Ideas for rapid playing improvement

ricky50

I know the answer to all these questions is practice, practice, practice. But there have to be some ways that are better than others.  I've been playing for many years and play in a band that gigs regularly.  I play mainly electric - all the usual stuff - and like acoustic as well but it's the electric I want to concentrate on - I'm not interested in shredding.  I can play most anything I need to do and it all sounds fine.  But I know my limitations and I want to get better and although I understand the 10,000 hours approach I'd like to do it as quickly as possible.  What ideas do you have for the best way for me to achieve this?

NPP

I'd first try and define what 'better' means for you. I found I only improve when I have a clear objective related to something specific I need or want to achieve within a few weeks or months at best. So what is it you want to work on? Why do you feel you need to get 'better', which of your limitations bother you and which don't? What do you want to get out of this - personal satisfaction, joining a more professional band, session work?

Sounds boring, but I think you can only achieve quick results by setting yourself a clearly limited and focused task. 

darthed1981

NPP said:

I'd first try and define what 'better' means for you.

I was going to say that as well.

TheBigDipper

One of the best things I've ever read about guitar playing was a quote from Eric Roche regarding technique. To paraphrase (coz I don't have the quote to hand)...

"Don't learn technique and then hope to find a musical use for it. Instead, decide what music you want to play and learn the technique that serves the music you've chosen."

And then practice, practice, practice with purpose and focus on your objectives. Playing stuff you can already play well is not practice and probably not improving your playing unless you're just checking you still can do it before a public performance. 

But I expect you already knew all of this. 

Good luck! 

ricky50

darthed1981 said:

NPP said:

I'd first try and define what 'better' means for you.

I was going to say that as well.

You're totally right.  And I think that's what @TheBigDipper was saying too in a way. By better I suppose mean escaping from the usual and expected way of playing something. When I hear people I really admire playing I try and step back and think about what it is they do that makes them special.  It can be a whole range of things - timing, phrasing, chord substitutions, getting out of the pentatonic boxes etc.  Often it's playing less rather than more but the things that are played fit like a glove.  So I want to do all of that! And I'm sure that everyone would too. If I picked any one of these things to concentrate on I sort of know how I would go about it. I'm really looking for tricks that would act as a short cut - an example would be randomly whistling or singing a solo that I'm trying to work out rather than just doing it on the guitar and then transpose my noises onto the guitar.  That way I get a much more melodic and less flashy solo that fits better with the song. Another would be thinking more like a drummer and getting much tighter rhythm going that way.  So what have you found that has helped you in that sort of way?

Winny_Pooh

Get a good teacher, they'd objectively see shortcomings you'd not be aware of.

blobb

NLP

merlin

Winny_Pooh said:

Get a good teacher, they'd objectively see shortcomings you'd not be aware of.

I second that. Having an outside eye is really helpful. 

Lestratcaster

Get a tutor. A good one. Who knows what you want out the lessons and is adaptable in many styles. Also highlight all your weaknesses and be prepared to play outside your comfort zone/music tastes. Worked for me.

mburekenge

Lestratcaster said:

Get a tutor. A good one. Who knows what you want out the lessons and is adaptable in many styles. Also highlight all your weaknesses and be prepared to play outside your comfort zone/music tastes. Worked for me.

Word. Having lessons with a renowned shred teacher at the moment. I'm not even remotely interested in shredding or listening to that music but im making exponential technique advances

Lestratcaster

mburekenge said:

Lestratcaster said:

Get a tutor. A good one. Who knows what you want out the lessons and is adaptable in many styles. Also highlight all your weaknesses and be prepared to play outside your comfort zone/music tastes. Worked for me.

Word. Having lessons with a renowned shred teacher at the moment. I'm not even remotely interested in shredding or listening to that music but im making exponential technique advances

I'm a predominantly pop punk/metalcore player but out of all my learners (I'm a tutor) only 1 or 2 actually listen to heavy metalcore music. Everyone else is pop/folk/rock/blues/fingerstyle/acoustic so I have to learn about these styles. Week by week I see their progress development, even on certain weeks where they don't practice they will still attend the weekly lesson and not fall behind. I have a really good bunch of guitar players. One I'm visiting in just over an hour actually, only been learning 3 months totally from scratch we've learnt almost 15 songs. They wouldn't have done that on their own.

ricky50

I wasn't sure where this would go but your collective advice has really made me think.  I've never really thought about getting a teacher/tutor at this stage in my playing but it's beginning to make sense.  Mmmmm......going to sleep on it.

Brad

ricky50 said:
 By better I suppose mean escaping from the usual and expected way of playing something. When I hear people I really admire playing I try and step back and think about what it is they do that makes them special.  It can be a whole range of things - timing, phrasing, chord substitutions, getting out of the pentatonic boxes etc.  Often it's playing less rather than more but the things that are played fit like a glove.  So I want to do all of that! And I'm sure that everyone would too. If I picked any one of these things to concentrate on I sort of know how I would go about it. I'm really looking for tricks that would act as a short cut - an example would be randomly whistling or singing a solo that I'm trying to work out rather than just doing it on the guitar and then transpose my noises onto the guitar.  That way I get a much more melodic and less flashy solo that fits better with the song. Another would be thinking more like a drummer and getting much tighter rhythm going that way.  So what have you found that has helped you in that sort of way?

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there aren’t really any short cuts. But there are things you can do

First of all, who’s playing do you admire then? I’d bet my instruments that they didn’t take any short cuts on becoming the guitarist/musicians they are. They will have listened, absorbed and learned so much music. So transcribe the players you admire so much.

The logical follow on is ear training. Being able to hear what you want to play before you play it and informing the ear with even just a little bit of knowledge. If you hear and know where good notes are, that will lead to stronger melodic possibilities. 

It sounds like you’re fine with working on the ‘info’ but it’s how you ‘use’ said info that you want to work on right? If so that’s a mindset thing as much as anything and I find the trickiest part. Having the confidence to NOT do the usual flashy stuff is tough. But force yourself to be melodic as much as you can and play simple ideas to start off with. Better still, sing simple ideas and try to engage these with your instrument rather than letting your fingers run away with themselves. 

Tighter rhythm? Much the same as above really. Transcribe some great rhythm players from tunes that have great drumming and play along to the records. James Brown stuff is a good start (Funky Drummer, Its A New Day etc). The parts are simple yet really lock in with the band. Better still, find a great drummer (and bass player!) to actually do this stuff with. 

As other have said, having a tutor to guide you will really help. 

Have patience and be prepared for you playing to feel like it goes down hill for while, that’s normal. It’s not easy but you kind of have to break things down into order to build them back up. Good luck!

octatonic

Either go to music school, or get a good teacher.

There is no substitute for doing the work and putting in the time but many students practice the wrong things, or at least not enough of the right things.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of transcription.

DulcetJones

On the practical level here's something that worked for me.  Keep a guitar on a stand ready to pick up and play at any time.  Play a few things you're working on for a few minutes several times a day along with regular practice sessions.  I started doing this whenever my wife and I were getting ready to go somewhere, I was always ready up to 20 minutes before her so I'd grab the guitar and work on my latest things until she was ready.     Within a few weeks I was gaining major ground on things I had been struggling with for a couple of years.   Every little bit helps.

Roland

I find that picking up a guitar cuts her 20 minutes down to 5. Particularly if I turn an amp on.

Roland

It is a good way of practicing. I keep a guitar beside my armchair 

Lestratcaster

I can't stress how important learning proper rhythm playing is to your progress. Like how to count in 4/4 and subdivide the beats, and the values etc (e.g quarter/eighth notes). It makes learning solos so much easier as you know exactly what beat certain notes will start on (and they won't always be on the 1). And 90% of guitar playing is rhythm anyway. Simple stuff like chord charts is also good, like if a chord is 1 bar long, half a bar, 2 bars etc etc. So many advanced level players who come to me to improve can't even do this basic stuff and they wonder why they don't progress.

darthed1981

Roland said:

It is a good way of practicing. I keep a guitar beside my armchair 

Availability is totally key.

I try to play 5 mins a day even unplugged.

I still suck but it does help.

ricky50

Great ideas here guys - I'm doing quite a lot of them already.  I've got 4 guitars within arms length in the living room at all times.  The drummer and bass player in my band are shit hot and that really helps. I play every day.  Just about everyone is saying get a teacher/tutor so I'm going to do what you say. @Lestratcaster - agree about rhythm playing - I mainly play lead but if anything I enjoy rhythm more but I think you're right about putting more effort in to that and will take @Brad advice about Mr Brown.
@Brad - what's a good way to improve ear training? I can usually work out the chords and fairly simple solos to a song pretty quickly by ear.  I'm not exactly accurate but it's been enough to get by - any tips here?

Lestratcaster

I used to be really bad with basic rhythm knowledge, didn't know a quarter from an eighth note and couldn't count in different time signatures. I mean I could play in time ok but once something a bit more advanced came up I always struggled. You can apply rhythm to your lead playing, like how your phrases start, is it on the 1, on the 4, etc. If all your phrases when soloing always start on the 1 of each bar its going to be extremely boring and predictable. Think of the great players, Eddie van Halen is known for the Beat It solo isn't he? But he's a great rhythm player too look at the riffs he has!