I had an LP Standard for 10 years and the jack plate liked to loosen up after plugging and unplugging several times. It would cause a very nasty buzz because the input jack would wiggle once you had plugged in. It's easy to miss and easy to tighten up. I'd check that before plunging into the electronics. You might get lucky.
I really hope you find time in your day to have some fun and don't forget to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself your body and mind will break down, you'll get sick if you're depressed it will worsen. I admire your dedication, just don't end up like of those crazy gamer kids that stay up for like 50 hours and forget to eat and go the toilet lol.
I was told by a guitar tech when I was having my Strat serviced that you shouldn't leave strings off your guitar for extended periods. He said once a guitar is said it needs the resistance or pull of the strings and the neck can warp without it. Now... that's what I was told but I never had a knowledgeable source to verify that with. It may be worth checking out.
I was looking into your situation and I found the below info and similar info on other sites. If there are people in the know in PB land could you verify this information is correct?
"Strings put appox 120lbs of pull on the neck. The truss is the counterbalance to that pull. If no strings are present, the neck can backbow depending on the neck thickness. (Thin necks rely on the truss more than a thicker neck)
When you say have you strings off for awhile, if its a few days, its unlikely any perminant damage will occur. If you're talking months or years, the truss should be loosened to avoid backbow. unless its a piece of junk you dont care about, you always want to avoid extreme changes in truss pressure like that. Once moisture sets into the wood, just putting strings may not allow for enough forward bow to occur and heat may be nessasary.
I do alot of guitar restorations. Getting instruments left in a closet half strung is a pretty common thing. On an acoustic, Loostening the strings about 1/2 way helps prevent the top from collapsing over time yet still leaves some cpounterbalance to the truss. On an electric is always neck issues. It can do anything from make the neck twist to causing frets to pop out. Frets are held in place by the forward relief of a neck. Having reverse bow the frets are free to pop out. Storage with say only the heavy strings on (which is really common because beople break the thin strings) can cause the neck to twist. Neck twist is the absolute worst of all evils and is often a lost cause to correct. Best you can do is remove all frets and level the fretboard, but thats only good if the problem is mild.
So my best advice is, dont remove the strings unless you're changing them and replace strings one at a time if you want to maintain your setup. If you're going to store it for long periods without strings, loosen the truss."
Hey Frakh, when you say 2 years for any technique... does that apply to all techniques basic and advanced or were you meaning towards techniques that are new to you? Just curious. I've been working on my sucktastic legato for a month or so now, so it's always nice to know time frames for improvement. I realize it's off the main topic and apologize if it's a distraction.
I totally get what you're talking about. I've been playing for over 20 years, I'm just a hobbyist and always have been. When I first started playing I was really into it and really wanted to get good and be in bands and the whole thing. As time went by I realized I wanted to keep playing because it relaxes me, it's fun and I have a genuine love for the instrument. But... at my core I'm not a musician. I'm a guy who plays guitar for fun. For the last six months or so I've put more effort in and been more serious about technique and its paid off. I'm at the highest playing level I've ever been at. But again... I'm still not a musician and I'm okay with that. The guitar is there for me to hang out with and have fun with. I have no personal interest in being a song writer or virtuoso. I just want to keep getting better and play the music I enjoy listening to.
I think each person needs to figure out how important it is to them and exactly how far they want to go in any given art form or interest. Potential is a word that gets thrown around a lot. I think motivation and perseverance are more important words. People that are born with physical or mental advantages have the "potential" to master different interests and crafts faster and arguably to a higher degree but that doesn't mean they will. If one has the motivation, desire and perseveres through rough periods they are only limited by self induced limitations. If it's what you really want just nut up and get through it.
It's very cool that you were able to get that motivation and achieve that kind of focus at such a young age. I'll be 40 in a few days and I still struggle with focus. I know some of it is might be because I was apart of the first generation to grow up on video games, but I don't wanna cop out like that. I've always had a hard time staying focused over long periods. It takes a very disciplined and motivated person to do what you and your students are doing and especially for so long. For me and I'm guessing many others out there. This whole thing is about consistently winning the mental battle. Since I started following your videos and practice guides my technique has improved immensely. I'm easily at the highest level I've ever been at and can play things I've never been able to play before. The difficulty I'm still having though is to have the mental toughness to make myself learn theory properly and to learn complete songs. Those two things always seem to beat me. So that's where I'm going to push my focus towards now. I read this forum everyday for motivation and to soak up a little bit of all the big brains that are running around in here. You and your students have a great understanding of musical knowledge and incredible generosity to share it and help people with their problems.
Hey guys I have the latest version of Ableton live that I'm slowly learning. I'm a visual artist so audio software is all new to me. I want to record my practices and have some jam tracks to play along with. Do you recommend I learn to make my own jam tracks or start off with some prerecorded stuff? And if I use prerecorded do you guys have any recommendations of where to look? Thanks in advance for any info.
People buy that kind of stuff because they're looking for the secret shortcut. Anybody that's been playing guitar for a reasonable amount of time knows there are no shortcuts. Efficient ways doing things and practicing yes but as you stress it takes years of repetition. Magic secrets to overnight success will always outsell hard work, but rarely produces any kind of success. Even when people do succeed using that kind of nonsense it's likely as a result of their own work ethic rather than the system. You're honest and that's a good thing. Your students respect you and acknowledge you whereas money making gurus make their money and are ridiculed later down the line. I'll take the respect of the money every time. Too bad it's so hard to get both.
I tend to agree about not moving away from one thing until you feel you have a high enough level of mastery to move to another challenge. I'm working with just very basic stuff and getting a lot out of it. Just making the metronome disappear alone takes quite a bit of practice. Since discovering Pebber's material my main goal has been not to just play the exercises, but to pay attention to all of the aspects of technique while playing them. It's very challenging if you're being honest about your own playing and skill level. I currently only have about 1 or so hours to dedicate to focused practice. So I just concentrate on the basics, CAGED, trills and properly playing the four finger permutations. I couldn't actually see having enough time to practice all the different modules in a single day. I remember Pebber mentioning in his videos that each area should be focused on for months (might have been 10 weeks?), before moving on to a next phase. He does also specifically mention chopping up your practice time into 5 or however many minute sections depending on how much time you have, to cover all the areas you need to cover.
That's a very cool video. Watching your fingers when you're using classical form, at times I could barely see them move. So even if someone isn't interested in playing fast there is the obvious benefit of less movement equals less stress on your hands overall. Logically it seems like you're less likely to poorly fret a note or hit a wrong note altogether as well. Very eye opening.
Every time I read a post of these forums I'm made painfully more aware of how little I know in comparison to so many. It really is impressive the amount knowledge and the obvious level of comprehension you folks possess.
Hey thanks for the response. You've been playing for a lot less time than I have, but I have no doubt that your knowledge and skills are beyond me. I've largely been a hobbyist and the stuff I've played has been along the lines of Albert, B.B. and Freddie King, SRV, Lonnie Mack, etc... When I first started I tried to play stuff like Metallica and a lot of 80's rock, but only riffing never the lead stuff. So as you can imagine I've never really had much call for legato, so I didn't put much effort or interest into developing the necessary technique. Now I'm interested in getting into stuff like Brian Setzer and some other Rockabillly players as well as some funk but I want to have more ability and better technique than where I'm at. I know a lot of guys mention Buckethead and a lot of other fast and technical players and while I respect it and even listen to a few of the technical players, most of it just isn't to my musical taste. I appreciate the material you've posted though and I'll give it a try although I don't think I'm ready for it. Right now I'm doing a lot of trills trying to strengthen my fingers and trying to fix my technique, since I've been playing the motion incorrectly. So my accuracy, clarity and speed are quite bad. I just want to be able to play clean and have functional speed, fast enough to change positions and stay fluid. Thanks again for your response and posting the practice material. I appreciate it and I'll give it a try.
I took the day off of work today because I needed some R&R and got in some good guitar practice. I was watching some videos and reading some material as well and made a major discovery. I'm a dumb ass. For over 20 years I've been using the wrong motion to do pull offs and as you can imagine my pull offs are terrible. I've been doing a weird pull that tends to go up and off the string and the result is a very weak sound and inefficient motion. When I first started playing I don't think I ever was taught or took the time to learn how to pull off properly. I think I just imitated what I saw which is how I learned vibrato which worked out, but I think vibrato is an easier skill. So I learned the actual proper motion today and had this kind of enlightened moment and also thought, oh wow that's a lot easier than my shitty technique lol. So I thought I'd share. Don't be dumb like me. If something sounds bad and ineffective, it's wrong and you should make it a priority to find out how to make it right.
I'm a rock/blues player and I've started doing the classical left hand for a week or so now. It does feel awkward because I've been doing a different way for 20+ years, but I can tell just by looking at my fingers when I play it's a more efficient and possibly more natural way of playing. My ring and pinky finger are already staying closer to the fret board than before just because of the positioning of the hand alone. Also my fingers are travelling a lot less distance so my hammers and pulls are better, which for me is huge because I don't think my legato can get any worse lol. Where the awkwardness and difficulty comes in is when trying to bend strings. But I figure there will just be a long transition and after enough repetition eventually it will just work. I've been focusing on timing, basic left hand technique and doing trills for strengthening my hands and I've seen big improvement in rhythm, dexterity, finger independence and musicality in just a week or so of focused practice. So I can absolutely support that it works and you improve faster trying to do things properly.
I think that rock and especially blues players tend to have a fear or aversion to classical technique and discipline in general. There's a lot of folklore attached to modern music and people accept those things as a part of the music and assimilate it into their style and even personality. I.E. Robert Johnson, Albert King, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Page, "insert guitar hero here" did it this way and they never new proper technique so that's how I'm going to do it otherwise I won't be a real blues man or rock player. It's like people want to pay their dues the same way their hero did regardless of whether it makes any sense. I get that and if that's what people are into and enjoy that's cool but that doesn't have to mean that they fear or criticize alternate or in this case the original and correct way of learning and playing. That's my 2 cents.
Although I'm only a hobbyist guitar player I've had my share of hand and finger pain also. I'm a graphic designer for a living and sometimes spend a stupid amount of time on a keyboard and mouse and the same type of resulting injuries occur. Because of the time I spend at the keyboard I can only really play guitar for about an hour before I start to feel pain and need to have a break or even be done for the day. Repetition is a bitch. Pebber obviously has a lot of experience with this and I'll be looking into his advice for dealing with it also. I've known people with hand and finger injuries that have gotten so bad they can't even squeeze a toothpaste tube without intense pain. I feel for anyone dealing with it because it blows goats! I hope your hands get better soon.
So then the timing would be the top priority and do not pass go and collect $200 until it's conquered. Makes sense, because if that's wrong everything else will be wrong as well. Thanks
My timing is still off, but it's much closer than before. I get what you're saying about the concentration too. When I do exercises 9 times out of ten 10 I'll pick a wrong note or lose a beat, simply because my mind wanders. I've played a lot of video games over the years and I think it makes your mind a little gooey. It makes you think you need to be doing 5 different things at the same time ALL the time. So making the metronome disappear is when your playing a note at the exact same time the metronome is and you only hear the note? I think I remember somebody mentioning that years ago as well. I'll make that a goal then. I'm definitely not there yet. I follow the beat instead of being on it.
Cool. Thanks for the response. I've already watched quite a bit of the material but I need to to go through it thoroughly. Unfortunately I was a lazy player when I first started and easily side tracked by stomp boxes and the like. When you're 18 it's much more fun to get Wah pedals and make cool noises than to break out a metronome and do the work that actually allows you to play real music. Thanks for taking the time to respond and thanks Pebber for having some amazing material available.
Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:12 pm
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