Top 5 Tips For Guitarists 1) Only play what you want to play “Don’t judge yourself while playing. This is something that came from Lennie ...
Top 5 Tips For Guitarists |
1) Only play what you want to play
“Don’t judge yourself while playing. This is something that came from Lennie Tristano. His idea was that if you’re constantly saying to yourself things like, ‘Oh, that’s no good. I should have played the F instead of the F#,' you’re never really living in the moment; you’re not improvising fully and expressing yourself and embracing the idea that music is an art form.
2) Never play with pain
“This is extremely important. If you’re whipping out that metronome every day and you’re playing two- and three-octave scales up and down the neck, at some point if you go, ‘Ow! My wrist hurts,’ then you should stop.
3) Learn something new each month
“This is an easygoing yet difficult parameter to maintain for practicing. It’s easy, of course, to play something that somebody taught you 10 years ago and to practice it over and over. Every time you play it well, it’s like you’re patting yourself on the back.
4) Experience imitating other players
“The long way of saying this is ‘Experience imitating other players and develop an opinion of what you like and don’t like, and then build your sound and style.’ That’s a mouthful, so let’s break it down.
5) Listen to music like a music lover, not like a player
“One of the things that can skew the development of a point of view about somebody’s artistic statements is when you forget that the people who listen to music aren’t playing it. It’s easy to get so caught up in the details of something that you lose the forest for the trees.