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Break It All Down!
(31 Aug 02)
General stuff and conclusion
It sometimes sucks to be critical about your own playing. Been there, done that, still am. But it will help you a bunch to do so. Try to find out what's realistic and then take a closer look at what you play.
As Steve Morse said: "If you find out that there's a problem, find the problem, isolate it and eliminate it".
My grandma once caught me cheating with some homework from school. She said "If you cheat, you're only betraying yourself". I didn't know what that meant, all I wanted was to get through with my homework and get decent enough grades to be done with school.
Now I know. It's like this: if you play something, and you really speed it up, but there's noise going on which you COULD avoid (which would include slowing down and painstakingly working up to speed again)... well, if you just "ignore" the noise, thinking "It's the best I can do, it's fast and I'll just stick with it"... then you're betraying yourself.
Cuz you could do better. And maybe one day you might listen back to some recording of yours, thinking "Man, I sound sloppy !". And guess what? The later you start working on stuff like that, the harder it will be. Cuz you gotta start at the beginning again, leaving out the noise etc.
Imagine you grew up thinking that the word "not" actually means yes. Not only will people misunderstand you a lot... but if you're like 20 and someone all of a sudden tells you "Hey, man, "No" means NO", you will have a HARD time getting used to it. Is that a weird analogy ? Well, I think it makes sense. It's about changing something that you are very used to, that you kinda took for granted. Cause if you have been playing for... I dunno... 5...10...15 years, and you really wanna change something elemental about your playing, it's gonna be tough (although it IS possible, and IMHO it's never too late to change something or learn something new)
Paul Gilbert learned picking holding his pick with three fingers. He tried something else and changed to a completely different way of holding it after about 7 years... and he says that it was extremely hard.
Wow, what a weird article huh `Almost no licks this time, instead a lot of rambling, weird analogies... But you know what? I thought it was extremely important to mention all that, especially after all the picking-articles. Because I learned this kind of "observing yourself, taking a very close look at your technique" stuff the HARD way... and maybe this will be able to help a few of you to avoid that problem... or get rid of it...
Summary:- Always listen back to your playing, to check if you're REALLY happy with it and check for mistakes, noise etc.
- Set yourself realistic, but honest goals...
- Always slow it down and take a close look at what you are playing
- Pinpoint the problem, solve it, take A LOT of time with it!
- When you practice, do it with a metronome and check your playing on both a clean and distorted setting... both have their advantages
- It's never to late to eliminate a problem or change something... but the later you start the more difficult it gets
- Be honest to yourself. YOU have to be happy with your playing in the first place...
- ... and most of all, although this all might sound like boring, nit-picking brain-draining stuff... it can be fun, and fun is VERY important. So is motivation ...
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Eric started playing the guitar at age 10. He attended GIT and studied with Scott Henderson, Brett Garsed, Dan Gilbert amo. Eric is involved in several bands and recording projects and his instrumental debut - Hidden Creek - plus his instructional book Talking Hands - A Guide To Contemporary Lead Guitar Techniques is available HERE
Visit his website at www.ericvandenberg.net
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