I like how you used "I" instead of you. So many people use that in their titles as if that don't have flaws (YOU). It let's me know that it is you, I, and US. We're all in this together. Great job! Now I know you're not a narcissist lol.
So true... Listening to guys blather on about why I won't become a good guitarist is eating into my practice time😖. Then I buy something I don't need after being bombarded with 60 million ads about something that rocks but in reality doesn't... 😂
Two of my practice routines: -I turn on Spotify. Select a song that I’m familiar with. Try to play the vocal parts. After that play the chords of the same song. Next step is combining the chords with vocal melodies. It really works. And it helps you on live situations as well. On some parts, play unison with the vocalist (without shadowing his/her vocals of course) and let the keyboard player or the other guitar guy do the chord playing. -Play the same chord from at least 5 different positions. Take the C chord for example and try to find 5 different positions to play it. This really helps your mind memorise the map which is called the fretboard. Cheers.
As an intermediate guitar player, at best, the best thing I've done recently to improve my playing is to learn songs by ear from memory and then play along with the studio version of the song. Great for your sense of tempo and ability to play with other people.
You'll never really know what you know until you ditch playing along with any tracks...if you cannot put the song together with musicians you literally don't know what you don't know. ..it's totally different from hiding within a track and thinking you know it. Live with real musicians reveals the truth about how good you are. Bedroom jams prove almost nothing.
Same. I’m a keyboard player in a band but I mostly play acoustic guitar and sing by myself or with a drummer and another singer. One thing that never stops to amaze me though is how much you think you know a song but you don’t. You would swear it’s right and then when you finally play along with it, it can be very humbling at times. But at the same time, I find that I come with different ways of playing certain parts that to me sound better. Something like adding some garnish between Chords, playing bass riffs with it, or slightly adding an extra dimension to a chord.
Disagree about noodling. If no noodling, how do you discover new rhythms, chord sequences, etc? I can complete song parts by noodling then constructing complementary sections after discovering a new part. I would say, noodling itself is merely a method to find undiscovered layers. It depends on the noodler whether they can pull the parts together. That's where music begins.
I'm no expert, by any stretch, but I believe noodling comes as a natural progression as a player transitions from one level to the next. EVERYONE wants to play well and to solo, etc... and that's where noodling comes in. I think the beginner or intermediate player starts noodling the minute they pick up a guitar and realize they know a couple scales. Personally, I use noodling as a warmup. Just to loosen up before trying to play other stuff I'm working on. I also use it if I start getting bored. If I find I'm noodling too much, I stop playing for a bit.
Noodling has its place but if you think virtuoso guitar players or any other instrument improved by noodling then more power to you. Many people play guitar less than an hour a day and if it's 30 minutes noodling and 10 maybe doing something new you're going to make next to no progress. But anything is better than nothing. Edit, and also some of these arguments seem to be conflating song writing with noodling. If you have a foundation and you're specifically jamming to find a new part that is not necessarily noodling. That's writing. And one more point, if someone never practices to a metronome or backing track at least they will never be able to keep time with a band (without further practice). Even if you think you're jamming on point in your room I promise once you get with a drummer or something you will see all the little pauses and things you do that are not in time
As a new player (about a month) I’ve noticed learning new songs makes me a better player and helps me develop dexterity that I wouldn’t use playing little 4-5/note riffs. I learned the Santeria solo from Sublime and I didn’t think I was at that level yet but having Clip-Share really helps me as a visual learner. However, I practice that solo everytime I play so I don’t forget it and it let’s me play all over the fret board. I feel learning new riffs is exciting but I only know two chords and I have to work on that. For me it’s easier to solo than play chord’s because I don’t have that muscle memory and it seems my fingers won’t stretch that way. I have Med-large hands so I know it’s just lack of trying. So my next song will be like an AC/DC that has riffs and chords. However, for me improving my Santeria solo is important as a beginner because it helps with my timing and accuracy. For me the biggest improvement came from anchoring my pick hand to the guitar so I can now play without looking at my pick hand all the time. Still miss strings but it’s like a whole new world now. I force myself to play “Day Tripper” without looking at the guitar. While it’s a common beginner riff it really is helping improving my accuracy. Problem is if I learn too many new songs I forget them… and I feel that’s progress lost because knowing the riff let’s me focus on learning how refine my technique. Sorry for the rant but I feel like I broke through a little! I played as a kid in 1996 for a few months and it was a lot harder to learn by yourself then and I eventually gave up in frustration.
@300 blAKout I agree it's the same thing as going back to the same guitar solo forever. It's counterproductive. I'd do it when dialing in a tone, but that's it.
Totally disagree with "noodling" as a bad habit. It's the simple act of playing and finding a creative inspiration and warming up your hands. Much like "Doodling" as a way of opening your mind to creative inspiration. That said, your entire practice routine should not just be noodling around aimlessly. And if the "Timing" issue bothers you, noodle to a click track, metronome, or drum sample. But don't ever stop noodling, that's how you discover new techniques, tones, phrases, speed, etc. You'll find various other videos on Clip-Share that agree with this theory of noodling is good.
@Marcos Roberto Dos Santos of course, but we're not talking about band etiquette here ;) but I agree as well, it's not really bad, it's just warming up. It's all just playing guitar :)
Agreed. Aside from warming up, it's good to do as you are dialing in sounds at a gig, as every room is different and even with a rig like mine where I'm mostly using presets from a multi effects pedal, settings need to be tweaked to the room.
Totally agree with you. Maybe it would be better to stop playing predetermined licks. If I stopped every time I started to noodle I'd stop being creative.
Noodling is only a problem if you're on the clock in the studio. Otherwise anytime your guitar is in your hands, you're better off playing then not playing.
I think Rhett’s point about noodling is to give it structure.. Me..? I’m gonna start using my looper more….so that I have that structure… It’ll only take me a minute to lay down a chord progression…
@cnking27 I'm still a beginner after 50 odd years. 50 years of noodling.....mind you I've enjoyed those 50 years.....!!! Noodling to me is one of the best ways of building a relationship with the guitar. We all do it!
I'm a beginner fwiw, but noodling also seems like a good way to just mindlessly enjoy the instrument, to really feel it with no intentions. I could see how it could prevent you from progressing if you did it all the time, but I also think it's important to take the time for the guitar to not be a means to an end sometimes and just meet it in the moment and enjoy it.
Rhett, I kind of think you're wrong about noodling. Depending on how long you've been playing it might have some benefits. Keeps your fingers exercised. Gives you deeper fingerboard familiarity. If you go a little "out" or "random" it could help you discover note relationships you're not familiar with. Granted - it doesn't make for a well constructed and interesting solo, but it might give some building blocks.
You can do that by learning new licks and ect though or have some kind of purpose for it. Noodling is like walking in place while trying to walk to point B. I think he was on point with it. It's not productive
Played guitar for a few months a few years ago, had to sell my gears for financial reasons but even then, I was burning out from playing too much inefficiently...relying only on tabs, not understand what I was playing, noodling all the time instead of learning new things. I recently was able to finally get a guitar and start me journey again. And decided to set myself a routine and limit time for my practicing. 15 minutes practicing things I learned (spider exercise and chords transition right now), 15 minutes playing a song, and I add a little bit of time to learn music theory (for example, instead of following stuff that show me what chord to play, I see the name of the chords and build them myself) I started back just a couple weeks ago and, while I'm still getting back up to speed in term of play, I have learned so much more in 2 weeks...now I can look at the name of a chord and come up with it anywhere on the fretboard (well, anywhere it makes sense) which it something I couldn't do before. And it's so satisfying to learn things by myself instead of someone telling me what to do. Anyway, it's beginner talk, but I strongly recommend to others who start playing to try to understand what they are playing.
My wife politely suggested I learn some new material. That bummed me out to where I quit playing a few years ago. Rhett’s suggestions make me want to stop feeling sorry for myself, and pick up my guitar again.Thanks Rhett!
Great videos Rhett. Thank You! I'm a solo Acoustic musician, specializing in Blues , Soul, Rock 'n' Roll, and Instrumental Fingerstyle Guitar. I'm always listening to music, but focus on the guitar and bass parts mainly. Players like Dave Matthews and Ian Anderson inspire finding new ways to chord or approach lead riffs, but I really like your suggestion of listening for other instruments in the songs. Love any music with horn sections. Will definitely give that a try and see if it inspires a 'different' outcome. Currently I'm working on Cascading Harmonics. Long learning curve with that technique, but works in any of these forms that I play. Thanks again for your info and suggestions. :)
Kerry Livgren wrote Dust In The Wind (at his wife's suggestion) by "noodling", practicing a finger picking technique. I think it's a valid "habit". Just don't do it on stage in between songs. Time and place for everything.
I'd say that the problem has more to do with when to noodle and when not to noodle. Also, there are many kinds of noodling, and one can become open to melodic, chordal and rhythmic noodling ad lib and improvisation. Most importantly, don't noodle or tune out loud on stage, as this is very unprofessional.
Great video and some fantastic points and tips. I find the best medicine is to learn a different musical style / genre also. Always great to have your main style but dip in to others and it opens up new ideas so quickly
The improv thing, put on the backing track, put down the guitar, Hum or sing a short melody you make up in your head, Then pick up your guitar and attempt to replicate the same melody. After a while you end up playing what you think of rather than what your fingers are comfortable with playing on the neck,
Funny, I was watching some videos of me playing today and hating my aimless noodling. I thought I need to improve by recording me whistling to the tracks and then learn that whistling as solos. Guess I'm just better at whistling than guitar (even though I've spent 10,000 x more hours playing guitar than whistling!)
Right. I will usually have the entire song recorded with rhythm guitars, bass and drums and then put a first-take solo, Listen to the track over a few days and usually, I will start to hear a solo or lick in my head, and then build the solo that way. Good technique/idea you posted.
Hi Rhett, my name is Josh. Your videos are great man. I had a similar epiphany about a year ago on the reverb thing and decided to practice without it more often. The results have been astounding to me! Thank you for what you do for the guitar community. Be safe out there.
I've been playing over 50 years now. Took lessons the first 2 or 3 years. The best thing I learned from my teacher was keeping time. Don't just pat your foot down, SLAP it down. Make your whole body a metronome. Thanks for the tips Rhett! love your channel.
Great video, probably my favorite of yours yet. I 100% have all of the same bad habits that you go over, particularly the reverb one (man, I love reverb...) and the "stop noodling" one, which I would kind of lump in with the bad habit of playing the same thing over and over. Was just mentioning to my girlfriend yesterday that I am going to sit down and focus on learning new material in order to break myself out of my comfort zone of just playing the same things on rotation. I bet that she'd appreciate not hearing me repeat the same few licks dozens of times within a couple hours, so I'm sure she would love for me to break that habit too!
Practicing without reverb significantly improved my tone. It made me work harder on my accuracy, touch and vibrato. If it sounds good without reverb it'll sound fantastic with reverb. I find noodling in-time is great practice :-)
1. Noodling 2:10 2. Too much reverb 5:17 3. Resting hand on bridge 8:06 4. Relying on muscle memory 11:20 5. Playing the same things over and over again 14:02
Very cool video Rhett - I always enjoy your chilled, yet honest presentations. I personally think the best way to break all of the bad habits you mention is just to focus on writing and recording (original) music. It just seems to be the best way for me to focus my attention on creating new parts and seeking new solutions. I've noticed that since I've focused my energies on that, I noodle far less.... On a lighter note (if you permit me to be slightly facetious), one "habit" I've noticed that a lot of players of a certain age seem to have developed is waving their guitar necks around very meaningfully after strumming a chord (Usually an impressively complex one). I first started to notice this when watching yours' and Paul David's video. Being of a... ahem.... another (prior) vintage, I wondered if I was missing out on something, so I did a few experiments. Being primarily a Strat player, I discovered that it takes some incredibly forceful "waving" to actually make any impact whatsoever on the angle of the neck (and therefore the sound produced). My other guitars were all similarly uncooperative in responding in any sonically meaningful way to the gentle "waving" I see in videos... Am I missing something, or is this another "habit" 😊
Hey Rhett - thanks SO much for this video. Your point about feeling paralyzed in playing when you don’t have the perfect reverb/effects/tone really struck home. I don’t usually haul around my amp and discrete pedal board anymore these days. I now use a Helix for most of my gigs and rehearsals. Less weight to carry. But I find I can’t always get the “perfect” tone I’d like given the mix of FOH and monitor speakers which we have at our venues and rehearsal studios; and so my reliance on hiding behind the perfect tone in my Helix (with my Studio monitors) has become a handicap for me - I MUST learn to play without this crutch so that it doesn’t impede my playing when I don’t have the perfect tone. Most of the time, in the mix, I don’t think people will notice my less than perfect tone (in the situations where we have bad speaker setup), but they WILL notice my tentative playing... So THANKS ONCE AGAIN for sharing your experience, and prodding me to “get off the drugs” of having to have perfect tone when playing.. I’m now started practicing at home with just basic Helix Amp/Cabinet tone and NO reverb. Thanks gain... Stay safe, keep up those chops, and please keep those videos coming! Richard.
Great video, Rhett. I've been an on and off gigging guitarist for almost fifty years who just started watching your videos. I'd like to add one suggestion to your top five bad habits that I've always noticed among guitar players: #6. Ditch the pentatonic scale and start basing your solos on chord tones! All of the great jazz and session players I know (Carol Kaye and George Benson come to mind) utilize chord tones in their soloing far and away over pentatonics. They have their place obviously, but if you really want to spice up your playing, try it.
Thanks for such a great video Rhett. It's great to see someone being honest about there flaws as well so as to help others! The video really helped and inspired me. I definitely struggle with the "noodling" mistake. Love this channel!
So sincere, and so relevant to so many of us. Thanks for putting it in such good words. For making progress you need to constantly be outside of your comfort zone.
I don't think I can completely avoid some or most of these (when I'm just trying to get stress relief from playing) but Rhett is spot on when it comes to learning and practicing guitar. My Guitars have been some of my best friends through life. Even if you're not a great player (like Rhett), guitar can be enjoyable for just about anyone. Then, when you do play something great... it's awesome!
That was so funny. Thought the exact same thing and had to come find this comment. I feel like he means not to make a habit of playing the same old tired lines all the time. Still fairly sound advice.
This video has some really good perspective for me to identify areas to improve. I always feel like my right hand picking technique is the most suspect. Tenses up when I’m not feeling the flow. Going back to rebuild that form instead of refining a poor technique (for me) might be the ticket... anyway great video, I like the tone and demeanor, just subscribed.
Great advice all around i'm guilty of several of these, i'm torn between accepting my limitations and striving to improve I guess thats what really unites us all in the end how much technique do you need to get your point across, i think Steve Vai said something about this years ago. Tomo Fujita is a wellspring of good information and is a very chill person i just subbed to his channel thanks for reminding me!
All I hear from almost all guitarists, all the time, is noodling. I can't remember the last time I listened to a Clip-Share or Instagram guitar player that didn't sound like mindless noodling. Even the super technical stuff I hear sounds like noodling. I think peoples' biggest biggest problems with guitar are having only 4 or 5 rhythms from their strumming hand, and then once they've chosen that rhythm, it's on autopilot for the whole verse or chorus. And secondly, people spending all their time learning leads and soloing, and ignoring their song and riff writing. Every instagram guitar player out there will do these insane solos and leads, and then you hear songs or riffs they've written and they sound like they literally started playing guitar 6 months ago.
I agree with your last part. There’s a really good guitar player on Instagram that plays insane and raw Hendrix covers and other songs but when I listen to his original material it’s all bland.
42 years old here. Started playing guitar at 15 or 16 but didn't start recording / composing until recently. My playing has evolved and improved more in the past two years than it ever did the previous 20. Always hated practice because it became homework and felt like it took away from the fun of playing. However using my guitar time to write and compose and record even if it's simple or ends up being mediocre "songs" has been super satisfying and entertaining.
I've written songs on my guitar. Had I NOT been NOODLING...a song would never have been born. You noodle the tune you have in your head in the moment. So If you're not FEELING a tune in your head or you are working on mastering a song you're working on Yeah don't noodle. But If it wasn't for noodling By yourself no songs will be invented. Trust me
I had (have) a lot of these problems. I found it useful to use a program like 'Transcribe' to learn solo's and chord progressions from other instruments (Piano and Saxophone mostly) to help break my mindset and found it helped a lot. Good vid man.
The muscle memory thing is my worst habit. I've basically wasted my guitar career learning to play in this way, instead of musically. I am now correcting this by focusing on the music theory - scales, chords, and learning all the tones and intervals. Muscle memory will fail you - it doesn't always land you on the correct fret or chord phrasing. Knowing music theory will help to land on the correct notes more often. Playing in scale, in time will always sound better.
Hi Rhett, I watched this with great interest. I’m a beginning guitarist and am enjoying my journey very much. One thing that struck me was floating your picking hand. At present I rest my hand on the bridge, pretty much like yourself. Would it be possible for you to do a follow up video detailing what you mean about floating your hand and why you are keen in adapting this style. Cheers David
This is all great info for me, just started playing 1 year ago. Been taking lessons for 2 months. I don’t yet have the ability to play what I like to hear. 59 arthritis ect. I only listen to how things sound , struggle with clean cords ect. Developing muscle memory but still consistent with looking at the fretboard. Always play clean because I don’t understand all the possibilities of my amps. Thanks
Just discovered this channel, and I’m digging it. I’ve been watching your videos with my guitar on my lap for the past few days. I’m an audio engineer who has always played guitar, but have never really taken it seriously. I want to change that.
Love your podcast & videos! I tend to noodle way too often, too but having to learn songs for a rehearsal helps. And just a few weeks ago, I finally bought Transcribe and decided to start learning solos that are outside of my comfort zone (Carlos Rios' solo's on Gino Vanelli's Brother to Brother album is what I'm working on now)....really helping giving me options with phrasing.
I seem to have some personal characteristics that help me avoid some of these bad habits: 1. I hate cliche's, 2. Having played acoustic and bass most of my life, dry is my starting point (and end point) more often than not, 3. I have lead music in small churches and have had to develop techniques that give me the most flexibility to get the sound I need for the song, 4) I love the challenge of any new song (see cliche' comment).
Rhett good video. Some other ways of improving that I use is practice with a Acoustic guitar. Heavier action &stings make you more accturate for clean note and coordinate both hands. ( put a arm rest on so you can float my picking hand easier) As far as not playing cliches look for melodic phrases rather than riffs. Start on different notes than normal use wider intervals. Be more reactive to what others around are playing. ( my group of friends call it BIG EARS) Going in cold but open and reactive to the music helps me improvise better. I feel that when a great musician plays they touch your soul with a melody and a presence of heart. This type of music haunts you mind and stay in your memory.
Have to disagree a little bit about noodling. For me tons of great ideas come from noodling. It could be from a mistake, it could be from a particular sequence of notes that come out by accident. The important thing is to not fall into the muscle memory trap that you mentioned. As long as you take chances and seek out new sounds (good or bad) during noodling I think it can be a good source of ideas. That said, playing actual progressions/songs/full ideas is way better for practice and improvement.
I think he meant to hammer down more on the repetitive aspect just having a couple of go to’s. Noodling for the new I would agree with you is definitely important
Loved the tip about getting interesting ideas from listening to and transcribing other guitar players. Would like to also add other instruments as well, ie piano, horns etc. Heard a lot of cool licks that didn't come from guitar. Thanks
Hi thanks for the list, i just learned about noodling though and I think it might help me in the long run, learning scale combos and building riffs . You brought the issue to my attention, that it can hinder you if you’re not careful so thanks for that. I will make sure not to noodle in front of people lol. Playing along with new songs and transcribing them the mornings is my major takeaway, I’m tired of muscle memory licks.. thanks again :)
If my reverb sounded that nice, I'd probably struggle to turn it back off too. But point totally taken (my noodling is awful, I really need to learn new stuff and challenge myself). Great video, thought provoking!
A question: I am practicing a solo for more than 3 weeks and is practically the only thing I am playing at the moment. I am able to play the solo at 60% of the actual speed. What is wiser in your opinion: Keep doing that till I reach 100%, or start practicing other stuff and pick it up again after a while?
That’s why loop pedals are good I helps with timing chord progression and a lot more honestly I’ve been playing for about 15 years and I think noodling is good in the right context
Great stuff here Rhett. I'm susceptible to all of that too and I'm esp working on getting that floating picking hand working. This was made really clear to me when I sold a really good Strat because I couldn't get my anchored palm away from the vol knob and trem. The problem is me, not the guitar. It's coming along and the benefits of being able to comfortably play up by the neck pickup are obvious. BTW I ended up with another Strat. LOL.
Wow, I thought I was the only one left who was advocating for a floating picking right hand. I touch the strings gently with my knuckles, but I float my hand--and play a combination of forearm rotation, vertical arm movement, and thumb/ pointer. I've found that my tone improved when I started floating my hand--especially when I play my archtop. In terms of breaking your own habits, get into composing your own etudes. Set some limits over a song and write out a solo using those limitations. They could be melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic limitations. In terms of actually improvising, an idea that I got from a saxophone player I took some lessons from was to hold onto the phrase that you just played in your head while you play the next phrase. The better you get at holding on to your phrases, the more compositional control you have over your solo because you end of linking everything together in ways that couldn't happen if you were only listening to what you are playing in the moment. It's like listening to the past and the present simultaneously--odd, but really cool once you get it. And ear training, the top musicians in the "jazz realm" (I know this post already sounds pompos as hell, and coming from a jazz perspective might be the nail in the coffin--it's all music in the end, right?) are always talking about ear training and improving their ears. At the end of the day, what you are able to hear is more powerful than how fast your fingers can move when you play music based in improvisation (be it rock, blues, bluegrass, jazz, or composing classical music--Bach was a master improviser). Long post, but if you made it to the end without labeling me as a pompos arse--I give you my thanks:) As Clark Terry once said "keep on keeping on!" and be safe out there!
Nice video , to me this video is the second part to the limitations video i think you might have changed the name since ... But i agree with you on all counts , and admire the wisdom that enables you to see your own limits , its the only way overcome them . I played 25 years looking at others showing me how they do it , i guess success leads to emulation but at some point i need to show how i do it . Why do we play music ? there are many reasons , mainly money . But really so that people can dance . The ultimate test is can you make people dance with your instrument alone no gimmicks drum machine or loops .
Great video Rhett, I can really relate with some of these issues. I stopped playing for like 10 years because I couldn't move past what I had learnt and the repetition just killed the passion of playing guitar.
I've played acoustic guitar for most of my playing life. I picked up an electric guitar about 10 years ago and frustratingly found that good habits on the electric side (especially the fret board hand) are bad habits on the acoustic side *sigh*
Rhett, I want to thank you for making this video, not for only these tips but for leading me to a gold mine by the name of Tom Bukovac! I really can't thank you enough. His stuff is eye-opening!
Sweet video Rhett. I like how you aimed this video at yourself for the benefit of your viewers. There are other videos where it feels like the Clip-Sharer is just enjoying sitting on their high horse telling their watchers what they're doing wrong. I tend to noodle a lot when I'm at home, some great topics here for us to be a little more mindful of. Play on
When I first started, all I was learning was basically cowboy chords, and now I’m trying to learn all the drop D chords(I find that style better) anyway, I was learning basic chords. G, A, E(Em) C, etc. For the first like, 2 months of playing, I didn’t even know you were supposed to press the strings, I always thought you just held them. I would always get so frustrated that I couldn’t get a different sound on an Em and a Cmaj. Now I know of course, but I cringe when I look back.
This is a very good video and hits home for me because at some time or another, I've had each one of these bad habits at some point in my musical career. There are a lot of fixes for these and you named some good ones for each habit. One thing that helped me was learning how to play the different modes of scales; not just pentatonic which is the one we can easily get "stuck in a rut" with. Another way of developing good picking is learning to use the slanted pic method and try to incorporate some sweeping as well. As for noodling, I still have that bad habit. I think that I start doing it when I get bored. That's when I need to put the guitar down for a few hours and come back with something fresh.
We are all easily guilty of making bad habits. It's all a matter of knowing how it'll negatively affect you in the long run. Glad to see you really admitting and changing, that is the most important part in my opinion.
Hi Rhett, always enjoy your videos and your technical advice. Really like your playing style and also like the varied topics you cover in your videos. Recently I discovered this very young and very impressive Italian guitarist Matteo Mancuso, and the trio called SNIPS. Wonder if you are familiar with him/them. I was pretty much blown away. If you are familiar, wonder what you think? If not, I encourage you to take a look. Peace! Out. Ant
Love your vids along with all the other guys like Baker ECT. Thanks for giving the shout to the session man he deserves it. His golden nuggets are priceless , it's wonderful for this new generation.
Hey Rhett. Love your stuff! I've started recording at home in these Corona Virus times, and I've already learned that it can be a MESS. Especially to get the basics down. I would love to see how YOU record at home, tips and tricks, mic up amps, how to equalize guitartones etc. I really dig your tone on the instrumental intros and live sound! Just a idea for quarantine videos! Keep it up!
Thanks, Rhett! Accurate to the point of embarrassing! I've been transcribing solos from other instruments to break out of the guitar pattern licks I default to. It also forces me to work out the phrases and transition between phrases in multiple positions to find the best fingerings.
As a working/ gigging drummer (52yrs old): I applaud you!! Played SOOOO many gigs with young players and NOODLING at check or between songs or takes is THE. ABSOLUTE. WORST. distraction, unconstructive and unproductive thing. Ever. Again - THANK YOU!! 👊🦁
Great video Rhett! I found myself out of the resting my hand on the bridge early on in my learning when i got my first floyd rose floating bridge, i found i was changing the pitch by putting weight on the bridge and bumping the fine tuners constantly and putting the guitar out of tune Keep the awesome work with your channel!
It's refreshing that you are a player and storyteller that takes the humble approach of framing these kinds of videos in terms of YOUR OWN habits. It gets pretty tiresome to see some of the other guitarists out there acting like they have THE method and shove these "TOP FIVE HABITS EVERY GUITARIST NEEDS TO HAVE." and then fire off some projected form of lukewarm advice disembodied from the story of WHY they became bad habits. It's really nice to see you explaining a little bit about how you identified some of the areas you wanted to improve. I think that methodology is hugely valuable and it's a little bit nicer to watch as a fellow player.
I just learned that I play a particular part better and more consistent with my hand floating. Thank you for giving me something effective to focus on!
Great video! I feel like you hit the nail on the head, I’m so busted. I get organized and learn a new song and then the bad habits creep back in. I decided to not play leads anymore and just work songs and fills, will see how long that lasts. Thanks Rett
I'd be interested to know what Troy Grady thinks about the floating picking hand thingy. I wouldn't agree that this is bad habit. Like, at all. Unless you're playing chords or a really slow line
I had to laugh at some of those frustrations😖 Although I’m nowhere near your level I love learning guitar and practice everyday 🧐 But I have plenty of my own frustrations in my process🤬 Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips on improving the skill✌️
This video speaks to me so much! Man thank you for sharing this. I guess as guitarists it’s mostly a solitary activity, and knowing that you and possibly countless other guitarist struggle with the same ruts as I do. Thanks for sharing mate 👍
The difference between an effect and a special defect is the mix of that effect...a little goes a long way. Using an expression pedal to add just enough for particular moments has worked very well for me. The ability to go dry or throw a nice slight delay/reverb or drown on an end note is great.
Honestly, I went into this with a negative outlook. I am stubborn when it comes to listening to these types of advice videos. I only disagreed withe one thing in this video, but I'm going to do it all anyway. I have to stay humble, listen, and learn. But the most important thing for me to keep growing, is to try new things, and see if they help me (even if I don't want to do it). Time to expand the catalog. Thank you for this video.
Thanks for this video, Rhett. I feel exposed by Buk as a hack guitarist. It is comforting that accomplished people like you, Robert Baker, and others feel humbled by his playing and are trying to improve. That can only be good. This honesty and vulnerability is appreciated. Thanks for moving from frustration to solutions. Still, be kind to yourself. You rock. Thank you. Stay well!
I love the Jam Tracks Pete Honore is doing from Andertons...he plays chord progressions and shapes that I don't use so it makes me play out of my comfort zone! Great video Rhett!
I’m a bass player and it was interesting watching this video. My practice consists of hearing songs that I like and thinking to myself I’m gonna learn that song, so now I have 60+ songs that I play all the time and the songs will be picking styles, finger styles, rock styles, syncopation, and so on even if I have my bass around my shoulders and a commercial comes on and there’s an interesting bassline I’ll follow it or ad lib. I do have a bad habit that I tap my strings to keep in time and it sounds like a clip John Mayer used to hate himself for doing the same thing.
Noodling is not a bad habit. I have developed my own creative licks that other players ask me about through noodling around. Most songs we listen came from noodling Imagine this: all guitar players locked themselves in a room with a guitar and amp and paper and no videos or songs at all, no music influences, just you and the instrument (guitar). No tabs or sheet music. There would be an explosion of creative material. The problem is is that guitar isn’t progressing very fast because we are all playing like each other and practicing being each other....noodling can help break out of the mold and look at your instrument (guitar) in a different way.
That’s pretty much what he said. If you’re noodling, stop...and make something out of it. The point is to not just noodle endlessly without making something from it.
I think you and Rhett think of noodling in two different ways. He looks as it as a repetitive, stale fallback mode void of creativity. You see it as a means of exploration. Your case should, of course, be one to strive for, while what Rhett is talking about is to be avoided.
I initially was with Rhett on rote blues box or scale wanking. But you just can't always play with a "complete musical idea" in mind, although I understand why a top session player would take that approach. They need several different widgets to whip out on demand to see which one fits someone else's project. Real skill, real talent involved. Top level stuff. To max out YOUR creativity tho, you'll have to occasionally just go.
AJ Bueno he starts talking about this around 5 min mark... the noodling he is talking about is not creative and progressive it’s more of “flat in the meadow on repeat same things” that you have learned that sound nice but it’s like your crutch you go back to, he says add chords to what your playing and start playing in time teaching you to not just jam by yourself but w others. I don’t know about you but I come up w some pretty nice licks and progressions but they are not always in time lol so translating that over to play w others doesn’t come out right
This video is comforting. Thank you for letting me know I am not the only one facing these struggles. Pretty much every bad habit you listed I am guilty of.
Great video, Rhett. You hit all the nails on their heads with this one. I’m sitting at work right now going, “Dammit, I do that....and that.....and that.” Definitely going to go home, unplug some effects and jam with some of my favorite songs. And try not to noodle over them...
learning classical piano helped so much with improv. Before every lick, you need to consider the phrasing for the whole 4 or 5 bars forward. Counterpoints, modal changes, etc should be considered every time.
I am also a self taught musician and I do every single one of those bad habits besides the anchored palm. The noodling and reverb are my biggest bad habits.
Check out my brand new Impulse Response packs and Tone Course here!
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Lying back on couch while playing.
Thanks man, its like you read a list of my issues that I've been having for a little while now. Appreciate the help, ima fix em lol
jaw dropping truth!!!
Lol. Yeah, I agree about playing the same darn tune. 😏
I like how you used "I" instead of you. So many people use that in their titles as if that don't have flaws (YOU). It let's me know that it is you, I, and US. We're all in this together. Great job! Now I know you're not a narcissist lol.
No 1 bad habit: watching Clip-Share instead of playing the guitar.
this couldn't be more true.
NO 3 - Stop Grinding Thru Facebook , Twitter and Instagram :)
Guitar is still waiting for me for 40 mins
So true... Listening to guys blather on about why I won't become a good guitarist is eating into my practice time😖. Then I buy something I don't need after being bombarded with 60 million ads about something that rocks but in reality doesn't... 😂
LOL put me in jail right now im so guilty of this
Two of my practice routines:
-I turn on Spotify. Select a song that I’m familiar with. Try to play the vocal parts. After that play the chords of the same song. Next step is combining the chords with vocal melodies.
It really works. And it helps you on live situations as well. On some parts, play unison with the vocalist (without shadowing his/her vocals of course) and let the keyboard player or the other guitar guy do the chord playing.
-Play the same chord from at least 5 different positions. Take the C chord for example and try to find 5 different positions to play it. This really helps your mind memorise the map which is called the fretboard. Cheers.
how do you know the chords? do you just figure it out by ear?
Thank you for that. Sounds like a great practice challenge
As an intermediate guitar player, at best, the best thing I've done recently to improve my playing is to learn songs by ear from memory and then play along with the studio version of the song. Great for your sense of tempo and ability to play with other people.
You'll never really know what you know until you ditch playing along with any tracks...if you cannot put the song together with musicians you literally don't know what you don't know. ..it's totally different from hiding within a track and thinking you know it. Live with real musicians reveals the truth about how good you are. Bedroom jams prove almost nothing.
Same. I’m a keyboard player in a band but I mostly play acoustic guitar and sing by myself or with a drummer and another singer. One thing that never stops to amaze me though is how much you think you know a song but you don’t. You would swear it’s right and then when you finally play along with it, it can be very humbling at times. But at the same time, I find that I come with different ways of playing certain parts that to me sound better. Something like adding some garnish between Chords, playing bass riffs with it, or slightly adding an extra dimension to a chord.
Disagree about noodling. If no noodling, how do you discover new rhythms, chord sequences, etc? I can complete song parts by noodling then constructing complementary sections after discovering a new part. I would say, noodling itself is merely a method to find undiscovered layers. It depends on the noodler whether they can pull the parts together. That's where music begins.
I'm no expert, by any stretch, but I believe noodling comes as a natural progression as a player transitions from one level to the next. EVERYONE wants to play well and to solo, etc... and that's where noodling comes in. I think the beginner or intermediate player starts noodling the minute they pick up a guitar and realize they know a couple scales. Personally, I use noodling as a warmup. Just to loosen up before trying to play other stuff I'm working on. I also use it if I start getting bored. If I find I'm noodling too much, I stop playing for a bit.
Noodling has its place but if you think virtuoso guitar players or any other instrument improved by noodling then more power to you. Many people play guitar less than an hour a day and if it's 30 minutes noodling and 10 maybe doing something new you're going to make next to no progress. But anything is better than nothing. Edit, and also some of these arguments seem to be conflating song writing with noodling. If you have a foundation and you're specifically jamming to find a new part that is not necessarily noodling. That's writing. And one more point, if someone never practices to a metronome or backing track at least they will never be able to keep time with a band (without further practice). Even if you think you're jamming on point in your room I promise once you get with a drummer or something you will see all the little pauses and things you do that are not in time
As a new player (about a month) I’ve noticed learning new songs makes me a better player and helps me develop dexterity that I wouldn’t use playing little 4-5/note riffs. I learned the Santeria solo from Sublime and I didn’t think I was at that level yet but having Clip-Share really helps me as a visual learner. However, I practice that solo everytime I play so I don’t forget it and it let’s me play all over the fret board. I feel learning new riffs is exciting but I only know two chords and I have to work on that. For me it’s easier to solo than play chord’s because I don’t have that muscle memory and it seems my fingers won’t stretch that way. I have Med-large hands so I know it’s just lack of trying. So my next song will be like an AC/DC that has riffs and chords. However, for me improving my Santeria solo is important as a beginner because it helps with my timing and accuracy. For me the biggest improvement came from anchoring my pick hand to the guitar so I can now play without looking at my pick hand all the time. Still miss strings but it’s like a whole new world now. I force myself to play “Day Tripper” without looking at the guitar. While it’s a common beginner riff it really is helping improving my accuracy. Problem is if I learn too many new songs I forget them… and I feel that’s progress lost because knowing the riff let’s me focus on learning how refine my technique. Sorry for the rant but I feel like I broke through a little! I played as a kid in 1996 for a few months and it was a lot harder to learn by yourself then and I eventually gave up in frustration.
Noodle at home when writing. Noodling during a gig is a different thing.
@300 blAKout I agree it's the same thing as going back to the same guitar solo forever. It's counterproductive. I'd do it when dialing in a tone, but that's it.
Thanks for getting me hooked to Tom's channel
Totally disagree with "noodling" as a bad habit. It's the simple act of playing and finding a creative inspiration and warming up your hands. Much like "Doodling" as a way of opening your mind to creative inspiration. That said, your entire practice routine should not just be noodling around aimlessly. And if the "Timing" issue bothers you, noodle to a click track, metronome, or drum sample. But don't ever stop noodling, that's how you discover new techniques, tones, phrases, speed, etc. You'll find various other videos on Clip-Share that agree with this theory of noodling is good.
@Marcos Roberto Dos Santos of course, but we're not talking about band etiquette here ;) but I agree as well, it's not really bad, it's just warming up. It's all just playing guitar :)
i started to record my initial "noodling" ideas with the phone , and now i've got lots of licks to practice....
almost everytime i pick up my guitar in the morning something new comes to me , a new melodic idea or chord voicings......
Agreed. Aside from warming up, it's good to do as you are dialing in sounds at a gig, as every room is different and even with a rig like mine where I'm mostly using presets from a multi effects pedal, settings need to be tweaked to the room.
Totally agree with you. Maybe it would be better to stop playing predetermined licks. If I stopped every time I started to noodle I'd stop being creative.
Noodling is only a problem if you're on the clock in the studio. Otherwise anytime your guitar is in your hands, you're better off playing then not playing.
@Andrew Halliday Music Yes All Things In Balance So True!
@tohsty_gohsty … 🤣🤣🤣
I think Rhett’s point about noodling is to give it structure.. Me..? I’m gonna start using my looper more….so that I have that structure… It’ll only take me a minute to lay down a chord progression…
@cnking27 I'm still a beginner after 50 odd years. 50 years of noodling.....mind you I've enjoyed those 50 years.....!!! Noodling to me is one of the best ways of building a relationship with the guitar. We all do it!
I'm a beginner fwiw, but noodling also seems like a good way to just mindlessly enjoy the instrument, to really feel it with no intentions. I could see how it could prevent you from progressing if you did it all the time, but I also think it's important to take the time for the guitar to not be a means to an end sometimes and just meet it in the moment and enjoy it.
Rhett, I kind of think you're wrong about noodling. Depending on how long you've been playing it might have some benefits. Keeps your fingers exercised. Gives you deeper fingerboard familiarity. If you go a little "out" or "random" it could help you discover note relationships you're not familiar with. Granted - it doesn't make for a well constructed and interesting solo, but it might give some building blocks.
You can do that by learning new licks and ect though or have some kind of purpose for it. Noodling is like walking in place while trying to walk to point B. I think he was on point with it. It's not productive
Played guitar for a few months a few years ago, had to sell my gears for financial reasons but even then, I was burning out from playing too much inefficiently...relying only on tabs, not understand what I was playing, noodling all the time instead of learning new things.
I recently was able to finally get a guitar and start me journey again. And decided to set myself a routine and limit time for my practicing.
15 minutes practicing things I learned (spider exercise and chords transition right now), 15 minutes playing a song, and I add a little bit of time to learn music theory (for example, instead of following stuff that show me what chord to play, I see the name of the chords and build them myself)
I started back just a couple weeks ago and, while I'm still getting back up to speed in term of play, I have learned so much more in 2 weeks...now I can look at the name of a chord and come up with it anywhere on the fretboard (well, anywhere it makes sense) which it something I couldn't do before. And it's so satisfying to learn things by myself instead of someone telling me what to do.
Anyway, it's beginner talk, but I strongly recommend to others who start playing to try to understand what they are playing.
My wife politely suggested I learn some new material. That bummed me out to where I quit playing a few years ago. Rhett’s suggestions make me want to stop feeling sorry for myself, and pick up my guitar again.Thanks Rhett!
Keep on playing man!
I so enjoy watching and learning from you what i can. Thank you 😊 I am self taught not easy 😌.
Awesome advice
Great videos Rhett. Thank You! I'm a solo Acoustic musician, specializing in Blues , Soul, Rock 'n' Roll, and Instrumental Fingerstyle Guitar. I'm always listening to music, but focus on the guitar and bass parts mainly. Players like Dave Matthews and Ian Anderson inspire finding new ways to chord or approach lead riffs, but I really like your suggestion of listening for other instruments in the songs. Love any music with horn sections. Will definitely give that a try and see if it inspires a 'different' outcome. Currently I'm working on Cascading Harmonics. Long learning curve with that technique, but works in any of these forms that I play. Thanks again for your info and suggestions. :)
Kerry Livgren wrote Dust In The Wind (at his wife's suggestion) by "noodling", practicing a finger picking technique. I think it's a valid "habit". Just don't do it on stage in between songs. Time and place for everything.
Rhett: "I need to stop noodling."
Me: "I hope some day I can play well enough to even pretend to noodle..."
@Donald Fewell Stevie Ray Vaughan noodled on stage sometimes
I'd say that the problem has more to do with when to noodle and when not to noodle. Also, there are many kinds of noodling, and one can become open to melodic, chordal and rhythmic noodling ad lib and improvisation. Most importantly, don't noodle or tune out loud on stage, as this is very unprofessional.
Great video and some fantastic points and tips. I find the best medicine is to learn a different musical style / genre also. Always great to have your main style but dip in to others and it opens up new ideas so quickly
The best thing to take from this is being honest about your playing and having the courage to leave your comfort zone.
The improv thing,
put on the backing track,
put down the guitar,
Hum or sing a short melody you make up in your head,
Then pick up your guitar and attempt to replicate the same melody.
After a while you end up playing what you think of rather than what your fingers are comfortable with playing on the neck,
Funny, I was watching some videos of me playing today and hating my aimless noodling. I thought I need to improve by recording me whistling to the tracks and then learn that whistling as solos. Guess I'm just better at whistling than guitar (even though I've spent 10,000 x more hours playing guitar than whistling!)
Solid advice
Right. I will usually have the entire song recorded with rhythm guitars, bass and drums and then put a first-take solo, Listen to the track over a few days and usually, I will start to hear a solo or lick in my head, and then build the solo that way. Good technique/idea you posted.
Will try that!
@Levi Williams I'll have a look for this, thank you.
Hi Rhett, my name is Josh. Your videos are great man. I had a similar epiphany about a year ago on the reverb thing and decided to practice without it more often. The results have been astounding to me! Thank you for what you do for the guitar community. Be safe out there.
I've been playing over 50 years now. Took lessons the first 2 or 3 years. The best thing I learned from my teacher was keeping time. Don't just pat your foot down, SLAP it down. Make your whole body a metronome.
Thanks for the tips Rhett! love your channel.
Great video, probably my favorite of yours yet. I 100% have all of the same bad habits that you go over, particularly the reverb one (man, I love reverb...) and the "stop noodling" one, which I would kind of lump in with the bad habit of playing the same thing over and over. Was just mentioning to my girlfriend yesterday that I am going to sit down and focus on learning new material in order to break myself out of my comfort zone of just playing the same things on rotation. I bet that she'd appreciate not hearing me repeat the same few licks dozens of times within a couple hours, so I'm sure she would love for me to break that habit too!
Practicing without reverb significantly improved my tone. It made me work harder on my accuracy, touch and vibrato. If it sounds good without reverb it'll sound fantastic with reverb. I find noodling in-time is great practice :-)
1. Noodling 2:10
2. Too much reverb 5:17
3. Resting hand on bridge 8:06
4. Relying on muscle memory 11:20
5. Playing the same things over and over again 14:02
Thank you
1 and 5 feel the same
Thnk u...
Takes way too long for him to start the actual point of this video
all the reason why i dont need to watch this in full.
thank you
I really appreciate all of your insight. It gives me so much food for thought when I am practicing.
Very cool video Rhett - I always enjoy your chilled, yet honest presentations. I personally think the best way to break all of the bad habits you mention is just to focus on writing and recording (original) music. It just seems to be the best way for me to focus my attention on creating new parts and seeking new solutions. I've noticed that since I've focused my energies on that, I noodle far less.... On a lighter note (if you permit me to be slightly facetious), one "habit" I've noticed that a lot of players of a certain age seem to have developed is waving their guitar necks around very meaningfully after strumming a chord (Usually an impressively complex one). I first started to notice this when watching yours' and Paul David's video. Being of a... ahem.... another (prior) vintage, I wondered if I was missing out on something, so I did a few experiments. Being primarily a Strat player, I discovered that it takes some incredibly forceful "waving" to actually make any impact whatsoever on the angle of the neck (and therefore the sound produced). My other guitars were all similarly uncooperative in responding in any sonically meaningful way to the gentle "waving" I see in videos... Am I missing something, or is this another "habit" 😊
Hey Rhett - thanks SO much for this video. Your point about feeling paralyzed in playing when you don’t have the perfect reverb/effects/tone really struck home. I don’t usually haul around my amp and discrete pedal board anymore these days. I now use a Helix for most of my gigs and rehearsals. Less weight to carry. But I find I can’t always get the “perfect” tone I’d like given the mix of FOH and monitor speakers which we have at our venues and rehearsal studios; and so my reliance on hiding behind the perfect tone in my Helix (with my Studio monitors) has become a handicap for me - I MUST learn to play without this crutch so that it doesn’t impede my playing when I don’t have the perfect tone. Most of the time, in the mix, I don’t think people will notice my less than perfect tone (in the situations where we have bad speaker setup), but they WILL notice my tentative playing... So THANKS ONCE AGAIN for sharing your experience, and prodding me to “get off the drugs” of having to have perfect tone when playing.. I’m now started practicing at home with just basic Helix Amp/Cabinet tone and NO reverb. Thanks gain... Stay safe, keep up those chops, and please keep those videos coming! Richard.
Great video, Rhett. I've been an on and off gigging guitarist for almost fifty years who just started watching your videos. I'd like to add one suggestion to your top five bad habits that I've always noticed among guitar players: #6. Ditch the pentatonic scale and start basing your solos on chord tones! All of the great jazz and session players I know (Carol Kaye and George Benson come to mind) utilize chord tones in their soloing far and away over pentatonics. They have their place obviously, but if you really want to spice up your playing, try it.
Thanks for such a great video Rhett. It's great to see someone being honest about there flaws as well so as to help others! The video really helped and inspired me. I definitely struggle with the "noodling" mistake. Love this channel!
So sincere, and so relevant to so many of us.
Thanks for putting it in such good words. For making progress you need to constantly be outside of your comfort zone.
Really loving these Rhett. Simple, practical lessons for any guitar player. Very inspiring as well. Thanks
I don't think I can completely avoid some or most of these (when I'm just trying to get stress relief from playing) but Rhett is spot on when it comes to learning and practicing guitar. My Guitars have been some of my best friends through life. Even if you're not a great player (like Rhett), guitar can be enjoyable for just about anyone. Then, when you do play something great... it's awesome!
Rhett Shull: "I need to stop noodling."
Rhett Shull: "I need to stop using reverb."
*turns off reverb, immediately starts noodling.
That was so funny. Thought the exact same thing and had to come find this comment. I feel like he means not to make a habit of playing the same old tired lines all the time. Still fairly sound advice.
@Sunset Junior lil verb lil crunch .. mint
yes, i caught that. but fuck it, we all noodle. its ok sometimes
@Chill Bill i start my best ideias by just noodling around and then hit something that sounds good and start from there building something
¡My thoughts exactly!
I'm relatively new to guitar and appreciate experienced musicians sharing some pitfalls and tips. Thank you.
This video has some really good perspective for me to identify areas to improve. I always feel like my right hand picking technique is the most suspect. Tenses up when I’m not feeling the flow. Going back to rebuild that form instead of refining a poor technique (for me) might be the ticket... anyway great video, I like the tone and demeanor, just subscribed.
Always helpful and relevant content Rhett, thank you!
Great advice all around i'm guilty of several of these, i'm torn between accepting my limitations and striving to improve I guess thats what really unites us all in the end how much technique do you need to get your point across, i think Steve Vai said something about this years ago. Tomo Fujita is a wellspring of good information and is a very chill person i just subbed to his channel thanks for reminding me!
All I hear from almost all guitarists, all the time, is noodling. I can't remember the last time I listened to a Clip-Share or Instagram guitar player that didn't sound like mindless noodling. Even the super technical stuff I hear sounds like noodling.
I think peoples' biggest biggest problems with guitar are having only 4 or 5 rhythms from their strumming hand, and then once they've chosen that rhythm, it's on autopilot for the whole verse or chorus.
And secondly, people spending all their time learning leads and soloing, and ignoring their song and riff writing. Every instagram guitar player out there will do these insane solos and leads, and then you hear songs or riffs they've written and they sound like they literally started playing guitar 6 months ago.
I agree with your last part. There’s a really good guitar player on Instagram that plays insane and raw Hendrix covers and other songs but when I listen to his original material it’s all bland.
42 years old here. Started playing guitar at 15 or 16 but didn't start recording / composing until recently. My playing has evolved and improved more in the past two years than it ever did the previous 20.
Always hated practice because it became homework and felt like it took away from the fun of playing. However using my guitar time to write and compose and record even if it's simple or ends up being mediocre "songs" has been super satisfying and entertaining.
I've written songs on my guitar. Had I NOT been NOODLING...a song would never have been born. You noodle the tune you have in your head in the moment. So
If you're not FEELING a tune in your head or you are working on mastering a song you're working on
Yeah don't noodle. But
If it wasn't for noodling
By yourself no songs will be invented. Trust me
Just started playing guitar last week. Your videos are really helping me. Thanks dude !
Amen for giving Buk the credit he deserves. Love that dude, what a breath of fresh air for our community. Pure gold.
Tom Buk is the best thing about lockdown. Can’t get enough of the Home Skoolin 👍🏻
He is awesome
* WOLVERINE * among the purest.
I had (have) a lot of these problems. I found it useful to use a program like 'Transcribe' to learn solo's and chord progressions from other instruments (Piano and Saxophone mostly) to help break my mindset and found it helped a lot. Good vid man.
The muscle memory thing is my worst habit. I've basically wasted my guitar career learning to play in this way, instead of musically. I am now correcting this by focusing on the music theory - scales, chords, and learning all the tones and intervals. Muscle memory will fail you - it doesn't always land you on the correct fret or chord phrasing. Knowing music theory will help to land on the correct notes more often. Playing in scale, in time will always sound better.
Great video and tips Rhett! My antidote to almost everything you described is listening and watching Bill Frisell play ;)
Hi Rhett, I watched this with great interest. I’m a beginning guitarist and am enjoying my journey very much. One thing that struck me was floating your picking hand. At present I rest my hand on the bridge, pretty much like yourself. Would it be possible for you to do a follow up video detailing what you mean about floating your hand and why you are keen in adapting this style. Cheers David
This is all great info for me, just started playing 1 year ago. Been taking lessons for 2 months. I don’t yet have the ability to play what I like to hear. 59 arthritis ect. I only listen to how things sound , struggle with clean cords ect. Developing muscle memory but still consistent with looking at the fretboard. Always play clean because I don’t understand all the possibilities of my amps. Thanks
Just discovered this channel, and I’m digging it. I’ve been watching your videos with my guitar on my lap for the past few days. I’m an audio engineer who has always played guitar, but have never really taken it seriously. I want to change that.
Love your podcast & videos! I tend to noodle way too often, too but having to learn songs for a rehearsal helps. And just a few weeks ago, I finally bought Transcribe and decided to start learning solos that are outside of my comfort zone (Carlos Rios' solo's on Gino Vanelli's Brother to Brother album is what I'm working on now)....really helping giving me options with phrasing.
I seem to have some personal characteristics that help me avoid some of these bad habits: 1. I hate cliche's, 2. Having played acoustic and bass most of my life, dry is my starting point (and end point) more often than not, 3. I have lead music in small churches and have had to develop techniques that give me the most flexibility to get the sound I need for the song, 4) I love the challenge of any new song (see cliche' comment).
Rhett good video. Some other ways of improving that I use is practice with a Acoustic guitar. Heavier action &stings make you more accturate for clean note and coordinate both hands. ( put a arm rest on so you can float my picking hand easier) As far as not playing cliches look for melodic phrases rather than riffs. Start on different notes than normal use wider intervals. Be more reactive to what others around are playing. ( my group of friends call it BIG EARS) Going in cold but open and reactive to the music helps me improvise better. I feel that when a great musician plays they touch your soul with a melody and a presence of heart. This type of music haunts you mind and stay in your memory.
Noodling is absolutely necessary! If you just avoid bad habit #5 then you will stumble upon new and unexpected riffs and licks all the time.
Great vid! One of my bad habits... playing too many notes. Learning to play more phrasing with fewer notes can make a piece more interesting.
Nice video Rhett! Been doing the same thing lately. Great tips!
Have to disagree a little bit about noodling. For me tons of great ideas come from noodling. It could be from a mistake, it could be from a particular sequence of notes that come out by accident. The important thing is to not fall into the muscle memory trap that you mentioned. As long as you take chances and seek out new sounds (good or bad) during noodling I think it can be a good source of ideas.
That said, playing actual progressions/songs/full ideas is way better for practice and improvement.
Luke's Music m
I think he meant to hammer down more on the repetitive aspect just having a couple of go to’s. Noodling for the new I would agree with you is definitely important
Loved the tip about getting interesting ideas from listening to and transcribing other guitar players. Would like to also add other instruments as well, ie piano, horns etc. Heard a lot of cool licks that didn't come from guitar. Thanks
Hi thanks for the list, i just learned about noodling though and I think it might help me in the long run, learning scale combos and building riffs . You brought the issue to my attention, that it can hinder you if you’re not careful so thanks for that. I will make sure not to noodle in front of people lol. Playing along with new songs and transcribing them the mornings is my major takeaway, I’m tired of muscle memory licks.. thanks again :)
If my reverb sounded that nice, I'd probably struggle to turn it back off too. But point totally taken (my noodling is awful, I really need to learn new stuff and challenge myself).
Great video, thought provoking!
A question: I am practicing a solo for more than 3 weeks and is practically the only thing I am playing at the moment. I am able to play the solo at 60% of the actual speed. What is wiser in your opinion: Keep doing that till I reach 100%, or start practicing other stuff and pick it up again after a while?
"Noodling is the act of playing, but you're not actually playing anything"
I've never felt so called out
Yeah because he’s wrong
@jenk264 That's when you have a goal in mind.
I thought was called writing and improvising?
I just want to be a better noodler.
That’s why loop pedals are good I helps with timing chord progression and a lot more honestly I’ve been playing for about 15 years and I think noodling is good in the right context
Thank you for these well-thought-out, thoroughly prepared videos. I learn something from every, single one.
Great stuff here Rhett. I'm susceptible to all of that too and I'm esp working on getting that floating picking hand working. This was made really clear to me when I sold a really good Strat because I couldn't get my anchored palm away from the vol knob and trem. The problem is me, not the guitar. It's coming along and the benefits of being able to comfortably play up by the neck pickup are obvious. BTW I ended up with another Strat. LOL.
I very much appreciate your honesty and humility. Thank you for the inspiration!
Wow, I thought I was the only one left who was advocating for a floating picking right hand. I touch the strings gently with my knuckles, but I float my hand--and play a combination of forearm rotation, vertical arm movement, and thumb/ pointer. I've found that my tone improved when I started floating my hand--especially when I play my archtop.
In terms of breaking your own habits, get into composing your own etudes. Set some limits over a song and write out a solo using those limitations. They could be melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic limitations. In terms of actually improvising, an idea that I got from a saxophone player I took some lessons from was to hold onto the phrase that you just played in your head while you play the next phrase. The better you get at holding on to your phrases, the more compositional control you have over your solo because you end of linking everything together in ways that couldn't happen if you were only listening to what you are playing in the moment. It's like listening to the past and the present simultaneously--odd, but really cool once you get it.
And ear training, the top musicians in the "jazz realm" (I know this post already sounds pompos as hell, and coming from a jazz perspective might be the nail in the coffin--it's all music in the end, right?) are always talking about ear training and improving their ears. At the end of the day, what you are able to hear is more powerful than how fast your fingers can move when you play music based in improvisation (be it rock, blues, bluegrass, jazz, or composing classical music--Bach was a master improviser).
Long post, but if you made it to the end without labeling me as a pompos arse--I give you my thanks:) As Clark Terry once said "keep on keeping on!" and be safe out there!
Nice video , to me this video is the second part to the limitations video i think you might have changed the name since ... But i agree with you on all counts , and admire the wisdom that enables you to see your own limits , its the only way overcome them . I played 25 years looking at others showing me how they do it , i guess success leads to emulation but at some point i need to show how i do it . Why do we play music ? there are many reasons , mainly money . But really so that people can dance . The ultimate test is can you make people dance with your instrument alone no gimmicks drum machine or loops .
Had to subscribe due to your honesty about your own playing. Keep it up and thank you.
Great video Rhett, I can really relate with some of these issues. I stopped playing for like 10 years because I couldn't move past what I had learnt and the repetition just killed the passion of playing guitar.
I've played acoustic guitar for most of my playing life. I picked up an electric guitar about 10 years ago and frustratingly found that good habits on the electric side (especially the fret board hand) are bad habits on the acoustic side *sigh*
Rhett, I want to thank you for making this video, not for only these tips but for leading me to a gold mine by the name of Tom Bukovac! I really can't thank you enough. His stuff is eye-opening!
Sweet video Rhett. I like how you aimed this video at yourself for the benefit of your viewers. There are other videos where it feels like the Clip-Sharer is just enjoying sitting on their high horse telling their watchers what they're doing wrong. I tend to noodle a lot when I'm at home, some great topics here for us to be a little more mindful of. Play on
When I first started, all I was learning was basically cowboy chords, and now I’m trying to learn all the drop D chords(I find that style better) anyway, I was learning basic chords. G, A, E(Em) C, etc. For the first like, 2 months of playing, I didn’t even know you were supposed to press the strings, I always thought you just held them. I would always get so frustrated that I couldn’t get a different sound on an Em and a Cmaj. Now I know of course, but I cringe when I look back.
This is a very good video and hits home for me because at some time or another, I've had each one of these bad habits at some point in my musical career.
There are a lot of fixes for these and you named some good ones for each habit.
One thing that helped me was learning how to play the different modes of scales; not just pentatonic which is the one we can easily get "stuck in a rut" with.
Another way of developing good picking is learning to use the slanted pic method and try to incorporate some sweeping as well.
As for noodling, I still have that bad habit. I think that I start doing it when I get bored.
That's when I need to put the guitar down for a few hours and come back with something fresh.
We are all easily guilty of making bad habits. It's all a matter of knowing how it'll negatively affect you in the long run. Glad to see you really admitting and changing, that is the most important part in my opinion.
Hi Rhett, always enjoy your videos and your technical advice.
Really like your playing style and also like the varied topics you cover in your videos.
Recently I discovered this very young and very impressive Italian guitarist Matteo Mancuso, and the trio called SNIPS.
Wonder if you are familiar with him/them. I was pretty much blown away.
If you are familiar, wonder what you think? If not, I encourage you to take a look.
Peace! Out. Ant
I fit into every habit...being a self taught player myself. Thanks for sharing
Love your vids along with all the other guys like Baker ECT. Thanks for giving the shout to the session man he deserves it. His golden nuggets are priceless , it's wonderful for this new generation.
I love all of your videos Rhett, but this has been the most informative and helpful for my development as a guitar player. Thanks for uploading man!
Hey Rhett. Love your stuff! I've started recording at home in these Corona Virus times, and I've already learned that it can be a MESS. Especially to get the basics down. I would love to see how YOU record at home, tips and tricks, mic up amps, how to equalize guitartones etc. I really dig your tone on the instrumental intros and live sound! Just a idea for quarantine videos!
Keep it up!
Thanks, Rhett! Accurate to the point of embarrassing! I've been transcribing solos from other instruments to break out of the guitar pattern licks I default to. It also forces me to work out the phrases and transition between phrases in multiple positions to find the best fingerings.
As a working/ gigging drummer (52yrs old): I applaud you!! Played SOOOO many gigs with young players and NOODLING at check or between songs or takes is THE. ABSOLUTE. WORST. distraction, unconstructive and unproductive thing. Ever. Again - THANK YOU!! 👊🦁
Great video Rhett!
I found myself out of the resting my hand on the bridge early on in my learning when i got my first floyd rose floating bridge, i found i was changing the pitch by putting weight on the bridge and bumping the fine tuners constantly and putting the guitar out of tune
Keep the awesome work with your channel!
I find noodling a great way to imprint scales in my head, free flowing up and down the fret board helps a lot more than usual scale practice
It's refreshing that you are a player and storyteller that takes the humble approach of framing these kinds of videos in terms of YOUR OWN habits. It gets pretty tiresome to see some of the other guitarists out there acting like they have THE method and shove these "TOP FIVE HABITS EVERY GUITARIST NEEDS TO HAVE." and then fire off some projected form of lukewarm advice disembodied from the story of WHY they became bad habits. It's really nice to see you explaining a little bit about how you identified some of the areas you wanted to improve. I think that methodology is hugely valuable and it's a little bit nicer to watch as a fellow player.
Great video, RS. Inspiring me to be more mindful when I pick up my guitar.
I just learned that I play a particular part better and more consistent with my hand floating. Thank you for giving me something effective to focus on!
Great video! I feel like you hit the nail on the head, I’m so busted. I get organized and learn a new song and then the bad habits creep back in. I decided to not play leads anymore and just work songs and fills, will see how long that lasts. Thanks Rett
I'd be interested to know what Troy Grady thinks about the floating picking hand thingy. I wouldn't agree that this is bad habit. Like, at all. Unless you're playing chords or a really slow line
I had to laugh at some of those frustrations😖 Although I’m nowhere near your level I love learning guitar and practice everyday 🧐 But I have plenty of my own frustrations in my process🤬 Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips on improving the skill✌️
This video speaks to me so much! Man thank you for sharing this. I guess as guitarists it’s mostly a solitary activity, and knowing that you and possibly countless other guitarist struggle with the same ruts as I do. Thanks for sharing mate 👍
The difference between an effect and a special defect is the mix of that effect...a little goes a long way. Using an expression pedal to add just enough for particular moments has worked very well for me. The ability to go dry or throw a nice slight delay/reverb or drown on an end note is great.
Honestly, I went into this with a negative outlook. I am stubborn when it comes to listening to these types of advice videos. I only disagreed withe one thing in this video, but I'm going to do it all anyway. I have to stay humble, listen, and learn. But the most important thing for me to keep growing, is to try new things, and see if they help me (even if I don't want to do it). Time to expand the catalog. Thank you for this video.
Thanks for this video, Rhett. I feel exposed by Buk as a hack guitarist. It is comforting that accomplished people like you, Robert Baker, and others feel humbled by his playing and are trying to improve. That can only be good. This honesty and vulnerability is appreciated. Thanks for moving from frustration to solutions. Still, be kind to yourself. You rock. Thank you. Stay well!
I love the Jam Tracks Pete Honore is doing from Andertons...he plays chord progressions and shapes that I don't use so it makes me play out of my comfort zone! Great video Rhett!
Seriously, really great video. As usual.
Keep up the solid work Shully.
I’m a bass player and it was interesting watching this video. My practice consists of hearing songs that I like and thinking to myself I’m gonna learn that song, so now I have 60+ songs that I play all the time and the songs will be picking styles, finger styles, rock styles, syncopation, and so on even if I have my bass around my shoulders and a commercial comes on and there’s an interesting bassline I’ll follow it or ad lib.
I do have a bad habit that I tap my strings to keep in time and it sounds like a clip John Mayer used to hate himself for doing the same thing.
Noodling is not a bad habit. I have developed my own creative licks that other players ask me about through noodling around. Most songs we listen came from noodling
Imagine this: all guitar players locked themselves in a room with a guitar and amp and paper and no videos or songs at all, no music influences, just you and the instrument (guitar). No tabs or sheet music. There would be an explosion of creative material. The problem is is that guitar isn’t progressing very fast because we are all playing like each other and practicing being each other....noodling can help break out of the mold and look at your instrument (guitar) in a different way.
That’s pretty much what he said. If you’re noodling, stop...and make something out of it. The point is to not just noodle endlessly without making something from it.
I would say that you’re actually talking about improvising. Noodling is playing the same stuff you are comfortable with over and over aimlessly.
I think you and Rhett think of noodling in two different ways. He looks as it as a repetitive, stale fallback mode void of creativity. You see it as a means of exploration. Your case should, of course, be one to strive for, while what Rhett is talking about is to be avoided.
I initially was with Rhett on rote blues box or scale wanking. But you just can't always play with a "complete musical idea" in mind, although I understand why a top session player would take that approach. They need several different widgets to whip out on demand to see which one fits someone else's project. Real skill, real talent involved. Top level stuff. To max out YOUR creativity tho, you'll have to occasionally just go.
AJ Bueno he starts talking about this around 5 min mark... the noodling he is talking about is not creative and progressive it’s more of “flat in the meadow on repeat same things” that you have learned that sound nice but it’s like your crutch you go back to, he says add chords to what your playing and start playing in time teaching you to not just jam by yourself but w others. I don’t know about you but I come up w some pretty nice licks and progressions but they are not always in time lol so translating that over to play w others doesn’t come out right
Great video. I have struggled with all these problems except #5. That's how I peactice: I learn stuff.
This video is comforting. Thank you for letting me know I am not the only one facing these struggles. Pretty much every bad habit you listed I am guilty of.
Great video, Rhett. You hit all the nails on their heads with this one. I’m sitting at work right now going, “Dammit, I do that....and that.....and that.” Definitely going to go home, unplug some effects and jam with some of my favorite songs. And try not to noodle over them...
learning classical piano helped so much with improv. Before every lick, you need to consider the phrasing for the whole 4 or 5 bars forward. Counterpoints, modal changes, etc should be considered every time.
I am also a self taught musician and I do every single one of those bad habits besides the anchored palm. The noodling and reverb are my biggest bad habits.
@Sunset Junior Correct. Noodling is completely OK. Don't let this video dissuade you from doing it.
nope, they might be your best, most enjoyed habits. if it feels good, do it.