Tips for changing playing style

[Jwar]

I switched my styles a few years back, I think around 5-6 years ago? Anyway, it was not easy at first. I wouldn't say the entire style change as much as I just improved as a player and learned new techniques. I did this by watching a lot of other people playing. For instance I watched Behndy play all the time in his demos and picked up on how he was playing. I practiced bits of I saw him do and it eventually stuck It stuck so much that I now never use a pick when I used to almost exclusively use one. I watched a metric fuck ton of other players. Watched how they moved their fingers or sustained notes. Their body language.

Really, for me, that has been the best way to learn other playing styles and techniques. Now, I haven't done much in the last year or so with it, but I've been a lot busier than previous yeas (being a landlord sigh).

I'd say go with what makes you learn best. I'm not opposed to a teacher either. That can switch things up like crazy. Or just playing a different kind of music than you're used to.

[Chankgeez]

So, you're saying neonblack should just go modular?

[Jwar]

So, you're saying neonblack should just go modular?

hahahaha

fuck no.

[Chankgeez]

[lost in music]

Buy a Mel Bay book.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

I'm actually going through this with piano/keys right now and have been making a lot of progress. Learning how to actually play music has not hurt me! It's started to make me think about doing the same with guitar. I've always been fine hammering out riffs and shit, but I bet refreshing on the fundamentals would make it easier. I think I still have an old Berklee book somewhere around that I was too cool to actually learn when I was a teenager.

And then just pick up something like this to supplement it for the surfy stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Surf-Play-Along- ... 0447146119

[Jero]

I heard some "mathy" line in a song I've never listened to before, and decided to try and learn it...Weird tuning daeac#e (for me) has me playing completely diff than I normally ever would, and I kind of like it. Of course I didn't actually learn the song, or even the part that caught my attention, but I started writing something new

[repoman]

Start playing with your fingers only, no pick

[dubkitty]

i've found that the most effective way to change things up is to learn music in styles other than the ones i'm accustomed to. e.g. in the 1980s i became obsessed with the intro to Richard Thompson's "Calvary Cross" to the point that i wrote it out golf clubs (my non-reader's term for musical notation) with all the slurs/hammer-ons/pull-offs so i could figure out what he was doing. it had a radical effect on my style which at the time was 100% based in SF psychedelia and American vernacular music.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gYoj-WGH5U[/youtube]

there are some things i need to work with in a similar manner: Cliff Gallup played everything i find interesting about rockabilly on his recordings with Gene Vincent, Fast Eddie Clarke did everything i like in metal on the outro to "Live to Win," and i really want to figure out that weird simplistic polytonal chording like Bernie in Joy Division and Craig Scanlon from The Fall and the Robert Fripp solo on Eno's "St. Elmo's Fire." i also need to work on my Slowdive stuff more...i can get a pretty good MBV crunch going, but i don't have the right equipment yet for that "Catch the Breeze" sound.

i also deliberately interrupt myself if i catch myself falling into that laid-back West Coast thing, especially when i start channeling Jerry Garcia. you've got to catch your old habits if you want to break them. i do still enjoy playing in that Bigsby-laden Stills-and-Young/Kaukonen/Cippolina style though.

[Chankgeez]

no need to do that anymore, dubs, this dude's got you covered:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7bdXmEq5U[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7bdXmEq5U

[dubkitty]

laboriously transcribing solos note-for-note is actually really good for me, though i hate it very much. since i can only remember maybe 3 notes at a time when transcribing, it makes me figure out the fingering for every little phrase.

[friendship]

Buy a Mel Bay book.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

I'm actually going through this with piano/keys right now and have been making a lot of progress. Learning how to actually play music has not hurt me! It's started to make me think about doing the same with guitar. I've always been fine hammering out riffs and shit, but I bet refreshing on the fundamentals would make it easier. I think I still have an old Berklee book somewhere around that I was too cool to actually learn when I was a teenager.

And then just pick up something like this to supplement it for the surfy stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Surf-Play-Along- ... 0447146119

+1, I got a book last year and it's helping me play in ways I never have before. It's hard to play in a different way if you're drawing from your familiar bag of tricks. Get some new tricks. Get arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Blackmail a cat.

[repoman]

no need to do that anymore, dubs, this dude's got you covered:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7bdXmEq5U[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h7bdXmEq5U

That guy does so many great lessons, always interesting choices of stuff to learn/pick apart.

[popvulture]

Buy a Mel Bay book.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

I'm actually going through this with piano/keys right now and have been making a lot of progress. Learning how to actually play music has not hurt me! It's started to make me think about doing the same with guitar. I've always been fine hammering out riffs and shit, but I bet refreshing on the fundamentals would make it easier. I think I still have an old Berklee book somewhere around that I was too cool to actually learn when I was a teenager.

And then just pick up something like this to supplement it for the surfy stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Surf-Play-Along- ... 0447146119

+1, I got a book last year and it's helping me play in ways I never have before. It's hard to play in a different way if you're drawing from your familiar bag of tricks. Get some new tricks. Get arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Blackmail a cat.

Totally. I’ve been studying theory more and more the past couple years, and it’s helped me tremendously. Even something as small as learning how a half or fully dim 7th chord works and incorporating them into your progressions... it’ll really change things. The idea that you can play a fully dim 7th and it’s the same chord every four frets, albeit just different voicing, totally blew my mind.

I also love that guy’s vids and playing. I’ve been inspired by his stuff quite a few times!

[Dowi]

Buy a Mel Bay book.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

I'm actually going through this with piano/keys right now and have been making a lot of progress. Learning how to actually play music has not hurt me! It's started to make me think about doing the same with guitar. I've always been fine hammering out riffs and shit, but I bet refreshing on the fundamentals would make it easier. I think I still have an old Berklee book somewhere around that I was too cool to actually learn when I was a teenager.

And then just pick up something like this to supplement it for the surfy stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Surf-Play-Along- ... 0447146119

+1, I got a book last year and it's helping me play in ways I never have before. It's hard to play in a different way if you're drawing from your familiar bag of tricks. Get some new tricks. Get arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Blackmail a cat.

Totally. I’ve been studying theory more and more the past couple years, and it’s helped me tremendously. Even something as small as learning how a half or fully dim 7th chord works and incorporating them into your progressions... it’ll really change things. The idea that you can play a fully dim 7th and it’s the same chord every four frets, albeit just different voicing, totally blew my mind.

I also love that guy’s vids and playing. I’ve been inspired by his stuff quite a few times!

A few years back (well, maybe 8 or 9) i changed my way of playing by incorporating hybrid picking just because i was trying to learn some Mastodon tunes. Right now i don't think a could perform any of my band tunes without using both the pick and the other threefingers simultaneously.
Since one year ago or so i feel i always end up using the same tricks so I started to look at some theory on chords a few months back in my free time and i admit that it has had an immediate effect on my style of playing (even if i'm really early in the process).

[JereFuzz]

So for the last decade or so, I've just been playing riffy noisy mathy stuff. And that's what I play in my band now. But I feel like I'm scraping the bottom of my well of ideas with this kinda thing. I still like to riff but I feel like everything is starting to sound the same and I have a bunch of riffs that I'm having trouble turning into actual songs.

I'm also getting more into surfy post punky stuff and I want to incorporate some of that into my playing.

Where do you start when you're trying to change or enhance your playing style?

Have you considered getting a different type of guitar-like instrument that has a different philosophy? Maybe an Irish bouzouki or if you don’t want such a dramatic change a resonator guitar? Further still, pick up a mid-level classical guitar and learn some traditional pieces?

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uk_LckZ7xBE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MZr68gKcy24[/youtube]