Guitar Lessons in Bed Stuy Brooklyn

Author: Bryan

Learning by Ear From a Recording

It can be tricky. Try this:

Pause the playback immediately after you hear the note/chord you’re listening for. Then, listen to your short term memory, sing whatever you hear and find that note on the guitar. Then find that same note on one of the top 2 strings (E & A) of the guitar.

If you’re looking for a chord, try playing a major or minor chord on that note. If that’s not it and you’re on the E string, try moving straight down to the A string and up 2 frets. If you’re on the A string, try moving straight down to the E string.

It can be more involved than this, but 80% of the time you can find most chords using only these few steps.

May 27, 2014
Mistakes in Guitar Practice Are Good News

They show you where you can improve. If you try to avoid them you won’t know where where to focus your practice. The trick is to be open to mistakes.

If you’re open, you’ll find your trouble spots while you’re in the practice room. But if you try to avoid mistakes, you’ll find those blind spots on stage. Not cool.

If you listen to a mistake without judgement you may find a solution to a problem, a development of your melody, or a whole new style. Be like Hendrix & others who really listened, leading them to deliberately crank their amps to get that “bad” distorted sound.

May 20, 2014
Looking at Hands While Playing Guitar = Thinking

And thinking is often too slow for playing.

Now, obviously, we have to think and occasionally look at our hands when we play. But we often watch our hands because we lose confidence in our memorization or technique. We end up analyzing our playing, which distracts us from directly playing.

When we stop relying so heavily on sight, we begin to trust our muscle memory, allowing us to listen to what we are playing. Feeling and listening are instant, much more accurate and direct than sight. You are more connected to your instrument.

You can do it with some training & guts

May 6, 2014
Interview on Talk Music Talk

A few weeks ago I sat down with boice from the weekly podcast Talk Music Talk and chatted about how receptive listening can benefit musicians facing difficulties onstage or in practice. Sitting down with musicians, music journalists, artists, music industry folks and more, boice discusses what they love about the world of music and how they got into it. We had a great time and you can listen in.

Follow this link to listen and download podcast interview TMT 043. And, yes, it’s free!

Bryan Wade from The Connected Musician on TALK MUSIC TALK

At the top of TALK MUSIC TALK are links to subscribe to iTunes, Stitcher Radio and TuneIn Radio.
There is a lot of emerging artists and seasoned pros over there so check it out.

Much More on this topic on my new site theconnectedmusician.com

January 10, 2014