The Adrenaline Of Guitar

Imagine that someone came to me and asked "what is in your opinion the most important guitar lesson on the site of GuitArticles? which of ALL of the lessons should a student pay the most attention to, and think about on a daily basis?". My answer would be THIS guitar lesson. This is not a how to, a step-by-step, nor does it even feature some sort of example by way of video, audio, or tab. No, it is just so important that it can not be summed up so easily with a multi-media file, or me saying "put your 1st finger here, and play this".

This article in particular can be summarized by one word. ATTITUDE. When I say attitude, I'm not talking about feeling "bad ass", or metal or anything like that. Even soulful, gentle, emotional music has attitude. When I say attitude, I'm talking about what you feel inside when you play music on any instrument, or what you can potentially feel inside.

The shear thrill and energy that you get from playing the guitar shapes your decisions in phrasing, note choices, timing, feel, and most importantly - how you produce the notes or chords.

If you've ever seen my videos when I'm improvising, you will notice that there are times when I get quote, unquote - medieval with the notes. In other words, the feeling of immediate alignment causes me to snap the hell out of the strings. Not break them, snap them with so much emotion that I have inside that it can only come out through my hands.

This feeling is similar in intensity to the feeling that you get when you are really angry, but in a good way, and chances are my best playing comes forth after I have been frustrated for a very long time. Its a valve - its a release, and anyone (and many do) can use it in the form of guitar. It doesn't matter whether you consider yourself artistic, creative, beginner, intermediate, advanced, or "skilled" on the guitar, we all are people and we all carry the same emotions - USE THEM.

Intensity is more important than technique or theory. Period. Intensity can even come in the form of playing something quietly or gently, because this requires a focus that is on the same plateau as playing something ridiculously hard and loud.

You should also come to realize that this kind of control of expression over your playing does not happen right away, and it certainly doesn't happen in the first few years of playing guitar. No, first you must create some things for yourself that only you may like, AND a guitar player has to develop a decent sense of coordination and skill. It doesn't take much, but the better you get, the more ideas you can express (because you'll know how to express them), and you will have broadened your mental and physical palette to be able to play with. When I say play - I mean experiment. It would be kind of hard to write these words if there were only two letters in the alphabet - get it?

Below is a video of me jamming over one of my favorite songs. This is not a form of self promotion at all, because I actually consider this to be my worst jam yet (there are lots of mistakes). The point is, pay close attention to how much energy I put into my playing. It is at times intense, because I'm all their - mistakes included. If you listen closely, you can hear just the guitar strings over all of the noise.

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Are You A Guitar Drooler?

This is something that doesn't get talked about enough, yet I know that the guitar players who baptize their guitars with their fluids of mastication are out their reading this right now, and yes, I said mastication, and no - its not something that you do in the shower. It would be very difficult to eat a cheeseburger while bathing, or would it?

Anyways, you either have drooled on a guitar before, or you've witnessed someone doing this and have laughed at them. I will admit that I used to do this all the time, and I wish that someone had documented it because it would have been hilarious to see. If I had this video, I swear to God that I would post it on youtube - honestly.

I'm getting ready to make a point here - no, this is not a bullshit article like maybe you thought it would be.

First of all, if you've ever made fun of someone for accidentally salivating on their guitar neck while they were practicing, then you should keep your mouth shut :)......*bu-dump-tisss* - I bet you went home and did the exact same thing.

So lets break this down. When you drool upon your guitar, what does this tell you about your current physical state? It tells you that your mouth was open for a period of time and that you forgot to swallow and that you stupidly allowed the fluids to flow out of your mouth, and onto Lucille, Betty, Mom, or whatever you've named that thing.

Now what does this tell you? It tells you that your mind was elsewhere. In fact, it tells you that your brain was so distant that you couldn't even control your basic motor functions - careful! don't make a mess in your pants!

Why was this happening? because all of your mental energy was being funneled to one place. Where? your hands of course. I could be wrong, but I would bet you that more beginning to intermediate guitar players drool on their guitars than advanced guitar players.

Advanced guitar players rarely find something so challenging to work on that would cause them to bathe their guitars in saliva. Sometimes it still happens though ;)

I feel bad for the advanced players and good for you if you are at the beginning of your guitar journey. Why? because what you are displaying when you have this "accident" is the shear mental power that you need to keep thriving in order to reach a certain level of guitar playing.

Perhaps you even get a headache after practicing guitar - that's great! this tells me that you are able to blot out everything and make true, and worth while progress on the guitar.

I'm telling you this because you need to be aware of this kind of mental dedication to your craft. I can't tell you how many times I have said, or have heard said "I play it perfectly, but as soon as I think about what I'm playing - I screw it up!". Does that sound familiar. Thinking hard about what you are playing is not the same as mental focus.

This may be the cause of your lacking of progress with a certain lick or song. I'm a strong believer that guitar evolution is 50% mental and 50% physical, and I talk about this a lot in my book, The essential guide to guitar virtuosity.

A strong sense of awareness is a very, very powerful tool for the guitar player. This is also why it is so important to focus in the right way. I don't know about you, but every time I'm recording a piece, its me - I'm their - I feel my inner spirit, but then when I go back to play the recording - it sounds like someone else played it.

This also tells you that the brain can really cloud your judge meant when practicing. This is also why it is so important to be somewhat self critical, but in a healthy way. You have to be honest with yourself in order to make progress. Dimebag Darrell for instance, used to carry a tape recorder around with him when he was a kid and play back what he had previously recorded. He was always asking himself "how can I make this better?" - "it seems to be a little bit off" - "I need to work on my fretting hand strength", etc.

So if you're having trouble getting into that "zone" sometimes, without the use of narcotics, then think about all the times that you drooled on your guitar. It can be a difficult thing to isolate the parts of the brain that you need, but it can be done, and perhaps you've done it in small instances.

Be aware that this is the mental place that you need to put yourself in.

Keep your head up - hardy har har.

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Staying Motivated

There is a major problem in the mindset of most people, when it comes to tackling a new challenge. As you may know, depending on how far you plan to go with maximizing your guitar skills, you will no doubt be stared down by the face of overwhelm-meant.


The point is that whether you want to play like Keith Richards, or shred like Malmsteen, you will be challenged evenly, like the rest of us. This is a part of the learning process, and the more advanced the style of music that you choose to pursue, the more ground you'll have to cover.

This is very daunting for newer guitarists, so allow me to share with you some positive news.

The first thing that may be difficult for you to understand, is that learning and developing your skills as a guitarist improve over time. Its kind of like compound interest. It grows with speed and mass. What this means, is that as you get older, you will still continue to encounter difficult passages, but the difference is that you will be able to nail them very quickly. The reason for this is because you know how to teach yourself better now. You know how to take your time and you can detect when are really getting it. Your hands become more sensitive and you notice every little difference in the way you pick a string, and the way your fingers push down on the frets. If you are playing guitar and have just started, feel comforted in knowing that this process has already begun for you, and will grow very quickly.

Take your time. I can not put enough emphasis on this. If you are aspiring to become a fast guitarist, just promise yourself to be a little patient. Let me give you a scenario. You are just starting to learn some fast riffs. You can only play them very slowly. Let's assume that you practice these riffs for an hour everyday, while taking your time. Now lets play around with the opposite scenario. Lets say that you are playing these same riffs for an hour a day, but you've decided to jump right in and try and shred them right off the bat. Let us look at the progress after 3 weeks of practicing, involving both approaches.

1. After 3 weeks of picking cleanly and working your speed and dexterity up = insanely fast picking skills and amazing fluidity. Not to mention a head that is now full of understanding and mass amounts of creativity.

2. After 3 weeks of trying to be Malmsteen reincarnate = no one can even tell what you are playing. No distinguishable notes can be heard. You are trying too hard and its depressing. The worst part is that it is going to now take you at least 9 weeks to catch up to your wiser self.

A trick to keeping focused with this kind of development, is to enjoy the music that you are playing, even if it is slow. Speed can be beautiful, but music as a whole has been described as the language of God. Keep this in mind.

One more thing before I depart. Even the best guitarists wake up in the morning playing terribly. Its just something that happens. I had a really good friend who would pick up a guitar, hit a few awful notes and then put the guitar back down, exclaiming "I'm just not feeling it today". The sad thing was that had he kept with it for about a half hour, he would have caught right back up to where he had been the day before. Once you reach that half hour mark, you can then build upon your current skill level. Increasing it by a notch. Tomorrow repeat this process. Just always take your time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I wouldn't steer you wrong. These really are the ultimate secrets to becoming the guitarist that you see yourself as.

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To Wah Or Not To Wah

At some point or another a guitarist will start itching to purchase their first ever wah wah pedal, and for good reason too. The wah pedal is by far one of the coolest articles of gear that you could have in your own collection, and the reason for that, is because it has very diverse and dynamic properties. As you know, it has found a variety of uses in musical styles and has even been able to overcome its association with porno music, hehe.

You of course can pick up a standard Crybaby Wah for a reasonable price, online or at any music store or guitar center. However, when you get home, you may be surprised to learn that its not exactly what you had expected, that is to say, if you have never tried or owned a wah pedal before .

There are two types of guitarists who use wah pedals. Those who stand there and apply it like they would if they were Jake-braking, and those who really listen to what's going on. I would now like to focus on the ever conscious, wah user.

You should first understand, that there is a wide pattern of sound alterations at your disposal, when you have the pedal before you. Most people who are first timers with it, take it out of the box and have this preconceived idea that when they push down on the pedal with their foot, it has a spring and will spring back into place. This isn't true. It is totally up to you to control it. So lets take a look at what most guitarists are missing out on.

When you push down with your heal, pulling the front of the pedal up, you are in the low range.

My personal, aesthetic likes for this position are:

1. A smooth blending between the notes, especially when using the lower strings, E,A,D.

2. A quiet presence for when another instrument needs to be more prominent.

3. It also has an almost mechanical sound to it, which makes things like pick scrapes sound incredible.

When the pedal is pushed down all of the way with your toes, you will get your high range sounds.

My personal, aesthetic likes for this position are:

1. Sharpened clarity.

2. A nice boost for leads.

3. Removes the sound of most picking frequencies (if that is the desired effect).

4. Great for creating a rhythmic "swoosh" sound (the high end of the sexy porno sound)

5. Amazing pinch harmonics.

6. Makes tremolo picking of a double bend sound Godly.


The key to developing a great approach to the wah pedal is to experiment with what you like. I know that sounds like an obvious answer, and it is, but what I really mean when I say that, is that you should really do some test runs and pay close attention to the smallest nuances and how they react to what you're playing at that time, because its always different. With time, you can learn to control it and get the desired sound every time.

Zakk Wylde took a deck of playing cards, removed some to alter the thickness and then anchored them underneath the heal portion of the pedal. He had made up his mind about how much of the low end he liked, and rigged it so that the pedal could only come back so far.

You'll also notice that a guitarist like Zakk Wylde, will often times blast into a guitar solo, by "wah-ing" into the first notes or first few notes.

Also realize, that when using the wah pedal, speed has a lot to do with it. If you do a wah-ing motion quickly, it obviously has a completely different sound to it, as opposed to doing it slowly.

Now, don't get me wrong, some people like to just wah away, but I've jammed with a lot of these players over the years, and eventually started asking myself "do these guys know that they have options?". If you like that approach, great! and more power to ya, but just know that there is more than meets the eye, or ear.

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10 Ways To Maximize Your Guitar Playing

Many times it is necessary to acquire an over-all knowledge and understanding of how to go about practicing guitar, as opposed to just learning techniques, riffs, scales and modes. All of these things are highly important of course but when applied correctly, can make the ultimate difference in progress. Progress is the ticket for many guitarists because everyone, no matter what their passion is, strives for personal growth.

Even if a guitarist starts out sloppy and looks at their own playing half-heartedly, eventually they will start taking it more seriously, because they tend to get a taste of what's possible in their own playing. Eventually a guitarist will become somewhat of a perfectionist, and for many the word perfection is sublime, but once you attach that "ist" to it, it some how taints the beautiful word perfection, by suggesting that there is a lot of work involved.

Well, I would be lying if I said that there wasn't any work involved, but feel comfortable in saying that, because if you do play guitar, then you already know that there is no real easy method to establishing an exclusive prestigiousness in your playing.

However there are two ways of looking at this. I don't believe in right and wrong, I only believe in good and better. In my opinion there is no wrong way to do anything, only a better way and I strongly believe that those who have chosen to remove words such as "can't" and "wrong" from their vocabulary, travel further. Also, a hard lesson for most of us, and I certainly am no different, is this false form of competition. The competition that I am speaking of, comes in the form of competing with time itself. Usually this is cleverly masked as competing with someone who is better than yourself. This is an unhealthy form of competition. You shouldn't compete with those who are more advanced than yourself in anything that you do in life. Instead, you should correct your thinking and use them as a milestone to reach. This is a mandatory outlook, and I am sorry if you do not agree, but after studying many things in my life, it still stands tried and true.

There is one person that you should compete with, and only that person. That person is you. By doing this, you inspire and push yourself to accomplish what you know that you are capable of doing. Yes, this is a pep talk, but I often remind myself in my life of these very same things, though over time it gets easier and easier to the point where you almost don't have to remind yourself of these desirable attributes in thinking.

There is so much more to be said with what I have started to say, and over time I will reveal more aspects about the correct thought process, but can't here, because this post would be massive. I'll leave you with this very true thought. Success in anything is 90% proclaimed by the correct and positive mindset. Re-read that and eliminate the word "correct".

1. Practice everyday for an hour. For many of you, finding the time to tackle personal interests is daunting, considering that many of you work your asses off in the job world, and many of you have a family to attend to, not to mention the things that would seem necessary to conquer in order to exist. Its all about being able to manage your time. An hour isn't much and can be fulfilled effectively. The best time that I have found to practice is with the TV on and the sound on mute. If you have a favorite program that you cannot get away from, keep your guitar handy and practice during the commercials. That is not the most effective way to practice but it still does the trick. Practicing throughout the day or evening is the best way. Practice for 20 minutes, take care of something that requires your attention, go back and practice for 10 minutes, take care of something else, then practice for 25 minutes.

That is not a formula. Don't take me literally when I say practice for 20, then 10 and then 25. The key is to break it up and you really shouldn't keep track, unless you are having trouble disciplining yourself.


2. If possible work with a metronome. You can buy one for peanuts, but there are a lot of free ones out there like Seventh String Metronome. My personal favorite is a program called Guitar Speed Trainer. I like it the best because its an actual training method that doesn't require a lot of time, and you can program your own passages into it. The best part about it is that it has the typical tick-tock sound of a metronome, but it is one step better for the simple reason that you can match up the notes you play with the notes that are being played in the program.

The key to using a metronome is to find your limit and then set the metronome to an extremely conservative number. If you can play something very easily at 80bpm (beats per minute) then set it to 60bpm, no matter how incredibly boring it is. Practice a riff at this speed several times over, until it is flawless, then set the metronome for anywhere between 61 and 65bpm. Take breaks in between, repeating this process until you have reached a speed where your hands lose control, then stop. Call it a day. The next time you go to practice, practice starting at 60, and then practice starting at a slightly higher setting like 65bpm. Use that formula for taking breaks and slowly building your speed. It will take a little bit of time to reach your goal, but being consistent is what will get you there, very quickly. You'll be glad you did it.

3. Don't always practice the same thing. I am always coming up with new picking and fretting hand approaches to share with you, because I realize the importance of creating diversity in the picking and fretting hand. Attempt to step back and look at the exercises that you are playing, and make the effort to figure out how you can make them a little more difficult, interesting and melodic to challenge yourself. Then practice them with the metronome using that same principle. Figure out different timings and look at ways to make your picking hand pick out 2 notes on this string, 3 notes on that string and 4 notes on another string, within the same pattern or exercise.

4. Practice with one chord. Pick any chord and see how you can condition yourself to come up with different strumming approaches and rhythms. Really think about it. "I'll try playing this chord with 3 strums in even timing. Now I'm going to take that chord, play 2 strums and hesitate before the 3rd and final strum", or "I'll play this chord five times, with 4 down strokes, but the 5th one will be an upstroke".

5. Practice with multiple chords. Go out there on the world wide web and find a chord chart. Pick five chords randomly and play each one over and over again, repeating its name as you are playing it. Then, ignoring chord progression formulas, rearrange the order of those 5 chords. This will help you memorize and will train your ear for ultimate modulation. After you have mastered those 5 chords, add another 5 chords. Now you have 10 guitar chords to work with when you experiment with chord progression. Continue you this process.

6. Get a simple tape deck for recording purposes. I would say use some recording software that you might have, but a tape is a little bit faster, for when you want to recording quickly and have immediate playback. Record yourself playing a chord that interests you. Record yourself strumming it over and over again, with any rhythm that you like, but make sure to record it for a good length. Play it back and then solo over it, which brings us to....

7. Soloing. People think to hard about guitar and they think way to hard about soloing on the guitar. They have no idea because they choose to be stubborn and not correct their thinking. It is not hard. Forget scales - forget modes. Do you honestly think that when I am improvising, I am thinking about what mode I am playing out of? If someone asks me later what mode I was playing out of, I can most certainly backtrack and define, but let's look at the word theory. Theory, as in theoretical, as in theoretically this is a way to explain something so that two people can be on the same page, but it is a tool like the guitar and it is far from being set in stone. Unfortunately, people base their musical lives around this. I know that I am going to get a lot of shit for this but I have a label for these people. Nerd. The other side of the coin is "artist". So which are you? both can share this world of music, but both must find the balance. The world of musical theory is beautiful and fascinating, but until a guitarist is willing to experiment, it will not make a lot of sense, no matter how knowledgeable they are. Which brings us to....

8. Improvising. Yngwie Malmsteen declared that "the genesis
of all musical creation comes from improvisational playing". I know that I have quoted him before, but I can't even put it as well as he did. Don't be afraid of it. Too many people ask how you get started improvising and then developing your own solos. The answer? develop your own style. Listen to a lot of different types of music and not just guitar related music, and yes, Malmsteen even said the same thing. Build a massive collection of varying musical genres and then jam with those CDs or mp3s as often as possible. You're going to suck at first, but that's a part of any challenge. Start with a note and if it matches what you are listening to, then find another note that matches to go along with that note. Try to keep in rhythm with the music that you are listening to while you are playing those 2 notes, and then take a chance and grab another note. That 3rd note may not work so well, but you always have options like bending or sliding that note up to one that does work. In doing this, you are training your reflexes. I still hit a lot of funky notes when I improvise, but have taught myself to correct them, almost before its noticed. You can do this too. Some people don't even know when I've made a mistake and some people do. I don't care because I'm having fun. That's the whole point of music and people are quick to forget this. Which brings us to the fact that the best musician, artist, scientist, human beings....

9. Do not judge. I have learned so much from musicians who were not nearly at my level of skill, just as much as I have learned from those who were way beyond it. The thing to ask yourself, is whether or not you are doing this for yourself or for other people. If your answer is that you are playing what you want to play, the way that you want to play it for yourself, then you have already won. The reason is because even those who have massive dreams to become musical icons, start with what they want to hear in music. One of my other great passions is filmmaking and the greatest filmmakers, Fellini, Scorsese, Kubrick were highly self indulgent. Most people are too afraid to be this way. They feel that it is selfish and they are sadly mistaken. When you have an idea or a style in anything that you do, you will attract to you, those who appreciate it, and considering that the world currently suffices 6 billion people, I think that if you desire to, you can certainly find those like minded individuals. My point for saying all of that was because it is important to realize that the most unlikely sources can be great teachers. Mankind desires recognition. Give your fellow man recognition. This is key and the reason is, because those who cannot recognize others around them are not capable of recognizing
their own self worth, and therefor, their own potential. You could say that this is really heavy stuff, and you are right in saying so, but the truth of the matter is that everyone has at least a personal dream of what they want to see come out of themselves, and even the everyday Joe, who just wants to learn a few chords, has a secret longing to see where they can take an instrument such as the guitar. It does not matter how far you want to take it, but everyone presents themselves with a challenge that is worthy of themselves. Sadly, few go through with this, when it is just around the corner. This now brings us to the conclusion, which is....

10. Limit yourself. This is a trick that Steve Vai uses that I read about when I was a kid, and it almost works too well. What you do is pick two notes, generally next to each other but they can really be anything. Take those two notes and play only those notes for as long as you can. You can do absolutely anything that you want with them. Bends, sliding up, sliding down, hammer-ons, pull-offs, tremolo picking, etc. Make a good attempt every now and then to play those 2 notes for at least a half hour. I'm not going to paint a pretty picture. At first it is interesting and you come up with lots of ideas for those 2 notes, but after about 5 minutes, you start to lose your mind. However, if you stick with it, you will very soon realize that there is a whole plethora of concepts and ideas out there.

The important thing about this exercise is that when you finally give yourself a break, your hands go crazy. Its like they've been couped up in a prison cell for 6 years and are now being set free. The ideas will flow to you so quickly that your mind can barely keep up. I will also say, that this method of training no doubt works best if you are pretty relaxed when it comes to improvising on the guitar.

Final thoughts. I will admit that this was a lengthy-ass post, but hopefully you can pat yourself on the back for the fact that
you are reading this part as well, which means that (hopefully) you have read the whole thing. You will notice a common factor that seems to act as an under-layer throughout these 10 methods of guitar training. That layer is the metaphysical, aka mental power. This was cold turkey, I admit that as well, but I did not write in such a heavy manner to scare you, I wrote it this way not to even inspire you. You can only inspire yourself. I wrote this to hopefully settle that negative thought process and shitty attitude that most guitarists have. Why are guitar players so arrogant? well, you don't have to be. No matter how good you become, there will always be someone better and that's a very good thing. It will push you to get better, at the same time keeping you humble.

The over-all message is to just have fun with it. This is not work, this is play. Those 10 approaches to playing really do work, but if you apply them, you have to think of it as fun and get excited about the progress that you are making. More tips to come as we continue on this amazing journey.

Peace!

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Guitar tip No. 2 "Time to be picky"

Guitar tip No. 2

There are a lot of people out there who want to be
insanely fast at guitar. There are a lot of people
out there who ARE insanely fast. The main thing to
remember, is that speed is not everything. If it is
to you, then you will become an obnoxious guitarist.
Sorry, but its true. However, if you can play fast,
then you can certainly play slow, as well.

So, before we get to the juicy details of warm-ups and
speed drills, I would first like to inform you of a
helpful tool, that will end up becoming your best
friend during the long and lonely hours of practicing.

Before I tell you what it is, I would first like to
say, that I in no way endorse this product, nor am I
a part of any affiliate program with them. I realize
that the other day, I had recommended using B52 guitar
strings. I was simply recommending them, because I
love them, even more than my top secret collection
of Eddie Van Halen toe nail clippings (whoops).

Anyways, you should check out a speed training guitar
pick called the Stylus pick. They're very inexpensive
and will do wonders for your playing. Seriously, get one.
Start practicing with a metronome, starting out at
a slow speed. Google Stylus pick, and read about how
the Stylus pick works. In the mean time, I'll get
started on some speed training exercises that you
can do, and throw them your way, by way of this blog.

Check back real soon for that stuff.

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Guitar tip No. 1 "Strung Out"

Guitar tip No. 1


Since this is the first of many guitar related tips to come,
I'm going to try and think and write in a linear fashion.
My first bit of advice goes to those who play electric guitars.
Don't worry! I will indeed be sharing knowledge on acoustics
and classicals as well, so don't feel excluded if you don't
play on an electric guitar at all.

Its all about the strings. I highly suggest my brand of choice,
which would be the Everly B52's. Sounds intriguing, wouldn't
you say? and for good reason! the B52's are a great example of
what happens when man (as a race - not being a shovenist)
is at his best. To be more specific, when man has a lot of time
on his or her hands and is able to use that inner-space to
channel outstanding ideas, that better influence and aid the
world.

The 52's that I speak of are wound with nickel. 48% iron and
52% nickel (hence the name). The Everly's have named their
combination "Alloy 52", and it would appear that this combination
is highly magnetic. What this means, is that if you were to
play a full chord, using all six strings, you would hear
every string ring with the same continuity. Your ears can
literally detect each note. The notes do not drown each
other out.

What's more, is that if you happen to play a style of electric
guitar that utilizes a lot of harmonics, you will be able to
achieve the purist sounding harmonics you've ever heard.

Ever thought of doing pinch harmonic chords? Use B52's.

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