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You absolutely have to try this out

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 10:12:22 +0100

- Does perfect practice make perfect? When you practice something with no mistakes at all, will you then develop perfect skills faster?

For most aspiring guitar masters, practicing without making mistakes all the time doesn't really seem realistic. If you feel the same way you MUST read on.

In most sports you cannot practice without making mistakes. You can't slow gravity down so you can hit that ball perfectly every time.

Take your best shot

You must take your best shot and fail over and over and over again until your brain finally creates the connection between different approaches and a successful result. This takes time because you cannot control the process.

When ever you hit the ball perfectly you feel fantastic. The brain the ties a connection between what you did and the result. It tries to figure out what made you feel all that pleasure so it can replicate it.

It's a process of constant trial and error until the most advanced super computer on the face of the earth (Your brain) finally gets it.

It is very true that in most sports perfect practice is simply impossible. You have to make mistakes in order to learn.

Guitar practice is different

With guitar practice it is the complete opposite. If you are practicing while making a lot of mistakes - chances are you could at least triple the speed at which you develop by eliminating the mistakes almost completely. And the skills you develop when you're not making mistakes will be perfect.

Practicing is the process of programming the brain to perform movements that doesn't come natural to it. You install new patterns that you where not born with - and that naturally takes some repeating.

If you program a computer and every 5th line of code contains an error, then you might succeed in creating a program that does something in the end. But it will be full off flaws and bugs. Chances are it will not be of much use when you're done programming.

Stop practicing and program your brain instead

The same thing goes for programming the brain. You WILL get good at what you practice. And if you're practicing making mistakes all the time, that's what your brain becomes really good at.

But how then can you become good at hitting a baseball by making mistakes all the time? Well, swinging the bat is one movement.

It might require a lot of practicing to get that one movement right - and hitting that baseball might be one of the hardest things in the world to do (A champion still fails to hit the ball more than 50 % of the time)

Hundreds of little movement versus one

But hitting a baseball is still just one movement, however complex it might be. Playing guitar is hundreds of little movements. And it would not be possible to learn to perform all these little movements if you had to use the method of the baseball. It would take you several lifetimes to achieve even a mediocre skill level.

If practicing without making mistakes seems almost impossible to you, then you will benefit massively from focusing on not making mistakes. Slow down. Relax. Do it perfectly.

The most effective path to mastery

This seems counterintuitive but it's the most effective path to mastery. And you will spend your practice time building perfect skills.

This rabbit whole goes very, very deep. If you're struggling and have been for months or years, this could very well be your straight road to the skill level you want. But you have to fight against the urge to practice fast with mistakes.

Practice fewer things. Narrow it down to a couple of simple things you want to focus on for the coming month. Then decide to practice them with no mistakes, what ever it takes. Do it for at least 4 weeks.

Then judge by the results you get.

The more things you master, the faster you get better.

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 12:00:45 +0100

Do you have a sense that you seem to learn at a faster and faster rate as the months go by? Or does it seem like you are walking up the same steep hill all the time?

If you're not developing at a faster and faster rate, you are not creating the powerful momentum of mastery. And the change you need is a change of focus.

When there's a lot to learn, your brain naturally takes on as much as it can at one time. You end up creating a practice routine that takes you through several activities and exercises in one sitting.

You perhaps start with a warm up exercise, then go on to practicing scales, then you might practicing a picking technique or practicing soloing with a jam track in the background.

You need another focus

While this is the most common way of practicing it is also massively ineffective. It will keep you from creating the momentum you need in order to constantly get better faster. Here's an insight to remember:

The more small things you master, the faster you get better.

And the faster you get better, the faster you will get even better.

This is the key to exponential and explosive growth.

So here's the simple key:

Spend 80 % of your time focusing on one thing only until you master it. Then spend the remaining 20 % on other things.

Instead of practicing several things every day, focus on conquering one challenge almost all of your time. This might be learning one scale in one key across the fret board. It might be learning to play 3 notes on one string as fast as possible.

What ever it is, make it small and manageable. Make sure that you pick something you can master in a relatively short period of time. If you're a beginner it might be practicing playing the same two chords over and over again until you can make the shift between them effortlessly with your eyes closed.

You keep on focusing on this one thing until you master it - or until you are so bored with it that you have to move on to something else. You can always return to the first project later on.

Without this kind of focus you will not bring any of your skills to absolute mastery - To the point where you perform the skill with effortless precision. You will know a lot of things but master none.

Mastery is the key to explosive growth. The more things you master / that become totally easy for you to play - the faster you develop. For each tiny new skill you add to your library of skills, your engine is a little more powerful.

When you go from practicing a lot of things to practicing only one thing (almost) your development stops following a straight line. Instead you build powerful momentum that will make it look like you have an incredible talent for playing guitar.

Learning tons of songs fast

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 11:58:47 +0100

What do you do when you have a ton of new songs and solos to learn and you have to play a gig in a couple of weeks?

Here's a process that works:

1. Come up with a simple and easy way of playing the songs and solos that you find challenging. Focus on coming up with the easiest way of playing the chords and solos. Nobody will think "Oh he can't play the real thing" instead they will just see a musician playing the song his own way.

Come up with stuff that is as close to the original as possible to satisfy the band members, but then use something you can play really well. When you have established that easy foundation you have something to fall back on. A secure base that will get you through the gig perfectly. This will make you confident and calmer when you play.

2. Then play through the list of songs and stay with each song until you can remember everything and it gets a little boring. You might find that some of the songs you need to play 10 or twenty times (Or more) but that's what it takes.

Do not rush to the next song before you really feel you have the present song completely under control. It should be easy, easy, easy before you move on.

3. Then go on to the next song and give that your total focus. Then when you come full circle you start over again and do the same thing. Now you will have forgotten some of the first song but then you practice it again until it's absolutely effortless for you to play it. DO NOT RUSH IT. Stay with the song you working on until it's easy easy easy.

4. Throughout this process you play the easy version of everything. Do not get overambitious but focus instead on learning the easiest version first to establish a maximum level of confidence in yourself that you can get through the gig easily.

The more relaxed and confident you are the greater the chance that you are going to take chances and go for the more advanced stuff in the actual playing situation.

5. When you master the easy version of each song completely you can use the remaining time to go for the harder parts. But focus on one solo at a time and make sure that solo is easy to play before you move on to the next song.

Do not practice a little on one solo, then move on to the next, aso. That is a reciepe for failure. Don't try to play a bunch of solos that you're not comfortable with on stage. Instead make sure that you really know what you're doing so you can have the most fun in the playing situation.

You don't have time to be ambitious here. you can be ambitious in your regular practicing rutine, but not when
you have 40 songs to learn and a deadline.

If your mind is racing to build an amazingly impressive performance by wanting to master a lot of new stuff in the practice time you have before the gig, stop it. It is not the time for this.

Instead focus on creating an amazing experience for yourself by focusing on mastering the easiest version of everything and then use any spare time you have to focus on mastering the harder parts. But work from a foundation of security.

So to recap:

1. Practice playing everything the easiest version possible first. And do not go on to practicing the harder stuff before you can play all the songs in the easy version perfectly and confidently.

2. Play through each song over and over again until you master it completely - Do not move on to the next before you are there.

3. Then when you come full circle, start over again and do the same thing. Now you will have forgotten parts of what you practiced days or hours ago. Re-practice each song until you master it completely. Keep doing this until you haven't forgotten a thing when you start over.

4. Then spend the remaining time focusing on learning the harder parts.

5. Focus on creating a great playing experience for yourself on stage and forget about impressing people. In the end this is the most effective way of making sure that you will impress people the most (Ironically enough)

Claus

Guitar Arpeggios - Two String Lick

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:43:41 +0100

Guitar Arpeggios - Two String Lick

In this lick I'm combining the A-minor arpeggio with it's dominant Eb Diminished arpeggio. You can continue to play the sequence down the fretboard going from one to the other through the shapes of both arpeggios.This lick uses hammer once and pull offs as well as picking and sliding. You can pinpoint the sliding by looking at the fingering on the tablature: When ever I use the same finger to fret two consecutive notes, I'm sliding from one note to the other. Practice slow and with 100 % control at all times and speed will follow automatically.

Tablature

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business"

Michael J. Fox

Neo Classical Sequence - Metal Guitar Techniques

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:56:10 +0100

Neo Classical Sequence

This is a little piece I made based on Paul Gilberts arpeggio string skipping technique. I've added the fourth and the ninth on every arpeggio. But even though each arpeggio has a total of six notes in them (A note more than than the pentatonic scale) they still sound like arpeggios. Add this neo classical arpeggio sequence to your vocabulary by practicing only one arpeggio until you master it. Then move on to the next and practice that. There are only 3 shapes that you need to conquer. Once you have them all down, it's a relatively easy task to put them together. Use the tabs below and start by getting the first bar up to tempo. Practice at a pace where you are in absolute control and speed will follow naturally.

Tablature

"Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience"

Hyman Rickover

Neo Classical Guitar Lesson - Idea 4

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:14:49 +0100

Neo Classical Guitar Lesson - Idea 4

Classical Idea 4 Tablature

"To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don't know why you like 'em but you do"

Waylon Jennings on his Telecaster

Shred Lesson - Metal Guitar Techniques

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:46:21 +0100

Shred Lesson
Classical ideas

Scroll down to see the tabs

This is a great alternate picking exercise. Performing the frequent string shifts can be a challenge but if you persist and refuse to give up, you will get them down. Remember to practice slow and with precision. Keep working at a pace where it feels effortless and easy - and speed will follow naturally.

Shred Lesson

"I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be. "

Ken Venturi

Neo Classical Sweep Lesson - Metal Guitar Techniques

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:32:17 +0100

Neo Classical Sweep Lesson - Metal Guitar Techniques

Scroll down to see the tabs

In this example I use only two basic arpeggios: The tonic and the dominant chord in the key of A-minor. I alternate between the G# Diminished arpeggio and the A-minor arpeggio in different inversions across the neck. Practice slow and with precision. Keep working at a pace where it feels effortless and easy - and speed will follow naturally.

Neo Classical Sweep Lesson

"Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose? "

Eliza Dushku

Classical Sequencing Lesson

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:32:46 +0100

Classical Sequencing Lesson

Scroll down to see the tabs

This piece is pretty straight forward. It's a combination of two well known sequences used in a lot of classical music. Notice that I use sweep picking to play the diminished arpeggios in the end. Practice slow and with precision. Keep working at a pace where it feels effortless and easy - and speed will follow naturally.

Classical Sequencing Lesson

"Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself"

Swami Sivananda

How to develop your own unique sound, part 2

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:34:55 +0100

How to develop your own unique sound, part 2

Scroll down to see tabs

The amazing tone of the Mongolian swamp ash

When you go shopping for the amp or instrument you want, try your best to forget about what others say. Really listen and be open. Be honest about what you like and don't like. And if you can't hear or feel the difference from a $200 instrument to a $2000 instrument, then that $2000 instrument can't be for you. And paying for the difference is insanity if you get zero value out of it. Decide to only pay for real results. For what you can hear and feel.

The musical instruments business is full of hype and "stories" about the instruments. "This guitar was hand made out of north Mongolian swamp ash so it has an amazing depth to it's lower frequencies" It might be true but only if you can hear and appreciate it. Trust your own experience and seek for what you like the best. Forget about finding a "special" tone. Find the tone that you like the most. Because you are special and what you truly like will be as well. Ask yourself "What is it I like about this tone compared to this other guys tone?" In this way your tone becomes a reflection of you and not of the need to feel significant or special.

Inexpensive gear

I tried a lot of different amps and guitars. Expensive ones and less expensive ones. And I ended up with a Squier Deluxe with 3 Dimarzio Pick ups and a Marshall MG amp. I used to play through a stack of Marshall JVM 410 amps but then I bought the MG for practice. I ended up wanting to plug into that over the JVM. In the beginning I really wondered why I didn't go for the much more expensive amp, but I had to conclude that, I just liked the other sound better! (Pretty basic) I didn't deliberately choose inexpensive gear, this was just what gave me the best experience.

Maybe for you it's something completely different. The point is to go for the experience and the sound, not the hype, the "quality" or anything else. Because quality is an experience. It's your experience. If you think it's the best instrument you've ever played then obviously it's great quality! There's no objective good or bad when it comes to instruments although musical instruments manufacturers would like you to think so.

Everyone who ever had a distinct sound just followed their heart (As far as I'm informed) They didn't go out seeking for "something different." They simply sought after the best playing experience. You know what it feels like to play a guitar that seems to help you play: The sustain is right, the distortion is great. The strings feel great the fretboard is a joy to play. Everything is right. That's what you should go for.

Fast lick in E-Blues

How about paying $2500 for nothing?

Here's a story to illustrate my point: A friend of mine had a friend (My friends friend) who had just bought a $2500 sound card for his computer. My friend has been studying the industry for some time and had learned that the basic components of any sound card comes from only two factories in the world. These factories deliver the same essential components to all manufacturers of digital sound equipment, so the real audible difference between what you get is very little. But back to my friends friend. He was so excited about his new gear and he went on and on about how great this new sound card sounded. How the high end was much clearer and the mids where better articulated and so on.

Then my friend said "I bet you can't hear the difference between your built in sound card and the one you just bought" Of course my friends friend was completely convinced that he could, but they agreed to test it. And so they did. They made a blind test and my friends friend couldn't tell the difference at all. He had no clue what so ever. The illusion was perfect. He paid $2500 for a story because he forgot to listen with his ears instead of his mind. He brought the sound card back to the store the next day and got his money back.

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures"

Oscar Wilde

How lucky I am: I can't hear the difference

My friend has another friend. He's a professional sound engineer and he has his own private studio, fully equipped with everything any musician could ask for. But all the equipment comes from manufacturers of inexpensive stuff like for instance "Behringer" When people ask him about his choice of equipment he replies: "How lucky I am that I can't hear the difference" And he never hears any complaints about bad sound quality from his customers. Please understand that I'm not saying that expensive gear isn't worth the money. My point is still that you should bye instruments with your ears if you want a great and very real experience. And what you like may sometimes be the more expensive alternative

If you want the feeling of holding a "real" American produced Fender in your hands then I salute you. The feeling consists of the physical instrument and the story in your head that "I have a real Fender" If you really want that feeling and you can't get it in any other way, then go get it! It's just such a relief to know when we are fooling ourselves and when we are not. And you might even like the sound of the Fender over the much cheaper Kramer.

But it can be really really tricky to distinguish between the story about an instrument and the reality of it. If you're in doubt as to whether you're listening with your mind or your ears when you try out gear, ask someone to play several guitars through the same amp while you're not looking - or if it's an amp you're looking for, ask him to plug into one amp after the other and listen for what sound you like the most. It might the Mesa Boogie and it might be Peavey practice amp. What ever it is, be true to what you like and compromise as little as you can.

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true"

Demosthenes