Plenty to say

So there are a few things going on.

I'll be starting regular lessons next Monday. I'm a little worried, as I hope that the chord voicings I learn with my teacher don't collide too badly with my work on the Leavitt book. I don't think it will.

I've committed to going to a blues or jazz jam at least once a month. This is going to be hard for me, since I'm really not any good yet.

And... well, that's all for right now.

Done at last

With the first half of the Leavitt book. Wow, it really turns into one MF the further you go.

I'll spend the rest of the month reviewing the first half and enjoying it, and then move on to the second half of part 1 next month, hopefully finishing by Christmas. February is more likely, though.

I'll also start taking lessons on a regular basis starting next month.

Wow. That's a lot of learning. That's worth spending money on. The guitars themselves, not so much. Why spend money on an expensive guitar if you can't play? And why spend money on a brand name? Just get a guitar that plays well. And I have several of those already.

Got a teacher

Studying alone has been good, but not enough.

I have a teacher now. I'll be working with him for a while at least, getting my chord shapes under control. While I can do the simplest of voicings, I have trouble with anything that's really cool.

I expect that to change.

7 Deadly Mindsets that Hold You Back from Learning Effectively

Lifehack has a great article on 7 Deadly Mindsets that hold you back from learning effectively. These can easily be reworked into 7 mental roadblocks to improving your guitar playing.

1) I'm too old to learn
This is pretty straightforward, though it should also include too young to learn.

2) I know everything
While it isn't normal for us to think as guitarists that we're the absolute best, it is fairly common for us to say that we don't need to study any more theory, learn how to read, learn more scales, learn more chord voicings.

3) I'm not smart enough
This ties into the above statement about knowing enough theory, but it can also be extended to the physical aspect of playing-- "I'm not fast enough, and can't move my fingers that fast". This isn't true at all, all that is needed is more applied practice to improve hand strength (in most cases).

4) There are many people who are better than me
Well, duh.

5) This is not for me
Keeping motivated is tough, and I don't have a solution yet. I keep myself motivated by sheer force.

6) Not focus
Whoo boy. Gear craze goes here, as does skipping between different methods without reason.

7) I can learn it another day
You need to practice every day to keep on track. Don't put your guitar in a case, or it will stay in there much longer than you ever imagined.

Have I been keeping the faith?

Hell yeah.

I've been putting in 1-2 hours each day with my guitar. The very least that I do is scale exercises, mostly I work out of the Leavitt book. I've re-started the Leavitt book; I obtained the DVD edition, and it's so much more complete with the DVD that I felt it would be good to go back to the beginning.

In addition, I'm also revising everything else about my playing; my left hand technique (aiming for a more correct embechoure), my right hand technique (minimizing motions, changing pick holding, changing pick type).

One interesting observation from the Jazz Guitar mailing list: there's too much time in the woodshed, not enough playing of gigs. I'm not ready to gig right now, but even if I were, I'd be lucky to play once or twice a week, and not for good money. I'm going to have to figure out my own solution to this. The problem is that with too few gigs, music becomes more and more academic.

This is the same reason that we end up obsessing about gear, and which pick to use, and how pure the signal chain is, and all that nonsense. If you're actually playing, there's no time for that garbage. You grab your guitar and go. It's when you're woodshedding, or especially if you're avoiding woodshedding, that you spend that time.

Lately I haven't even been plugging my archtop in for practice sessions; I'm trying so hard to focus on my playing and my playing alone, that I could really give a damn about tone and all that nonsense. Even intonation isn't that that big a concern. A concern, yes, but not life-shattering. I'm spending way too much time on the stuff that doesn't matter, and way too little time with the instrument in my hands.

But I'm fixing that problem, slowly.

the problem with equipment

See, here's the deal. I don't work as a professional musician. My day job does give me some leisure-esque time to think about my playing, however.

Since I don't have a guitar with me at work, though, I spend that time foolishly looking at eBay and considering "what amp do I need", or "what should be my next guitar", rather than thinking about practicing, and theory, and becoming a better player. The guitars I have right now could easily serve me for the next 3-5 years of practice, if I'd just leave well enough alone and focus on learning. Instead, I'm constantly thinking about what I should spend money on.

Money can't buy you love, though, and it can't buy you tone or technique. Only time will provide those things. If I handed my current guitars to any good player, they'd have them making wonderful music, even though I only see the limitations that those guitars provide. Yes, even with my brand new ones.

It's the frustration of not being able to really work on my guitar during the day that's seeping through.

possible teacher

There's a new music store opening up near my office. I'm pretty excited, for two reasons. First, they focus on used gear instead of new. This may help me find some of the stuff I've been wanting for a while.

More importantly, though, they'll have lesson studios. That means I might actually find someone that I can take lessons from! This would make a huge difference in my playing, I know.

Closeouts and Specials - D'Angelico Guitarts Direct

Wonderful guitars atCloseouts and Specials - D'Angelico Guitarts Direct for CHEAP.

settling down

I'm trying to settle down on the equipment front. Last night I put the tube amp that's been making me mad into the garage. Instead I pulled out the PA, and set up my PC laptop with Band in a Box, along with the GuitarPort. This gives me a pretty darn complete practice setup that can get LOUD if I want to, but has a minimal number of parts to configure. This will let me work a lot more easily, and hopefully focus a lot less on the tech and equipment.

Vai.com > Little Black Dots > Martian Love Secrets

Vai.com > Little Black Dots > Martian Love Secrets is a set of articles written by Steve Vai and originally published in Guitar Player magazine. It's not s set of exercises, it's more a way of thinking about playing.

What can I do? What can't I do?

I need to take stock of my current skill set. Sometimes it's easy for me to say "I can't play guitar" when it's not really true.

What am I able to do?

* Play common folk and rock chord voicings, both open and barred.
* Use a capo to quickly transpose.
* Read chord charts
* Read standard notation when played in 1st position
* Play major scales in two or three different forms
* Struggle through arpeggios
* Play solid rhythms
* Play many worship tunes by memory

What am I unable to do?

* Play arpeggios fast
* Play many different minor scales and modal scales
* Play more "interesting" voicings of chords
* Play REALLY solid rhythms
* Play many jazz tunes by memory

I think I'll try to edit this post regularly. It's good to keep an inventory of current progress.

Too many choices

I'm still practicing, and I'm becoming happy with the results.

However, I have too many choices when I practice. Should I use my amp, or the GuitarPort, or the RP300? Should I work out of the Leavitt, with Band in a Box, or with Aebersold? How many scales, which ones, what positions?

I'm losing focus. Over the next week, I'm going to start narrowing my choices so that I can work on what matters for improving my playing, not just practicing all over the map.

Yeah, I'm still practicing

I'm doing really well, actually. I've allowed myself to get a little distracted by some tools (new guitars, stuff like that), but I'm doing pretty well.

I now have 2 new guitars this year, which should be more than enough for anyone. I've got an Epiphone Dot Studio, which is a semihollowbody, and an Ibanez Artcore AG85, which is a full hollowbody. I'm firmly in the jazzer camp, I guess.

Nothing like some hardware reinforcement to what I was thinking anyhow.

Unfretted

Unfretted is a website devoted to the fretless guitar. Now, I've played fretless bass and loved it. After a year or so of developing some chops, I can honestly see the possibilities of getting an inexpensive guitar, ripping out the frets, epoxying the fretboard, and playing an instrument that is completely unlike what anyone else is playing. That could be really cool.

Early morning practice

I slightly made up for last night's silliness by practicing for fifteen minutes this morning. It wasn't much, but it did help some. One nice thing about the Dot is that I can practice without plugging in. I just started up a metronome and began working through my stuff.

My speed was a lot slower than normal, though. I realize now that I warm up unintentionally every evening before practicing by running major scales and scale patterns for a half hour to an hour while sitting with the family watching TV. I will not consider that "wasted" practice time any more. It's very valuable for getting my fingers up to speed.

Another night without discipline

At least there's a little bit of an excuse.

I didn't stay on target for the method book, but I at least got in around 45 minutes of various play using Band in a Box. There's just too many tunes available in BiaB to easily put it aside. I also didn't feel like playing my exercises with headphones on, so it was either practice without a metronome, or play along with BiaB. That turned out to be an easy choice.

I'm kind of worried about the intonation on my Dot. I seem to feel some slight intonation issues in the lower frets, but I can't really pin it down. It might be due to my play with a death grip (instead of lightly touching the strings), since the guitar is almost perfectly intonated according to the best tuner I have available. With the tiniest bit of overdrive, it sounds really great. When it's completely clean, though, there's the faintest bit of trouble. I don't know if this is normal or not.

iBreatheMusic.com - The Secret of Speed by Jamie Andreas

iBreatheMusic.com - The Secret of Speed by Jamie Andreas is an article about how to lighten up playing technique, so that the fingers can breeze as they play. I know that I have an issue in this regard.

Lessons?

Yeah, I'm starting to think that lessons are in order.

I can probably wait perhaps as long as a year, but I'll need lessons in order to really break through with my playing. I can have fun instructing myself, but to burst through and be a guitar player (instead of someone who plays a little guitar), I'm going to need to do some serious study under someone who can play like a mofo.

One problem I forsee is that I'm a good bassist, and I'm worried that an instructor might try to rope me into playing bass again. That wouldn't be horrible, but it's not really where I want to be.

Now that's better...

Today I slowed down and played through the outstanding pieces using my amp, rather than through headphones. It really did make a difference, although I didn't think it would. It was really cool to get such a totally different sound and vibe from playing.

I'm still going to spend the whole week in review; I've got a really long way to go before I'm done learning how to play the guitar. It's important for me to remember that I don't really need special gear or anything like that. All I need is my guitar, and my learning materials.

disappointing review

I'm pretty unhappy about my progress this past week. I spent a lto of time playing, and on those days I should have played only after practicing.

There are four pieces I've selected that I will hold myself back on for next week. I'll spend this week really tightening up on those few pieces, getting tempos solid and tone as well. I really bet that I'll be able to lock them in with just a little extra work, and that will leave me in a better position for next week's work. I didn't want to add new things to my plate without the old material being really solid.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do gear-wise in the medium term. I plan to slowly build a rig from what I have now, not making any major moves in my equipment. I'll replace things like my RP300 with a 350, but I'm also not going to buy any more gear that I wouldn't consider taking to any gig I might land. All amps, all guitars, all effects have to be gig-worthy.

Not that there are any gigs coming soon. I'm keeping myself out of that possibility until I really ramp up my playing.

Getting blue

So far today, I've been more interested in playing (again) rather than going straight to my method work. Today I picked out some blues from Band in a Box and just turned up my tube amp. Very nice. I got a great tone with no effort from my tube amp + dot. One thing that did, though, was to make me question my desires to play jazz music. I enjoy jazz, but it was really something else to kick into the blues.

Of course, living in Texas, it's pretty darn easy to find excuses to play the blues and country music, and rather harder to find outlets for Jazz. This does make me think about rewinding to some of my earlier desires-- I wanted primarily to become a better player, not specifically in one mode or another.

Just playin'

Tonight I took a break from the regular method book and just had some fun playing. I broke out BIAB, and pulled up a chart for All of Me. I turned off the built-in melody, and took the head and 2 improv choruses myself.

Not bad for as short a time as I've been trying to make this guitar thing work.

I also tried out the "essential jazz lick #1" from the included 101 jazz licks. I couldn't get anywhere near the established tempo of 200bpm, but I had no problems up to around 140. After 10 minutes, at 110, I was completely locked in.

I think it's going to take a loooong time before I'm really ready. Thankfully, I indeed have that time.

Influences

A lot of guitarists (and other musicians, and artists) will discuss who their influences are, especially when starting a new band.

I'm having trouble defining my musical influences right now. I know who I like to listen to, but I don't know if they're really the people that I want to play like. There's a huge difference between the two. I really love listening to the grateful dead, but I'm not sure that I really want to try to play like Jerry or Bobby. The two of them work really well within their own musical genre, but their playing isn't transcendent. I'd like to play in a way that goes beyond any particular style or genre.

If I could knock that out, it'd be a huge win.

The value of recording

Today I recorded myself playing the first three Leavitt etudes, using a combination of the GuitarPort and GarageBand.

I listened to the recordings only enough to make sure that they worked. I intend to pull them out for a serious listening in a month or two. This is something that should help me get a good feel for my improvements.

It used to be that recording yourself in this manner was a complicated setup. Not any more. One inexpensive recording device ($100), and GarageBand came with my Macintosh. PC users could use something like FL Studio, I imagine. I recommend against audacity, because it doesn't automatically compensate for latency. Whatever tools you use, if you can set them up for recording, you're going to advance your playing by great leaps and bounds. Listening, as always, is the key. How is your intonation-- REALLY. How is your note duration? How is your sense of rhythm?

The tape (or hard disk recording) tells all.

No compromises

One thing that I've decided is that I won't compromise anymore when it comes to deciding what music I will play. I won't compromise when it comes to my sound. I won't compromise when it comes to my skill.

I've made compromises before to be "acceptable", or to get a gig, or whatever. No more. I'm going to get good, and I'm going to get good the way I want to.

This is really an important decision. I'm not young enough any more to harbor illusions about my playing abilities. I also don't need to play in public anymore; I've already done that. Now it's just about doing what I want to do.

This is really liberating, because I'm setting my sights as high as I possibly can. This doesn't mean I'll hold my nose and refuse to play for other people, but when I do, it needs to be an incidental thing, not a regular event.

About soloing

On Soloing is a great article from Jazz Guitar magazine. Really, these principles are true for any type of guitar playing. Most importantly: don't mess around with your sound. Find one or two tones that work for you, and stop.

This is something that I've been looking at. Yes, I'm enamored of the fact that my guitar has a lot of different tones available just by varying the volume control, but they're all very similar at their core. I've been laying into just one or two sounds with my practice gear, and it makes it much easier for me to focus on practicing, instead of constantly twiddling knobs.

Get a good sound, and stay there.

Setting goals

I'm starting (finally) to get my goals in shape.

10 years: I want to lead a guitar-focused jazz combo that performs locally for coffee shops and wine bars.

5 years: I want to be a strong enough guitarist to help my sons learn to play very well.

2 years: I want to show enough progress in learning guitar that buying a "pro" guitar does not seem like a preposterous idea.

1 year: I want to complete the Leavitt Method volume 1.

3 months: I want to complete the first half of the Leavitt Method volume 1.

Take a pick

Lots of picks, and some of them are really interesting. Of particular note are the Jerry Garcia handprint and monster face picks. Also, they have really good prices on wooden picks.

Of course, Brossard picks look fabulous as well.

Little brother

Little brother
Originally uploaded by h0ss.

I took the plunge and picked up the extremely reasonably priced Epiphone Dot Studio with a worn brown finish. For $200, this guitar can't be beat. I don't know if it can be beat at 2-3 times the price.

The natural finish is gorgeous, and the lack of inlays makes the neck look amazing. There are a huge number of tones in this thing, too.

Practicing is different from playing

I need to spend time tomorrow night working on the solo piece that is giving me such trouble. I played through everything else without incident tonight, which means that I've really got just one thing to focus on.

I'll probably warm up by running through the eighth-note exercises at a quick pace (120-140), then run through some chordal bits, and then settle into actually learning the solo piece.

It's the first thing in this method that I've needed to actually work at, so it's taking some getting used to, idea-wise.

The new week is... a bear.

Yeah, I thought I was going to have an easy time of this. No such luck.

Most of the new material is relatively simple. I'm not having a significant number of problems. However, the solo piece that's part of this week's work is very challenging.

I'm not so good at playing a melody and chords simultaneously. Of course, this is what my practicing and learning is supposed to be teaching-- the things I can't already do. I'm a little concerned that I'm already hitting difficult material, though.

Week in Review

This week, I practiced the first 10 pages of Leavitt's Modern Method for guitar. At my end-of-week self review, I first played the exercises at 90bpm, making sure that I was getting a good tone throughout. Then I played the final two exercises at increasing tempos, finally ending at 186bpm. I don't think that I could have played these exercises quite that fast at the beginning of the week (particularly the chords), so I'm happy with my progress.

Tomorrow will begin a new week's set of exercises, so I'll be picking out somewhere between 5 and 10 more pages to learn.

I also realized that I can live without buying a new Les Paul just for learning. However, it does seem that I'll buy a new guitar next week anyhow; I'll scale back from the Les Paul to an Epiphone Dot Studio. They look pretty clean and simple, and the feel and acoustic tone are simply grand. I didn't play a studio model, I played the full model, but I can infer from that what a decent Dot Studio will feel like. The guitar center near my work will be getting 4 in sometime next week, and I'll get the one that feels the best.

This was a really good week of practice. I know that some weeks won't be anywhere near this good. For now, I'm very happy with the decisions that I've made about my learning and the progress that I've made along those routes.

I'm still not sure what my goal is in all of this. I know that I want to play guitar better, but I'm not 100% sure of why. Perhaps I'll learn that while I'm learning to play.

Playing with the older stuff

Since I decided I would try to resist the lure of "the shiny", I pulled my homemade strat out of the closet for my practice session last night.

I've been staying with the same set of excercises in the Modern Method for Guitar book, slowly increasing the tempo that I'm working at, and also working on getting cleaner. I'm working through the first 10 pages this week, starting at 120 bpm and moving up by 4 bpm each night. This means that I'll be at 140 bpm on Saturday, when I'll move to the next set of exercises.

I'm really pleased with my progress so far, though I realize that I won't be able to keep up this accelerated pace forever; at some point, maybe in two weeks, maybe in two months, I'm going to hit a wall. Once I hit that wall, I'll need to slow down a whole bunch.

The strat experiment worked out well. I'm still not pleased with the intonation on that guitar, and it's just a bear to tune. However, it was pretty easy to play, and had a brighter, cleaner tone than my Gibson.

If I do indeed succumb to The Shiny, then I'll need to make sure that it has a good clean sound as well as crunchy sounds. I really liked working with that clean sound, especially in terms of figuring out how close I was to the written exercises. Sure, playing a distorted guitar is fun-- if it wasn't, maybe I'd be playing acoustic guitar instead of electric guitar. But to know if you're playing right, a clean tone is darned helpful.

Putting something in words clarifies

I noticed a slight change in my attitudes yesterday after putting into words my desire for a new guitar. It's no longer such an overwhelming "want".

Simply writing down in this blog that I wanted the guitar, but it wasn't for a really good reason, has dispelled about half of the "jones". There's still some more distance to cover in resisting the urges, but at least I've made a start.

The more I can resist the "new guitar jones", the more I can focus on the playing. And playing, as Shakespeare sort of said, is the thing.

The Jonesing For A New Guitar Blues

One of the harshest parts of starting up on this quest of learning to play guitar again is the "need a new guitar" jones. I really don't need a new guitar. I have two guitars, one of which is completely playable, and one of which is mostly playable.

The thing is, I kind of want a new guitar. Part of this is the standard "Got to have more toys" desire, and part of it is that I know that neither of my guitars are great. I'd like to get a guitar that's closer to great (it won't be quite there, but it'll be closer). This will give me (I think) some more inspiration to practice. It would also be great to have another instrument for my sons to choose from when they come of age.

But really, I just want the shiny shiny. Is that a problem? Yes, if I allow that to distract me from what my real goal is, which is to become a more proficient guitar player. Any time that I allow myself to focus on the gear, instead of the fingers, is time that is wasted vis-a-vis my goal.

[fretmaster.com] About a simple tool to aid you in learning the fingerboard.

[fretmaster.com] About a simple tool to aid you in learning the fingerboard.

This is a pretty cool tool pointed out to me by a co-worker. It's a reinforcement of fretboard mastery, which is one of those really important things when learning to read.

Nighttime routine

As I've got 2 young kids (age 3 and 6), I have to sneak my practice time in whenever I can get it. That pretty much means that I'm practicing late at night.

I'm committing right now to 30 minutes a day, which turns into an hour most nights. I've started working through A Modern Method For Guitar, which focuses on correctly learning to read. I'm able to read music fluently, but rarely on guitar. This is one of those things I really wanted to "correct" about my playing, so this book is invaluable. I'm not using the linked volume exactly; I'm using a standalone volume 1 that has been typeset in a more modern style. At the rate I'm progressing through the book, it should take me around 3 months to complete it (I'm already pretty solid, as I've mentioned).

edit: 3 months later, I see that this was a ridiculous objective. The Leavitt method is not a 3-month workout. This is a serious book for college-level players; a textbook, if you will. I'll be fortunate to finish in a year. When I'm done, though, my chops will be lightyears away from where I started.

Soon I'll pick up the companion book on sight-reading, so that I can go even farther. Most guitar tutors tend to encourage students to work exclusively on scales. Scale-work is only one part of the battle, however. For me to get where I really want to be, I need to be able to read stuff cold.

Introduction

I decided to re-learn how to play guitar.

This wasn't an easy decision. I'm a pretty competent guitar player, having played in several bands, as worship leader, and even having taught some lessons. I'm a rather skilled bassist as well, and on that instrument I'm able to walk in for pretty much any reasonable gig and sight-read my way through it.

I don't have the same skill level on guitar. I'd like to get to that skill level, and beyond.

In this blog, I'll be documenting the gear that I'm using, the methods I'm using, and my general practice thoughts. When I moved my bass playing from "I can kind of play" to "I can play whatever you want me to play", it took a year to get pretty good, and three more years to get really good. I imagine that I'm looking at the same kind of learning curve for the guitar. I can currently play for fun, but I no longer believe that I'm competent enough to play in public. I want to fix that.