In working with so many thousands of students over the last 30+ years, there are a few common things that beginners do out of necessity...
But there also comes a point
Anyone, playing any style of music, needs to either improve or maintain their technique...
I don't think it matters how long you've been playing, you can always use a refresher.
I stole
Playing Faster Has NOTHING To Do With Your Finger Speed!
Now, you can probably guess what makes the most difference (if you know me, you know where I'm going here.)
But let
I get this all the time... "I want to improve my blues soloing..."
Yeah, I get that, but exactly *how* do you intend to do that?
And, what is "improved" going to
Most folks, when practicing scales, start playing on beat 1 and play through the scale...
And while that makes sense academically, it often doesn't make sense musically :(
There are 2 reasons:
A lot of people might call these the "intervals" of the blues scale, but these aren't intervals to me because they don't involve a distance between 2 notes...
Instead, I think
Albert King always used his fingers to pluck the strings...
Stevie Ray Vaughan pretty much always used a pick...
Robben Ford uses sort of a "claw" with both the pick and his
Too many people think that using the metronome is the first thing you should reach for when you practice...
And NOTHING could be further from the truth.
Sure, there are a LOT
Over the last few years I've found a few things that most every blues player can do to up their game just a bit.
None of these require using something new,
It's hard to describe exactly what this video is, but it came from someone asking me if I make all these different changes without thinking about it... and the answer