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What you guys do to improve your playing?

I kind of getting bored of playing the same power chord over and over.
I don't play cover song... just improvising and doing some noise.

I'd like to improve my playing and have a bigger vocabulary on guitar.

I haven't been playing in a while for some reason... So I'm getting my fingers in shape... but need to find a way to learn and improve.

Remove strings altogether. Alternate tunings. Put a strip of duct tape over the strings near the bridge. Capos; slides. Use only two fingers to do an authentic Django impression.

Basically, impose a bunch of artificial limitations to force a shift in your perspective.

Work through a book! I've mentioned it on here before, but I've worked through a couple books on jazz guitar and it has impacted everything I play for the better.

Def variety. If you've been using standard tuning, try going drop d. If you've been in drop, try going back to standard. Also explore others.

My personal favorite practice/training/writing exercises involve delay. Times of approx 200ms, 300ms, 400ms, 500ms, 600ms, 800ms.
Set to 4-5ish repeats, with a 50/50 mix. I use the delay to dictate tempo and then work on trying to get *swing* and staccato grooves, by playing single notes or chords quickly muted to create space for the repeats as I play around/along with them. Adding a looper is also a game changer.

It really helps me tighten up...plus inspiring riffs and grooves emerge in the process. Guitar, bass, keys. This is an effective technique (for me) with any of them...but I may be the rare exception who prefers rhythm playing to lead. I'm all about the riff...they can be made interesting and exceptionally satisfying even if it's just 1 or 2 of the same old power chords

To me, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) components of good guitar vocabulary is knowing your way up and down the neck. A good place to start with this would be picking a note and finding all of the instances of that note on every string, all the way up and down the fretboard. Start really paying attention to where the octaves and unisons are, and that way you can always have them as anchor points for whatever you're playing. Next step would be to do the same with scales—say you pick the major scale. Learn all of its positions up and down the board, and eventually you'll be able to glue those positions together and seamlessly travel in between them.

Same goes for chord positions, and playing corresponding scales. I don't think it's vital to dive deep into theory, but it's incredibly helpful to have a basic knowledge of it. Getting to understand the concept of a relative minor key was probably the first thing that really grabbed me with this.

I've been playing for a long time, and I've had plenty of peaks and valleys. Whenever I've felt bored and/or stuck, the thing that's always helped the most was just rejuvenating my interest a little bit by learning a new theoretical concept. Not getting too academic about it, more just finding a new ingredient to play with.

Have we talked about this book yet?



Also you can try to make your guitar sound like Annette Peacock's "electric vocals":

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lri3QOsR2kk[/youtube]

Invisible Man wrote: Use only two fingers to do an authentic Django impression.

To do an "authentic" Django impression, you'd need to burn your hand so your fingers are fused together.

Oooooooooooooooooooo I want that book!

Chankgeez wrote:To do an "authentic" Django impression, you'd need to burn your hand so your fingers are fused together.

Sick burn!

Something Chank suggested ages and ages ago on here (to me, maybe, but maybe to someone else) was to transpose ideas between instruments: so if you took a drum part you liked/thought up, apply it to the bass: where the E string is the kick, the A string is the hi-hat, and so forth. I really like this one when I'm in a rut w.r.t stringed instruments.

I stole that awesome idea from jazz bassist William Parker.

It's a good one. Thank him for me.

buy The Guitar Grimoire and run through all of the modes/scales.

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

D.o.S. wrote:Something Chank suggested ages and ages ago on here (to me, maybe, but maybe to someone else) was to transpose ideas between instruments: so if you took a drum part you liked/thought up, apply it to the bass: where the E string is the kick, the A string is the hi-hat, and so forth. I really like this one when I'm in a rut w.r.t stringed instruments.

Chankgeez wrote:I stole that awesome idea from jazz bassist William Parker.

That is awesome! I've thought roughly along those lines, but never had that idea codified like that.

Similarly, I've always had fun trying to apply the direct, bend-less attack of a piano to guitar. Obviously with guitar we tend to play the strings in sequence, which is audible even if strummed quickly. Instead, plucking all of the strings of a chord simultaneously can get you that piano punch.

Hyphen Nation wrote:buy The Guitar Grimoire and run through all of the modes/scales.

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire- ... r+grimoire

Is this easy to learn or you need to already know some of the basic stuff?

D.o.S. wrote:Something Chank suggested ages and ages ago on here (to me, maybe, but maybe to someone else) was to transpose ideas between instruments: so if you took a drum part you liked/thought up, apply it to the bass: where the E string is the kick, the A string is the hi-hat, and so forth. I really like this one when I'm in a rut w.r.t stringed instruments.

Some great suggestions in this thread!

Ron Jarzombek had a similar idea where you assign notes on your guitar letters of the alphabet. Then you write out sentences and try and turn them into something musical.