What's the single best piece of advice you've received as a player?

Actually, the most important advice came from my piano-teacher;
said "Try not to think in scales. Find a colour for the key you're in and think and play in that colour.".

When I got home from my piano-lessons that day, first thing I did was plug in my guitar and try to find colours for each song on a B.B.King record. Helped me a damn LOT to become more versatile in pentatonic and diatonic improvisation.

Dear Doug Strummer: okay, I tried to be jealous and think you were being a snob, but I realized you were one of the chosen few and were just shining your light. WOW! And thanks. (berklee don't take just anyone, ya know!)

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Have a good time, otherwise, why bother?

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Mickey, dear heart;

I have seldom found anything worthwhile that didn't come out of "struggle" of some sort, ya know? Then I was able to turn this knowlege into a "good time".

If I'd been only a hedonistic good time seeker, I doubt I could have acquired my measly little things. Know what I'm trying to say, amigo?

We "perform" & can relax and be inspired by the good time at hand, but often achievement, epiphanies, etc. arrive during "scary, strugling, tough" moments.

Whatcha Think Questionmark

Yep! Annie, I agree. What you say is true.
I guess what I'm saying is...After all the work, struggle, practice, tension, etc. you've put into your music, you should just get up there and let it flow out. When you do, you'll have fun. When you have fun, there's less tension, the less tension, the better relaxation, the better the relaxation, the better the performance. the better the performance the more better the fun for the audience.
Therefore, have fun! otherwise why bother with all the grind that happens before hand?

See? I work hard with myself and the music by myself, then i do the same with the band. I do this so I don't have to do anything but let it flow during a performance. The product of all the work is the fun. If you're not going to have fun, why bother with the work?
Maybe "fun" is the wrong word.... maybe something else would be better.
But remember, this was advice I had received, not created.
The guy that gave me this advice is now 62 and still playing in a good time band.
Herb Gross of the band The Invictas.

Annie,

You're crackin' me up...read my post again - it says Berklee College of Music "Summer Workshop". They'll take anybody who's got $2000 burnin' a hole in their pocket at the time :lol

It truly was "money well spent", though, and I'm a much different player for it.....but it certainly didn't involve any selection process...thanks for startin' off my week with a helluva laugh!!

Doug

http://www.berklee.edu/summer/guitar.html

:band

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Originally Posted by Offshore Angler

"If you find big underpants thrown on the stage, don't go try to find the owner."

Seriously, the best advice was "listen"

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Took the words right outta my mouth OA!! I watched player on Sat play his whole solo in the wrong key, and he thought he was smokin! It was obvious he couldn`t hear anything other than himself. But thats ok, as it was his band.:wow

CT.

"Get off the stage."

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Originally Posted by CocoTone

I watched player on Sat play his whole solo in the wrong key, and he thought he was smokin! It was obvious he couldn`t hear anything other than himself. But thats ok, as it was his band.:wow

CT.

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Now that's improvising!:hee

Sounds like he was just doing a Charles Ives. Heck, that's not just jazz, it's groundbreaking!

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Originally Posted by CocoTone

I watched player on Sat play his whole solo in the wrong key, and he thought he was smokin! It was obvious he couldn`t hear anything other than himself.

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I still remember seeing a guy named Tony at an open jam play halfway through a solo before my friend Billy grabbed his left hand and slid it from the fourth to the fifth fret.

EVH: "It's called music theory, not music fact."

This is pulled from an interview with HR, but it's something I heard from him more than a couple of times:

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"PRAXIS: to learn by doing-- take action. Go sit down with a band and play. You hear a song--play it. There are two classic theories of learning. Study the theory, and then get the music out of it. In Praxis it's the other way around. You go to the music first, start doing it, then extrapolate the theory after you are doing it.

Another thought. Guitar players tend to live in this sea of how to play like this guy and like that guy I and they never get to address the subject of the music that's within them. Music is internal. We need to learn how to get it out. It turns out that just about everybody on the planet walks around with music running through their heads all day long. I've come up with the theory that the music is within. We don't bring it in; it's already there. We have to figure out how to get it out."

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If you're gonna play with a slide, dont get it stuck on one of your fingers.

The suit don't make the man. :yay

This is so simple, yet so true:

"Play the right notes...

at the right time."

Bill Powell

Investigate one piece of advice at a time. Otherwise information overload occurs and no real progress is made.

Develop your own style. There's a million people out there who have figured out how to sound like somebody else. Be original.

The best advice was from my wife; "Don't dance......."

tbb: where'd you get that "Happy Feet" avatar? It's GRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!!

Doug:

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"thanks for startin' off my week with a helluva laugh!!"

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Yer Welkum

I've gotten so much good advice: I'm just now regretting not taking much of it. :D

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Originally Posted by itbepopples

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. -Dr. Seuss

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good ol' Dr. Seuss what a genious

What's the single best piece of advice you've received as a player?
Don't sign anything if it sounds too good to be true.

"You play really fast,and cram alot of notes in,but maybe consider slowing down some,and go for the feel."

That probably isn't word for word, but close.......a guitarist in my area said this to me when I was about 14 or 15 years old.I tried to play everything really fast ALL the time,and this guy was about 22 years old and a smoker on guitar---he scared me.He had style,and was the first person I ever saw play a tele up close---this was 1971-72,so it was probably an old one.Looking back,I remember he played with such fire and feel,although I didn't have much idea what that was back then.He really said this to me to be helpful,and the respect I had for him (even though I really didn't know him that well) made it mean something.
I remember reading what Gravity Jim said about Jim Hall..."Make Musical Sense." It is a needed thing among guitarists!

"The Jam Zone, the best kept secret on the net".

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Originally Posted by thebluesbarn

The best advice was from my wife; "Don't dance......."

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My wife told me "Smile once in a while...you look like your getting shot at..."

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Originally Posted by photoweborama

"The Jam Zone, the best kept secret on the net".

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Word.

Tune that thing!

and

Turn that thing down


are tied for first in the Single Best Piece of Advice I've Heard Most Often category.

"Why don't you try just playing these five notes"

followed closely by:

"..., and bending just these ones"

-Mark

If I remember correctly, it was something along the lines of "don't just read the notes off a page. Make something. Really listen."

Harry was not the best teacher - but what he had to teach, was otherworldly marvellous.

"Play with less gain and delay and you'll learn to play clearer. You'll play better and once in awhile you can step on those and it will have greater effect"

I pass this on whevever I can and really stopped using effects for a crutch and just use them for ... effect. ;) Been primarily a guitar > amp guy since and my playing and sense of dynamics have improved dramatically. Back then I never envisioned that you could do so much with just the guitar, the volume knob and an overdriven amp.

I used to think the best advice I ever heard was, "you never play as well or as badly as you think," but I'm seriously considering the Miles quote from above:

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To start a solo, you think of a note. Then don't play that note.

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Half-tones lead.

"Wet birds don't fly at night"

dont get frustrated, dont try to be an imitator, u picked up that guitar to be an individual, so try to write like an individual..

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Originally Posted by Dan_S

I used to think the best advice I ever heard was, "you never play as well or as badly as you think," but I'm seriously considering the Miles quote from above:

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Or what Miles Davis once told John McLaughlin, "Play like you don't know how to play the guitar"

Definitely. What a great way to rethink the whole solo problem, without laying back on our familiar crutches.

That excellent Miles quote is a fine expression of the Zen concept of "shoshin," which loosely translates as "beginner's mind." Suzuki-roshi of SF Zen Center made this one of the central precepts of his teaching, giving it even more emphasis than satori. The idea is that expertise is good, but not if you let it get in the way of spontaneity. So, no matter how good you get at something, you should always approach the endeavor as if you have never done it before... picking up a guitar, for example, not with the idea, "I know all about working this thing," but with the idea, "Gee... I wonder what this thing can do?"

Ah yes... the Crooked Cucumber. :yay

I refer to Beginner's Mind a lot in my day-to-day goin's-on, but I always have a hard time bringing that mindset to live perfomance. There just seems to be so MUCH going on all the time that it's hard to think about "just being." Actually, this can be pretty hard when you're not on stage too! :)

It's like the story/joke of the great musician with a drinking problem. One time someone asked him how he manages to play so well being so drunk. His reply was that he practices drunk.

Perhaps I need to practice zen when I practice.

It sure is a mindset thing. I used to stress over tone too much at gigs, to the point of not having fun. If everything wasn`t right, i`d flip out.You have no control over the room, and so I`ve eventually forced myself to set up, just plug in, and start playing, and find a way to make the play around the tonal roadblock. I can now go out, and have fun with whatever I took with me.
The old school guys did this as they didn`t have the choice in gear that we have, and they made out ok.

CT.:ahem

The little book "Zen Guitar" had one idea along these lines that really stuck with me. He says something like, "When you pick up your instrument, take a moment to remember your purpose, and to prepare to make music."

That idea - that shouldering one's instrument is a preparation for making music - sounds bonehead simple. But 99 times out of a hundred, we don't think anything close to "I'm getting ready to make music." We more likely think of something like:

• I'm gonna blow these guys away
• Gosh, I hope I don't suck
• Is she looking?
• Tonight, I'm gonna "nail" the solo on Cold Shot.
• I'll show him who's the more masterful player
• My mighty rockin' will demonstrate how strong and manly I am
• I am hoping to sound just like my hero/her hero/the record
• blah blah blah

Dan S, you just said it... playing in a live band, there is so much going on, you don't HAVE to think and play to fill every moment... there's plenty going on while you settle into your Zen mindset. Heck, with that kind of approach, soloing with a band is like Neo warding off Agent Smith in the climactic scene in The Matrix. You can kind of just watch your own hands, which appear to be moving slowly, while this whirlwind of activity happens all around you. ;)

Wow, GravityJim. Zen & The Art of Music. *smooch*

It is frustrating and enfuriating to play with a geetar player who is a "monster" of licks, chops, tones/sounds, frills, fills, and phrasing and they just piss all over every tune. Makes me want to shove 'em off the stage with my boot-heel on their behind.

There's a huge difference between a "monster" and a "master".

Hear what you want to play in your head first, and then play it. Play as if you were singing.

(I can't do this yet, but I think I can see it starting to happen.)