[0:00] so I was visiting with my parents over
[0:01] the weekend and we were talking about
[0:03] music and they asked me what it was that
[0:05] actually allowed me to get good at
[0:07] guitar so I gave them my answer and
[0:09] realized that it would probably make a
[0:11] pretty good video ultimately I think I'm
[0:13] able to narrow it down to three things
[0:15] that I did differently to the many other
[0:17] players that I knew growing up
[0:24] [Music]
[0:36] [Music]
[0:45] the first thing that I did from very
[0:47] early on is get rid of the pause button
[0:50] you need to put yourself in situations
[0:52] where you aren't in control where you
[0:54] can't decide when it's time to start and
[0:56] stop now I was lucky enough to start
[0:58] playing live music from a really young
[1:00] young age I think I was around 12 years
[1:01] old when I had my first gig and I
[1:03] started off at school then eventually
[1:05] started playing at a local church and
[1:08] then played in a bunch of bands where we
[1:10] mostly did original music the great
[1:12] thing about scenarios like those are
[1:13] that I wasn't in control and this forced
[1:16] me to develop some really important soft
[1:18] skills things like dealing with making
[1:20] mistakes on the fly or learning how to
[1:22] rely on my ear it forces you to problem
[1:25] solve and find Solutions in the moment
[1:27] and that's why it's so important to get
[1:29] out there there and start playing with
[1:31] other musicians as early as you can now
[1:33] I realize this just isn't realistic for
[1:35] a lot of people out there watching this
[1:37] video so what can you do if you don't
[1:40] have other musicians to play with the
[1:42] first thing that I'd recommend is to
[1:43] make use of Jam tracks so if you're
[1:45] working on a particular scale rather
[1:48] than working on it with nothing else
[1:49] going on no musical context throw on a
[1:52] Jam track and practice that scale along
[1:54] to the Jam track another thing you
[1:56] should look into is getting a tool that
[1:58] allows you to slow down songs so when
[2:00] you're learning a song obviously you
[2:02] can't play it at full speed yet so what
[2:04] a lot of people do is they sit in
[2:06] silence and they just work through each
[2:08] part right well if you have a tool that
[2:11] allows you to load the song in there
[2:13] slow it down to a pace it can be super
[2:15] slow that you can actually play along
[2:17] it's going to be less forgiving but
[2:18] you're going to be thaning yourself in
[2:19] the future I know there's a lot of good
[2:21] free apps out there that you can check
[2:23] out now the last and probably most
[2:24] effective thing you can do are practice
[2:26] alongs these are usually pre-recorded or
[2:29] live videos where there's a guitar
[2:30] teacher sitting in front of you asking
[2:32] you to play along with everything they
[2:35] do they're kind of like workouts now I
[2:37] don't have any of these on my channel
[2:39] but I did make nine or 10 of them I
[2:42] think with my friends over at guario a
[2:44] few months ago they're designed to be
[2:46] kind of like those old TV workout videos
[2:48] if you remember them where the
[2:49] instructor stands in front of you and
[2:51] walks you through everything you're
[2:52] supposed to be doing for the entire
[2:53] exercise typically these are reserved
[2:55] for paying guitario members but they've
[2:57] actually given me a link for a 30-day
[2:59] free trial that you can cancel anytime
[3:02] so if you want to check it out there'll
[3:03] be a link up at the top of the
[3:05] description of this video I'll also put
[3:06] it in a pinned comment you'll also get
[3:08] access to everything else on the site as
[3:10] well so they have a huge song library
[3:12] and a bunch of courses from guitar
[3:13] players like Ariel Posen Mark leri
[3:16] avette Young and Pete Thorne I've
[3:17] personally known the folks behind
[3:19] guitario for years and they're really
[3:20] awesome people who care a lot about
[3:22] guitar and music education so hit that
[3:24] link below check out the workouts I did
[3:26] with them and get your 30 days of access
[3:27] for free the next thing I did was focus
[3:29] on creativity over memorization that
[3:32] means that the majority of the time I
[3:33] was spending on my guitar I was either a
[3:36] writing songs or be working on my
[3:39] improvisation now when it comes to
[3:41] writing songs for yourself I'm not
[3:43] saying you need to be writing full songs
[3:45] necessarily unless that's something that
[3:47] you want to do but rather instead of
[3:50] just memorizing a whole bunch of other
[3:52] guitar riffs that you listen to or like
[3:54] from other bands sit there and try and
[3:56] come up with your own ideas these can be
[4:00] progressions Rifts licks it doesn't
[4:02] really matter it's just about flexing
[4:04] that creative muscle for improvisation
[4:06] that's pretty straightforward it just
[4:08] means throwing on some Jam tracks or
[4:10] songs and just noodling along so for me
[4:14] that started all I knew was a basic
[4:16] major scale shape and a basic minor
[4:18] pentatonic scale shape and I just sat
[4:20] there in my room and I just noodled
[4:22] around until I found it fit I did this
[4:25] actually to the song slow dancing in a
[4:26] burning room by John Mayer by the way
[4:28] that's like a little anec though that's
[4:30] how I learned how to improvise and I sat
[4:32] there and I just
[4:37] played that's all I
[4:40] had and I would play along to the song
[4:43] improvise over and over and over and
[4:44] over time I realized that I could move
[4:47] those shapes to other keys to improvise
[4:49] over other songs and eventually I
[4:51] learned how to expand outwards I have a
[4:53] ton of lessons on this by the way if you
[4:54] want to get into improvisation I'll put
[4:57] those under reference videos in the
[4:58] description if something you want to
[5:00] work on one other thing I'll mention in
[5:01] this category and this isn't something
[5:03] that I personally spent a ton of time
[5:05] doing but if it's something that
[5:06] interests you I think it's a great way
[5:08] to work on this creativity side of
[5:10] things and that is looping so if you
[5:12] have a Looper pedal uh or you're
[5:14] planning on getting one learning how to
[5:16] layer guitar parts play some chords
[5:19] layer stuff in there is super effective
[5:21] as well the final thing that I did was I
[5:23] changed how I practiced a lot of
[5:26] self-taught guitar players sit there in
[5:28] front of a screen with the tabs in front
[5:30] of them and they just work through songs
[5:32] that they like endlessly and this is
[5:35] perfectly fine but you're going to
[5:36] notice you're not making a crazy amount
[5:38] of actual progress even if you're
[5:41] spending hours doing it you need to be
[5:43] working on these other skills and that's
[5:46] why it's important to have some proper
[5:48] guidance so whether this is an in-person
[5:50] teacher right that's great but again if
[5:52] you're selftaught you might not have one
[5:54] of those but this can also just mean
[5:55] having somebody that you like on YouTube
[5:57] is what I'm trying to do with my channel
[5:59] where that teacher covers these
[6:01] important elements of guitar that create
[6:05] connections between what you're hearing
[6:07] what you're thinking and what's
[6:08] happening on the guitar so that means
[6:09] learning a little bit of theory learning
[6:11] the basics of improvisation learning how
[6:14] chords and keys fit together this type
[6:17] of guidance was something I didn't have
[6:18] growing up so I had to figure a lot of
[6:20] this stuff out on my own I know if I had
[6:23] someone pointing me in the right
[6:24] direction I would have made a lot more
[6:27] progress even faster something that I
[6:29] was really of with my practice was doing
[6:31] these long binge sessions over the
[6:33] weekend so I would consolidate all of my
[6:36] guitar playing for the week into just
[6:38] one or two days where I just play and
[6:40] practice for hours and then not touch my
[6:42] guitar during the week what I started
[6:44] doing instead was I cut that up and
[6:46] spread it over the entire week so that
[6:49] means two or three times a day I would
[6:51] have 10 15 20 minute little practice
[6:53] sessions and doing this is actually
[6:55] backed by science there are lots of
[6:56] studies out there that say that cutting
[6:58] up your practice time and doing it in
[7:00] these more frequent but shorter sessions
[7:02] is going to give you better results the
[7:05] last thing about practice that's worth
[7:06] mentioning is engaged versus unengaged
[7:09] practice so engaged practice would be
[7:11] like sitting there with a metronome or a
[7:13] Jam track and actually paying attention
[7:16] to every single thing that you're doing
[7:18] kind of typical practice but it's very
[7:20] important to make use of unengaged
[7:22] practice as well and what I mean by this
[7:25] is taking your guitar putting it in your
[7:27] lap going sitting in front of the TV on
[7:29] front of your computer watching YouTube
[7:32] watching Netflix whatever and just
[7:34] noodling around and basically all this
[7:36] is doing is building kind of these
[7:38] background connections between your
[7:41] fingers and the instrument it's just
[7:43] getting you used to it it's building
[7:44] muscle memory and obviously this isn't
[7:46] going to be as effective as your more
[7:48] engaged or focused practice but the more
[7:51] that you play your guitar the more
[7:53] progress you're going to see as far as
[7:54] what's next I'd really recommend
[7:56] checking out those 10 guitar workouts I
[7:57] did with guitario I'm really proud of
[7:59] them and I think they're going to help
[8:01] you a lot you can access those for free
[8:03] at the link in the description also I
[8:04] have a video that dives into the current
[8:06] practice routine that I used today so if
[8:08] you want to check that out I'll put a
[8:09] link up in the middle of the screen for
[8:11] you thank you so much for watching and
[8:12] I'll see you in the next one
[8:16] [Music]
[8:19] [Laughter]
[8:23] [Music]