[Newsletter] The hardest part of learning guitar online is doing it alone
Why your funk ain't funky; Using dynamics to become more musical
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Something to think about
Learning guitar in a musical community had a big impact on my playing.
There was music everywhere when I first started. My father, a Bluegrass guy, played everything. He ripped around on guitar, mandolin, banjo, and he sang and harmonized. A lot of my friends played music, too. That’s when I really remember learning - playing cover songs and starting out with some original stuff. Looking back, everyone played at a pretty high level.
It might have been the water in my town.
I remember being a little surprised when I started studying music at university and people had a hard time hearing a phrase and figuring out how to play it. Or knowing what chords were being played. Or had any natural instinct toward form or ability to predict what was likely to happen over the course of a piece of music. Everyone was way better than me at other stuff (like reading music), but many seemed to lack what I thought were pretty fundamental musical skills.
I found the skills I picked up playing shitty bar music translated to Baroque and Classical music in school because I developed these foundational skills from making actual music with actual people in the real world.
If I didn’t grow up in a community where it was common to play any White Stripes or Pearl Jam songs well on guitar, I’m not sure what kind of musician I would be.
It’s hard to teach yourself guitar online without anybody to play with. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you have a friend or a relative you can jam with, but if you don’t you might find yourself not knowing if what you're learning is useful in the real world.
It‘s valuable to have people to make music with. Finding musicians around your same level who like the same music as you is great. Finding these people online and being a part of internet communities is great too.
The fact your community plays inspires the fact that you play, and vice versa.
Something to watch
I think more guitarists should check out more drum lessons.
Two things in this video struck me. Firstly, this throw away line: “The problem with a lot of drummers is that they’re running when they should be skipping.” He’s talking about time-feel, which is everything for a drummer and easily forgotten for a guitarist. It’s not just about playing the notes, it’s about playing them on the beat, or behind, or ahead, or all mixed up. My favourite guitarists care deeply about their time-feel and practice it diligently.
The second thing is how he recommends thinking about the meter and feel before playing it. I find there’s not often a lot of emphasis put on thinking before playing in the guitar world. It’s super easy to let your hands and fingers drive the bus, but thinking before playing is the quickest way to become a better musician. This idea shows up in an instructional book by a violin teacher. In Principles of Teaching and Playing Violin by Ivan Galamian, he calls the relationship between mind and muscles correlation.
Taking insights from sources other than guitar is a great way to find inspiration. There is lots of value in knowing how other musicians think.
Something to practice
Dynamic changes are among the easiest ways to add a lot of personality and interest to your guitar playing.
Give this a try: take a song or piece of music you already know and play it softly, loudly, and by sweeping the volume from section to section. See how the music changes in vibe and meaning when you adjust the volume level. If you play a whole song with a hushed, quiet approach, you might find yourself coming up with a bunch of different ideas for that piece of music you never considered before (especially if the song is loud by nature).
This is a good exercise for the idea of thinking before playing mentioned above. By deciding what you're going to do first, you let the musicality of what you're playing dictate the technique you need. The mind controls the muscles. Dynamics are a powerful way to fully immerse yourself in practice.