TOP 10 GUITAR LESSONS MYTH #4 | Practice Makes Perfect — FALSE!
We’ve all heard the statement “practice makes perfect” and it sounds really clever and really accurate and seems to make logical sense so we take it for granted that it is so. But there’s actually a fundamental flaw in going around telling everyone this. And that is: you can practice from sun up till sun down every day and if you don’t have crucial correct information about the techniques and approaches that the artist is using, it’s not going to help you one bit! I spent a lot of time in guitar lessons stressing this laying the groundwork and the right foundation for students. You have to have that concrete foundation built before you start to build a mansion on top of it – Mud is not going to cut it!!! You can be Frank Lloyd Wright building the most magnificent building but if the foundation is not going to hold up, you are wasting your time. I go through examples on the video with John Mellencamp and Randy Rhodes and of course there are countless others. You need to know how chords are fingered and scales are fingered and the approach that is going into this because you can have something that works great in another song that is totally non-applicable to either playing the song up to tempo or getting the sound the artist does. I really cannot stress this enough: get the correct guitar information and the right approach before you spend lots of time trying to perfect something.
Imagine if you are a brain surgeon and have to do very delicate surgery but the only thing available to you is a big gilette razor: it’s not gonna matter how much you practice or try to successfully hone the skill of doing the task that’s necessary. The fact of the matter is that you have chosen the wrong tool for the job. Now that razor might be great if you need a close shave for the day, the analogy being a completely different song. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is going to translate to the new song you’ve chosen, so do your homework, get a qualified guitar instructor who knows the material you’re trying to do to walk you through it. Time and money spent up from getting the right information with the right preparation before practicing all day long in your room will repay itself many times over and get you where you want to go much quicker.
Play it your way.
The Cypher Way
Rock on — Jimmy Cypher
Guitar coach Jimmy Cypher explains the common mistakes and myths that prevent students from reaching their true potential. Watching your favorite players perform, viewing instructional content (books, videos, classes etc.) is not enough! As many students have discovered, you can have all the correct information and all the best players… yet the skill set to play modern popular guitar at the elite level STILL remains elusive. Why? It is only when these underlying “paradigms” and social conditioning are changed that aspiring guitar players can become the best… at being themselves!
Guitar Player, July 1984.Rock and roll is feeling. And after you know most of the basics”chords, rhythms,
scales, and bends, which I’ll begin discussing in a minute”getting that feeling is just
about the most important aspect of playing guitar.
In my opinion, you can’t learn to play rock and roll by taking lessons. Although a
teacher can show you certain things, such as songs and licks, you still have to sit down
and learn how things feel by listening. My biggest influence was Eric Clapton when he
was with Cream and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. I learned his solos to “Crossroads”
[from Cream’s Wheels Of Fire, RSO, 3802] and “Sitting On Top Of The World” [Cream,
Goodbye, RSO, 3013] note-for-note by slowing them down to 16 RPM on my dad’s
turntable. By taking licks off records and listening, I developed a feel for rock and roll. If
you want to play, that’s the same kind of thing you’ll have to do. Eventually, you’ll take the
phrases and rhythm patterns you’ve copped and begin to put your own mark on them.
One of the areas that guys put too much emphasis on is equipment. Once when Van
Halen was on tour, we were opening for Ted Nugent and he was standing there watching
me play, wondering how I did it. The next day at the soundcheck when I wasn’t there, he
asked our roadie if he could plug into my stuff. Of course, it still sounded like Ted. In other
words, it doesn’t really matter what you’re playing through. Too many guys think a certain
player’s sound has to do with equipment, but it doesn’t make any difference. Your sound
is in your fingers and brain. If you’re going to learn to play lead, get an electric guitar. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one (I started on a cheapie Teisco Del Rey). Acoustic guitars aren’t good for learning lead, because you can’t play up very high on the neck and they take heavier-gauge strings, which makes it hard to bend notes. (I use light ones, Fender XLs.) Also,you don’t really need an amp at first, unless you’re in a band. When I’m noodling around the house, I rarely plug in.
Most beginners want to learn lead because they think it’s cool. Consequently, they
never really develop good rhythm skills. Since most of a rock guitarist’s time is spent
playing rhythm, it’s important to learn to do it well. Learning lead should come after you
can play solid backup and have the sound of the chords in your head.
Playing blues progressions is the best place to start learning, because they’re so
basic, and they form the foundation for a lot of rock tunes. After you’ve got one or two
patterns down in a couple of keys, you can start noodling with lead guitar. Examples 7
and 8 are two shuffle patterns in the keys of A and E, respectively. Memorize them as
soon as possible. Eventually, you’ll want to learn them in some of the other common rock
keys, such as C, D, and G. “Ice Cream Man,” from our first album, and “Blues Breaker,”
which I did on Brian May’s Star Fleet Project, are 12-bar blues. [Ed. Note: In the tablature,
the horizontal lines represent the guitar’s strings (the uppermost line is the first string),
while the numbers denote frets.]
TOP 10 GUITAR LESSONS MYTHS #3 | “In order to learn electric guitar, I must first learn to play Acoustic guitar.” — FALSE!
I really don’t know who came up with this: maybe the outlaw devil music Wing of some fundamentalist church or classical conservatories stuck in the 19th century, to steer people away from steel string guitar thereby not bastardizing nylon string I really don’t know.
But as you can see in the link to the Eddie Van Halen article I’ve included here, this is probably the dumbest thing in guitar lessons I’ve ever heard of. You can start to appreciate the absurdity of this by putting blanks in that sentence and replacing guitar with other instruments:
“In order to play the saxophone I must first learn the Tuba. “
Well ummm… they’re both wind instruments, I’ll give them that so you do blow on them and so forth but I would think they’re going to diverge pretty quickly and so too is electric and acoustic guitar. Yes they have similarities and I play both as many musicians to do, but that doesn’t mean that you should be browbeat into substituting one for the other just because someone doesn’t want to teach you hard rock and heavy metal. Which let’s be honest: that’s usually what it’s all about: steering students away from that evil devil music right?!?! Yes, you have Metallica and the Scorpions playing with classical symphonies now but at the local guitar lessons studio level, you STILL hear this… in the 21st century! So what does Eddie Van Halen – one of the greatest musicians ever to pick up an electric guitar say:
I really can’t put it any simpler than that on and this is usually the direction of the Senetece: you don’t really hear metal players trying to talk people out of playing acoustic; always the other way around! I’m not sure where this guitar lessons urban legend started but I think we all have an idea here. Certain techniques many of which are outlined in my video so please watch it… they just don’t translate from one instrument to the other, acoustic versus electric they have some similarity and it’s great play both. But the best way to become a great electric player is to spend your time on electric; the best way to become a great acoustic player is to spend your time on acoustic.
Would you tell someone that was trying out for the Olympics for 400 meter sprint that what they really should do is spend their time in the gym power lifting or running marathons all the time instead of running 400 m sprints?!?! This is so obvious when you take it out of the guitar context that we’re so used to hearing. Don’t be beat over the head with that. Like the US Constitution says: “we hold these truths to be self evident.”And so my advice to all aspiring guitar players when you go to guitar lessons : do not be talked out of playing the instrument you want to play if someone tells you to play something else walk out and find somebody who will teach you what you want to know.
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