Guitar Playing - Lessons, Exercises and Practice Tools

JoKeR III

JoKeR III

Fractal Fanatic
I'm not sure how good of an idea this is and in no way wish to turn this into a version of a one-stop, "full service" type forum. However, given the number of great players who are members, I thought having a thread dedicated strictly to guitar playing with contributions from the FAS family could be fun, educational and interesting. I'm thinking of a 'getting together with your buddy and sharing things you learned last week' vibe.

There is already a thread for instructors to advertise their services so this would strictly be for posting lessons, exercises, practice regimens, tips and tricks, etc... we've used as well as links to completely free lesson resources without any solicitation or advertising.

A lot of posturing in a handful of recent threads makes me wary, but having a place where players could ask for guidance, share things learned over the years as well as resources for instruction and practice seems to be logical for a guitar centric forum. If this is not a good idea, I'm totally cool to be shouted down but thought I'd check the pulse on something like this.
 
RDeraz said:
that's a great idea, what format, video, guitar pro tab,,,,,?
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Any format that all viewers would have access to that wouldn't violate any copyrights or EULA agreements with the document/video and software if files were distributed, copied or printed. Converting any tabs or charts to PDF would probably be most convenient.
 
My playing has improved quite a bit in the past 3 years, due to inspiration first from getting a Majesty, then the Axe III. I've watched all sorts of videos, incorporating various tips and ideas, and one of my favorites is Ben Eller. Topics like pick angle and really zeroing in on hitting the downbeats greatly help with accuracy, as does practicing with the good old metronome.

I also watched a great video of his about something that may seem obvious, but I wasn't doing it very often, which was to simply put down the exercises and just play along with songs. He said there's nothing quite the same as syncing up those brain synapses and getting them to align with the music, even if you're seemingly holding on for deal life, than playing to the music.

It not only helps more than I would've thought, but the songs I did it with actually felt slower than playing to a simple beat. As in, it felt easier.

Another thing I've really started embracing to help me play clean, is playing 2 ways: Clean, and with distortion. Clean helps you focus on: evenness of picking dynamics, since gain & compression will hide that, and act as a crutch, and, show you which fingers are weak when it comes to legato; And distortion will highlight any note overlap that gets missed when you play clean, since the gain will make it glaringly obvious, even if it's only an extremely short overlap (like when changing to a different string.) The dissonance is very obvious.

So I'm trying to get in the habit of not turning on the Axe right away, and warming up acoustically. Then when I do plug in, I'll mix it up between clean and my favorite high-gain presets. Just last night I played on the Studio Clean factory preset for hours! There are some awesome tones in that one!
 
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To get things started, one thing I learned from an instructor to retain what I learned is to cycle through all of the exercises no matter how basic or mundane they may seem. Fundamentals can easily be forgotten or ignored. As you progress and either find or are given more exercises, continually going back to the beginning is a great way to ensure to keep past lessons under your fingers.

Eventually, you have more exercises than you can do in one sitting so the idea is to start with number one and go through the list until your allotted time is done. Next practice session, begin with the next exercise on the list and proceed through the exercises. Once you reach the end of the list, start with number one and repeat the process.

Invariably, you'll identify ones that still need some work. Don't spend any additional time on them as you go through the list. The ones that need more work get added to a list of what to practice every day until you no longer have any problems with them when going through the list.
 
One thing that seems daunting to a lot of players, myself included, is music theory. It seems a lot of 'teachers' downplay the importance of knowing it as a guitar player and offer shortcuts, but the more I've learned, the easier guitar playing has become. Chords make more sense and different voicings are easier to find; no more trying to remember shapes. Retaining licks, solos and song structures, as well as transposing on the fly, are much easier with just a little bit of theory knowledge.

Here's a couple of sites I've used that have interactive lessons and exercises:

https://hubguitar.com/music-theory
https://www.musictheory.net/
 
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Sometimes I come across something that "fits my mind's eye" for what ever reason. This 3NPS related fragment shapes concept was something I grabbed onto somewhat intuitively and which allowed me to start enjoying noodles around the whole neck in any mode without really having learned the scales much. I've practiced knowing how these fragment shapes move around consistently in different keys/modes, knowing where the roots are in the fragment shapes for different modes which also stays consistent across keys, and knowing where the important notes and intervals are in relationship to one another within those fragments. Maybe I'm really screwing myself by grooving in this concept and not practicing the more traditional scales (which I hate doing), but hey, it's fun so that must be worth something. Attached is a PDF of my cheat sheet I made on this which I always keep on a screen in front of me for when I've gotten lost and need to "peek". To get the hang of this I find it's best to visualize the guitar as a 7 string even though I'm playing a 6 string (it's a 7string with 1 string missing as far as this concept is concerned in order to best visualize the 3 fragment boxes (a 3x3, a 2x3 (left oriented), a 2x3 (right oriented) moving around). The PDF is lefty oriented so be warned it may be frustrating to use for those who play in that odd right handed orientation. I mostly only ever look at the 1st page - the other pages are most just different ways of looking at the same thing and are my own notes but I left them in if anyone wants them tho I suspect many of you are well past this kind of stuff.

 

Attachments

  • 3NPSFragmentBoxes.pdf
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Sticking with music theory, intervals and ear training are great to work on as a guitar player. Associating the intervals with songs helped me hear them in my head. The couple of songs that use key intervals are the Bridal Chorus (Wedding March/Here Comes the Bride) and the Star Spangled Banner.

The Bridal Chorus intervals: The first "Here comes the bride" is a perfect 4th. Second "Here comes the bride"; Comes=Perfect 5th, the=3rd, bride=Perfect 4th.

The Star Spangled Banner intervals: "...say can you see"' say=Root, can=3rd, you=Perfect 5th, see=Octave.

There are others of course, but these are the two that stood out to me when applying intervals. Find songs that are easy for you to remember that have specific intervals that you can use to help hear how they sound. Singing the intervals while you practice them will also help get them get them engrained in your mind.
 
sprint said:
Sometimes I come across something that "fits my mind's eye" for what ever reason. This 3NPS related fragment shapes concept was something I grabbed onto somewhat intuitively and which allowed me to start enjoying noodles around the whole neck in any mode without really having learned the scales much. I've practiced knowing how these fragment shapes move around consistently in different keys/modes, knowing where the roots are in the fragment shapes for different modes which also stays consistent across keys, and knowing where the important notes and intervals are in relationship to one another within those fragments. Maybe I'm really screwing myself by grooving in this concept and not practicing the more traditional scales (which I hate doing), but hey, it's fun so that must be worth something. Attached is a PDF of my cheat sheet I made on this which I always keep on a screen in front of me for when I've gotten lost and need to "peek". To get the hang of this I find it's best to visualize the guitar as a 7 string even though I'm playing a 6 string (it's a 7string with 1 string missing as far as this concept is concerned in order to best visualize the 3 fragment boxes (a 3x3, a 2x3 (left oriented), a 2x3 (right oriented) moving around). The PDF is lefty oriented so be warned it may be frustrating to use for those who play in that odd right handed orientation. I mostly only ever look at the 1st page - the other pages are most just different ways of looking at the same thing and are my own notes but I left them in if anyone wants them tho I suspect many of you are well past this kind of stuff.

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Watched the first part of your video. I think this might be a better resource for you. It uses three repeating patterns: X, Y, and Z. These patterns repeat endlessly (well until you run out of frets!). This is part one of a four part series. I've found it helpful in really being able to visualize scales and modes all over the neck.

I've incorporated this into my practice routine coupled with something Steve Stine does and that is to take a set time (say 5 minutes) and just "meander" (his term) around your fret board. I think it's useful to play to a rhythm; I use a Beatbuddy, but you could use a metronome or lay down a rhythmic pattern with a looper or the looper block. Anyway check it out.

 
fcs101 said:
Watched the first part of your video. I think this might be a better resource for you. It uses three repeating patterns: X, Y, and Z. These patterns repeat endlessly (well until you run out of frets!). This is part one of a four part series. I've found it helpful in really being able to visualize scales and modes all over the neck.

I've incorporated this into my practice routine coupled with something Steve Stine does and that is to take a set time (say 5 minutes) and just "meander" (his term) around your fret board. I think it's useful to play to a rhythm; I use a Beatbuddy, but you could use a metronome or lay down a rhythmic pattern with a looper or the looper block. Anyway check it out.

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Steve Stein, my niece and nephew use his videos a lot. Always looking for something else to practice to keep the hands, limber and moving.
 
Another thing that has helped me when quickly changing positions, is the same thing I had to be told as a Little League baseball player, which was to "Look the ball into the catcher's glove." I just wasn't doing it.

Same sort of thing really helps to nail the 17th fret, when you're down in 2nd position and you need to quickly change. I found myself looking only at where I was currently playing, and only looking towards that upper fret just before I needed to make that change. In the "this should be obvious" category, I realized that, to finish whatever I was playing down low, I didn't need to continue looking at my fingers. So instead I switched my focus as soon as I could, to the fret that I needed to nail, and not only "look" at it, but to really envision my finger landing there.

Just this simple change of focus has improved that type of accuracy to almost getting them every time. I feel like if it ended up being a song I'd ever play live, with a bit more practice, I could nail them consistently.

And there's also something to be said in trying to do those without looking. I've actually surprised myself how many position changes I can get, just from that muscle memory thing. Yeah, sometimes there ain't a lotta room for error, but I have to remind myself that our brains are capable of doing some amazing things.
 
And if learning, or improving your knowledge of theory is what you're after, I can't recommend Jake Lizzio (Signals Music Studio) on YT enough. He is awesome! He explains theory in a way a even child can understand it, he starts with the basic structure of a major scale, he gives musical examples so you can hear how the modes invoke various "feelings" or emotions, and he gets to the point without a bunch of nonsense.

He also teaches rhythm and shows ways of writing actual songs. Once I found his channel, I don't bother watching or looking for any others. He's really good.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA
 
I thought of another one I've never seen mentioned in any of the "How to get better at guitar" videos...

I can do a pretty quick descending, or ascending run, but the second the licks turns around, I stumble. Which is because I'm naturally much better when the focus is on my picking downstroke. The "turnaround" briefly puts more focus on the upstroke. So I decided to practice my "routines" in reverse for a while, i.e., starting on an upstroke. I did this a few months ago, and it definitely helps kinda fill in the weak areas.
 
Learn all 5 pentatonic shapes. This will help you connect lines up and down the fretboard.

Learn the chord-scale for the major scale (7th chords). This will teach you what a "key" really means.

For fun, learn the 4 inversions for the chords from above on the top 4 strings. Helps with comping.
 
fcs101 said:
Watched the first part of your video. I think this might be a better resource for you. It uses three repeating patterns: X, Y, and Z. These patterns repeat endlessly (well until you run out of frets!). This is part one of a four part series. I've found it helpful in really being able to visualize scales and modes all over the neck.

I've incorporated this into my practice routine coupled with something Steve Stine does and that is to take a set time (say 5 minutes) and just "meander" (his term) around your fret board. I think it's useful to play to a rhythm; I use a Beatbuddy, but you could use a metronome or lay down a rhythmic pattern with a looper or the looper block. Anyway check it out.

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thankyou sir - I'll dive in n let you know how I do!
 
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