99 Ways To Play Better (And Sound Better) Right Now

Here at GP , we figure that if youre going to expand and maximize your

talents, you may as well learn from the best. So we offer these 99 tips
from cats who know their stufffrom rock royalty to jazz patriarchs to
any-and-all, top-of-their-game bad asses. Hopefully, youll find
something in these cosmic, practical, and musical nuggets of wisdom
that will kick that rut-raddled mind of yours into higher gears of
inspiration.

If youre locked away in a basement for eight hours a day with a
metronome and a torturous practice book that is equal parts Mel
Bay/Guantanamo Bay, youre still not assured of transcendent 6-string
skills. Sure, you may get stenographer-like dexterity and harmonic
book-smarts up the f-hole, but playing soul-shaking music often
requires a more diverse skill set. But this doesnt mean that attaining
the level of expression produced by someone like Jeff Beck necessitates
a life of guitar monk-dom. First, dont worry about the transcendent
and unattainable talent of Jeff Beck. Thats just silly. What you need to
do is ensure that whatever you play makes the hair on your arms stand
up and quiver with bliss and excitement.

1. Renew!
Moving into uncharted territory is a key ingredient to making your
practice sessions a success. Playing the same stuff over and over will
only take you so far. Introduce a new set of chord voicings, tunings, or
scale patterns to your routine every week. Its not necessary to know
how to implement the stuff right away, just make your fingers go to
new places, and let the musicality follow naturally. Joe Satriani
2. Sing, Sing, Sing
Before you play a solo phrase, sing it first. Then youll know if its
going to be effective or not. And if you start to sing a line, and find you
have to gasp for breathwell, youve overextended yourself. Ronnie
Montrose
3. Beat on the Brat
Heres an unconventional technique for building your rhythmic chops
and expanding your ideas about inventing phrases for solosand it
involves zero notes! Mute the strings with your fretting hand. Now,
forget about that hand completely, and start a groove with your right
hand by scratching a beat on the muted strings. The minute you start
getting bored, challenge yourself to come up with a variety of rhythmic
phrasesboth busy and sparse. Think of the exercise as a drum solo
that maintains the groove, and try to keep going for five minutes or
more. Bob Brozman
4. Dynamics
To work on picking dynamics, plug into a practice amp and turn your
guitar all the way up. Then play arpeggiosvery quietly at the
beginning, and then gradually louder by adjusting your touch. The goal
is to vary your dynamics, but not change the position of your hands.
Many guitarists change the way they hold their hands when changing
dynamics. As a result, they end up with a light-touch group of licks
the very fast stuffbut they dont develop any power. What you want to
achieve is continually making those conversions back and forth from
quiet to loud picking. Jerry Garcia
5. Unmask
Try cutting back on the effects in your setup. It may help you to better
discover the music. Bill Kirchen
6. Mess With Your Head
Try to keep your playing as fresh as possible, and not rely on set
patterns. When I practice, for example, I often tie off some strings with
rubber bands to force myself to look at the fretboard differently. I
might practice on the G and D strings only, or even the G and A
strings. Jim Hall
7. Room Miking
Theres a very old recording maxim that goes, Distance makes depth.
Ive used that a hell of a lotwhether its tracking guitars or the whole
band. People are used to close-miking amps, but Id have a mic out
around the back, as well, and then balance the two. Also, you shouldnt
have to use EQ in the studio if the instruments sound right. You should
be able to get the right tones simply with the science of microphone
placement. Jimmy Page
8. Relax
The most important thing to remember when youre attempting to
increase your speed is to relax. Dont push your muscles beyond what
they can give. Practice for about a half hour, and then take a break. You
can always resume after a few minutes. This is especially important
when youre trying to get seriously twisted patterns under your fingers.
I used to sit in front of the TV when I was a kid, and alternate-pick
scales very lightly. I wasnt really
paying attention, and it actually helped that I wasnt concentrating so
much, because I stayed relaxed, and yet I was able to build up my
technique and stamina. But never keep playing if you start to feel pain.
Ever. Tendonitis is no joke. Steve Lukather
9. Get Sensitive
If youre in a rut with your electric playing, pick up an acoustic.
Theres something about playing the acoustic guitar that makes you
think about songs. And if you work up solo versions of your favorite
pop tunes, youll become more aware of how bass lines and harmony fit
together. Then, when you go back to electric, those discoveries will help
you play more empathetic solos. Buck Dharma
10. Get High
Wherever your guitar is when youre sitting and practicing is where it
should be when youre standing. I discovered this the hard way. Years
ago, Id practice my solos sitting downand Id nail themonly to go to
rehearsal and blow it because my right- and left-hand positioning was
completely different when I stood up. Now, most players think it looks
uncool to wear your guitar up high, but I think its cooler to sound kick
ass than it is to look cool and suck! Zakk Wylde slings his Les Paul
really low, but as soon as a solo comes up, hell put his foot on a stage
monitor to raise his guitar up. Hell, Tom Morello wears his guitar so
high that he says it sometimes hits him in the chin. So, for the sake of
killer guitar playing, raise em up! Rusty Cooley



11. Expand
Learn everything you know in all keys. Joe Pass
12. Move On
Dont be precious about anythingmuch less a certain guitar sound.
There is always another interesting sound or effect just waiting to be
discovered. Robin Guthrie
13. Play Loud
Start playing loud when youre young, and youll be one step ahead of
the game. If you start off playing soft, it will get you into a lot of bad
habits. Terrible, terrible, habits. Look at these jazz people. Of course
they play soft. Its a trick so you cant hear them.Nigel Tufnel
14. Slide Right
Play slide to records to develop accurate intonation. I prefer early
Ricky Skaggs albums, because they are full of simple progressions with
different grooves in different keys. You dont want to worry about
exotic chords or tricky changes. Stay focused on I-IV-V progressions,
and learn how to play through the changes without moving around the
neck. You dont always want to start with the I chord, move up five frets
to the IV, and then two more frets for the V.Will Ray
15. Be Challenged
Play with others who are more advanced musically. They will help you
rise to their level.Bill Kirchen
16. Cork Your Slide
If you find a slide that sounds great, but is too big for your finger, try
cutting a few strips from a wine bottle cork, and gluing them to the
inside of the slide. A snug-fitting slide will improve your playing
immensely. Chris Mule
17. Dig Deeper
Seek out talented, but lesser known artists from the past and present.
Some of the coolest jewels life can offer are found on dusty back roads,
miles from the main corporate boulevards of life. And when you find an
artist you love, find out who they love.Greg V.
18. Art Appreciation
In the long run, its more important to look at paintings than to listen
to the way somebody plays bebop lines.Jim Hall
19. Literary Soloing
Think of a guitar solo as a paragraph. You need a clear beginning, a
middle, and an end. Look at musical phrases like sentences, and make
sure you break them up using punctuationor space. You pause
naturally when conversing, right? If you dont, youll bore the listener.
The same thing will happen with your audience if your solo is one
dimensional. Youll wear them out and lose their attention. Tom
Principato
20. The Bends
One of the most useful exercises Ive come across was on a Larry
Carlton instructional video. Larry would play a major scale in fifth
position, going up one octave, from the third string to the first string.
He then proceeded to do the same scale, but hed bend the majority of
it. The best part of this exercise is that you do it the same way in
reverse. This way, you learn to bend up in pitch, but also pre-bend and
descend in pitch. The major scale is a wonderful reference for
articulating and intonating your bends, because pretty much everyone
can hear its intervals clearly, and will know if theyre sharp or flat. Its a
demanding exercise, and yet its kind of pretty.
Then, practice Beatles songs, standards, and folk songs by using bends
to play the melody, rather than traditional fingering. This is a very
demanding and rewarding musical exercise that will teach you more
than, say, approximating the solo of Little Wing. Jim Campilongo



21. Love You Less
Listen more to the other players on the bandstand than you do to
yourself.Bill Kirchen
22. Ear Training
For some basic ear training, play any note on your guitar. In this case,
lets say its an A. Then pick an interval out of the airsay a perfect
fifth, E. Now, try to sing the E note, and then play the same note on
your instrument. See how close you came. Dont play the interval
before you try to sing it. Then youre only imitating, not ear training.
Force your brain to seek out and determine the interval youve chosen.
Start off easy with octaves, perfect fifths, major and minor thirds, and
then move on to more difficult major sixths, sevenths, seconds, flat
fifths, and so on. Rik Emmett
23. Screw Up
Dont worry about a bit of slop. Instead, put truth in every note. Music
isnt about playing with absolute perfectionits the intense and soulful
commitment to the note.Greg V.
24. Seek Truth
Dont listen to unimaginative naysayers when it comes to personal
creative expression. At some point, there will no doubt emerge a
conflict between the rules of instrumental mastery, and the need to
follow ones own intuition. Be strong! The only so-called advancements
in artforget about commercehave come about when someone has
either boldly modified or completely disregarded the norm. Those who
deviate must stay true to themselves. Nels Cline
25. Get Evocative
What is it exactly that moves you when you hear a guitarist you love? I
think its the relation between the players emotional feeling and their
muscle action on the guitar. To connect with this idea, first experiment
with the full range of your muscle power, trying to play the same riff
with an angry feel, a tender feel, and everything in between. Then, take
a song you know, and try to increase the sonic contrast from verse to
chorus, or section to section. Use this range of sound to better sculpt
the landscape of the song. Bob Brozman
26. Hello?
Experiment with not being the loudest thing on stage.Bill Kirchen
27. Thanks, Dude
Spend at least 15 minutes per Guitar Player magazine learning
something from a GP lesson. Some of the concepts Ive learned by
doing this have stuck with me for years! Dave Wronski
28. Get Bluesy
Study jazz soloing using the 12-bar blues form. Most players want to
start playing long bebop lines from the start, but the simpler the
melodic material is, the sooner you begin to develop a sense of
phrasing. In turn, this will give you greater soloing freedom, because
youll have a larger rhythmic vocabulary at your disposal. Lenny
Breau
29. Wrap it Up
Remember that the reputations of some of the greatest jazzmen ever
are built on eight-bar solos. Too many guitarists play solos that are way
too long. Jim Hall
30. Do For Others
Recording your own music is one thing, but having to deliver
something for somebody else is entirely different. Session work makes
you more critical about your playing. You cant hit notes all over the
place, youve got to make each note count, and if you cant play really
clean, it all sounds like a mess. You may think you sound fabulous
onstage, but when you hear yourself played back in the studio, its just
disastrous most of the time. But if you can play well in the studio, you
can play well onstage. Ritchie Blackmore



31. Find You
A good way to crave your individuality is to get a tape recorder and get
into a room thats kind of darkwhere you dont have interruptions
and then just play with a rhythm machine. After a while, its like a deck
of cards on the table, and you can begin to see the riffs that came from
this guy, the riffs that came from that guy, and then the two or three
riffs that are yours. Then you start concentrating on your riffs until you
develop an individual sound. Carlos Santana
32. Mix It Up
Treat each guitar trackand each songcompletely different. For
example, if Im using a certain amp and guitar on one track, Ill
deliberately use something else for the next tune or overdub. Keith
Richards
33. Pickup Balance
To balance your pickups, plug your guitar into something with level
meters, such as a 4-track recorder. Play each string individually, and
adjust the pickup height until the level of each string hits the same
point on the meters. Typically, youll have to lower the bass side of the
pickup. If your guitars overall output is quieter than what you had,
simply turn up your amp to compensate. The benefit here is string-to-
string clarity. Dave Wronski
34. Cut Back
Sometimes that massive, high-gain, mid-cut, huge bass tone can
sound about two inches tall in a concert setting. The guitars voice is in
the midrange, so try adding some midrange and cutting the bass. For
even more punch, attack, and clarity, cut your gain and distortion
levels. Too much gain can be counterproductive, as it compresses your
tone and kills dynamics. Greg V.
35. Shift Priorities
Play what you would like to hear, rather than what you would like to
play. Bill Kirchen
36. Rhythmic Solos
If the band is playing in 7/4 time, try to play in 4/4. When you do that
sort of thing, you begin to notice certain ways in which the two rhythms
synchronize over a long period of time. Thinking in these long lengths,
you automatically start to develop rhythmic ideas that have a way of
interconnecting. Jerry Garcia
37. Grease Up
Want to make a solo greasy? Start on the and of one.Dave Wronski
38. Get Funky
Forget about the fancy chords, and just concentrate on a funky beat.
John Lee Hooker
39. Lite FX
Its best if people dont notice effects that much. If you overdo it, and
everybody realizes youre using a phaser, then youre on the wrong
track already. Youve got to use those things with a certain degree of
subtlety. Keith Richards
40. Rhythm Chops
To become a better rhythm player, you must listen to the drummer. Id
also advise that you listen to the masters of rhythm guitar. The work
that Steve Cropper did on the Stax records is the definitive document of
how to play songs and accompaniment parts. Also listen to Chuck
Berry. His rhythm playing is so intense that he can go out and perform
with bands he has never seen or heard before and hold them together
like glue.Danny Kortchmar
41. Go Big
Use big strings. I like a set with a .013 E string, but Ive gone as high as
a .018-.074 set. Theyll eat your hands, your tuning pegs, and your amp,
but they sound great. Stevie Ray Vaughan
42. Moderation
Over-indulgence in anything is wrongwhether its practicing 50
hours a day, or eating too much food. Theres a balance with me, as
there should be with everything and everybody. Ive tried to keep it so
that Im able to execute the ideas that come out, but practicing too
much depresses me. I get good speed, but then I start playing nonsense
because Im not thinking. A good layoff makes me think a lot. It helps
me get both things togetherthe creativity and the speed. Jeff Beck
43. Play, Dont Worry
Dont spend more time worrying about what it is youre supposed to
be doing, rather than just doing the work. Once I was stuck while trying
to write some new music, and I asked my friend Wayne Horvitz how he
did it. He gave me a pencil sharpener. The moral? There are no short
cuts, so stop whining and get on with it! Bill Frisell



44. Moving In Stereo
Try using two amps and some stereo effects to get a bigger sound
onstage. A ping-pong delay sounds huge when you stand between both
amps, and any type of stereo chorus, flanger, phaser, or, in my case, a
Leslie simulator, creates the illusion of an even wider sound. Panning
your signal from side-to-side is a cool effect. I do it using a stereo Ernie
Ball volume pedal. I like the amps to be almost identical, while others
including Stevie Ray Vaughanprefer two amps that have different
sounds that compensate for each other. Finally, its important to
understand that unless both of your amps are miked, and panned left
and right in the house, nobody except you will hear the stereo effect.
Oz Noy
45. Be A Sponge
Listening is just as important as practicing. Your ears are your greatest
assets, and they work on a subconscious level. You should steal from as
many different guitarists as possible, as opposed to picking one and
trying to emulate that persons style. Once you have assimilated a
number of different approaches, try to blend them into one vision,
instead of jumping from one style to another. Will Bernard
46. Vibrato
Strengthen your vibrato technique by using each finger to play a note
and bending it up and down continuously, in half steps. As you move to
fingers two, three, and four, remember that all available fingers can
help you attain this half-step movement. Jim Campilongo
47. Alternate Picking
A good way to work on alternate picking is to choose three or four
notes, and work on those. Too often, players who are trying to improve
their right hand dexterity get hung up by trying to play too many notes
with the left hand. I hear a lot of players running whole scales from the
sixth string to the first, and playing them really sloppy. Keeping it very
basicusing only a few notesand playing slowly with perfect rhythm
is a task in itself. Al DiMeola
48. Ignore The Obvious
When youre comping behind a vocalist or soloist, dont always play
the root of the chord on the low stringsespecially if theres a bassist
on the gig. Sometimes the third and the seventh of the chord is all you
need if the bass player is playing the root. It will still sound full, and the
sound wont be muddy.Tal Farlow
49 Stage Smarts
A good band is not all about playing your instruments. You have to
work on your stage sound, too, so that you sound good out front. For
the guitarist, that means not being so loud. Now, I love loud, but I soon
realized that if I turned down, there would be more separation between
the instruments, and people would actually hear me better.Peter
Frampton
50. Get Down
For heavy rhythm, it has to be downpicking. Its absolutely key. Its
tighter sounding, and a lot chunkier. James Hetfield
51. Stay Hot
Keep your guitar out of the case and handy. Practice short periods
anywhere from five to 45 minutesmany times throughout the day,
rather than for one prolonged period. Often times, five minutes is
enough time to work on a technique or musical passage. The whole idea
of practice is to get your reflexes working like a gunfighters, so you can
pull out that gun and be instantly hot.Barney Kessel
52. Classical Gas
When playing while sitting, rest the guitar on your left legjust like
classical-guitar legend Andrs Segovia. This way, the guitar will be in
the same position as when you stand. You can even get yourself one of
those little foot stands to really anchor the guitar to your body when
playing aggressive music.Dave Wronski
53. Cruise Control
Fast playing begins with careful and sharply targeted slow playing.
You must develop the ability to hear and think every note. A fast
passage is a rapid succession of musical notesnot the product of a
frantic, panic-stricken flapping of the fingers. Begin practicing with
scales or patterns, which allow you to concentrate on getting your
actions and timing in good shape. Always start slowly and deliberately.
Increase speed gradually. Use some form of metronome or drum
machine to monitor your work. When you reach a speed at which you
can no longer get things right, stop. Any further attempted acceleration
will do damage, not good. John Duarte
54. Dont Peek
Adjust your amps volume and EQ settings by listening, rather than
looking at the settings. Simply shut your eyes, and turn the knobs to
where the amp sounds best. Im consistently surprised when I open my
eyes to discover things such as the Bass being nearly full up in one
situation, or the Treble on 10 in another. Cameron Williams
55. Teamwork
When you sit in with musicians youve never played with before, do
your thing in a way that compliments their sound. Listen attentively,
and make sure that what youre doing isnt stepping on anyones toes.
Play as if you were a member of the unit, and keep your eyes open to
allow for good communication. Dan Lebowitz



56. Touch
Tone has more to do with touch than gear, and the most important
thing is dampening anywhere youre not playing. Dampening can be
done underneath your fretting fingers or thumb, or with the outside of
your strumming-hand palm or thumb. Also, the way your finger makes
contact with the frets makes a big difference. You need to learn the
sweet spots on your guitar like a violin player would. Eric Johnson
57. Improvisation
During improvisation, a soloist should be influenced by the other
musicians, and vice versa. The Miles Davis Quintet was a great
example. As soon as the soloist paused, a band member would play
something that would influence the solos direction from that point
forward. This happened at every turn, so by the time the solo had
finished, it would be completely different than if the soloist had played
with nothing to respond to. The best improvisations come about this
way. Equally important is how you respond to your tone. For example,
if you are playing with a sound that doesnt sustain much, then its
futile to play long notes. The low strings tend to sound better with a
thinner tone, and high strings with a thicker tonewhich is why good
guitarists continually change their settings on their toggle switch,
volume, and tone controls throughout their solos. Warren Haynes
58. The Pinky
Use your pinky! When I first started playing, an older country
musician told me to keep practicing with my left-hand pinkyeven
though it felt awkwarduntil it was second nature. That was the best
advice I ever got. You were born with five fingersdont forget to use
em all! Deke Dickerson
59. Think Different
The ability to differentiate your playing while maintaining a support
role in your band is crucial. Louder doesnt necessarily mean better. I
try to find a strong niche in each parteither by technique, or by
finding an uninhabited frequency range. I sometimes distill ideas into a
lean riff, rhythm, or melodic phrase that sits right in with the drums.
Conversely, agile flourishes can make a skull-crushing riff seem nastier
if you break from the pack. A fat, signature guitar tone is something we
all chase after, but whether playing ensemble or stepping out front,
choosing a complimentary or contrasting sound can get your point
across, add structure, and make the song richer. Chuck Garvey
60. Damp
Learn to damp notes to control feedback and noise when playing slide
at high volumes. Many people play slide with a pick, and then use the
heel of the hand or something to control the sound. The style I got from
Duane Allman is to use the thumb and the first two fingers without a
pick. If you have glass or steel on your left hand, and a plastic pick in
your right, you are completely isolated from your instrument. What you
have to learn to do is to strike a note, then stop the note with the
fingers before you strike another one, so only one note sounds at a
time. It works kind of like a damper pedal on a piano. Dickey Betts
61. Embrace History
The greatest musicians are knowledgeable about musics roots.
Experience provides authenticity for the music we create. Eric Clapton
and Keith Richards can teach you a mess of blues, but its good to find
out about the original artists whose tunes they covered, such as Robert
Johnson. Its like the old saying: How can you know where you are
going, if you dont understand where youve been? Marty Stuart
62. Circle Picking
Use circle picking to play faster. Its an old jazz technique. Start by
playing with your pick at an angle. Hit the string with one edge of the
pick, and youll find that youre in position to come back on the
upstroke with the opposite edge. Then, alternate pick with a rotating
motion in either a clockwise or counterclockwise circle. The pick, while
not changing its angle in relation to the string, is circling that area of
the string. Its not done with the wrist, but with the fingers holding the
pick. When first learning, start with a large circle, just to get the feeling.
After a while, you should be able to get two or three notes going so fast
that its like a quiver. The reason its faster is because your picking
motion is not interrupted for a change in direction. The circle also gives
the notes a flowing quality.Roy Buchanan
63. Compression
Using compression is one of the best ways to get a consistently good
tone. It makes the guitar feel electric and alive in your hands, because
the notes sustain, rather than die on the vine as soon as you play them.
Any stompbox compressor will do. I always place the compressor at the
beginning of the signal chain, before going into the amp. Setting all the
dials at 12 oclock is a good starting point because it should give you a
lot of extra sustain and a little bit of breathiness without affecting your
basic tone much.Adrian Belew
64. Hang In
It takes time to develop every aspect of your technique. A lot of people
dont realize the crises youve got to go through. I used to get headaches
when I started doing the octave thing, but, over time, I was fine. All it
takes is to hear a little improvement in your playing, and that little bit
of inspiration is often enough to push you even further. Wes
Montgomery



65. Delay Levels
When youre mixing a tune and adding delay to a solo, adjust the effect
level to match what you played. The right amount of delay for a slow
passage or a high note is going to be different than the amount of delay
you want for a fast passage or a low note. For example, a fast passage
with a ton of delay sounds like garbage. Steve Morse
66. Picking
To develop picking technique, start by playing a series of downstrokes
on any open string. At the beginning of the attack, stay close to the
string, following through just enough to sound the note. Immediately
return to the starting point. Now, try the same sequence with
upstrokes. Finally, combine movements so that youre strictly
alternating strokes. Still on one string, meticulously practice the
following: repeated down-strokes, repeated upstrokes, alternate
downstroke and upstrokes, alternate upstrokes and downstrokes. Start
slowly and gradually build up speed. Next, try moving to adjacent
strings, and then to melodic skips on non-adjacent strings. Finally,
apply the technique to alternate chordal picking, or crosspicking. Be
sure to use alternate picking, playing downstrokes for notes that are on
the beat, and upstrokes for ones that are off the beat. Focus on
economizing the hand and finger movement of your picking hand, so
that you dont use excessive motion between up- and downstrokes.
Al DiMeola
67. Hello, Its Me
Get in touch with your uniquenesseven if you dont like it. Once the
crushing realization that I wasnt going to be Brian May or Steve Morse
hit me, I had to start embracing the things I hated about my style. Ty
Tabor
68. Be Aware
Remind yourself that youre free to feel great instead of reserved or
insecure. When youre feeling good, youre more apt to take chances
onstage, and if you make a bunch of mistakes, it wont matter. Its
almost like youre the instrument, and the music is flowing through you
like electricity. Like John Coltrane saidthe paramount aspect of being
a musician is to try to get more in touch and in tune with yourself.
When you do that, its like returning to the center and everything
emanates from there. You automatically become a better musician in
becoming a more aware individual. Eric Johnson
69. Un-Straight Eights
Practicing eighth-note lines with a triplet feel is very helpful for
improving ones rhythmic feel for jazz. Of course, the best way to get a
jazz feel is to play with records or with a group. Its something youve
got to inherently feel. A lot of rock players have such a straight-eight
feel that they cant play jazz. Theyre too stiff. Joe Pass
70. Get Out
You must perform for an audience, because the real crunch happens
when you get in front of people. You may discover that some things you
played in rehearsal dont make any sense, because you fooled around
too much with the frilly stuff and forgot the basic drive of the song.
Playing live also teaches you deal with situations like dropping your
pick or breaking a string, as well as forcing you to project. You have to
direct your playing somewhereunless you want to sit in a room like a
painter who wont show his paintings to anybody. Rory Gallagher
71. Noise
Once you get off the beaten path of chords and notes, any noise can be
its own microcosm of songwriting. There is a deep library of songs that
go from G to C. There is not a deep library of songs that use a toggle
switch and a wah pedal. Its a wide-open road. Tom Morello
72. Fiddlin Around
Learn to play fiddle tunes note-for-note. Dont cheat, or play little
slurs and things that you have a tendency to do when youre playing
fast. Play the songs slowly at first, until you get the notes even, and
keep increasing the speed until you can play them as fast as you want.
There are so many notes in fiddle music that youll really get your
technique and coordination down. And the exercises arent boring,
because you are actually playing something. Roy Clark



73. Wacky Time
If youre going to go out of the norm, go all the way. Dont just go out a
little bit. If youre scared to go out there, then stay in the normjust
learn to play really well in 4/4. But if you want to go beyond that, you
must in a totally different direction. If you want to count odd meters,
theyre all broken down into groups of twos and threes. And Im not
just talking about tinier subdivisions. What it amounts to is ritardos
[slowing down] and accelerandos [speeding up] inside of a bar,
mathematically worked out so that instead of bomp, bomp, bomp,
bompfour beats in a baryou get other kinds of action, where the
time inside of the bar goes faster, goes slower, and goes faster again.
But it all comes out on the downbeat of the next bar so you can still tap
your foot to it. Frank Zappa
74. Groove
Slowing down our tempos really opened things up for me. Suddenly,
the songs had a real groove, instead of always being driving, relentless,
and in your face. As a guitarist, that openness allowed more to explore
parts that had more funk and feeling. Allison Robertson
75. Renew
Play a new thing every day. Learning one new passing chord or a note
combination will get you moving towards something that will serve you
later on. Someday, a song will come along that all of those things will
relate to. Ry Cooder
76.Patience...
Take things real slow so that youre not making a lot of mistakes right
off the bat. Youll learn faster if you dont have to spend time un-
learning the things you screwed up at the beginning. Bill Frisell
77. Be Strong
The enemy of inspiration is self-doubt. Nels Cline
78. Get Healthy
Music is life force expressed in notes and phrases, so the more life
force the player has, the more energized the music will sound.
Concentrate on your health. Seek a nutritious diet, and drink lots of
water every day. The better the quality and balance of food you eat, the
less energy your body uses for digestion, and the more energy you have
in reserve for your music. For your mental self, clear your mind of
unnecessary chatter and negative messages that distract your focus
when youre performing or composing. For your emotional self, address
nagging problems. Its hard to be honest and deal with things, but
youll feel so much better afterwards, and the less internal stress
sapping your energy, the more you can put into music.John
Jorgenson
79. Separation
Try to separate yourself from what your fingers are doing and listen to
the amp. Steve Vai



80. Legato Levels
When playing legato, try to make all of the notes come out at a
consistent volume. To achieve even more control, practice accenting
the notes that arent picked. Allan Holdsworth
81. Commit
Dont be lazy. You have to want to play, and, most importantly, you
have to love the guitar. Randy Rhoads
82. Open Up
Self analysis can turn you into a selfish player, because its like saying,
Look at what I can do. In popular music, people want to hear the song
and the singer, and it should be your job to make sure the song feels
great. To do that, you need to feel the song, not intellectualize it. After
all, the tone is in your hands, and the attitude is in your heart, and
thinking things to death wont change any of that. Neil Giraldo
83. Build Up
Never forget that dynamics are a big part of the heavy factor in music.
The quiet parts that build tension are what trigger a huge release that
makes 100,000 kids jump up and down. Tom Morello
84. Adapt
Take a note from me, put it with your own notes, and make it you.
Hubert Sumlin
85. Avoid The Obvious
Try to avoid ordinary licks. If Im watching somebody for the chords, I
think about the relative minor and the relative minor 7th, and Ill do
away with the root note. I find it interesting changing from minor to
major, and, anyway, I always like to steer away from the obvious.
Steve Howe
86. Absorb
Incorporate the feel of what someone plays into your style, rather than
the actual notes. Then, youre not judging whether you can play a song
as well as the recording, because youre not trying to duplicate it. You
just want to nail the emotion of how an artists singing and playing is
making you feel, and how those feelings transform your own playing.
Bonnie Raitt


87. Craft
In commerce, the musician makes music. In craft, the music makes
the musician. The musician of craft acts on principle and moves from
intention. In this way, nothing is wasted, and our playing is not
accidental. There are ten important principles for the practice of craft:
(1) Act from principle; (2) Begin where you are; (3) Define your aim
simply, clearly, and briefly; (4) Establish the possible, and move
gradually towards the impossible; (5) Honor necessity; (6) Honor
sufficiency; (7) Offer no violence; (8) Suffer cheerfully; (9) Work, but
not solemnly; (10) Without commitment, all the rules change.
Robert Fripp
88. Set Limits
If you want to keep things raw, try limiting yourself to only two guitars
on a track. Once you get into three guitarsor three of any
instrumentyou might as well put 60 on there. Jack White
89. Set Solos Free
I enjoy solo lines that reflect the melody, but subtlely change it in a
way that opens up another little window in the song. And these lines
should have some freedomsome spontaneity. They shouldnt be
totally planned out. Brian May
90. Restraint
Dont play every lick you know before the end of the set, because then
youre screwed. Youll just end up repeating yourself. But its a very
youthful thing to jamits like sowing wild oats. But as grow older, you
become interested in doing something more lasting. You have to settle
down and make everything countmake sure what you do is worthy of
being heard again. Ive become more devoted to the song, and I feel
that jamming, unless it has a goal at the end of it, is pretty much a
waste of time. Eric Clapton
91. Mess Up
Play sloppy, make mistakes, and let those mistakes lead you to
different territories and ideas. Its important to take advantage of both
the rational control and the irrational uncontrolled. Henry Kaiser
92. Acoustic Solos
For an electric guitarist to solo effectively on an acoustic guitar you
need to develop tricks to avoid the expectation of sustain that comes
from playing electrics. Try cascades, for example. Drop arpeggios over
open strings, and let the open strings sing as you pick with your fingers.
Its kind of a country style of playing, but it works very well in-between
heavily strummed parts and fingered lead lines. Pete Townshend
93. Surrender
The best performances are completely unselfconsciouswhere youre
inside the music, and its leading you, and you just follow where it goes.
The minute you start to think about how the audience is going to
reactwhether what youre doing is right, or wrong, or entertaining
peopleyoure in trouble. All kinds of doubts and insecurities creep in,
and you lose the music. Suddenly, the music is no longer this organic,
living, breathing thing. It becomes something you try to knock into
shape with a set of rules youve picked up throughout the years.
Thinking should be done at an early stage in a musicians career. After
that, you just let go. And it becomes a blissful experience to play. Bill
Nelson
94. Move On
When youre recording, if you havent got the take in three or four
tries, then theres something wrong with the arrangement. Its madness
to worry yourself to death listening to 15 takes of the same song.
Dave Davies
95. Tonal Colors
Paint pictures with sound. First, find your whitethe deepest,
roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black
which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play.
Now, just pick the note where youve got white, pick it where youve got
black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down,
and youll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar. Les
Paul
96. Distortion
Tailor your distortion tones to the material youre playing. If youre
doing a slower, droning song, try a fuzz-style tonea sound with some
low end that kind of hums. If youre doing something faster and more
crazy, go for a sharp, midrange-heavy tone with a lot of harmonic
content. For songs that are in-between those two extreme, any vintage
distortion tones usually sound great. Mick Murphy
97. Melodic Delays
A bit of delay can smooth out the unpleasant, raw frequencies you get
from a fuzz box. I have two units, and I have different echo settings on
both. There are times when I have both running at the same time for
certain effects. During solos, I usually try to set the delays to have some
rhythmic time signature in common with the tune. I usually set them to
a tripletthe notes all intertwine, so it doesnt really matter anyway,
but I find that a triplet delay is very melodic. David Gilmour
98. The Show
All music is theatre. All music is expression. So never let the music get
in the way of your stage act. Pete Townshend
99. Trust Your Hands
Your sound is in your hands as much as anything. Its the way you
pick, and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the
guitar you use. Stevie Ray Vaughan