You are probably really excited about the new gear you got for Christmas and you’ve been thinking about how this year is going to be different than all the other ones.

This year YOU WILL PLAY LIKE DUANE! Or whomever you are into.

So what happens to most people who start the year off with this attitude?

I would say that the majority of people have really good intentions when the new year arrives, but for some reason things just don’t go as planned, and soon they are back at the computer, researching what tubes are best to put in that new amp. Because you can’t play with stock tubes. Without the boutique tubes, you’re tone will be lame at best, and you won’t be able to brag on the forums about how you got “THE” tubes in your amp.

Well I am having a little fun with these situations, but I can bet that people can relate to this on some level.

So what goes wrong for the majority of people who set out to accomplish their big goal such as, “Play Like Duane Allman?”

I’ll tell you exactly what goes wrong.

They don’t set their Goals properly. I’m not kidding. As Ziz Ziglar says, “Aim for Nothing and you’ll hit it every time.” This is very true and I’ll take it a step further and say that if your target is too big, then you’ll probably hit it, but you won’t hit the bullseye, which is where you need to be to achieve your goal.

So let’s take for instance the Goal of “I want to play like Duane Allman.” Now this is a very lofty goal and at it’s current state is already setting the person up for failure.

I mean you write down that goal, look at it everyday, and it’s just like trying to climb Mt Everest. What you need to do is break this goal down into steps that are attainable.

Here’s Zig Ziglar’s 7 Steps to Goal Setting

• Write down your goals.
• Put a date on them.
• Identify the obstacles.
• Identify the people / groups you need to work with.
• Find out what it is you need to know.
• Develop a plan of action.
• Write it down and write down WIIFM – What’s In It For Me.

Taking a look at these steps gives us some valuable insight into how to turn that goal of “Play Like Duane Allman” into some manageable steps to succeed.

So let’s break down this goal using Zig Ziglar’s steps.

1.  Write Down Your Goals – Ok.  This is simple enough.  I want to Play Like Duane Allman.  But I feel like you need to be more specific when setting a goal.  Do you want to play slide like him?  Standard blues guitar like him?  Or maybe there’s a particular song you want to learn.  Do you want to learn this song note for note, or just understand how to improvise like him.  The more specific you get, the better a chance you have at achieving your goal.

2.  Put a Date On Them – Here you need to be realistic.  If you’ve never played guitar before, then you’re setting yourself up for failure if your goal is to play like Duane Allman within 3 months.  BE REALISTIC!  If you’ve never played slide before, then it’s going to be tough to do this quickly.  Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to attain your goal. If you’ve been playing slide a little, then I think that setting a goal such as. “Improvise over a Shuffle Blues like Duane Allman in 9 months” would be a good goal to set.

3.  Identify the Obstacles – Here you need to define what is prohibiting you from playing like this.  Things such as improvisation techniques, getting the feeling of his playing, how much practice time you will be able to put in,  how consistent you can be with your practicing.  These are just a few things you can think about when setting this goal.

4.  Identify the people / groups you need to work with. – If you don’t already know what it takes to play like Duane, then you’re going to have to either find a teacher and have them guide you, or figure it out for yourself.  It is a lot easier to get assistance, but if you can’t, then you will have to figure out what you need to learn to play like this.  This is a good thing to do no matter if you have outside help or not.  Spend some time listening actively to how the guitar sounds, and how he reacts in certain situations.  It will make you a much better player because of it.

5.  Find out what it is you need to know. – This kinda goes along with the one before it.  In this example you need to know, ( In my opinion) Open E Tuning scales and intervals, muting, raking, phrasing, singer type licks, and how to improvise.  These are a few things you could start working on to start playing like him.

6.  Develop a plan of action. – This is where you get down to business and write out a practice routine that will get you there by the date you set.  For example: 5 days a week you will practice for 1 hour the practice routine you developed. This could be something such as

10 minutes of warm up exercises

10 minutes of vibrato practice

10 minutes of learning where your intervals are located

10 minutes of practicing raking

10 minutes of practicing licks

10 minutes or more of improvising over backing tracks.

You can change the time of each activity if you need to.  After 6 months of focused practice like this, you will see a dramatic change in your playing.

7.  Write it down and write down WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. – I believe this is really important as well.  Write down what the emotional impact of achieving your goal will be.  This may be the ability to play in a band, feeling of accomplishment, the ability to record Duane style slide on your CD’s.  If you’re already a guitar teacher, then this may be the ability to get more students by teaching slide.  That’s what I did.  It also may open up more possibilities for playing with more bands.

Do this step!  It will help.  Once an emotional connection is made with your goal, the probability of you achieving it dramatically goes up.

Well that’s my take on how setting goals properly will actually make them happen for you.  I have actually done these things and continue to do them with all different areas of my life.  I can honestly say that once I started setting goals like this back in 2007, my entire life has changed dramatically for the better.

I urge you to start setting goals immediately not only with your guitar playing, but with all aspects of your life.  I can guarantee you will see a difference.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope your goals become a reality this year.

Make a commitment today to set your goals by leaving a comment below.  You’ll be putting it in writing for everyone to see and that’s the first step to seeing them become a reality.

So why does this happen to people? I mean you get motivated to start practicing and a couple of months down the line you realize that you haven’t really gotten any better at all. This is very frustrating and I have been there as well. When you’re in this stage of guitar playing, it seems like you are looking through a long tunnel that doesn’t ever lead to anything. You’re doing what you think is the best way to becoming a guitarist and for some reason it just isn’t going anywhere.

Here’s my advice to you. I’ve been stuck in these situations at many times in my 21 years of playing, so this is what I have learned through my experiences.

You’re practicing things you are already able to play.

If you’re practicing consists of running down all the licks you already know, then the only thing you’re going to get better at is playing those licks. This will help to maintain your current level of proficiency, but it won’t help you to get any better than you already are. A quick solution is to practice the licks you already know, but try changing some notes in between and use your ear to find new tones you can use.

A lot of times I just sit around and improvise and try to play things that pop in my head. Sometimes I have a hard time getting the exact sounds, but I can usually find it relatively quickly and then improvise on that. I find that this really helps me to create new ideas and keep things fresh.

You practice sloppy.

As they say in baseball, you play like you practice. If you’re practicing consists of flying through scales, exercises, and licks just to get through them, you’re probably not going to get anything out of it. You would be better off playing each note very slowly and correctly than fast and sloppy. Nothing sounds worse than fast guitar licks that are just not executed proficiently.

You’re not practicing properly.

In front of the TV with a twinkie in one hand and a Dr Pepper by your side, checking your smartphone for who commented on your recent monumental Facebook post is NOT practicing. Of course this is an exaggeration, but I think similar situations happen to many people.

If you’re serious about getting better, then go in a room by yourself and spend 30 minutes concentrating on becoming a better guitarist. These 30 minutes by yourself will do much more for you than the situation I just described above.

If you think you don’t have enough time to practice, then try not to spend so much time on guitar forums researching the tone differences between different pots. In reality, it’s not going to make that much of a difference. I know a lot of you are busy, but I think time can be found if you are willing to sacrifice some things such as TV time or Internet browsing

You don’t focus on one thing at a time.

With the advent of the Internet, a guitarist can have access to millions of guitar lessons at the click of a mouse. While this may sound like a good thing, it can be very detrimental. In a way it kinda teaches people to learn one little thing, then move to the next thing, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the………………………………………………………!!!!!!! You see what I mean. Before you know it, you don’t even remember the first thing it is you were learning.

I don’t think it’s possible to learn something once and then your’e done. You have to learn how to apply it, and then practice it. Now don’t get me wrong. I think Internet guitar lessons are great. I am fortunate enough to be able to create them for a living and really see the value in them. I do however think that with so much access to so many different lessons, it can be hard to stay focused and driven to work on one specific thing at a time.

So What Can You do?

I think that the key is to have written goals about what it is you want to accomplish. By writing it down on paper, it kinda keeps you focused on the prize. I keep a whiteboard in my office of all the things I’m working on with the website, so it keeps me aware of all the things I need to be focusing on. I think the same will help you with your guitar playing.

If you have a room you practice in, and everytime you walk into that room and see the goals written down, it will stimulate you to get busy working on those things. Playing live will also help you very much as well. Anytime you have the chance to play in front of people, do it. You will learn so much by being in it and having to react so quickly to situations.

Those are a few thoughts I had when I read that phrase today. (I practice guitar but I don’t get any better.) I thought I would share them with you and hopefully it will spark something inside of you. I will leave you with a quote from one of my favorite speakers. “Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there . Make motivation a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.” – Zig Ziglar

If you need additional guidance about slide guitar and blues guitar, please check out my DVD and Download Guitar Lessons.

Here’s my 3 and and an explanation about how I arrived at this opinion.

 

1.  Ability

This pretty much covers all the technical aspects of playing blues guitar such as vibrato, bending, speed, articulation and other technical areas.  Now that we’ve gotten this out of the picture we can move on.  You MUST have ability.  I don’t care how much heart and soul you have, if you don’t have any ability it won’t matter.  Without it, you simply won’t be able to play what you want to communicate with your heart and soul.

So how do you get the ability?

It’s simple.  Practice, practice, practice, and more practice.  Once you have the ability, then you can move on to the other 2 areas which are just as important.

2.  Emotional Connection

To me this can be very hard.  What I mean by emotional connection is connecting your heart and soul with your hands.  Even if you have ability, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to communicate to the audience the heart and soul of what is inside you.  You need to learn how to connect the feeling of your heart, to what comes out of your fingers when playing guitar.  This is not easy in my mind.  You can’t be thinking about impressing the audience, or showing off.  You must remove all those thoughts from your head and start playing from your heart.  You will now be able to translate the feelings of your heart to your fingers, and an emotional connection can be made.

Have you ever had one of those nights where everything you play is great, and it’s like you’re not even trying?  I have.  Somehow things just flow out of you.  It seems like you can do no wrong.  Every time you play, it seems like all the emotions you carry are perfectly translated through your fingers like something else has taken over, and you’re just the vehicle for your spirit to control your ability.  It’s quite an experience and is very hard to just re-create.

To me, it seems like you have to put yourself  in the right frame of mind before playing to attain this.  This can also be very difficult because if you start thinking too much about it, then it probably won’t happen for you.  I think it can happen by arriving at a peaceful place in your life where you are very comfortable with yourself playing the music you love for people. If this can happen, then I think everything else will take care of itself.

3.  Confidence

Now that you have ability and can translate the emotion from your heart and soul to your fingers, I believe you must also have confidence to complete the triangle.  I can tell you from experience that without confidence, then you will not be able to really put on a great performance.  I remember playing a gig one time and I definitely had the ability, and felt like my mind was in the right space, but for some reason my confidence was shot.  I was playing pretty good I thought, but it seemed like I was very timid and had no confidence about what I was playing.  It showed too.  That made it even worse.  What I’m trying to say is that you need to have it in your mind that you are going to play a great gig.  I don’t mean you have to be cocky about it, but you do have to tell yourself what a great performance you’re about to put on in your head.

Think about baseball. Do you think great home run hitters go up to the plate saying, “I hope I don’t strike out.”  NO!  They go up there saying, “I’m going to hit this one out of the park! Bring it pitcher!”  I think when hitters get into slumps that they do start thinking about striking out, and getting out of the slump can be a very mental thing about building back up their confidence again.

After thinking about this for a while, it occurred to me that all 3 of these are needed.  You can’t successfully play the blues without each one of them.  Think about it.  If you have confidence and an emotional connection but no ability, then you won’t sound good.  If you have ability and the emotional connection but no confidence, then you won’t sound good. If you have ability and confidence but no emotional connection, then you still won’t sound good.  No matter how you stack them, you need all 3.

So there are my 3 important things to have when playing the blues.

Do you Agree?  Disagree?  I’d love to hear your opinion.  Leave one below and start the conversation.

In this blog post I want to give you 7 tips to getting out of that rut so many people seem to end up in.

Before I go into these tips, let me just say that I find myself in these ruts too. I know how frustrating it can be, and I think all players eventually find that they are in a rut of one form or another. Knowing how to get out of these ruts can be a determining factor in whether or not you keep advancing as a guitarist.

1.  Start Listening to Different Styles of Music

Sometimes when  we want to learn a particular style of music, we immerse ourselves in that one style completely.  This is a good thing, but at some point you may feel tired and uninspired from learning and listening to the same stuff all the time.  I have read that Jimi Hendrix was a big fan of classical music, and I think it really shows in his songs.  They are really well arranged with so many guitar parts, but things just seem to flow together like a guitar orchestra.  If you’re learning blues guitar, try listening to some country, classical, or pop. You may find inspiration through these genres that will give you some new ideas for playing the blues.

2.  Take Some Lessons

It may seem obvious, but an easy way of getting out of a rut is to take some private guitar lessons, or find some lessons on the internet.  Just watching someone play and explain something can unlock so much.  Everyone has a unique way of playing, and seeing someone else’s point of view that you value, can really help you to see things in a different light.   As a guitar teacher, I can usually listen to someone play and give them recommendations on how to get more out of their playing.  Sometimes you may think you know everything, but having something explained in a new and different way can sometimes open up an entire new way of viewing the guitar.

3.  Stop Playing Guitar for a Week

If you’re constantly learning new things, practicing hours a day, and playing gigs, there will come a point in time where you just get overloaded and cannot move forward.  At some point I think it is a good idea to just stop playing for a bit and get out and enjoy life.  Those life experiences, and the emotions that come from living are what fuels music in my opinion.

Without emotion in your music, what is it good for?  Music is not supposed to impress, it’s supposed to make you feel something.  Even with great solos, the best ones are not only impressive, but they evoke emotion to the listener.  The ones that are just technically brilliant don’t seem to engage the emotional connection the listener is usually looking for.  Most of the legendary guitarists everyone always talks about, lived very interesting lives.  Without these life experiences I don’t think they would of been as legendary. Clapton, Hendrix, Page, and Beck lived very interesting lives which contributed, in my opinion to the amazing quality of material they put out.

4.  Try to Learn Vocal Melodies on Guitar

If you’re caught in that pentatonic rut, and feel you just end up playing the same licks all the time, then you should try to start learning vocal melodies on the guitar.  Vocals have such amazing phrasing.  By learning these melodies on guitar, you will start to think differently about the licks you’re playing.  Yes it will be hard, but it will be worth it.  It will give you a whole new approach when playing guitar that will make your playing more melodic.  Check out this post to learn more about playing vocal licks.  Playing Vocal Melodies

5.  Go See a Live Show

I cannot tell you how many times I have came out of a show that was amazing and became truly inspired.  Seeing a great band with amazing tunes and musicianship can light a fire underneath you to get out there and create something amazing!  Go out and see a show this weekend.

6.  Start Learning a Different Instrument

About 7 years ago, I started wanting to learn some different instruments.  Sure I could play a little bass, but I played bass like a guitar player for the most part.  I decided to start learning some piano.  In particular, blues piano.  I spent many hours listening to piano parts, studying books and practicing.  While I’m not the greatest piano player, I can play some. I also took a bass lesson from an amazing bass player named Russ Rodgers at GIT in Atlanta.  He really changed the way I looked at and played the bass.  Doing these 2 things, in my opinion also opened up my mind to how the guitar could work and gave me a fresh new look at how I played guitar and what was possible.

I also tried to incorporate things I learned on these new instruments to my guitar playing.  I’m not saying you have to learn a bunch of new instruments, but it may be helpful if you picked up another instrument and started learning a bit about it.  I think it will help your understanding of the guitar, by learning about other instruments as well.  It will no doubt help you to understand music that much more.

7.  Start Learning a Different Style of Guitar and Open Tunings

This is a big one for me.  A long time ago I decided to learn slide guitar, and I’m so glad I did.  These days when I get in a rut with by blues guitar playing, I just start playing slide and I feel inspired again, and vice versa.  I also have a Dobro to turn to if both of those types of guitar are not inspiring me.

I also feel that learning new tunings can open up an entire unseen landscape of unfamiliar territory.  My Dobro is tuned to Open G, my SG is tuned to Open E, my Strat is tuned to Eb, and my other guitars are standard tuning.  Having so many different tunings available keeps it fresh for me.  Each one sounds different and has different things you can do with them.

Sometimes I think guitarists can get into a mode where the standard tuning licks and guitar can become so well known, that it may be hard to see anything new because it’s so familiar. Throw some open tunings into the mix and it starts to become unknown territory.  This is good!  Some of the best things I usually do are on accident because I didn’t know precisely what I was going to do.

A piano player friend of mine Jason Fuller once told me that sometimes people play the best things when they are a little unsure of where they are going and just trying to be in the moment.  The uncertainty and searching can create an exciting blend of tension and emotion that can grab the listener.  I think Duane Allman called this Hittin’ the Note.  Granted this doesn’t always happen, but being aware of this phenomenon helps I think.

These are only my opinions, but I think some of the things will work for you if you try them.  All of them might not work for you, but these are things that I feel helped me to get out of guitar playing ruts.

Are you currently in a rut?  What steps are you taking to get out of it?

However, I believe that you can develop your guitar playing by practicing without a guitar as well. True, there is no substitute for actual guitar playing practice, but many times I think this technique can really benefit you.

So what am I talking about doing? I’m talking about visualizing yourself playing the things you are working on in your head. You see the guitar in you hands, and you see yourself performing these licks, bends, phrases, and solos perfectly just like they should be played.

You should also hear the sound of the licks in your head as well. If you can visualize yourself flawlessly performing these ideas, it will give you more confidence, and will speed up the memorization process of learning these solos, licks, or whatever you’re practicing.

But How?

I’m not talking about just casually thinking about playing these things. I’m talking about YOU, looking down at the guitar in your hands and seeing the lick being performed with sound, either slowly, or at full speed, just the way you want it. For this to happen, you will need to be able to sing the part in your head that you are working on, and know where your fingers are supposed to go on the fretboard. This is where your physical practice should take place first.

Ex. Seeing your 3rd finger slide into the 10th fret of the b string, then your first finger playing the 8th fret, and then your 3rd finger bending and applying vibrato to the string.

You can also try to improvise around what you are learning as well. I find myself doing this all the time before a show. If there are songs I need to learn, I will first sit down and learn the songs, then throughout the week I will think about myself performing these songs, playing the solos, and trying to improvise around certain parts If I need to.

I find that by using this technique, it really improves the speed at which I can learn new songs and licks. Sometimes I like to envision myself on stage playing the stuff I am learning and watching it go really well! This may sound a little weird, but I find it really gets me excited about what I could do for that song in a live performance setting!

Anytime, Anywhere

What’s good about this technique, is that you can do it anywhere.

• Waiting in line at the grocery store.
• Sitting in your car at a red light.
• Relaxing on the couch. Caution, this will require you to put down that smarthone and forget about Facebook for a little while.
• While you are taking a walk.
• Cooking something to eat.
• During commercials

You get the picture.

I have been doing this for many years now and I really feel that it works great. Usually I am constantly walking around creating new licks in my head and trying to figure them out without even thinking about it. Sometimes it can get aggravating and you have to learn how to turn it off!

Well, that pretty much sums up what I wanted to say about this topic. I highly suggest that you give it a try.

Do you do this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

His style and sound were very different to me than other popular blues rock guitarists such as Clapton, SRV, Hendrix and Page. He seemed to be more of a melodic player that took from horn players and singers just as much as he did from blues guitarists.

A little know fact I just learned was that Duane was a lefty but played a right handed guitar.  Could this have given him the extra strength to execute all those radical bends he used to play?  Case in point is the Stormy Monday solo.

His phrasing was so different then any other player I had ever encountered before, and the rhythm in his solos seemed to always feel fresh and exciting.  He also played an amazing slide guitar!  In my opinion, he was the innovator of electric slide guitar as we know it today.  Sure there were others that came before him, but he put his own stamp on it and took it to a level that had never been heard before.

Although he didn’t have much time on this earth to keep developing his craft, it is utterly amazing what he accomplished by the age of 24.  Jimi Hendrix had 3 more years on him and SRV passed at the age of 35 with an entire decade more time. I’m not saying anything bad about either guitarist. I’m just want to show you that Duane had very little time in the spotlight as a guitar hero so to speak.  We have all seen what his band mate from Derek and the Dominos (Eric Clapton) went on to accomplish.  We’ll never know what Duane would of went on to do, but maybe some of that is heard these days through what Derek Trucks is doing.

When the Fillmore album was recorded Duane had only been playing slide a couple of years.  This is unbelievable!  At those shows he wrote the book on Open E Tuning blues rock slide guitar.  Statesboro Blues, Trouble No More, One Way Out, and Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ were all played on that infamous album.  Those songs contain some of the best slide guitar work ever captured.  If you want to play slide guitar, then it is imperative that you learn these songs.

With that said here are my top 5 Duane Allman Solos in no particular order

1. Statesboro Blues – Probably the most known slide guitar intro in history.  You can’t mention slide guitar without someone bringing up Statesboro Blues.  It is the quintessential slide guitar blues jam.  Snaky slides, impeccable tone and phrasing make this one of Duane’s best. A must know for the serious slider.
2. Blue Sky – Totally different style on this one.  Using the major scale mostly, many fans of the Allman Bros can sing this entire solo note for note.  Isn’t that what a solo should strive for in a song?
3. Stormy Monday – Radical bending, very unique phrasing, and a sense of melody that most guitar players would kill for.  Yes it’s that good and it’s very hard to play due to the feeling and timing issues in this amazing solo.
4. One Way Out – Short but sweet solo at the end of the song after the call and response between him and Dickey Betts.  Most people can sing every note to this solo as well, but go ahead and try to play it.  It’s harder than it sounds due to the unique vocal phrasing.
5. You Don’t Love Me - An amazing solo during the song and also at the middle when it’s just guitar.  He pulls out everything from BB King Licks to some Jimmy Page inspired speed runs, to some very nice country fried bends.  It’s one of my all time favorites!  Do you hear the tone he has on this?

Analysis

Statesboro Blues Intro Lick

Duane’s Stormy Monday beginning Solo Lick

Well those are my 5 favorite Duane Allmas Solos.  They might not be yours, so list your top 5 below if you want to share your opinion with the world.

For more information on learning how to play slide guitar like Duane Allman check out my open e tuning slide guitar course.

I get countless people at the shop who have problems with scratchy volume and tone pots on their guitars, amps, and basses. When I check out their equipment, the problems usually stem from the fact that they are completely covered in dust, dirt and grime.

I try to explain to people that dust is the enemy! If musicians would take a little more time to properly clean their equipment, they could avoid (sometimes costly) repairs.

The other day I had a guitar brought to me that was so horrible, I actually could not clean the pot.  I wound up replacing the part at an additional cost to the client.  Just like any other electronic equipment in your home, when dust gets into the crevices it destroys them after time.

Let me give everyone a few simple tips that will make your equipment last a little longer and save you some money on needless repairs.

4 Tips to avoid Costly Guitar Repairs

1. After playing – wipe the instrument down with a clean lint free cloth. This will make your strings last longer and will remove the oil from your hand off the fretboard.
2. Store the instrument in its case to keep the dust off of it.
3. If storing your guitar stand out in the open, cover it with an old towel or sheet to keep the dust off.
4. Twice a month or more often depending on use, clean the instrument with a liquid cleaner to remove fingerprints, dust, & gunk.
   An inexpensive way to do this is to make a solution of 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of white
   distilled vinegar. (It’s not only less expensive, but often it’s better for the finishes to avoid harsh chemicals.)

I believe that if you follow these steps that your guitar / bass will perform better with less down
time sitting in the repair shop!

Have any guitar maintenance tips you would like to share?  Feel free to leave a comment below listing your tip.

This pretty much goes against the PLAY THE GUITAR OVERNIGHT OR YOUR MONEY BACK GUARANTEED line of thinking. This is what everybody wants to hear, and it makes you think that playing the guitar will be a snap! Just like that, you too can be playing the blues!

This occurs in other areas of life as well. I bet you’ve heard these before.

“Make tons of money on the internet in your sleep with no work at all!”
“Lose 4 inches off your waistline in 2 weeks!”
“The Easy and Proven way to lose weight with no exercise whatsoever!”

Are you kidding me? Do people actually fall for this stuff? Unfortunately, yes, or there wouldn’t be so many advertisements. So does this mean that all these wonderful things can’t be accomplished? No. In fact all these things and more can be accomplished by doing this one thing.

I’ve recently started working out again, and I’m finally starting to see and feel the results because I applied this concept to getting back in shape. Working at home, creating video guitar lessons and doing marketing can be a one way ticket to the overweight and out of shape club. I decided that I had enough of feeling tired, stressed out, and out of shape. It’s not like I’m very big, but I just generally had no energy and started to become lethargic.

Magic Pill?

So by now you’re probably thinking, “If he doesn’t get to the point quickly, I’m going back to Facebook.”

What is this magic pill you say? Well it’s not rocket science, but everything you want basically comes down to this one concept. Be Consistent. I told you it wasn’t rocket science.

This one concept will improve your guitar playing more than anything out there, provided you know what you need to practice. If you don’t, that’s where I come in. But after you know what to do, it’s just a matter of you doing it. I’m not talking about 2 times a week practicing some scales. I’m talking about putting pen to paper, writing out what you want to learn or get better at, then creating a regimen of practice that will get you there and practicing that regimen 6 days a week for an hour a day. Do this for 1 month and then change up your routine. Then repeat.

You see, learning to play guitar is a lot like weight lifting. If you keep doing the same exercises over and over you will reach a plateau and not produce any more muscle. The same is true with your guitar practicing. If you don’t change up the exercises or your routine, then you will only get good at playing the same stuff you already know.

You need to force yourself to learn things that are harder, and practice things you can’t play to start reaching new levels. Every month or so, your practice routine should change to reflect what you have learned, and then where you are going.

Record Yourself

You also need to document where you are, and how far you have come so you can clearly see how much better you have gotten. If you don’t see the results, there will be no incentive to continue on. When you see how much better you have gotten, it will light a fire under you to keep getting better.

After listening to yourself when you started, then listening to what you can do 6 months from now, you will now have the motivation to become a not good, but great guitarist! It takes seeing these results to keep you motivated. This is why you should be recording yourself all the time, or you will not get any better, because you don’t know what is wrong with your playing.

This post was inspired by a quote I read today. “You never know what you can do, until you try to do more than you can.” – Tony Blauer

Good words to live your entire life by I think.

For more information about playing blues guitar please visit Learning Guitar Now.

Simply put, if you can’t vibrato like BB, then your licks won’t have the same punch. Yes they may still sound good, but without a strong vibrato, they won’t capture the listener’s attention the same way.

BB actually developed his vibrato by trying to emulate the sound of the bottleneck. In the interview below you can listen to him explain why he did this.

My Learning Experience

About 2 and a half years ago I decided that I wanted to be able to vibrato like BB King. So I set out to try to get as close as I could to BB’s vibrato. I listened and listened over and over again until I felt I could somewhat get a similar sound. Mind you this was not close, but closer than I had ever got before. This took me about 6 months of trying over and over again.

Now that I thought I could halfway do it, I tried to put it into some live playing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pull it off live and reverted back to my old way of doing vibrato. I think it was because I really didn’t understand yet how to pull off the vibrato and the hand position needed to execute it.

I didn’t quit though. About a year later, something finally clicked. I started to understand the movement required to pull off a vibrato that was similar to BB King. After that is was just about practice and making it second nature.

About a year after that breakthrough, I feel I have been able to really capture the essence of how to execute the BB King style vibrato. It is a real departure from how I always applied vibrato to the strings for over 15 years. So yes if you apply yourself you can do this.

Here’s a video showing the progression I made over 2 and a half years time. Keep in mind, that I was not constantly working on this, and many times while trying to figure it out, I simply gave up. Then a couple of months later I would try again and again.

Here’s the Video

I think I have made some serious improvement, but you be the judge.

This is what I have also included in my DVD, Play Like BB King. This is what I have learned from 2 years of trying to emulate his vibrato style. I feel anyone who goes through the lessons and applies the techniques taught can achieve this vibrato style.

By using 2 HD cameras and up-close camera angles along with slow motion video, I don’t think there will be a question of how to do this.  This DVD will also teach you how to use scales to play in the BB King style.

If you’re interested in learning more about this DVD, you can check it out here.

I think he got this concept from listening to such blues greats as Freddie King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins who all took advantage of the mighty 1 1/2 step bend.

So what is it?

The 1 1/2 step bend is where you take a note and bend it up 3 frets. So if you are bending a C note on the 13th fret of the B String, then you would bend up to the 16th fret, Eb to get the target note. This creates a really cool sound that you will hear in the blues all the time. In particular by artists such as Freddie King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins. Bending helps create a vocal type sound on the guitar and is very important in the blues.

You simply can’t play blues without bending! Blues is about a feeling. Recreating the pain of life through your guitar is best done through bending and vibrato. Ever hear the phrase , “That guitar is screaming!”, well now you get what they are trying to convey.

Warren Haynes is an excellent example of someone who took this concept and made it into his own style. If you listen to Warren play a lot, you will definitely hear this in his playing all the time. He has perfected this technique, which requires excellent pitch and knowing exactly how far to bend the string to get the desired pitch.

By practicing bending and recognizing how far you have to bend a note to get the desired pitch, your fingers will develop a memory of how far each string should be bent to get the intended pitch. This needs to be practiced daily until you can perform these bends without thinking.

Below is a common used bending technique like Warren would use over a slow blues in C.

Listen and Watch this lick below. For optimal viewing click the Fullscreen button in the bottom right and enable HD in the top right corner.

If you want to learn more about playing lead blues guitar, I have developed over 10 hours of lessons in my blues guitar DVD course to unlock the mystery of creating and improvising lead blues guitar.  Check them out here.