What do you think of when playing the guitar?

It has kind of struck me recently that a lot of time when I am practising or performing, my mind wanders (actually quite a lot). Sometimes, I am not actually sure what I am focusing on, partly due to muscle memory, where I (you) can get away with a lot, but it has dawned on me recently that because of this, sometime with new material you need to really concentrate on breaking the concentration gap and also the muscle memory. What do I mean by this? Well, if you try and play a new lick, but realise that you add in your own nuances to the lick, or even to some extent your own notes unintentionally, this might be down to a lack of concentration. If you find that when playing a scale for example, your aren't concentrating on each of the notes and then make the odd clanger, then perhaps you need to focus again on concentration.My issue is that I am not 100% sure at all what I am thinking about when playing, is it picking, fingering, note, I am focusing on the room in front of me and relying too much on muscle memory. When I stopped and tried to concentrate, I realised I had to do things much much slower (and important lesson there for sure!) and really concentrate on the notes. For example, playing a scale and naming each of the notes as I played them. I also found that closing my eyes whilst playing also really helped when trying to concentrate, and something I will certainly do more of in future.To help with my quest for concentration, I found these two sites very useful

• Improve your concentration
• Practicing guitar - Concentration

What are your thoughts?PeaceNeil

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Singing what you are playing or playing what you are singing? - Guitar Lesson

So I found this amazing video of George Benson and Robben Ford and it struck me about if George is actually singing what he is playing or playing what he is singing? I guess from a neurological perspective he must be playing what he is singing, given the pathways from the brain to the mount and the fingers, but perhaps it is the other way around! It is an important aspect of playing to practice singing notes and then finding them on the guitar and vice versa! I shall be mostly practising what i preach this week!Enjoy!PeaceNeil

What's your internal tempo? - Guitar Lesson

This is a bit more of a ponder/thought today. I have been beginning to notice that I seem to have a built in tempo (or should I say metronome), which seems to be configured to a set BPM. Of course we an inbuilt BPM, which is our heart beat, a varying metronome which keeps us alive. I sometimes wonder, given that the default heart-rate of a health adult is 60 BPM, is that is why a considerable amount of music is around 120bpm? (just a ponder).Anyway, what am I getting at? I have noticed that when I practice (and noodle around), I seem to always want to play at a set speed. It doesn't matter what it is, if I don't have a metronome present, I seem to have a default speed at which I play everything. Now I noticed this morning, that this isn't such a great thing, I was practising something which needs to be played at 110 BPM, but I was just wailing on it at around 125-130 bpm. I keep finding myself, telling myself to slow down, not everything needs to be played fast. So that's my lesson today, think about if you seem to have a tempo at which you play everything (when you don't have a rhythm source), think about if it is too fast, and then try and slow it down (or speed it up). Ultimately, take that metronome, change the speed and see how you get on!What's your internal tempo??PeaceNeil

What are you saying? Pt III - Guitar Lessons

Following on from the last couple of lessons which related to thoughts about thinking about what you are saying and how you are saying it. My thought and consideration now is to think of how this applies practically.So firstly, think of guitarists you like.On the whole you are probably doing this already, you might know a few Hendrix or Slash licks, you might actually be able to play the whole of Satriani's catalogue note perfect....so what are you doing in real terms?Basically, copying their famous speeches or phrases, and then incorporating it into what you are saying. I guess it is similar to throwing in Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" into a conversation you are having.Thinking of it like that certain has opened my eyes, part of the deal playing in a function band is that you basically re-enact famous 'speeches' that people want to hear, you might have some leeway to change some of the 'words', but on the whole you recite the speech. So my challenge is to think about something you want to say....in speech....say it and then copy it on the guitar. This may open up a whole new area of exploration for you. Of course, then go back and think of what your favourite players (e.g. Vai or BB King) are saying, how they say it and copy it, but perhaps only copy (learn) snippets of the sentence, snippets you like and try and incorporate them into your own lines.Good luck!PeaceNeil

What are you saying? PT II

I wrote a piece about thinking about what you are trying to say as a guitarist, and how guitar playing should be considered like speech. The more I think about this, the more I realise that it is also relevant to what I am saying in everyday talking. I do tend to say the same things, in the same way. I say a lot, I sometimes talk quickly, I use the same inflections, the same old jokes, the same banter, the same platitudes, exactly as I do in my guitar playing! So this lesson is relevant in both my guitar playing and my actually life. I feel I need to do some of the following :-

• Slow down
• Don't rush to get words/notes out
• Pause
• Breath
• Adjust timbre of words/notes
• Use more considered words/notes
• Think about emphasising certain words/notes
• Trying saying something I wouldn't normally say

Time to investigate and research techniques which help change the way we speak, and how we speak and apply them to the guitar!I am now making a concerted effort to think about what I am saying and more importantly, how I am saying it....both in life and on the guitar!PeaceNeil

Memorising, Memory Techniques and learning

How to memorise material is something that I am constantly being asked about by my students, and generally I find the most effective technique which works for them is either, Mind mapping as developed by Tony Buzan, or visualisation using drawings or your own personal stories and symbols. But, ultimately it is the proces of learning which is most important, and by that I mean actually really understanding what is happening, rather than the act of being able to recite something at will, without actually understanding the process. Now, this is all fine and good, and it certainly helps me to understand and remember information.....but there is one area where I tend to struggle is with songs. I can play a song a hundred time, and then a couple of months later, totally forget how to play it and I am really not sure why.Then I stumbled across this piece online and I think it makes some really important points and I am looking forward to trying some of them out. It starts by suggesting that if you first learn a piece then memorise it, you are basically doing the same work twice! Of course, when approaching a new piece for the first time, you have to use your ear/sight read the notes, fingerings, articulations, phrasing and dynamics etc, and once you have done this, then you site down go over it time after time to 'memorise' it. Now, I have no problem with the first bit and memorising it for the short term, but how to you do this for the long term? This could be the solution....

Conscious Practice...Always tell yourself what you are doing when you practice eg

• learning a new fingering? Then, say the finger out loud to yourself.
• recognize a cadence? Then, tell yourself the cadence.
• play a sequence? Then, identify the sequence and how the melody is used.

The reason why it takes many a long time to learn music is because they just play through it! They don't actively tell themselves what is going on. If you just play through it over and over again, you are not practicing. You are not reminding yourself about what is going on. You have to be active! Your mind must be involved. Count out loud, sing the musical lines, work small sections, tell yourself the harmonic progressions... even something as simple as reminding yourself about how the theme repeats will help you memorise and understand the piece. When you are playing a crescendo, tell yourself! This way you associate the dynamic with the musical line and the fingering.Set a  goal to memorise something every day!Muscle memory is only good to train the fingers where to go but you cannot rely on that when you are stage!  By reminding yourself what you do, telling yourself, verbalizing what you practice will improve your time at the your instrument. The verbalisation reinforces what you are doing physically by activating your brain.

I hope this helps!!PeaceNeil

The art of playing the blues

So I am 4 weeks into the Blues Guitar course at Berklee and I am having the most amazing experience, and the biggest surprise is that what I am taking away from the course isn't in the area I was expecting it to come from, i.e. guitar technique. I feel, the biggest challenges I have faced and the areas if feel I have learn most from, have not been from a technical guitar playing perspective, but from a life affirming mental perspective. What do I mean by that? Well, the art of the blues or should I say the root of the blues is in suffering and out of suffering hope, it is a heartfelt art form, full of story telling and emotion. It isn't about technical prowess, it is about conveying the emotion that the musician is feeling....but then again we know this stuff already, so why has it come as a surprise? Well, firstly I have found that I am really, REALLY, having to concentrate on these parts of my playing, and I am nowhere close to mastering them (and perhaps mastering isn't the right word, feeling them might be better). In particular, I am taking away that I need to work on the the followingPhrasingWhen you have spent 20+ years practising 16th notes to a metronome, it is really hard to break out of that patterning, being a bit 'lazy' in the phrasing is very difficult. Nuanced slides, ghost notes, 'sloppy' runs, 16th note runs to a shuffle feel, slides with no real start or end. I feel now that my actually playing at this point in time is so robotic, I am feeling I am going to have to unlearn all those years of metronomic precision.BreathingSo what has breathing got to do with guitar playing? Well this is the area of this course which is also having a direct wake up call on how I also live my life and how that actually impacts on my guitar playing. What do I mean?Well, I have noticed that I tend to fill all my guitar parts to the brim, never really taking room for a breath, filling every bar with a note (or many many notes!) and wow.....I guess it is symbolic of my life too, I fill every second with doing something.The Blues is teaching me to slow down, take a breath, not fill every second with something, take time to ponder, time to breath!! What am I saying?I think the key issue I have taken away from this is to think about what you are saying and what you want to say, say it with emotion. Pause and reflect and make every moment (note) count. It is exciting that learning the guitar (after all these years) also relatedListening to what you are saying. You are telling a story! I did post a lesson on this topic before, but it is becoming more and more important to me and my playing! PeaceNeil

Practising blindfold - Quick ways to improve your guitar playing

Practising blindfold

Okay, this might sound like a really odd lesson, but please bear with me as I think it will really help your playing.This lesson might all sound a little zen or karate kidesque, but it certainly works for me.

So what does it involve?

Well, basically it involves either, closing your eyes, blindfolding yourself, playing in the dark, or not looking at the neck of the guitar. I think having the eyes closed or blindfolded is probably a better approach to this exercise.

So what is the point?

Well, one reason is that when performing on stage, you need to be able to play without looking at your instrument, as you have to engage with the crowd, usually by looking at them, also on stage it can be quite common for it to be very dark, thus knowing where notes are on the instrument is a really big help. But, I think the other reason more importantly is that it helps you focus both on the sound of the note you are making and you get to hear the interval (or at least think carefully about the interval you are about to make).

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung

By removing one of the senses, you are so much more reliant on the others, and in this case as a guitarist or musician, I think there a focusing on the sense which should actually be primary in the activity of music making....your ears. Why I think this works1)You slow down and think, this is something we should probably do more of when playing guitar2)The sound of each note and each interval becomes the key focus3)You start think of each note as it's own entity and it's relation to the others, thus appreciating intervals.Give it a go, you might be surprised at the results.For similar concepts and ways to improve your playing NOW, download a copy of my book.

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 PeaceNeil 

Pros and Cons of Guitar Tab on the internet

I had to look at an online tab today, why? I had to learn something very quickly (is it any different than turning up to a show and being given a lead sheet?...well yes because a lead sheet will generally be right!), so I google the song and tab....and there it was, and I was able to learn it very quickly....but had I really learnt it? I think (and I am guilty of this), than in the internet age, we simply google 'how to play XYZ' or 'XYZ tab' and look at the piece and learn it, rather than listen to the piece and understand it.So Pros

• Quick
• 24/7

Cons

• Don't actually learn the song
• Doesn't help improve your ear
• Might be wrong

What are you thoughts?PeaceNeil