have 2 years of guitar practice, I love blues, specifically the solos, working with pentatonic scales were a challenge for me, I saw that I was only making my learning more complicated, man.
Yes. It's good to be reminded, thank you! I would take 3 or 4 notes and play them every way I could possibly think of. Doing this while moving to different positions and an occasional burst of speed created my best improvised solos.
Its gotta have something to do with playing along to other notes, if your so used to playing alone it can change to just noise of the single voice delivering all tones at all times, it looses all thought and direction.
No, more is more. A person who shreds can play the blues but I cannot say the same for a blues player unless its Joe bonamassa and even hes not that technical. I love the blues but when people say that less is more it makes me feel like they are just lazy. It really just depends on the song. We have to serve the song. If a song needs less notes then less is more.
@abhaysharma5072 my favorite players are the ones who know everything but know when to hold back. That's why Satriani is one of my favorites...a shredder that loves Jimi Hendrix and blues
Ka-Blam! After 50+ years of acoustic guitar, and 2 years after of setting aside my flat pick for a spell, I just now heard exactly what I needed. Perfect timing. Perfect framing. Perfect coffee. Perfect morning. It's a great day in the Southland.
First off: the guitar is a tool…. A vessel to release your emotion. You cannot be a robot! Good test……. If you can’t sing or hum or whistle a melody: start with that. Second, learn all positions of the pentatonic scale. 3rd, learn all modal positions. 4th, learn/know what key your in and its relative minor! Then……. Play like you sing, hum or whistle. Jam…. Relax. Use the scales and modes to explore melody! It’s easy really;) easy steps to shred:)
Sure, if your only goal is to play fast. Learning scales is the way everyone does it. I just play what sounds good. If a scale is your guideline you’re going to be creatively crippled.
Very good lesson, and its so true. Back when i was beginning to feel very comfortable with a guitar in my hands, but still very stiff and robotic, i stopped trying to play scales and songs completely. I spent a few months or more doing nothing but bending strings, vibrato, trills and hammers, sliding up to a set note, sliding down to a set note. As soon as i was comfortable with these motions i went back to thinking in terms of songs again. All of the stuff i had been working on instantly began incorporating itself into my playing. The robot was gone, and was replaced by a far more confident sounding player. I began breaking scales into chunks and sliding into some sliding out of others. Adding bends and trills where i might have stuck 3 or 4 uncertain notes to fill space. It might just be the Holy Grail lesson for confidence and creative comfort.
35 years of playing guitar and this is literally the most impactful advice I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard it explained in other ways, but you deliver the message well. Thanks!!
Thanks! Yep, breathing and space are as important as the notes. I’m always amazed at great players and how little they actually play when laying down a great melody!
Thank pw I'm a very very beginner however I'm determined to eventually sound like I know what I'm doing there's this desire inside of my heart mind and soul like a constant balanced f lame that inspires me to express myself with my guitar and share these feelings and thoughts that only music,language can articulate I'm currently playing by ear while simultaneously improvising particaly every style and I'm very guilty of attempting to include the entire fretboard I'm so grateful for this reformation to slow the tempo and a few notes instead of stabing blindly in the dark 😅😂😊❤
Hi Paul, thanks for this video. I have a long story with the guitar, but I'll try to make this short and to the point. I started playing guitar in high school (I'm 61 now), and had basic lessons, learning power chords but not music theory. Then life happened, I stopped playing after high school, but now I am starting to play again after all of these years. I never knew all of the scales, or even the notes I could play, I just play what sounds good to me. I was playing recently in this exact way you describe in the video, and to my surprise, my wife said that it sounded good. I usually only use the middle strings, sometimes going high, sometimes low, but the majority of the time I am using two strings like you just did. We are putting a music room together in our house. My wife plays the drums, and I've also picked up an electronic keyboard to start expanding my playing. This will help a lot, since I won't be worried about trying to play every string in every fret, I'll keep doing what I've been doing.
I've been playing for just over a year and even though my knowledge is very basic, my eyes went wide open as I was seeing this lesson. Reading some of the comments below, I came to the conclusion that I'm a very lucky man today to be seeing this golden lesson at an early stage of my playing. Thank you very much sir!!
This makes so much sense and makes me feel better about my learning on guitar. Just yesterday I was practicing and noodling around with C major scale. I found I enjoyed simpler solo’s as you displayed compared to trying to force a bunch of the scale in a solo or riff situation. Yet, my inner thoughts begin to say things like “ yea that’s cool but is that actually learning guitar “. This puts me at ease knowing I’m doing something right.
I learned a long time ago that trying to solo using scales alone was never a good idea. I would learn solos of music I liked and would look at which modes(scales) they were played over. I learned why certain bends worked and that different timing ranging from slow to fast made things sound better. Solos should be like having a conversation with pauses and emphasis being placed on different syllables (notes) with repeating relevant phrases (licks) to get your point with a conservative or solo across.
If you’re playing over a backing track, lean the chords as well. Play along to learn the progression. You’ll lean the chords, key, and soloing at the same time. Just break it up: chords first, then the soloing, then both so you choose and learn when to solo/structuring
Andy Timmons taught the same thing. He limited his students to one note, then two, three and so on. You realise that you can play around with the dynamic, muting, and all the other stuff
My FAVORITE guitarist ever. The man bleeds melody and does teach exactly what you mentioned. I brought him to my music academy more times than any other guitarist because the students loved him so much and he was such an inspiration to us all.
Learned a couple of Neil Young songs last year: Down By The River and Cinnamon Girl. I was floored by the simplicity of his solos, many variations of the same notes. Since then I have felt very comfortable playing solos. Even played Zombie solo off the top of my head. Surprised myself as much as band mates.
This is excellent advice. At GIT we learned to do this by writing out a 4 note phrase in notation and then playing with the band and sticking to the written notation/phrase. This is the same idea but without the phrase concept…..that was the single best lesson I learned at GIT and for beginners this breaks that down even further and allows them to start creating phrases. Of course you need to know the scales at some point but ALSO the chords and triads in that key will revolutionize your fretboard awareness….and then stick to the simplify practice method and eventually write out phrases and stick to them. Still the single best thing I was ever asked to learn. Simplify. Write a phrase. Stick to the phrase.
Love it when something so simple can change so much. I'm by nature more of a rhythm guitarist, and I've always wondered how leads can make stuff sound so good and where their creativity comes from, and this gives me a great place to start with. Anchor on a simple concept and build from there. Thanks!
This might be one of the best lessons I've ever seen. I'm 65 and I've only been playing for 2 years, but I memorized all five pentatonic and all seven diatonic shapes. So I go to open mic and put on these backing tracks and sit there trying to play all 12 shapes and it's overkill. I'm going to try this. Thank you so much. 🙏🕊️❤️e
I take notes out of a scale in the second octave and add in different ones on the third and use the notes from the first octave as I descend. I often will turn a minor triad into a descending blues scale to resolve things.
Your absolutely right , I know santana and Stevie ray voun, especially Robin Trower, didn't spend hours learning entirely every scale the just concentrated on a few notes and made them musical and beautiful , thank you so much , for your inspiration and info,
We get more and more technical and want to incorporate so much that we forget to actually FEEL the music. I believe every single player has something brilliant to offer if they just feel and flow with the music. Stumbled upon this video randomly but m gonna share this with everyone I know who plays!
Myself, and many of us, started out just playing scales, up and down, over and over. Takes a while to realize that this will make you good at playing scales, but not at learning to solo, or play music. The 4 note approach really works. Thanks
I previously learned the five pentatonic patterns and the full major patterns using the caged system, and recently i learned all seven 3NPS patterns. This concept is going to help me a bunch. Ive been very robotic. Thanks!
I have recorded many songs without actually knowing what to do on my guitar, but they sound pretty decent. My drumming is pretty good but my guitar needed this.
This is very good. I learned a while ago that all human creativity comes with constraints. If you see constraints as things to be managed and made to work in your favour, rather than obstacles in your way, then progress beckons. If I've understood the video correcty, this is what it's all about.
I’ve been strumming for decades and decided to enhance my skillset by delving into licks and basic soloing - this is very useful advice for me! Thank you!
a huge thing as well is thinking about chord arpeggios around each chord rather than just oh this progression is in this key(even though most songs rarely stay in one key).
So true, less is often more impactful. In one my bands songs, the first 1/3 of my solo is the same 3 notes. I use a comnination hammer ons, pull offs, sustain, and different rythems to create depth.
Very good young Sir . . . This is such great advice, especially for newbies and intermediate players. I call this "restraint" and I still use it as a tool. I am 67 and have been playing since I was 8. A great way to start to create a solo is to do as you did and then build off of it. Works for me anyway
Restraint is the toughest thing for folks to get down sometimes because we learn all these scales and feel we have to incorporate it all to be good. Not really the case at all! Thanks so much for watching and giving us your thoughts!
This method is also a way to learn entire scales piece by piece. It's called "chunking" in education circles. You master a large amount of information a bit at a time and eventually are able to fluently put it all together. Along the way you're also creating some of your own phrasing that begins to become your style over time. Cool stuff!
This may help me a lot and be just what I needed. I know the fretboard pretty well, the CAGED system, pentatonic scales, Dorian scale, aeolian and mixolydian and I suck at soloing because I am always trying to do too much. It always ends in a train wreck. I will try to do much less. Nothing to lose.
Being one of those who constantly makes trips up and down the fretboard, this is a truly enlightening video. Message received and you have another sub, Sir 😉.
Once i had 2nd, 4th and 5th strings on my acoustic guitsr break. I decided to keep them like that for s while. This forced me to creatively discover new ways to play.
The color of the guitar is screaming but the 4 note soloing is an eyeopener. Practice a long time to solo but this give me a good start for bending , pull and hammer on to lay my focus on.. Thanks for the tip.
I probably been doing this way all my life. I don't know the scales, I don't know what it means to play something in a certain key. I am basically sell taught. I am also limited because of my shortish fingers, that do not stretch, I am lucky if I can stretch 3 frets worth, also, I can only use 3 fingers, because my pinky curves inward towards my thumb. So playing I learned to simplify, out of necessities. As you have shown, I can play a solo only using two frets at a time, going up and down the neck. I play a lot of Yardbirds stuff and the like. So nice presentation of showing something I have been doing for years.
I used to do something similar to what Ron Thal suggested in the past but more limiting even. You start with only one note, then you gradually add one note of the scale or key after a number of bars until you have all scale notes available.
This was a good message! THANKS. Often times, my problem has been trying to say too much in a short amount of time with guitar. If you're going to be fast in a certain part, at least let it come naturally. Until that time comes, just focus on being interesting. 🤷♂️❤️
I’m my biggest fan. And I don’t see a problem, my scales sound great when I play them really fast. I think you just need to add more distortion and speed it all up so people can’t hear all the notes and stuff. Joking aside, Diamond Darrel article. He recommended playing one note. Make it sing, listen to the pick placement and attack. When you hear the sound your looking for add another note. Cleaned up my playing instantly.
Just found your channel and I really enjoyed this lesson. It is simple to some but until you challenge yourself to play the two notes or the four notes and see how you can create and improve your playing technique you can’t progress. This lesson should also create confidence as well. I subscribed to your channel and look forward to some more great ideas. I’ve played for many years myself and I always look for something new and that’s what keeps me thirsty for more knowledge. I have come to realize that I will never know everything there is to know about the guitar. Furthermore I wouldn’t be able to learn if I knew it all. All of us guitar players learn in different styles and genres we’ve got to seek out the information and use it when the need is there to use it. I think back to the time I got my first guitar. I would be sharing my age if I told you that what year it was. I asked for one for Christmas as a young man. I couldn’t believe it when I woke up Christmas morning and seen the odd shaped box under the tree. I wasn’t sure what it was. But when it came time to open it I was amazed. I still have the guitar to this day. And I will say this to you guys reading this. I was born before dirt was dirt. lol. I’ve learned ao much and have fallen in love with the instrument over and over and over again. I wish I could share everything that I know about the guitar to the ones that would like to know. It’s a life long commitment for some of us. And then there’s the ones that just get bored and don’t realize that the guitar is a learning process. It’s not to be taken for granted. I’ve often thought about the young ones that get thier first guitar and for what reason did they stop playing ? What causes that ? And there are many reasons. I think that some of it is because the first guitar they get is something that is not if quality and it’s hard to play and there are other reasons as well not enough time in the day or other things come along. For me I have never stopped loving to play and for a lesson like this one that I just watched it makes sense to me. I always try to use the notes that fit. Now if you take ONKY two bites can you make this two notes fit the situation that your in. Absolutely. Find a way to use the notes that would make your ears hear something that you haven’t heard before. It’s called creative thinking. We all have it. I can remember the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix and I listened over and over. And then I heard that he set his guitar on fire as well. Guess what I tried. I am antes to know what would happen if I would light up a match and hold it to one of the strings. Well I found out real quick. Pop pop pop. The fun thing about that I got to learn on the remaining three strings until I saved up enough money to have the guitar shop restringbut for me. Then I also learned that I would have to pay someone to restring my guitar once in a while. So I learned how to do it myself. There are some many first that come along with learning guitar. It’s a beautiful way to let your express yourself as well. Thanks for the lesson. It may nit seem like much to some for me it is a lesson that gets the juices flowing. Thanks so much for sharing
Nice vid. There is a concept of limiting your palette in visual art (painting, I mean, or creating/editing images). By limiting the number of colors (not using some of the color ranges such as red or maybe decide to only use shades of orange and yellow etc) you ENFORCE a kind of unity. or harmony. Same in music. You can limit your options and also learn WHICH notes work best over each chord of the key. That is also a huge difference between pros and newbs. Newbs don't understand how to highlight key chord notes or how to LAND on good notes and hold them. The peer pressure of constant shredding like a Govan or a Hutchings or anyone like Malmsteen etc. is probably very detrimental for beginners and even mid-level players. You don't have to shred at all! Most solos that I recall as being unbelievably great were 99% not shred. Playable by mere mortals. Gambale, Holdsworth.... Those are not even on my radar. It's a waste at this stage of my life and not even fulfilling. Writing MEMORABLE and GREAT music is my goal. If it's two notes over and over and it's great, so be it! Very important to use your mind as much as possible and fingers secondarily.
Great points! It's long been a problem for guitarists to compare themselves to virtuoso level players and then feel discouraged. But it's like any other discipline. It takes years upon years to achieve what those people do. I still strive to play some things that are out of my reach because I enjoy the challenge. But for the most part, I'm way more happy coming up with a good melody or riff. :) Thanks for checking out the video!
Thank you! I love the color as well! I'm not sure what I have left on iTunes. But as for some of my stuff on TH-cam, you can check out this instrumental ( th-cam.com/video/2CxS8QsCxpE/w-d-xo.html ), this Barracuda cover ( th-cam.com/video/S_Gj5DfsZmQ/w-d-xo.html ) or maybe original music with a female vocalist I did ( th-cam.com/video/GBir-x4MpM8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=qlf_Fq8-xNBAId-z ). Just some options of things out there. :)
Great advice. Doing that has improved my playing a lot. I try to start out with small licks 3 or 4 notes. Even two notes sometimes. Definitely forces more melodic playing. Thanks for passing this on.
Bro you're awesome, thank you for the tips. I just started playing in August of 2023. Your tips are very valuable, I enjoy heavy metal and rock and blues. Keep up the fantastic work.
That’s a great idea and definitely makes sense, never thought about it, but I’m definitely gonna take that advice from you. Thank you. I’m a visually impaired individual learning how to play guitar.
Yes. This is most helpful. My improv was improved. ) But now I'm looking for a way to understand how to "say something" when I'm the soloist. I want to know why to play certain phrases, or how to choose what in my solo expresses a proper idea that fits that moment in the song. It's sort of like "what am I saying?" and "Why am I saying that?" Without finding my special purpose, I'm just noodling. Don't get me wrong, my noodling is pretty good. But I just wander the outback like I'm on walk about.
My harmonica teacher Jason Ricci says the same thing. The discipline is in limiting yourself. Do it until you're bored. Then that for in your belly will start creating new things
Neat. I like it. I'm an old guy and played around with this before but you have explained it so well that it makes more sense and playing with the technique the short time while watching your video, I will reintroduce this into my practice sessions. Reteaching an old dog old tricks. Thank you.
I use this approach, CONSTRAINED LEARNING APPROACH as a submission grappling coach. Ive been applying this approach to music and guitar playing as well. Theres a ton of research on this approach, coupled with ecological psychology and ecological dynamics (systems).
Of all the guitar or music channels… as a guitar relatively new (about 1yr) player that jams with a live band occasionally, this is probably some of the most useful advice I’ve heard. Everyone thinks good music has to be some complex symphony stuffed with hard to play guitar parts… yet some of the most ground breaking music was the simplest. Look at Nirvana… Kurt could barely play guitar and had no real music theory or experience other than what he taught himself. It made his music speak for itself and kick started a new genre and probably my favorite growing up in the 90’s. It’s weird when you’re writing original music with a band and you guys have real synergy… it’s like you feel you’re cheating because the music is almost given to you. I felt like a giant radio antenna that was receiving the music as if I already heard it and had familiarity with it.
Seriously the best lesson EVER!!! Crazy that it didn't really involve playing either. So simple and immediately leveled me up. So impactful on someone who has watched thousands of hours of guitar lessons and still sucks 😂 thank you sir.
I've actually was just looking at some guitars and didn't see any I want until I saw yours. The color is awesome, and the knobs are low and out of the way.
I am not usually a fan of the color green or of the Majesty Model EB, but that guitar is beautiful and it just pops on screen. More importantly, excellent lesson and advice ❤
I should have said "fret position" instead of note to be more accurate. But if you can take those 4 notes and turn them into other notes, that was kind of the point as well. Just being creative with a limited starting point. Thanks for the feedback and for watching!
Finally, someone came out with something right. Also try using your volume levels and cutting out gain, letting the music breathe. You don't always have to even play. Give a few beat s between of playing nothing when you listen to the music. Or change from single notes in to chords. Or parts of chords. Add bends, vibrato, slides, harmonics, maybe a sweep, (not sweeping the entire neck constantly. ) Its makes the music live better instead of sounding like a scaling chuggernaut.
Here is something you will begin to notice after years of playing solos on guitar: some of the greatest guitar solos include "implied" notes. When we go back and listen enough times, we discover that we had previously THOUGHT we heard more notes than were actually played. If you want to discover this phenomenon easily, go back and listen to Joe Perry and Aerosmith from the 70s.
To be fair, those bends are outside of the limited notes. But they are also not in the scale in the first place. Which is something interesting to consider.
Have you tried this sort of practice method before? Have you noticed how you immediately sound more confident and intentional in what you play?
have 2 years of guitar practice, I love blues, specifically the solos, working with pentatonic scales were a challenge for me, I saw that I was only making my learning more complicated, man.
Holy shit you just opened my playing by a million levels and I've been playing for over 30yrs thanks man I owe ya big time
A couple years ago there was a “4 note challenge” backing track floating around TH-cam. It taught me a lot. This guy knows the secret sauce
Yes. It's good to be reminded, thank you! I would take 3 or 4 notes and play them every way I could possibly think of. Doing this while moving to different positions and an occasional burst of speed created my best improvised solos.
Its gotta have something to do with playing along to other notes, if your so used to playing alone it can change to just noise of the single voice delivering all tones at all times, it looses all thought and direction.
Being a blues player for most of my life I have always believed less is more. Make each note work harder.
No, more is more. A person who shreds can play the blues but I cannot say the same for a blues player unless its Joe bonamassa and even hes not that technical. I love the blues but when people say that less is more it makes me feel like they are just lazy. It really just depends on the song. We have to serve the song. If a song needs less notes then less is more.
@abhaysharma5072 my favorite players are the ones who know everything but know when to hold back. That's why Satriani is one of my favorites...a shredder that loves Jimi Hendrix and blues
@@abhaysharma5072Yes, less is more🤓
@@abhaysharma5072I guess you haven't listened to Eric Johnson? Shred guitar and blues guitar aren't mutually exclusive.
more is more
Ka-Blam! After 50+ years of acoustic guitar, and 2 years after of setting aside my flat pick for a spell, I just now heard exactly what I needed. Perfect timing. Perfect framing. Perfect coffee. Perfect morning. It's a great day in the Southland.
Cheers ☕️!
Glad this video found you at a good time! :) Thank you for watching!
: / AND YOU ARE A PERFECT MORON!
best advice i've seen in a very long time.
creativity is not born of hyperabundance...
but of dearth...tyvm.
Thanks! Love the quote! I appreciate you watching!
learned a new word today
First off: the guitar is a tool…. A vessel to release your emotion. You cannot be a robot! Good test……. If you can’t sing or hum or whistle a melody: start with that. Second, learn all positions of the pentatonic scale. 3rd, learn all modal positions. 4th, learn/know what key your in and its relative minor! Then……. Play like you sing, hum or whistle. Jam…. Relax. Use the scales and modes to explore melody! It’s easy really;) easy steps to shred:)
Great advice! I appreciate your points!
I can play a C scale.
I ALMOST played guitar one time. It was AMAZING!!
Sounds like you’re a tool
Sure, if your only goal is to play fast. Learning scales is the way everyone does it. I just play what sounds good. If a scale is your guideline you’re going to be creatively crippled.
I’ve played guitar for many years. This makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for watching and I hope it helps!
Very good lesson, and its so true. Back when i was beginning to feel very comfortable with a guitar in my hands, but still very stiff and robotic, i stopped trying to play scales and songs completely. I spent a few months or more doing nothing but bending strings, vibrato, trills and hammers, sliding up to a set note, sliding down to a set note. As soon as i was comfortable with these motions i went back to thinking in terms of songs again. All of the stuff i had been working on instantly began incorporating itself into my playing. The robot was gone, and was replaced by a far more confident sounding player. I began breaking scales into chunks and sliding into some sliding out of others. Adding bends and trills where i might have stuck 3 or 4 uncertain notes to fill space. It might just be the Holy Grail lesson for confidence and creative comfort.
Thank you very much! Loved reading your experience of going from robotic to melodic!
35 years of playing guitar and this is literally the most impactful advice I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard it explained in other ways, but you deliver the message well. Thanks!!
That's a great tip! I also remember one of the instructors at the RMA saying that you should let your playing breathe. I found that to be useful too.
Thanks! Yep, breathing and space are as important as the notes. I’m always amazed at great players and how little they actually play when laying down a great melody!
Me too
Thank pw I'm a very very beginner however I'm determined to eventually sound like I know what I'm doing there's this desire inside of my heart mind and soul like a constant balanced f lame that inspires me to express myself with my guitar and share these feelings and thoughts that only music,language can articulate I'm currently playing by ear while simultaneously improvising particaly every style and I'm very guilty of attempting to include the entire fretboard I'm so grateful for this reformation to slow the tempo and a few notes instead of stabing blindly in the dark 😅😂😊❤
Hi Paul, thanks for this video. I have a long story with the guitar, but I'll try to make this short and to the point. I started playing guitar in high school (I'm 61 now), and had basic lessons, learning power chords but not music theory. Then life happened, I stopped playing after high school, but now I am starting to play again after all of these years.
I never knew all of the scales, or even the notes I could play, I just play what sounds good to me. I was playing recently in this exact way you describe in the video, and to my surprise, my wife said that it sounded good. I usually only use the middle strings, sometimes going high, sometimes low, but the majority of the time I am using two strings like you just did.
We are putting a music room together in our house. My wife plays the drums, and I've also picked up an electronic keyboard to start expanding my playing. This will help a lot, since I won't be worried about trying to play every string in every fret, I'll keep doing what I've been doing.
I hope it does help and thank you for checking out the video!
I've been playing for just over a year and even though my knowledge is very basic, my eyes went wide open as I was seeing this lesson. Reading some of the comments below, I came to the conclusion that I'm a very lucky man today to be seeing this golden lesson at an early stage of my playing. Thank you very much sir!!
Thanks so much for your kind words and I'm really glad you found it helpful!
This makes so much sense and makes me feel better about my learning on guitar. Just yesterday I was practicing and noodling around with C major scale. I found I enjoyed simpler solo’s as you displayed compared to trying to force a bunch of the scale in a solo or riff situation. Yet, my inner thoughts begin to say things like “ yea that’s cool but is that actually learning guitar “. This puts me at ease knowing I’m doing something right.
I learned a long time ago that trying to solo using scales alone was never a good idea. I would learn solos of music I liked and would look at which modes(scales) they were played over. I learned why certain bends worked and that different timing ranging from slow to fast made things sound better. Solos should be like having a conversation with pauses and emphasis being placed on different syllables (notes) with repeating relevant phrases (licks) to get your point with a conservative or solo across.
Great points!!
If you’re playing over a backing track, lean the chords as well. Play along to learn the progression. You’ll lean the chords, key, and soloing at the same time. Just break it up: chords first, then the soloing, then both so you choose and learn when to solo/structuring
Andy Timmons taught the same thing. He limited his students to one note, then two, three and so on. You realise that you can play around with the dynamic, muting, and all the other stuff
My FAVORITE guitarist ever. The man bleeds melody and does teach exactly what you mentioned. I brought him to my music academy more times than any other guitarist because the students loved him so much and he was such an inspiration to us all.
@@PaulWarrenMusic wow! Man, if you were in Australia I'd go to your academy
Wow! Hats off to you, Paul! This is so helpful and it improves my soloing❤❤❤
Learned a couple of Neil Young songs last year: Down By The River and Cinnamon Girl. I was floored by the simplicity of his solos, many variations of the same notes. Since then I have felt very comfortable playing solos. Even played Zombie solo off the top of my head. Surprised myself as much as band mates.
This is awesome! Thanks I will incorporate this immediately!
I’ve been saying this for years! Playing musically vs technically. Nice to see someone else vocalizing this concept. Thank you!
This is excellent advice. At GIT we learned to do this by writing out a 4 note phrase in notation and then playing with the band and sticking to the written notation/phrase. This is the same idea but without the phrase concept…..that was the single best lesson I learned at GIT and for beginners this breaks that down even further and allows them to start creating phrases. Of course you need to know the scales at some point but ALSO the chords and triads in that key will revolutionize your fretboard awareness….and then stick to the simplify practice method and eventually write out phrases and stick to them. Still the single best thing I was ever asked to learn. Simplify. Write a phrase. Stick to the phrase.
Love it when something so simple can change so much.
I'm by nature more of a rhythm guitarist, and I've always wondered how leads can make stuff sound so good and where their creativity comes from, and this gives me a great place to start with. Anchor on a simple concept and build from there.
Thanks!
This goes hand in hand with those who say it's the notes you don't play that make the music better. This is great advice, thank you!
Thank you! And thanks for watching!
Excellent. There's so much content about shredding. It's very refreshing to see someone talk about melody and timing!
This might be one of the best lessons I've ever seen.
I'm 65 and I've only been playing for 2 years, but I memorized all five pentatonic and all seven diatonic shapes.
So I go to open mic and put on these backing tracks and sit there trying to play all 12 shapes and it's overkill.
I'm going to try this. Thank you so much.
🙏🕊️❤️e
Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate you watching and hope it helps!
I take notes out of a scale in the second octave and add in different ones on the third and use the notes from the first octave as I descend. I often will turn a minor triad into a descending blues scale to resolve things.
Your absolutely right , I know santana and Stevie ray voun, especially Robin Trower, didn't spend hours learning entirely every scale the just concentrated on a few notes and made them musical and beautiful , thank you so much , for your inspiration and info,
We get more and more technical and want to incorporate so much that we forget to actually FEEL the music. I believe every single player has something brilliant to offer if they just feel and flow with the music. Stumbled upon this video randomly but m gonna share this with everyone I know who plays!
Myself, and many of us, started out just playing scales, up and down, over and over. Takes a while to realize that this will make you good at playing scales, but not at learning to solo, or play music. The 4 note approach really works. Thanks
Love this idea. 'Light Up The Sky' is one of my favorite EVH solos, and certainly one of his easiest
Incredible! Been learning on YT w no instructor for a year and a half and this has been one of the most valuable videos I’ve come across. Thank you
Are You Saying? Less Is More? This is True in My
Life for Everything. Thank You for the Video. 🙂
And "Could" you say, Simplify? Rather than limit.
A really good reminder. I got better after a year and half and memorised the pentatonic scale shapes and started complicating things 👍🏽👍🏽
Thanks and I appreciate you watching!
I think this video has helped me more than any other guitar lessons I've ever eva seen on video.
I previously learned the five pentatonic patterns and the full major patterns using the caged system, and recently i learned all seven 3NPS patterns. This concept is going to help me a bunch. Ive been very robotic. Thanks!
That's the best advice ive had in years. Im not even playing right now but I hear it easier in my head. Nice job
Awesome! Glad you found it helpful and I really appreciate you watching!
I have recorded many songs without actually knowing what to do on my guitar, but they sound pretty decent. My drumming is pretty good but my guitar needed this.
This is very good. I learned a while ago that all human creativity comes with constraints. If you see constraints as things to be managed and made to work in your favour, rather than obstacles in your way, then progress beckons. If I've understood the video correcty, this is what it's all about.
I’ve been strumming for decades and decided to enhance my skillset by delving into licks and basic soloing - this is very useful advice for me! Thank you!
Awesome and welcome to the channel! I appreciate you watching!
the shine on that headstock 😍
Thanks for posting this great advice. I'm glad I found this
a huge thing as well is thinking about chord arpeggios around each chord rather than just oh this progression is in this key(even though most songs rarely stay in one key).
So true, less is often more impactful. In one my bands songs, the first 1/3 of my solo is the same 3 notes. I use a comnination hammer ons, pull offs, sustain, and different rythems to create depth.
Very good young Sir . . . This is such great advice, especially for newbies and intermediate players. I call this "restraint" and I still use it as a tool. I am 67 and have been playing since I was 8. A great way to start to create a solo is to do as you did and then build off of it. Works for me anyway
Restraint is the toughest thing for folks to get down sometimes because we learn all these scales and feel we have to incorporate it all to be good. Not really the case at all! Thanks so much for watching and giving us your thoughts!
This method is also a way to learn entire scales piece by piece. It's called "chunking" in education circles. You master a large amount of information a bit at a time and eventually are able to fluently put it all together. Along the way you're also creating some of your own phrasing that begins to become your style over time. Cool stuff!
This may help me a lot and be just what I needed. I know the fretboard pretty well, the CAGED system, pentatonic scales, Dorian scale, aeolian and mixolydian and I suck at soloing because I am always trying to do too much. It always ends in a train wreck. I will try to do much less. Nothing to lose.
Being one of those who constantly makes trips up and down the fretboard, this is a truly enlightening video. Message received and you have another sub, Sir 😉.
Thanks so much and I'm glad it was helpful! Thank you as well for the sub!!
Very important lesson! Less is more, and also choose visely.
Just because I know all the notes in the scale, doesn't mean I have to play them all!
🤟
Exactly! Thanks so much for watching!
I like that JP model
This makes so much sense. Going to try this today when I practice. Thanks.
1000 guitar videos and this is probably the best advice I've heard...thanks!
Thanks for your kind words and I appreciate you watching! Hope it does prove helpful for you!
Once i had 2nd, 4th and 5th strings on my acoustic guitsr break. I decided to keep them like that for s while. This forced me to creatively discover new ways to play.
The color of the guitar is screaming but the 4 note soloing is an eyeopener. Practice a long time to solo but this give me a good start for bending , pull and hammer on to lay my focus on.. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks so much for watching and I hope it’s helpful! And Yes, screaming is a great way to describe the guitar. :)
I probably been doing this way all my life. I don't know the scales, I don't know what it means to play something in a certain key. I am basically sell taught. I am also limited because of my shortish fingers, that do not stretch, I am lucky if I can stretch 3 frets worth, also, I can only use 3 fingers, because my pinky curves inward towards my thumb. So playing I learned to simplify, out of necessities. As you have shown, I can play a solo only using two frets at a time, going up and down the neck. I play a lot of Yardbirds stuff and the like. So nice presentation of showing something I have been doing for years.
Really enjoyed this, I also get caught up in scaling the scale. Thanks for the tips
Thank you very much! We all scale the scale. :) Appreciate you watching!
I like the way you explained your lesson, That made lots of sense. Thx
like climbing to the top of the mountain and the guru gives you '2 notes' which change your life, thanks!
Thanks so much for watching! :)
Some great ideas, thanks Paul. Part of me is here for the lesson and part is just to look at that guitar again 🤘🤘
Thanks! I appreciate you watching for either reason. :)
Yeah that’s one sweet Majesty he’s got.
I used to do something similar to what Ron Thal suggested in the past but more limiting even. You start with only one note, then you gradually add one note of the scale or key after a number of bars until you have all scale notes available.
Love this!
This was a good message! THANKS.
Often times, my problem has been trying to say too much in a short amount of time with guitar. If you're going to be fast in a certain part, at least let it come naturally. Until that time comes, just focus on being interesting. 🤷♂️❤️
Yup. This will work. Not even holding a guitar right now but I could do a serious solo over that with those 4 notes. Awesome
I’m my biggest fan. And I don’t see a problem, my scales sound great when I play them really fast.
I think you just need to add more distortion and speed it all up so people can’t hear all
the notes and stuff.
Joking aside, Diamond Darrel article. He recommended playing one note. Make it sing, listen to the pick placement and attack. When you hear the sound your looking for add another note. Cleaned up my playing instantly.
Paul - I could listen to your phrasing all day - just so smooth - and the tone of your guitar - awesome!
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say! I appreciate you watching!
Just found your channel and I really enjoyed this lesson. It is simple to some but until you challenge yourself to play the two notes or the four notes and see how you can create and improve your playing technique you can’t progress. This lesson should also create confidence as well. I subscribed to your channel and look forward to some more great ideas. I’ve played for many years myself and I always look for something new and that’s what keeps me thirsty for more knowledge. I have come to realize that I will never know everything there is to know about the guitar. Furthermore I wouldn’t be able to learn if I knew it all. All of us guitar players learn in different styles and genres we’ve got to seek out the information and use it when the need is there to use it. I think back to the time I got my first guitar. I would be sharing my age if I told you that what year it was. I asked for one for Christmas as a young man. I couldn’t believe it when I woke up Christmas morning and seen the odd shaped box under the tree. I wasn’t sure what it was. But when it came time to open it I was amazed. I still have the guitar to this day. And I will say this to you guys reading this. I was born before dirt was dirt. lol. I’ve learned ao much and have fallen in love with the instrument over and over and over again. I wish I could share everything that I know about the guitar to the ones that would like to know. It’s a life long commitment for some of us. And then there’s the ones that just get bored and don’t realize that the guitar is a learning process. It’s not to be taken for granted. I’ve often thought about the young ones that get thier first guitar and for what reason did they stop playing ? What causes that ? And there are many reasons. I think that some of it is because the first guitar they get is something that is not if quality and it’s hard to play and there are other reasons as well not enough time in the day or other things come along. For me I have never stopped loving to play and for a lesson like this one that I just watched it makes sense to me. I always try to use the notes that fit. Now if you take ONKY two bites can you make this two notes fit the situation that your in. Absolutely. Find a way to use the notes that would make your ears hear something that you haven’t heard before. It’s called creative thinking. We all have it.
I can remember the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix and I listened over and over. And then I heard that he set his guitar on fire as well. Guess what I tried. I am antes to know what would happen if I would light up a match and hold it to one of the strings. Well I found out real quick. Pop pop pop. The fun thing about that I got to learn on the remaining three strings until I saved up enough money to have the guitar shop restringbut for me. Then I also learned that I would have to pay someone to restring my guitar once in a while. So I learned how to do it myself. There are some many first that come along with learning guitar. It’s a beautiful way to let your express yourself as well.
Thanks for the lesson. It may nit seem like much to some for me it is a lesson that gets the juices flowing. Thanks so much for sharing
This makes sense and I have been guilty of trying to play every note in the scale, thinking that's what the pros do. Thanks!
Thanks so much. I appreciate you checking the video out!
Nice vid. There is a concept of limiting your palette in visual art (painting, I mean, or creating/editing images). By limiting the number of colors (not using some of the color ranges such as red or maybe decide to only use shades of orange and yellow etc) you ENFORCE a kind of unity. or harmony. Same in music. You can limit your options and also learn WHICH notes work best over each chord of the key. That is also a huge difference between pros and newbs. Newbs don't understand how to highlight key chord notes or how to LAND on good notes and hold them. The peer pressure of constant shredding like a Govan or a Hutchings or anyone like Malmsteen etc. is probably very detrimental for beginners and even mid-level players. You don't have to shred at all! Most solos that I recall as being unbelievably great were 99% not shred. Playable by mere mortals. Gambale, Holdsworth.... Those are not even on my radar. It's a waste at this stage of my life and not even fulfilling. Writing MEMORABLE and GREAT music is my goal. If it's two notes over and over and it's great, so be it! Very important to use your mind as much as possible and fingers secondarily.
Great points! It's long been a problem for guitarists to compare themselves to virtuoso level players and then feel discouraged. But it's like any other discipline. It takes years upon years to achieve what those people do. I still strive to play some things that are out of my reach because I enjoy the challenge. But for the most part, I'm way more happy coming up with a good melody or riff. :) Thanks for checking out the video!
@@PaulWarrenMusic ya. I just randomly watch stuff and sometimes vids pop up and there I am. hehe
Great advice. I also find it handy to repeat simple patterns in different octaves. Gets that familiarity more fluid.
Thank you! And yes, doing the same or similar patterns in various octaves is something that really works great!
Love, love, love the colour of your guitar Warren! Great lesson too. I am going to check out the rest of your iTunes now also 👍
Thank you! I love the color as well! I'm not sure what I have left on iTunes. But as for some of my stuff on TH-cam, you can check out this instrumental ( th-cam.com/video/2CxS8QsCxpE/w-d-xo.html ), this Barracuda cover ( th-cam.com/video/S_Gj5DfsZmQ/w-d-xo.html ) or maybe original music with a female vocalist I did ( th-cam.com/video/GBir-x4MpM8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=qlf_Fq8-xNBAId-z ). Just some options of things out there. :)
it is beautiful, reminds me of the finish on a classic mopar from the 1970's nice
Great advice. Doing that has improved my playing a lot. I try to start out with small licks 3 or 4 notes. Even two notes sometimes. Definitely forces more melodic playing. Thanks for passing this on.
Thank you! Doing what you mentioned is perfect, I think! Really trying to build something from a few notes always leads to better outcomes.
Thank you. I really needed this advice. Having learned my pent. scales I didn't know where to go next.
Thank you and I hope it's helpful for you! I appreciate you watching!
WOW!!! I can't believe this. I actually stumbled upon this idea some time ago. It's so exciting and encouraging to have it be validated here 😮
Awesome! Thanks for watching and I'm glad you found this! :)
Bro you're awesome, thank you for the tips. I just started playing in August of 2023. Your tips are very valuable, I enjoy heavy metal and rock and blues. Keep up the fantastic work.
Thank you! I really appreciate your kind words and for checking out the video! All the best with your playing! :)
This is possibly one of the most important and helpful guitar videos I've watched so far. Thank you big time!
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Really good advise and it makes playing more fun while being more expressive. Thanks
That’s a great idea and definitely makes sense, never thought about it, but I’m definitely gonna take that advice from you. Thank you. I’m a visually impaired individual learning how to play guitar.
Awesome! I hope this really helps!
Holy hell, that guitar is amazing.
Yes. This is most helpful. My improv was improved. )
But now I'm looking for a way to understand how to "say something" when I'm the soloist. I want to know why to play certain phrases, or how to choose what in my solo expresses a proper idea that fits that moment in the song.
It's sort of like "what am I saying?" and "Why am I saying that?" Without finding my special purpose, I'm just noodling. Don't get me wrong, my noodling is pretty good. But I just wander the outback like I'm on walk about.
Extreme beginner here: this really helps and makes sense, thanks!
Thank you for watching! Much appreciated and I'm glad you found it helpful!
My harmonica teacher Jason Ricci says the same thing. The discipline is in limiting yourself. Do it until you're bored. Then that for in your belly will start creating new things
4:52 - All notes in that phrase sounded good and in the context, and not in a forced way. Felt good and melodic.
Tool’s “Eulogy”. Adam Jones’ solo is 2 notes, 4 measures (?) in one octave, 4 measures in a lower octave.
Very practical and easy to follow. Thank you so much.
Neat. I like it. I'm an old guy and played around with this before but you have explained it so well that it makes more sense and playing with the technique the short time while watching your video, I will reintroduce this into my practice sessions. Reteaching an old dog old tricks. Thank you.
Awesome! Thanks so much for watching and I appreciate your feedback!
Thank you so much, ive been struggling with improving recently and hearing this brought a new light to my practice
Thank you and I hope this really proves helpful for you!
I use this approach, CONSTRAINED LEARNING APPROACH as a submission grappling coach.
Ive been applying this approach to music and guitar playing as well. Theres a ton of research on this approach, coupled with ecological psychology and ecological dynamics (systems).
Huh. Never thought about that. I really get it. I routinely play along to jam tracks, going to work on this.
It ends up being fun to me. Hope it works out well for you!
Wow, this is just such good advice, man. I'm a struggling intermediate and this just unlocked something. Thank you.
Awesome! Great to hear! Thank you so much for watching!
This is what I've been missing or overlooking...thank you. 👍 👍
Of all the guitar or music channels… as a guitar relatively new (about 1yr) player that jams with a live band occasionally, this is probably some of the most useful advice I’ve heard. Everyone thinks good music has to be some complex symphony stuffed with hard to play guitar parts… yet some of the most ground breaking music was the simplest. Look at Nirvana… Kurt could barely play guitar and had no real music theory or experience other than what he taught himself. It made his music speak for itself and kick started a new genre and probably my favorite growing up in the 90’s. It’s weird when you’re writing original music with a band and you guys have real synergy… it’s like you feel you’re cheating because the music is almost given to you. I felt like a giant radio antenna that was receiving the music as if I already heard it and had familiarity with it.
I was ready to brush this video off. I can’t. You got me. This advice is sound. I will benefit from this. Thanks.
Thank you! I really appreciate you watching and I hope it helps!
wow. never had anyone comment on my comment.
What an eye opener, great fundamental tip
Seriously the best lesson EVER!!! Crazy that it didn't really involve playing either. So simple and immediately leveled me up. So impactful on someone who has watched thousands of hours of guitar lessons and still sucks 😂 thank you sir.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it and I'm glad it helped! :)
That was a sweet lesson - it really sounded great when you were doing the 4 note solo, thank you!
Thanks so much for the kind words and for watching!
I've actually was just looking at some guitars and didn't see any I want until I saw yours. The color is awesome, and the knobs are low and out of the way.
It plays and sounds great for sure! :)
Well, what kind is it? I can't zoom in clear to see.
@@moonpye9082 Music Man Majesty
I am not usually a fan of the color green or of the Majesty Model EB, but that guitar is beautiful and it just pops on screen. More importantly, excellent lesson and advice ❤
Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate you watching!
Such obvious suggestion, but always overlooked. I need to do that more.
I have a gripe calling bent note the same note.
I should have said "fret position" instead of note to be more accurate. But if you can take those 4 notes and turn them into other notes, that was kind of the point as well. Just being creative with a limited starting point. Thanks for the feedback and for watching!
Finally, someone came out with something right. Also try using your volume levels and cutting out gain, letting the music breathe. You don't always have to even play. Give a few beat s between of playing nothing when you listen to the music. Or change from single notes in to chords. Or parts of chords. Add bends, vibrato, slides, harmonics, maybe a sweep, (not sweeping the entire neck constantly. ) Its makes the music live better instead of sounding like a scaling chuggernaut.
Fantastic work on this man. Awesome video!!
Thanks so much Daniel! I appreciate it!
Here is something you will begin to notice after years of playing solos on guitar: some of the greatest guitar solos include "implied" notes. When we go back and listen enough times, we discover that we had previously THOUGHT we heard more notes than were actually played. If you want to discover this phenomenon easily, go back and listen to Joe Perry and Aerosmith from the 70s.
To be fair, those bends are outside of the limited notes. But they are also not in the scale in the first place. Which is something interesting to consider.
Thank You Mr. Warren‼️ This really helps a lot👏🏻