Tip | Guitar Lessons in Bed Stuy Brooklyn

How to Play To a Metronome? Do it Wrong!

No joke. Try it:

Speed up just enough to get synchronized again… Feel that smoothness again.

Playing in time is a matter of constantly feeling for this anxious or dopey energy and then adjusting until you feel that sense of relaxing into the beat. It’s not a thinking thing. It’s a feel thing.

Bryan Wade Guitar Signature - Queens Guitar Lessons in Long Island City and Clinton Hill Brooklyn NYC

September 25, 2014

Guitarists, Rather Than Going for What’s ‘Right’…

Music is so much more fluid than we often treat it. When we get caught up in whether we are playing it “right”, we run the risk of not hearing what we are doing well. If you’re caught in the trap of “WRONGNESS” try this:

For now, rather than going for what’s ‘right’, go for what you think sounds good. Learning music is a process and you are somewhere in the middle of it so, for now, go for your good tempo, your best rhythm, your best note choices.

Listen for what you are playing that is good and build from there. Perfection is the result, not the method.

September 11, 2014

Don’t Like Repetitive Guitar Practice?

Repetition is one of the most effective tools in learning music. Yes, it can be boring, but it helps you memorize the technical stuff so your mind can be free to emphasize the cool parts of the music when you perform.
If you hate it, try this:
Every day set a timer for 3-8 minutes. Practice one repetitive thing until the timer goes off. Stop.

Play something fun.

September 4, 2014

Why Use a Guitar Strap?

So you can bring the guitar into your comfort zone.

We often approach the guitar as something we need to wrap ourselves around. We end up in awkward positions because we’re trying to hold it and play it at the same time, sidelining a lot of our energy and attention.

With a strap you can find what’s most natural to you and bring the guitar into your space, bringing it to you. Strumming, picking and fingering becomes simpler, easier and smoother and your sound gets much more expressive.

August 22, 2014

How Do I Help My Kid Play Guitar?

Best school? Best guitar? Practice every day? All helpful. But not if your kid doesn’t want to play. Kids who do well are in families that place a value on playing music:

The instrument is easy to get to and in good condition
No one is nagging them to practice
No one is saying “Stop playing the same thing over and over!”
Family members (parents, mainly) listen in a general way, from another room, while kids play; comments and questions afterwards.

Someone is interested in what the child is playing, and verbally noting their progress.

August 7, 2014

Don’t MAKE Your Kids Practice Guitar 30 Minutes a Day

But do have them play something every day. It’s the “every day” part that does the trick.

Kids get discouraged when they have to do stuff that’s hard. If they only play every 3 days it’s always hard.

Playing London Bridge once a day starts as a small challenge. By the end of the week they’re bragging about how easy it is.

Then they get the rush that spurs them on to play longer. They are more familiar with the success that practice brings and they’re more likely to dive in on their own.

July 31, 2014

Guitar Pull-offs Were Named Wrong

They should have been called “pop-offs”.

I don’t mean any disrespect to the great Pete Seeger who brought us modern tablature and named the pull-off, it’s just that if you only pull your finger off of the string, it may not ring. If you pop the string with the edge of your fingertip, you’ll hear it ring out.

Try it.

Play a note on the first string (bottom) and instead of lifting your finger up and away from the string, pop the string by pulling down and away, sort of plucking it with your fingertip.

July 23, 2014

We Don’t Really Play Guitar With Our Fingers

We play with our finger TIPS.
I know that seems obvious, but we often don’t do it. If we spend some time getting used to this weird use of our hand, playing guitar becomes easier. The reason is this:

The bone does 70% of the work.

When the finger gradually curves to come straight down onto the string, much less energy is needed. The bones of your finger form an arch, which taps down onto the string like a C-clamp with half the effort than if we use the padded bottom of our finger.

July 17, 2014

Guitar Game: Improvise With Your Name

Bored with playing the same predictable rhythms when you’re improvising? Break it up using the rhythms in names.
Say these names aloud and feel the rhythmic pulses in them, especially where the stressed syllables are:

Jimi Hendrix
Nirvana
Elliot Easton
John Lee Hooker
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Grateful Dead
Queens Of The Stone Age
Florence And The Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers

The stressed syllable is the downbeat. Now try this:

Pick 1 and play a scale using the rhythm of that name.
Pick 2 and play a scale mixing the rhythms of those names.
Freak Out.

July 10, 2014

Practice Guitar Every Day? Yes. And no.

A player asked me yesterday if he could postpone his lesson a week because he didn’t get to play much that week. Of course, that’s fine with me, but I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learned regarding this, both as a student and a teacher.

Consistent practice is very important but we do have times when we just can’t practice consistently. If we feel that we can’t move ahead until we make up for that lost time, we may be right, but we also may just be being hard on ourselves. This could lead to feeling a little guilty when we can’t get to the guitar and if that builds up, we may feel so bad about it that we quit playing. That’s the mistake, not missing some playing time.

One of the more powerful aspects of steady lessons is that they keep you on the path to your goals, even when you’ve had a crazy week(s) with no time to practice. If it gets to where you’re not able to practice for 6 weeks, then that may be time to reevaluate.

June 25, 2014

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