Great advice for all wannabe guitar players.

https://youtu.be/U6ZrPxStPAw

Great Advice. I've recently started a separate structured practice programme and I'm finding my playing is improving.

I try and encourage those who are interested to learn to play classical, with your fingers, to sight read, and practice at least an hour a day if you can't make it two.

There are certain scale patterns you can play on the neck using ami fingering on the right hand and certain arpeggio styles and "clawing" techniques that will take you to a whole different stratosphere--and faster.

Classical. Even if you play rock.

FWIW and YMMV.

Hi All
I am a beginning 62 year old pilgrim on Guitar ,and looking for any tips on using Band in a Box for learning Guitar that is used by others .
Currently if I am working on 12 bar blues in G , I make a track with chords ,then play say 80bom then move up speed to
120 bom ,
Or a troubling part of a song and then play along at 80 bom
and move up after a few from 80 to 120 bmp .
And other tips on Guitar learning and Band in a Box would
be appreciated
Thanks Rich
2018 ultra

with 12 bar blues and the guitar i do a couple of things.

vary the key as well as them tempo. over time this will help you a great deal in seeing the entire fretboard.
licks you may know in one position will start to reveal themselves on other places.
Its a mystery particular to relatively few instruments besides the guitar.
That whole same note in 3 different places thing.

vary the style of the blues. a swing vs a boogie woogie will have you using different chords when you comp.
you'll certainly play different lines when you solo.

Try to never never NEVER play a song faster than you can comfortably play it while you are learning it.
There will come plenty of time to break this rule and embarrass yourself later onstage.

Sometimes playing a song much slower than at speed will show you where there is some "room" between phrases.
It might open up some new ideas, especially with your solos

Never resist the temptation to play a rest. Its the most overlooked note in our arsenal.

I am all about slow practice, something my teachers pounded into my head until I got it. When you are a kid, you want to play everything fast, but you have to SLOW IT DOWN.

Like to 40 BPM.

It took my a long time to realize this, but you have to spend some time playing songs perfectly at a really slow tempo because you are forming muscle memory and also building muscles.

If you gloss over things--and gloss over mistakes--at higher speeds you will never learn the muscle memory to play them correctly. Ever. So you HAVE to practice slow, or have some slow practice in your regimen. It took me years to figure this out and discipline myself to practice slowly.

You've got me thinking on this one Dave. I seem to be having a hard time between playing and practicing. Well, that's not really right. The truth of the matter is that I'm too focused on playing and don't practice at all. As a result I'm frustrated in my lack of progress. I guess I lack the discipline to practice.

I guess I'm coming to an epiphany...a moment of insight. Reminds me of another forum member, JazzManDan now called MusicStudent. I really need to rethink this, I've got to slow it down, I need to understand the difference between playing and practice.

I'm going to start today. I'm going move into the slow lane. My new goal is I'm going to learn how to practice.

Jeff

Banjo picker's first rule: slow it down to get faster.

...Deb

My rule for students is if you can't play it slow you will never play it fast.

Hi All
Good info about playing slower I agree . My Question was more of Using Band in a Box ,and how to use band in a Box to Learn Guitar

Biab is Great for practicing your soloing, especially over a 12 bar blues.
You can also use it for working on your comping skills.

Assuming you know some major and minor pentatonic forms on the guitar
Play a blues at 60bpm in A around the 5th fret
Play some solos. Think about what you are trying to say. not just run notes
Skip strings. skip note, vary your phrases.
Play some notes that are "outside" your pentatonic boxes.
Then change key to D.
Play some different solos around the 5ht fret also. Its a little different pentatonic boxes
Play all the other keys
Change the tempo till you feel slightly out of control
Change the style.

That will take about 5 hours.

Now learn 3 or 4 different shapes for each of the 3 chords and learn to comp the changes using these shapes.
See if you can easily switch shapes within a bar.
Sometimes I will mute the chording instruments (guitar,keyboard)in the biab arrangement to make sure my comping is rounding out the full band sound.

That will take a few hours more.

Move your pentatonic "boxes" around based on your newly practiced chord shapes.
Over time try to link the boxes together.



If you're thinking about jazz here's a study that has helped me on the guitar.
I call it the forced arpeggio study.

Start with a simple 3 chord blues using 7th chords.
At 60 bpm in the key of c practice your arpeggios (1,3,5,b7) over each of the 3 chords as the changes roll
At first play nothing but the 4 note arpeggio in quarter notes.
Then do it in eight notes. then do it in two octave.
Then speed it up a little.
No need to get too fast, there's other stuff to do.
Instead of playing 1,3,5,b7 try starting on the 3rd, then the 5th, then the b7
Try mixing it a little (3,b7,1,5)

Next substitute some chords in the changes. Add some minor chords or diminshed chords.
There are plenty of examples of exceedingly more complex blues changes in Biab.
Perhaps you have the BlueJAMC or BlueJamF folder under bb. Plenty to work from there.

Start slowly, no more than 2 chords per bar.
Play as slow as you need to tempo to keep up with changes.
Learn the arpeggios for the chords you substitute.

Now, learn different places to play these arpeggios.

That will take a couple of years.

Venture in genres other then the 12 bar blues. Try some country or funk as you can use pretty much the same scales as you would in your blues. Use 7th and 9th chords is funk. Then try some jazz but using non-triad chords, one per measure. Chords like Cdim, Cdim7, Caug, C11, CmMaj7 etc. If you know enough theory to form and major scale there is an easy method to find out what scales to use with whatever chord.

Is that what you are looking for?

This is brilliant, mrgeeze. Love it. Great regimen.

I could go one step further beyond the slow down lane to the SINGLE NOTE lane.

I have taken lessons from two Segovia students, and the last one would make me spend fifteen minutes on a NOTE sometimes.

I am serious. I would play a fretted single note before an "enveloping" chord on one Segovia study (the first note holds while other left hand fingers come down around it) and he would stop and say "NO!"--the way you are approaching that note is wrong, you have to HOLD it, slight vibrato, HOLD IT and THEN lay your fingers down on the other strings and pluck, while the first note is still sounding, let the note ring through!!! PRECISELY!!!!--IT IS ALL ABOUT THE TONE DAVID!!!! THE TONE!!!! NO!!! DO IT AGAIN! TONE!!!!!

He would slow me down to 20 BPM sometimes.

Hard core man.

With respect to tempo and tempo that is too fast for comfort, don't overlook that you don't necessarily have to play every eighth note on the lead sheet. You can block out the melody into landing notes that you can handle. Fill in the blanks (passing notes and runs) in time.
Quite frankly, I wouldn't put a premium on speed if I were playing the blues. Stevie Ray already done that. No point in running it into the ground.

Hi All
Great info , I am oldster just starting out and appreciate the info,I play the 12 bars blues in E,C,G
And learning some folk ,southern rock,classic rock,
and a very slow learner of Band in a Box ,and enjoying
it all .

In response to the original post, one thing I noticed (I've been playing guitar now for 50 years!) is that you'll plateau for a while then suddenly you'll jump a step to the next level. at least that's what happened to me.

In the UK we have a magazine called Guitarist and the editor in the 90s was Neville Martin who referred to practising away from the guitar. It's not as silly as it sounds. I often think about what I've been playing and get ideas of doing things differently or new things to try next time I pick up the guitar. Try it - it works!

I play to the hymnbook, with BiaB backing.
The possibilities seem endless. Lately, playing the relative minor pentatonic scales under the changes.

Rel minor in Cmaj is the 6th, the A. Minor pent is
(root) (1.5 steps) (1 step) (1 step) (1.5 steps) (root),
or, ACDEGA.

Knowing the 5 is a given. F chord is FAC. Relative minor of F is, then the d minor. At first, I wrote it out for F and G (the e minor.)

Don't have it sounding all that great, yet, but it is a skill builder and knowing those minor pents could come in handy. You could start out by staying in the 6m of the key.

Try playing a minor pentatonic in the root position, up two frets and again up seven frets. This for an A minor pentatonic you would start on the bass A, 5th fret, bass B, 7th fret and on the bass E 12th fret. Of course you do not have to start on those note just play minor pentatonic fingerings in those positions. These other positions will add chord extensions that add a touch of jazz to your songs.

Merry Christmas.

Thanks, Mario. I'll try that. I am assuming that is a kind of blues or jazz scale -- (root)(whole)(whole)(2.5 frets)(root)
that can be transposed to any root.
Exercises like this build flexibility.
Christmas Eve !
Like David says, take it slow & May God bless you.

Hands down the best advice I ever got for playing the blues was to practice my grimace.

A good blues player needs at least 3 go-to grimaces for when strings are bent.
1. The full on step and a half bend up to match the next string.
2, the sweet half step and full step bends
3, Double stop bends.

Just like the notes, the grimaces must be practiced until they become automatic

Like this guy?

actually the grimaces are best used when playing with another guitarist. when you hit a bum note, grimace at the other guitarist and the audience thinks it was them.

Chet Atkins is quoted as saying: "All of my mistakes were international!"

I like to practice the Carlos Santana expressions myself.

There are more than 69 of them and you have to pretend you are...

Well, I really can't say, but it takes a lot of work.

The Hal Leonard "Guitar Method" (Combined Books 1-2-3) with the audio access code is gradually moving into the position once held by the Mel Bay series as a most popular starter program.
It starts out with the "Notes on Each String," moves through "Popular Chords," and spends the remainder playing mostly single note, some double notes, traditional songs from lead staffs. Basically, the lead sheets are treble melody staffs.
The book comes with a code to access helpful audio tracks
at Audio tracks that go with lessons
I don't mention this to push the book, especially since now we have BiaB and lots of "Fake Books" in every style. They all have chord notation. So, you make your own. The book gives the student the foundation.
Now we have BiaB to drive the changes, the melodies, and the timing. Can there be any wonder that BiaB has revolutionized learning and practicing?
From E to E, frets 0-12, the guitar has three octaves. Add a fourth octave from frets 12-22. High C is on fret 20. There's nothing keeping us from launching the melody or the scale from whatever position we want. The intervals don't change. The learning process may or may not involve knowing the notes all the way up the neck. Good thing about the guitar is that the player can do good melodies in just a few neck positions, for example frets 4-10 will get it done. If that sounds like too much work do frets 5-9.
Learn chords in the open position, a few triads & inversions, and you'll be good to play along and occasionally break out. The good thing about sight reading is should you get lost, you can always refer to the music to pick it back up on time.

I have been teaching out of the Hal Leonard "Guitar Method" (Combined Books 1-2-3) for a number of years now. It is an excellent course giving the student exposure to a number of playing techniques. I highly recommend it.

Any thoughts on the audio tracks, Mario?

Years ago I purchased the combined version but I have no idea where that CD when! It has been a long time since I played it and with a memory like a bear trap that is always open I don't remember what it was on it. I think it was the lessons and some chord backing tracks to jam with but I could be totally wrong about that.

Same here, Mario. The Hal Leonard link to mylibrary (above) folder on halleonard.com requires a pass code which is on the title page of each book.
I'd forgotten about it. Band-in-a-Box web entrepreneurs would do well to look into the idea of providing backing tracks with chords and lyrics or sheets.

If there is one thing BIAB does better than any other software, it gives you something to play along with. Pick something you like mute everything except the bass and drums. If you are a guitar player listen to stuff Brent Mason plays. Slow it down until you can understand it.

The internet has ten zillion backing tracks to play too. Every song that exist just about is on youtube. If you are going to play gigs, stand up when you practice. Play like you are on stage.

It takes real work to play things slow. Continuing to play fast and sloppy will keep you from ever learning to play well.

Some of the best guitar players in the world don't play super fast. They know how but they know two good notes are worth a thousand meaningless fast notes.


Now if I could just take my own advice more often...lol


Billy

Billy is right. If you can't play it slow and right you will never play it fast. Somebody once told their guitarist in the studio, if you can't get it in 2 takes you can't play it! Sounds about right.

Billy is right about standing as well. If your goal is to play on a stage, any stage, and you will be standing. you better be practicing that as well. It is different. Always use the guitar you will be playing in front of people when you practice as well, of course assuming you have more than one! Most guitarist end up with many, many, many guitars speaking from experience.

There are things right now I cannot play standing up as well as sitting down.

The fundamental changes line of books is quickly becoming a go to for me if I want to learn new techniques or styles etc. Check them out at Amazon or their own web site Fundamental Changes

Many Kindle versions available at $9.99. I have no connection to this company and get nothing by promoting it.