Travel Magazine

21 Tips That Every Guitarist Should Keep in Mind

By Huntsends

Do you know the sentence that says that he who does not hear advice does not get old? Well, this post reflects very well the importance of taking into account the experience of those who know more than us: the immortal guitarists who have made history. Because listening to experiences through other guitarists is enriching and makes us better musicians. For this reason I have to tell you that whoever does not listen to what the best guitarists of all time have already experienced, will not become a good guitarist; that's how crude I am, yes.

Not all of these tips may work for you, as there are many factors such as your musical influences, your favorite style or your favorite guitarist. But for that you have a viscous device called a brain, so you can use it, read this and recycle what can help you.

Let's go guitarists! to enjoy!

1-Expand:

" Learn everything you know in all shades" - Joe Pass

2-Tell a story

" Think of a guitar solo as if it were a paragraph. It needs a beginning, a development and an end. Look at the musical phrases as phrases, and be sure to separate them using punctuation, or spaces. When you talk, you naturally pause, don't you? If you don't, you will bore the one who listens to you. The same will happen with your audience if you are only one-dimensional. You will wear them out and they will stop paying your attention. "-Tom Principality

3-Engrave yourself

" Recording your own music is one thing, but having to transmit something to another person is totally different. The recordings make you more critical with the way you play. You can't play notes anywhere, you have to make every note important, and if you can't play it cleanly, everything will be a disaster. You might think you sound fabulously on stage, but when you listen to yourself in the studio, it's simply disastrous most of the time. But if you can play well in the studio, you can play well on stage. "-Ritchie Blackmore

4-rhythmic solos

" If the group is playing in 7/4, try playing in 4/4. When you do this kind of thing, you realize that somehow the two rhythms synchronize with time. When you think of that length, you automatically begin to develop rhythmic ideas that have something that connects them. "- Jerry Garcia

5-Become a sponge

"Listening is as important as practicing . Your ears are your most valuable possession, and they work at an unconscious level. You should appropriate the ideas of as many different guitarists as possible, instead of choosing one and trying to emulate their style. Once you have assimilated a number of different approaches, try to mix them into one vision, instead of jumping from one style to another. "-Will Bernard

6-Rest and moderation

"Too much indulgence with anything is wrong, whether it's about practicing 50 hours a day or eating too much. With me there is a balance, and so it should be with anyone. I have tried to keep it to be able to execute the ideas that arise, but practicing a lot depresses me. I can get a good speed , but then start playing nonsense because I am not thinking. A good rest makes me think a lot. It helps me get both together, creativity and speed. "-Jeff Beck

7-Skip the obvious

"When you are playing with a vocalist or soloist, do not always play the fundamental note of the chord on the bass strings, especially if there is a bassist playing. Sometimes, the third and seventh of the chord is all you need if the one who plays the fundamental is the bassist. It will continue to sound complete, and the sound will not be thick. "-Tal Farlow

8-Without looking

"Adjust the amplifier volume and equalization by listening instead of looking at the settings. Simply close your eyes and turn the buttons so that the amplifier sounds better. I am constantly surprised when I open my eyes and discover things such as the bass is almost complete in one situation, or the treble is 10 in another. "-Cameron Williams

9-The mix

"Treat each guitar track and each song in a completely different way. For example, if I'm going to use a guitar amp on a track, I will deliberately look for something else for the next song or the next sound. "-Keith Richards

10-Alternate the spike

"A good way to work on the alternation of the pick is to choose three or four notes, and work on them. On many occasions, guitarists who try to improve their skill in the right hand remain hung when trying to play too many notes with the left hand. I have heard a lot of guitarists who play scales from the sixth string to the first, and play them in a careless way. Playing simple, using only a few notes, and playing slowly with a perfect rhythm is a task in itself. "-Al DiMeola

11-Search your style

"A good way to look forward to your personal style is to get a recorder, enter a somewhat dark room - where you don't have interruptions - and then just play with a drum machine. After a while, it will be like a deck of cards on the table: you can start to see the riffs that that guy made up, and the riffs that came from that one, and then the two or three riffs that are yours. Next, you will begin to focus on your riffs until an individual sound emerges. "-Carlos Santana

12-The touch

"The sound has more to do with the performance than with the equipment you have, and the most important thing is to turn off the sound at any time you are not playing. The sound damping can be done with the fingers or with the thumb, or with the palm of the hand and the thumb. Also, the way your finger comes in contact with the dishes creates a big difference. You have to know the key points of your guitar as a violinist would. "-Eric Johnson

13-The small steps

"It takes time to develop all aspects of your technique. Many people do not realize the crisis you have to go through. I used to have headaches when I started doing that of the octaves, but, over time, I was fine. All it takes is to hear a small improvement in your execution, and that little inspiration is often enough to go even further. "- Wes Montgomery

14-Share the music

"You must play for an audience, because the moment of truth occurs when you are in front of people. You may find that some of the things you have played in the rehearsal make no sense, since you fool around too much with frills and forgot the main purpose of the song. Playing live also teaches you to deal with situations such as dropping the spike or breaking a rope , as well as forcing you to anticipate those situations. He has to play your music somewhere, unless you want to sit in a room like a painter who doesn't want to show his paintings to anyone. "-Rory Gallagher

15-The noise

"Once you get off the beaten path of chords and notes, any noise can have its own musical writing microcosm. There is an extensive library of songs ranging from SOL to DO. But there isn't an extensive library of songs that use a switch and a wah pedal. It is a very wide path. "-Tom Morello

16-Separation

"Try to separate yourself from what your fingers do and listen to your amplifier." - Steve Vai

17-Give freedom to the alone

"I enjoy the individual lines that reflect the melody, but subtly change in a way that opens another window in the song. And these lines should have some freedom - some spontaneity. They should not be fully planned. "-Brian May

18- Improvise wisely

"Don't touch every lick you know one after another before the end, because then you'll be screwed. You'll end up repeating yourself. However, it is a very youthful thing to play in a jam. This is like sowing cereals, as you grow, you are interested in doing something more durable. Make sure that what you do is worthy of being heard again. I have become more dedicated to the song, and it seems to me that playing jams, unless I have a goal at the end of it, is almost a waste of time. "-Eric Clapton

19- The tonal colors

"Paint images with sound. First, find your white color - the deepest, the most rounded sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black color, the most extreme tonal difference compared to white. Now find all those colors in the middle. Find them and you will be able to express any emotion on the guitar. "-Les Paul

20-Melodic Delays

"A little bit of Delay can soften the unpleasant frequencies, the frequencies that you get from a fuzz pedal. I have two units, and I have different echo settings in both. There are times that both are working at the same time for certain effects. During some solo, I usually try to prepare the delays to have some kind of rhythmic compass in common with the melody. I usually prepare them to make triplets - the notes are intertwined, so it doesn't really matter anyway, but it seems to me that a triplet with delay is very melodic. "-David Gilmour

21- The Dynamics

"Never forget that dynamics is an important part in music. The quiet parts that build tension are what triggers a huge release that causes 100,000 kids to jump from top to bottom. "-Tom Morello


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