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Old 01-04-2016, 02:50 PM   #197
run2pee
Minion of Satan
 
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Location: An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1 View Post
you have to have a clear direction of where you want to go.
i find that the most important thing is to develope your musical 'brain', not your fingers.

i've been playing for around 14 years (man i feel old as shit typing this) and now i'm at a place that i can honestly say i don't get intimidated by amazingly technical guitar players anymore. i mean of course i get jealous when i see somebody playing something very technical that happens to be really cool or musical, but these two ends don't often meet.

the reason i'm saying this is, do you want to be a better guitarist to be able to impress people at guitar stores, or do you want to develop your playing to become a better musician?
even though you'd probably pick the latter, learning exotic scales, being obsessed with technique, and wanting to play faster - are pretty much the former.

just to be clear, this is not to shit on technical and theoretical proficiency. it's just that, imo, the real question is, do you want to be a great guitar player, or do you want to develop your skills as a tool for songwriting and musicianship.

a musician i greatly admire always says that 'you should only strive to be as technically good as you need to be to facilitate the ideas in your head'. now that doesn't mean you should slack on your playing and not give a shit about how good you are - but rather, that you need to focus on the right things.

my tips would be:
1. play a lot, until you're able to anticipate what the phrase you're GOING to play is going to sound like. shorten the distance between what you want to hear, and playing it. improvise over songs. play along to songs.

2. always be in tune, and work hard on being precise with your timing. these two things alone will make your playing sound a thousand times better, and are absurdly underrated. play along to a metronome. learn to identify when you're behind or after the beat.

3. determine what skills you lack in, and find songs that address those problems. work on them until you get them right.

4. write songs.
Holy shit THIS

One thing I would add is pick an album you really like that's just a bit beyond what you think your current skill level will allow you to play, and then learn the whole thing. Everything I've learned on guitar came directly from learning songs via careful listening, tabs, and watching videos of the artist. I have never once sat and memorized a scale just for the hell of it; that's way too boring for me. I need context to get excited, and it sounds like you might also.

 
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