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Finding Your Creativity

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

Among the challenges we face as developing guitar players, cultivating a sense of artistic creativity may seem among the most formidable. Many assume that creativity is a mysterious insight arising from the recesses of the fortunately gifted minds of a select few. In fact, creativity is not a mystery. As with all things musical it responds to focused effort to cultivate it.

So how do we get from having “no creativity” to the point of being able to write songs and play improvisational solos?

First let us address the occasional Mozart who shows up with tremendous innate musical ability. There is indeed a phenomenon of abundant natural talent, but for most musicians, other artists, engineers, inventors, writers, etc., natural talent is not the key to creativity. So then the Mozart’s are irrelevant in terms of understanding how a person of typical native ability can develop creative prowess. Forget about natural talent, and most importantly don’t fall for the common misconception that creativity is something that you either have or do not have by inheritance.

Now let us consider what creativity actually is. Is it really assembling something out of nothing in a mysterious seizure of inspiration from quarters unknown? No! Even Mozart had to sit with paper and pen and work his inspirations into orderly, flowing pitch and time relationships. Consider this quote from prolific inventor Thomas Edison, whose record on creativity speaks for itself: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”.

Creativity is neither an unknowable mystery, an accident, nor a fleeting peek into the ethereal mists. It is rather a predictable result of a process involving mastery of the fundamental elements of an endeavor, and then applying those fundamentals in such a way as to generate beauty of function and form. Notice that I did not say anything about creating something from nothing, or even something totally new. Creativity does not mean creating something from nothing. It means assembling the known into that which effectively solves problems or manifests beauty. It is well within the reach of anyone willing to apply themselves to the process. 

Now let us consider how this applies to music, and specifically to guitar. Music is fundamentally two objective phenomenon: pitch relationships and time relationships. Musicians assemble these relationships in such a way as to create the more subjective phenomenon of an emotionally satisfying flow of tension and release. This does not require the creation of anything new, but rather a well developed awareness of how pitch and time relationships work together to create a satisfying flow of tension and release.

So let’s break it down now even more specifically to the things we need to have mastery over in order to make music that satisfies ourselves and our intended audiences.

1. Know the notes on the fretboard – everything we do as musicians involves assembling notes in melody (one after another) or harmony (in unison, such as a chord or double stop) with reference to a tonal center (key). If you do not know the notes then you are limited to playing by patterns or by ear. While playing by patterns and by ear are useful tools, if you wish to cultivate maximum creativity then you need to allow yourself as many options as possible.  If you can visualize the letter names of the notes you are playing then it is much easier to choose resolving notes for phrases, or make useful alterations to chords to achieve just the right shade of mood.

2. Know the names of the notes in the Major Keys – the Major Scale is the starting point for all we do. Everything else is an alteration of some sort to a Major Scale. If you know the names of the notes in the key you are playing, and can also see them as you play them on the fretboard, these together will give you a great deal of power to achieve a desired musical effect without having to always guess your way through things with experimentation.

3. Understand Intervals – intervals are the building blocks of the pitch aspect of music. A thorough understanding of intervals will allow you to know what effect a note is going to have before you play it. If you know your intervals then you will be able to create musical effects at will, alter scales and chords to create precise shades of emotion, and transfer musical ideas from one key to another with ease.

4. Understand the effects of the basic divisions of the beat – along with pitch relationships, relative timing between pitch events is one of the fundamental components of music. A good set of timing relationships by itself is very powerful (think of a powerful drum intro that sets the mood for a song).  If you understand the basic divisions of the beat and how to modify them to tastes then you can create strong shades of mood at will.

5. Understand scale harmonization – knowing how to translate a particular scale into chord sequences will enable you to assemble pleasing chord progressions in a matter of moments. Knowing the chords in the key and the notes in the chords will also give you a lot of useful options for resolving solo phrases.

6. Listen to a lot of music – musical inspiration is often a residual effect of exposure to other music. Saturate your creative muse with immersion into a wide variety of music, and pay attention to the individual details such as the vocals, drums, and bass. In doing so you will cultivate a deeper intuitive understanding of music, much as a child learns to speak by regular exposure to speech.

7. Start from the known – creativity is often a matter of slight alterations to common ideas. Learn the signature licks, chord types and sequences, and rhythmic ideas of the masters of your preferred style. Then experiment with alterations until you uncover ideas that express what you wish. 

8. Constantly refine technique – if you have ever wondered how an accomplished guitarist can play something very simple and yet have it sound very beautiful and powerful, the trick is often in the technique. What many experience as a “lack of creativity” is in fact a lack of technique refinement that will make an otherwise great idea sound lifeless or even just plain bad. Technique development is not just a matter of mere repetition. It is essential to pay attention to the quality of sound (a.k.a. “tone”) during technique development practice. Don’t rush through technique exercises with the goal of merely getting them over with as quickly as possible. Listen carefully to the small details. Strive to improve the quality of sound resulting from each pick stroke.

This may seem like a hopeless lot to get done along the path to creativity. Bear in mind that learning music, including the creative aspect of it, is a journey. It is not needful to be “finished” with all other aspects of musicianship before experimenting with creative application of known musical elements. The point of this article is that creativity is a predictable result of identifiable methods, and therefore is accessible to all who are willing to work for it. Cultivate the appropriate knowledge, technique, and persistence, and then you can be sure that your creative muse will show itself!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

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Avoid The Trap of Killer Expectations

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

Learning to play an instrument well is a challenging endeavor, but it is within the reach of anyone willing to do the work. As with any significant endeavor, there are numerous side roads that can waste our time or bring us to a dead end. Some of these are technical issues pertaining to musical knowledge and physical technique. These are usually readily apparent … such things as not knowing chords and scales or not being able to get our fingers to execute the required movements. These types of issues are straightforward to address with information and exercises. It is the more subtle human nature responses to the process of learning that are the most dangerous to our aspirations. Here I will address one of our most common enemies … the “killer expectations” trap.

I call them killer expectations because they tend to kill motivation by bringing undue frustration and other emotional ills into the process of learning guitar. It is important to have goals and to strive for progress. However, for an aspiring musician with no prior musical experience it is very easy to fall prey to an inaccurate sense of how fast one should make progress or fulfill short term goals. The potential problem with establishing expectations is that the guitarist who spends most learning and practicing time working alone, or only with a teacher, has no real sense of how long it takes to master various elements of musicianship. A common tendency in guitar students is to set expectations that are unrealistically high, and then evaluate their current performance as “lagging behind” compared to these expectations. So let’s see if we can establish some informed guidelines that will help in establishing realistic expectations.

First, let us consider the popular notion of “positive thinking”. I have experienced the same kinds of ruts and roadblocks that all developing guitarists grapple with. The critical difference between myself and many of my peers who also dabbled with guitar over the years is that I made up my mind I was going to do this, and then I went and did the work and never stopped doing the work. There is a variant of positive thinking ideology floating around that deems thinking positively as the end rather than the means. Choosing a positive attitude is a vital part of the process of achievement, but it is only a part that by itself has no power at all to deliver results. We have to do the work! When you begin to do the work you are going to experience the same temporary barriers as have I and anyone who has ever set out to accomplish something significant. That is where positive thinking will pull us out of the ditch. We must choose to have faith in the fact that we are going to succeed! This is not blind faith … it is an informed faith based on the fact that every musician who has ever trod this path has experienced the same challenges. Those who persisted succeeded, and thus they have already proved countless times that success is inevitable if we persist in doing the work. That is a realistic expectation!

Goals are imperative in any endeavor, and music is no exception. If you are a hobbyist guitarist, consider that your goals should not be the same as one who is aspiring to a career as a professional musician, and in particular it is probably not realistic for a beginning hobbyist to set a short term goal of playing guitar as fluently as Joe Satriani or Brad Paisley, for examples. This does not mean that you might not aspire to learning a few of their songs in due time, but it is not prudent to set goals at the outset that require five hours of practice seven days a week for ten years. Rather, initial goals should be along the lines of mastering the basics of rhythm and lead guitar pertaining to the style you wish to play. This is well within the reach of a hobbyist, given sufficient time and good guidance from an effective teacher.

Now let’s consider the big question that seems to bring the most unease to students of guitar: “How long is this supposed to take?” Maybe a more specifically relevant question is, “Is my progress rate normal?” Do you see the potential problem with that second question? The problem is that without a great deal of experience observing the progress rates of beginning musicians, you may then have, lingering below your conscious thought level, an incorrect notion of what a “normal” progress rate is. If that notion is impossibly unrealistic, and you continually measure your progress against that impossible standard, then you will always measure up as “behind” regardless of how well you are actually doing. Consequently, you will always feel some sense of pressure and angst in your endeavors to improve, and you will not be able to find any satisfaction in the small victories that are in fact marking your steady progress. This will steal your enjoyment of learning guitar, and it often ends in a guitar gathering dust in a corner. Don’t let this happen to your guitar!

Here are some solutions to killer expectations…

  • Consider whether or not you have any expectations of your progress rate. If you find that you do, then consider the basis for your expectations. If your basis is that you are an experienced guitar teacher and thus have observed over and over how long it takes the average guitar student to meet specific goals, then you may be confident that your judgments regarding your own progress rate are on target. If you have any other basis than experience or the counsel of someone who is thusly experienced, then your expectations may be unrealistic and not helping you in any way. If so, then you will serve yourself well in discarding them.
  • Recognize that comparing your progress to others or to any arbitrary standard does not help you in any way. Progress rates vary widely due to a variety of factors such as previous musical experience, ability to commit time to practice, frequency and duration of lessons, complexity of the style you are seeking skills in, and so forth. Even if you had a friend with the exact same circumstances as you who seemed to be making faster progress, it would do you no good whatsoever to reflect on this. The only measure that will help is this: assuming you are following the directions in a good program of instruction and that you are practicing regularly, do you know more and have better technique now than a month ago, six months ago, a year ago, etc.? If so, then you are on the right track.
  • Be fair to yourself in measuring your progress. If you have been working on a new exercise for a week or two and you play 9 out of 10 notes correctly, your grade at that point in time for that exercise is 90, rather than the big fat ZERO that most give themselves when they make a mistake. Learning guitar is a process of accumulating 90’s over time. Never stop shooting for 100, but don’t give yourself an F when you have earned an A. Take note, all students of music have inherent strengths and weaknesses in various aspects of musicianship. Do not allow yourself to evaluate your overall progress as musician solely on the one or two areas where you struggle the most.
  • Give yourself time. There is no way around this, so when you see an ad on the Internet offering overnight skills you can know that you are gazing down a dead end road. Learning music is like gardening in that you plant seeds of knowledge and technique, water them with practice, and then cultivate them to maturity through repetition. Some methods are faster than others, but it is going to take some time no matter which path you take.
  • Finally, slow down! One thing I see that comes up over and over is that students attempt to play exercises at speeds that are beyond their current skills. This does not speed up progress and in fact is a detriment to progress. Practicing slop ends in playing slop! Most of the time we should practice things at speeds that allow us to execute them with accuracy and good timing, and then gradually speed up over time. Constantly attempting to play things at speeds that are beyond our current skill level will always leave us feeling frustrated. It is a trap. Avoid it. There is a time to work on speed, and that time is AFTER we have developed the ability to execute things well.

For my clients …

  • If you are not making progress I will let you know. It is not because I want to beat anyone up over their progress. It is because I have an ethical obligation to inform you if you are squandering your time and money with guitar lessons. When this has come up over the years it is always due to one or more of these three things: persistently missing lessons, not following the instructions, or not practicing regularly. If these do not apply to you, and I have not otherwise advised you that I have concerns with your progress rate, then you may assume that your progress rate is as it should be.
  • If you have, or find in the future that you have, concerns with your progress rate then bring it to my attention. We will then determine together whether it is a problem with unrealistic expectations, or rather a real problem in your knowledge base, technique, or practice routine. In the latter cases I will offer appropriate guidance. Your ongoing feedback is a critical part of the process, so don’t feel like I am going to be offended if you express concerns over your progress rate.

Follow the steps outlined above to rid yourself of the undue frustration that follows killer expectations, so that you can enjoy the process of learning guitar!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Managing Stage Fright

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Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

After working diligently to hone your chops you attempt to play in front of a friend, family member, or maybe your guitar teacher. You find that all of a sudden you can’t remember what to play, or your fingers just won’t do what you are telling them. You may find that your hands shake. Some people even experience nausea. Psychologists call this phenomenon “performance anxiety”. We musicians call it “stage fright”. It is very uncomfortable and frustrating, and you may be inclined toward giving up music if you can’t find a way to get around stage fright so that you can enjoy sharing your music with others. After all, in the end music is a form of communication, so it defeats the purpose if you can’t share it with others.

Fortunately, stage fright is something that musicians have learned to manage. It may never go away entirely, but we can learn to control it so that it does not cripple our performance. Since this article is directed at hobbyist students of guitar, I am going to limit discussion to those elements pertinent to hobbyists.

Stage fright is a “phobia”, or “irrational fear”. It is extreme dread of humiliation that will accompany failing in front of others. Let us not pretend that concern with performing poorly in front of others will not be embarrassing. However, when we allow emotion to run rampant and magnify the concern to extremes, we then cross the line into being irrational and become physically and mentally crippled by overpowering reactions to the emotion of fear. Here is how it works: we get ready to play something under observation. We become aware of the possibility of making a mistake. At this point we are still rational. Then the emotions flood in: humiliation and dread. Under the influence of these emotions, we become even more sensitive to the possibility of making a mistake. This affirms the emotions of humiliation and dread and the emotions become stronger and cross over into irrationality. Another part of the mind picks up the powerful emotions of impending doom and perceives this as a danger warning. This triggers a “fight or flight” response. We lose partial control of our thoughts to the processing of instinctive fear responses. The body tenses up and the mind attempts to focus on the source of danger and the easiest escape. Now we are distracted mentally and also physically tense all over. At this point we may be resigned to the fact that our performance is not going to be at peak because we have become partially crippled by our body’s automatic reactions to fear. It is a snowball effect, from initial perception of risk to manifestation of confusion and physical tension. It all happens in a split second, before we even have a chance to strike a note on the guitar.

The important thing to note here is that the stage fright response begins with thoughts, drags the emotions along, and then the emotions trigger the instinctive responses that interfere with performance. We want to break into this process at every point possible and try to reverse it, control it, or squash it by every means available. Let’s start with thoughts …

Strategies for dealing with the thought element of Stage Fright …

(1) What happens if someone sees you make a mistake or perform at less than your best? Well, you won’t get full credit for that great stuff you pull off while practicing alone. That’s kind of annoying and unfair, isn’t it? You may experience the discomfort of embarrassment. Is that really such a big deal as to allow it to trigger the same response as if an angry bear were chasing you? Of course not. It is not that big of a deal, especially when you are performing for your guitar teacher where it is fully expected that you are going to make many mistakes on a routine basis.

As an experienced musician with a trained perception of pitch, I can tell you that even acclaimed professional guitarists make mistakes in their live performances. You and I are going to make mistakes also. Just accept it, and more importantly just learn to play past the mistakes. Just get back on track as quickly as you can and keep playing. Don’t ever quit trying to improve and eliminate as many mistakes as possible, but accept the fact that mistakes are going to happen and they do not mean your entire performance is a failure. The fact is, if you keep playing through then most people will not even notice your mistakes! So don’t give them way more attention than they deserve. Make it a habit to mentally mark mistakes for additional work later and immediately focus your mind back on the next note!

(2) If you are worried about what others think of your skills, just stop doing that. Most people are not thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves. That’s the way people are. Some people are just determined to criticize, and so they will, no matter how well you play. Do your thing and forget about what anyone thinks of it. Yngwie Malmsteen is one of the top guitarists alive right now. Most people have never heard of him. Among those who have many of them are not moved by his music even though they may acknowledge his mastery of the instrument. I know of many outstanding guitarists who have amazing skills that I admire, but their music itself does nothing for me. No matter how good you are, you are only going to connect with a small fraction of the people who ever hear you play. So it makes no sense to give too much thought to how any one person is going to react to your playing. It is a total waste of your mental powers to think on such things. If these thoughts arise, cast them aside.

(3) Master the material you intend to play for others. If you know the song and have repeated it enough that it is automatic for you, your mind and hands will deliver even if you are under stress. Think about it. You had to learn to walk and talk. Now you can do both even under the most extreme distraction. They are automatic for you. Make your guitar skills the same through diligent practice.

Strategies for dealing with the emotional element of Stage Fright …

(1) Understand that stage fright is normal. It happens to all of us. It is not some unusual thing you are wrestling with, and it has nothing to do with your “talent” for music or lack thereof. It is a typical response to stress and it is possible for you to learn to control it, no matter how powerful it may seem to grip you at first.

(2) Play in front of others. Now if you just started lessons two weeks ago it’s not time for you to play in front of others. Be reasonable about this. Learn some songs. Practice them until you can get through them most of the time without any major train wrecks. Then play them for others. Start a band with others near your skill level. Join local amateur musician clubs. Play for your family. You will undoubtedly experience stage fright in these situations. However, every time you expose yourself to it you will gain a measure of strength against it, just as your finger tips build calluses against the guitar strings. Eventually stage fright will fade to something far less powerful and thus you will find it easier to manage.

(3) Master the material you intend to play for others. If you know the song and have repeated it enoughthat it is automatic for you, your mind and hands will deliver even if you are under stress. Think about it. You had to learn to walk and talk. Now you can do both even under the most extreme emotional inflammation. They are automatic for you. Make your guitar skills the same through diligent practice.

Strategies for dealing with the instinctive element of Stage Fright …

(1) When you feel your hands freezing up and your mind is drawing a blank as to what to play, remember that you are ultimately in control of your mind and your body. Instinct is powerful but you can learn to override it. Force your mind to calm and focus on controlling your hands and your thoughts. Relax your muscles. Concentrate on the chords or scales you need to play and push everything else aside. This is going to be tough at first, but keep at it and you will get better with practice.

(2) Master the material you intend to play for others. If you know the song and have repeated it enough that it is automatic for you, your mind and hands will deliver even if you are under stress. Think about it. You had to learn to walk and talk. Now you can do both even if an angry bear is chasing you. They are automatic for you. Make your guitar skills the same through diligent practice.

Stage fright is an inevitable aspect of the journey toward musical mastery. Don’t run away from it … run into it and conquer it. Give yourself time. You may have noticed that in all three areas of attack, the last strategy is the same paragraph in mastery of your material. That was not an editing oversight. As with all things musical, results follow one simple rule of thumb: practice, practice, practice!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

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All About Amplifiers

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by Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

How Guitar Amplifiers Affect Tone

The wonderful sound that comes out of an amplifier begins with a tiny electromagnetic impulse in your guitar’s pick up coil(s). This tiny, constantly varying impulse imposes an electronic signal at the guitar’s output port which travels along the cord into your amplifier. The amplifier receives this signal and sends it through several stages of amplification to produce a signal powerful enough to drive the speaker(s).

An amplifier typically consists of two overall stages of amplification: pre-amp, and power amp. The pre-amp stage is the one that receives the input from your guitar and processes it into a larger signal with tone alterations for presentation to the power amp stage. The pre-amp is where the amplifier allows you to alter specific tonal features such as bass, mid range, and treble, as well as apply built-in effects such as distortion (a.k.a. gain) and reverb.

The job of the power amp stage is to pick up the output signal from the pre-amp and magnify it up to a power level sufficient to drive your speakers via an output transformer. The purpose of the output transformer is to match the electromagnetic characteristics (impedance) of your amplifier’s power stage to the electromagnetic characteristics of your speaker(s), so that the amplifier will couple the maximum amount of available power to the speakers.

Tube vs. Solid State

It is important understand the difference in response between vacuum tube and solid state amplifiers. Tubes bring two very important characteristics to guitar amplification. First, they inherently add content known as harmonics, also often referred to by guitarists as overtones. In audio amplification outside the realms of guitar, these added audio components constitute an undesirable form of distortion. In guitar amplification they provide a pleasant sounding addition to the otherwise pure guitar tone. Secondly, tubes tends to react more strongly than transistors to changes in input, such that tube amps tend to provide a more sensitive response to the input from the guitar player. This tends to magnify the effect of changes in dynamics provided by variations in pick attack, such that the tube amp feels to many guitarists more like dancing with a willing partner, as opposed to the solid state amp’s more simple and indifferent magnification of the volume. For the less experienced guitarist these differences in response between the two types of amplification may be meaningless, but as experience accumulates these things will become more noticeable.

On some more elaborate amplifiers you may be able to pick off the signal at various stages of amplification for additional processing and/or routing. Many amplifiers have an effects loop which will allow you to insert patch cords after the pre-amp stage that will route the signal to an external effects processor and then back into your amp. Some amps also have a patch port between the pre-amp stage and the power amp stage that allows you to completely separate the two stages. This would allow you for instance to use the pre-amp stage from one amp to provide a signal to the power stage of another amp.

Tone Implications of Combo vs. Head/Cabinet

Guitar amps come in two basic physical configurations: combo and head/cabinet. A combo (short for combination) amp has the electronic circuitry and the speaker(s) all in one convenient box. Alternatively, you may wish to keep your amplifier itself separate from the speakers so that you have tonal options by matching up different amplifiers and speakers, as well as weight management for heavier amps and speaker cabinets. In this case you would want the amplifier in a box by itself. We call these amp-only boxes amplifier heads, or head for short. So we attach the head via a speaker cable (not the same cable as a guitar cable!) to a separate box that has only a speaker or multiple speakers. This is why many amp heads have several speaker output ports, so that you can use the head to drive speaker cabinets of varying load (impedance).

The most popular head/cabinet arrangement is the half-stack. The half stack is a head sitting on top of a large speaker cabinet with typically four speakers, usually 12 inch diameter speakers. The name half stack is a derivative of the stack, an amp with one head sitting atop two speaker cabinets with four speakers each. Hence the name stack – it is literally a stack of big boxes. A stack is a big, heavy, and loud amplifier arrangement that is only needed for the largest of venues, either a large arena or outdoors. A half stack, while still bulky and loud, is more manageable and thus is suitable for a wider variety of venues.

The combo amp may contain one speaker of sizes from 4 inch up to 12 inch. Some combos contain two twelve inch speakers, and some contain four ten inch speakers. More speakers means more power, and also more bass response. My rule of thumb … for good tone I recommend that if the combo amp has only one speaker, then stick with amps that have a 12 inch speaker.

Take note of this: you do not need a half stack to achieve high volume levels. A good quality combo with two 12 inch speakers will produce volumes comparable to a half stack of similar power. For large live venues the sound that the audience hears is coming through the much louder P.A. system anyway, via a microphone on the guitar amp speaker.

Fender vs. Marshall Tone

There are two basic guitar amplifier architectures on the market, both based on amps designed around specific power stage tubes. One is the Fender sound which is a clean tone based on the 6L6 tube. The Fender amps are coveted for pristine clean tones at higher volumes (a.k.a headroom – the amount of volume an amp can produce before distorting). The Fender sound is great for Blues, Jazz, and Country styles. The Marshall amps are based on the EL34 tube which produces a desirable distortion or break-up at moderate volume levels. This makes them desirable for any kind of guitar music that features distortion, such as rock or metal.

Since most guitarists use additional effects pedals to add various effects, there is some overlap between these tones. Most tube amps on the market today are some kind of imitation or derivative of the Fender or Marshall amps. Another popular tone is the EL84 tube tone associated with the classic VOX amps and often used on lower power tube amps. The EL84 tone has a sharp bright treble response and less bass response than the physically larger 6L6 and EL34 tubes.

If you want to know whether your amp is a Fender or Marshall type of amp, just check the power tubes. However, every amp consists of many components and built-in tone coloring characteristics, so you will not be able to know for sure what an amp sounds like without actually playing through it. There are many good quality amps on the market today besides Fender and Marshall. Let your ears be the judge. I prefer the tone of a Marshall, although I have heard great sounding tones coming from many other amps.

Amp Simulators

Modern computer technology has brought us guitarists the ability to include computers in our arsenal of music making tools. Popular simulators such as Pod Farm, Amplitube, and Guitar Rig allow us to plug our guitar into our computers via an interface box and then play through the computer. This is a great tool for practicing, as the simulation software will allow us to mimic a wide variety of tones from different iconic amplifiers and effects, all with just a few clicks of a mouse. For practicing guitar and learning about various amps and effects, this is the best thing that has happened to guitarist in decades. These simulators, in conjunction with other computer programs, also allow for pro-quality recording of your playing right in your bedroom, at volumes that will not disturb your neighbors or even the people in the next room.  Assuming you already have a computer, these simulators are not nearly as expensive as a real guitar amp of good quality, so I highly recommend a simulator program for those new to electric guitar. After spending some time with a simulator you will have a better idea of the tone variation among the popular amps, so you will have a better sense of what you are looking for when you go to invest in a real amp.

Miscellaneous Considerations …

Guitar amps often have multiple channels to allow you varying tonal options from the same amp, from pristine clean to raucous distortion. In addition, each of these channels will usually have separate volume controls and maybe even separate input (gain) and output volume controls. Finally there will be one master volume control that controls the final output volume of the amp regardless of which channel you select. It is important to understand that there is a significant difference in volume from your guitar when you are playing rhythm versus solo. The multiple amp channels allow you to change for instance from a clean or slightly distorted tone for chords, to the richer harmonic content and increased sustain of distortion for playing individual notes of a solo. You will lose a significant amount of volume from the guitar when you change from playing chords to playing individual notes, such that if you set your amp up during sound check to match the band volume when you are playing chords, when you go to play solo at the same volume you will be drowned by the band. So you must set the volume on your solo channel significantly higher than that of your rhythm channel.

It is important to note that the amp tone will change drastically as you increase the volume. For instance, at low volumes the bass response will be weak so that you have to turn the amp up to get a balanced sound across the frequency spectrum. The electronic components will affect the tone to different degrees at different power levels. Power tubes deliver a certain coveted distortion that only appears when the tube is pushed to higher power levels. Speakers have a certain inherent stiffness so that they will only yield their best tones when pushed into lively motion to a certain degree (speaker excursion). Altogether, what this means is that the best electric guitar tones often come at the price of higher volumes. It is a never ending quest for guitarists to coax a good tone from our electric guitar amps at lower volumes, especially with distorted tones. It can be done, but it will take some time and effort learning how to tweak your amp.

Any given guitar amp is going to produce a wide variety of tonal qualities based on the options available on the amp, the guitar and effects plugged into the amp, and importantly the playing characteristics of the player playing through the amp. Pros often have their amps modified away from the manufacturer designs. So just because a certain guitarist you enjoy uses a certain kind of amp, that does not necessarily mean you will be able to reproduce their tone easily by purchasing the same amp. Before you rush out and buy the same amp as your guitar hero, be sure you play through a number of amps first. It may be that you will find your preferred tone coming from a box that you wouldn’t have expected.

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

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Primer on Guitar Effects

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Chad Crawford, PMI Blues Guitar Instructor

So you have an electric guitar now and maybe a small starter amp and you are starting to become aware of all these little extra boxes that some guitar players use. What is all this stuff? What does it do, and do you need it? Well, this could be a huge subject but I am going to cover only the basics. Once you understand the basics you can do a little more research on your own to decide what, if any, effects that you may wish to incorporate in your preferred tone. First, a little background information …

Definitions

Tone – At the root of all discussion of guitars, amp, and effects, is one core concept: Tone. You will see this term in all manner of advertisements for guitars, amps, and equipment, and you will hear it discussed and even argued among musicians. What does it mean? It has somewhat of a subtle meaning that will be hard to understand well until you develop a little skill on the guitar and begin to develop your discernment for sound quality. For the moment let’s try to understand it this way. Tone refers to the overall sound quality of your instrument. I do not mean quality in the sense of good or not so good, but rather quality in the sense of characteristics. For example you might say that wood has certain qualities and metal has certain qualities. Likewise, sound has different qualities and these qualities vary among different guitars, amps, and effects, and various combinations of the above. As you develop as a musician you will naturally gravitate toward a certain preferred quality of sound from your instrument. Musicians refer to this quality of sound as tone.

Pedal – a floor standing effect device usually actuated by a foot switch, leaving the rest of you free to work your guitar magic. Guitarists often install pedals in a Pedal Board, which is simply a suitcase specifically designed for mounting guitar pedals and associated wiring.

Rack Mount – the effect circuitry does not care if it is mounted in the floor, wall, ceiling, amp, or wherever you want. So some effects come in a convenient box that is designed to mount into a specific type of instrument electronics travel cabinet (rack). This allows for manipulation of the parameters of the effect without having to kneel to the floor. Rack effects are also more typically able to be controlled via “midi”, which allows for advance programming of various combinations of effects such that one can have preset effects combinations for each song, readily accessible either by foot control or else remotely by the sound engineer at the control board. Rack effects tend to be more sophisticated than their floor pedal counterparts.

Sensitivity – the ability of the guitar to sound out clear notes with minimal finger pressure and string striking power. This will depend largely on the guitar and amp, but some effects also affect sensitivity. Generally, more is better.

Sustain – the ability of the guitar to continue sounding out a note after it has been plucked. As with sensitivity, this will also depend largely on the guitar and amp. Some effects will affect sustain and in fact some effects are specifically to enhance sustain. As with sensitivity, more is generally better.

Utilities:

Some devices referred to as “effects” are not really so much effects but rather are more like utilities. This will make more sense as we discuss specific devices. So let’s dive into specific effects now. Keep in mind we are speaking in general terms. There are literally thousands of effect devices on the market with various combinations and qualities of various kinds of utilities and tone alterations. We will highlight the basic concepts here.

Noise Suppressor or Noise Gate – the purpose of a Noise Gate is not to alter tone but rather to remove noise, as the name implies. If you have had some opportunity to play around with your guitar and amp you may have noticed a hum from your amp when you are not playing the guitar. The purpose of the Noise Gate is to remove that hum or at least reduce it to a very low level. If you are new to guitar and mostly playing at bedroom volumes then the hum may not bother you so much.  As your ear for music develops and you begin to gravitate toward higher volumes for live group performance, the hum will grow louder and more annoying! Then you will want a Noise Gate.

Volume – more of a utility than an effect, although you can use a volume pedal prior to the pre-amp to create a keyboard-like tone from your guitar (a.k.a swell). The main purpose, however, is to control the guitar volume without having to use your hands to manipulate knobs.

Tuner – an electronic device that provides a tuning reference for you to measure your guitar’s tuning against. It allows for very rapid and accurate tuning.

General Purpose Effects:

Echo – May also be called Reverb. This is a very common effect and many modern amps will have this effect built in. The echo or reverb effect is similar to the natural phenomenon of echo. It works like this: you play a note on your guitar. The echo processor will expand that as if you played it in a large room or cavern. This effect adds fullness to your tone, making it sound more natural and thick. Of course you can dial it in to an extreme that does not sound natural at all.

Delay – similar to echo, but delay is a more specific, narrow reproduction of the note you just plucked. Unlike natural echo, you control the volume level and timing of repeats, as well as the decay (attenuation level or loss of volume level) of the repeat notes. As with echo, this effect adds fullness to your tone, making it sound more natural and thick. And again you can dial it in to an extreme that does not sound natural at all.

Expression – this effect is often referred to as Wah, Wah Wah, or Crybaby. It is typically a pedal that you oscillate with your foot to move an internal tone control through a range from very pronounced high/mids to very diminished high/mids. It will also alter your overall tone. You may also see it in the form of a device that automatically cycles throughout a preset tone range without oscillating foot pedal input.

Distortion – Distortion is the characteristic electronic fuzz sound associated with electric guitars. There are different levels of distortion and different types of distortion that yield different overall guitar tones. Most modern amps will include a distortion effect by design, often referred to as Drive, Overdrive, or Gain. Additionally, you can usually achieve a certain natural distortion by over powering your amp speaker(s) at high volume levels. A distortion pedal can enhance tone, sensitivity, and sustain at lower volume levels. Choosing a distortion pedal can get complicated because this is very much a matter of personal preference. Also, the different types and degrees of distortion have trade names, such as crunch (mild distortion), overdrive (substantial distortion), and fuzz (extreme distortion). Beyond this, the brand names of distortion pedals, like the popular Tube Screamer, may not indicate distortion at all. You will often see distortion pedals referred to as a Stomp Box.

Compressor – the purpose of a compressor is to raise low volume signals and suppress high volume signals. The intent is to level out the harshness of extreme variation in volume levels. Because it raises the power level of lower volume or weaker signals, it will also enhance sustain.

Modulation – this effect comes in a variety of forms and goes by different trade names even though it is all the same underlying effect. You may see it identified as Flange, Chorus, Phaser, Rotary Horn, Tremolo, or Uni-Vibe. The basic idea is to impose a varying frequency signal over your guitar signal, creating a wobbling sound. As with other effects, you control the rate and degree of the wobbling. The various names indicate different types or tonal qualities of the effect.

Many vendors have floor controllers or rack-mount controllers that incorporate some or all of these effects and more all in one box, such as the POD products by Line6.

Now that you know the terminology, you may be wishing you had some sounds to associate with these names. You can easily find demonstrations on various vendor sites such as MusiciansFriend or Sweetwater, or video hosting sites such as YouTube. Alternatively, if you’re willing to invest around a hundred twenty dollars for an entry level converter box (interface) such as the Focusrite Scarlett solo, along with another hundred for an entry level guitar simulator program such as Amplitube or Bias FX, then you can experiment with a variety of guitar effects with a simple click of the mouse.

Hardware or software, experiment and enjoy!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Nature vs. Nurture: Overcoming Fatal Guitar Technique Flaws

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

After a couple of decades of teaching guitar and interacting with other teachers and many clients, I can make a number of predictions on what any aspiring guitarist will struggle with and how the various responses to these stumbling blocks will either help or hinder progress.  The guitar is a challenging instrument, and there are any number of areas where one might encounter a temporary roadblock. Of these typical areas, there is one that stands out above all others as the number one barrier to progress: not following the instructions.

Allow me to clarify this concept since the phrase alone may seem too broad and actually contrary to your experience. I doubt you have ever openly refused to learn a particular chord, for example, or a basic scale pattern. This is not the sort of thing I mean when I suggest that a significant percentage of guitar students often stumble in implementing course recommendations. It is not a matter of people intentionally side-stepping the instructions. Rather it is that certain aspects of optimum physical technique run contrary to our instincts. Most students tackling a challenge in physical technique tend to unconsciously default back to instincts rather than consistently apply good technique recommendations. For the record, I am guilty of this as much as anyone, although I have improved significantly over the years in applying what the guitarist community has found to be the most effective technique development methods. 

Now let me narrow this down to the specifics items that I see over and over. If any of these seem to apply to you, keep in mind that I am not writing about any specific person or experience, but rather my collective experience as a guitar student and teacher. I assure you that although some of these may apply to you, they are universal themes in the guitar community, so don’t feel like I’m singling you out to give you a hard time!

  1. Tickle the strings rather than tackle them.
  2. For playing chord rhythms, use a wide, fast, and light-contact pick stroke.
  3. For playing individual notes or two-string intervals (fifth chords, double stops) keep the pick hand palm turned into the guitar so that the pick moves parallel to the plane of the strings with a mere flick of the wrist.
  4. Apply no more pressure to the strings/frets than necessary to sound out a clear note.
  5. Avoid grasping the guitar neck with the palm and thumb as if it were a baseball bat.
  6. Use your elbow to change the working range of your pick – not your wrist or your shoulder.
  7. When changing to an upcoming chord, avoid chopping off the last beat of the previous chord by releasing pressure too early.
  8. Unless you are practicing certain exercises specifically intended to develop speed, do not practice at a tempo faster than you can play with good note articulation and two-hand synchronization.
  9. When learning a new rhythm pattern, go slow and consciously count the beats and divisions of the beats, rather than trying to play the rhythm by “feel”. Once you have conscious mastery of the pattern only then should you work on keeping time by feel. 

If you have taken lessons with me for any length of time then you will know that I teach these things routinely, so you may wonder why I am taking up a Newsletter column with this routine lesson fare. There is a reason I am emphasizing these things:  between knowing good technique and doing good technique, there is a subconscious barrier that we all struggle with: instinct. As your teacher, one of the most significant challenges I face in helping you develop your skills is your own instincts. Your basic instincts tend toward moving the fingers as a unit, favoring the index finger, using much more strength than is necessary, and handling the pick as if it is a plow. Your secondary instinct is to do just the opposite of this. For example, when attempting to play scales for the first time, you will note that your fingers want to stay together and mute the string you are trying to pick, so you will then pull your other fingers way back from the fretboard. Then you have to slam the next finger down like a dive bomber in order to stay in time on the next note. This causes subtle delays that cap your top speed at limits far below your potential.

 The first step in conquering this barrier is to be aware of these instinctive actions and over-reactions, so that you can be ready to spot them and counter with deliberate focused repetition of a balanced, optimum technique method that cooperates as far as possible with your natural physiology.  Then, apply focused attention to repetitions of good technique. Repetition of good technique results in habits, such that good technique becomes increasingly automatic, enabling to you to move between chords and notes accurately with little conscious effort.

Here is where the process breaks down: the focused repetition of good technique, and specifically the focus aspect. Your hands will constantly try to resort back to instinctive positions and motions, even though your conscious mind is well aware of these issues. You must pay close attention to these details of technique when you practice. This can be tedious at times, but the pay off is more than worth the effort!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Automating Technique

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instrcutor

Automaticness does not come automatically. Allow me to explain.

Have you ever had the experience of freezing in front of an audience, whether it be one or two friends or an auditorium? Maybe it was a piece that you had practiced diligently for hours and thought you had it sorted out, but when the critical moment came your hands just wouldn’t deliver. If you have been playing guitar for any length of time then you have certainly suffered such an embarrassing, frustrating moment. Why does this happen?

Your gut response might be something along the lines of “stage fright”. Is that really the final answer? Let’s consider this scenario … you are thrust on stage in front of ten thousand spectators and asked to simply walk to the other side of the stage. Could you do it? Of course! So what happened to stage fright? Well, if you are not accustomed to withstanding the observation of thousands of people then you may indeed experience a high level of discomfort and even some symptoms of mild illness, such as upset stomach and sweating. However, odds are high that you could get to the other side of the stage without anyone even suspecting that you were the least bit out of sorts.

So you see … when you know how to do a thing so well that you can do it automatically, you will be able to do it well even under duress. Automaticness.

This applies to making music in the same way it applies to walking, and the stages of development are similar. You start by crawling, then by holding onto the couch while you experiment with standing. Next you try a few steps, next thing you know your Mom is yelling at you for running through the house, followed by your Coach yelling at you for not running fast enough or long enough. By that stage the mere act of walking is long since a given.

So how do we develop automaticness in guitar technique? The same way we do with walking. We start with simple chords and pieces of scales and arpeggios and then we progressively work our way up to more complex tasks, with an occasional bloody knee so to speak. For the guitar player this means beginning with simple songs played very slowly and deliberately, and then chords, scales, and arpeggios, all with slow and deliberate repetition of efficient fingerings along with a metronome until they become automatic. That takes more than two weeks or two months. Speed will grow naturally out of good technique perfected at much slower speeds. There is a time and method to develop speed, but it is pointless to do so until achieving a foundational level of automaticness in each of these core skills.

When it comes to music many simply want to go straight to running track without first having held on to the couch to experiment with standing. The results are just as predictable … perpetual bloody knees. I cannot count the times that I have asked a student to SLOW DOWN with a scale exercise and focus on note articulation only to have them continue hacking away at speeds beyond their capability, and thereby  ensuring a reduced rate of progress.  If you are one of my students reading this then you are probably thinking I am talking about you. I may be, but not you specifically … I have hardly seen a guitar player that did not go through this stage, including myself.

This is somewhat analogous to the lifeguard who waits until the drowning swimmer has given up before rendering aid, since it is impossible to help while the panicked swimmer is still flailing about. There is not much I can do for determined scale hackers until they reach a certain point near resignation. Then comes that moment that I eagerly wait for with every student … that moment when I finally observe determined focus on accurate articulation and timing of each note within a scale. This is when I know I am about to observe a breakthrough to the great satisfaction of myself and my client.

So here is the point … slow down, focus on the details, and then bare down on the basics to the point of automaticness. This is going to involve some tedious focused repetition with a metronome, but it will pay handsome dividends over the long haul in the forms of instant chord changes and ripping through scales as easy as breathing. It is well worth the short term effort to gain these long term benefits.

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Can I Help You? – Part II

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By PMI Guitar Instructor Chad Crawford

In part I of this two-part series we considered some generalities of how an aspiring musician’s overall attitudes about work and people affect musical accomplishment. In this part we will consider how attitude more specifically affects the technical details of cultivating music skills.

Review from Part I … (hint – I am reviewing this section because it is very important! Scroll down to view Part I)

The Singular Importance of Attitude

Probably the single most important thing I have learned in my decades of musical endeavor is that music is not just about technical matters pertaining to managing the fingers or voice effectively. Rather, it is mostly a matter of cultivating the mind, and that means among other things that a person’s overall attitude about life, work, and people is going to have a great deal of impact on his or her accomplishment as a musician. As with any “rule” there will certainly be notable exceptions, but they will be notable because they are exceptions. Mastery of things technical is certainly very important, but the foundation of it all is mental attitude. Can I help you? Well … it depends very much on your attitude. That terminology is often used in a way to imply contempt, as in “He has an attitude!” That’s not the way I am using it here. I don’t say it with any kind of judgmental intent. It is just an objective fact. Let’s clarify by considering some examples of how attitude effects musical results.

Now, on to Part II proper …

Give Me the Giggles! – I haveobserved many instances, particularly with kids and their parents, ofmusic students or prospects who approach learning music purely as entertainment, similar to sports. Professional athletes must of course work hard for many years to achieve a world class level of performance. However, much of the fun of sports for kids is simply running around excitedly on a field or court. A coach can train a kid in the basic rudiments of a sport within minutes and the kids can begin to enjoy the fundamental physical activity of the sport immediately, even if they are actually comically terrible at it in the beginning. 

This is not so with music. While making music can and should ultimately be a very satisfying experience, reaching this level of musicianship is a process more along the lines of learning math, science, or language. No one expects to start a science class and be a functioning research scientist before completing the first class. For whatever reason, many people who have an interest in music lessons, and this is the worst with guitar in particular, seem to have some idea that it is something along the lines of an alternative to sports or watching TV, something that is purely a form of entertainment. I suppose this has something to do with so much of the advertising for guitar training that appeals to the quick fix – click here, or come take my lessons, and you will be playing your favorite songs immediately!

Let me be clear here that I am not suggesting it isn’t possible to learn to play some great music without submitting to twelve years of education. That would be one extreme. I am addressing the other extreme, where the prospect or client feels that the whole process should be an experience similar to sports – giggles out of the gate, with the real work required only for the elite. Well, it isn’t. For a typical hobbyist level musician with a good work ethic and a good teacher, pursuing fluency in popular music styles, it is going to be a multi-year process to get to a point of functioning predictably and comfortably in a group playing setting such as a band or open jam session. Up until that point, it is going to be like school. Go to class. Do homework. Repeat. When you get through first grade, then you go to second grade. There is no way to jump from day one to diploma, or third grade to eighth grade. It is a process consisting of many small steps, and if anyone is telling you otherwise, be sure to keep an eye on your wallet until you get clear of them!

If you are looking for giggles out of the gate, I can’t help you. If, on the other hand, you are willing to approach learning music as an educational endeavor with great rewards on the far end of some work, then I can help you a great deal!

I Can’t! – Yes you can, if you are willing to persist in an informed approach to working at it. There is no “I can’t”. There is only, “I haven’t yet”. Students of guitar all experience the same struggles with finger control, comprehension, and confusing those two issues. For instance, chord changing exercises can be quite frustrating in the beginning, and many feel that they will never be able to accurately and rapidly place fingers in the correct location fast enough to keep up with the rhythm. This is simply an illusion, arising from unrealistic expectations. Fluent chord changing requires a well-developed muscle memory for each chord, and that means lots of repetition over time. It is a process, and the desired results are inevitable.

Similarly, when I introduce students to the concept of resolving solo phrases to target scale notes, it is universal for students to struggle with tracking the chord changes while also trying to remember finger placements. With the introduction of each new level of complexity as we move through alternate resolving notes and various positions along the fretboard, it is a recurring struggle to get one’s mind and hands around the ability to accurately place the right note at the right time. This does not mean anything is wrong or that you have no talent. It is just something that you have to work at until you have cultivated the totality of it into your thinking, and then it will work.

Let me share with you an example of a common experience I observe in teaching. I was once teaching a teenage a girl who was struggling with her chord changes. She came in for her lesson one week and went through the exercises. She kept fumbling the chords, but I knew she had been working with them long enough to get them right. So we kept going over them with me leading her through a series of steps to get her reservations out of the way and let her muscle memory take over. Toward the end of the class she started playing through the exercises smoothly, to her great amazement and delight. However, what I remember most is the look of surprised understanding on her face when I pointed out to her that she was already able to perform those exercises well when she walked in the door that day. The only thing that was preventing her from peak performance was that her mind was closed to the possibility that she could do them well, and so she had been unconsciously choosing to perform habitually sub-par chord changes in fulfillment of her expectations.   

See how important attitude is? You can literally prevent yourself from doing something that you are in fact presently capable of doing, by convincing yourself that are not able to do it! This is what performance coaches mean when they speak of believing in yourself.  It does not mean some kind of voodoo such that you can wishful think yourself into doing something that you can’t actually do. Rather, it means you choose to be confident in your potential to do a thing, and you cling to that belief tenaciously through the struggles of the building process until the work finally delivers the desired results. It is not magic. You still have to do the work. But you can do the work and still suffer less than desired results due to a self-defeating, “I Can’t!” attitude.

Besides talking yourself out of doing something that you can actually do, an “I can’t!” attitude will also give you an easy escape when faced with some work. It is an unfortunate fact that all of us human beings are inherently lazy, and we will jump on any excuse to avoid work. If you can convince yourself that you can’t, well then there is no point doing all that work, is there? I can’t, so I won’t try, and then I won’t be able, and that will prove that I couldn’t, and then I can watch TV and eat marshmallows instead. See how this works?

Are you inclined toward believing that lying internal voice that whispers, “I can’t!”? Well, if you do give in to that suggestion, then you will choose to make it so, and then I can’t help you. If you will instead choose to believe, “I can!” regardless of the struggles of the moment, then I can help you a great deal!

When Does it End! – I get all manner of people with all kinds of ideas about music coming to me for lessons. I conduct pre-enrollment consultations with all prospects for a number of reasons, one of which is to identify what they may be thinking in regards to how long it takes to learn music. The answer will vary a great deal depending on goals, but some folks have really unrealistic ideas such as a few weeks or a few months. I never let these folks enroll thinking it is going to be a few weeks or months. Some of them do not enroll, either because they think I don’t know what I am talking about, or else they are just not willing to commit a realistic amount of time to it.

Then I have prospects who enroll and get started. Some of them come in with a great attitude driven by a passion for music, and they stay enrolled for multiple years and become potent musicians. Others stay for a few weeks or months until they realize I wasn’t exaggerating about the commitment required, then they give up and quit. Unfortunately those folks are a lost cause before they even start, not because of their inherent potential but rather because of their attitude.

Then there is the mid-range group. They get off to a good start and make rapid progress, but then get bogged down somewhere between six months and a year. They may continue with lessons, but they get stuck at a certain level, often with learning improvisational soloing. This is where the weight of a self-defeating attitude begins to take its toll. They fall into a habitual routine of practicing the same mistakes over and over rather than truly applying intense focus to solving problems, and then they get stuck. It feels to them as if they have reached a limit they can’t pass, then they either resign themselves to current limits, or else give in to frustration and quit.

This is where attitude becomes the critical factor in success. When you reach that point where you feel you are stuck, you can do one of three things. Quit, keep doing what got you stuck, or do something different that delivers better results. I can tell you from much experience that the thing you need to do different is to focus more closely on the details of the specific problem you are having, rather than simply practicing the same mistake over and over and hoping it will resolve itself. I can also tell you from experience that many folks won’t do the extra work most of the time. They will instead either go on repeating the mistake or else give up.

When does it end? When you choose to focus intently on correcting the details, conquering the problem instead of letting it conquer you. If you choose to give up, or try to side-step the work necessary to succeed, then I can’t help you. If you love music enough to commit up front to working at it until you can do it well, then I can help you a great deal!

The Grass is Greener Over There! – Question: “When do I get to stop practicing all the time and just enjoy playing?” Answer: “The instant that you stop thinking in terms that ‘real music’ is limited to stuff that you can’t already do.” Music has been around since the dawn of time. You are not ever going to run out of “stuff that you can’t already do”. If you learned every song that has been played in the history of Western civilization, then you would have just got started with the possibilities. There is always going to be some new hill to climb. You will never get past needing to practice, if for no other reason than to maintain your technique. However, this does not mean that you are not in fact a capable musician. The first time a student plays through my first exercise, they are in fact making real music. Consider that if you know your open position major and minor chords, power chords, and command basic rhythm skills, then you can play literally thousands of popular songs. Maybe tens of thousands. But for some folks, they tend to set the bar of “real music” or “good music” so arbitrarily high that they can’t ever just relax and enjoy what they can already do, even if it is songs that are literally million-sellers.

Here’s the hidden source of this attitude problem: vanity. A lot of aspiring musicians, especially guitarists, are more interested in acclaim than self-expression. I have had prospects at pre-enrollment interviews outright tell me that what they most want from lessons is to impress others with their guitar playing. I don’t enroll these folks if they can’t also express some other more substantial goal, because I know that if this is their sole motivation then they are wasting their time.

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to move others with music. But there is wanting to reach people through music, and then there is wanting applause for musical accomplishment – two different things. The former is the core of what the phenomenon of music is, the latter is empty egomania. Folks in the former camp will be quite happy to see folks enjoying their simple 12 Bar progressions and Blues phrasing as much as they will enjoy ripping out some Dream Theatre symphonic rock. Those in the latter camp will always experience music as something along the lines of eating burned oatmeal, because they will always be consumed with the feeling that others are not impressed with their technical prowess.

Let’s not go to either extreme. As with all good art, you must achieve pleasing quality, proportion, and symmetry for beautiful results. Of course you need to be in time and on pitch if you wish to make music that is “good” by any reasonably objective criteria, and that means there is some work to be done. The farther you want to go, the more work you have to do. At the same time, if you can’t enjoy the plateaus on the way to the peak, you will probably not be able to keep up enough steam to make it to whatever the peak is for you.

Consider an artist like B.B. King. He did not play technically complicated music, but what he is really great at is expressing himself with his library of simple Blues licks. If you watch him play you can see it on his face quite plainly. People do not go to see B.B. King perform because they want to hear someone rip scales at supersonic speeds. They enjoy B.B. King because they connect with the feeling he is able to convey through his simple music. That is what music is all about, and he is a master at it. Artists like Yngwie Malmsteen need much more technically complex music to fully express themselves, and that is also perfectly valid. What is not valid is to suggest that one is “better” than the other. Those kinds of arguments are a waste of time.

Many widely acclaimed musicians moved millions of people with relatively simple music. Johnny Cash. Kurt Cobain. Bob Dylan. Eric Clapton. Tom Petty. I could go on and on listing names. The point is, as a student of guitar you are not doing yourself any favors by refusing to allow yourself enjoyment of the music that is currently accessible to you. Of course keep striving for that next level, but at the same time give yourself a break and allow yourself to enjoy what you can already do!

Let me clarify that I am not meaning to express contempt for those who are suffering inability to enjoy their music due to vanity. We all suffer from it a bit, myself included. It is a major barrier for many aspiring musicians, and one of my goals as a teacher is to talk people off it because it hinders their realization of musical goals. Indeed, there is a certain level of musicianship we need to achieve before we can do anything more than annoy others with our guitars. Once you reach the level that you can change chords quickly and hold a rhythm through twelve or sixteen bars, get busy making music and enjoying it while you continue climbing toward the next plateau!

Do you find that when you play music you are more involved with what others are thinking of your performance than you are the music itself? If so, and if I can’t persuade you off that approach, then I’m sorry to say that you will never enjoy music enough to persevere, and so I can’t help you. If you will instead recognize that music does not have to be “impressive” to be good, then I can help you a great deal with both simple and sophisticated music!

Show me the Low Road! – We speak of“taking the high road”as a colloquialism for doing the right thing or doing the better thing. The idea is based on the understanding that taking the high road will be harder, but there will be a reward for it at the end of the road, so it will be worth the trouble. This is certainly true in music training. Choosing the low road might be easier in the present moment, but in the long run it is going to lead to frustration, and drag the process out longer than it has to be.

So what does it mean to choose the high road in music training? I will give you an example that illustrates the concept. Every student of guitar reaches a point of wanting to play scales much faster. There is a process for this with predictable, guaranteed results. The process starts with slowing the scales down to very, very slow speeds and working with painstaking attention to detail on perfecting technique. It is very tedious and requires a great deal of sustained mental focus on multiple aspects of technique. Very few actually submit to this part of the process and see it through, but rather try to push through it as quickly as possible. This renders the exercise useless or far less effective than it could be.

I have seen this over and over. A student tells me they want to play faster. I lay out the exercise. I follow up later only to find that they haven’t done it. What would you think if you put a hundred dollar bill on the table and told someone they could have it if they would just pick it up, and they told you they really wanted it bad, but would not reach out and pick it up? This is what students of guitar do with developing speed. They tell me they want to play faster. I tell them in great detail exactly what to do. Then they don’t do it.

Does this mean they don’t really want to play faster? No. What it means is that during the exercises, they repeatedly allow themselves to fall apart over maintaining sustained mental focus. They take the low road.

This sort of thing comes up in numerous ways, anytime there is a decision to be made over doing the harder thing or the easier thing. Another good example … experimenting with new phrasing paths rather than just rehearsing paths you already know. Are you guilty of this? Playing phrases in straight time rather than making a pointed effort to mix up the timing across a phrase. Guilty? I bet you are. I am, although more so in times past than recently.  

There are a hundred ways in any practice session that you can take the low road. I won’t take time to present an exhaustive list here, but generally you probably know if you are doing this. It is very simple to see if you pay attention to it. Are you avoiding the harder thing and doing the easier one instead? If so then you are taking the low road. Though it might make your practice seem less burdensome, it is slowing down your overall progress rate by multiples.

I can help you learn to play guitar even if you insist on taking the low road, but what I can’t do for you is help you achieve the maximum results you are capable of in the shortest possible time. If you want that, then you will have to take the high road, and in that case I can help you a great deal!

Conclusion – I could go on and on with this matter of how attitude translates into results, but as you can see it is already quite a bit longer than my usual articles. Hopefully I have got the point across enough to help you identify ways in which you might be harboring some kind of attitude that is hindering your progress.

Please bear in mind it is not my intent with this article to beat anyone up. It is difficult to speak on the subject of attitude without stepping on some toes, but it is such a critical component of success with music that I feel an ethical obligation to address it, even it makes some folks mad or costs me some clients. If you are one of my active or former clients and feel like I wrote this thinking of you, I assure you I didn’t write any of this article, or part 1, with any one person in mind, except the one illustration with the teenage girl struggling with chord changes. This is all about generalities from my overall experience as a developing musician, and observations as a performer and teacher. If you do feel that any or all of this applies to you personally, well … then it probably does. Don’t give in to “an attitude” about it. Instead, take the high road and use it to identity and eliminate any such hindrances, so you can get on with that which works!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Out To The Woodshed

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

In earlier times wayward kids were subject to a form of corrective discipline referred to as “woodshedding”. The parent would take the straying kid out to the woodshed for private application of a paddle or belt to the straying kid’s hind quarters. The practice was universal such that over time the term “woodshedding” came to be used as a colloquialism to refer to all manner of discipline, including the self-discipline involved in mastering a skill through practice. Musicians picked up the term to refer to extended sessions of private practice – sometimes literally in a woodshed for privacy.  

The woodshed ultimately fell to the wayside of history with the rise of electricity, but the term woodshedding has stuck with musicians as a way to refer to intense efforts toward improvement through private practice. For us guitarists the idea is to get in a place where we can be free from the pressure of others hearing our flaws and mistakes, the distractions of people, phones, televisions, etc., and focus intently on improving our mastery of technique, improvisation, or details of specific songs.

If you read about or watch documentaries about highly acclaimed musicians you can’t miss the importance they place on practice toward achieving their goals. In many cases you will hear stories of spending nights and weekends daily for years to develop their impressive skills.  If you are a hobbyist with limited time to practice you may come to the discouraging conclusion that routine woodshedding is essential to developing satisfying musical skills that you can be proud of sharing with others.

Make no mistake: the more time you spend engaging in effective practice, the better you will get. However, it is quite realistic to expect to achieve a satisfying level of functional musicianship without practicing five hours a day every day of the week. For a hobbyist musician, a half hour to an hour of effective, goal-oriented practice per day for five days a week will deliver meaningful results. While there are a number of elements to effective practice, the object of our focus for this article is the importance of consistency.

I often observe students of guitar setting aside my recommendations to cover a broad range of materials in every practice session and instead focusing on one element that they have become temporarily absorbed with. They will then woodshed this one item, and then everything else they have been building falls to the wayside. Then we have to go down the deadly road that sucks the ambition out of the most enthusiastic students of music: review.

When you are learning the fundamentals of music, woodshedding is NOT a productive substitute for consistency. Not only does it rob you of costly skills in the areas that you are neglecting to practice, it also doesn’t work well for the one area that you have focused on. It may deliver a temporary sense of satisfaction in that over a few days of woodshedding one thing you may see a visible improvement in that one thing, but here is the dirty secret about woodshedding: the gains disappear as soon as you stop woodshedding that one thing.

You can easily perceive this for yourself by considering the equivalent of woodshedding in the academic world: cramming. We have all been through the experience of neglecting consistent homework and then trying to intensely study in preparation for a test. Does it work? Yes, many times you can pass the test with a lot of short notice intense study. However, did you ever go back and take a test on the same material a week later? How do you think you would have done?

If you are studying music it is most likely not something that is being forced on you, so you should not be reluctant to do your “homework”, nor should you be eager to put behind the most recent material you studied. If you are … maybe music is not the right thing for you, or maybe you are pursuing skills in a style that is not the best fit your inner muse. Assuming you are passionate about learning music, you should logically wish to pursue a course that will allow you to retain hard won gains, rather than constantly cramming for a test (such as your next lesson) and then forgetting. It is a simple fact of human memory, both cognitive and physical (i.e. muscle memory), that repetition is the key to long term retention. So you should pursue a practice routine that includes consistent repetition of the knowledge and skills you need to achieve your short to medium term musical goals. While you may not see the more immediately satisfying visible gains of woodshedding one area, you will continually improve your musicianship by increments each day, and medium to long term you will be a much more potent musician for it.

It is important to understand that consistency does not mean that you will be ever stuck practicing everything you have ever learned. There will come a time for instance when you can perform your basic chords with ease, such that you do not have to practice them specifically and routinely any more. It is the same with scales and phrasing, and general knowledge. Once you have reached a particular goal, you replace it with something you can’t do yet and get to work consistently practicing that new thing until it also becomes habitual.

And finally, let us consider the real and practical value of strategic woodshedding. If you are performing publicly then what you need for a given performance (such as my application group classes) is a high level of fluency in those things you will be performing for that one occasion. Then it makes sense to woodshed the specific things required for that presentation. Then after the presentation you go back to a more generalized practice routine until a few days before your next public performance. Likewise, if you join a band and suddenly need to learn a list of new songs, you may need to get up to speed on those songs very quickly. So you would woodshed the set list as much as possible before your first group practice, then make practicing though the set list a part of your regular practice routine.

If you are situated such that you have time to woodshed everything on your highly effective practice schedule, then by all means go for it and we will look forward to seeing you on the Billboard charts soon. However, if this is not you then don’t despair. The proverbial tortoise wins the race most of the time. Consistency is the key!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Overcoming Overwhelm

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By Chad Crawford, PMI Guitar Instructor

If you are new to guitar, or especially if you have been playing for a while then you may already be acquainted with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that there is a long road ahead and you are not sure you can see the destination. If you have attempted any kind of lesson program you have surely observed that there does not seem to be any one clear thing or few things that you can do to get the results you seek. Maybe you have sensed that there are a LOT of things you need to accomplish. If you are currently involved in a program of instruction, you may have a pile of those things on your desk right now.

As with other impediments to eventual success with music, this feeling is quite normal. Once you get deep enough into this to realize how much is involved with fluent guitar playing, it is easy to become awed by the amount of information to learn and tasks to work through. You may then conclude something like this … “I am not able to do this”, or “I could possibly do this, but I do not have the time”. Then the next logical step is, of course … giving up.

So let’s consider how we get stuck in this trap and then how we can avoid it, or work around it. The first thing we need to know about overwhelm is this – it is a state of mind, not an objective reality. Particularly, it is a feeling … a feeling that we are not up to the job ahead of us. It is also a false feeling. Unfortunately, there is enough of reality inspiring this feeling that it may be difficult to see the falsehood in it. Let’s put on our reality glasses and take another look at this self-defeating false feeling of doom.

1 – Know The Facts: The first thing we need to do is address the truth – that learning to play an instrument well is a big task. Although I am a proponent of “positive thinking” to a reasonable extent, a positive attitude does not change the immediate reality of things. We can sit all day and think positive thoughts about being a great musician. Other than a fleeting feeling of self-satisfaction, this will accomplish nothing unless we allow this positive framework to motivate sustained action toward a specific goal. A positive outlook combined with focused action will indeed yield impressive results, possibly far beyond what we would have thought ahead of time. So, let’s start by rejecting the sense of doom and replacing it with a positive outlook that we are indeed potentially capable musicians. Let us also combine that mental framework with the willingness to do some work toward our goals.

2 – Formulate a Properly Balanced Perspective: Second, let’s narrow down our goals to something realistic. Let us not go to either extreme. One extreme might be what I call the “moon child”. In other words, shooting for the moon. Example, “I’m 38 years old, know three chords, work sixty hours a week, have a wife and three kids, and I want to play like Eddie Van Halen within 6 months of dusting off my old high school guitar”.  Here is another example that I see routinely in my pre-enrollment consultations, “I want to be able to play expertly in any style from classical to progressive rock and everything in between” (have you ever taken note that well known accomplished guitarists only play in one very narrow range of style?) The other extreme might be, “Since I can’t play like Eric Clapton my playing is worthless”. Really? Try telling that to B.B. King – one of the most acclaimed guitarists who has ever lived, who made a long, lucrative career and legacy out of simple repetitive blues licks.

So let’s face some facts – some goals are completely off the chart unrealistic, and some goals are simply not appropriate for some persons. On the other hand some folks go to the other extreme and assume that ANY goal is beyond their reach. Here is the balance of truth in the middle of the extremes – there is plenty of fun to be had with guitar at skill levels within the reach of the average person. If you set a goal that is out of proportion to the amount of time you can and will invest into guitar, this is a set-up from day one for overwhelm. If you give in to overwhelm at the slightest appearance of difficulty, you are robbing yourself and others of the great satisfaction to yourself and others that comes from you expressing yourself well with an instrument. Let’s avoid both extremes. Balance is the key.

3 – Set Effective Goals: So what is a realistic goal? That is of course going to vary greatly from person to person according to any number of factors. We can look here at some of the common factors. It is very important to pick a range of style to focus on. For instance, classical guitar is a very different approach to guitar than rock. It is unlikely that anyone, and particularly a hobbyist, is going to achieve great things in both of these styles. Even professional musicians tend to focus on one style. So pick the one you like most – the one that has the most songs that you enjoy hearing. In doing so you have eliminated a great deal of material that you need to bother with learning.

Now let’s narrow it down some more. For instance, within the Blues style, we have a number of even more specific styles …. Delta Blues (acoustic slide), Chicago Blues (low gain electric guitar), Texas Blues (medium gain electric guitar with a rock flavor). If you want to play Texas Blues, you do not need to master alternate tunings for acoustic slide guitar. So you see, when you narrow down your goal, you eliminate a LOT of material that you would be wasting time to pursue. This does not mean you are permanently eliminating the possibility of playing songs from any other style. Contrarily, learning to play well in one style will undoubtedly leave you potentially much more capable to approach other styles with better results, especially closely related styles such as Blues and Rock.

Ok, so we have narrowed things down to where we can see some outer limits to what we have to accomplish to reach our goal. There is still a lot left to do. So how do we look at all this and avoid a sense of doom? Very simple. There is an old adage I am fond of repeating to my clients: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Rather than look at a whole body of knowledge and tasks with awe and overwhelm, we break the project into parts that we can manage and set up a plan to start building up fluency in each of a number of targeted areas.

If you have been at this for a while you have probably accumulated a lot of material and it becomes practically impossible to study all of it routinely. So what do you do? You have to look at your short term goals and see what material will help you reach those goals. If you have material that is not pertinent to your short term goals, set it aside for now and focus on things that are directly relevant to the closest goals. For instance, if your near-term goal is the ability to play pop rock solos, you do not need to practice exotic scales and diminished arpeggios. Focus on pentatonic scales, embellishments, and phrasing. The more advanced materials can wait until you have mastered the basic stuff to an extent that you can yield more practice time to exploring new ideas.

Essentially, the problem of overwhelm yields to these things: positive attitude combined with positive action, goal-oriented organization, and targeted elimination of non-essentials. Push aside incapacitating thoughts. Replace them with enthusiastic action. Organize your practice time and materials around your near-term goals. Eliminate (for now) those things that do not contribute to these goals.

Finally, as with all things guitar, practice well and often!

Copyright © 2005 Palmetto Music Institute. All Rights Reserved.