[Newsletter] Thriving guitarists balance these 7 areas of guitar playing

Yebba and Jacob Collier; An exercise from Mick Goodrick's cult classic

Oct 15, 2021

I’ve had a lot of comments from people who feel confused and overwhelmed in their guitar journey.
As an answer, I’ve written an essay to fend off these oppressive feelings and improve your guitar playing experience.
Discover the philosophy and steps of becoming a thriving guitarist:
The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Yourself Guitar

Something to think about

Michael Gumley’s framework to become a balanced guitarist

Thriving guitarists don't just learn guitar. They learn how to teach themselves in general, too.

There's a podcast I listen to called The TopCast about the art of teaching music. They recently released a three-part series with Michael Gumley, Head of Guitar, doling out the insight for new and experienced guitar teachers. Not just teachers can benefit from this series, but any guitarist looking to gain clarity in their journey. Most of the confusion and overwhelm experienced by floundering guitarists comes back to lack of clarity and organization. In Part 3 of this series, Gumley offers a framework I really like that helps with this: The 7 Geometric Areas of Guitar Learning.

By breaking down guitar learning into these areas, you learn where you are strongest and weakest. Thriving guitarists are well rounded and keep them in balance.

1. Solos and Melodies

Even campfire players who normally play cowboy chords should know how to play single note lines.

Playing melodies requires you to think more about tone and expression than strumming chords does. I wrote about tone and expression in terms of the TREaT framework: they are fundamental aspects of music. Thriving guitarists know they are important (even if it's not their main thing).

Being able to play the intro to "Wish You Were Here" cleanly and with good tone quality is a good bar to reach.

2. Rhythm Guitar

The inverse is also true - people who mostly play solos should be able to keep time and accompany convincingly.

I can't overstate the importance of timing. Your tone, note choice, dynamics, and expression can all be a little bit off, but nothing will redeem you from having bad timing. Thriving guitarists know how to accompany other musicians and drive the bus when they need to.

It doesn't need to be complicated - just basic chords with solid time and feel will get you most of the way there.

3. Fretboard Knowledge

Since the guitar is such a pattern-based instrument where one shape works anywhere on the neck, fretboard knowledge often takes a back seat.

But knowing it allows you to make deeper connections. Note names and their location relative to each other on the fretboard is your gateway to theory, which is your gateway to learning music more quickly and remembering it more easily.

Not knowing the notes you're playing is such a guitar thing. It just doesn't show up in other instruments.

4. Repertoire

I always harp about learning through songs and using repertoire as projects to guide your learning.

A lot of guitarists can play little bits and pieces - this riff, that chord progression, or half of that solo - but when it comes time to play a piece of music, they can't come up with anything to do. Focusing on repertoire fixes this issue. I think of the amount of full pieces you can play as benchmarks in your journey: a beginner can't play any full pieces, an intermediate player can perform 2 or 3 full pieces, an upper intermediate can play 3-10, and an advanced player can learn as much as they want.

5. Music theory

For thinking about music theory, Gumley offers a map analogy.

Without a map, you can meander around looking for the right sound or what feels good, but you can search for a long time without ever finding it. With a map, you know what you're looking for and have a direct route to find it. Over time, as theory becomes second nature, this can happen very quickly (almost instantaneously) and you'll become fluid in the language of music.

Not all guitar players need to know all theory, but all guitar players should know the essential theory to help them on their own path.

6. Musician Skills

A good guitarist is a good musician and there are universal skills all good musicians have.

This category is separate from theory, but related. Beyond knowing how to label and categorize different concepts in music (theory), it's helpful to be able to recognize them by ear or read them in tab or chord charts (musician skills).

These are the types of skills that help you learn other instruments and become a better musician, not just guitarist.

7. Creativity

There are a lot of myths around creativity, but the reality is you can practice it just like anything else. I wrote about one in last week's Something to practice section.

Creativity is counterintuitive. This article says your first ideas often aren't your best. By plowing through and coming up with a bunch of different ideas, you'll stumble across one that didn't occur to you early on in the process.

Guitarists often hit a rut with their playing where they feel like the play the same thing all the time, but certain exercises and frameworks can move them out of this bad spot.

TopMusic is hosting a meetup for guitar teachers. There are sure to be some interesting insights for all guitarists.

What TopMusic is releasing in the near future can give guidance for all floundering guitarists to become thriving. Maybe it will inspire you to consider teaching guitar as well.

The meetup is totally free and being held at 8pm Eastern US time on Sunday 17 October (11am Melbourne Monday morning).

Something to watch

None of my blabbing can add anything valuable to this video.

Just watch it every morning to significantly improve your quality of life.

Something to practice

Mick Goodrick’s The Advancing Guitarist is a classic in the guitar world (and for good reason).

I’ve had a copy for a long time and, although I didn’t spend a ton of time with it, I feel like it has made an impact of my philosophy of guitar learning. I was flipping through it earlier today and came across something intriguing:

A breakdown of all the possible fingerings you can play on one string - one finger at a time, two at a time, three at a time, and all four.

He gives strict rules:

One finger per fret
It’s okay to shift from one area of the neck to another while maintaining that hand shape
It’s okay to slide between different consecutive notes while playing with one finger

What a weird idea to put in a guitar book. What is pedagogically important about spending time playing with just your 1st and 3rd finger on the D string? The point is all your patterns and licks no longer apply. You’re forced into a place where, if you want to play something musical, you’re going to have to really improvise a melodic idea using something other than muscle memory. You’ll have to use your brain.

This exercise isn’t musical. It’s more logistical than anything. What can you do logistically given these strict rules? What musical ideas can you get out of the logistics?

Goodrick calls this type of approach “disadvantage exercises” and I am a big fan of them.

Figure out all the fingering possibilities and start improvising on one string.

I’ll give you a head start:

Four possibilities of one finger at a time:

1st finger
2nd finger
3rd finger
4th finger

Six possibilities of two fingers at a time:

Good luck!