i'm having trouble developing consistency with ideal finger positioning, picking, emphasizing and muting. I can see these aspects in isolated chunks when I play- how good musicians accentuate and bring chords to life with the way they control everything about the volume and textures of the notes that get played (and the ones that don't etc.)
case in point
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8dl12lsaW8
can't seem to play it *quite* like that even if you're technically playing all those chords right...
long story short i can do these things in bits and pieces but i can't seem to put the carriages of the train together, it's like having trouble using a second language you can understand in text but everyday parlance leaves you in a daze.
the obvious answer is practice like a mofo, but i'm having trouble settling on drills.
update:yeah so if anyone knows the chords for either the song above or this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHckSzjNaE
please let me know- would greatly appreciate it.
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Suggestion #1: Instead of practicing "drills," practice recording the parts. (This will help you identify the little nuances that make the part sound the way it does, and get you to reproduce those nuances).
Suggestion #2: Do you play in your bedroom, or do you play with other people? More of the latter, less of the former.
so i'm above average in some respects and horribly handicapped in others, that's the easiest way to explain it.
an example of my sloppy "ear" playing- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PeqVjNevoo
that is not me at my best but that's the standard i'm likely to be at if i just randomly pick up a guitar...you need consistency.
last night i made friends with a (homeless?) street drummer called Robbo, and he agreed to jam if I brought my guitar over. He can bang some legit grooves, so I guess there's one option.
i'm not good enough to go to open mic night jams yet...
Just keep practicing, eventually you will be happy with the way you sound. It just comes from playing more often. There is nothing you actively think about.
i mean yes this sounds cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk3r677iDWY
but these performances are more austere and show more respect for the audience and the music itself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkX7Q2J7k48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVC2cszdTao
Pagey sounds like a stoner noodling about in comparison, all due respect etc.
but that's kind of what im trying to get away from in my playing.
Once you can wrap your head around the concept of practicing like that, THEN you have to practice like a mofo until all those little things you have to coordinate start happening on their own.
Here are some tips you may find useful:
http://www.dominicmiller.com/asklearn.html
i think one of my biggest problems is separating the work and play aspects of it.
to be fair, you selected a clip of Jimmy Page in 1989.
You should listen to "How the West was Won", its a Led Zeppelin live album from two shows in ~1972 and, it will seriously blow you away. The man had a great respect for blues. Listen to the track "Whole Lotta Love" on that album, it's pretty much a 20 minute cover of some great blues/rock roots.
edit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBZ1e5YAHzk
The man pretty much re-invented his songs on the stage.
i like Page, it's just that other people inspire me so much more with what they do with the guitar
- incorporating Hello Mary Lou into Whole Lotta Love is admittedly genius though. yes, that album is a pleasure, but even if you want to talk about sloppy, noisy improvised lead lines, imo Jonny Greenwood is worth a thousand thieving Jimmy Pages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDD0zFBcjtc
more interesting and succinct
(guitar solo at 4:50- how the fuck is he doing that?)
another version, solo at ~4:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPiyAQ2lHs&feature=related
he was always sloppy. imo this was the band's prime-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrvfMSYNqBg
even when his playing's in good form, his aesthetic is sloppy like a leaky chipotle burrito.
Just keep playing and start writing your own stuff. There is a difference between emulating somebody's sound and making your own.
update:if anyone with a good ear is feeling charitable, could you please tell me (or try guessing) what the chords for this would be? should be easy and perfect to practice on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHckSzjNaE
The song starts like so (four beats per chord):
E E E E
A B
E E F#m A
This repeats, with the bass doing it's thing. Then something like this
E E A A
E E A A
E E
Then the verse is the same thing as the beginning.... and that's about as far as I'm going to go right now, since I'd probably have to actually get the tuning right to figure out exactly what he's doing.
a as in the normal a on second fret?
actually he uses a max msp patch- i meant how he'd managed to make something that sounded that cool. here's some kids playing with it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSP7ck18Y_g&feature=related
i guess it's all in the programming-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qruCD1K8qmo
wow so people code for their guitars. that's some dedication.
If I had to guess, I'd say yes, but I really can't tell because it's so out of tune. I can hear the chord functions, but not the specific voicings.
i beg to differ on Greenwood not "programming his guitar" in the sense that there are specific parameters you can control for on the max msp, which affect the way it modifies the sound of what you play, though the end result is sort of out of your control beyond what notes you play next that will get randomly altered but in controlled parameters.
it's like a more customizable version of the Theremin solos that Pagey used to inflict on fans in Whole Lotta Love.
Not as huge a fan of his film scores though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRKznQXtBn4
Play a shitload and figureout what you like about what you play and then keep replicating it until you can do it on command. There's nothing really scientific about it and no one is going to tell you "hold the pick at a 70 degree angle and strike it with your thumb 4 cm above the pick line to produce this exact sound." The basic techniques can easy to explain but replicating them successfully is all a matter of just doing them until you get the sound you want.
Practice more. You don't need drills, you just need to focus specifically on the exact thing that's giving you trouble (or make that your drill).
While I agree with you, and have said as much earlier on in the thread, the idea of saying "practice more" bothers me. Knowing -how- to practice is more important than how much time you spend, and where for some people that might be obvious, some people aren't quite as adept at figuring out how to make the most of their time with the instrument.
I can't begin to tell you how many students I've had who come in for lessons week after week after week and never see improvement. Not because they don't "practice," but because they don't concentrate on the right things while they practice.