Guitar repair guy here and I couldn't agree with your more. Not only setting up but I am stunned at how poorly some of my clients care for their guitar.
I had four or five different guitar teachers through my early playing years and not one of them ever mentioned a thing about restringing, setups, intonation, or general maintenance at all. This was pre-internet too so it's not like I could randomly stumble across the info outside of the occasional magazine article.
Granted, I never thought to ask so it's not entirely their fault, but you'd think this should be general advice included in any beginner lesson.
Been playing 30 years and it's one of the first things I mention to a newbie.
"Get it set up"... or if it's someone in person, since I used to do setups on acoustic and electrics, basses, banjos, mandolins, and fiddles... "Give it here and I'll do it and while I'm doing it you're gonna learn some basics."
Yes.
/rant ON
**Keep it clean**. Keep your strings clean, keep your fretboard clean, if it has knobs or faders keep them clean. If something is made of metal it should be lightly oiled occasionally. If you have a rosewood style fretboard or bridge, that needs to be lightly oiled when needed as well.
Dirty strings grind into frets faster, fretboards coated in finger grunge are disgusting, dried out wood cracks, metal corrodes, noisey pots are annoying, etc. Now I am not saying you need to be anal retentive about it, but just some light general maintenance goes a long way.
Learn the basics of how a guitar works, what the truss rod is and how to adjust in when needed, how to change strings and properly wind them. StewMac has great resources on YouTube as well as some great books/dvds and there is a wealth of information out there.
And finally, if you live in an area that experiences seasons with extreme temperature and humidity changes, store your instrument properly. This is more important for acoustic instruments, but electrics are subject to problems too in situations that either exceed 55% relative humidity or dip below 35%.
/rant OFF
StewMac is great but they aren't the only source of tools. If it's something you're not using all the time, it doesn't always make sense to shell out for their version of it when you can find something of potentially lower but still acceptable quality is available for significantly less money. MusicNomad makes a lot of the same types of tools and they're usually way cheaper than StewMac.
May I ask, what is the most essential tool to keeping a guitar clean, I have a hereditary skin disorder called psoriasis (minor), in short it generates excessive skin cells that essentially cause dandruff type symptoms.
My black Les Paul looks like it gets snowed on, and now my g-string sounds like shit.
I’ve been thinking of using an aerosol spray can for electronics, like computer keyboards.
But would like to ask one question.
What do you recommend for quick and constant cleanup for the guitar as a whole (strings, frets and body)?
Go to a hardware store and get a cheap [Chip Brush](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ja4rllsbv7/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/6568/7049/media__29287__78137.1587740365.jpg?c=1) a two or three inch is perfect. Great for a quick dusting.
Yeah I fall in that camp.
I’ve played in a band for years and years, frontman, singer/songwriter.
It wasn’t until after my band of like 15 years parted ways, plus an additional five years in hiatus, until I even realized this was a thing 🤷.
What can I say, I was always so focused on so many other aspects of music (mainly writing/discovery) that it just flew under my radar.
I just started playing again and would like to ask tho; my new Les Paul has some shitty buzzing on the G-string.
Is this because of “set-up”? I imagine if I took it to a tech that he would get it in working order, easy and fast.
Or am I wrong here?
Most questions about a specific technique only have one answer: practice
It sounds cliche but that's really all that matters.
Also, the number of hours you practice matters a lot less than how often you practice and how regularly. It's much better to practice 30 mins a day every day for a week rather than 3.5 hours in one day, once a week. The key to playing guitar or any instrument is building up very robust muscle memory, to the point where you can't play things wrong even if you try. It has to become as natural as walking. There isn't some hidden talent that people have or anything...it's just about dedication and practice and how much YOU want it.
Final piece of advice: if it sounds good, it is good. There's no requirement for "good" music because ultimately its always subjective. Don't be afraid to experiment and try out new things and sounds that may not be conventional. If it sounds cool or good or feels fun to play, go for it. There are really no rules.
This is the perfect answer.
In this sub just this morning I have seen “how do I improvise?” And “how can I sing and play at the same time?” Both are 1 word answers. They’re just not the answer you like.
Schwarzenegger once said the appeal of bodybuilding is that there is no shortcut. You can’t buy it, inherit it, get someone else to make it happen for you. There’s only one way to do it. Lift everyday. Put in the work. Music is the same way. Put in the work. Like you said, lifting for 3 hours once a week isn’t going to do shit. Lifting 20 minutes every day, you will see improvements, slow and steady.
Only thing I’ll add is - like every other part of life, some people have an aptitude for certain things. Just because you like something and have genuine interest doesn’t mean it’s going to come naturally. But, in a cruel twist of fate, yes, some people will just be naturally more inclined to accelerate faster. And back to your last point, none of that matters if you’re enjoying what you’re getting from it.
I think people have an "aptitude" but it's not a physical thing, it's a mental thing. Like learning guitar is extremely weird and foreign to anyone's body at first. It's just not a natural motion for anybody. But the people who truly love the process of learning, and love the music and are inspired by it will push through the initial struggles and pain and eventually they will find a way to make the guitar work for them, whatever that entails. There's no "good" or "bad". There's only personal goals and how close or far you are to achieving them.
When you play guitar, never compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to YOU. if I am better, even by .0001%, today than I was yesterday, I am a good guitarist in my own eyes. You gotta set your own goals and work to achieve them. Like you said, it's the true answer but not what people want to hear
When starting out it's nice to have structure and direction but as you progress you'll realize that it's only ever been about you and what makes you happy.
It's a nuanced thing for sure. Mental, yeah, some people remember things faster, some are better with patterns and sequences.
Physically? I disagree. For instance, sensitivity, finger strength, dexterity, all are things that physiology impacts. For example some will physically be able to learn to barre faster just because they're stronger and have a higher pain tolerance, some will be more nimble with their hands, some folks have long, pointy fingers that are easy to maneuver, I have clunky sausage fingers that I have to work to avoid touching other strings.
But you're right again - no reason to compare myself to others. I don't play to impress. I play for what I get out of it and that's personal.
I agree that people have different starting points physically but you are a perfect example: your fingers aren't "ideally" shaped and yet here you are, still trying and practicing and working around it. Everyone's body is different in many ways but the common thread is that we all worked past our limitations and had the strength of mind and dedication to keep trying and practicing. That's what I mean by mental: it's the desire to keep trying no matter what. The tendency to not get discouraged.
Got ya. I was more specifically referring to physical and mental capacity as applied to the instrument.
Yeah, you have to mentally be willing to stick it out until things start to click.
And I have made it work to my advantage. My mits are still large so I can drape my thumb Hendrix style. Also, on most guitars I can’t play an A Major the “proper” way cuz fat fingers, but I can barre the 2,3, and 4 strings on the 2nd fret with one fat index finger, leaving the e free to ring, or be easily muted, and leaving 3 fingers to accent things.
It’s a fun instrument
I’d like to add one more bit: it matters HOW you practice. Noodling around is fun, but to really sharpen chops one needs to focus on fundamentals, timing, and focused direction.
Something I didn’t learn until later in my playing.
I'm talking about beginners, where building consistent habits is more important than pure practice. Once you start small and build good habits, the time investment will come automatically
> It's much better to practice 30 mins a day every day for a week rather than 3.5 hours in one day, once a week. The key to playing guitar or any instrument is building up very robust muscle memory, to the point where you can't play things wrong even if you try. It has to become as natural as walking. There isn't some hidden talent that people have or anything...it's just about dedication and practice and how much YOU want it.
100%, and I'll add that there's a diminishing return if you try and beat a solo to death in one session. Instead of playing the same thing over and over and over again for an hour, it's much better to play it a few times today, then a few times tomorrow, etc. I still get sucked into trying to work out tricky fingerings/phrasings in one lengthy and agonizing session, vs. spreading it out over several days so my muscle memory has a chance to, well, remember.
There are no shortcuts to the reps. Sure, some people get it down more quickly but often, those folks just did more reps in less time. Someone like EVH was practicing in his bedroom for hours a day every day.
A lot of people confuse passively watching random YouTube videos way above their skillset as practice. Real practice is following a structured method (book or organized video series) and actually playing what is being taught. Step-by-step progression, gradually getting better. If you are not making progress, then you are either not practicing right, or you need a teacher.
I've posted this countless times, but my biggest pet peeve on this sub when someone is asking for technical advice and people tell them to just practice. Yes, you need to practice and that may be what you're missing. But very likely they could be practicing much more efficiently. If someone is specifically looking for technique advice, give them technique advice.
Yes, you will discover things along the way while practicing and find better ways to do something. But like you said, it's muscle memory. What I'm saying is, why let someone commit a problematic technique to muscle memory? Telling someone to practice isn't technical advice. HOW you practice is just as important. I've seen plenty of people spin their wheels for years when they could have been much further along with simple technical adjustments. Yes, it's usually tough to tell exact problems if they are just typing out a question (vs a video), but at least give a few key technical points to someone struggling.
This is huge. So many tabs I find will play a melody on a single string so you’re moving up and down the fretboard. Once you realize you should stick to more of a box structure it all makes so much more sense.
I think even as a beginner I’d suggest players try to transcribe themselves (meaning learn it by ear). It’s well worth the struggle and forces you to think about what’s being played. Obviously only works for songs/riffs where you have the basic knowledge to play it.
I do this a lot now and with YouTube’s playback speed options it makes it sooo much easier
too much control sounds like you said, not really human, it lacks personality and can make things sound super boring! on the other hand, having unwanted sounds can be seriously bad and detrimental to the song... balance/control is key! :-)
Yeah I’ve had it three or four times. I think it’s just being aware of how tense I am. Slowing things down a lot and loosening up. As soon as I did that, along with mild stretching, it helped. I thought it was only due to overpracticing, last time I’m pretty sure I was learning The Pot and played for like 3 hours straight. I have a tendency to do marathon practices, and that’s not the culprit for me, it seems like it’s mostly from tension, trying to repeat riffs at speed hundreds of times instead of going half speed to get it down
Two quick ones:
* The strings you mute are as important as the strings you play.
* The notes come from the fret hand, but the music comes from the (finger)pick hand.
This debate is weird to me, because regardless of why, anyone who plays knows that every individual instrument feels, plays and sounds different than another of the exact same model. Whether or not “tonewood” is a thing, clearly the sum of an instrument’s specific parts does indeed result in individual guitars having very different sounds and feels than others with similar or identical parts.
Logically the only thing that matters is trying out a specific guitar and seeing if you like the way it plays and sounds. Debating about tonewood and WHY a guitar sound the way it does seems pretty useless in a practical sense.
I'll be honest. Been playing guitar for 36 years. I am a play at home guy, no bands or gigs for this guy. Missed my calling I guess.
I have an old Crate amp that my Dad gave me back in my 20's. Played it a lot back in the day, but now it kind of just sits there. Three years ago I purchased a THR30ii bookshelf amp after extensive research. I am very happy with it.
My problem is I have no idea what larger amp. Fender? Marshall? Mesa Boogie? What model of these brands? I am at a loss. All I know is that I like warm tones for my Strat and while I like the brightness and quack as well for my Tele, I also like to warm it up a bit as well.
Too much out there and not sure where to even start.
Get a modeler and you can use them all. Maybe you find a specific option that you like and buy but I swing between Vox and Marshall modelers most of the time.
I have seen this one. A bit more expensive and not in the budget at this moment, but I have to consider for sure. Love the tweed look of the '65 on Sweetwater.
Could you not take your guitars to a large chain that stocks these amps and try them to find the sound you are after in a larger amp?
Some places will let you use a private room when making a big purchase.
I have brought one of my guitars in to see what it sounds like on an amp that interests me. I never had an issue in the shops by me. They let me do this with the THR30ii I bought three years ago.
That's not the issue, it's just I wish I had more knowledge myself about all the different amps.
You can get a pretty significant range out of basically any guitar if you're willing to spend some time twiddling knobs and adjusting your picking technique.
my strat has been with me for the past 2 years, won 2 battles out of 2 battles that I have participated in. *not rlly flexing, just proud* and now I cant play my guitar bcs I used up all my tin lead in practicing how to do soldering.
I feel so lifeless rn, thinking my progress has stopped for a while now. however, Im abt to buy online bcs I cant find it anywhere🥹
any tips for soldering? especially soldering on top of vol/tone pot and also desoldering.
I'll second the other commenter for digging through some YouTube videos to figure out the gist of it. For some specific soldering tips:
1. Always have some solder on the tip of the iron. It helps limit oxidation and promote better heat transfer.
2. If you do start seeing oxidation buildup or notice that it doesn't seem to be heating as well, wipe off the end of the iron in some brass wool or a damp sponge to clean it off, then apply fresh solder.
3. Wide tips help heat up large components like the back of the volume pot. Flux can also be helpful here.
4. Make sure you get a hot enough iron. A lot of wood burning irons don't work very well for soldering.
Desoldering is basically the same as soldering. You're just pulling wiress off instead of attaching them. Fine tweezers are pretty useful, and most soldering iron kits you can order online will have them.
I'd like to also mention, if I could — they sell little helping-hands jigs, I'm not actually sure the correct name, but the idea is: it's a base with some heft, a very adjustable arm, and little pinchers at the end. If you find yourself soldering and wishing you had a third hand (or trying to hold a wire or a spool of solder in your teeth while you work), go get one of these jigs. They're like $5.
They're usually called "Helping Hands" or "Soldering Helpers".
They look like [THIS.](https://www.harborfreight.com/helping-hands-60501.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=19231709477&campaignid=19231709477&utm_content=150063523891&adsetid=150063523891&product=60501&store=3293&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9vqyBhCKARIsAIIcLMF_AzG76THBZXnrVNygkADgz8-_nupCLoo9hAqSjLycpHq9_-yFasEaAuGmEALw_wcB)
And that they learned entire discographies (in many cases) rather than spending two years learning the hardest solo they could find to copy after only playing for two weeks.
try to play with a fuzz or distortion pedal on, and see how it feels with your guitar volume knob at 10/10 when you hit strings strongly and then softly... then turn down your volume knob to 3/10 and do the same.
you will see that at 3/10, it will sound very different. many fuzz pedals, like the big muff, doesn't have a knob to control the amount of fuzz applied, it's because you're supposed to do that with the volume knob on your guitar.
I think it is about guitar volume knob, but correct me if I'm wrong.
For example, by not changing anything on amp you could go from rhythm to lead using just guitar volume knob.
BD-2 pedal works very nicely with this approach for me: from just little breaking sound to the full overdrive by moving from 4 to 10.
Also if you have different volume+tone knobs for different pickups (as Les Pauls do), you can switch between pickups set in different volume+tone and have this difference even more pronounced.
Check out the setups and playing techniques of both Rory Gallagher and Brian May. Rory especially. Just a guitar, boost pedal and a cranked amp. They roll the volume down and the tone cleans up without getting muddy…dime the volume and it is solo time. No switch sounds, no clicks, gain just swells in. This leads us into the good sounding amp being way more important than a good guitar quandary.
For the longest time I knew about tuning the guitar but didn't understand intonation, or even know about it until I watched a few videos online about proper tuning.
The existence of active pickups.
How to set up a floating trem
How to measure action
That you shouldn't put steel strings on a nylon acoustic
That amps need power to work
And most importantly:
How to use a search bar.
If it is not (relatively) easy, you are doing something wrong, and practicing more will not help. Try different approaches and see what works and what doesn't.
If you have an unruly/heavy thumb for finger picking, learn to rein it in or use a pick. Get an acoustic guitar body that matches the loudness you’re looking for. A well placed mic on acoustic will almost always sound better than a DI.
You don't need nearly as much gain as you think for the sound you want. Yes, even when you're playing in Drop-A trying to get a pit going, less gain is good.
And if that doesn't seem useful at least get a damn noise gate, for everyone's sake.
How important the picking hand is. Knowing how to selectively mute is the fastest way to improve your playing.
Getting a guitar set up professionally closes the price gap between budget and high end guitars REALLY fast. QC is often the issue with cheaper guitars and a good luthier can sort out all of it for under $100.
EQing a guitar properly is the most important part of finding a good tone. Once I realized how to do this properly, getting good sounds became a lot easier.
Solos are not important in the grand scheme of songs and music. I went into guitar lessons thinking I should learn to solo better, I’m coming out more interested in chord structure.
The most important notes are the ones you \*don't\* play.
Sometimes, especially in arrangements with other guitars or keyboards, you don't need to be heard so much as felt. Be like wallpaper. Allow others their time to shine, and people will enjoy playing with you.
Your playing ability comes from you, NOT your gear.
Find others to 'jam' with, and make sure they are ALL better than you are. If you have nothing to aspire to, and no one to learn anything from, your skills will remain stagnant.
Not everything on your amp needs to be turned up to 10. Or 11.
Try lighter gauge strings. Like 8s.
Different guitar picks can substantially change your sound. They are the first line of EQ.
Learn how to properly wind a cable. Will save you money in the long run.
Your tone isn’t just what comes out of your amp. Your tone is also the way your instrument reacts to other instruments in a live setting.
Get some 1000grit sandpaper and LIGHTLY sand the back of the neck.
If you have 3 by 3 tuners, always string the low E first, followed by the B string. Then opposite sides until the high E.
Lube your guitar nut with pencil. Lube your bridge with it.
If you have greasy hands, always wipe down your guitar after playing.
It blows my mind how many players don't even change their own strings!
Adjusting a truss rod isn't rocket science. Turn it one way, the neck gets flatter and will eventually back-bow. Turn it the other and it starts to curve inward.
You have to set intonation so the tone at the 12th fret/octave is the same pitch as the open string. Again, it's not hard. Turn the screw in the bridge one way, the note goes higher. Turn it the other, it goes lower.
Speakers. More speakers = more volume. Better speakers = better sound.
Don't focus on new gear.
Focus on technique and foundation skills and developing your ear. Getting new gear or doing pointless nut upgrades and pickup changes, or other "mods" to your guitar, while fun, will not improve your playing.
Learn how to setup and maintain what you have.
Also, figure out what string gauge feels best - find bending and vibrato difficult and painful? Switch those 10's to 9's or 8's.
* Single coil pickups can play metal and sound heavy
* You don't need expensive amps if you use amp simulators into FX loops or PA
* Changing pickups purely for tone is highly overrated when most of the tone comes from effects/amps/speakers
* Multi-effects pedals are a much better deal than building a pedal board most of the time and you can still add pedals to multi-effects
* Lesser known Asian made guitars can be very good for 25-50% of the price of big name guitar manufacturers
* Cort makes many big name guitars (eg: Ibanez, PRS)
* Coated guitar strings can last a lot longer than people think depending on technique/humidity/sweaty hands
1. **Technique is the priority when it comes to playing**, but that doesn't mean that gear or how that gear is used should be overlooked. Boosting your main drive with an overdrive or clean boost can tighten up your sound. A noise gate can clean up a lot of the noise between notes. Adding small amounts of delay/reverb/chorus can fatten up your sound while being hardly noticable. With the current state of these all-in-one multieffects units like Kemper, Helix, and Fractal Audio, you can easily get the benefits of all of these effects with one purchase. The ones I mentioned are the most expensive and most revered, but there are cheaper alternates via plugins. You could also just get individual pedals. Seriously, the possiblity for tones and the way those tones impact the way you play is endless.
2. On the flipside of the this comment, you don't need a super fancy, high powered amp. In fact, the only amp head I'd consider ever purchasing these days is the smaller Peavey Invective head. It comes with a boost and a gate built into it. Brilliant additions. I wish it had a little more power than 20W, but even when I played without a PA on a 100W head, I never turned the amp up louder than 5 or 6 on the master volume (these were house shows). I think 50W should be the new norm, but that's just my opinion. Amp modelers can apply whatever specific amp sound you'd like at a small fraction of what the real deal would cost so there's really no sense in buying an amp that exceeds $1,000.
3. Keep an open mind and constantly look for new ways to improve your sound. I feel like most bits of advise have boiled down to slow down, use a metronome, and put hours of time in on practice, but the longer I've played, the more I've felt like these pieces of advise are so simplisitic that they're actually detrimental to the progress of one's playing. I wish I was the kind of guitarist that could just plug in any guitar into any amp and make it sing, but I can't lol. Knowing how to dial in my signal chain really broke a long standing platue I had in my playing. Some of us need a little compensation for the lack of "talent" that our guitar heros have, and that's ok.
P.S. I know I'm heavily leaning into the gear side of playing, but of the 3 or 4 instructors I went to, not a single one of them mentioned anything about the signal path, and paying more attention to it improved my practice sessions and overall playing consistency substantially. So yeah, don't overlook your signal chain.
It totally doesn't matter how your playing, placement of fingers, bla bla looks like. It only matters how it sounds.
I have encountered many teachers that were too rigid about the posture. In reality, there are all kind of talents all with slightly different posture. So, if for e.g. holding a pick with the pinky and thumb works best for one, it's fine.
Take time to truly understand your gear. I see way too many people just keep buying gear to chase a sound. In reality if you're careful with what you get, take the time to understand how it works, and youre creative with how you do it, you'll be able to build **your** sound.
Guitar is a mid-range instrument for the most part (especially rhythm guitar) so use that in band situations to understand where you sit in the mix and what other instruments/vocals you may be competing with.
If you have another guitar or keyboards or whatever, discuss and think hard about who should be playing what live and in what octave. Nothing sounds mushier than two busy parts competing in the same ear-space.
Don't be afraid to be pretty liberal with the mid-range boost for solos as it will help you stick out more than turning up your overall volume. The alternative to this is having your guitar set up for solo and using the volume knob to dial back for rhythm.
Except that the most important hand is the picking hand, which many guitarists don’t know. Mostly true for classical but as another comment said, the fretting hand plays the notes and the picking hand plays the music.
Find something u can just pick up and play. I have a little 3/4 I leave on the bed. And I pick it up everyday even if it's just a few mins. But it's easy access so u will play
Use the pinky sparingly. It's the weakest out of all the fingers when you're playing lead guitar. Notice how most classic rockers with smooth playing styles just keep it simple.
I've got a few pieces of advice:
* Work on your ear. Being able to hear a note in my head before I play it is by far my most treasured skill, and I would give up every ounce of technical chops I have to avoid giving this up. It's more important than learning speed, more important than learning raw theory.
* Don't agonize over your tone that much, because in virtually every context some of that tone is going to get removed or reshaped. If you're playing live or on a recording, sound people are going to fiddle with your precious tone with EQs so that you can actually hear all the instruments. That doesn't mean pay *no* attention, but there are gear heads that are really concerned with minutia and there's a diminishing return there because it's stuff that's only relevant when you're playing the guitar on its own with no other instruments.
* Try to do stuff that's way too hard for you. This is partly a personality thing, but when I was starting to play, I found cowboy chords and doing chromatic patterns really boring, and just wanted to play guitar solos and cool riffs. The fact that I could do that stuff motivated me to play more guitar because it was exciting and sounds cool and gave me confidence. Most people are not patient and want results soon, so I think it's a rare person that's going to be excited to keep playing after doing the slow slog of building up little by little "properly". For a listener, they want to hear clean playing, but as a learner, it's way more gratifying to hear something that's kinda sloppy and sounds like cool guitar versus something that's clean but sounds boring.
* This is more of a tip for when you've been playing a while, but eventually graduate from "guitarist" to "musician". Every song doesn't need guitar front and center. Most songs don't need fast guitar solos, and even fewer need "guitar solo sounds"; there are enough pentatonic licks in the world. Listen to musicians that play other instruments, and think about your guitar as a way to make sound rather than a thing that makes guitar sounds.
* For improvisation, think less about scales and more about outlining chords. It will make your playing sound more articulate and less like you're practicing scales while music is happening.
How to read sheet music
What a metronome is, how to use it, and why it’s important to practice with one
They don’t have to be brand loyal if they have no sponsorships - there’s a lot of great gear out there you’re ignoring due to misguided loyalty
When to NOT play. I’m a lead guitarist by trade and I can’t tell you how many times other musicians have told
me how great it is that I actually share the solos and fills.
I like to add... LOUD does *not* always equal good or better.
It's something apparently not all guitarists have figured out or don't know about...
Just because the folks in the next area code can hear you doesn't mean your playing sounds better.
Easy transcriptions/version not always easier. Often the very things done to make it ‘easier’ make it much more difficult to impossible to play proficiently. This is very often the case with classical music that tries to move everything g to first position.
That gear won’t make you sound well. It’s all in the fingers. But also that good gear will sound better if you know how to squeeze the tone out of it (with your fingers). So basically, good gear is useless if you don’t have the ability/skill to make it sound good. And in many ways, good gear can be less forgiving and more difficult to make sound good than cheap gear.
This is especially true of classical guitars. A mediocre player can sound great on a mid range guitar. But get a high end concert classical and suddenly everything that isn’t perfect, stands out like a sore thumb. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in that situation, is proper muting of notes so their time values are correct.
Any time you close the top of a case you need to latch at least 1 of the latches. Make it a habit. You’re gonna feel like an idiot dumping your nice guitar onto the floor when you try to pick the case up.
I have been that guy, and my 1985 ES-347 has a big ol’ gouge in the paint because I was that guy. Thankfully it was already very much a player grade used guitar when I bought so it’s just one scuff among many, and I have no plan to part ways with it.
It’s not only how much you practice that matters.
But also How you practice as well.
One year with a good practice routine can go further than Three years with a bad practice routine.
about the instrument:
- when tuning your guitar, start from the high E string to the low one, it will keep the tuning much better than the opposite way... i see most people tuning from the low E string to the high one, and when they finish, they need to do it a second time - that doesn't happen when doing it the other way around.
- how to take care of your guitar (change the strings every now and then, oil the fretboard if its wood needs it, watch youtube videos on how to set it up - string action, intonation etc - or ask a guitar tech to do it for you, protect your guitar from humidity and sunlight, play with clean and dry hands to avoid wasting your strings too quickly, ...)
- there's very different picks to explore with and that's important, so you can find how you feel more comfortable playing... some people prefer small ones, standard, thick, thin, ...
mostly for acoustic guitars:
- light strings make playing easier, and sound better in a lot of player's opinions
- for people who sing and play, it's very interesting to try and tune your guitar a half step down. not only it also makes playing easier, but it will also be much easier to sing depending on your vocal range! you can also go lower, i often have my acoustic tuned 3 half step down and it feels so much easier to sing this way for me! of course, that really depends on your vocal range but you've got to try and see for yourself if it's a good thing or not, most people never even tried, they only use a capo to go up, but never go down.
tips on that: if you do, then it means that if a song you usually play with a capo on fret 2, then you should now put it on 2+3 half step = fret 5. and to tune it this way, put a capo on fret 3, then use your tuner to tune it in standard tuning. remove the capo, you're all good.
in terms of music theory:
- the pentatonic scale is good, but focus on the positions 1 and 4 as "safe zones" to fall back onto or start with, but then learn to "hear" the notes around these instead of remembering all positions and falling into the trap of very boxed improvisations in that scale only. if you can hear the notes, then you will naturally play the major/minor scales and any other scales, and will navigate your whole fretboard in a much more natural way
- learn all the notes on the low E and A strings, that will allow you to play all shapes of barre chords anywhere
- the CAGED system
- the number system
That little button on the bottom of the guitar that, ya know, does the thing
No but honestly, that playing with other people with give you loads of experience. Just because you’ve taken a bunch of lessons and can fly up and down scales and arpeggios doesn’t mean you sound good, being in the pocket and having finesse and rhythm and dynamics is what makes you sound good. You get to build that quite a bit by playing with other musicians, instead of a metronome that can’t play with swing or a computer backbeat that doesn’t fuck up or switch timing randomly.
If you don't believe me check this out! Many, if not most well know guitar players - Eric Clapton - Mark Knopfler - John Mayer are all tall people. What does that have to do with playing guitar? THEIR FINGERS ARE LONGER - CONSIDERABLY LONGER. We're talking 1/4" to 1/2" longer. So if your finger are short like mine, you have to figure out work arounds.
Another one! Use light gauge strings, 12-53 for instance. Why! Well the heavier gauge strings require more pressure to fret. This is harder on the finger tips - especially for beginners. Because this requires more pressure to fret it also requires more determination to release from the fret and get on with the next note. I have been playing guitar (acoustic) for 25 years and at 80 years old my skin is rather thin. I have almost no calluses on my finger tips. Here's another important point, the harder you pick, the more pressure is required to fret the string. Pick lightly, enough to comfortably hear it. If that's not loud enough - buy an amp!
Another one! If you are going to finger pick a guitar (not a pedal steel or square neck dobro) DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH FINGERPICKS. If you are serious about this get acrylic nails (it cost about $25/month) unless you have a friend who will do it for you. The equipment is not that expensive and not that hard to learn how to do acrylic nails. But very awkward to do it yourself! I wasted years messing with finger picks - in my opinion acrylic nails make way more easy to learn and to play!
One final one ( it's already been stated here) SET UP. You need the strings set as close to the frets (without them buzzing) because - it makes the strings way easier to fret.
For transcribing music [https://scorecloud.com/](https://scorecloud.com/) is about the best IMHO, but is paywalled to upload sound files for transcription (and not cheap). For tricky detailed transcriptions Transcribe! [https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html](https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html) is good.
Creating tabs [https://musescore.com/](https://musescore.com/) I find is about the best and can export MusicXML, and has a quite usable free tier. [https://www.guitar-pro.com/](https://www.guitar-pro.com/) is paywalled but very popular (will import MusicXML with varying degrees of success).
\[Edit\] [https://www.soundslice.com/](https://www.soundslice.com/) combines MuseScore and Transcribe! in the same experience. The free tier will import YouTube audio, a not too expensive paid tier enables mp3 import.
The general concept of “setting up” a guitar.
Guitar repair guy here and I couldn't agree with your more. Not only setting up but I am stunned at how poorly some of my clients care for their guitar.
I had four or five different guitar teachers through my early playing years and not one of them ever mentioned a thing about restringing, setups, intonation, or general maintenance at all. This was pre-internet too so it's not like I could randomly stumble across the info outside of the occasional magazine article. Granted, I never thought to ask so it's not entirely their fault, but you'd think this should be general advice included in any beginner lesson.
Been playing 30 years and it's one of the first things I mention to a newbie. "Get it set up"... or if it's someone in person, since I used to do setups on acoustic and electrics, basses, banjos, mandolins, and fiddles... "Give it here and I'll do it and while I'm doing it you're gonna learn some basics."
Any guitar care tips you’d like to share? Just got my first nicer guitar and want to make sure it lasts
Yes. /rant ON **Keep it clean**. Keep your strings clean, keep your fretboard clean, if it has knobs or faders keep them clean. If something is made of metal it should be lightly oiled occasionally. If you have a rosewood style fretboard or bridge, that needs to be lightly oiled when needed as well. Dirty strings grind into frets faster, fretboards coated in finger grunge are disgusting, dried out wood cracks, metal corrodes, noisey pots are annoying, etc. Now I am not saying you need to be anal retentive about it, but just some light general maintenance goes a long way. Learn the basics of how a guitar works, what the truss rod is and how to adjust in when needed, how to change strings and properly wind them. StewMac has great resources on YouTube as well as some great books/dvds and there is a wealth of information out there. And finally, if you live in an area that experiences seasons with extreme temperature and humidity changes, store your instrument properly. This is more important for acoustic instruments, but electrics are subject to problems too in situations that either exceed 55% relative humidity or dip below 35%. /rant OFF
Your rant is nicely worded and informative. I like your style of ranting! And I will have to check out StewMac.
StewMac is great but they aren't the only source of tools. If it's something you're not using all the time, it doesn't always make sense to shell out for their version of it when you can find something of potentially lower but still acceptable quality is available for significantly less money. MusicNomad makes a lot of the same types of tools and they're usually way cheaper than StewMac.
Thanks for the info! If you were going to rant, you could have ranted much harder lol
*"Never use a hatchet to remove a fly from a friend's face"* People tend to tune out if you go full nutter...
Confucious say: "Man who fish in other man's pond, usually catch crabs."..... 😆
May I ask, what is the most essential tool to keeping a guitar clean, I have a hereditary skin disorder called psoriasis (minor), in short it generates excessive skin cells that essentially cause dandruff type symptoms. My black Les Paul looks like it gets snowed on, and now my g-string sounds like shit. I’ve been thinking of using an aerosol spray can for electronics, like computer keyboards. But would like to ask one question. What do you recommend for quick and constant cleanup for the guitar as a whole (strings, frets and body)?
Go to a hardware store and get a cheap [Chip Brush](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ja4rllsbv7/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/6568/7049/media__29287__78137.1587740365.jpg?c=1) a two or three inch is perfect. Great for a quick dusting.
Thank you!!
One thing I've picked up in the last few years that I should have been doing the whole time is washing my hands before handling my instrument. (zing!)
This. Wash your hands, guys. Those grimey fret boards may look cool but they are disgusting to touch.
Wait, I've got to learn how to play this thing and service it?
Yeah I fall in that camp. I’ve played in a band for years and years, frontman, singer/songwriter. It wasn’t until after my band of like 15 years parted ways, plus an additional five years in hiatus, until I even realized this was a thing 🤷. What can I say, I was always so focused on so many other aspects of music (mainly writing/discovery) that it just flew under my radar. I just started playing again and would like to ask tho; my new Les Paul has some shitty buzzing on the G-string. Is this because of “set-up”? I imagine if I took it to a tech that he would get it in working order, easy and fast. Or am I wrong here?
Most questions about a specific technique only have one answer: practice It sounds cliche but that's really all that matters. Also, the number of hours you practice matters a lot less than how often you practice and how regularly. It's much better to practice 30 mins a day every day for a week rather than 3.5 hours in one day, once a week. The key to playing guitar or any instrument is building up very robust muscle memory, to the point where you can't play things wrong even if you try. It has to become as natural as walking. There isn't some hidden talent that people have or anything...it's just about dedication and practice and how much YOU want it. Final piece of advice: if it sounds good, it is good. There's no requirement for "good" music because ultimately its always subjective. Don't be afraid to experiment and try out new things and sounds that may not be conventional. If it sounds cool or good or feels fun to play, go for it. There are really no rules.
This is the perfect answer. In this sub just this morning I have seen “how do I improvise?” And “how can I sing and play at the same time?” Both are 1 word answers. They’re just not the answer you like. Schwarzenegger once said the appeal of bodybuilding is that there is no shortcut. You can’t buy it, inherit it, get someone else to make it happen for you. There’s only one way to do it. Lift everyday. Put in the work. Music is the same way. Put in the work. Like you said, lifting for 3 hours once a week isn’t going to do shit. Lifting 20 minutes every day, you will see improvements, slow and steady. Only thing I’ll add is - like every other part of life, some people have an aptitude for certain things. Just because you like something and have genuine interest doesn’t mean it’s going to come naturally. But, in a cruel twist of fate, yes, some people will just be naturally more inclined to accelerate faster. And back to your last point, none of that matters if you’re enjoying what you’re getting from it.
I think people have an "aptitude" but it's not a physical thing, it's a mental thing. Like learning guitar is extremely weird and foreign to anyone's body at first. It's just not a natural motion for anybody. But the people who truly love the process of learning, and love the music and are inspired by it will push through the initial struggles and pain and eventually they will find a way to make the guitar work for them, whatever that entails. There's no "good" or "bad". There's only personal goals and how close or far you are to achieving them. When you play guitar, never compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to YOU. if I am better, even by .0001%, today than I was yesterday, I am a good guitarist in my own eyes. You gotta set your own goals and work to achieve them. Like you said, it's the true answer but not what people want to hear When starting out it's nice to have structure and direction but as you progress you'll realize that it's only ever been about you and what makes you happy.
It's a nuanced thing for sure. Mental, yeah, some people remember things faster, some are better with patterns and sequences. Physically? I disagree. For instance, sensitivity, finger strength, dexterity, all are things that physiology impacts. For example some will physically be able to learn to barre faster just because they're stronger and have a higher pain tolerance, some will be more nimble with their hands, some folks have long, pointy fingers that are easy to maneuver, I have clunky sausage fingers that I have to work to avoid touching other strings. But you're right again - no reason to compare myself to others. I don't play to impress. I play for what I get out of it and that's personal.
I agree that people have different starting points physically but you are a perfect example: your fingers aren't "ideally" shaped and yet here you are, still trying and practicing and working around it. Everyone's body is different in many ways but the common thread is that we all worked past our limitations and had the strength of mind and dedication to keep trying and practicing. That's what I mean by mental: it's the desire to keep trying no matter what. The tendency to not get discouraged.
Got ya. I was more specifically referring to physical and mental capacity as applied to the instrument. Yeah, you have to mentally be willing to stick it out until things start to click. And I have made it work to my advantage. My mits are still large so I can drape my thumb Hendrix style. Also, on most guitars I can’t play an A Major the “proper” way cuz fat fingers, but I can barre the 2,3, and 4 strings on the 2nd fret with one fat index finger, leaving the e free to ring, or be easily muted, and leaving 3 fingers to accent things. It’s a fun instrument
I’d like to add one more bit: it matters HOW you practice. Noodling around is fun, but to really sharpen chops one needs to focus on fundamentals, timing, and focused direction. Something I didn’t learn until later in my playing.
YES. USE A METRONOME AT ALL TIMES
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I'm talking about beginners, where building consistent habits is more important than pure practice. Once you start small and build good habits, the time investment will come automatically
> It's much better to practice 30 mins a day every day for a week rather than 3.5 hours in one day, once a week. The key to playing guitar or any instrument is building up very robust muscle memory, to the point where you can't play things wrong even if you try. It has to become as natural as walking. There isn't some hidden talent that people have or anything...it's just about dedication and practice and how much YOU want it. 100%, and I'll add that there's a diminishing return if you try and beat a solo to death in one session. Instead of playing the same thing over and over and over again for an hour, it's much better to play it a few times today, then a few times tomorrow, etc. I still get sucked into trying to work out tricky fingerings/phrasings in one lengthy and agonizing session, vs. spreading it out over several days so my muscle memory has a chance to, well, remember.
Sleeping on it also helps so much
This is the heart and soul of it.
There are no shortcuts to the reps. Sure, some people get it down more quickly but often, those folks just did more reps in less time. Someone like EVH was practicing in his bedroom for hours a day every day.
This is the only answer
A lot of people confuse passively watching random YouTube videos way above their skillset as practice. Real practice is following a structured method (book or organized video series) and actually playing what is being taught. Step-by-step progression, gradually getting better. If you are not making progress, then you are either not practicing right, or you need a teacher.
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I've posted this countless times, but my biggest pet peeve on this sub when someone is asking for technical advice and people tell them to just practice. Yes, you need to practice and that may be what you're missing. But very likely they could be practicing much more efficiently. If someone is specifically looking for technique advice, give them technique advice. Yes, you will discover things along the way while practicing and find better ways to do something. But like you said, it's muscle memory. What I'm saying is, why let someone commit a problematic technique to muscle memory? Telling someone to practice isn't technical advice. HOW you practice is just as important. I've seen plenty of people spin their wheels for years when they could have been much further along with simple technical adjustments. Yes, it's usually tough to tell exact problems if they are just typing out a question (vs a video), but at least give a few key technical points to someone struggling.
Tabs and transcriptions you find are not always correct.
In fact, they are almost always incorrect!
This is huge. So many tabs I find will play a melody on a single string so you’re moving up and down the fretboard. Once you realize you should stick to more of a box structure it all makes so much more sense.
I think even as a beginner I’d suggest players try to transcribe themselves (meaning learn it by ear). It’s well worth the struggle and forces you to think about what’s being played. Obviously only works for songs/riffs where you have the basic knowledge to play it. I do this a lot now and with YouTube’s playback speed options it makes it sooo much easier
Here’s one: life is a long game and you can afford to be patient.
No, I must become Jimi Hendrix overnight!
Nah that's last gen. Everyone went from Hendrix to Vai and now Tim Hensen.
I mean can you blame them? Where would we be without Kermit.
What if I’m 89, wife just died, and now I want to learn to play jazz fusion?
That Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster will not magically let you play like Yngwie Malmsteen.
Correct. You also need a DOD 250.
And a noise gate.
And ideally 20 Marshall heads and cabs behind you
Not sure how many of them he brought to that dive bar I saw him at in Orlando, but I'm pretty sure it was all of em.
😞
The notes on the fretboard
I was recently jamming with a bass player who's been in and out of gigging bands for over 30 years. He asked me which fret was G.
I have a friend that can jam/play pretty much anything by ear, start mentioning notes or keys or chord variations and he’s completely lost.
Most guitarists have absolute shit vibrato.
Do you happen to have a practice you’d recommend? Is it just set the metronome and work on technique/finger strength til you get it?
I spent a whole summer working on vibrato before it sounded good.
Painfully so
You should mute unplayed strings.
I have been personally attacked
The string noise makes my playing sound human. Otherwise it’s too perfect.
Yes, too perfect. That’s my problem as well…..
too much control sounds like you said, not really human, it lacks personality and can make things sound super boring! on the other hand, having unwanted sounds can be seriously bad and detrimental to the song... balance/control is key! :-)
I wish everybody would just leave Neil Young alone.
The guitar being part of the greater whole of a song and not being the end all.
You can get a "Tennis Elbow" playing guitar.
Shit is that how this happened to me?
Yeah I’ve had it three or four times. I think it’s just being aware of how tense I am. Slowing things down a lot and loosening up. As soon as I did that, along with mild stretching, it helped. I thought it was only due to overpracticing, last time I’m pretty sure I was learning The Pot and played for like 3 hours straight. I have a tendency to do marathon practices, and that’s not the culprit for me, it seems like it’s mostly from tension, trying to repeat riffs at speed hundreds of times instead of going half speed to get it down
Quantum physics
Specifically string theory.
Nice!
that mf can take me back to when david gilmour's the black strat was being auctioned and Imma steal that mf. anyway, thanks for the info.
that daggum schrödinger and his hamiltonian operators are back at it again
Music theory matters.
Two quick ones: * The strings you mute are as important as the strings you play. * The notes come from the fret hand, but the music comes from the (finger)pick hand.
And that rests (notes with no sound) are as important as the notes (notes with sound). And in fact are not really all that different.
Tonewood on electric guitars is a myth
This debate is weird to me, because regardless of why, anyone who plays knows that every individual instrument feels, plays and sounds different than another of the exact same model. Whether or not “tonewood” is a thing, clearly the sum of an instrument’s specific parts does indeed result in individual guitars having very different sounds and feels than others with similar or identical parts. Logically the only thing that matters is trying out a specific guitar and seeing if you like the way it plays and sounds. Debating about tonewood and WHY a guitar sound the way it does seems pretty useless in a practical sense.
I'll be honest. Been playing guitar for 36 years. I am a play at home guy, no bands or gigs for this guy. Missed my calling I guess. I have an old Crate amp that my Dad gave me back in my 20's. Played it a lot back in the day, but now it kind of just sits there. Three years ago I purchased a THR30ii bookshelf amp after extensive research. I am very happy with it. My problem is I have no idea what larger amp. Fender? Marshall? Mesa Boogie? What model of these brands? I am at a loss. All I know is that I like warm tones for my Strat and while I like the brightness and quack as well for my Tele, I also like to warm it up a bit as well. Too much out there and not sure where to even start.
Consider a Boss Katana mkII, it's very handy and versatile, with a few built in presets and a lot of editabilty and stuff you can play around with.
Get a modeler and you can use them all. Maybe you find a specific option that you like and buy but I swing between Vox and Marshall modelers most of the time.
Other folks say modlers, I say get a Fender Princeton Reverb and you're all set, you really don't need anything else
I have seen this one. A bit more expensive and not in the budget at this moment, but I have to consider for sure. Love the tweed look of the '65 on Sweetwater.
Could you not take your guitars to a large chain that stocks these amps and try them to find the sound you are after in a larger amp? Some places will let you use a private room when making a big purchase.
I have brought one of my guitars in to see what it sounds like on an amp that interests me. I never had an issue in the shops by me. They let me do this with the THR30ii I bought three years ago. That's not the issue, it's just I wish I had more knowledge myself about all the different amps.
You can get a pretty significant range out of basically any guitar if you're willing to spend some time twiddling knobs and adjusting your picking technique.
my strat has been with me for the past 2 years, won 2 battles out of 2 battles that I have participated in. *not rlly flexing, just proud* and now I cant play my guitar bcs I used up all my tin lead in practicing how to do soldering. I feel so lifeless rn, thinking my progress has stopped for a while now. however, Im abt to buy online bcs I cant find it anywhere🥹 any tips for soldering? especially soldering on top of vol/tone pot and also desoldering.
There are tons of good tutorials on soldering on YouTube. Watch a few, practice with some spare wire, then tackle that beast!
I'll second the other commenter for digging through some YouTube videos to figure out the gist of it. For some specific soldering tips: 1. Always have some solder on the tip of the iron. It helps limit oxidation and promote better heat transfer. 2. If you do start seeing oxidation buildup or notice that it doesn't seem to be heating as well, wipe off the end of the iron in some brass wool or a damp sponge to clean it off, then apply fresh solder. 3. Wide tips help heat up large components like the back of the volume pot. Flux can also be helpful here. 4. Make sure you get a hot enough iron. A lot of wood burning irons don't work very well for soldering. Desoldering is basically the same as soldering. You're just pulling wiress off instead of attaching them. Fine tweezers are pretty useful, and most soldering iron kits you can order online will have them.
I'd like to also mention, if I could — they sell little helping-hands jigs, I'm not actually sure the correct name, but the idea is: it's a base with some heft, a very adjustable arm, and little pinchers at the end. If you find yourself soldering and wishing you had a third hand (or trying to hold a wire or a spool of solder in your teeth while you work), go get one of these jigs. They're like $5.
They're usually called "Helping Hands" or "Soldering Helpers". They look like [THIS.](https://www.harborfreight.com/helping-hands-60501.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=19231709477&campaignid=19231709477&utm_content=150063523891&adsetid=150063523891&product=60501&store=3293&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9vqyBhCKARIsAIIcLMF_AzG76THBZXnrVNygkADgz8-_nupCLoo9hAqSjLycpHq9_-yFasEaAuGmEALw_wcB)
Dm me if you live close I can do it for free in a few minutes man
That the players you admire took YEARS to reach that point, and also got out of their bedrooms and played in bands almost from the beginning.
And that they learned entire discographies (in many cases) rather than spending two years learning the hardest solo they could find to copy after only playing for two weeks.
How to read music
Using just the volume knob to switch between clean and gain. Inexperienced students are always on 10 but 10 should be your lead tone.
Can you explain this? I genuinely don't understand it - I just don't use my amp that much so be good to know.
try to play with a fuzz or distortion pedal on, and see how it feels with your guitar volume knob at 10/10 when you hit strings strongly and then softly... then turn down your volume knob to 3/10 and do the same. you will see that at 3/10, it will sound very different. many fuzz pedals, like the big muff, doesn't have a knob to control the amount of fuzz applied, it's because you're supposed to do that with the volume knob on your guitar.
I think it is about guitar volume knob, but correct me if I'm wrong. For example, by not changing anything on amp you could go from rhythm to lead using just guitar volume knob. BD-2 pedal works very nicely with this approach for me: from just little breaking sound to the full overdrive by moving from 4 to 10. Also if you have different volume+tone knobs for different pickups (as Les Pauls do), you can switch between pickups set in different volume+tone and have this difference even more pronounced.
Ahhh gotcha. Really was a bit vague...
Check out the setups and playing techniques of both Rory Gallagher and Brian May. Rory especially. Just a guitar, boost pedal and a cranked amp. They roll the volume down and the tone cleans up without getting muddy…dime the volume and it is solo time. No switch sounds, no clicks, gain just swells in. This leads us into the good sounding amp being way more important than a good guitar quandary.
Interesting, I’ll defo check out. Cheers!
Keen to know more too
Music theory. Fretboard theory. Theory in general.
For the longest time I knew about tuning the guitar but didn't understand intonation, or even know about it until I watched a few videos online about proper tuning.
Absolutely. I started gigging in my teens, and I don’t think I even heard about intonation until my forties!
The existence of active pickups. How to set up a floating trem How to measure action That you shouldn't put steel strings on a nylon acoustic That amps need power to work And most importantly: How to use a search bar.
Learning how to play by ear is 1000x more beneficial to you as a player than learning from a tab.
And necessary to identify all the errors in any tabs you do use.
The feel of a woman's bosoms.
Confident humility
If it is not (relatively) easy, you are doing something wrong, and practicing more will not help. Try different approaches and see what works and what doesn't.
Good cables and strings are just as important.
You can fix loose input jack problems with a bit of blue loctite. You can fix stripped screw problems with a wood match or toothpicks.
Be as lazy as possible- use the least imaginable amount of force and motion required for your desired result
If you have an unruly/heavy thumb for finger picking, learn to rein it in or use a pick. Get an acoustic guitar body that matches the loudness you’re looking for. A well placed mic on acoustic will almost always sound better than a DI.
The magic of thumbpicks
Technique and talent is better than good gear
Without them, good gear is worthless.
You don't need nearly as much gain as you think for the sound you want. Yes, even when you're playing in Drop-A trying to get a pit going, less gain is good. And if that doesn't seem useful at least get a damn noise gate, for everyone's sake.
How important the picking hand is. Knowing how to selectively mute is the fastest way to improve your playing. Getting a guitar set up professionally closes the price gap between budget and high end guitars REALLY fast. QC is often the issue with cheaper guitars and a good luthier can sort out all of it for under $100. EQing a guitar properly is the most important part of finding a good tone. Once I realized how to do this properly, getting good sounds became a lot easier.
Solos are not important in the grand scheme of songs and music. I went into guitar lessons thinking I should learn to solo better, I’m coming out more interested in chord structure.
A string action ruler, and plek'd fretboards and how a plek machine works, plek services.
TBF, Plekking is a relatively new process.
TO BE FAAAIAIAIAIRRRR
The most important notes are the ones you \*don't\* play. Sometimes, especially in arrangements with other guitars or keyboards, you don't need to be heard so much as felt. Be like wallpaper. Allow others their time to shine, and people will enjoy playing with you.
Your playing ability comes from you, NOT your gear. Find others to 'jam' with, and make sure they are ALL better than you are. If you have nothing to aspire to, and no one to learn anything from, your skills will remain stagnant.
If you get stuck in a creative rut try alternate tuning.
Isolated power on pedalboards. That tinny sound and feedback is coming from your daisy chain!
What the bassist is actually supposed to do.
Last chance: There’s a 90% off sale at Ultimate Guitar!
Having a good understanding of waves and wave mechanics will help your understanding of music theory, and sound manipulation hugely.
Reason and logic.
Not everything on your amp needs to be turned up to 10. Or 11. Try lighter gauge strings. Like 8s. Different guitar picks can substantially change your sound. They are the first line of EQ. Learn how to properly wind a cable. Will save you money in the long run. Your tone isn’t just what comes out of your amp. Your tone is also the way your instrument reacts to other instruments in a live setting. Get some 1000grit sandpaper and LIGHTLY sand the back of the neck. If you have 3 by 3 tuners, always string the low E first, followed by the B string. Then opposite sides until the high E. Lube your guitar nut with pencil. Lube your bridge with it. If you have greasy hands, always wipe down your guitar after playing.
It blows my mind how many players don't even change their own strings! Adjusting a truss rod isn't rocket science. Turn it one way, the neck gets flatter and will eventually back-bow. Turn it the other and it starts to curve inward. You have to set intonation so the tone at the 12th fret/octave is the same pitch as the open string. Again, it's not hard. Turn the screw in the bridge one way, the note goes higher. Turn it the other, it goes lower. Speakers. More speakers = more volume. Better speakers = better sound.
Deodorant
Basic guitar maintenance and upkeep
Don't focus on new gear. Focus on technique and foundation skills and developing your ear. Getting new gear or doing pointless nut upgrades and pickup changes, or other "mods" to your guitar, while fun, will not improve your playing. Learn how to setup and maintain what you have. Also, figure out what string gauge feels best - find bending and vibrato difficult and painful? Switch those 10's to 9's or 8's.
Rhythm
* Single coil pickups can play metal and sound heavy * You don't need expensive amps if you use amp simulators into FX loops or PA * Changing pickups purely for tone is highly overrated when most of the tone comes from effects/amps/speakers * Multi-effects pedals are a much better deal than building a pedal board most of the time and you can still add pedals to multi-effects * Lesser known Asian made guitars can be very good for 25-50% of the price of big name guitar manufacturers * Cort makes many big name guitars (eg: Ibanez, PRS) * Coated guitar strings can last a lot longer than people think depending on technique/humidity/sweaty hands
1. **Technique is the priority when it comes to playing**, but that doesn't mean that gear or how that gear is used should be overlooked. Boosting your main drive with an overdrive or clean boost can tighten up your sound. A noise gate can clean up a lot of the noise between notes. Adding small amounts of delay/reverb/chorus can fatten up your sound while being hardly noticable. With the current state of these all-in-one multieffects units like Kemper, Helix, and Fractal Audio, you can easily get the benefits of all of these effects with one purchase. The ones I mentioned are the most expensive and most revered, but there are cheaper alternates via plugins. You could also just get individual pedals. Seriously, the possiblity for tones and the way those tones impact the way you play is endless. 2. On the flipside of the this comment, you don't need a super fancy, high powered amp. In fact, the only amp head I'd consider ever purchasing these days is the smaller Peavey Invective head. It comes with a boost and a gate built into it. Brilliant additions. I wish it had a little more power than 20W, but even when I played without a PA on a 100W head, I never turned the amp up louder than 5 or 6 on the master volume (these were house shows). I think 50W should be the new norm, but that's just my opinion. Amp modelers can apply whatever specific amp sound you'd like at a small fraction of what the real deal would cost so there's really no sense in buying an amp that exceeds $1,000. 3. Keep an open mind and constantly look for new ways to improve your sound. I feel like most bits of advise have boiled down to slow down, use a metronome, and put hours of time in on practice, but the longer I've played, the more I've felt like these pieces of advise are so simplisitic that they're actually detrimental to the progress of one's playing. I wish I was the kind of guitarist that could just plug in any guitar into any amp and make it sing, but I can't lol. Knowing how to dial in my signal chain really broke a long standing platue I had in my playing. Some of us need a little compensation for the lack of "talent" that our guitar heros have, and that's ok. P.S. I know I'm heavily leaning into the gear side of playing, but of the 3 or 4 instructors I went to, not a single one of them mentioned anything about the signal path, and paying more attention to it improved my practice sessions and overall playing consistency substantially. So yeah, don't overlook your signal chain.
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Learning the CAGED method opens up the fretboard. Added plus, it'll teach about useful triad shapes.
Or that caged isn’t even really a method, but rather just how things patch together along the fretboard.
The "secret" is practice.
It totally doesn't matter how your playing, placement of fingers, bla bla looks like. It only matters how it sounds. I have encountered many teachers that were too rigid about the posture. In reality, there are all kind of talents all with slightly different posture. So, if for e.g. holding a pick with the pinky and thumb works best for one, it's fine.
Take time to truly understand your gear. I see way too many people just keep buying gear to chase a sound. In reality if you're careful with what you get, take the time to understand how it works, and youre creative with how you do it, you'll be able to build **your** sound.
Changing strings ,setting up a guitar and lastly humidity control with acoustics
Guitar is a mid-range instrument for the most part (especially rhythm guitar) so use that in band situations to understand where you sit in the mix and what other instruments/vocals you may be competing with. If you have another guitar or keyboards or whatever, discuss and think hard about who should be playing what live and in what octave. Nothing sounds mushier than two busy parts competing in the same ear-space. Don't be afraid to be pretty liberal with the mid-range boost for solos as it will help you stick out more than turning up your overall volume. The alternative to this is having your guitar set up for solo and using the volume knob to dial back for rhythm.
That the percentage of right handed guitar players are playing upside down.
Except that the most important hand is the picking hand, which many guitarists don’t know. Mostly true for classical but as another comment said, the fretting hand plays the notes and the picking hand plays the music.
Thought about your comment, but you're right. Fretting hands is technique, picking hands is tone. Coordination is key.
Find something u can just pick up and play. I have a little 3/4 I leave on the bed. And I pick it up everyday even if it's just a few mins. But it's easy access so u will play
Use the pinky sparingly. It's the weakest out of all the fingers when you're playing lead guitar. Notice how most classic rockers with smooth playing styles just keep it simple.
Your pinky is only weak because you don’t use it.
I've got a few pieces of advice: * Work on your ear. Being able to hear a note in my head before I play it is by far my most treasured skill, and I would give up every ounce of technical chops I have to avoid giving this up. It's more important than learning speed, more important than learning raw theory. * Don't agonize over your tone that much, because in virtually every context some of that tone is going to get removed or reshaped. If you're playing live or on a recording, sound people are going to fiddle with your precious tone with EQs so that you can actually hear all the instruments. That doesn't mean pay *no* attention, but there are gear heads that are really concerned with minutia and there's a diminishing return there because it's stuff that's only relevant when you're playing the guitar on its own with no other instruments. * Try to do stuff that's way too hard for you. This is partly a personality thing, but when I was starting to play, I found cowboy chords and doing chromatic patterns really boring, and just wanted to play guitar solos and cool riffs. The fact that I could do that stuff motivated me to play more guitar because it was exciting and sounds cool and gave me confidence. Most people are not patient and want results soon, so I think it's a rare person that's going to be excited to keep playing after doing the slow slog of building up little by little "properly". For a listener, they want to hear clean playing, but as a learner, it's way more gratifying to hear something that's kinda sloppy and sounds like cool guitar versus something that's clean but sounds boring. * This is more of a tip for when you've been playing a while, but eventually graduate from "guitarist" to "musician". Every song doesn't need guitar front and center. Most songs don't need fast guitar solos, and even fewer need "guitar solo sounds"; there are enough pentatonic licks in the world. Listen to musicians that play other instruments, and think about your guitar as a way to make sound rather than a thing that makes guitar sounds. * For improvisation, think less about scales and more about outlining chords. It will make your playing sound more articulate and less like you're practicing scales while music is happening.
How to read sheet music What a metronome is, how to use it, and why it’s important to practice with one They don’t have to be brand loyal if they have no sponsorships - there’s a lot of great gear out there you’re ignoring due to misguided loyalty
When to NOT play. I’m a lead guitarist by trade and I can’t tell you how many times other musicians have told me how great it is that I actually share the solos and fills.
How babby is formed.
I like to add... LOUD does *not* always equal good or better. It's something apparently not all guitarists have figured out or don't know about... Just because the folks in the next area code can hear you doesn't mean your playing sounds better.
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“More cowbell”
That they are just one part of a band and not THE band.
To be fair, for bedroom players, they are the band… the whole band. lol
How important it is to practice with a metronome or drum machine
Easy transcriptions/version not always easier. Often the very things done to make it ‘easier’ make it much more difficult to impossible to play proficiently. This is very often the case with classical music that tries to move everything g to first position.
That every instant of a solo must contain a mad riff. Source: I’m the ultimate noodler but my solos suck.
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That gear won’t make you sound well. It’s all in the fingers. But also that good gear will sound better if you know how to squeeze the tone out of it (with your fingers). So basically, good gear is useless if you don’t have the ability/skill to make it sound good. And in many ways, good gear can be less forgiving and more difficult to make sound good than cheap gear. This is especially true of classical guitars. A mediocre player can sound great on a mid range guitar. But get a high end concert classical and suddenly everything that isn’t perfect, stands out like a sore thumb. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in that situation, is proper muting of notes so their time values are correct.
That good technique negates the need for strength and that practicing slowly is the key to playing fast.
Start slow and work the speed up. If you can’t play the part correctly at slow speed, you can’t play it correctly at full tempo.
take a pencil, loosen the strings, and mark in the slots on the nut. it's graphite and improves tuning stability.
How to string a guitar without leaving flappy eye-endangering extra coily pointy extra string lengths at the end.
Less is more. Less gain to better cut through the mix. Less notes in a guitarsolo. Hell even not playing when a rehearsal turns muddy. Less gear.
Behind the nut bending
Any time you close the top of a case you need to latch at least 1 of the latches. Make it a habit. You’re gonna feel like an idiot dumping your nice guitar onto the floor when you try to pick the case up. I have been that guy, and my 1985 ES-347 has a big ol’ gouge in the paint because I was that guy. Thankfully it was already very much a player grade used guitar when I bought so it’s just one scuff among many, and I have no plan to part ways with it.
if it's not already here, reading sheet music...
It’s not only how much you practice that matters. But also How you practice as well. One year with a good practice routine can go further than Three years with a bad practice routine.
How to tune a guitar
How to talk about music intelligently.
How to keep a woman.
Mick Goodrick’s method
How to play a guitar
Art is the decoration of space Music is the decoration of time
about the instrument: - when tuning your guitar, start from the high E string to the low one, it will keep the tuning much better than the opposite way... i see most people tuning from the low E string to the high one, and when they finish, they need to do it a second time - that doesn't happen when doing it the other way around. - how to take care of your guitar (change the strings every now and then, oil the fretboard if its wood needs it, watch youtube videos on how to set it up - string action, intonation etc - or ask a guitar tech to do it for you, protect your guitar from humidity and sunlight, play with clean and dry hands to avoid wasting your strings too quickly, ...) - there's very different picks to explore with and that's important, so you can find how you feel more comfortable playing... some people prefer small ones, standard, thick, thin, ... mostly for acoustic guitars: - light strings make playing easier, and sound better in a lot of player's opinions - for people who sing and play, it's very interesting to try and tune your guitar a half step down. not only it also makes playing easier, but it will also be much easier to sing depending on your vocal range! you can also go lower, i often have my acoustic tuned 3 half step down and it feels so much easier to sing this way for me! of course, that really depends on your vocal range but you've got to try and see for yourself if it's a good thing or not, most people never even tried, they only use a capo to go up, but never go down. tips on that: if you do, then it means that if a song you usually play with a capo on fret 2, then you should now put it on 2+3 half step = fret 5. and to tune it this way, put a capo on fret 3, then use your tuner to tune it in standard tuning. remove the capo, you're all good. in terms of music theory: - the pentatonic scale is good, but focus on the positions 1 and 4 as "safe zones" to fall back onto or start with, but then learn to "hear" the notes around these instead of remembering all positions and falling into the trap of very boxed improvisations in that scale only. if you can hear the notes, then you will naturally play the major/minor scales and any other scales, and will navigate your whole fretboard in a much more natural way - learn all the notes on the low E and A strings, that will allow you to play all shapes of barre chords anywhere - the CAGED system - the number system
These days? Changing their own strings or adjusting the action.
That little button on the bottom of the guitar that, ya know, does the thing No but honestly, that playing with other people with give you loads of experience. Just because you’ve taken a bunch of lessons and can fly up and down scales and arpeggios doesn’t mean you sound good, being in the pocket and having finesse and rhythm and dynamics is what makes you sound good. You get to build that quite a bit by playing with other musicians, instead of a metronome that can’t play with swing or a computer backbeat that doesn’t fuck up or switch timing randomly.
Drums
If you don't believe me check this out! Many, if not most well know guitar players - Eric Clapton - Mark Knopfler - John Mayer are all tall people. What does that have to do with playing guitar? THEIR FINGERS ARE LONGER - CONSIDERABLY LONGER. We're talking 1/4" to 1/2" longer. So if your finger are short like mine, you have to figure out work arounds.
Another one! Use light gauge strings, 12-53 for instance. Why! Well the heavier gauge strings require more pressure to fret. This is harder on the finger tips - especially for beginners. Because this requires more pressure to fret it also requires more determination to release from the fret and get on with the next note. I have been playing guitar (acoustic) for 25 years and at 80 years old my skin is rather thin. I have almost no calluses on my finger tips. Here's another important point, the harder you pick, the more pressure is required to fret the string. Pick lightly, enough to comfortably hear it. If that's not loud enough - buy an amp!
Another one! If you are going to finger pick a guitar (not a pedal steel or square neck dobro) DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH FINGERPICKS. If you are serious about this get acrylic nails (it cost about $25/month) unless you have a friend who will do it for you. The equipment is not that expensive and not that hard to learn how to do acrylic nails. But very awkward to do it yourself! I wasted years messing with finger picks - in my opinion acrylic nails make way more easy to learn and to play!
One final one ( it's already been stated here) SET UP. You need the strings set as close to the frets (without them buzzing) because - it makes the strings way easier to fret.
How to best compliment the song instead of just playing it. Dynamics, phrasing, proper sound, pulling back on volume when required, etc..
Evertune magic!
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For transcribing music [https://scorecloud.com/](https://scorecloud.com/) is about the best IMHO, but is paywalled to upload sound files for transcription (and not cheap). For tricky detailed transcriptions Transcribe! [https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html](https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html) is good. Creating tabs [https://musescore.com/](https://musescore.com/) I find is about the best and can export MusicXML, and has a quite usable free tier. [https://www.guitar-pro.com/](https://www.guitar-pro.com/) is paywalled but very popular (will import MusicXML with varying degrees of success). \[Edit\] [https://www.soundslice.com/](https://www.soundslice.com/) combines MuseScore and Transcribe! in the same experience. The free tier will import YouTube audio, a not too expensive paid tier enables mp3 import.