The Best Advice I Can Give You...

dtaylor
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Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:36 am

unclewalt wrote:
Anyway, back in the Land of Light now:

There are a bunch of things I could mention, but the regular advice to have patience is certainly one of them. I loved the earlier note about how someone stuck to learning bar chords after Neal mentioning that it might take six months. Because of that, the student didn't give up, and now can play bar chords. I didn't see that lesson, but I love that he gave that advice, and I love that it worked for at least one person.

Along the same lines: A few times (most recently in the news, I think, or maybe it was a recent lesson), Neal has advised learning a technique, such as a new pattern like a roll, by doing it over and over, hundreds of times, while watching TV or something. Once you have it in your fingers, turn your attention slightly away from what you're doing, and let your subconscious mind learn it. Yes! I don't know, by my guess is that most teachers would never advise that. But in certain circumstances, it's perfect.
It's certainly weird how the brain works when learning a skill like guitar playing. I've learned and forgotten enough complex finger-picking pieces to notice how, when trying to remember, or re-learn a piece, the fingers will remember what to do entirely unconsciously, and when I 'think' about where my fingers are supposed to go, I completely seize up and have no idea what comes next.

I've heard other online instructors advise students to practice to the point of muscle memory too; I think once you have mastered a piece to that point, you can concentrate on the subtleties of the performance without thinking about mechanics.


unclewalt
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Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:27 pm

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TGNesh
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Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:36 pm

My first, and since that was the rule of this thread, and only advice to a complete novice would be: Find an expert teacher.

Of course I was totally unaware of it when learning the guitar as a little child. But now I realize what an awesome job my father did when teaching us (my sister and me) and what a huge impact it has had on my life as a musician. He taught me how to correctly hold my guitar and how to correctly position my hands. I have to admit that a lot of what he taught me and what I managed to play also came really natural to me. I can't remember struggling back then.

It's actually no different if you would want to teach an instrument. Again, find an expert teacher. I was doing kinda alright and relying on my own experience and confidence, even though I didn't/don't have a teaching degree. But I was searching around the net to find other good teachers or teaching resources (and also to keep evolving as a guitarplayer). Then I bumped into Neil and after watching him the second time (I was looking for how to play a few specific songs) I just knéw that hé was the one that I had been looking for.

As they say, the rest is history. :)

Ness


sws626
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Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:58 pm

It is very hard to whittle this down to just one piece of advice, but since my first thought has already been mentioned a couple of times, I will offer two

1) Go slow. There is a clear path from slow and musical to fast and musical. There is no path from fast and poor to fast and fine.

2) Keep that right hand moving


jayswett
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Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:02 am

My single piece of advice for anyone just starting out is this:

Give it 15 minutes a day for a year. At this age, the years go by so fast that a year will pass quickly, and before you know it, you will have seen enough progress that you will want to continue.

I agree with a previous post which was a suggestion to learn songs all the way through. Don't learn just bits and pieces. Take the time to learn the whole thing.


dekotaj
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Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:53 am

Hey Dean-

The only advice I would give someone is to have fun. Enjoy, Its going to take time.

Kevin


familyman4
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Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:37 am

I've waited to respond to this question just because it is so hard to pick "one thing" that would help a new player.

I think my advise would be to join TG and don't waste time exploring the other internet sites. Yes, you can learn songs other places but at TG, you get the whole package, By the time you learn a song here, you have the history of the song, you get some music theory thrown in, you get tons of tips and instruction on correct timing and rhythm and mostly, you learn the music the correct way so you can use that knowledge to build on.

Bart


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auntlynnie
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Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:25 am

The best advice I've gotten from Neil is this: Don't leave a guitar in a case unlatched. Someone might pick up the case and the guitar will fall out and possibly get damaged. This has my guitar and my camera equipment several times. It may not be exactly the kind of advice you were looking for, but worth sharing nonetheless.
Lynn


michelew
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Sat Jul 02, 2016 10:33 pm

Because this thread has all but stopped, I'm going to cheat and add another piece of advice that I've found really useful. Basically it's about how the brain works and why you can play a piece well and then you stumble all over the place because something has changed. I'm particularly reminded of this because I'm trying to add singing to songs that I play well enough when I'm not singing...

Every time you add something new that your brain needs to focus on, it takes the focus away from something you were doing before. The new focus could be someone watching, someone singing or playing with you or trying to sing as well as play. It can be really frustrusting when you find that you can't sing a song without the playing going all to pieces, or just stopping unconsciously. But you can absolutely do the two together if you understand what's happening and then build the two up in such a way that you don't overload your head.

Essentially, you need to get the playing to the almost automatic point before you add a new focus like singing. That way your guitar playing brain can be playing on auto pilot while another part of your brain focuses on the melody, the words, the phrasing and when to breathe so you can sing. Even when adding singing, it's helpful to just hum or sing the melody first. Sometimes adding the words is a leap too far, especially if you don't know them really well.

You can of course make it easier for yourself by slowing your playing down too rather than trying to play and sing at the speed where you may only just be holding it together anyway.

So bottom line is, it's perfectly normal to find that your playing is all of a sudden 'Crap!' when you introduce a new distraction, that includes trying to record yourself too. But you can overcome all of them with the right approach.

I think Neil and Vanessa have both spoken about this. Neil certainly has, it's in one of the news segments at least. It's certainly helped me to get over the "I'll never be able to play and sing at the same time!" hurdle.

M


wrsomers
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Sun Jul 03, 2016 5:05 am

Hi Michele,
That's a very interesting concept. What you have said got me to thinking about how I learn and perform my songs. I don't like to be too analytical about art or sports because when one does, one suffers from "paralysis by analysis". In other words "if you think, you stink" :laugh:

When I'm trying to learn a song, or perform one I already know, I try to hear in my head the whole song rather than break it down into parts (guitar, voice, rhythm). Don't get me wrong, if there is a difficult part, I will break it down. In other words my goal is to be able to "visualize" the whole song. To the point where as you say, it becomes automatic. The automatic part only comes with practice.

Here comes another golf analogy...If you've ever watched a professional golfer, you might have noticed him/her standing behind the ball just staring off into space or even closing his/her eyes. What they are doing is called visualization, or "going to the movies". They are seeing the whole shot...from initial impact, to the flight of the ball, to its landing and rolling to a stop. Once they have that mental picture, they step up to the ball and, as far as humanly possible, turn off their mind and just let it go.

I think that concept works very well with music as well. You have to hear/feel the melody, lyrics, rhythm as one entity. I think that's one of the reasons I've never been able to count...one e and a two e and a, etc. I just can't do that. I have to feel it as part of the whole.

I hope this makes sense.

Bill


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