Best way of improving all-around playing?

[TroyHamilton]

My guitar has been mainly gathering dust for a few years and I want to get back at it. I was always super weak in the ear, so I still have that issue with the addition of very sloppy technique right now.

What are some suggestions to get back 'in shape' overall? Any particularly good videos or books that are popular that I might be unaware of?

My goal isn't to be a shred king by next month, so please don't limit an answer to just building speed/technique... I really think the ear and overall quality of technique are my main areas of need right now.

Thanks,
Troy

[brad347]

Without getting together and hearing and watching you play, it's going to be hard to know what specific things are going to work for you.

As far as generalized advice, I'd say spend some time with the guitar each day and spend plenty of time critically listening to recordings that you like a lot.

Play it through once and listen to just the guitar. Then just the bass. Then just the drums, etc. You can learn a lot about music, musicality, and the guitar's role in the music you like through this exercise, and it can make good ear training too. I know it doesn't sound like much, but this really helps a lot of people get some stuff together.

Your self-described "sloppy" technique will probably correct itself in part if you practice in front of a mirror. Give it a try, and watch the mirror instead of your hands. Lots of stuff will be made apparent, and your instincts will probably correct it. If need be, combine this with watching videos of great players you admire-- when you practice in front of the mirror, you will unconsciously start to see where you differ from them in important ways. A lot can be self-correcting by doing this.

Finally, try to cultivate awareness when you practice-- in other words, be careful of falling into ruts and playing familiar licks, patterns-- even avoid technique habits that you 'fell into' for no particular reason. Don't be afraid to constantly ask yourself "why?" "Why do I hold the pick this way?" "Why does my thumb wrap over the neck?" "Why does my pinkie fly all over the place?"

What all of this advice has in common is the central theme of paying attention. The human brain is a very sensitive instrument, and it will figure out what to do as long as it knows what's going on.

Good luck!

[Super Locrian]

Take some private lessons. That's the best way of getting personally tailored advice. "The advancing guitarist" is a great book that any guitar player should have on the bookshelf. www.good-ear.com (http://www.good-ear.com) is a great free online ear-training resource.

[KRosser]

Do a lot of gigs.

[Sikor]

Take some private lessons. That's the best way of getting personally tailored advice.
:agree

It worked form me :)

[Jon]

Work on familairity with the neck and learning all the notes on it - whatever chords, riffs or licks you are playing, try to work towards being able to play them in as many different places on the neck as is physically possible on the fly. The CAGED system is a good way to structure this kind of thing - there are plenty of books & DVDs which will address this.
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=426362&highlight=caged

[Ken Ho]

As` above, get lessons.

Do any exercises or scales you do with a metronome to tighten up timing etc. Time with a metronome ALWAYS improves every aspect of my playing.

Learn complete songs, not just the interesting bits, and learn to play them accurately. Personaly, I prefer to find pieces that contain the exercises I want to do. Playing them as written is better discipline than playing them freestyle.
Play stuff you might not normally play. Moving across genres will broaden your palate, and give you more chances to discover interesting pieces.


Play with other musicians, ideally in a band, as KRosser said.

[Austinrocks]

Lessons are good, studied jazz guitar for 4 years when I was 40, never had lessons before that, playing with other people, whether its an acoustic beer drinking jam with some dudes down the street every evening, once every few month jams with guys at work, garage band jams every week, gigging in a working band, find something to focus you on improving.

at home I really like playing to backing tracks,


http://guitarbt.com/ free downloads, and really help with improvization, or what ever you want to develop, or just fun to play along with your favorite songs.

[Elektrik_SIxx]

Besides lessons, I think it's a good idea to check your cd collection and start jamming along with the ones you like. Don't worry about making a mistake. Just make sure it's the stuff you like listening to.

[spacelord]

I just back into guitar a year and a half ago.. For technique, I would say get Accelerate Your Guitar Playing DVD & Booklet (you'll find it mentioned all over this forum), a good metronome and use it often. Depending on your skill level and if you like hard rock, the Troy Stetina books helped me get going again also.

I can't help you much with the ear.. since I've never really worked on it and mine sucks.

[KRosser]

Play with other musicians, ideally in a band, as KRosser said.

Yeah...in fact, that's a better way of putting it than I did...

:jo

[rockinrob]

:agree

[bobbypols]

Relax while playing, let all tensions melt away, and put your time in. Be patient with ear training and do a bit everyday.

[TroyHamilton]

Thanks for all the advice guys... I have a few follow-up questions. (And keep any additional tips coming.)

I live in an apartment complex and just moved to the area from 900 miles away... so I have A.) volume restrictions B.) a wife to sonically share the apartment with and C.) no guitar playing buddies in the area.

that being said, I think jamming with CDs and doing instructional stuff (books/dvd's/etc) is going to be the ticket for me until I make some connections. I saw this because cranking up the stereo and amp and having fun isn't really practical... what's the most practical method of jamming with CDs that won't get me booted from my apartment? Any easy to to do it on the PC? I know Korg (or someone like that) makes the CD/Guitar trainer device that can be used with headphones... anyone have experience with those?

I'm just looking for practical methods of putting this stuff into practice...

[spacelord]

The Digitech RP series has a 1/8" input for MP3 players or whatever to play along with. You can then send it to your amp, mixer, stereo, headphones whatever you want. Its a good little device for goofing around with. It has some built in rhythms too. I've seen the RP250, which I have, going for under $100 on ebay. Plus you get all the effects and stuff.
I'm sure there are other solutions too.

[Ken Ho]

Sound control in an apaartment is so hard. The more everyone does, the more everyone notices every little sound.
The TAscam CD trainer can be used wiht headphones, ands I use it a lot. I don't lpug my guitar into it, but I think you can do that. Lots of amps like Fender GDEC and Roland CUbes have CD input and headphone outs. The Tascam has the advantage of looping and slow-down stuff which is what I use it for a lot, learning solos. Got a couple to learn today.
Wives just need to get used to stuff. My late night high gain shenanigans is like a lullaby to my wife now after several years of it.
I learn songs. A lot of songs.
I found band-mates through the Weekend Warrior programme

google that and see if there is a store near you that runs it. It's a great.low pressure way to meet other muso's, esp the "others" in a band, ie bass/drums/vox, rather than just other guitar players.

[ddewees]

Troy, the Fender GDEC amp has a similar set up that may work too. RCA ins for cd/mp3 player. Drum and Bass tracks built in. The headphone jack is much better than the 8" speaker.

Stay tuned, I may have one that I willing to part with.

I live in a house but still get fewer complaints from my wife when I play via the GDEC or Vox Tonelab as opposed to one of my amps.

Dave

[frizbplaya]

Play everyday. Much faster results even if it's just a few minutes every day vs. one long practice once a week

[drfrankencopter]

.. what's the most practical method of jamming with CDs that won't get me booted from my apartment? Any easy to to do it on the PC? I know Korg (or someone like that) makes the CD/Guitar trainer device that can be used with headphones... anyone have experience with those?



You can do what I did:

Pick up NI's Guitar Rig, with the interface. You can play along to MP3s, slow them down, and/or alter the pitch (handy for when the recording is in Eb and you don't want to re-tune)...plus its a pretty dam good amp simulator too. Works for me.

Somedays it sounds better than my amps do!

Cheers

Kris

[TroyHamilton]

Thanks for all the help guys... I think I'm going to check out some of these options for at home... hopefully I find a good match. ;)

[French Fry]

I would recommend picking up a looper pedal, like the digitech jamman. Nice easy way to lay down a chord progression and play over that. You can output to headphones.

[Gene]

I was always super weak in the ear,


You seemed to answer your own question. I don't understand what further answer you need. Get your ears together.

As far as technique, try playing some of your favorite music. Technique should serve the music, in my opinion. If you have enough technique to play a piece of music beautifully, that is all you needed for that piece and so on. If you want to play fast and clean, play some bop heads and Bird solos.

[ivers]

Some great advice here. My picks, based on what has made a difference for me, both in terms of improving musicianship and boosting the enjoyment I get from playing would be:

Learn tunes, lots of them, don't be afraid to adapt them to different keys that might give nice open string chords on the guitar.

Play with people.

Develop you ears. I mean, seriously work on improving them. They are very improv-able, in my experience.

[kludge]

I really like jzucker's book Sheets of Sound (http://www.sheetsofsound.net/). It'll give you a lot to work on! I could never make use of sweep picking until his book formalized it for me.

Another thing I really recommend is getting a couple of drumsticks and a practice pad, and working your way through "Stick Control" and/or other books on drum rudiments and sticking patterns. It'll make you far more aware of rhythm, and get you away from guitarisms while you're learning.

[mik777]

A Bong Hit wouldnt hurt!!!http://http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/z/C/bush_bong.jpg

[kludge]

A Bong Hit wouldnt hurt!!!http://http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/z/C/bush_bong.jpg

Last time I tried that, I wound up eating all my Danelecto pedals in a fit of munchies. They had such tasty names!

[TroyHamilton]

I know I need to work on my ear... it's the reason I volunteered that at the start - but my question is HOW to do that... practically... examples, methods, etc, etc...

If it were as easy as doing it I wouldn't be on here asking advice, I'd be doing whatever it was I needed to do. ;)




You seemed to answer your own question. I don't understand what further answer you need. Get your ears together.

As far as technique, try playing some of your favorite music. Technique should serve the music, in my opinion. If you have enough technique to play a piece of music beautifully, that is all you needed for that piece and so on. If you want to play fast and clean, play some bop heads and Bird solos.

[GovernorSilver]

I know I need to work on my ear... it's the reason I volunteered that at the start - but my question is HOW to do that... practically... examples, methods, etc, etc...

Several people have already given you a proven method, one that produced virtually all the great guitar players: Learn songs by ear.

They have also offered a related, also time-tested method: Learn from recorded solos. Imo, you do not need to learn entire solos - just 3-5 notes at a time that you really like. Slowdown software (aka transcription software) will be very helpful here.

Sight reading is yet another time-tested method. The Oakes book is a popular choice here. The trick is to forbid yourself from touching your guitar until you can sing a phrase to yourself. Do little chunks at a time to keep it manageable at the outset.

[Gene]

I know I need to work on my ear... it's the reason I volunteered that at the start - but my question is HOW to do that... practically... examples, methods, etc, etc...

If it were as easy as doing it I wouldn't be on here asking advice, I'd be doing whatever it was I needed to do.


Well, what do you expect for free? A jewel of a lesson? ;-)

I am sure others can chime in on how to improve ears here better than I.

[TroyHamilton]

I really thought it seemed reasonable that someone would hop on a flight and head to KC to give me some in-depth instruction for a few weeks. ;)

At this rate someone is going to figure out that I just really can't afford lessons right now. ;)

Well, what do you expect for free? A jewel of a lesson? ;-)

I am sure others can chime in on how to improve ears here better than I.

[ivers]

Hey, try this:

http://earplane.com/

You only need to know some basic theory to get going.

This site has helped me quite a bit to sharpen my ears.

[Option]

I noticed on playback of gig recordings that my time wasn't as solid as I thought. I've since figured out the tempos to all of my songs and practice them to a drum machine with a simple beat. I've only been doing this a few weeks but I can already feel the difference when have a band practice. It was a weakness i could easily have ignored but it feels good to be working on eliminating it.

[harryjmic]

Play slow with a metronome. Practice scales, arpeggios all that crap and really make sure your playing what you thought you were supossed to be doing.

[darth_vader]

I can't stress the value of metronome practice enough. Scales, arpeggios, three notes per string exercises (even if you don't 'shred') will all help to build finger agility. Just make sure you practice them all about 10-15 bpm slower than you think you should so that your brain can make sure you're doing what you should be doing. If you try to go too fast too soon you'll think you're doing the right things, but you could be fudging things a bit. I spend at least half an hour with the metronome every day just doing scales and arpeggios to keep my fingers moving in different directions, and it's made a world of difference to my playing.

[aaron1433]

once you start getting back in the swing of things, don't wait too long before you take an opportunity to play in public.

Record yourself, and critically listen to and identify what you like and what you don't like about what you are hearing.

[Tomo]

For your preparation.

Work on your rhythm guitar, your time.

Picking and fingering=slowly .. play things neat.

Triads.. go over your fretboard.

Play music.

Tomo