I would like to go through the various
necessary procedures that enable one to
escape this cycle of mediocrity.
Understanding The Situation
First of all, we must have the basics of
practice approach down, and a proper
foundation to our technique. If we do not
know how to teach our fingers anything, and
as a result, all of our past efforts in
practice have given us a tension filled and
handicapped pair of hands, then we are like
crippled people trying to run a marathon. If
we are in this condition, we had better be
smart enough to begin to travel the road to
basic "guitar playing health", and that
means beginning to study "The Principles".
If you are fortunate enough to be reading
this newsletter, you have only yourself to
blame if you do not avail yourself of the
cure for that condition.
Once we do have the necessary foundation, we
are in a position to learn whatever we want,
if we can fulfill
the two
conditions of practice "know
the right thing to do, and make sure you do
it.". It is important to understand that the
first requirement "knowing the right thing
to do" is very complex, and different for
each style of guitar. While knowing how to
practice is something that all players,
regardless of style, must know, when it
comes to specific techniques, a classical
player does not have to know many of the
things that a blues or rock player must
know, and vice versa. So, whatever style we
play, we must first of all identify the
specific techniques needed for the style,
and then strive to gain an understanding of
how those techniques are done.
What We Need To Know For Electric Leads
In the lesson I am referring to, the student
did not have this requirement fulfilled. We
were working on the wonderful solo from
"Black Magic Woman" by Carlos Santana. It is
not a "difficult" solo, but you certainly
need to have the basics down!
Those basics are
-
string bending in all its variations, such
as pre-bending, done with each finger
-
vibrato on plain notes and bent notes
-
string raking and string muting
We had to work on all these techniques,
getting down to their essentials (this
student has had many teachers and lessons
through the years, had worked through lots
of books, but could not properly bend a
string!). The lack of knowing the right way
to do these things was making it impossible
to achieve the goal of making the music
emerge.
The next obstacle to deal with was the lack
of understanding of the specific practice
approach necessary to use for learning
electric guitar solos. This student was
completely violating the principle of
"knowledge of results" (fully explained in "The
Deeper I Go The Deeper It Gets"). The
essence of this principle is that we cannot
acquire and improve a motor skill if we do
not receive some kind of feedback that gives
us an awareness of how close our efforts are
to the model we are attempting to copy. If
we are shooting a basketball we cannot
improve if we can't see the hoop, evaluate
our effort, and make corrections for the
next attempt.
We must respect this fundamental law when we
practice, especially electric leads. The
right sound is much more elusive in this
here than in other styles, because of the
highly individual nature of a player's style
and sound, and the actual manner of
producing sound in this style, which leaves
more room for error. By this I mean string
bending. The infinite variety of sounds made
possible by the technique of bending strings
makes it imperative for students to be
constantly comparing their efforts during
practice to the solo they are learning. It
may sound obvious, but I am constantly
meeting students who don't do this!
Your Practice Setup
When you sit for practice, you must have far
more than the tab to the solo you are
working on in front of you. The most
important thing to have is
some kind of
recording of the solo you are working on,
so that you can listen to it, bit by bit, as
you work on each lick in the solo. The best
thing is if it is on some kind of player
that will also play it half speed, so you
can switch back and forth between the actual
speed and half speed. There are many
computer programs that will do this (even
free ones, such as WinAmp). That is
fine if you don't mind practicing in front
of your computer. But even a simple
micro-cassette player will do, they all have
2 speed recording, so you can record at the
higher speed and play back at the lower. It
plays back an octave lower, and many people
assume that is a bad thing, but I don't
think it is. It still allows you to hear
each note with its rhythmic placement, and
that is the most important thing.
Whatever the means, have a full speed and a
half speed version of the solo available.
You can even slow it down with software, and
then simply record it on to a cassette that
you use in lessons.
Taking It Apart
However you do it, arrange to be able to
listen to any part of the solo you are
working on while you practice. After that,
you
need something to record your playing.
Again, a simple cassette recorder will do. I
keep two recorders near me, one to play the
solo, and one to record myself. I play the
original, and then I compare mine; back and
forth, I "a-b" it, listen to one,
immediately followed by the other. And I
don't mean the whole solo, I mean lick by
lick. Take a little piece of the solo, study
it, make sure you are sure of all the notes,
fingering, picking, techniques involved, and
have gone over the basic movements (using
the Basic Practice Approach if you are using
The Principles). Then, listen to the
original solo, and record yourself playing
the same fragment of the solo. Now, listen
back and forth from the original, to yours,
noticing every detail.
Ask yourself "does my playing sound like the
original"? If not (and the answer usually
starts out as "NO WAY!"), your job is to
close the gap between the two. You must
discover exactly how yours is falling short,
and then figure out how to fix it. Are the
bends in tune? Is the vibrato even? Is the
rhythm correct, and how about articulation?
Your goal is to sound as good, as polished
and professional as the original.
Putting It Together
After working on the solo in small pieces,
and you feel your playing is reasonably
close to the original in quality, it is time
to start putting it together.
You must do
this by actually playing the solo to the
rhythm background. This is
something most students do not do, and it
will prevent you from ever approaching a
professional level of ability.
You should
never consider that you know a solo unless
you have listened back to yourself playing
it to the recorded rhythm background.
For any solo you are working on, you should
learn the rhythm as well, and record it at
various tempos. Master the whole thing at a
slow tempo first, maybe playing it to the
background chords played at half tempo. The
best idea is to make 4 or 5 versions of the
rhythm part at different tempos for your
practice sessions.
These days all students should avail
themselves of the tremendous resources for
study that are available; everyone should
have some kind of multi-tracking software
available (which can be found for as low as
20 or 30 dollars), and begin their own
collection of recorded solos. You will
experience great growth as a player if you
do.
I am not saying that everything you practice
must be swallowed whole, and mastered in its
entirety. Sometimes you just might like a
small part of a solo, or one lick perhaps.
There is nothing wrong with just sitting
down and copying a fragment of something you
like, but you should still use the same
approach of coma paring it, in recorded
form, to the original. But along the way,
you should master some whole songs, or whole
solos, and prove yourself on tape. The next
step, of course, is to prove yourself in a
live situation by finding people to play
with (of course, that means dealing with
other real live human beings, and brings
about challenges far beyond the scope of
what I wish to talk about here!).
At the beginning of this essay, I described
the process of nailing a solo as
"painstaking". That is a very accurate word,
because to go through all the trouble that I
am saying is necessary will seem like a real
pain when you begin to do it. That is why so
many people don't bother. Those people are
called "bad players". If you adopt the
practice approaches I have described, and
hold yourself to these standards as a
player, you will rise above the great
majority of "players" who surf around the
net, hacking their way through the ocean of
tabs, and drifting from one mediocre result
to the next. You will become a real guitar
player.
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