How To Actually Get "Good" At Guitar

[00:00] so I was visiting with my parents over

[00:01] the weekend and we were talking about

[00:03] music and they asked me what it was that

[00:05] actually allowed me to get good at

[00:07] guitar so I gave them my answer and

[00:09] realized that it would probably make a

[00:11] pretty good video ultimately I think I'm

[00:13] able to narrow it down to three things

[00:15] that I did differently to the many other

[00:17] players that I knew growing up

[00:24] [Music]

[00:36] [Music]

[00:45] the first thing that I did from very

[00:47] early on is get rid of the pause button

[00:50] you need to put yourself in situations

[00:52] where you aren't in control where you

[00:54] can't decide when it's time to start and

[00:56] stop now I was lucky enough to start

[00:58] playing live music from a really young

[01:00] young age I think I was around 12 years

[01:01] old when I had my first gig and I

[01:03] started off at school then eventually

[01:05] started playing at a local church and

[01:08] then played in a bunch of bands where we

[01:10] mostly did original music the great

[01:12] thing about scenarios like those are

[01:13] that I wasn't in control and this forced

[01:16] me to develop some really important soft

[01:18] skills things like dealing with making

[01:20] mistakes on the fly or learning how to

[01:22] rely on my ear it forces you to problem

[01:25] solve and find Solutions in the moment

[01:27] and that's why it's so important to get

[01:29] out there there and start playing with

[01:31] other musicians as early as you can now

[01:33] I realize this just isn't realistic for

[01:35] a lot of people out there watching this

[01:37] video so what can you do if you don't

[01:40] have other musicians to play with the

[01:42] first thing that I'd recommend is to

[01:43] make use of Jam tracks so if you're

[01:45] working on a particular scale rather

[01:48] than working on it with nothing else

[01:49] going on no musical context throw on a

[01:52] Jam track and practice that scale along

[01:54] to the Jam track another thing you

[01:56] should look into is getting a tool that

[01:58] allows you to slow down songs so when

[02:00] you're learning a song obviously you

[02:02] can't play it at full speed yet so what

[02:04] a lot of people do is they sit in

[02:06] silence and they just work through each

[02:08] part right well if you have a tool that

[02:11] allows you to load the song in there

[02:13] slow it down to a pace it can be super

[02:15] slow that you can actually play along

[02:17] it's going to be less forgiving but

[02:18] you're going to be thaning yourself in

[02:19] the future I know there's a lot of good

[02:21] free apps out there that you can check

[02:23] out now the last and probably most

[02:24] effective thing you can do are practice

[02:26] alongs these are usually pre-recorded or

[02:29] live videos where there's a guitar

[02:30] teacher sitting in front of you asking

[02:32] you to play along with everything they

[02:35] do they're kind of like workouts now I

[02:37] don't have any of these on my channel

[02:39] but I did make nine or 10 of them I

[02:42] think with my friends over at guario a

[02:44] few months ago they're designed to be

[02:46] kind of like those old TV workout videos

[02:48] if you remember them where the

[02:49] instructor stands in front of you and

[02:51] walks you through everything you're

[02:52] supposed to be doing for the entire

[02:53] exercise typically these are reserved

[02:55] for paying guitario members but they've

[02:57] actually given me a link for a 30-day

[02:59] free trial that you can cancel anytime

[03:02] so if you want to check it out there'll

[03:03] be a link up at the top of the

[03:05] description of this video I'll also put

[03:06] it in a pinned comment you'll also get

[03:08] access to everything else on the site as

[03:10] well so they have a huge song library

[03:12] and a bunch of courses from guitar

[03:13] players like Ariel Posen Mark leri

[03:16] avette Young and Pete Thorne I've

[03:17] personally known the folks behind

[03:19] guitario for years and they're really

[03:20] awesome people who care a lot about

[03:22] guitar and music education so hit that

[03:24] link below check out the workouts I did

[03:26] with them and get your 30 days of access

[03:27] for free the next thing I did was focus

[03:29] on creativity over memorization that

[03:32] means that the majority of the time I

[03:33] was spending on my guitar I was either a

[03:36] writing songs or be working on my

[03:39] improvisation now when it comes to

[03:41] writing songs for yourself I'm not

[03:43] saying you need to be writing full songs

[03:45] necessarily unless that's something that

[03:47] you want to do but rather instead of

[03:50] just memorizing a whole bunch of other

[03:52] guitar riffs that you listen to or like

[03:54] from other bands sit there and try and

[03:56] come up with your own ideas these can be

[04:00] progressions Rifts licks it doesn't

[04:02] really matter it's just about flexing

[04:04] that creative muscle for improvisation

[04:06] that's pretty straightforward it just

[04:08] means throwing on some Jam tracks or

[04:10] songs and just noodling along so for me

[04:14] that started all I knew was a basic

[04:16] major scale shape and a basic minor

[04:18] pentatonic scale shape and I just sat

[04:20] there in my room and I just noodled

[04:22] around until I found it fit I did this

[04:25] actually to the song slow dancing in a

[04:26] burning room by John Mayer by the way

[04:28] that's like a little anec though that's

[04:30] how I learned how to improvise and I sat

[04:32] there and I just

[04:37] played that's all I

[04:40] had and I would play along to the song

[04:43] improvise over and over and over and

[04:44] over time I realized that I could move

[04:47] those shapes to other keys to improvise

[04:49] over other songs and eventually I

[04:51] learned how to expand outwards I have a

[04:53] ton of lessons on this by the way if you

[04:54] want to get into improvisation I'll put

[04:57] those under reference videos in the

[04:58] description if something you want to

[05:00] work on one other thing I'll mention in

[05:01] this category and this isn't something

[05:03] that I personally spent a ton of time

[05:05] doing but if it's something that

[05:06] interests you I think it's a great way

[05:08] to work on this creativity side of

[05:10] things and that is looping so if you

[05:12] have a Looper pedal uh or you're

[05:14] planning on getting one learning how to

[05:16] layer guitar parts play some chords

[05:19] layer stuff in there is super effective

[05:21] as well the final thing that I did was I

[05:23] changed how I practiced a lot of

[05:26] self-taught guitar players sit there in

[05:28] front of a screen with the tabs in front

[05:30] of them and they just work through songs

[05:32] that they like endlessly and this is

[05:35] perfectly fine but you're going to

[05:36] notice you're not making a crazy amount

[05:38] of actual progress even if you're

[05:41] spending hours doing it you need to be

[05:43] working on these other skills and that's

[05:46] why it's important to have some proper

[05:48] guidance so whether this is an in-person

[05:50] teacher right that's great but again if

[05:52] you're selftaught you might not have one

[05:54] of those but this can also just mean

[05:55] having somebody that you like on YouTube

[05:57] is what I'm trying to do with my channel

[05:59] where that teacher covers these

[06:01] important elements of guitar that create

[06:05] connections between what you're hearing

[06:07] what you're thinking and what's

[06:08] happening on the guitar so that means

[06:09] learning a little bit of theory learning

[06:11] the basics of improvisation learning how

[06:14] chords and keys fit together this type

[06:17] of guidance was something I didn't have

[06:18] growing up so I had to figure a lot of

[06:20] this stuff out on my own I know if I had

[06:23] someone pointing me in the right

[06:24] direction I would have made a lot more

[06:27] progress even faster something that I

[06:29] was really of with my practice was doing

[06:31] these long binge sessions over the

[06:33] weekend so I would consolidate all of my

[06:36] guitar playing for the week into just

[06:38] one or two days where I just play and

[06:40] practice for hours and then not touch my

[06:42] guitar during the week what I started

[06:44] doing instead was I cut that up and

[06:46] spread it over the entire week so that

[06:49] means two or three times a day I would

[06:51] have 10 15 20 minute little practice

[06:53] sessions and doing this is actually

[06:55] backed by science there are lots of

[06:56] studies out there that say that cutting

[06:58] up your practice time and doing it in

[07:00] these more frequent but shorter sessions

[07:02] is going to give you better results the

[07:05] last thing about practice that's worth

[07:06] mentioning is engaged versus unengaged

[07:09] practice so engaged practice would be

[07:11] like sitting there with a metronome or a

[07:13] Jam track and actually paying attention

[07:16] to every single thing that you're doing

[07:18] kind of typical practice but it's very

[07:20] important to make use of unengaged

[07:22] practice as well and what I mean by this

[07:25] is taking your guitar putting it in your

[07:27] lap going sitting in front of the TV on

[07:29] front of your computer watching YouTube

[07:32] watching Netflix whatever and just

[07:34] noodling around and basically all this

[07:36] is doing is building kind of these

[07:38] background connections between your

[07:41] fingers and the instrument it's just

[07:43] getting you used to it it's building

[07:44] muscle memory and obviously this isn't

[07:46] going to be as effective as your more

[07:48] engaged or focused practice but the more

[07:51] that you play your guitar the more

[07:53] progress you're going to see as far as

[07:54] what's next I'd really recommend

[07:56] checking out those 10 guitar workouts I

[07:57] did with guitario I'm really proud of

[07:59] them and I think they're going to help

[08:01] you a lot you can access those for free

[08:03] at the link in the description also I

[08:04] have a video that dives into the current

[08:06] practice routine that I used today so if

[08:08] you want to check that out I'll put a

[08:09] link up in the middle of the screen for

[08:11] you thank you so much for watching and

[08:12] I'll see you in the next one

[08:16] [Music]

[08:19] [Laughter]

[08:23] [Music]