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Tag Archives: Guitarchitecture
An observation from a session
Last night I had an improv session with Warr Guitarist Chris Lavender and Drummer Craig Bunch.
We had originally planned on using amps – but with a limitation on the bass amp as a DI – we ended up going direct.
I ran out the FX send of my atomic to the laptop for cab sims (IR’s) and looping – Chris went direct out of his Guitar Rig control. With the Atomic – I don’t know if the signal hits the FX send Pre or post poweramp – but it sounded really good.
Craig ran both signals to mic pres (i didn’t get the make) before going into Pro-tools.
Headphone mixes were a little iffy -but everyone was listening through the mains nodding their head with an – “oh yeah”!
Next time we’re bypassing the amps entirely. We figure we can use them live but the recording sounds were strong enough that we’re willing to go direct.
I can’t tell you how many years I’ve waited to have a feasible laptop guitar rig. Pretty amazing to actually have it here.
No ringing in my ears today also was a nice touch as well…
Building Blocks – or more examinations of a laptop guitar setup.
If you’ve ever seen the American dubbed version of Mad Max (the whole movie plays very differently with the original voices – I’m just so used to the original American release’s versions of Night Rider, Toecutter and the Goose – that that’s the only one I can watch), there’s a moment where The Goose realizes that the person they’re about to arrest is an associate of ToeCutter, and the camera closes in on his face as he says,
“Well well well…”
I wanted to go a little more in depth with the laptop guitar rig I’ve been toying around with. I’ve posted a couple of things about this but I realized that it may be more beneficial to examine each component and see how it fits in the puzzle. I tend to focus these on distorted sounds as those to me are the most difficult to replicate. Even Logic has some decent sounding clean amps built in – getting a useable dirty sound is still the challenge at least for me.
So what I did was improvise a little idea in a C# minor tonality and then played a series of versions of it through different versions of the laptop set up – to show the evolution of where I have things now.
There’s still a great deal more work to do in this area, but at least these are some starting points and may at least shed a light on the process I’m using.
As a starting point you may want to look at the gear page or my previous entries on this topic here or here.
The (salt) lick
To begin with, here’s an mp3 of the first thing I improvised: C# min improv .
* Note:
occasionally mp3’s don’t load properly when I check them in Safari. When I refesh the page they come up. If you have this problem – it may work for you. If you still can’t hear the mp3 just leave a comment and I’ll re-post it.
And here’s the notation
The first part of the lick is somewhere between a scale passage and an arpeggio which makes it a little interesting to me. This approach is something I use a lot in my soloing to get away from the temptation to go on autopilot and just run scales up and down the whole time.
Visually, I’m initially thinking “G#min arpeggio”, and then dropping the lowest notes by alternating 3rds to extend the tonality. This is an arpeggio trick I use all the time to get new sounds out of old shapes. I’ll detail this process here:
Here’s a G# minor arpeggio:
When I look at the distance between the G# and the B – that’s a minor 3rd. By alternating 3rds ( either major-minor or minor-major) I can extend the tonality. A major 3rd down from G# would be E.
If I drop the lowest note to the “E” on the A string – I’d have an E maj 7 arpeggio. (E G#, B, D#).
If I drop the lowest note to the “C#” on the E string – I’d have a C# minor 9 arpeggio. (C#, E, G#, B, D#).
(If you wanted to go further you could continue the process to A, F#, etc.)
The next thing I do is to add the F# on the A and G string.
This makes G# min7 / E maj 9 / C# min 11 depending on the chord it’s being played over or how you’re visualizing it.
Now that I have the larger shape – I fill in some 3 note per string patterns on the G and high E strings.
There’s a slight 2 string variation on the A string that’s hammered instead of picked, but otherwise the picking pattern discussed on the swept pentatonic lesson is the same approach that’s used here.
This is very similar to the 3 note per string / 1 note per string pentatonic patterns that I’ve been exploring in the online lessons area of the blog (you can see a pdf here).
The process that I’m detailing is how I began to practice these things and then develop them into more complex ideas. I tend to see sounds like this as one large pattern now ( note: the GuitArchitecture process is all about sonic visualization – i.e. associating shapes with sounds so that sounds can be created and manipulated in real time) . So when I improvise, I’m not really too conscious of exactly what’s happening theoretically – only sonically.
This ends in a pretty pedestrian B major (C# Phrygian) scale run. In soloing I would typically try to develop it into something else – but for the purposes of a sound demo – it makes sense to have a short lick with a definitive ending.
The sounds
First I’ll play the lick with the sound used at the ending point of the process. Here are some screen shots of the set up.
The FNH guitar on the neck pickup goes into the Apogee duet into AU LAB:
I run PSP Vintage Warmer
into Pod farm 2.01 Ilok version
I’m using the Marshall side of this rather than the Soldano – so I’ll show the signal chain there (it’s the same for both setups shown).
I’m going to start with the mixer and then go from there:
Since I’m only running a single line in- I’ve set both inputs to left.
There’s a little tonal secret hiding in plain sight here as well. If you look carefully – you’ll see that the DI is set to about 18%. This allows some of the dry guitar signal to come through as well. This give the tone a little body and clarity that’s lacking from just the straight signal.
You might find that to completely not be the case – and again – this is just one person’s process detailed here.
Here’s the gate. I tend to keep the levels low so it doesn’t kick in when I’m playing – but kills the noise when the volume is off.
The gain on the Marshall is set around 22%. I tend to crank the mids a little to help make sure the sound cuts through in a live mix (note the use of the term “help”. In reality – sound at any live gig is only as good as the sound person. I just do what I can on my end to make sure I can hear myself on stage.).
Before the Marshall for the “lead” sound I’ve put in a tube screamer. Here are the settings for that:
Here’s the lick with the tube screamer (same as above): with tube screamer
Here’s the lick without the tube screamer: without tube screamer .
To give you a sense of how important the amp gain is to the overall sound – here’s a variation of the lick above with the amp gain set around half:
Here’s the lick with the tube screamer (same as above): TS_ON_50%_gain .
Here’s the lick without the tube screamer: NO_TS_50%_gain .
I actually like this amount of saturation for lead lines – but the reason I’ve gone with the lower gain is that chords (outside or Root-5th diads) – tends to just crap out and turn to sonic mush with higher gain settings. So to balance the 2 I’ve been working on lower tweaks.
WHY THE CABINET IS TRANSLUCENT.
Oh that’s easy. It’s because I’m not using it.
Instead I’m using Impulse Responses from Recabinet in LA Convolver (See the links above for more info).
Here are the settings:
The IR’s are from the Recabinet Modern 2.02 Mac and PC-> 1960 4×12 cabinet settings. You’ll notice that I don’t have anything fancy in terms of mikes set up on the cabinet,
Here is a major component of this process. Recabinet comes with something like 2000 IRs. I could spend weeks doing nothing but checking tonal variations on all the different cabs mikes. Someday when I need to get really deep into this – I will.
In the meantime – to cut down on the number of parameters and just get to a tone – I went with the KISS (keep it simple stupid) approach. I thought about what cabinet could be a constant for all my sounds clean and dirty – and the 4 x 12 came to me. I’ve heard a DeVille through one and it sounded good so I decided to use that as the standard and tweak the amp around the cabinet. Live, a 57 on the grill sounds good to me. I tried 2 different variations of the same thing and went from there.
To contrast this: here is the sound of just PodFarm – with the PodFarm cabinets but with the PSP and post preamp off.
Here’s the lick with the tube screamer (same as above): NO_IR_YES_TS .
Here’s the lick without the tube screamer: NO_IR_NO_TS .
Some of you may prefer these sounds. I happen to think that “initial” mp3 – has a bit more character than these.
Here’s the rest of the signal chain:
Here’s the pre-amp (post amp! – this is a very useful tweak!):
Here’s the delay:
Here’s the reverb:
So to quote the Goose, “Well well well…”
It’s still a work in progress. I’d like to work on tweaking the preamp after the cab to carve the tone a bit more and experiment with using an outside delay later in the AULAB signal chain – but for now this is where it is.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions or comments please fell free to leave them on the blog – or e-mail me at guitar.blueprint@gmail.com .
Thanks for dropping by.
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Glass Noodles – adapting a Philip Glass arpeggio approach to guitar
I tend to get a lot of playing ideas from sources other than guitar. A primary source of influence is film and one of my all time favorites is Mishima. To me, Philip Glass’ score works brilliantly with the subject matter and helps create a powerful experience.
Here’s a lesson post on some cool approaches I borrowed (read: stole) from Glass that might provide you with some inspiration.
I’ll post the exercise first and then add some color commentary.
A link to an mp3 is here: Glass Noodles122bpm
First thing’s first – the triadic* chord progression (see note at the bottom) is G Major, G# diminished, A Major, A# diminished, B Minor, G Major, B minor, B Diminshed, B Minor, G Major, B minor, B Diminshed. (Note: The second bar repeats – I just forgot to put the repeats in).
I’ll start with a technical issue and then go into the theoretical things to grab.
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If you want it hypnotic – you’ll have to lose the pick.
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Part of the sound of this is the hypnotic repetition and a large part of that sound come from a uniform attack. You can sweep pick all of these arpeggios as well – but for a more legato sound it’s best to approach all of these with fret hand tapping (i.e. all hammer ons and no picking). From a technical standpoint the real challenges here are 1. keeping the attacks uniform (i.e. all of the note volumes are even) and 2. playing it in the pocket rhythmically.
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Getting the maximum effect of something like this requires sequencer like articulation and timing – and that alone makes this something worth studying.
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As a starting point you’ll probably want to mute the stings to prevent open notes from ringing out (I just use my picking hand – some people use a hair tie or a piece of cloth.)
For uniform attacks – you’ll have to have very clean hammer-on technique with the fingertips hitting the strings instead of the pads of the fingers. If there’s any slop there – it will come out in the arpeggios. One other thing to note is that the notes should be lifted off and not pulled off. If the only sound created is by the individual fingers hitting the strings – you will have a more uniform sound (which is totally the goal here).
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Here’s a good way to visualize the fret hand finger motion you’re looking for.
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Put the palms of your hands on a table. Now without lifting the palms up, tap your fingertips one at a time on the table starting from the pinky and ending on the index. You’ll notice that the fingers stay curved and that the large knuckle of each finger is responsible for the tapping. This motion is what you’re looking for in this process. You should also notice that you don’t need to hit the fingertips very hard against the table to get a crisp attack.
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You should strive to get volume with the minimum amount of finger pressure.
The more relaxed you can keep your hand, the easier this will be.
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You can add some compression to make help make the attacks more uniform as well. I typically don’t use a lot of compression as I like to play very dynamically and find myself adjusting volume and tone a lot when I play – but a compressor plug in will make all of this easier to play.
This approach gets counter-intuitive at the G major arpeggio (the second arpeggio of bar 2). For a technical stand point this is the trickiest part of the passage. (Note: The numbers under the notes indicate fret hand fingerings.)
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I am used to playing the G major arpeggio as a 5 string form – which usually uses the 3rd finger as a barre on the 12th fret, but barring the B and G on the 12 fret completely breaks up the sound and makes it impossible to get the tapped sound of the other notes. To get around this – I use the index finger to fret the G so each note gets a unique attack.
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This is one of those deceptive exercises. Playing it at 60% will not take very long – but the difference between 60% and 100% is HUGE.
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Playing everything with correct timing and really articulating every note will take a while. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen right way.
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The key here is to plan on spending a lot of time playing the arpeggios really slowly to make sure that the timing and volumes are 100% from the beginning. You can read some of my posts on practicing to get a sense of the best way to start working on something like this.
Now some theory observations:
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If you sharp the root of a major arpeggio – you get a diminished arpeggio.
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This doesn’t sound like much – but look at the first 3 arpeggios. By making the G a G#, you get a nice chromatic motion on the B string leading into the A Major Arpeggio. You can also notice that the A# in the diminished arpeggio after the A major arpeggio leads right into the B Minor arpeggio. This is a great way to sequence between 2 Major Arpeggios a step apart (Like G major and A major).
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If you sharp the 5th of a minor arpeggio – you get the root of a major arpeggio.
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Again a small thing – but by using this you get a nice voice leading between the B minor/G major arpeggios in bar 2. Also notice the chromatic motion on both the G and the high E string. This continues the chromatic movement that occurred on the B string between the first 3 arpeggios.
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If you flat the 5th of a minor arpeggio – you get the 5th of a Diminished arpeggio.
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Check out the last arpeggio in bar 2! By continuing the downward chromatic motion through the G Major – B Minor – B Diminished – a sense of urgency is created and then the last point –
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There’s mystery in keeping it unresolved.
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In the Mishima soundtrack (you HAVE put the movie in your Netflix Queue yes?) there are a number of moments where at the end of the arpeggio flurries – it ends on an unresolved chord. Here I’ve repeated the last arpeggio fully and then ended on the lower F on the last repeat. If I was making a song out of these ideas – I would continue with the type of figures and ideas that have already been presented here and possibly resolving them. But here in this context – ending on the F – just leaves a giant question mark and makes it interesting. If you don’t believe me – watch the film!
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*Note: If you move away from triads – there’s another analysis here:
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The notes of G# diminished are can also be seen as the 3rd, 5th, and b7 of an E7 arpeggio.
Therefore: If you sharp the root of a major arpeggio – you also get the 3rd of a dominant 7th arpeggio (with no root).
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This would make the chord progression G Major, E7, A Major, F#7, B Minor, G Major, B minor, B Diminshed, B Minor, G Major, B minor, B Diminshed.
The bass motion would be what determines the actual chord progression. I believe the bass motion followed the chromatic motion but the E7->A and F#7-Bm are pretty standard analysis for a chord progression like this.
More posts soon. Please feel free to post any questions or comments you might have or e-mail me at guitar.blueprint@gmail.com.
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Practice what you play or Practicing Part V
I realize that I’ve been talking a lot about how to practice and have only touched upon what to practice in a very limited sense. If you have missed my other posts on practicing you can find them here: part 1 , part 2 , part 3 and part 4.
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What to practice
Without being too obvious, you should practice what you’re going to play.
If I was a shred metal player – I’d learn a ton of shred metal tunes. I’d work on scales and arpeggios a lot and investigate all sorts of lead techniques (tapping, pinch harmonics etc.). I’d work on learning the solos to those tunes and then start trying to work on my own solos. I might watch a bunch of instructional videos to try to get ideas as well.
If I was into Jazz, I’d be practicing specific standards. I’d work on coming up with a bunch of ways to comp chords and practice soloing over the changes. I’d listen to other renditions of the tunes and borrow (read: steal) any ideas I liked.
If your goal is to play exactly like Stevie Ray Vaughan – learning your melodic minor modes won’t help you directly with your goal, and being motivated to work on them will be difficult if you can’t tie it into your goals.
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The #1 thing you should be practicing
Now, I’m going to advise you on the #1 thing you should be integrating into your practice regimen that you probably aren’t actively doing now – more than scales, chords or anything else I can think of for the moment. And it’s a commonality with all of the examples above.
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You should practice listening.
Not just hearing – really listening.
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You should practice listening with the purpose of ultimately working on developing your musical vocabulary.
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Listening, interacting and speaking are three pillars of any conversation and they should be important for you to consider in your playing as well. If you can’t hear what’s going on – you’re not going to be able to say anything that’s poignant.
Without going into religion, I believe fundamentally that silence is a sacred thing. I believe that if you are interrupting silence with sound – you’d better have something to say.
So how do you practice listening?
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Transcribe – or learn things aurally
There are a lot of internet sites that break down transcription methods better than I can do in the context of this post – but it’s important to note initially that you will probably not be that accurate. Don’t worry about perfection. Spend your energy learning phrases and understanding the context that they exist in (i.e. what chords to play them over).
When I first started playing guitar in bands and I had to learn songs for the bands I was playing in, the first thing I learned was the bass line – as it was easy for me to hear and gave me an idea of which “power chords” I’d have to play as well. If you find a tune you like you should try to learn all the parts on guitar. The bass lines, the vocal lines, the keyboard or other instrumental parts… You’ll start coming up with things that you might now have ever stumbled across on your own. If you want to try to notate it – you will get even more out of it – but the important thing is to see how it all works together.
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Sing it if you want to own it
Sing what you play. Play a phrase and sing it back.
Play what you sing. Sing a phrase and play it back.
When you sing something you internalize it. Internalized things become a part of you. When you play a melody try to sing it as well. Listen to other people sing it and try to match the inflections.
(ah if only I thought of the above 2 myself – but they were taken from W.A. Mathieu’s excellent, The Listening Book. If you don’t know this book – I highly recommend it!)
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Play with musicians that are better than you.
If you play with really good musicians – they’re listening. We tend to copy other people’s behavior. So if a room full of people are listening, we might be more inclined to listen as well.
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Really listen to the world around you.
Try this for a moment. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. When you’re done exhaling – focus for a couple of seconds on what you hear. Doing this now I just heard – My refrigerator running. The cat lightly snoring. Cars passing in the distance. Several neighbors mumbling down the hall. The bathroom sink dripping. The ac unit for the building turn off. My heartbeat. A car pulling into the garage. When I imagine my heart beat as a bass drum being hit I can fall into a groove. The fridge acts as a drone. Now I hear a bird -it sounds like horn stabs. The cars rumble like bass pitches. My typing accelerates to accompany the sounds going on. For an instant it’s a cool piece. Then it vanishes as my perception goes back to what I’m doing. Before I thought about it – all I was aware of was the fridge. Once I really listened I could hear a number of cool things going on.
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When you really listen as a musician – you can start to get past the point of focusing on, “wait is that an A major or an A minor chord?” – and get into how what everyone is doing fits together. You can start to get past the technique of performance and work towards making music.
Making music is a noble goal and it’s a goal that’s rooted in listening. If you’re really listening all of those other things (scales, chords, etc) are going to come into play anyway and as you develop your vocabulary – you develop your voice.
If you are known as someone who listens well and has something to say – there will always be people who seek you out. In music. In life.
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Practice deeply.
Until next time.
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If you like this post you may also like:
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PRACTICE MAKES BETTER AKA PRACTICING PART I
PROPER POSTURE IS REQUIRED FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE – PRACTICING PART II
TENSION AND THE SODA CAN OR PRACTICING PART III
DEFINITIONS AND DOCUMENTS OR PRACTICING PART IV
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PRACTICE WHAT YOU PLAY OR PRACTICING PART V
TESTING YOUR VOCABULARY OR PRACTICING PART VI
POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII
Some Useful Online Practice Tools
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FINDING THE DEEPER LESSON
MELVILLE, MADNESS AND PRACTICING – OR FINDING THE DEEPER LESSON PART 2
INSPIRATION VS. INTIMIDATION
What’s wrong with playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” for a world speed record?
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A quick lick – and a rig du jour update from Ho Chi Minh City
Greetings from the former/current Saigon. (Technically Ho Chi Minh City but many of the locals call it Saigon). I had hoped to post a couple of blog updates up before I left, but instead was running around checking things for the trip. Now a jet lagged – iced coffee and soon to be bahn mi – fueled post:
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1 lick or 2?
So first – here is a lick that works off of the swept pentatonic idea (alternating 3 and 1 note per string ideas) that I explored in the last online lesson (you can find a pdf of that lesson here). While the online lessons have focused a lot on pentatonics – I wanted to add the tritone to make “the blues scale” and show how this approach could be adapted. Here is the idea ascending:
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It’s very scalar – but I added a couple of points of interest:
1. the little descending turn around allows you to play the basic ascending idea starting on both up and down strokes.
2. I started on the tritone (if played over E minor) or the b3 (if played over G major) instead of the root. If you’re playing this over G – think Bluegrass metal ; )
3. The motion is more diagonally oriented than the strict pentatonic example but is the same basic approach. I start the lick with my first finger and then shift positions for the D on the 12th fret of the D string and the D on the HighE.
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Here is an mp3: Lick1
As variation – I took the same concept and applied it in a more positional approach. Be careful with this stretch! If it hurts stop immediately!!!
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Here is an mp3: Lick 2
And finally here are the 2 licks played back to back: backtoback 1
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Laptop Rig
So I bit the bullet and got an apogee duet. WOW! It really has made a stunning difference in resolution and I suspect will help a lot with future mixes I’m working on. With that in mind I wanted to share with the rig I used for the mp3s above.
Here was the basic amp setting I used in Pod Farm 2.0. This was based on a customtone forum patch called Electric Gypsy. I just swapped in a tube screamer and bypassed the cab (using the Recabinet impulse responses instead). One of the big revelations that I found in pod farm is that I could put preamps AFTER the power amp. Adding that in to the signal chain opened it up a lot.
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I blogged about using impulse responses over the cabs before. The lie 6 cabs sound good – but to my ears the IR’s add a whole other area of depth. Here are the IR’s I used – these were from the Modern 1960 4×12 set. The screen shot is from LA convolver.
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Finally – a screenshot of how it all lays out in AULab. I just hit the record button in au lab and edited out the noise before and after the take in fission.
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FNH Guitar –> Apogee Duet–>AULAB–>PSP Vintage Warmer–>Pod Farm 2.0–>La Convolver (w. Recabinet IRs)–>Sooperlooper
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I’m still tweaking things – but I think that soundwise everything is improving a lot from where it was even a month ago. Once I get an A/B set with the floorboard – I think that the laptop is going to be the rig du jour.
One last note – the macbook has is using 4 gigs of ram and was updated with a 7200 rpm Seagte internal drive. (500 gig from OWC). My computer accepts a 4gig chip in 1 slot – so I may go up to 6 gigs – but the faster internal drive made a big performance difference in the machine. I’d say you’d really need to have that if you’re going to try to go this route.
* Note – I’ve recently posted more on this topic here which may be of interest to you.
Definitions and Documents Or Practicing Part IV
I was originally planning on updating this post with pictures of hand postures and address left and right hand muting techniques – but given that I have sunburned skin peeling off of 20% of my body – I’m going to hold off on photos for now.
Instead, I’d like to take a moment and actually address defining practicing as a means of understanding what is being addressed by practicing and then examine how documenting the process can assist with it.
For those of you who are just coming to this post you may want to also read the previous posts on practicing. Here’s a link to part 1, part 2 and part 3.
Definition
By defining practicing it’s easier to understand what practicing is supposed to do. Here is a partial definition from Meriam Webster.
“Main Entry: 1prac·tice
Variant(s): also prac·tise \ˈprak-təs\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): prac·ticed also prac·tised; prac·tic·ing also prac·tis·ing
Etymology: Middle English practisen, from Middle French practiser, from Medieval Latin practizare,alteration of practicare, from practica practice, noun, from Late Latin practice, from Greek praktikē, from feminine of praktikos
Date: 14th century
transitive verb1 a : carry out, apply <practice what you preach> b : to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually<practice politeness> c : to be professionally engaged in <practice medicine >
2 a : to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient <practice the act> b : to train by repeated exercises <practice pupils in penmanship>”
The definitions presented in the 2nd part of this definition help – but don’t really explain how to train or what practicing is supposed to achieve. So I’m going to supply one of my own.
Practice: The proper focused repetition of an idea through an incrementally difficult environment for the purpose of achieving a musical goal.
By tearing apart this definition some elements of practicing can be exposed that you might not have thought about before.
proper: meaning the right way; consistently
focused: Practice requires concentration because it requires attention to detail.
repetition: repetition leads to familiarity (and familiarity breeds contempt so be careful here!)
incrementally difficult environment: To practice something means that you are pushing your abilities to do something. In music, one implication of this is to practice with a time keeping device (metronome, drum machine, drummer, recording, etc.) – but this could be any kind of parameter that actually pushes you.
for the purpose of achieving a musical goal: Practice is goal oriented. If you are not trying to achieve anything then you are not practicing.
With a clearer understanding of what is meant by practicing – we can go on to how to maximize the use of your practicing time.
1. Set clear, well-defined goals (short AND long-term) and work towards those goals.
2. Since practice requires concentration, put yourself in an environment that facilitates concentration such as a relatively quiet, well lit and well ventilated room as free of distraction as possible.
3. While concentration is required for repetition, excessive repetition undermines concentration. Many people use set periods of time to practice something. This can be a good policy if it is done in moderation. Bill Leavitt (the founder of the guitar department at Berklee) suggested that students should practice reading for 15 minutes of every hour of practice – because 4 sessions of 15 concentrated minutes of practice get you a lot further than one hour of unfocused practice. A timer (like an oven timer) can be a great assistance here.
For some people, concentration will be a learned activity. If you are not used to focusing on something with intensity, then even trying to work 10 minutes on something may be problematic.
If you are having problems with this area – try starting with smaller intervals of time like 5 minutes with one short phrase and then move on to the next item on your agenda. Practicing in this manner will help you develop your capacity for focus as well.
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There are several different thoughts about achieving goals, for me personally – it’s important to get many ideas into muscle memory slowly and develop them all at the same time rather than developing only one idea fully after another. You, however, should plan on experimenting and find what approaches work for you.
By setting a timer and not worrying about how long you are practicing, (in whatever methodology you use) you can spend more energy on the actual performance.
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Documentation
One approach to consider is seen in how athletes train. After all, playing guitar is a physical process that requires performance of well-trained activity. This is very similar to a swimmer who has to be able to perform at a high level at a signal (like a whistle blowing). One thing athletes do is WRITE IT DOWN. Runners for example often keep a journal of performance times to see if they’re improving. Writing things down in a journal doesn’t have to be complex or difficult. I used to keep a notepad in my guitar case, and then write things down. But now it’s easier to customize a practice log or journal and utilize that either in print or electronically.
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I have linked two sample documents below. Please feel free to download and use or edit at will.
PRACTICE LOG (PDF)
Weekly Practice Log (Word)
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What needs to be written down:
Here’s a sample entry:
| Week of | What is being Practiced? | Time | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Notes |
| 6/8/10 | A Major Pentatonic sweep (sextuplets) | 10 mins | 100bpm | Watch Pinky tension!! |
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The goal is to write just enough to keep track of what you’re doing. Feel free to add or drop items.
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If you’re going to start really putting the hours into practicing, I would recommend that you give yourself enough material to do no more than an hour or two at one sitting.
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Do multiple sittings a day if you want. (Personally – I can’t really focus very well after an hour or so consistently. So if I can I do an hour in the afternoon and then another hour later).
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It also depends on what I need to practice. If it’s a difficult piece I need to pull together – I might have to do 4-5 sessions like this a day. The point is to find what works for you and stick with it.
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I’m calling it a practice log or a journal – but really it’s a type of map –
by keeping a journal you can see where you’ve been, where you are and where you’re going.
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It’s a good idea to periodically go through some old journals to just kind of get a fix for where you’re at.
Keeping a practice journal can be a drag and a chore if you want to view it that way, but it can be hugely beneficial in seeing what it is you are actually getting done. If you make it a part of the practice ritual it will just be something you do.
For example, the first thing an experienced player will do before they play anything on a guitar is to see if it’s in tune. If you get used to just picking up the journal when you pick up a guitar to practice – it will become 2nd nature.
Now that you’re writing it down – here are some things to address while you’re practicing:
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Practice accurately.
You have to play slowly and accurately before you can play quickly and accurately.
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Pay attention!
Can you make out all of the notes? Are you really nailing the rhythm? Are there any open strings ringing or unwanted notes? Are you practicing the same way that you’re going to play? Is the guitar in the same position when you practice as when you play in front of an audience?
[*Special Note: Paying attention requires concentration which is why you can’t really practice while you’re watching TV. You can play or warm up in front of a TV – you just can’t focus on the TV and the guitar at the same time. If you can’t pay attention to something try moving on. If you can’t move on, then stop and come back to it. You will get much more done this way that by just mindlessly running fingering patterns*]
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Always use a metronome, recording or time keeping device when practicing.
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Isolate problem areas.
If you are learning a piece, there are often several areas that need more attention that the rest of the piece. Isolate those areas (however small they may be) and develop them. When you have gotten more comfortable with the problematic areas – begin to practice sections before and after the area. Treat the problem area as a center and keep moving out from the center as necessary.
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Do it right the first time.
Paying attention allows you to make sure that you’re practicing correctly. Practice correctly – play correctly. Inherent in this idea is that you’re practicing at a tempo you’re comfortable enough that you can tell if you’re playing it correctly.
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Don’t go overboard.
Some people go from not practicing at all to trying to practice the entire day. Music is built off of experience, growth and endurance – none of which comes quickly. Moderation is a good thing. Occasionally think of the long term, and use the marathoner’s strategy of pacing yourself.
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Persevere.
Establish a regimen and stick as close to it as you can. If you make practicing enjoyable – you’ll eventually start to look forward to it. It’s okay to stop and take breaks from practicing as a regimen, just don’t forget to start up again.
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Don’t forget to play.
The whole point of practicing is to gain elements to utilize in playing music. Play whenever possible, desired and/or required. After all this is supposed to be enjoyable.
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All of this advice works off of the idea that you have specific goals in mind when practicing. My suggestions for what to practice will be the subject of a later post.
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I hope this helps!
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-SC
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If you like this post you may also like:
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PRACTICE MAKES BETTER AKA PRACTICING PART I
PROPER POSTURE IS REQUIRED FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE – PRACTICING PART II
TENSION AND THE SODA CAN OR PRACTICING PART III
DEFINITIONS AND DOCUMENTS OR PRACTICING PART IV
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PRACTICE WHAT YOU PLAY OR PRACTICING PART V
TESTING YOUR VOCABULARY OR PRACTICING PART VI
POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII
Some Useful Online Practice Tools
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FINDING THE DEEPER LESSON
MELVILLE, MADNESS AND PRACTICING – OR FINDING THE DEEPER LESSON PART 2
INSPIRATION VS. INTIMIDATION
What’s wrong with playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” for a world speed record?.
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Tech Limbo (Neither Heaven nor Hell R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio)
So I’m packing, moving and simultaneously trying to get some stuff ready for the Cha’ak’ab Paaxil Festival in Yucatán, México June 3-5th. My plan is to leave the amp here and to use a combination of Line 6 gear and a guitar to play the shows.
After playing with Wael Kakish and the Middle Eastern ensemble last night, I was able to open the package I got from Sweetwater and check out my new Line 6 FBV Shortboard Mk II.
The new board is REALLY cool. It’s solid in it’s construction and small enough to fit in my laptop bag. After I downloaded the FBV Control software from Line 6. I tried to set up a SooperLooper session in AU lab. The concept was to run the AU of SooperLooper in AU Lab and use a midi patchbay to make sure the signal was going from the FBV to the Sooperlooper session. Here are the patchbay settings.
Had some trouble initially but once I went into FBV control and reset some of the switches everything worked.
This probably isn’t the smartest series of codes to get everything to work – but it’s working.
The only gripe that I have is that I wish that some additional parameters in SL could be controlled via midi (i.e. 1/2 or double speed or main monitor volume for fades). It’s easy enough to lean over and hit the keyboard – but it does defeat the purpose of ordering a 15′ USB cable. The board itself though works like a charm.
I’m in the process of working on sounds on the X3 Live for the show – and tweak PA vs. amp sounds. One thing I’ve noticed with modeling is that there are at least 4 different scenarios for setting up sounds:
1. Headphone patches – i.e. practicing or recording
2. Playing through an amp at low volumes
3. Playing through an amp at high volumes
4. Playing through a PA.
You might think that there wasn’t a lot of variance – but the differences between these parameters are huge. I have patches that sound mediocre at low volumes and sound really good when the volume gets goosed a bit. Headphone patches that work well at home and fall apart live – and vice versa.
As a result of all of these constant parameters I’ve been experimenting with Impulse Responses in Logic’s Space Designer (and LA Convoluter) and getting some encouraging results.
Impulse Responses (IRs)
In a simplified definition: Impulse Responses (IRs) are measurements of acoustic spaces that can be loaded into applications (Like Altiverb or Space Designer) to create different types of reverberations.
I read an article about beefing up Logic 8’s guitar amp pro by replacing the speaker sims with IR’s. That article is here. This got me looking for all kinds of IR’s. For those of you who want to see how this works on guitar tracks – check out the recabinet site. There’s a really cool pdf that talks about the different IRs and the mics used to capture them. As of this writing they’re selling a download of something like 2000 IR’s for $15 bucks.
Now I’ve been testing these at home – the difference is night and day!
It’s late while I’m posting this – but let me give you 2 simple examples. First here is a simple rock rhythm with a plexi type setting. This is just the AU recording of the pod with a plexi setting and the 4×12 cabinets selected.
Now here is a another take of the same pattern and settings but with a 4×12 IR added. It’s a little brighter but the response is different as well.
To my ears – the second is a little more natural sounding particularly on the ascending chords. Here’s one more example with a clean tone. It’s subtle but noticable. First with no IR
And with the same IR as above added:
The non traditional guitar sounds have various degrees of success, some sound better some sound worse. But this made a HUGE difference on the headphones. I’ll try them through speakers later.
For those of you looking for free links here are a couple of them. I’m in the process of downloading these myself – so no guarantees for the sounds themselves.
First some very cool non-guitar specific responses here:
Then some more guitar and bass specific IRs here. But I’m digging the redcabi.net IRs so far…
I found an AU ( LAConvolver ) that supports IRs and runs in AU lab – if I keep the wet gain at 50% it works well.
The advantages of AU lab are several (including low CPU use and that you can route audio OR midi through it) but the main advantage is that when you save the session all of the parameters in all associated plug-in’s applications are saved. In other words – when I get it set up for use with a PA – it’s done. No more re-inventing the wheel. This is particularly helpful when you’ve set up a series of midi commands for Sooper Looper.
Here’s the laptop setup:
FNH Guitar -> Radial Dragster ->Pod x3 Live -> (Stereo out) ->Behringer FCA 202 (I hope to sub this out with an Apogee Duet eventually) -> Macbook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz – older model) ->Aulab running LAConvolver and Sooperlooper->(Stereo out) ->Behringer.
Here’s the AuLab set up – I’ve put SL on a Bus – but I since I can mix wet and Dry in SL I could have just left it on channel 1.
Here are some sample LA Convolver settings (these are both from the 4×12 greenback IR’s in redcabi.net):
And finally 4 instances of SL.
I’m still experimenting but this is the current plan. Now to apply all of this to mainstage to get synths and percussion in the mix….
This may not make any sense. The goal to to fit everything into 1 bag – except for a guitar and a gig bag. Hopefully I’ll have photos soon.
Also the title of this references the passing of Ronnie James Dio. I enjoyed his work with Rainbow and while he and Vivian Campbell had a pretty miserable falling out – their 1st 2 cds had some great moments vocal and guitar (particularly Last in Line with perhaps the quintessential heavy metal guitar solo). Dio was 67 on hitting the stage with Black Sabbath (ok fine – Heaven and Hell) at an age many people are bed ridden. It reminds me of my favorite quote on retirement ever:
“All I do is play music and golf. What do you want me to retire from?” – Willie Nelson
Rest in peace Ronnie.
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world”
If you want to be a great guitarist you should try to develop and nurture passion for other art or music that has nothing to do with guitar and adapt or assimilate those things in your playing.
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Story Time
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Please allow me to share a story with you. This is a true story, but the names have been removed to protect the guilty.
Once upon a time, there was a doe-eyed child trapped in a 17 year old body who left his small town of 2,000 people and went to a big city to study guitar. The institution of learning he went to study guitar at was a very big place with several thousand musicians. At the absolute minimum it was completely overwhelming for him as an experience. He went to the school knowing his ass was going to get kicked – but not knowing that saying his ass would get kicked would be more like telling the parachuter mid jump when his/her chute wouldn’t open he/she might break a bone from the fall when they “bounced” (yes “bounced” is the technical term for this occurrence and yes, it happens often enough that a term needed to be developed).
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It kind of broke him.
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In addition to the culture shock of being in a city, rather than a place he described as “Deliverence with snow”, he found the school had a real focus on Jazz and anything non-Jazz was looked upon with complete derision. He was bombarded with fellow students and faculty telling him the music he liked – the music that was a part of his soul – was trash and he was wasting his time with it because Jazz was the only music that mattered. So he did what anyone from a small working class town would do, he became a walking middle finger to anything Jazz because he thought that it was the only way he could defend his identity. The moment that door was shut was the moment his undergrad experience was doomed.
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Now to be fair, the blame for this was 50-50. He had no understanding of Jazz as a style.
Where he grew up in upstate NY, Classic Rock radio and top 40 was the staple and those were his primary means of musical exploration. But the problem was the curriculum was based around an academic buy-in for Jazz pedagogy, so if you knew nothing about it stylistically – there was no easy way in. It was just simply rammed down your throat and you either swallowed or spat it out.
In his lesson – a weekly 1/2 hour slot – he and his teacher went over a series of proficiency requirements that were necessary to pass the final exam. The student asked questions about why he needed this material and how he could utilize the material in the rock and metal music he was playing – but he was just told these were tools he needed to play Jazz. And given what we’ve said about his (now visceral) reaction to Jazz you can imagine how well this was received.
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His second semester he found another teacher and this teacher was more understanding about what he was trying to do and who shared a lot of his interests. The two of them started delving into Japanese modes and other concepts and he actually got excited about what he was doing. The student asked his new teacher if they could just keep going in this direction instead of focusing on rote memorizations of reharmonized chord-solo renditions of tunes that he didn’t need solo renditions. The teacher said to talk with the chair of the department and get his approval.
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The chair of the department was newly appointed, had a lot of work to do and was not happy with the prospect of meeting with this student. The student explained he had a very specific direction that he wanted to go in his playing, that this direction didn’t coincide with the narrow parameters of the proficiencies and then asked the chair if there was any way that he could be accommodated. The chair informed him that wasn’t what they did at the school. The purpose of the school (according to the chair) was to have students master that particular school’s style and then when the student got out he or she would have the rest of their carer to develop their own style.
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The student said that while he realized he was only a student – the logic of the argument evaded him. Actually, in the interest of honest reporting and to exclude any pretense of articulation what he said was,
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“Look I know I don’t know anything – but that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s only 12 notes – that’s the substance. Everything else is style. What is the point of having 800 people all walking out of here and all sounding exactly the same? Isn’t my style the only thing that’s going to make me different from every other guitarist out there?”
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The student was then told that was the way it was and he could either take it or leave it.
The student thanked the chair for his time, walked over to another office and submitted a change of major form.
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Music is a language. If you learn it as a language – immersing yourself in it, learning vocabulary, speaking it to others as often as possible – you will gain fluidity in it.
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I want to discus vocabulary for a moment and then discuss the issue of style. One way to think of licks is as musical vocabulary. As a musician, you learn a bunch of licks so you can communicate with other musicians. It’s similar to going on any trip or travel. You might not speak a foreign language – but you should at least learn how to say a few words or phrases to try to get you by.
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If you only learn licks from one source –
it will be difficult to not sound like that source.
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If I go to a show and see a guitar player I can tell you usually in a song or two who he’s listened to. If it’s only guitar players I probably won’t make it to song #3. Going back to the language analogy, if you grow up in New Jersey and everyone you know and speak with is from New Jersey – you’re going to have to work hard to get a Texas accent sounding authentic, much less an Irish or Spanish one. Do you have to learn other accents? No. No one is forcing you to do so but it’s important to realize that…
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all of your experiences influence how you communicate with other people.
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Hence the Wittgenstein quote in the article. For those of you who remember Orwell’s “1984” – there was the idea of newspeak, the language that kept getting smaller each year for the purposes of eradicating thoughtcrime. The less you experience in the world, the less you are able to express. This is why 13 year old children writing love songs do not have the lyrical content to truly plumb the depths of the soul, even though they are often supremely confident that they do.
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If your experiences influence how you speak with other people then it stands to reason they can effect how you play with other people. If, for example, four guys in a room have only listed to, played and learned “Smoke on the water” – they’re not going to write “Giant Steps” on their own any time soon. They’re going to play “Smoke on the water” and if they do write something new, it will probably have a lot of similarities to “Smoke on the water”. (Traveler’s advisory – do not party with these guys.)
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Adaptation and the hidden agenda
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This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t learn other people’s licks. It’s vital that you do – because you have to develop vocabulary, but I highly recommend you vary your sources. If you play guitar, try learning music played on other stringed instruments like violin, or from non-string performances like vocal lines. My rhythm playing is rhythmically informed by things like drum rudiments, flamenco foot work and rhythmic phonetics. My single line playing is rooted in rock, but there’s various Hindustani, Balkan, Arabic and Koto references that are specific to things I do.
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Almost every gig I’ve ever played I got because I put energy into learning things that weren’t guitaristic and adapting them. You’ll never confuse my guitar with a Kayagum – but if I play a note with a sharp bend and crazy vibrato it doesn’t sound like a guitar lick either. It crosses a boundary and becomes something new. And here is the hidden agenda.
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When it becomes new, it becomes yours and things that are yours have extra value.
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In addition to this, try cultivating artistic influences from things that are not guitar related.
The painter Francis Bacon probably influenced me at least as much as Hendrix and his works are a model for me in expressing motion and fluidity through art. I’m passionate about books and films and I try to adapt anything worthwhile in those experiences into my playing.
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Acquiring tastes
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A funny thing happened to that student after he got out of school. He started playing with a lot of other players who had opened their minds instead of closing them and those people hipped him to a lot of music – including Ornette Coleman and Ornette was making some of the most wonderful music he had ever heard. The student found that when it wasn’t being force fed to him as the only viable form of musical expression that there were a lot of great artists and great music being made in the genre and years later (with a little maturity and perspective behind him) he became a fan and started adopting a number of ideas and approaches from the style into his playing.
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The important thing is to find things that you are passionate about and explore, adapt and/or assimilate them to the fullest level you can.
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The limits of your musical language are the limits of your style.
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As always thanks for reading!
-SC
GuitArchitecture.org 