a pathway that makes the run easier to perform. Apparantly scientists have discovered that you can create strong neural pathways in your mind through visualisation without having to physically repeat it (assuming you are physically capable eg have the strength and flexibilty etc). So I tried this with guitar and my playing improved more in 6 months than the previous 12 years combined.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is amazing. I usually think about my playings everyday even when I'm not with a guitar. I think about it when I'm at work, sleep, driving and doing other things. Often times people think they can do pretty much anything when they imagine themselves doing it, but failed miserably when they actually do it. For example, the guitarist in my band thinks he can play the drum better than the drummer (in his imagination) because the drummer can't really keep up the beat with the rest of the players, but when he was told to do so he sucked so bad. Lol!:D
 
There are no secrets but there are definitely principles that successful players follow that are different than those whose playing never quite makes it to level that they desire.

To say that practice is all one needs is not true. If you practice crap you will get it. Your practice focus needs to be on building specific skills to reach your goals. There is a ton of free information online. But some of it may not be applicable to your goals.

Probably one of the greatest secrets one could understand is to have a good teacher. There are many self-taught players of course but a good teacher will accelerate the learning process for you.

I just registered to this forum to answer your question. I do know of a great teacher online that has helped lots of players succeed in their development and helped them forward their music careers, including mine.

Shoot me a mail and I will give you his contact info. If I were to put his name here it would appear I was spamming the board and that's not my style.

One more thing if you live in the Midwest this person and myself will be doing clinics at Guitar Centers in early September. Come out and learn some "secrets".

The clinic info is at the site listed in my profile.
 
Learn chords and how they fit together to make songs.

Learn scales and apply them to playing melodies.

Learn enough music theory to understand what you are playing instead of just playing from memory

At some point, check out the C-A-G-E-D learning approach to master the whole neck.
 
The best approach is different for everyone. What works for me, may or may not work for you. It's all a matter of figuring out where you would like to take your playing and coming up with a solution that works for you. Set a goal and do what you can to work towards it. We all think differently, we all play differently and we all like different styles of music. Take all of that into perspective and work from there. Most importantly though, find something that works and keeps you excited while you're making progress. The more passion you have to do something, the better player you'll become.
 
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