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Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Over many years of playing we all have had a few "ah ha!" moments from a teacher, a buddy, a column in Guitar Player, a video lesson. Id love to hear what your best lesson was (or one of them): a scale, a chord, a trick, something technical, picking pattern, rhythm, song or just plain "how to make music".....
For me, one lesson that stands out was Emily Remler (video lesson) on the "jazz minor" scale. I had never worked on the "Melodic Minor" and its various modes. This was a revelation.... so simple, yet so beautiful! |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Personal advice from Matt Smith . . . learn to sing (in your head) your ad libbed lead licks, then simply play what you hear, meaning that if you can hear it in your head, you should be able to play it, and does that ever work for me. Second piece of advice . . . as long as the notes are within the chord structure of the piece, anything goes. This advice reinforced my tendancy to move away from the sheet music and make up my own counter melodies when playing an instrumental verse or bridge. |
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Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | I think my best "lesson" was the day I realized that rather than being the serious, important, creative thing I THOUGHT my music was, I discovered that I play because of the "Whee!" factor. In other words, my fingers are having fun and I am having fun, and music is nothing more than the same kind of fun I had when I went sledding as a kid.
When that happened, my music improved tremendously. When I let go of my ego, the music itself was able to shine through. I'll never take myself seriously again! |
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Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | From Matt Smith, "Paul, it's called playing the guitar, not working the guitar"...... |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | From Matt Smith: "It's acting with melody". |
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Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Never had a lesson, never had an "ah ha" moment.....wish I had. |
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Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I KNOW you've had plenty of "uh-oh" moments. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | Every moment is an "ah ha" moment for me, because I started with so little. My first guitar lesson, about a year ago, the teacher drew out a chart explaining what you guys already know, answering my question, "What do these guys mean when they say it's a I, IV, V song."
My problem is doing something with the knowledge before I forget it. |
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Posts: 97
Location: Marlton, NJ | This Matt Smith guy sounds cool. Who is he? |
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January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | MarkF786 - 2012-08-15 2:53 PM
This Matt Smith guy sounds cool. Who is he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQZ2g85OEQ
Edited by BobG 2012-08-15 2:16 PM
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Posts: 823
Location: sitting at my computer | " I'll never take myself seriously again! " +1 I prefer to live & play with that mindset too! I've only had one "real" guitar lesson, I was 17 and it didn't go so well... my mom hired a family friend's uncle who was a (long retired) guitar teacher... I wanted to learn some contemporary songs, Jim Croce, Paul Simon, James Taylor, etc... well he had ZERO interest in any of that and only intended to teach me classical. End of the lessons! Since then I've just figured it out on my own, and with song books, how to play what I wanted to play... and with loads of help from fellow guitar players I've met along the way. I have had lots of "ah ha!" moments though, mostly all just simple (once you know how) insights, learning an intro (the 12 string intro to Hotel California comes to mind), being shown barre chords, trying different chord fingerings (open A with 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers... or 2nd, 3rd,and 4th... or 1st, with the 2nd finger on both G and B strings), learning how to adjust the action, learning about transposing, etc... Just a collection of little insights that together have helped me build up a modicum of ability over the years. Still got soooooooooo much to learn, in the meantime I just keep playing and having fun with it. |
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Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | I guess I should include finding this site as one of those moments. My guitar playing had been dormant for years. I've learned more about music from this site than I have from any lesson. An example is Stephen introducing me to Pete Huttlinger. His instructional videos are fantastic. |
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January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | At 3:00 in this lesson, Larry Coryell introduces the "jazz minor"; a nice resource for harmony and ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIpkABVrdn8
I used another mode of this scale for my tune "Tamboura":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTmsI61-lnc&feature=plcp |
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December 2001
Posts: 7236
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Besides great tidbits over the years from Matt Smith, seems I learn something any time I look at one of his videos are talk to him, I subscribe to one of Claude Johnson's free lists. http://www.guitarcontrol.com/ What I really like about Johnson's emails is they are short, simple and fun. Sometimes they are a song, or lick or a riff and I'll just check it out. Sometimes I get ideas for other tunes. It basically amounts to a subtle nudge every couple days to play a guitar. |
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Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | The "subtle nudge every couple of days to play the guitar" is probably the best "lesson" of all! Great site. |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | "You know, there's no law that says you have to play a note or chord every time you count a beat." |
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April 2010
Posts: 1227
Location: Connersville, Indiana | Matt Smiths links to slide guitar and open tunings bar none is the best. I am having so much fun its like learning how to play guitar all over again. The best advise I ever had or lesson, was from my Uncle Homer. Years ago he had a 50's Gibson black beauty I think, and I was playing for him. I made mistakes and I was so nervous because he played so well. He told me. "As many guitars there are in the world, thats how many levels of playing there is" I still get a little nervous playing with someone who plays like dobro does, but it was a great lesson. 
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Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | From your latest work, sounds like the slide-guitar lesson was well leaned and applied. Right on! |
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April 2010
Posts: 1227
Location: Connersville, Indiana | Thanks Greg, man I'm am just like a child in a candy store. I keep finding different colors of sound, I never was able to obtain before, or even thought I could. Still rough but I will do this, no matter if my finger is numb, I still can use it with a slide on it, or use my middle finger for the slide, which I'm liking the best. I just wish I had Jeff's e mail so I could thank him for a great voyage ahead of me. 
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January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | A lesson of HUGE importance for me at about age 15 was a column on alternate picking for the right hand (McLaughlin on what he called "circular picking" and full use of all fingers of the left (so-called "quadraphonic fingering" by Mitch Holder): I realized that I was using mostly down-strokes and only two or three fingers of my left; my lead playing style was that of a wind-mill: inefficient, noisy, and slow. I found myself essentially having to re-learn the guitar. Total suckage for about a year. The result was well worth the pain, however. A great workout for chordal alternate picking, in fact, is JM's tune "Guardian Angel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DUNKTXNEtI&feature=plcp
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Posts: 1851
Location: Newington, CT | Great topic, Greg!
For me, it was probably the time that I re-picked up the guitar. I hadn't played for a LOOOOONG time, and my then girlfriend invited one of the finest guitarists I have ever heard to her house for a party. His name is Frank Varela, and he's REALLY good. He's the husband of Deva (great name!), a former colleague and current dear friend of my then girlfriend's and mine, so that's the connection. Frank's very definitely world class, without the fame.
Well, my girlfriend insisted that I bring my guitar along, and all I had then was an old pot of a Takamine that I had bought for $249 quite a few years before. I was pretty insistent that I didn't want to bring the guitar. She was pretty insistent that I bring it. Who do you think won THAT tussle?
We had the party, and my girlfriend announced that Frank and I would play a little. I was TERRIFIED! First I had the old pot and second he was 100 times the guitarist I was. Frank graciously offered to lend me his VERY nice Ovation Elite, while he would play my cheap, old Takamine. In the next 30 minutes or so, I learned a HUGE amount.
• First: equipment DOES count. I sounded a LOT better, just because I had a better guitar, with a better setup, better action and newer string.
• Second: a great guitarist can make a cinder block sound good. All of a sudden, there was my "old pot" Takamine singing just beautifully.
• Third: a great guitarist can make his co-musicians better, just by playing at or slightly above their level. With intimidation out of the equation, the less advanced musician understands that he has a rock-solid musician who can pick him up when necessary, lay down a solid rhythm and be perfectly reliable, even during an extended jam session, which is what we did.
• Fourth: a nice Ovation can sound REALLY good. It led me to various Adamii (1681, 2080, MERB, OFCII) and other Ovations.
I've never had any music lessons in life, but this served as one of the most significant learning experiences ever in my guitar life. |
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August 2012
Posts: 227
| No "ah Ha ! " moments that I can recall. There are quite a few getting over the hump moments. Things like being ABLE to play a chord that I thought my fingers would never get. ( I still prefer the E shaped and Am shaped barre chords to the A shaped ones, however. ). It would be NICE to have a good ah Ha! That keeps the desire moving forward. |
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November 2011
Posts: 741
Location: Fort Worth, TX | JohnW63 - 2012-08-20 8:44 PM
It would be NICE to have a good ah Ha! That keeps the desire moving forward.
Same here... haven't experienced one in almost 40 years. Last one was when a friend of mine, Randy Handley, who is a successful Nashville writer and blues performer said "I'm gonna teach you a blues lick that's gonna change your life". He did and it did for a few years, but since then it's been a long drought for any musical epiphanies. However, like someone else said, "breakthrough" moments are another story. Stefan Grossman DVD's for fingerstyle have me playing first whole new repertoire in decades. |
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April 2008
Posts: 1851
Location: Newington, CT | LOTS of "ah ha" moments just from trying new things and new chord configurations. Example: Bm and D are frequently interchangeable and give a slightly different and wonderful flavor to a song when swapped. Well, if that's the case, then other chords have corresponding "near equivalents" too! Like: C-->Am, G-->Em. Then to discover these near equivalents is simple math. Ex.: D is to Bm as F is to what? (Dm). And all the others. And found all that out just by playing around and experimenting.
Another such moment just yesterday! Did an Em at the third fret (xx5453 where first "x" is Low E in pitch -- not sure if that's correctly notated), and then moved my index finger down a fret to barre all the second fret (225453) to make a GORGEOUS, exotic-sounding chord that, by sight at least, seems as though it shouldn't work. But, as mentioned above, it's just gorgeous. Well, of course, now I know that particular formation works every else you use that chord shape.
Just have to try new things to have all sorts of "ah ha" moments! |
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November 2008
Posts: 400
Location: Northwest Arkansas | A guitar teacher in a nearby town, used to have his students read poetry. For years I couldn't figure out "why"? Then one day the proverbial light bulb came on and I realized he was teaching them meter and inflection. Read a poem out loud, if you can read well, and you will notice it has a timing and a voicing of the words. Apply that to your lead playing. When you do scales, use a different meter, and put more emphasis on one note than another. Essentially, play like you talk. You don't speak in a monotone, you need to learn to "speak" with your guitar. Sing a phrase in a song and try to play the notes on your guitar the same way they were sang. You'll realize that's why really great guitar players sound and play better. My playing took a huge turn after I figured that out. My improvisation skills got a LOT better. When I was offered a solo, I took it and never, after using that method, did I have the fear of playing with other guitarists. I hope that helps someone. It made a huge difference in the way I played. There are thousands and thousands of ways of playing the same scales different now. I have more hints, but'll let you'all try that one for a while. |
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Best Guitar "Lesson"?
