Realizing music is a lot like learning a second language, even if you are not completely fluent and articulate yet, you can still express meaningful ideas that resonate with others while you strive to get better. The better you get at the language, your capability to express yourself likewise grows.
I think a better way to say it would be "Perfect is the enemy of the done." Of course a "perfect" thing would the best thing but in reality nothing can ever reach perfection.
This is something I just can't get into my thick skull. I always go full Sibelius and have drunken rage deleted almost every project I've wrote over the past 5 years to the point that I've essentially given up writing music. I graduated 5 years ago (studied music at uni, majored electroacoustic composition) but because I can't write anything that I'm happy with I've lost all motivation to write music. I don't understand how people can finish a piece of music and put it out there for the world to listen to - that is something that just completely evades me...
@Geoff Bannister : Play for the enjoyment of playing, not to impress anyone including yourself. Find joy in the act of playing music now, even in practicing. The journey is all that matters not some perceived goal, because that's not even real. What is real is what you're doing right now in this very moment. Play because you are happy, or feel sorrowful. Play to express how you feel. *Music is a communication, not a competition.*
It's in G, so...3-6-8 (Though, you wouldn't play it all on the E string. 6 is 1 on the A string..8 is 3 on the A) ..This is very basic sh*t, I know, but this ubiquitous 0-3-5 needs correcting!
I got one: “You are not Irreplaceable to any band” Unless you’re the lead creative force making the decisions, everyone in the band is replaceable and if you’re causing problems, you will get kicked out. Learned that when my friends kicked me out of the band I helped start.
I don't fully agree with this statement. 98% of the time this is probably valid but some musicians really are irreplaceable. Think of Tom Morello or John Frusciante for example. Replace them and the band is not what it was.
Sardonic and cynical is the essence of this dude. It's the main reason I keep coming back. Its refreshing that he doesnt care about the stupid fads that pop up all the time in the guitar community.
My biggest revelation happened when I realized the level of persistence and sacrifice it takes to be a professional musician was more than I was willing to invest. It wasn't laziness or a lack of ambition. I just realized I like playing as a hobby and had other interests I was more passionate about. Afterwards, i actually enjoyed playing, more. It became more fun.
My biggest was that when I started getting into scales more, I realized I could make any guitar chord I wanted because I understood where and why fingers went where they went
Not exactly on the same line as your revelations but I remember when learning all the notes on the low E string to learn what barre chords I was playing finally clicked. I thought I had everything I needed on my belt then. Oh the naivety.
So relatable. I first learned chords and barre chords without knowing where the actual root note is. Now when I know almost every note on the neck it really opens your eyes and it doesn't seem that hard at all.
Lols, great comments. But all jokes aside, literally almost everything in a room affects the sound of anything else in that room (however subtly that may be). Even the moisture content in the air has an affect on the sound. You can check that by noticing how much better sounds travel outside on a particularly misty day. It's well know that sounds in the ocean travel far greater distances than on land.
One of my best musical revelations has been to view myself as the conduit for music rather than my instrument. Not in some spiritual or voodoo way, but rather the understanding that I can (and will) make music no matter what tools I have at my disposal. When I was much younger, I thought being more technically proficient at guitar meant being a better musician; now, I realize being more technically proficient on any instrument is just a way of allowing you to better express yourself and your inner musical ideas. Being a great musician isn't limited to your technical ability on a single instrument. As long as you're proficient enough to communicate the musical ideas you have in the way that you want to, that's all that matters.
I think a big one for me was "Beautiful music doesn't have to be complex." In my discovery of 'Minimalism' (GG Max Richter) it really blew me away how music can still be beautiful and emotive whilst not being the pariah of musical theory and/or technique. Really helped me through my compositions for my A-level, reducing stress and arguments with teachers. Making me a better composer melodically and producing work I was proud of.
I’m currently working on my A-Level compositions, and I really appreciate your comment. It’s really easy to keep trying to fit in all the most complex chords voicings, drum fills and melodies, thinking it’s the only way to get good marks. My teacher told me how I should keep it simple and develop the compositions little by little. I’m trying to do that now, wish me luck!
The biggest realization i had in my life was the following "Being nervous is your ego being afraid of failure. Once you realize that music is about music, not abut yourself, you will be so concentrated in making everything go perfectly that there will be no time for your brain to be nervous"
I'm not a professional. I started college many years ago as a music major and switch to Computer Science. Go figure. :-) But, one of the most important lessons I've ever learned was out of being in Chamber Singers. We has a bass who was very good. Anyone who knows about small group singing knows that a good bass is rare and highly valued. This guy was good. He missed rehearsal one day without telling the director, and no one knew where he was. Lots of us were friends and would take other classes together and hang out outside of classes. No one had heard from him. The director took time after our warm-ups to tell us that we would soon learn that professionalism is about 50% talent and 50% reliability. It didn't matter how good you were if you were unreliable. Directors, bosses, teammates whoever would much rather work with ADEQUATE and reliable than outstanding and flaky. She said that she knew that many of us were impressed by his abilities as a bass but if he missed one more class without excuse, which for us was essentially a rehearsal, she would drop him from the class. He missed one more class. After that warm-up, she told us he was out. And he was. He auditioned again the next quarter. She must have had a talk with him because he made it through that next quarter without flaking. Since then, I have had many opportunities to work with, or begin working with, brilliant but flaky people who end up eventually being replaced by adequate but reliable people who ultimately end up doing a better job. This is in all areas of life, not just music. P.S. I often tell people who say that they would like to actually make money playing music that they should learn to play bass...and every style - country, blues, rock, etc. A reliable bass player that can play many styles will never be out of a job.
As a oldish bass player (54) no longer proffesional...my biggest revalation was realising the tone i was after was from my fingers and not some exspensive amp bass combo 👍
Mr.SmithGNR Smith yeah but can you get chorus, fuzz, wah, flanger etc with your fingers. changing your Finger Attack doesn’t magically make your tone transform from a P Bass to a Dingwall for example
Aylbdr Madison here’s another perspective from Emerson on his essay titles Self-Reliance just for fun: To believe our own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, -- that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,--and our first thought, is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
Here's a revelation I had . . . As I've gotten more into recording, I found out that everything needs to have it's own frequencies carved out to sit well in the mix. Once I realized this, I thought about it in terms of songwriting and arrangements. Keep in mind, this is more of a technique than a rule . . . more of "guidelines." I thought when writing and arranging parts, maybe look at where the different parts sit in the mix. So, if you write parts that naturally fall into different frequency ranges, then you're parts would naturally sit in the song mix better. Again, this is more of a tool and not a rule, but it has worked well for me and I don't have parts competing for dominance.
@@olgierdvoneverec4135 Simplest way to explain it having the different parts in different octaves. There can be more to it, but that's a good place to start.
My favorite told to me by my band director in High School: "It's not the mistake that hurts you, it's the recovery." If you screw up, just get right back in as fast as you can. Like it didn't even happen in the first place. The quicker you recover, the less noticeable the mistake will be.
That is a great revelation, I agree. It's one of my biggest as well. One can be able to play the most amazing pieces of music. But if their rhythm sucks, then it all sucks regardless. One thing I also learned was that you can never be too good to benefit from using a metronome. I always had good natural rhythm, no one ever complained about me being off time. So for my first years I didn't use a metronome. That was the biggest mistake I ever made as a musician. I still don't use one all of the time, due to simple laziness, but each time I do use one, I get better at literally every facet of playing. Not just timing, but precision, speed and even harmonically. Using a metronome gives us a confidence of where things need to be because we are not machines, and even the greatest players make tiny mistakes, so we all have to put some of our attention on constantly making tiny adjustments. The more we use a metronome, the less of those adjustments we need to make, and that frees our minds and bodies for other things.
@@aylbdrmadison1051 ruclips.net/video/gi5Vp72zpCc/видео.html An absence of metered tempo. No concept of past and future, a mindful present. No fixed rhythm, but rather a timing like the streaming of a small creek. Flowing. I mean, that's what they claim, not my original words.
The first one should be “take a break from practicing” As soon as I saw the duplicate I was stuck thinking about video editing for the next minute. Does samurai guitarist noodle on guitar whilst editing content?
It doesn't matter how good people tell you you are when you are self taught. You can always improve with a good teacher. That was a huge humbling moment for me.
In the last 3 years, I've realized that Eddie Van Halen is not magic. What I mean is that by reading some tablature, watching some lesson videos, etc, that he is definitely not as intimidating as I used to think. I play some of his riffs and solos and think "that's it?". What he uses is his personality and his bag of tricks. That is his alone and unable to duplicate. Eric Johnson, to me though, is magic. Now him...ay yi yi...some of it is approachable. But I've been tackling the harder pieces. Talk about funky chord shapes.
One day you may find the same thing is true about Eric. Because it is the same phenomena you're talking about, and applies to any and every other musician as well. Words like _magic_ and _miracle_exist only to explain away things we do not yet understand. But then we don't _need_ to know everything either. Curiosity is a wonderful trait to have, but being tied to an outcome can be debilitating. Certainly comparing ourselves to where others are in their journey is unwise.
Jon, I would still argue that Eddie is magic. But, it is his bag of tricks and approach to guitar playing that is the magic. The magic isn't in whether or not someone else can play what he plays. The magic is in the innovation that he brought to the instrument. I think most associate Eddie with the tapping which he didn't invent, but did popularize. But, also Eddie's approach to how he played rhythm guitar, much like say Keith Richards, is also part of what makes him magic. Also, Eddie's approach to tone set him apart. So, can he be duplicated . . . relatively, but that's not where the magic is.
I used to feel this way about Metallica, pffft im just as good as them i thought, look i can play it note for note, but its not the same as capturing that magic, and thats what it is, you dont know why the notes sound good, they just do, finding them is the magical part and it is like magic when you think about it because its never really planned, comes out of nowhere and not easily repeatable. In the end you can say everything is discoverable and therefore not magic, except the fact that energy and matter exist in a scientific reality that says none can be created or destroyed so thasts magic, reality is magic.
It depends how good you are already, (you might be a master!), but often, the best way to move forward is to step backwards and re-establish the basics, make sure the foundations are solid. It's easy to gloss over that stuff while always looking ahead to the big prize.
For me practice is a thing you don't notice your improvement, and it gets really demotivating. However you should seek the joy in it and challenge yourself to keep practicing, overtime you'll really see that you're a lot further than a year ago.
It may be the way you're practicing. I'd recommend the book _The Practice of Practice_ by Jonathan Harnum. It goes into great detail about how to focus your practice to continually improve. It made a huge impact on my practice routine.
@Funnylizard : Let go of getting better and just play. You will get better naturally then. Especially if you learn to enjoy practicing simply because you love playing that much. It's all about the journey. If you learn to enjoy the that, you realize the rest is all egotistical bullshit. Our egos hold us back, and I do mean *ours* not just yours.
I work a very stressful job teaching SpEd and BD and the best part of my day is watching your videos to relax in the car for 20 minutes. Keep it up. You'll always be my favorite youtuber
One revelation I had was that technical skill is not just about playing fast. It's about mastery of all the little details; getting the best sound from your instrument, playing in time, being in control of your vibrato, playing as cleanly as you can, etc.
One of my big revelations is that it isnt all about being incredible, or the best one. Sometimes the best thing is being versatile. I always saw those flashy guitarrist doing incredible things and i always wanted to do that, but even though im not as good as a guitarrist as half youtube, i have played classic guitar, spanish guitar, pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, and i could play and sing at the same time. And even though i didnt excel at anything, if you paired that with the musical and harmonic knowledge that i had from music school, i just could play with anybody, i could adapt myself because i had all those thing really internalized. And most bands really apreciated that.
Awesome video! From B.C and currently living the Aussie van life myself with an acoustic that I practice with as much as possible. Lots of inspiration in the land down under!
When you take the music out and replace it with what you do or what you want to do, it is still pretty solid motivational video. And that is why I love this channel. You can find something for yourself even if you are not a musician or guitar player.
I am right there with you when it comes to heroes that aren't all that when it comes to technique and theory, but they more that make up for it when it comes to expressing emotion and soul... great show and keep up the good work.
I have 3 revelations that come to mind: This is one I had for piano(that's applicable for other instruments as well): 1. *You can add a 9 to practically any major or minor chord and it will pretty much always sound good.* If you're unsure on whether you're supposed to play a major or a minor chord, add the 9 and remove the third, and you have a sus2 chord, which works in both major and minor. Ever since I discovered this, I've been adding 9's in probably 80% of normal major or minor chords. And for a guitar revelation: 2. *When playing a chord, you don't have to place a finger on a string you're not going to play.* - Late November last year(2019), I discovered that I could suddenly play really nice chords by just leaving out two of the strings(A7sus2=Em/A=x0x000, C/E=xx2010 and Dm7=xx0211 are great examples that are also easy to barre). Suddenly, playing in F major wasn't so bad. Another one for the guitar(that's applicable for other instruments as well): 3. *If you don't want to move your fingers too much, play bass notes with the tonic power chord on top(the 1 and 5 of the tonic).* When playing in G major, keep your pinky and your ring finger on the 3rd fret on the B and E string, and play bass notes with your middle finger or index finger. The same works for C major, but with your index finger on the 1st fret on the B string, and your pinky on the 3rd fret on the E string. In general, it's simply just playing the 1 and the 5 of the tonic over different bass notes.
@@mr.smithgnrsmith7808 Yep. Though "correct" is subjective. It's "correct" in chord theory, but honestly, the timbre of the guitar lets it get away with playing chords that would sound muddy if played by other instruments. So is it "wrong"? (Yes, playing just the triad or 4-part sounds cleaner. I don't think barre chords should bad though.) I get that I'm going more "free jazz" theory here, but if it sounds good I don't think it's necessarily wrong. Edit: clarity
Sammy G, I have a simlilar story regarding music school, however i was one of the weak that dropped out lol. Guitar is still the passion i hold closest to my heart though. I love what you said about your favorite artist being the best at being themselves. Its a consept i try to live by and i take confort from even if i never rise to the glory of my idles and/or pears. Love your content! Keep on truckin 🤘
Videos like this are among my favorites. I thrive on hearing these revelations and realizations because they often answer questions I want to ask but either don't have anyone to ask or don't know how to put it into words. Thanks so much!
I've heard bill frisell say almost the same, he had a vision of the music he wanted to do, then heard pat metheney doing exactly that, way better(he thought) then he could ever do, but... Glad he didnt give up
Your last point is particularly true in my case. By all measurable metrics I am a modestly skilled player and singer, at best. That, however, has not prevented me from making a living playing music for most of my life. I try to be personable and I engage with my audience. I play the songs that they want to hear, not necessarily the ones I'd rather do. I'll usually play longer than the minimum required (unless there's specific schedule to which I must adhere). I bring the gear needed to sound good... If that means carrying and setting up / tearing down more than others, so be it. I also put a lot of effort into doing a good mix, whether I'm playing alone or in a duo or in a bigger band. My musical skill level alone would not likely have been enough to have had this little career of mine. Best to you in your career, Sammy G.
My a-ha moment revolves around how expensive gear is and that I am cursed when it comes to recording. I had a 200 dollar squire that sounded exatly like my 600 dollar fender, I now have an amp that cost 80 dollars that sounds just as good as my 1,000 amplifier that I lost, and when it comes to recording, my phone and a zoom handycorder 2 were the best so far other than a stand alone multitrack recorder i had at one point. So some lesser expensive stuff can do great things as well. I read in Thomas Moore's book Meditations about his experience with making extraordinary things out of less than ordinary means and it inspired me to use most of what I already have and not worry so much about gear. I'd like to see you do a minimalist episode. The cheapest gear you have available to you and see if you can make something decent from it.
Thank you for the amazing video. I often stop playing because I think I'll never be able to play anything interesting... Your videos give me the strength to keep exploring the universe of sound!
Hey man, I’m a country guitarist in Nashville and I love you videos! A lot of times when you give advice, it’s most likely something I already know (but I always enjoy it). This video however had a bunch of thoughts that I’ve had floating around in my head for years and you were able to explain them better than I ever could! If you’re ever in Nashville, beers on me man!
You are right, I notice that more than sounding like someone, or be as fast as someone, for me the most important thing was that when someone hear me playing, they knew it was me.... It's like Carlos Santana, far from being the best in the world, but, when you hear a song... You know its him.... Same with SRV, BB King, and many others... So that's the direction I took in my playing...
@@hanreality.7266 In my opinion, you can't tell that somebody is the best like that, it's about what you like and how you appreciate the music... But he definitely was amazing... The version of little wing... Uffff it's a masterpiece
This was a very inspirational video but I would really love to see one where you explain the most technical a-ha moments you've had. Like not mentality-wise, pure playing, theory-wise.
You never stop learning new things on guitar. There are always new genres & styles to gain tips and tricks from. You'd be surprised at studying and observing guitar players from other styles of music. Don't be afraid to recon another style of music. There are some highly skilled guitar players throughout the musical landscape. Take a moment to appreciate the talent in other instruments as well. You never know when or where you might pick up a tip or get an idea you can use in your playing. I've had a lot of A HA moments lately studying theory that help put the pieces together. While my musical vocabulary is still limited it is expanding all the time, and I feel more confident navigating the fretboard.
the point about the Stevie Ray Vaughan lick seems to true to me. For a long time I didn't improve just because I didn't even try things that I thought were beyond what I was able to do. And then I realized that a lot of "impossible" things can be played much slower and are a good way to challenge yourself and improve your skills, much more than playing just the simple stuff.
Hey Sammy G. This is the exact video I needed to see at this moment in my life. I'm in first year university as a music major, and I've been really hard on myself lately, in terms of my ability. This video was really helpful for me. Especially the stuff about skill not equaling success, and being the best in the world about being yourself. Thanks for the advice and insight. Much appreciated.
I'm a bass player. My biggest revelation was actually similar to yours. When I started I was really into Flea(yeah, big woop. bass player idolizing flea). I wanted to be flea. At some point I realised I was never going to be him for 2 reasons. One I don't wanna be a pro and I don't study as much as someone aspiring to be one and two.. I'm tall(Checkmate Flea). So I took the sound I liked and adjusted it to fit into my own. And as I improved I did the same with many different musicians and ended up with my own sound, one I actually really enjoy.
@@yeetmeintotheabyss2893, I didn't. I always heard something repulsive in his playing, and someday, when my ear training started to really help me, I found out that he's unable to tune his bass. Yes. Anybody who doesn't believe me can check out his “video lessons” where he brags about how difficult it is to be a pro, and then shits out of tune octaves right into your ears.
@@alexeypolevoybass Ha, I never really noticed. I've mostly heard his slap lines so it was never really noticeable to me. It seems like it stems a lot from his strings tho.
My biggest is the importance of scales, once i got the hang of intervals and how to build chords, i figured out i could apply this to other insturments like piano. that was a huge "A-HA!" moment for me.
For me, it’s learning the difference between practice and playing. Guitar is not my first instrument but in school, I always felt that practicing and playing were one in the same. As a result, I was a decent musician, but I didn’t improve that much during this time. It wasn’t until I came back to guitar playing a few months ago that I realized that in order to improve, I needed to practice skills. Not just play.
I learned that just because your instrument is "supposed" to be played in a certain way doesn't mean one has to play it that way. For the longest time, I was a bass player who couldn't find a guitarist to jam with, so I learned how to play the bass and a rhythm sound at the same time. Not everybody likes the sound, but my current guitarist likes it as he can focus on doing lead work.
Thanks for producing valuable content like this! You are right, playing guitar and getting better comes from inside of you while labels like "best" are put on guitar players by an outside perspective. You will quit if you overrank yourself against others and worry about how you will compare to other players, but you will keep going if you just focus on your love for guitar and your learning process.
Sammy, that last part is so true. In Hawaii, we had a bar that all the locals would gather to listen to live music. While the sober among us could tell whether a band was really good or not, the drunks among us (which were usually tourists who’d wandered in) couldn’t tell the difference. Now I’m by no means saying that the bands that performed there were downright terrible since in order to play there, you had to prove yourself in the club scene first. But most times while a guitarist would be running scales on his equipment prior to opening, there’d always be that ONE GUY screaming loudly for an encore, which coming from a place that will give a standing ovation for any band or orchestra doing scales, isn’t all that odd.
You say you don't have to be the best to be great. I would amend that to say that you don't have to be the best for an audience to enjoy what you are playing. As musicians, we like to get technical (myself included), but I realized quite some time ago that being a solid player is typically just as good as being a great player as far as most audience members are concerned. If you play in time and on key and what you're playing is enjoyable, you're audience won't care how technical it is. I'm far from the most technical player (I'm no slouch either), but I feel like I'm a very nuanced player. A perfect example of what I'm getting at is ACDC. Very little of what they do is difficult to play, but it arguably has a very strong appeal.
the most critical piec of knowledge I learned which applies to music as well as an studying - All complex ideas can be broken down into simple ideas strung together. so learn each simple part one at a time and then one day - Complexity. slaps forehead!
I totally relate to wanting to be the next (whoever), there comes a time where you have to be satisfied with who you are and what you bring to the table. The hardest thing for me was accepting that the music I write freely and naturally is not what I listen too. Great post!
Love this! So true ! It took me many years to realize that the greatest music isn't about speed or shredding... the greatest most impactful music contains catchy melodies that people can hum or whistle.
Big one is that 'networking' isn't an active occupation you do yourself; it is formed by the people who know you and recommend you. Just be nice and openminded to everyone so they'll like you.
Thank you for mentioning that it's good to step away from the guitar sometimes to get a fresh perspective. That's what I used to do until I heard Buckethead and Shawn Lane. Now I can't stop practicing even if I'm dead.🤠
A lot to digest there Sammi G... as a 55 year old who started picking the guitar when he was 9 or so but waited until he was about 48 to really take it seriously, I can relate somewhat with you, only I did it longer lol. for those 39 years I would have a guitar here and there and pick it but I never learned anything on or about the instrument and that has really caused me a lot of issues now. I learned some very very bad habits that I just cannot seem to get over. I never understood chords and scales and all that jazz I just picked what I thought sounded right, my idea of a chord was basically playing the power chord shape on everything lol. I didn't even know what note the strings were until I was about 49 lol. I stumbled into this You Tube world of guitarists online, yeah when I first did that I actually had to "wonder" if anyone had the idea of teaching guitar online! Lol. I have learned that a lot of the songs I would hear all those years that were just too technical for me, are actually not that difficult to play. One song I always wanted to play was the old KISS song, Mr. Speed. Something about that main lick they play in the beginning and repeat during the chorus really stuck out to me. I tried and tried to figure it out but with my power chord only hand shape I couldn't. Fast forward to about 2013 and the first online guitar lesson I looked up was one for that song, within a week I had it down and then wondered why I always thought it was so "technically difficult" lol. It's a great song and a catchy riff, but it's not real hard to play, you should check it, KISS - Mr. Speed, it's a bluesy type of riff I think you would actually like. My step dad is why I fell in love with the guitar and I did learn a few things from watching him, but I figured out about a year into my journey of learning the guitar for real that he too just played by ear and not necessarily correct all the time lol, boy he messed me up with Proud Mary! LOL.
I enjoyed your discussion. I am finding that if I'm not enjoying what I am practicing it doesn't really do much good. I got some advice from a really great teacher that was, "you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run" (Michael "Hawkeye" Herman). I agree, to a point. The point being that if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing I don't progress. I understand that you don't want to incorporate bad habits into your playing, but if I'm not challenging myself then I'm not really enjoying it. I kind of bite off more than I can chew and work out the details later. Maybe not the best approach for most, but it works for me. I'm having fun with it and if I end up being really good that's just the icing on the cake. In the mean time, I'll be darned if I let my playing/practicing turn into tedium. Thanks!
a lot of things factor into what makes a song good! for example, a song can have repetitive, very shallow lyrics but still be "good" if it has a stellar melody that shows off the singer's amazing range and is produced really well, but a song can also be good even if the the singer isn't good (from a technical standpoint) but their voice fits in with the aesthetic of the instrumentation and the lyrics tell a good story
Mine was learning the bass riff from 46&2 by tool. It taught me about the 7th fret octave and droning an open string. When it clicked I couldn't stop. Nearly everything I play still has a pedaled open string in there.
I want people to hear the original songs that myself and the bands I've been in write, but nothing gets a crowd going like a cover they know. And you know what, lately I've become perfectly okay with that. Now I enjoy doing covers. Because at the end of the day, a live show is about the band and audience connecting, about sharing an emotional experience with everyone in the room. Sometimes that means you have to give the people what they want. And it used to bother me, but now, all that matters to me is everyone having a good time, no matter who wrote the song.
For me the biggest revelation was realising music in general doesn’t have to be overly complicated to be good; for instance, I’m a guitarist, I love to play and have fun but for awhile I was trying to be complicated. I would get a simple chord like C per say and try to jazz it up and add layers of complication around it while playing. I eventually realised no one cares about how you play, they care about how you sound. So play what sounds good, no one will care how easy it is to play.
2 years after I sat glazed over as my teacher tried to explain circle of fifths, I just figured out, by playing around on a piano, that relative minor is really helpful. My soloing and fretboard knowledge has grown a lot since learning that!
Just want to say thank you, when I was 18 I played guitar then put it down after a couple of years now at 58 I picked it up again but now I understand guitar. Because of Paul David, Marty Schwartz and you. My enjoyment and love for guitar has been rekindled. Sorry I can't support you all financially but I truly wish you the best in your life thankd
"Something easier like the bass." - Brave words from a man who put his guitar together backwards.
LOL! nice one!
Found the bass player. Slapp like!
Davie504 would be mad lol
He made a video on that guitar
Hello fellow bassists
Realizing music is a lot like learning a second language, even if you are not completely fluent and articulate yet, you can still express meaningful ideas that resonate with others while you strive to get better. The better you get at the language, your capability to express yourself likewise grows.
Very well said.
well said
not well said
Rayene Boussetta pee poo
And the other way round: Knowing all the vocabulary and grammatical rules doesn't automatically mean that you've got something meaningful to say
One of the most important lessons in any creative job: Better finished than perfect.
I think a better way to say it would be "Perfect is the enemy of the done." Of course a "perfect" thing would the best thing but in reality nothing can ever reach perfection.
This is something I just can't get into my thick skull. I always go full Sibelius and have drunken rage deleted almost every project I've wrote over the past 5 years to the point that I've essentially given up writing music. I graduated 5 years ago (studied music at uni, majored electroacoustic composition) but because I can't write anything that I'm happy with I've lost all motivation to write music. I don't understand how people can finish a piece of music and put it out there for the world to listen to - that is something that just completely evades me...
@@geoffbannister8373 I'm sorry. maybe you need outside input about your stuff.
Perfection is only an opinion, and therefore does not even exist.
@Geoff Bannister : Play for the enjoyment of playing, not to impress anyone including yourself. Find joy in the act of playing music now, even in practicing. The journey is all that matters not some perceived goal, because that's not even real. What is real is what you're doing right now in this very moment. Play because you are happy, or feel sorrowful. Play to express how you feel. *Music is a communication, not a competition.*
The biggest reveltation I ever had was figuring out that 035 is actually 535
yeah but I turned back to 035 after I figured out it was a meme
It's in G, so...3-6-8 (Though, you wouldn't play it all on the E string. 6 is 1 on the A string..8 is 3 on the A)
..This is very basic sh*t, I know, but this ubiquitous 0-3-5 needs correcting!
Luey Sixty-six i thought it was in fact 0 3 5 but on the d and g strings
Luey Sixty-six it’s a meme man
The first riff I played was smoke on the water and I played it on the e- string and it was 035😂😂
I got one:
“You are not Irreplaceable to any band”
Unless you’re the lead creative force making the decisions, everyone in the band is replaceable and if you’re causing problems, you will get kicked out. Learned that when my friends kicked me out of the band I helped start.
Sergio Balaguera I wasn’t getting along with the singer and he wanted to take over keyboard and rhythm guitar, which is what I was playing at the time
did dewey finn write this?
Will Thomas hahah that’s funny
I don't fully agree with this statement. 98% of the time this is probably valid but some musicians really are irreplaceable. Think of Tom Morello or John Frusciante for example. Replace them and the band is not what it was.
Sergio Balaguera ehh, I wasn’t happy in the old band😂 I’m playing in other bands and doing my own thing so I’m good
The dry humor is amazing in this video.
Sardonic and cynical is the essence of this dude. It's the main reason I keep coming back. Its refreshing that he doesnt care about the stupid fads that pop up all the time in the guitar community.
My biggest revelation happened when I realized the level of persistence and sacrifice it takes to be a professional musician was more than I was willing to invest. It wasn't laziness or a lack of ambition. I just realized I like playing as a hobby and had other interests I was more passionate about. Afterwards, i actually enjoyed playing, more. It became more fun.
My biggest was that when I started getting into scales more, I realized I could make any guitar chord I wanted because I understood where and why fingers went where they went
Not exactly on the same line as your revelations but I remember when learning all the notes on the low E string to learn what barre chords I was playing finally clicked. I thought I had everything I needed on my belt then. Oh the naivety.
video released 2 minutes ago
commented 3 hours ago
okay my app is fucked
@@gilbyjackson304 same
@@gilbyjackson304 Its a paradox
So relatable. I first learned chords and barre chords without knowing where the actual root note is. Now when I know almost every note on the neck it really opens your eyes and it doesn't seem that hard at all.
Gilby Jackson it’s a Patreon perk
Insider tip no one wants you to know: the pickguard makes the music.
I find pick color makes a huge impact.
@@fenderbender9922 We gotta leave some stuff for people to figure out on their own
My titanium white pick guard does have a bright "ping" to it, unlike my dark rose one on my acoustic, which has a richer, fuller sound
Fender Bender obviously the bones in your legs do it dude
Lols, great comments. But all jokes aside, literally almost everything in a room affects the sound of anything else in that room (however subtly that may be). Even the moisture content in the air has an affect on the sound. You can check that by noticing how much better sounds travel outside on a particularly misty day. It's well know that sounds in the ocean travel far greater distances than on land.
One of my best musical revelations has been to view myself as the conduit for music rather than my instrument. Not in some spiritual or voodoo way, but rather the understanding that I can (and will) make music no matter what tools I have at my disposal. When I was much younger, I thought being more technically proficient at guitar meant being a better musician; now, I realize being more technically proficient on any instrument is just a way of allowing you to better express yourself and your inner musical ideas. Being a great musician isn't limited to your technical ability on a single instrument. As long as you're proficient enough to communicate the musical ideas you have in the way that you want to, that's all that matters.
I think a big one for me was "Beautiful music doesn't have to be complex." In my discovery of 'Minimalism' (GG Max Richter) it really blew me away how music can still be beautiful and emotive whilst not being the pariah of musical theory and/or technique. Really helped me through my compositions for my A-level, reducing stress and arguments with teachers. Making me a better composer melodically and producing work I was proud of.
Check drone music
@@tbsq1114 I am familiar. Great background noise for doing anything
Smoke on the water, so popular, yet so simple.
Even John Mayer says his 4 chord songs are most popular. Even over the 200 chord ones
Look at Tom Petty’s stuff....LEGENDARY, but not too complex...less is more
I’m currently working on my A-Level compositions, and I really appreciate your comment. It’s really easy to keep trying to fit in all the most complex chords voicings, drum fills and melodies, thinking it’s the only way to get good marks. My teacher told me how I should keep it simple and develop the compositions little by little. I’m trying to do that now, wish me luck!
The biggest realization i had in my life was the following "Being nervous is your ego being afraid of failure. Once you realize that music is about music, not abut yourself, you will be so concentrated in making everything go perfectly that there will be no time for your brain to be nervous"
I think many people get nervous precisely *because* they want everything to go perfectly
I'm not a professional. I started college many years ago as a music major and switch to Computer Science. Go figure. :-) But, one of the most important lessons I've ever learned was out of being in Chamber Singers. We has a bass who was very good. Anyone who knows about small group singing knows that a good bass is rare and highly valued. This guy was good. He missed rehearsal one day without telling the director, and no one knew where he was. Lots of us were friends and would take other classes together and hang out outside of classes. No one had heard from him. The director took time after our warm-ups to tell us that we would soon learn that professionalism is about 50% talent and 50% reliability. It didn't matter how good you were if you were unreliable. Directors, bosses, teammates whoever would much rather work with ADEQUATE and reliable than outstanding and flaky. She said that she knew that many of us were impressed by his abilities as a bass but if he missed one more class without excuse, which for us was essentially a rehearsal, she would drop him from the class. He missed one more class. After that warm-up, she told us he was out. And he was. He auditioned again the next quarter. She must have had a talk with him because he made it through that next quarter without flaking. Since then, I have had many opportunities to work with, or begin working with, brilliant but flaky people who end up eventually being replaced by adequate but reliable people who ultimately end up doing a better job. This is in all areas of life, not just music.
P.S. I often tell people who say that they would like to actually make money playing music that they should learn to play bass...and every style - country, blues, rock, etc. A reliable bass player that can play many styles will never be out of a job.
As a oldish bass player (54) no longer proffesional...my biggest revalation was realising the tone i was after was from my fingers and not some exspensive amp bass combo 👍
Idk, them Rickenbackers are something else
It’s ALWAYS in the hands
Mr.SmithGNR Smith yeah but can you get chorus, fuzz, wah, flanger etc with your fingers. changing your Finger Attack doesn’t magically make your tone transform from a P Bass to a Dingwall for example
True, though, a great amp and bass combo isn't a guarantee to make you sound great
a crappy amp and instrument can easily make you sound like ass :)
Especially true with bass.
“This is the series where I talk about myself.”
Hehe I dunno why but that made me laugh at how honest and blunt that is.
I love that bluntness and pragmatism he has. Besides, the only truth we really know is our own.
Aylbdr Madison here’s another perspective from Emerson on his essay titles Self-Reliance just for fun:
To believe our own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, -- that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,--and our first thought, is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
@@superking7135 ...
Here's a revelation I had . . . As I've gotten more into recording, I found out that everything needs to have it's own frequencies carved out to sit well in the mix. Once I realized this, I thought about it in terms of songwriting and arrangements. Keep in mind, this is more of a technique than a rule . . . more of "guidelines." I thought when writing and arranging parts, maybe look at where the different parts sit in the mix. So, if you write parts that naturally fall into different frequency ranges, then you're parts would naturally sit in the song mix better. Again, this is more of a tool and not a rule, but it has worked well for me and I don't have parts competing for dominance.
The year I spent learning recording engineering made me easily twice the musician I was before then.
Wait wait wait, how do you know when the frequency of a melody sits well with another? Do you have some literature about it?
@@olgierdvoneverec4135 Simplest way to explain it having the different parts in different octaves. There can be more to it, but that's a good place to start.
@@jasonwalsh8281 indeed a good start, but I think I will need to dive deeper, thank you good sir.
@@olgierdvoneverec4135 It's fascinating, for sure. Enjoy.
"Don't let my high energy persona fool you" he said, staring lifelessly into the camera
My favorite told to me by my band director in High School:
"It's not the mistake that hurts you, it's the recovery."
If you screw up, just get right back in as fast as you can. Like it didn't even happen in the first place. The quicker you recover, the less noticeable the mistake will be.
That's a great outlook, reminds me of the phrase "it's not a mistake, it's just free form jazz" lol
my biggest revelation I had is that good rhythm and timing is the key to sound good when you play with wrong notes or chords.
That is a great revelation, I agree. It's one of my biggest as well. One can be able to play the most amazing pieces of music. But if their rhythm sucks, then it all sucks regardless.
One thing I also learned was that you can never be too good to benefit from using a metronome. I always had good natural rhythm, no one ever complained about me being off time. So for my first years I didn't use a metronome. That was the biggest mistake I ever made as a musician.
I still don't use one all of the time, due to simple laziness, but each time I do use one, I get better at literally every facet of playing. Not just timing, but precision, speed and even harmonically. Using a metronome gives us a confidence of where things need to be because we are not machines, and even the greatest players make tiny mistakes, so we all have to put some of our attention on constantly making tiny adjustments. The more we use a metronome, the less of those adjustments we need to make, and that frees our minds and bodies for other things.
@@aylbdrmadison1051 ruclips.net/video/gi5Vp72zpCc/видео.html
An absence of metered tempo.
No concept of past and future, a mindful present. No fixed rhythm, but rather a timing like the streaming of a small creek. Flowing.
I mean, that's what they claim, not my original words.
I think your title card at 3:25 might be wrong, it's the same as 4:34
It's twice the same. Perhaps it's intended. Anyways, the content is different. There are musicians who made two different songs with the same title.
The first one should be “take a break from practicing”
As soon as I saw the duplicate I was stuck thinking about video editing for the next minute. Does samurai guitarist noodle on guitar whilst editing content?
That backwards guitar is golden
It triggered me.
Also, that golden guitar is backwards
That magic gold is guitar
correct
YUCK
It hurts me to look at it
It doesn't matter how good people tell you you are when you are self taught. You can always improve with a good teacher. That was a huge humbling moment for me.
In the last 3 years, I've realized that Eddie Van Halen is not magic. What I mean is that by reading some tablature, watching some lesson videos, etc, that he is definitely not as intimidating as I used to think. I play some of his riffs and solos and think "that's it?". What he uses is his personality and his bag of tricks. That is his alone and unable to duplicate.
Eric Johnson, to me though, is magic. Now him...ay yi yi...some of it is approachable. But I've been tackling the harder pieces. Talk about funky chord shapes.
One day you may find the same thing is true about Eric. Because it is the same phenomena you're talking about, and applies to any and every other musician as well. Words like _magic_ and _miracle_exist only to explain away things we do not yet understand. But then we don't _need_ to know everything either. Curiosity is a wonderful trait to have, but being tied to an outcome can be debilitating. Certainly comparing ourselves to where others are in their journey is unwise.
Jon, I would still argue that Eddie is magic. But, it is his bag of tricks and approach to guitar playing that is the magic. The magic isn't in whether or not someone else can play what he plays. The magic is in the innovation that he brought to the instrument. I think most associate Eddie with the tapping which he didn't invent, but did popularize. But, also Eddie's approach to how he played rhythm guitar, much like say Keith Richards, is also part of what makes him magic. Also, Eddie's approach to tone set him apart. So, can he be duplicated . . . relatively, but that's not where the magic is.
I used to feel this way about Metallica, pffft im just as good as them i thought, look i can play it note for note, but its not the same as capturing that magic, and thats what it is, you dont know why the notes sound good, they just do, finding them is the magical part and it is like magic when you think about it because its never really planned, comes out of nowhere and not easily repeatable. In the end you can say everything is discoverable and therefore not magic, except the fact that energy and matter exist in a scientific reality that says none can be created or destroyed so thasts magic, reality is magic.
I'm at a point where I feel like no matter how much I practice I'm never getting any better
It depends how good you are already, (you might be a master!), but often, the best way to move forward is to step backwards and re-establish the basics, make sure the foundations are solid. It's easy to gloss over that stuff while always looking ahead to the big prize.
When you think you cant practice more, you can
For me practice is a thing you don't notice your improvement, and it gets really demotivating. However you should seek the joy in it and challenge yourself to keep practicing, overtime you'll really see that you're a lot further than a year ago.
It may be the way you're practicing. I'd recommend the book _The Practice of Practice_ by Jonathan Harnum. It goes into great detail about how to focus your practice to continually improve. It made a huge impact on my practice routine.
@Funnylizard : Let go of getting better and just play. You will get better naturally then. Especially if you learn to enjoy practicing simply because you love playing that much. It's all about the journey. If you learn to enjoy the that, you realize the rest is all egotistical bullshit. Our egos hold us back, and I do mean *ours* not just yours.
Sounds like a no brainer but it took me a few years to realize how important structured practice is.
I work a very stressful job teaching SpEd and BD and the best part of my day is watching your videos to relax in the car for 20 minutes. Keep it up. You'll always be my favorite youtuber
One revelation I had was that technical skill is not just about playing fast. It's about mastery of all the little details; getting the best sound from your instrument, playing in time, being in control of your vibrato, playing as cleanly as you can, etc.
One of my big revelations is that it isnt all about being incredible, or the best one. Sometimes the best thing is being versatile. I always saw those flashy guitarrist doing incredible things and i always wanted to do that, but even though im not as good as a guitarrist as half youtube, i have played classic guitar, spanish guitar, pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, and i could play and sing at the same time. And even though i didnt excel at anything, if you paired that with the musical and harmonic knowledge that i had from music school, i just could play with anybody, i could adapt myself because i had all those thing really internalized. And most bands really apreciated that.
Awesome video! From B.C and currently living the Aussie van life myself with an acoustic that I practice with as much as possible. Lots of inspiration in the land down under!
This whole series is excellent! Really glad I found them. Thanks, Sammy.
When you take the music out and replace it with what you do or what you want to do, it is still pretty solid motivational video. And that is why I love this channel. You can find something for yourself even if you are not a musician or guitar player.
I am right there with you when it comes to heroes that aren't all that when it comes to technique and theory, but they more that make up for it when it comes to expressing emotion and soul... great show and keep up the good work.
I find myself coming back to this video quite often. Thank you.
I have 3 revelations that come to mind:
This is one I had for piano(that's applicable for other instruments as well):
1. *You can add a 9 to practically any major or minor chord and it will pretty much always sound good.* If you're unsure on whether you're supposed to play a major or a minor chord, add the 9 and remove the third, and you have a sus2 chord, which works in both major and minor. Ever since I discovered this, I've been adding 9's in probably 80% of normal major or minor chords.
And for a guitar revelation:
2. *When playing a chord, you don't have to place a finger on a string you're not going to play.* - Late November last year(2019), I discovered that I could suddenly play really nice chords by just leaving out two of the strings(A7sus2=Em/A=x0x000, C/E=xx2010 and Dm7=xx0211 are great examples that are also easy to barre). Suddenly, playing in F major wasn't so bad.
Another one for the guitar(that's applicable for other instruments as well):
3. *If you don't want to move your fingers too much, play bass notes with the tonic power chord on top(the 1 and 5 of the tonic).* When playing in G major, keep your pinky and your ring finger on the 3rd fret on the B and E string, and play bass notes with your middle finger or index finger. The same works for C major, but with your index finger on the 1st fret on the B string, and your pinky on the 3rd fret on the E string. In general, it's simply just playing the 1 and the 5 of the tonic over different bass notes.
2. So basically you played those chords CORRECTLY
@@mr.smithgnrsmith7808 Yep. Though "correct" is subjective. It's "correct" in chord theory, but honestly, the timbre of the guitar lets it get away with playing chords that would sound muddy if played by other instruments. So is it "wrong"?
(Yes, playing just the triad or 4-part sounds cleaner. I don't think barre chords should bad though.)
I get that I'm going more "free jazz" theory here, but if it sounds good I don't think it's necessarily wrong.
Edit: clarity
Sammy G,
I have a simlilar story regarding music school, however i was one of the weak that dropped out lol. Guitar is still the passion i hold closest to my heart though. I love what you said about your favorite artist being the best at being themselves. Its a consept i try to live by and i take confort from even if i never rise to the glory of my idles and/or pears. Love your content! Keep on truckin 🤘
You are such a humble soul. Bless you, brother!
Videos like this are among my favorites. I thrive on hearing these revelations and realizations because they often answer questions I want to ask but either don't have anyone to ask or don't know how to put it into words. Thanks so much!
"When it comes to music, there is no magic"
*Laughs in D&D Bard*
I didn't realise I was looking for this comment
"Natural talent only goes so far". Words of wisdom, sir.
Reinvigorated. Nice.
Keep on rocking
5:34-5:44 solid advice and worthy of jotting down to look back on later. Great vid!
I've heard bill frisell say almost the same, he had a vision of the music he wanted to do, then heard pat metheney doing exactly that, way better(he thought) then he could ever do, but...
Glad he didnt give up
Your last point is particularly true in my case. By all measurable metrics I am a modestly skilled player and singer, at best. That, however, has not prevented me from making a living playing music for most of my life.
I try to be personable and I engage with my audience. I play the songs that they want to hear, not necessarily the ones I'd rather do. I'll usually play longer than the minimum required (unless there's specific schedule to which I must adhere). I bring the gear needed to sound good... If that means carrying and setting up / tearing down more than others, so be it. I also put a lot of effort into doing a good mix, whether I'm playing alone or in a duo or in a bigger band. My musical skill level alone would not likely have been enough to have had this little career of mine.
Best to you in your career, Sammy G.
My a-ha moment revolves around how expensive gear is and that I am cursed when it comes to recording. I had a 200 dollar squire that sounded exatly like my 600 dollar fender, I now have an amp that cost 80 dollars that sounds just as good as my 1,000 amplifier that I lost, and when it comes to recording, my phone and a zoom handycorder 2 were the best so far other than a stand alone multitrack recorder i had at one point. So some lesser expensive stuff can do great things as well. I read in Thomas Moore's book Meditations about his experience with making extraordinary things out of less than ordinary means and it inspired me to use most of what I already have and not worry so much about gear. I'd like to see you do a minimalist episode. The cheapest gear you have available to you and see if you can make something decent from it.
Thank you for the amazing video. I often stop playing because I think I'll never be able to play anything interesting... Your videos give me the strength to keep exploring the universe of sound!
Hey man, I’m a country guitarist in Nashville and I love you videos! A lot of times when you give advice, it’s most likely something I already know (but I always enjoy it). This video however had a bunch of thoughts that I’ve had floating around in my head for years and you were able to explain them better than I ever could! If you’re ever in Nashville, beers on me man!
The trombone is a large metal slide-flute!
You are right, I notice that more than sounding like someone, or be as fast as someone, for me the most important thing was that when someone hear me playing, they knew it was me....
It's like Carlos Santana, far from being the best in the world, but, when you hear a song... You know its him....
Same with SRV, BB King, and many others...
So that's the direction I took in my playing...
...but actually SRV was the best in the world at doing his stuff. And BB King was epic too!
@@hanreality.7266 In my opinion, you can't tell that somebody is the best like that, it's about what you like and how you appreciate the music... But he definitely was amazing... The version of little wing... Uffff it's a masterpiece
This was a very inspirational video but I would really love to see one where you explain the most technical a-ha moments you've had. Like not mentality-wise, pure playing, theory-wise.
Good video Sammy G. Many guitar players think it's a talent show when truly it's really just about the songs. Keep up the good work.
There is no magic just practice
I wrote while I wasn't practicing 🙃
This is of course a great philosophy to have, a pianist called Derek Paravicini is the only exception I know of
You should be practicing 40 hours every day, so go practice.
Get back to practicing. 40 hours, every day.
@@gotherella3963 so you were practicing and writing this comment?😂
But you're right I should
@Andrew Buchan oooh I'am sorry i didnt know you were then go on sensei teach the world and play flight of the bubble bee at 4000 bpm😂😂🙏
John Scofield has been one of my favorites too since the 80's. I'm always surprised he's not more famous, especially in jazz circles.
You never stop learning new things on guitar. There are always new genres & styles to gain tips and tricks from. You'd be surprised at studying and observing guitar players from other styles of music. Don't be afraid to recon another style of music. There are some highly skilled guitar players throughout the musical landscape. Take a moment to appreciate the talent in other instruments as well. You never know when or where you might pick up a tip or get an idea you can use in your playing.
I've had a lot of A HA moments lately studying theory that help put the pieces together.
While my musical vocabulary is still limited it is expanding all the time, and I feel more confident navigating the fretboard.
My revelation: practicing is an art in itself. You have to figure out what’s working for you and what isn’t.
Agree. I can never tell if something I do is useful or not. Sometimes it is, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do anything. But I cannot tell when.
the point about the Stevie Ray Vaughan lick seems to true to me. For a long time I didn't improve just because I didn't even try things that I thought were beyond what I was able to do. And then I realized that a lot of "impossible" things can be played much slower and are a good way to challenge yourself and improve your skills, much more than playing just the simple stuff.
Excellent video and information. These points can be applied to many areas of endeavor. Thanks.
Hey Sammy G. This is the exact video I needed to see at this moment in my life. I'm in first year university as a music major, and I've been really hard on myself lately, in terms of my ability. This video was really helpful for me. Especially the stuff about skill not equaling success, and being the best in the world about being yourself. Thanks for the advice and insight. Much appreciated.
I'm a bass player. My biggest revelation was actually similar to yours. When I started I was really into Flea(yeah, big woop. bass player idolizing flea). I wanted to be flea. At some point I realised I was never going to be him for 2 reasons. One I don't wanna be a pro and I don't study as much as someone aspiring to be one and two.. I'm tall(Checkmate Flea). So I took the sound I liked and adjusted it to fit into my own. And as I improved I did the same with many different musicians and ended up with my own sound, one I actually really enjoy.
Why did every one of us bassists want to be Flea at one point or another.
Omg slapp like!
@@yeetmeintotheabyss2893, I didn't. I always heard something repulsive in his playing, and someday, when my ear training started to really help me, I found out that he's unable to tune his bass. Yes. Anybody who doesn't believe me can check out his “video lessons” where he brags about how difficult it is to be a pro, and then shits out of tune octaves right into your ears.
@@alexeypolevoybass Ha, I never really noticed. I've mostly heard his slap lines so it was never really noticeable to me. It seems like it stems a lot from his strings tho.
@@tonym2513 big PP
"They were the best in the world at being themselves." I need to hang this up somewhere.
My biggest is the importance of scales, once i got the hang of intervals and how to build chords, i figured out i could apply this to other insturments like piano.
that was a huge "A-HA!" moment for me.
These are truly great and valuable tips! Thank you!
For me, it’s learning the difference between practice and playing. Guitar is not my first instrument but in school, I always felt that practicing and playing were one in the same. As a result, I was a decent musician, but I didn’t improve that much during this time. It wasn’t until I came back to guitar playing a few months ago that I realized that in order to improve, I needed to practice skills. Not just play.
I learned that just because your instrument is "supposed" to be played in a certain way doesn't mean one has to play it that way. For the longest time, I was a bass player who couldn't find a guitarist to jam with, so I learned how to play the bass and a rhythm sound at the same time. Not everybody likes the sound, but my current guitarist likes it as he can focus on doing lead work.
Thanks for producing valuable content like this!
You are right, playing guitar and getting better comes from inside of you while labels like "best" are put on guitar players by an outside perspective.
You will quit if you overrank yourself against others and worry about how you will compare to other players, but you will keep going if you just focus on your love for guitar and your learning process.
This is true, guitar more of a lifestyle then a race to the end.
It doesn't have to be hard for you to play, to be valuable and very enjoyable to a listener.
Sammy, that last part is so true. In Hawaii, we had a bar that all the locals would gather to listen to live music. While the sober among us could tell whether a band was really good or not, the drunks among us (which were usually tourists who’d wandered in) couldn’t tell the difference. Now I’m by no means saying that the bands that performed there were downright terrible since in order to play there, you had to prove yourself in the club scene first. But most times while a guitarist would be running scales on his equipment prior to opening, there’d always be that ONE GUY screaming loudly for an encore, which coming from a place that will give a standing ovation for any band or orchestra doing scales, isn’t all that odd.
You say you don't have to be the best to be great. I would amend that to say that you don't have to be the best for an audience to enjoy what you are playing. As musicians, we like to get technical (myself included), but I realized quite some time ago that being a solid player is typically just as good as being a great player as far as most audience members are concerned. If you play in time and on key and what you're playing is enjoyable, you're audience won't care how technical it is. I'm far from the most technical player (I'm no slouch either), but I feel like I'm a very nuanced player. A perfect example of what I'm getting at is ACDC. Very little of what they do is difficult to play, but it arguably has a very strong appeal.
the most critical piec of knowledge I learned which applies to music as well as an studying - All complex ideas can be broken down into simple ideas strung together. so learn each simple part one at a time and then one day - Complexity. slaps forehead!
Playing guitar is like magic tricks , when you figure out that the secrets are easy , it's the practice and delivery that's so hard .
This video really made me feel more confident in my own abilities
I totally relate to wanting to be the next (whoever), there comes a time where you have to be satisfied with who you are and what you bring to the table. The hardest thing for me was accepting that the music I write freely and naturally is not what I listen too. Great post!
Love this! So true ! It took me many years to realize that the greatest music isn't about speed or shredding... the greatest most impactful music contains catchy melodies that people can hum or whistle.
I absolutely love your sense of humor.
What you said about being exciting for your videos was so monotone and chill I couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm or not lmao
These nuggets are really true for any field. Language learning, writing, picture taking
Big one is that 'networking' isn't an active occupation you do yourself; it is formed by the people who know you and recommend you. Just be nice and openminded to everyone so they'll like you.
Thank you for mentioning that it's good to step away from the guitar sometimes to get a fresh perspective.
That's what I used to do until I heard Buckethead and Shawn Lane.
Now I can't stop practicing even if I'm dead.🤠
My revelation struck when I realized how bad I was at guitar and how unwilling I was to practice to get better 🤣😂😂🤣
Jamarcus Russell, truth!
A lot to digest there Sammi G... as a 55 year old who started picking the guitar when he was 9 or so but waited until he was about 48 to really take it seriously, I can relate somewhat with you, only I did it longer lol. for those 39 years I would have a guitar here and there and pick it but I never learned anything on or about the instrument and that has really caused me a lot of issues now. I learned some very very bad habits that I just cannot seem to get over. I never understood chords and scales and all that jazz I just picked what I thought sounded right, my idea of a chord was basically playing the power chord shape on everything lol. I didn't even know what note the strings were until I was about 49 lol. I stumbled into this You Tube world of guitarists online, yeah when I first did that I actually had to "wonder" if anyone had the idea of teaching guitar online! Lol. I have learned that a lot of the songs I would hear all those years that were just too technical for me, are actually not that difficult to play. One song I always wanted to play was the old KISS song, Mr. Speed. Something about that main lick they play in the beginning and repeat during the chorus really stuck out to me. I tried and tried to figure it out but with my power chord only hand shape I couldn't. Fast forward to about 2013 and the first online guitar lesson I looked up was one for that song, within a week I had it down and then wondered why I always thought it was so "technically difficult" lol. It's a great song and a catchy riff, but it's not real hard to play, you should check it, KISS - Mr. Speed, it's a bluesy type of riff I think you would actually like. My step dad is why I fell in love with the guitar and I did learn a few things from watching him, but I figured out about a year into my journey of learning the guitar for real that he too just played by ear and not necessarily correct all the time lol, boy he messed me up with Proud Mary! LOL.
No one:
Guitarists when they are explaining how they learned a certain guitar technique: “it just clicked”
That's actually how a lot of thing work in life. Something just clicks you kno
Cmon Man yeah I’m a bassist so I’m aware of that tho I was just making a joke
I enjoyed your discussion. I am finding that if I'm not enjoying what I am practicing it doesn't really do much good. I got some advice from a really great teacher that was, "you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run" (Michael "Hawkeye" Herman). I agree, to a point. The point being that if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing I don't progress. I understand that you don't want to incorporate bad habits into your playing, but if I'm not challenging myself then I'm not really enjoying it. I kind of bite off more than I can chew and work out the details later. Maybe not the best approach for most, but it works for me. I'm having fun with it and if I end up being really good that's just the icing on the cake. In the mean time, I'll be darned if I let my playing/practicing turn into tedium. Thanks!
One of the most amazing revelations that I had was that he had a high energy persona on RUclips.
dude I just got your course. you're super chill
0:48 "There is no magic"
*pulls out a guitar that clearly is working by magic*
a lot of things factor into what makes a song good! for example, a song can have repetitive, very shallow lyrics but still be "good" if it has a stellar melody that shows off the singer's amazing range and is produced really well, but a song can also be good even if the the singer isn't good (from a technical standpoint) but their voice fits in with the aesthetic of the instrumentation and the lyrics tell a good story
I just love you. You inspire me!
Mine was learning the bass riff from 46&2 by tool. It taught me about the 7th fret octave and droning an open string. When it clicked I couldn't stop. Nearly everything I play still has a pedaled open string in there.
I'm excited every time I see a Samurai Guitarist notification 😍
Love when you share stuff like this Sammy G.
I want people to hear the original songs that myself and the bands I've been in write, but nothing gets a crowd going like a cover they know. And you know what, lately I've become perfectly okay with that. Now I enjoy doing covers. Because at the end of the day, a live show is about the band and audience connecting, about sharing an emotional experience with everyone in the room. Sometimes that means you have to give the people what they want. And it used to bother me, but now, all that matters to me is everyone having a good time, no matter who wrote the song.
Really great tips, thanks for sharing.
I appreciate these insights. Thanks for sharing! I've recognised myself in some of them. :)
For me the biggest revelation was realising music in general doesn’t have to be overly complicated to be good; for instance, I’m a guitarist, I love to play and have fun but for awhile I was trying to be complicated. I would get a simple chord like C per say and try to jazz it up and add layers of complication around it while playing. I eventually realised no one cares about how you play, they care about how you sound. So play what sounds good, no one will care how easy it is to play.
2 years after I sat glazed over as my teacher tried to explain circle of fifths, I just figured out, by playing around on a piano, that relative minor is really helpful. My soloing and fretboard knowledge has grown a lot since learning that!
I felt exactly like you did with that SRV lick with the fade to black verse guitar.
Just want to say thank you, when I was 18 I played guitar then put it down after a couple of years now at 58 I picked it up again but now I understand guitar. Because of Paul David, Marty Schwartz and you. My enjoyment and love for guitar has been rekindled. Sorry I can't support you all financially but I truly wish you the best in your life thankd
BASS!
Thank you SAMMY G! WE ARE SO LUCKY!!
Great advice for any creative field.