Never spend more than a few seconds getting the pick out of your guitar again! Here’s how! DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE EXERCISE to Play Guitar By Feel.
If you’ve ever dropped your pick in your guitar you know how absolutely frustrating it can be to get it out.
Try this: Hold the guitar up by the neck, like it’s a sign. You’ll hear the pick fall down to the shoulder of the body. If you move the guitar in a quick tight circle you can get the pick to one side or the other and know right where it is inside the guitar. Then slowly lift and turn the guitar up over your head so that it is level with the ground.
There is a piece of wood called a brace which is inside the guitar next to the sound hole that prevents you from just sliding the pick out of the sound hole, so you’ll need to get the pick over that.
Just make a slight bounce or hop with the guitar and the pick will hop over the inner brace and jump right through the sound hole.
 Have you ever noticed how sometimes it’s harder to play when you look at your hands, especially with a song you already know?
If it’s a tune you already know, you’ve already memorized it. A lot of times if we sitting here, we’ll be playing something and just making tons of mistakes and we’re like, what’s going on? I already know this song.
And then we look away, or we close our eyes, and there it is. It comes right out. It’s this sort of magic thing, right?
It’s pretty weird the way this works and the way this happens. But it does, and you know it does. You’ve probably had this experience. If you haven’t You will, because that does happen.
How The Magic Happens
We see our heroes do this thing. We see them playing well and then they close their eyes or they look off. And then all this music comes out and it sounds so good.
Now, I can’t really get a caliper out or a slide rule and, scientifically prove what I’m about to say, but after 30 years of practicing and teaching guitar, and practicing meditation and watching what happens in the mind whenever we’re doing things, I firmly believe that what’s going on is that we are reducing distraction when we do that.
Obviously. Right? You probably figured that out. But the thing is, it’s not that we reduce our distractions so that we can concentrate and think about the notes and where our fingers go. No. What happens when we close our eyes or look off is it connects us more with two sense perceptions. What we hear, And what we feel.
And these two things together makes the whole thing simpler. Much simpler.
Let Yourself Play
Whenever you’re connecting to your sense perceptions, to what you hear and what you feel, that allows you to still be present, still play, but not get in your way. Because you’re not analyzing what you’re doing so much.
You’re being there, with it, and letting the training come through. That way you can actually play better. That’s why it works. And it’s just fascinating. It’s like a magic trick. It’s scary, a lot of times. But you can practice it on your own at home. You can even take a short little piece like what I just did with the opening of Michelle here by The Beatles.
More Like This
If you’re interested in things like this, I would love to let you know more. Click in the link below in the description. It’ll take you to a free PDF you can download. It’s called Awesome Tone is Literally at Your Fingertips. Because it is. It’s right here.
If you want to nail a hammer-on, you need to feel just how much work is done by the bones in your fingers.Â
This is a technique is a major part of the guitar’s sound and to use it with the least effort you really need to get hip to how most of it is done by the bones.
Check out the video below for some good tips on how to get just the right angle to maximize this techniques’ fluid tone and lightning speed!
Come out to this great LIC neighborhood bar Wednesday, March 11th. Hot off of the Voodoo Doll video premier, we’re ready to rock. We’ve got song to usher in the spring, an ode to the moon and we may even play Peter Gabriel again!
Featuring Bryan Wade on Guitar and Vocals J. Granelli on Bass Russ Meissner on Drums and Jim Fields – Filmmaker
Monday, Feb. 17th at 8:30
You may have seen the short clip of Voodoo Doll in the last email and now the full video will be premiered to the world online this Monday night! It’s a visual mash up of Civil War era church ruins and early Danish silent films, making an experimental “filmtrack” to one of our most loved songs.
We’ll be able to live chat during the premier and I will post the lyrics immediately after the video ends. Several musicians who have performed the song with me will be present during the premier and may weigh in on performing this tune. The editor will also be on hand to chime in so be sure to join us and leave a comment, or two. We want to know what you think of this wild ride!
If you subscribe to the channel and click the Set A Reminder button, YouTube will send you a reminder of the event 30 minutes and 2 minutes before the premier so you won’t miss it.
683 Washington Ave Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (Prospect & St. Marks) C to Clinton/Washington – 2/3 to BK Museum – Q to 7th Ave. B45 to Washington Ave / Prospect Pl. (stops right in front)
Featuring Ricky Ortiz on Bass Jesse Wallace on Drums Jim Fields – Filmmaker
Saturday, Jan 25th Ghost Notes play at 8 pm Voodoo Doll Video starts at 8:15
Come see this awesome video we made for Voodoo Doll! My friend, Jim Fields, and I mixed images of the ruins of a Civil War church with some early Danish silent films to make an experimental “filmtrack” to one of our most loved songs. Jim is the maker of the definitive Ramones documentary film End Of The Century, so he’s no stranger to rock and video. He put his creative stamp on this wild ride of a video so come out for some live tunes, an interview with the filmmakers and, of course, the video!
683 Washington Ave Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (Prospect & St. Marks) C to Clinton/Washington – 2/3 to BK Museum – Q to 7th Ave. B45 to Washington Ave / Prospect Pl. (stops right in front)
There is no one way to hold a guitar pick. Well I guess there would be if you played the same song over and over! The angle you hold it has quite an effect on how easy it is to use and what sound you get out of it.
Experiment with it:
Ex. 1: Try holding it perfectly parallel with the string, pointed straight into the hole of the guitar. Strum while holding the pick in that position. Is it easy or difficult to strum? How about picking a single string? What does it sound like? Bright? Dull? Smooth? Rough? Loud? Quiet?
Ex 2: Rotate it, spin it slightly forward (like you’re using the pick to turn a screw) so that it hits the string on the front edge instead of flat like Ex 1. Is it easier or harder to strum? How does that effect the sound? Thin? Warm? Silky? Harsh? Brash? Wispy? How about when you’re picking just one string?
Ex 3: Go back to the parallel position of Ex. 1 but instead of holding the pick pointed straight into the hole of the guitar, change the angle toward the ceiling or floor about halfway, so that the pick slides over the the strings. Swivel your arm and wrist to change the angle when strumming up and then down so that it feels like you’re using a wide paintbrush to brush the strings. Is it easy or difficult to strum? What does it sound like? How Would you describe the sound?
The truth is, there is no “right” way to hold the pick. The way you hold it is going to make it easier or harder to play and it will effect the sound. Sometimes, you need something to be as easy as possible in order to play it. Other times you want what you’re playing to have a certain effect, a specific feel that can be conveyed by the way you set the strings in motion. This is why players sound different from each other, why many guitarists can play the same song, with the same chords, and each have their own unique feel. It’s very personal and you can find your own sound by having fun with these different effects.
Cast A Spell With Your Guitar series Part 1 – Play Quietly
Cast A Spell With Your Guitar
Great solo performers can cast a spell on their audience with a sense of personal intimacy and you can too if you use dynamics well. What creates closeness between people? Think about it:
This translates into music as silence between notes, simplicity, low volume. Just like when you speak quietly to a friend they pay more attention to hear what you’re saying. It’s like a secret for their ears only.
YOUR dynamic range is fixed, either by the settings of the sound system or the lack of one. For your dramatic moments to have an impact on your fans’ feelings you need to set your basic groove at a medium or quiet level so that when you get loud and big, they FEEL it. If you start out fairly loud you have no room to expand upward, only downward.
Experiment 1 – Try playing one of your tunes as quietly as you can on your own. The lower you go, the more tools you’ll have to really connect with your fans. Put down the phone and try it.
How is learning difficult passages of music compare to eating an elephant? You do both the same way: one bite at a time.
Now this probably isn’t news to you. You probably know that you need to break things down in little pieces. The trouble id how to put the pieces back together once you’ve learned each one. The way to do this is by “taping” them to each other.
After you’ve learned each piece of the phrase individually, play the first one and then *only the first note* of the second. Don’t worry about the rest of the second piece. Play that a few times and once that is easy, add the second note. Playing them together will happen naturally, one bite at a time.
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