Ok I suck. How can I improve.
- Thread starter vejichan
- Start date
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CircuitalPlacidity
Carnivorous Jesus
based off of what I'm hearing the first thing to do is tune and/or intonate your guitar. Once that's taken care of, some metronome work is in order. Your timing is a bit suspect in spots. You also seem to be having trouble moving between your chords and hitting them cleanly. One thing to do here is sit down with a metronome and hammer out your transitions between the changes you're having trouble with. That should clean things up a bit for you whip simultaneously working your timing. But if you take anything from this, no matter what you do... any exercises, guitar workouts, learning new lines, etc.... ALWAYS USE A METRONOME!
EDIT: One more thing... Work on your string muting so there is no unwanted or unintended noise and also work on not hitting any unintended strings with the pick. This, plus metronome work should have you sounding much better in a few weeks.
EDIT: One more thing... Work on your string muting so there is no unwanted or unintended noise and also work on not hitting any unintended strings with the pick. This, plus metronome work should have you sounding much better in a few weeks.
Given To Fly
Well-Known Member
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Ask your guitar teacher.
Solodini
MORE RESTS!
Always work on everything. In the grand scheme of things, anyway. Timing is usually way overlooked so just spend some time on that.
Use this method to develop your consciousness and control of timing, counting 1 e and a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a, choosing one subdivision to play on and making sure you can do it consistently, while still counting, before speeding it up. Then slow it way back down and do it with 2 subdivisions chosen, work on it until perfect then speed it up a bit. Slow down again, do with 3. Rinse repeat.
Then work on playing with the same subdivision on every beat, except one beat, such as playing on the '&' of every beat except the second beat where maybe you play on the 'a' instead. These sorts of methods will get you used to familiar passages with small changes. Maybe you could have 3 beats with one subdivision, one beat where with another until it's perfect, then the one beat subdivision changes until you can play that perfectly, then it changes again, until you have each subdivision sorted. Then change the subdivision which is on 3 beats, maybe change which 3 beats those are.
The most important bit is to go slowly enough to play perfectly every time. If you rush it and make the same mistakes, you'll just train making mistakes into your muscle memory and need to spend way more time unlearning that to fix it. If it's slow enough that you can count/say it then you should be able to play it. If not, slow it down further. With a metronome, as mentioned above.
When you're doing these exercises, you only want the note you play to last as long as that subdivision, so you can work your muting by cutting the note off at the end of the subdivision and silencing the strings in between.
You can also play around, once you're good, with the length of the note, perhaps starting on the 'e' of the beat and lasting 3 semiquavers (16th notes) so it spans from 'e' to the end of 'a' and then silence on the beginning of the next beat
____ ____
1 e & a 2 e & a
You can also play around with different numbers of beats in the bar.
I've just started a blog documenting what I've been working on with my students and how I've approached it. Have a look at that for some ideas at adamsatur.wordpress.com or have a look at my book linked in my sig for other things to work on.
Use this method to develop your consciousness and control of timing, counting 1 e and a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a, choosing one subdivision to play on and making sure you can do it consistently, while still counting, before speeding it up. Then slow it way back down and do it with 2 subdivisions chosen, work on it until perfect then speed it up a bit. Slow down again, do with 3. Rinse repeat.
Then work on playing with the same subdivision on every beat, except one beat, such as playing on the '&' of every beat except the second beat where maybe you play on the 'a' instead. These sorts of methods will get you used to familiar passages with small changes. Maybe you could have 3 beats with one subdivision, one beat where with another until it's perfect, then the one beat subdivision changes until you can play that perfectly, then it changes again, until you have each subdivision sorted. Then change the subdivision which is on 3 beats, maybe change which 3 beats those are.
The most important bit is to go slowly enough to play perfectly every time. If you rush it and make the same mistakes, you'll just train making mistakes into your muscle memory and need to spend way more time unlearning that to fix it. If it's slow enough that you can count/say it then you should be able to play it. If not, slow it down further. With a metronome, as mentioned above.
When you're doing these exercises, you only want the note you play to last as long as that subdivision, so you can work your muting by cutting the note off at the end of the subdivision and silencing the strings in between.
You can also play around, once you're good, with the length of the note, perhaps starting on the 'e' of the beat and lasting 3 semiquavers (16th notes) so it spans from 'e' to the end of 'a' and then silence on the beginning of the next beat
____ ____
1 e & a 2 e & a
You can also play around with different numbers of beats in the bar.
I've just started a blog documenting what I've been working on with my students and how I've approached it. Have a look at that for some ideas at adamsatur.wordpress.com or have a look at my book linked in my sig for other things to work on.
TRENCHLORD
Banned
Be very deliberate with your technique. Make the speakers do your bidding.
Sacrifice speed and complexity if needed in order to play with precision.
Sacrifice speed and complexity if needed in order to play with precision.
starslight
Gimme that wheat!
I got a lot better when I got away from the TV and computer while practicing. I make more progress in 25 minutes of focused practice than I do in two hours of noodling while I'm watching The X-Files.
TheKindred
TimeTravel Innovator
Solodini
MORE RESTS!
Lightly rest the heel/pinky side of your picking hand on the strings next to the bridge to mute the strings lower than the one(s) you're playing and use the flesh of your fretting fingers to rest on the strings higher than the strings you're playing to mute them. You can also use your thumb around the neck to mute the lowest string or two while playing high strings.
tdk24
Well-Known Member
Man that video blew my mind! Took me a bit to count that out loud, the beat seems slow, but counting that way made it seem fast. I'll have to try that out with multiple notes in the measure instead of just one. Might have to break out the old Yamaha VHS sized drum machine. Sure "beats" a metronome. haha. Thanks for posting that!
CircuitalPlacidity
Carnivorous Jesus
I find I'm much more in tune with the precision of my playing if I'm playing with a metronome. When I used to practice with my drum machine I found I wasn't able to be as precise and nitpicking as I would like in regards to getting everything as tight and clean as possible. The drum machine tended to blur things a bit for me I guess. Just a heads up with an issue you *might* run into. I'm not sure if its a common one or not.
EDIT: On another note dont practice things with a lot of distortion. It can make you think you're a bit better than you are by hiding mistakes, noises, etc. Find a slightly overdriven sound and that'll give you a bit of room to play while still letting you hear your deficiencies. I think this is overlooked quite a bit.
EDIT: On another note dont practice things with a lot of distortion. It can make you think you're a bit better than you are by hiding mistakes, noises, etc. Find a slightly overdriven sound and that'll give you a bit of room to play while still letting you hear your deficiencies. I think this is overlooked quite a bit.
toiletstand
/\'...'/\
we all start somewhere! be critical of your playing. work on posture and breathing. relax. be real conscious of how tense you are and where you tense up when you play then try and correct that. take it slow. youll always improve if you take it slow.
Solodini
MORE RESTS!
Drum machine helps more for the rhythm yardstick stuff, though, as it's more about how things sound in relation to strong and weak beats. Metronome would be less demonstrative for that activity.
Thanks everybody. Here are my songs (actually more of a collection of ideas and riffs) for you guys to hear how bad I am. Please offer your advice on how I can improve my playing, tone, mixing and music. Yea I'm not afraid anymore...my ego is out the window ...so be brutally honest and give it to me straight. I Want to really improve. Http://www.soundcloud.com/Davidcho-1
Solodini
MORE RESTS!
As I said to you in PMs, you're not bad, you just need to tighten things up. Everyone can improve. That doesn't mean they suck, just that they can be better than they currently are. No point dragging yourself down more than is necessary. Appreciate the abilities you have.
