Full Transcript for Live Class: Beginner's Guide to Soloing- The ESSENTIALS

--> 00:04:50.470 And you gotta understand that. 00:04:50.789 --> 00:04:59.990 The more you understand about what you what you want to do or what your options are, the more you can make the right decisions. 00:05:01.269 --> 00:05:04.149 The second thing is your eyes. 00:05:05.350 --> 00:05:09.669 What can you see with absolute certainty? 00:05:10.950 --> 00:05:19.429 Remember, as I I've told most of you guys, if you kind of know something, you kind of don't know something, and that's where the problem is. 00:05:20.389 --> 00:05:26.789 So when it comes to practice, it starts with what you understand and what you see. 00:05:26.950 --> 00:05:29.590 Now understand there's a million things, okay? 00:05:29.830 --> 00:05:39.830 What you see is if I look at my fretboard and I'm thinking a minor pentatonic, or I'm thinking caged, or I'm thinking, you know, whatever it might be. 00:05:40.470 --> 00:05:44.870 Do I see without question what it is that I want? 00:05:46.870 --> 00:05:50.070 Then I can go and I can start trying to work on playing it. 00:05:51.029 --> 00:06:00.789 So I want you guys to understand the power of that, because so often guitar players are just practicing things and they don't know why they're practicing it or they don't they don't know what its relevance is. 00:06:00.950 --> 00:06:07.750 And you have to understand when you go to practice, again, but let's let's break this down just for a second, and then we'll get into this. 00:06:08.230 --> 00:06:17.590 When you practice, you're either practicing on trying to see something on a larger scale, like a a scale across the entire fretboard. 00:06:20.149 --> 00:06:33.990 Or you're micro practicing, you're moving in and you're trying to figure out how to play this one position, or how to see it better, how to navigate through it better, or connecting these two positions together. 00:06:35.990 --> 00:06:40.389 Those are two very different kinds of practice, and you should be doing both of them. 00:06:41.909 --> 00:06:47.190 But the difference here is that even though you're doing those things, we still want to work on playing, which is what we're gonna talk about today. 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:56.070 I just want you to understand before we move on the value of practice and what it is, like I've told you guys many times, practice with intention. 00:06:56.230 --> 00:06:58.230 Know what you're doing and why you're doing it. 00:06:58.389 --> 00:07:01.509 When you sit down to practice, know why you're doing what you're doing. 00:07:01.750 --> 00:07:04.310 Don't just practice because somebody told you to. 00:07:04.710 --> 00:07:06.310 Know what you're doing. 00:07:07.029 --> 00:07:07.350 Okay? 00:07:07.590 --> 00:07:12.389 One of the best ways of making progress as a guitar player is knowing where your flaws are. 00:07:12.629 --> 00:07:15.909 When you go to play, how many of you guys know where your flaws are? 00:07:16.070 --> 00:07:22.389 When you play, you know when you when you're trying to play

something you're not comfortable with, or you keep getting stuck on something. 00:07:22.710 --> 00:07:28.950 See, that's the key, is don't don't, I mean, we'll tell you two, but don't just wait for someone to tell you. 00:07:29.029 --> 00:07:32.470 Like if you're practicing and you're like, well, this metronome's set too high. 00:07:32.789 --> 00:07:34.549 Well, then set it lower. 00:07:34.870 --> 00:07:38.870 I don't really, when I try and play my fretboard, I always get lost in position three. 00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:41.350 Okay, what does that tell you? 00:07:41.830 --> 00:07:43.990 I gotta work on position three more. 00:07:44.230 --> 00:07:47.750 I mean, there are obvious signs of things that you need to work on. 00:07:47.830 --> 00:07:54.310 Now, some of you are just working on maybe a position on the guitar, like, you know, the first position of A miter pentatonic. 00:07:54.470 --> 00:07:56.230 Some of you are working on your whole fretboard. 00:07:56.310 --> 00:08:05.190 What I'm saying is, if you're trying to work on your whole fretboard and you've got potholes all over in your positions, you're not really working on your whole fretboard. 00:08:05.750 --> 00:08:07.830 You gotta work on those potholes. 00:08:09.429 --> 00:08:11.669 Does that make sense to everybody? 00:08:13.350 --> 00:08:20.230 The moment you stop pretending and you start actually working on what you need, you're gonna make more progress. 00:08:22.710 --> 00:08:32.230 The moment you really realize where your problems are, and they again we all have them, okay, but the more you can focus on what that is and make it better. 00:08:32.389 --> 00:08:33.990 Now let's talk about how to do that. 00:08:34.149 --> 00:08:37.350 So I'm gonna go back to sharing the screen again here. 00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:38.789 There we go. 00:08:39.429 --> 00:08:43.190 Now, again, if it's fuzzy for you, I I I apologize. 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:44.870 This is the best I can do for now. 00:08:45.029 --> 00:08:51.269 But um, so if we look at the left column, practice, build a foundation. 00:08:51.509 --> 00:08:55.190 So the first thing on that list is visualizing the positions. 00:08:55.909 --> 00:08:59.990 If you kind of sort of see a position, you kind of don't see it. 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:04.070 You have to be able to look down and unequivocally look down and go exactly. 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:06.549 I know I can see exactly what I want. 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:20.389 My struggle is playing it, but I can absolutely see without question 585757575858, or 810, 710, 710, 79, 810, 810, or whatever it is. 00:09:20.550 --> 00:09:21.509 Whatever it is. 00:09:21.670 --> 00:09:26.230 Again, could be a cage system, could be a diatonic scale, could be all kinds of things. 00:09:26.389 --> 00:09:34.310 We're just we're gonna stay very basic today, but that's where your practice, you have to spend time thinking. 00:09:35.350 --> 00:09:41.350 You have to spend time studying, you have to spend time visualizing. 00:09:42.629 --> 00:09:53.190 If every time you practice the guitars in your hands, you're missing out on opportunity to practice other things, which is studying and comprehension. 00:09:56.070 --> 00:09:58.629 The guitar shouldn't be in your hands all the time. 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:02.070 There are times when you should just be studying. 00:10:04.550 --> 00:10:06.790 That's not saying don't practice. 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:08.149 That's not what I'm saying. 00:10:08.389 --> 00:10:17.910 What I'm saying is your fingers moving on the guitar is different than you learning to visualize something or you learning to comprehend something. 00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:20.629 So, number one is visualize the positions. 00:10:20.790 --> 00:10:22.710 Look down, see what you want. 00:10:24.149 --> 00:10:24.470 Okay. 00:10:24.950 --> 00:10:27.269 Number two is play with a metronome. 00:10:27.350 --> 00:10:28.310 Now let's talk about this. 00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:32.710 When you first start playing, okay, I'm gonna go back here again. 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:36.710 When you first start playing something, the first thing you're trying to do is get comfortable with it. 00:10:36.790 --> 00:10:38.710 I can see the A minor pentatonic scale. 00:10:38.790 --> 00:10:41.030 What I need to now do is practice playing it. 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:45.030 I need to practice picking, whether I'm down picking, whether I'm alternate picking. 00:10:45.190 --> 00:10:48.870 I need to practice shifting from one string to the next. 00:10:53.910 --> 00:10:58.790 Before I even worry about a metronome, the first thing I need to do is just practice playing. 00:10:59.110 --> 00:11:00.389 Do I have problems picking? 00:11:00.470 --> 00:11:01.990 Do I have problems alternate picking? 00:11:02.149 --> 00:11:04.710 Do I have problems shifting between strings? 00:11:17.190 --> 00:11:24.629 The more you recognize where those issues are for you, okay, it's not enough just to visualize it. 00:11:24.790 --> 00:11:26.230 You gotta play it. 00:11:26.470 --> 00:11:28.070 But it's not enough just to play it. 00:11:28.149 --> 00:11:30.950 You've got to try and make it sound good. 00:11:31.509 --> 00:11:36.149 You've got to try and make it sound like it flows, like a piano, right? 00:11:36.550 --> 00:11:38.310 You want your playing. 00:11:42.149 --> 00:11:44.950 You know, we get so obsessed with how fast we can do things. 00:11:45.030 --> 00:11:46.790 And I'm not saying that playing fast is bad. 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:56.230 What I'm saying is because people get so obsessed with that, they bypass a lot of the problems that they're having because all they're focused on is one thing, which is how fast they can do something. 00:11:56.470 --> 00:12:00.790 Even if it sounds terrible, all they're focused on is how fast they can do it. 00:12:01.030 --> 00:12:03.910 They're not focusing on how good it sounds. 00:12:07.030 --> 00:12:12.070 Fast is a skill, it's a technique, it's an element that we can use in our

playing. 00:12:12.310 --> 00:12:14.389 But we're not always playing fast. 00:12:14.950 --> 00:12:17.110 We are always up against a clock. 00:12:17.269 --> 00:12:19.190 We are always up against a metronome. 00:12:19.269 --> 00:12:20.550 Every song has a tempo. 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.830 So we're up against that tempo, which is the next thing we'll talk about. 00:12:23.910 --> 00:12:26.710 I'm just saying, you don't always have to practice with a metronome. 00:12:26.870 --> 00:12:33.269 Sometimes what you do is you just practice trying to work on how does it sound, how does it feel when I play? 00:12:39.670 --> 00:12:40.790 How does it feel? 00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:41.670 How does it sound? 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:43.350 Does my pick follow my hand? 00:12:43.590 --> 00:12:46.870 Does my right hand, in this case, follow my left hand? 00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:49.590 I gotta work on these things. 00:12:50.870 --> 00:12:54.310 So for me, intuition is not working with a metronome. 00:12:54.550 --> 00:12:57.350 Intuition is just working on things, trying to get comfortable. 00:12:57.509 --> 00:13:00.550 Is what I'm seeing and what I'm playing coinciding? 00:13:00.790 --> 00:13:04.710 And are my hands able to move in that platform? 00:13:05.110 --> 00:13:10.629 Now, as we want to start developing speed, let me do this again. 00:13:11.750 --> 00:13:13.910 That's where we start using a metronome. 00:13:14.149 --> 00:13:14.470 Okay? 00:13:15.269 --> 00:13:18.629 So let me show you what I mean by that, and then we'll get to the good stuff here. 00:13:21.269 --> 00:13:29.590 So a lot of people feel like they shouldn't ask questions about a metronome because they should already know how to use a metronome. 00:13:29.830 --> 00:13:30.470 That's not true. 00:13:30.629 --> 00:13:34.790 If you've never used a metronome or you're still not sure how to use a metronome, you gotta ask questions. 00:13:35.110 --> 00:13:35.430 Okay? 00:13:35.990 --> 00:13:44.629 So the way I have always taught using a metronome, and you can do whatever you want, but the way I've always taught it is you set the metronome at wherever. 00:13:44.710 --> 00:13:48.470 I'm gonna set it at 115, just as an example for you. 00:13:48.950 --> 00:13:51.430 And I've always taught students play two per click. 00:13:52.230 --> 00:13:55.110 Two per click, two per click, two per click, two per click. 00:13:55.269 --> 00:13:56.470 That's how I've taught people. 00:13:57.110 --> 00:13:59.910 So if it's too fast, slow it down. 00:14:00.710 --> 00:14:03.030 If it's not fast enough, speed it up. 00:14:03.110 --> 00:14:04.470 But you're doing two per click. 00:14:04.550 --> 00:14:17.269 So when I play this, my brain immediately thinks that's what I'm thinking. 00:14:17.670 --> 00:14:24.790 And that click is is absolutely crucial that I play to that click. 00:14:25.190 --> 00:14:26.710 I can't do this, guys. 00:14:26.790 --> 00:14:28.710 I can't have the metronome and go. 00:14:35.430 --> 00:14:37.430 I'm not playing with the metronome. 00:14:37.670 --> 00:14:40.149 I might as well shut the metronome off. 00:14:41.430 --> 00:14:43.110 The metronome's going on over here. 00:14:43.269 --> 00:14:45.430 I'm not, I have nothing to do with that metronome. 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:46.870 It's pointless to me. 00:14:47.590 --> 00:14:50.470 I have to play with the metronome. 00:14:52.230 --> 00:14:57.190 So I have to find the speed at which I can play with the metronome. 00:14:57.269 --> 00:14:59.430 And this is gonna be different for every one of you. 00:14:59.670 --> 00:15:01.910 It's not a matter of feeling bad. 00:15:02.070 --> 00:15:05.670 If you have to slow the metronome down, it doesn't mean you suck. 00:15:06.070 --> 00:15:10.470 It means you have to find the speed at which you can get on the board. 00:15:10.629 --> 00:15:12.629 You gotta get on the board. 00:15:13.269 --> 00:15:28.950 So if I was at 115, this is just a hypothetical, and I'm thinking pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, bop, pop, pop, pop, bop, pop, that means I should be able to play it at that speed. 00:15:32.790 --> 00:15:39.269 And in this case, every time the metronome clicks, I'm on a new string because I'm doing two per click. 00:15:39.430 --> 00:15:41.830 Bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada. 00:15:42.149 --> 00:15:44.950 So every time it clicks, I'm doing a new string. 00:15:46.870 --> 00:15:47.190 Okay? 00:15:47.990 --> 00:15:50.870 When I play this, how does it feel? 00:15:51.110 --> 00:15:52.389 Is it comfortable? 00:15:52.629 --> 00:15:53.830 Is it smooth? 00:15:54.550 --> 00:15:55.830 Am I tense? 00:15:57.350 --> 00:16:00.149 Or can I play this comfortably and I'm relaxed? 00:16:01.030 --> 00:16:02.710 Could I do this more than once? 00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:04.950 Could I do it for five minutes straight? 00:16:06.870 --> 00:16:12.230 See, that's when you start getting to things, is you know, doing it once or twice or three times is fine. 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:14.230 Do it a hundred times. 00:16:15.110 --> 00:16:17.269 Does your brain start getting lost, right? 00:16:17.430 --> 00:16:19.750 Do you start losing concentration? 00:16:20.310 --> 00:16:22.230 Do your fingers start tensing up? 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:40.870 If I was just gonna go like this, can I concentrate 10 times in a row? 00:16:41.110 --> 00:16:42.310 20 times in a row. 00:16:45.830 --> 00:16:53.430 See, it's not just can I do it once, it's can I stay in the game for 20 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes, five minutes. 00:16:53.509 --> 00:16:55.269 Can I stay in the game? 00:16:57.269 --> 00:16:59.670 Or do I start feeling myself yeah, yeah. 00:17:00.070 --> 00:17:03.830 Are you saying not to count, just to go with a beat of the metronome? 00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:04.869 No, no, no. 00:17:04.950 --> 00:17:08.149 You can you can count, but okay, this is a good question. 00:17:08.309 --> 00:17:09.190 Let's talk about this. 00:17:09.430 --> 00:17:16.470 So when you're doing two per click, let's, and and again,

I'll do my best to explain this to you, okay? 00:17:17.269 --> 00:17:22.309 As I'm hearing this, I don't have to count those. 00:17:22.389 --> 00:17:25.910 Okay, I'm not counting one, two, three, four. 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:34.389 Because it might be one, two, three, one, two, three, or it might be one, two, three, four, five, right? 00:17:34.950 --> 00:17:37.750 The the the amount of those is irrelevant. 00:17:37.990 --> 00:17:38.309 Okay? 00:17:38.629 --> 00:17:42.230 Now, what I want to be able to do is cut this into two. 00:17:42.389 --> 00:17:48.789 So I'm thinking one and one and one and one and T T T T T T T T, right? 00:17:49.589 --> 00:17:56.869 So right now, counting it, counting isn't really gonna do me any good because I have nothing to count against. 00:17:57.029 --> 00:18:01.189 I'm not I'm not playing in four or three, four or something. 00:18:01.349 --> 00:18:05.189 I'm just I'm just playing this shape, doing two per click. 00:18:06.549 --> 00:18:07.189 Does that make sense? 00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:08.709 That's kind of what I was asking. 00:18:08.949 --> 00:18:21.589 Yeah, because because when you're counting and trying to sync with a metronome, and I have one that's you know visual and it has little dashes, and it accentuates the first beat. 00:18:22.149 --> 00:18:27.269 And if you're counting and trying to do all those three things at the same time, this doesn't work. 00:18:27.589 --> 00:18:27.909 Right. 00:18:28.069 --> 00:18:32.549 Well, let's let's dig just a little bit deeper in there because what you're saying is really, really important. 00:18:33.429 --> 00:18:36.789 Counting is important when you need to count. 00:18:37.029 --> 00:18:40.789 For instance, how many measures are we doing before we go to this? 00:18:41.509 --> 00:18:42.069 Right? 00:18:42.309 --> 00:18:50.309 Or, you know, maybe when you first start learning how to do a strumming pattern for a particular song, you need to count to make sure that you know where things are. 00:18:50.789 --> 00:18:57.589 But the reality is the more you play, let's take this as an example, everybody. 00:18:57.750 --> 00:18:59.349 I'm gonna count to four. 00:19:00.789 --> 00:19:02.949 One, two, three, four. 00:19:03.109 --> 00:19:04.949 One, two, three, four. 00:19:05.189 --> 00:19:09.909 One, two, what happens in my brain is so I start feeling it as distance. 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:20.230 And my whole body tells me where this is, right there. 00:19:20.389 --> 00:19:21.990 So now I'm not counting anymore. 00:19:22.149 --> 00:19:25.750 I'm just feeling this distance as this long, so to speak. 00:19:25.909 --> 00:19:27.029 Does that make sense? 00:19:27.269 --> 00:19:31.029 I'm feeling there it is, and there it is. 00:19:31.750 --> 00:19:44.869 That's kind of what I was asking because I've always had kind of a hard time coming in on the first beat when you're after you count four, you've gone through a bunch of bars, and sometimes you get a little ahead or a little behind. 00:19:45.109 --> 00:19:45.589 Yeah. 00:19:45.829 --> 00:19:47.750 And then this is good. 00:19:48.230 --> 00:19:48.470 Okay. 00:19:48.629 --> 00:20:15.939 Yeah, and and and I'm please understand, guys, what I'm not saying is counting is bad. 00:20:16.019 --> 00:20:16.819 That's not what I'm saying. 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:23.059 What I'm saying is there are times when you don't need to count because you can feel whatever it is that you need. 00:20:23.219 --> 00:20:30.179 You can either feel the beat or you can feel the distance between beat one and beat one again, right? 00:20:30.419 --> 00:20:32.579 So it depends on where you are with that. 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:41.059 But you know, one E and a two E and a three, like when I'm doing this, if I'm doing this, guys, I'm not counting this. 00:20:41.459 --> 00:20:42.740 I'm feeling this. 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:45.379 What I'm concentrating on is that. 00:20:46.099 --> 00:20:48.339 That's what I'm concentrating on, is that click. 00:20:48.419 --> 00:20:53.299 I'm not concentrating on which one is a one or a two or a three or an and between. 00:20:53.379 --> 00:20:54.419 I can feel the and. 00:21:00.980 --> 00:21:02.419 That's what I'm thinking about. 00:21:03.699 --> 00:21:06.740 And I know that's kind of vague, but does that make sense? 00:21:09.219 --> 00:21:09.539 Okay. 00:21:09.859 --> 00:21:24.419 So as I'm as I'm so like when you're playing, like um uh um something like uh after midnight where you're playing. 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:37.619 Should follow the beat, try to follow the don't necessarily count, but try to get into like a groove. 00:21:38.019 --> 00:21:46.740 Well, okay, so so here's the first thing I would do, bud, is before I even play along, if I'm gonna play after midnight, the first thing I do is listen to the song. 00:21:46.819 --> 00:21:51.379 And yes, I know you've heard this song a thousand times, but now you're listening to it as a guitar player. 00:21:51.539 --> 00:22:00.419 So the first thing I do as I listen to the song without playing, that's another conversation we could have, but I'm listening to the song over and over and over. 00:22:01.379 --> 00:22:04.419 And I'm getting, I that's when I'm doing my counting. 00:22:04.579 --> 00:22:11.379 That's when I'm doing my planning, that's when I'm figuring out where the chord changes are and the blocks are and all that kind of stuff is I'm not playing it. 00:22:11.459 --> 00:22:12.899 I'm listening to it. 00:22:13.139 --> 00:22:16.259 And I'm figuring out how it all goes in my head. 00:22:16.579 --> 00:22:22.179 So when I start playing along with it, there's nothing to count because I've already figured all that out. 00:22:22.339 --> 00:22:24.019 I'm playing along with it. 00:22:25.459 --> 00:22:31.219 You see, that's one of the things that people do wrong too, is that they they immediately bypass that and just trying to play along. 00:22:31.459 --> 00:22:36.419 The first thing I do is I I I figure out everything in my head

before again, these two things. 00:22:36.579 --> 00:22:39.539 I figure out everything in my head before I try and play along with it. 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:43.219 Because playing along is the physical part. 00:22:44.099 --> 00:22:45.539 It's not the analysis part. 00:22:45.699 --> 00:22:48.659 I've already done the analysis, I've already thought about all of that stuff. 00:22:48.899 --> 00:22:54.899 So if I need to count, boom, boom, after midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down. 00:22:55.059 --> 00:22:56.179 That's the beat. 00:22:56.740 --> 00:22:57.139 Right? 00:22:57.299 --> 00:22:58.980 So that's Where the beat is. 00:22:59.059 --> 00:23:04.339 Then I start thinking about in my head where those core changes are, and I start figuring all that stuff out. 00:23:04.659 --> 00:23:06.980 So I've already got that stuff planned in my head. 00:23:07.059 --> 00:23:12.899 So when I start playing along, no, I I can be, I can, with complete honesty, I can say I don't count. 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:14.740 That doesn't mean everybody's the same way. 00:23:14.899 --> 00:23:15.779 But I don't count. 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:21.059 But the reality though is subconsciously, I suppose I am counting, right? 00:23:21.459 --> 00:23:25.219 I'm just for me, counting is a distance more than is a number. 00:23:25.299 --> 00:23:29.059 Like I'm not sitting there going, one, two, three, four, one, two. 00:23:29.379 --> 00:23:30.419 Like I don't think that way. 00:23:30.500 --> 00:23:32.179 I feel it as a distance. 00:23:33.139 --> 00:23:37.379 After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down. 00:23:37.619 --> 00:23:39.219 That's a distance to me. 00:23:39.459 --> 00:23:41.219 There's four of them in there. 00:23:41.619 --> 00:23:44.179 There's my foot, but I'm not really counting it. 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:46.339 I'm my body is feeling it. 00:23:47.859 --> 00:23:49.699 Does that sort of make sense? 00:23:50.019 --> 00:23:50.659 Yeah. 00:23:50.980 --> 00:23:51.299 Okay. 00:23:51.619 --> 00:23:57.859 Now, again, that that would even be a conversation we could have for another Wednesday, is exactly what you're talking about right there. 00:23:58.099 --> 00:23:58.419 Okay? 00:23:59.299 --> 00:24:02.740 So I'm not I'm I'm not trying to rush past you. 00:24:02.819 --> 00:24:11.059 I'm just saying counting is one of those weird things where we could even just have a full conversation with everybody on what people think of how to count. 00:24:11.379 --> 00:24:13.539 Yeah, see, this ties into what I practice. 00:24:14.019 --> 00:24:15.939 You know, you're saying practice and playing. 00:24:16.259 --> 00:24:26.980 So I'm you know, I'm practicing certain chord patterns to time, you know, the pentatonic scales, and then sometimes I'll just improvise over them with no backing track. 00:24:27.139 --> 00:24:32.659 Just move between the major triads and minor triads and those things. 00:24:32.899 --> 00:24:44.339 But my issue, like I said before, is like timing, and this helps clear it

up because I was listening to a backing track last night and playing along with it, and after a while I kind of got synced up with it. 00:24:44.579 --> 00:24:44.819 Sure. 00:24:45.139 --> 00:24:46.579 Just strumming along with it. 00:24:47.619 --> 00:24:49.539 But I wasn't really kind of one, two, three, four. 00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:53.059 I was just like strumming the song and making a chord change. 00:24:53.299 --> 00:24:59.139 I don't have a problem doing a change, it's just getting the timing and the tone when I'm playing. 00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:02.179 Well, and and hopefully, so we'll see how much time we have today. 00:25:02.259 --> 00:25:06.259 But the key here is to get to the next part, which is where we're gonna really dive into what you're talking about now. 00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:07.779 Carrie, what do you got, buddy? 00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:16.659 So just go back to um earlier when you were talking about you know, you were feeling the and, you know, you you're feeling the and. 00:25:17.699 --> 00:25:21.939 So is the part that you're feeling, is the and in between? 00:25:22.259 --> 00:25:22.659 Yes. 00:25:22.819 --> 00:25:23.059 Okay. 00:25:23.539 --> 00:25:27.699 So if I listen to this, those are the downbeats. 00:25:27.859 --> 00:25:28.099 Okay. 00:25:28.259 --> 00:25:29.459 Those are the quarter notes. 00:25:29.619 --> 00:25:31.059 So the offbeats. 00:25:32.579 --> 00:25:33.459 Got it. 00:25:33.939 --> 00:25:34.419 Awesome. 00:25:34.659 --> 00:25:35.459 Are in between. 00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:40.819 Now, the goal is to feel the off beat against the downbeat. 00:25:41.059 --> 00:25:43.619 You know, it's okay to you you want to have the downbeat. 00:25:43.699 --> 00:25:55.779 So if you're thinking, again, in in counting terms, one, two, three, four, one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three. 00:25:56.019 --> 00:25:58.259 And for us, we think of that as an up, right? 00:25:58.419 --> 00:26:03.139 One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four. 00:26:03.379 --> 00:26:18.339 So as we're listening to that again, if we strip away downs and ups and all that stuff, when we just start thinking about two per click, four per click. 00:26:23.939 --> 00:26:27.379 The holy grail is the one, is the click. 00:26:27.699 --> 00:26:49.619 And so when we're practicing, it's essential that when we're practicing, and this gets back to what we were talking about, it's essential that we can play whatever it is we're trying to play at the speed that we've got the metronome set, where that click, we're playing the in in pentatonics terms, because there's two on each string, it's lining up. 00:27:18.179 --> 00:27:24.419 See, the thing about practice is I'm I'm becoming one with that metronome. 00:27:24.659 --> 00:27:28.179 I'm not playing alongside it, I'm inside it. 00:27:28.819 --> 00:27:30.980 I'm not forgetting where that metronome is. 00:27:31.139 --> 00:27:32.659 The metronome

is leading me. 00:27:32.740 --> 00:27:34.259 I cannot lead the metronome. 00:27:34.339 --> 00:27:35.859 It doesn't even know I exist. 00:27:37.059 --> 00:27:40.980 So I have to play along with it, just like it's a drummer, right? 00:27:41.219 --> 00:27:42.980 I have to be playing along with it. 00:27:43.139 --> 00:27:57.859 So if I try and practice my scale positions, right, or whatever, and I set the metronome at the wrong speed, it's either too fast and I'm not able to keep up. 00:27:57.939 --> 00:27:59.699 And I have to be aware of that. 00:27:59.859 --> 00:28:06.019 Like if I'm just playing, like I just showed you a little while ago, if I'm just playing, I'm not making a connection to the metronome. 00:28:06.899 --> 00:28:10.419 If the metronome's too fast and I'm trying to play, I will not keep up. 00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:11.619 And I have to be aware of that. 00:28:11.699 --> 00:28:15.059 I have to go, oh, whoops, I gotta slow that sucker down a little bit. 00:28:17.219 --> 00:28:25.459 Now, the other problem, guys, is it is possible to set the metronome too slow to where you're not really pushing yourself. 00:28:27.299 --> 00:28:27.779 Right? 00:28:28.099 --> 00:28:32.259 You could set it at 80 and play along with it perfectly, which is great. 00:28:33.059 --> 00:28:34.899 But then you gotta edge up a little bit. 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:39.939 You gotta find that spot where you gotta push into yourself a little bit and practice a little bit, right? 00:28:40.099 --> 00:28:42.740 That line, that crack line, if you will. 00:28:43.139 --> 00:28:45.699 You gotta you wanna figure out where that is. 00:28:47.139 --> 00:28:56.419 So then tomorrow morning when you practice, you're not gonna go for that crack line, you're going underneath it because you got to get warmed up, you gotta get your body and your brain going. 00:28:57.459 --> 00:29:04.339 But then once you get there, you come back up to that crack line again and you start working it. 00:29:05.059 --> 00:29:07.939 And sometimes it's gonna feel good and sometimes it's gonna suck. 00:29:08.019 --> 00:29:08.259 Why? 00:29:08.419 --> 00:29:11.539 Because it's a crack line, it's your brake line. 00:29:13.299 --> 00:29:19.139 But eventually you're gonna push through that break line, and now you're gonna have a break line or crack line up here a little bit. 00:29:20.740 --> 00:29:24.899 But if you're never pushing, you don't know where that line is. 00:29:25.939 --> 00:29:30.500 If you're always playing too fast, you're not connected to the metronome anyway. 00:29:33.859 --> 00:29:38.500 If you play along and you start making mistakes, you have to ask yourself, do I know this? 00:29:38.579 --> 00:29:42.099 This goes back to the visualization thing or the comprehension thing. 00:29:42.339 --> 00:29:47.059 If I'm trying to play with the metronome and I keep hitting the wrong notes, do I really know this scale? 00:29:48.179 --> 00:29:50.339 My fingers aren't gonna fix it. 00:29:51.059 --> 00:29:53.139

My brain is gonna fix it. 00:29:56.259 --> 00:30:00.980 So learning to play along with a metronome, guys, is really, really important. 00:30:01.859 --> 00:30:06.259 And I always use the analogy, I don't want to waste your time, I want to get to everything here, but I always use the analogy. 00:30:06.419 --> 00:30:13.379 I was a I was a sprinter in high school, and I was a long distance runner in college and and as an adult. 00:30:13.539 --> 00:30:22.980 When I was a sprinter, a tenth of a second, a hundredth of a second can make all the difference in the world. 00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:30.819 You don't feel it as a runner, but if you didn't have that stopwatch, you'd have no idea whether you're getting faster or not. 00:30:31.539 --> 00:30:34.179 You're just assuming that everything's going good. 00:30:34.659 --> 00:30:39.139 When somebody times you, they go, dude, lay off the potatoes. 00:30:39.379 --> 00:30:41.459 Like we gotta we got work to do, man. 00:30:41.859 --> 00:30:43.539 We gotta get this thing going. 00:30:44.899 --> 00:30:45.939 Because they can tell. 00:30:46.019 --> 00:30:47.699 That's what a metronome is. 00:30:48.339 --> 00:30:49.779 It's your truth. 00:30:51.779 --> 00:30:54.500 It tells you exactly if you're getting better or not. 00:30:55.539 --> 00:30:57.939 It tells you whether you're connected or not. 00:30:59.059 --> 00:31:01.459 So for me, the metronome is that important. 00:31:03.859 --> 00:31:04.179 Okay? 00:31:04.500 --> 00:31:07.459 And here's the bigger picture, guys, which is what we're getting into next. 00:31:07.539 --> 00:31:13.219 The metronome is not just a metronome, it's your drummer, it's your tempo to the songs you're gonna jam to. 00:31:13.539 --> 00:31:14.659 That's what it is. 00:31:15.299 --> 00:31:23.699 When you realize that you can play eighth notes at 115, you have now realized that you cannot play eighth notes at 130. 00:31:25.219 --> 00:31:31.699 So if your backing track is at 130, is that a good practice backing track for you? 00:31:33.139 --> 00:31:34.259 Maybe not. 00:31:34.980 --> 00:31:37.539 You're trying to play something you can't even play. 00:31:39.139 --> 00:31:46.259 So once you establish where your tempo is, when you look for backing tracks again, you're looking for backing tracks with purpose. 00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:48.419 Is it in the key I'm practicing in it? 00:31:48.659 --> 00:31:50.819 Is it in a tempo that I'm comfortable with? 00:31:52.019 --> 00:31:57.699 If I'm just grabbing backing tracks at random and I can't figure out why sometimes I'm good at them, I suck at them. 00:31:57.859 --> 00:31:58.500 Guess what? 00:31:58.659 --> 00:31:59.619 This is why. 00:32:01.699 --> 00:32:05.219 You got to put thought into that backing track, find the right backing track. 00:32:05.379 --> 00:32:07.379 Okay, so let's keep going here. 00:32:07.859 --> 00:32:10.819 I'm gonna screen share again. 00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:12.019 There we go. 00:32:12.419 --> 00:32:14.339 Okay, so play with a metronome. 00:32:14.419 --> 00:32:15.779 Connect the positions. 00:32:16.339 --> 00:32:16.659 Okay? 00:32:17.059 --> 00:32:22.980 There are lots of ways you can practice with your studio instructor and the other instructors for that matter, connecting the positions. 00:32:23.139 --> 00:32:25.619 You might play up and down, okay? 00:32:25.859 --> 00:32:32.740 You might play up, back down, and then move over to the next position. 00:32:32.899 --> 00:32:36.419 Play it up, play it down. 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:40.500 You might go to the third position, do the same thing. 00:32:40.659 --> 00:32:41.859 Fourth position, do the same thing. 00:32:41.939 --> 00:32:44.179 Connect them all together without stopping. 00:33:08.419 --> 00:33:08.740 Okay? 00:33:09.139 --> 00:33:14.019 You might practice going up one position and then moving over and coming down the next position. 00:33:18.179 --> 00:33:21.299 Up the next one, down the next one. 00:33:23.059 --> 00:33:23.379 Okay? 00:33:23.619 --> 00:33:25.939 Guys, you might practice all of those kinds of things. 00:33:26.019 --> 00:33:40.339 There's a million ways you can practice stuff, but connecting the positions, learning how to move between the positions, which brings us to number four, which is my own creation, which I love, is meandering. 00:33:40.579 --> 00:33:47.379 Now we're not going to get into meandering again, but in the classroom, there's a there's a video that talks about meandering. 00:33:47.459 --> 00:33:50.659 Most of you, how many of you heard heard me talk about meandering before? 00:33:50.819 --> 00:33:52.339 Yeah, most of you probably have. 00:33:52.500 --> 00:33:53.219 And it's okay. 00:33:53.379 --> 00:33:56.899 Again, I just don't want to, we could do a whole lesson on meandering, okay? 00:33:56.980 --> 00:34:05.539 So I don't want to get off on a tangent, but meandering is a great way to practice moving around inside the positions, moving around between positions. 00:34:05.619 --> 00:34:07.379 It's a great way to practice. 00:34:07.539 --> 00:34:15.059 If you don't know meandering or you don't practice meandering, write down meandering is important, and I should do it every single day. 00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:18.420 And I'm not kidding, guys. 00:34:18.500 --> 00:34:21.300 It it really will help you with your freedom. 00:34:21.699 --> 00:34:22.420 Hey, Steve. 00:34:22.659 --> 00:34:23.940 Meandering is yeah, yeah. 00:34:24.260 --> 00:34:26.740 Meandering is not noodling, correct? 00:34:27.219 --> 00:34:29.940 Meandering is not noodling. 00:34:30.179 --> 00:34:32.660 Meandering has parameters, okay? 00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:40.500 And the parameters to meandering are again, you have to set the metronome at a speed that you're capable of meandering. 00:34:40.660 --> 00:34:44.100 And the other part of meandering is that you don't stop. 00:34:45.060 --> 00:34:48.660 And the other part of meandering is meandering is brainless. 00:34:48.820 --> 00:34:52.340 You are not trying to pre-plan your

movements. 00:34:52.500 --> 00:34:55.380 You're just taking a metronome and you're going. 00:35:45.220 --> 00:35:47.700 Meandering says, do not do that. 00:35:48.100 --> 00:35:49.380 Jump around. 00:35:50.420 --> 00:35:52.260 Anything, anything. 00:35:52.580 --> 00:35:56.180 And you're gonna make a thousand mistakes when you first start trying to do it. 00:35:57.780 --> 00:36:03.060 And if you find that when you're trying to do it, you keep having to stop, the metronome's probably too fast. 00:36:05.300 --> 00:36:05.620 Okay? 00:36:06.340 --> 00:36:08.020 Meandering is not music. 00:36:08.260 --> 00:36:18.020 Meandering is training yourself to play randomly versus up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. 00:36:18.180 --> 00:36:30.420 Because when we play, when we solo, it's more like random, it's more like meandering than it is scales. 00:36:30.500 --> 00:36:40.420 You're not just going when you play like that, it sounds like you're playing a scale. 00:36:40.740 --> 00:36:41.140 Why? 00:36:41.380 --> 00:36:43.380 Because you're playing a friggin' scale. 00:36:45.300 --> 00:36:47.620 Meandering says do not do that. 00:36:47.860 --> 00:36:49.780 Okay, which is what we're gonna get to next. 00:36:49.860 --> 00:36:50.820 Again, we got 20 minutes. 00:36:50.900 --> 00:36:52.660 I want to get to this stuff as best we can here. 00:36:52.740 --> 00:36:55.140 So, and then guys, we can keep talking about that. 00:36:55.300 --> 00:37:06.580 That's the beauty of this conversation, is this conversation can take us anywhere we need to go independently with your instructor, with the other instructors, with your studio instructor, with me, wherever you need to go. 00:37:06.660 --> 00:37:09.140 I just want to fill in some of the gaps here for you. 00:37:09.380 --> 00:37:11.140 Okay, so let's keep going now. 00:37:11.540 --> 00:37:14.020 And then the last one is reinforce and review. 00:37:14.180 --> 00:37:16.180 This is so important, guys. 00:37:16.500 --> 00:37:25.540 Find the potholes, find the flaws that you have, and then fix them. 00:37:26.980 --> 00:37:27.700 Fix them. 00:37:28.260 --> 00:37:33.940 Slow down, speed up, work on that position more, work on that picking more. 00:37:34.100 --> 00:37:39.220 Whatever it is that you need, stop playing and spend some time visualizing. 00:37:40.500 --> 00:37:49.060 Go upstairs, sit on your couch with a chart for 30 minutes and just study that position. 00:37:49.540 --> 00:37:52.180 Just study it, just stare at it. 00:37:52.900 --> 00:37:55.700 Just absorb that thing into your brain. 00:37:57.060 --> 00:37:59.380 Or those two positions, or whatever. 00:38:00.180 --> 00:38:05.380 Don't expect because you're practicing, you're visualizing the same way because you're not. 00:38:05.620 --> 00:38:09.780 Because when you're practicing, you're thinking about everything that needs to go into playing. 00:38:11.620 --> 00:38:16.660 When you're studying, you're sitting there looking at that chart going like caged. 00:38:17.220 --> 00:38:26.820 Guys, you'd for those of you that have tried to study cage, you'd make way more progress sitting there studying the chart than you would practicing it. 00:38:27.860 --> 00:38:32.420 Now, don't get me wrong, once you can see it, now you gotta go play it. 00:38:32.660 --> 00:38:34.260 Now you gotta implement it. 00:38:34.980 --> 00:38:36.180 But you gotta see it. 00:38:36.420 --> 00:38:38.180 Otherwise you're working backwards. 00:38:39.780 --> 00:38:40.100 Okay? 00:38:40.420 --> 00:38:41.700 So now let's get to the good stuff. 00:38:41.860 --> 00:38:43.700 Let's move over to the other side here. 00:38:44.020 --> 00:38:47.220 And then I'm gonna give you a backing track and all that sort of thing. 00:38:47.380 --> 00:38:55.700 So, most important thing that isn't up here, choosing the right backing track. 00:38:56.020 --> 00:39:01.300 Find a backing track that fits where you are in your practice. 00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:09.140 With your meandering, with your scale practice, with the key that you're playing in, with the groove. 00:39:09.780 --> 00:39:17.380 Okay, if you choose a backing track that's a triplet and you've never played triplets before, or you're not practicing triplets, you're gonna struggle. 00:39:18.260 --> 00:39:20.900 If you don't know what a triplet is, that's okay. 00:39:21.220 --> 00:39:22.980 It's something we gotta learn. 00:39:23.860 --> 00:39:26.420 I'm just saying, you gotta find the right backing track. 00:39:28.500 --> 00:39:28.820 Okay? 00:39:29.380 --> 00:39:31.060 So, bread and butter, number one. 00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:37.380 This is my favorite thing, and this is by far, in my opinion, the single most important thing. 00:39:38.580 --> 00:39:42.820 Eighth notes, and then to a lesser degree, sixteenth notes. 00:39:43.460 --> 00:39:46.340 You lock into the beat and you create a groove. 00:39:46.900 --> 00:39:48.260 Okay, now what do I mean by that? 00:39:48.340 --> 00:39:49.620 I'm gonna show you. 00:39:50.900 --> 00:39:59.060 Okay, I'm gonna pull up a backing track here, and the name of this backing track, if you're writing things down, I'll send you a link to this as well when I post everything. 00:39:59.220 --> 00:40:08.580 But the name of the backing track is Deep Soul Groove Backing Track in A minor. 00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:09.860 That's what it's called. 00:40:10.020 --> 00:40:12.900 Deep Soul Groove Backing Track in A minor. 00:40:13.140 --> 00:40:18.100 The reason I like this one, because it's an A minor and it's 80 beats per minute. 00:40:19.060 --> 00:40:23.540 It is well within the range for most of you to be able to do a little bit of jamming. 00:40:24.420 --> 00:40:25.860 It's nice and slow. 00:40:26.100 --> 00:40:35.140 So as I listen to this track, which I want you to do the same thing, we figure out where the quarter note is. 00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:47.460 Now, one, two, three, four. 00:40:47.700 --> 00:40:50.500 One, two, but I don't really count. 00:40:50.740 --> 00:40:52.980 I

can feel where the repetition happens. 00:40:53.140 --> 00:40:54.180 It's here. 00:40:56.100 --> 00:40:57.060 And here. 00:40:59.060 --> 00:41:00.020 And here. 00:41:01.940 --> 00:41:07.460 Now subconsciously am I counting, maybe, but my body is telling me where this is every time. 00:41:07.780 --> 00:41:09.060 I can feel that. 00:41:09.220 --> 00:41:11.780 Now my foot is always tapping. 00:41:13.780 --> 00:41:19.220 Okay, so if that's our quarter note, that's our quarter note. 00:41:19.620 --> 00:41:22.980 What we want the bread and butter is eighth notes. 00:41:23.540 --> 00:41:24.900 Two per click. 00:41:25.460 --> 00:41:25.780 Okay? 00:41:26.420 --> 00:41:31.540 So as I'm listening to this, eighth is here. 00:41:31.860 --> 00:41:33.940 Sorry, quarter is here. 00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:35.780 Eighth. 00:42:05.140 --> 00:42:20.020 So now that I've got those eighth notes, the name of this backing track is Deep Soul Groove Backing Track in A minor. 00:42:20.260 --> 00:42:22.980 And again, I'll post it for you, but that's what it's called. 00:42:24.180 --> 00:42:24.500 Okay? 00:42:25.220 --> 00:42:26.980 So what's going on here? 00:42:27.860 --> 00:42:29.060 We're doing two things. 00:42:29.220 --> 00:42:30.980 We're creating eighth notes. 00:42:32.020 --> 00:42:33.380 That's my palette. 00:42:33.460 --> 00:42:34.820 That's what I'm gonna work off of. 00:42:35.060 --> 00:42:41.220 Boom, bum bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bump, bum, bum, bum, bum. 00:42:41.700 --> 00:42:43.860 And now I'm pseudo-meandering. 00:42:44.660 --> 00:42:47.460 I'm just picking a couple of things and grabbing it. 00:42:48.900 --> 00:42:50.820 I can play sequentially. 00:42:51.460 --> 00:42:52.500 It's on YouTube. 00:42:54.580 --> 00:42:57.940 Okay, I can play sequentially, or I can jump around. 00:42:58.260 --> 00:43:02.180 But the point is not whether I'm playing sequentially or jumping around. 00:43:02.340 --> 00:43:08.500 It's getting used to understanding where that eighth note is, and then you start playing little phrases. 00:43:20.580 --> 00:43:22.660 So here's our eighth quarter note. 00:43:23.220 --> 00:43:24.740 Here's our eighth note. 00:43:27.060 --> 00:43:35.940 Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. 00:43:36.260 --> 00:43:40.020 Now, some of those eighth notes are on what we call a downbeat. 00:43:40.740 --> 00:43:43.860 Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. 00:43:44.020 --> 00:43:46.340 Some of those eighth notes are on what we call an offbeat. 00:43:46.500 --> 00:43:50.580 Bump bump bump bump bump bump bump. 00:43:50.740 --> 00:43:55.140 The eighth notes are gonna be more interesting than the downbeats. 00:43:55.540 --> 00:43:55.780 Right? 00:43:55.940 --> 00:43:58.180 The offbeat, I should say, are gonna be more interesting. 00:43:58.340 --> 00:43:59.460 They've got more flavor. 00:43:59.540 --> 00:44:10.260 If you just play on the downbeats all the time, bop bump bump bump bump bum bump bump bum bump bum bum bump bump bum bump bum bum,

it's gonna sound really silly. 00:44:10.660 --> 00:44:21.460 If you start playing on the off beats once in a while, bump, bump, bump, bum, bump, bum, bump, bum, bum, bum. 00:44:22.420 --> 00:44:26.580 Those eighth notes have flavor, they have style, they feel funky. 00:44:27.940 --> 00:44:30.260 The downbeats feel like Frankenstein. 00:44:31.780 --> 00:44:40.020 It's not that the downbeats are bad, but if you play everything that starts and ends on a downbeat, it's gonna feel like you're just playing squares. 00:44:40.260 --> 00:44:47.460 Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. 00:44:47.620 --> 00:44:49.700 You gotta learn how to play on the off beat. 00:44:50.820 --> 00:44:54.660 Bump, bump, bump, bump, bum, bump, bum. 00:44:55.060 --> 00:44:57.140 So, what are we playing? 00:44:57.300 --> 00:44:57.860 Right now. 00:44:58.340 --> 00:44:59.700 We are playing gibberish. 00:44:59.860 --> 00:45:02.900 We're not trying to plan everything at this point. 00:45:03.060 --> 00:45:04.100 We're just playing. 00:45:04.260 --> 00:45:05.940 That's the point of meandering. 00:45:33.860 --> 00:45:40.500 So what I'm doing is with these eighth notes, I'm creating phrases. 00:45:40.740 --> 00:45:43.700 I'm not concerned about landing on the right note at the right time. 00:45:43.780 --> 00:45:45.220 I'm not, we're not there yet. 00:45:45.300 --> 00:45:46.420 We're not doing all of that. 00:45:46.580 --> 00:45:49.060 Right now, we're just trying to take these eighth notes. 00:45:49.300 --> 00:45:53.780 Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun and cut them in pieces. 00:45:54.020 --> 00:46:02.980 Bump, bump, bum, bump, bump, bump, bump, bum, bum, bump, bump, bum, bump, bump. 00:46:03.220 --> 00:46:04.180 Does that make sense, guys? 00:46:04.340 --> 00:46:10.660 We're just chopping this five-minute series of eighth notes, we're just chopping it into pieces. 00:46:11.700 --> 00:46:21.860 Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. 00:46:22.020 --> 00:46:22.740 Whatever. 00:46:24.500 --> 00:46:27.300 That's different than practicing your scale up and down. 00:46:28.420 --> 00:46:32.740 You're trying to be cognizant about creating a phrase, a sentence. 00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:35.300 And what happens at the end of a sentence? 00:46:38.100 --> 00:46:38.740 We stop. 00:46:41.860 --> 00:46:42.740 Like right now. 00:46:43.300 --> 00:46:43.940 We stop. 00:46:44.980 --> 00:46:47.060 That's where you create space. 00:46:47.860 --> 00:46:51.140 Meandering is completely different because meandering, you're trying not to stop. 00:46:51.220 --> 00:46:54.100 You're just trying to play as much as you can without stopping. 00:46:54.420 --> 00:46:56.660 Music says, shut up. 00:46:57.780 --> 00:46:59.860 Music says stop playing. 00:47:00.340 --> 00:47:03.460 That space is just as important as the notes that you're playing. 00:47:03.860 --> 00:47:06.500 And that's good for

you because then you can stop. 00:47:18.020 --> 00:47:18.340 Okay? 00:47:18.740 --> 00:47:20.660 That's what phrasing is. 00:47:21.540 --> 00:47:27.220 So eighth notes are for everybody here, especially if you're a beginner at soloing, eighth notes are your key. 00:47:27.460 --> 00:47:29.940 Eighth note, eighth notes are your bread and butter. 00:47:30.580 --> 00:47:30.900 Okay? 00:47:31.380 --> 00:47:36.660 Yes, you can play quarter notes or half notes or whole notes, or you could not play at all. 00:47:36.980 --> 00:47:40.980 You could start this backing track and just sit there and eat a pizza and not play at all. 00:47:41.620 --> 00:47:41.940 Okay? 00:47:42.500 --> 00:47:44.500 Not playing is easy. 00:47:45.140 --> 00:47:46.900 Playing is the hard part. 00:47:47.940 --> 00:47:49.700 Because people always go, what about whole notes? 00:47:49.860 --> 00:47:55.780 Well, dude, you can you can I win. 00:47:58.180 --> 00:48:00.020 I'm waiting way longer than you are. 00:48:00.260 --> 00:48:01.140 You know what I mean? 00:48:01.380 --> 00:48:02.980 It's not about not playing. 00:48:03.380 --> 00:48:05.540 It's important to stop playing, obviously. 00:48:05.780 --> 00:48:08.580 But what makes this hard is trying to play those eighth notes. 00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:12.420 So you you chop them up. 00:48:12.580 --> 00:48:14.740 Bump bum bump bump. 00:48:15.780 --> 00:48:18.900 Bump bump bump bum bump bump. 00:48:19.140 --> 00:48:21.140 What you're playing is irrelevant at this point. 00:48:21.300 --> 00:48:23.380 What you're playing is meandering at this point. 00:48:24.020 --> 00:48:25.060 Don't worry about that. 00:48:25.140 --> 00:48:26.660 We'll come around, we'll figure that out. 00:48:26.980 --> 00:48:28.180 I can help you with that. 00:48:29.140 --> 00:48:29.460 Okay. 00:48:30.420 --> 00:48:34.980 So now the next thing I want you to think about, I want to just finish this up so you guys can see all this. 00:48:35.220 --> 00:48:38.100 So uh let me get this out of the way. 00:48:38.180 --> 00:48:39.140 There we go. 00:48:39.540 --> 00:48:40.980 So phrasing and moving. 00:48:41.060 --> 00:48:42.100 That's what we just talked about. 00:48:42.260 --> 00:48:44.340 The next thing, dynamics. 00:48:45.860 --> 00:48:47.620 Picking softer and harder. 00:48:48.500 --> 00:48:50.580 Playing quieter, playing louder. 00:48:52.180 --> 00:48:57.700 You'd be surprised at how that adds reality to what it is that you're doing, just like when you strum. 00:48:58.340 --> 00:48:59.700 People underestimate that. 00:48:59.780 --> 00:49:03.540 It's not just that you can strum or you can make a strumming pattern. 00:49:03.700 --> 00:49:05.220 It's what does it sound like? 00:49:06.180 --> 00:49:07.700 Is it engaging? 00:49:08.020 --> 00:49:12.660 You guys have all heard somebody that sits down with an acoustic guitar and you're like, man, that sounds great. 00:49:12.900 --> 00:49:17.140 It's not just because they're fast or they're smart, it's because of the way they play. 00:49:17.940 --> 00:49:20.500 That's what for me dynamics are all about. 00:49:21.540 --> 00:49:24.580 And then we're gonna kind of bypass this because we'll we'll talk about this. 00:49:24.660 --> 00:49:28.100 We can go into this next week if you guys want to, but um we can keep going with this. 00:49:28.180 --> 00:49:38.820 But articulation and feel, like vibrato, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, these are all things that we can use to make things sound more real when we get there. 00:49:40.100 --> 00:49:42.420 And then number five is musical thinking. 00:49:42.660 --> 00:49:44.260 Again, this stuff takes time. 00:49:44.420 --> 00:49:45.700 We're not in any hurry. 00:49:45.940 --> 00:49:55.300 I want to I want to stay on the first couple uh and finish this up because I would love to see you guys post some videos of you doing this stuff. 00:49:55.460 --> 00:49:57.780 So now here's what I want to go back to. 00:49:58.260 --> 00:50:00.980 Just so you all understand this, and then we can talk about this real quick. 00:50:01.140 --> 00:50:03.060 So, eighth notes, bread and butter. 00:50:03.220 --> 00:50:11.060 When you listen to a backing track, figuring out where your quarter note is, and then there it is. 00:50:12.180 --> 00:50:14.180 This is what you're building off of. 00:50:16.420 --> 00:50:31.060 Now, when you start coming into view with those eighth notes and they start making sense to you, the next option up, when you've got those eighth notes dialing in, the next option up is sixteenth notes. 00:50:32.660 --> 00:50:36.340 Now, sixteenth notes are obviously twice as fast as eighth notes. 00:50:36.420 --> 00:50:37.940 They're harder to play, right? 00:50:38.100 --> 00:50:43.460 If I was playing the scale at this speed, just so you see this, if I was playing eighth notes, it would be like this. 00:50:53.220 --> 00:51:08.580 If I was playing 16th notes, and I'm not saying you can't, I'm just saying that's a lot harder. 00:51:09.940 --> 00:51:12.180 So I'm not, here's what happens. 00:51:12.340 --> 00:51:15.540 You've got your eighth notes, you're figuring out how to use your eighth notes. 00:51:15.620 --> 00:51:20.180 That's the most important thing you can walk away from today, is those eighth notes. 00:51:20.820 --> 00:51:27.780 But if you establish those eighth notes and they're feeling good to you, you can go back to the practice side and keep working on getting better at your scales. 00:51:27.940 --> 00:51:30.580 Get into the 16th note at 80 beats per minute, right? 00:51:30.740 --> 00:51:35.300 You can keep working, that's what you're doing over there is getting faster, right? 00:51:35.460 --> 00:51:37.220 That's the whole point over there. 00:51:38.020 --> 00:51:40.340 Over here on the playing side, you're not ready. 00:51:40.420 --> 00:51:43.380 You don't have 16th notes at 80 beats per minute. 00:51:44.020 --> 00:51:45.380 Hypothetically. 00:51:45.620 --> 00:51:47.140 So, what do you do? 00:51:47.860 --> 00:51:50.820 You tip your hat to

them, you dip your toes into them. 00:51:50.900 --> 00:51:52.020 And how do you do that? 00:51:52.260 --> 00:51:56.180 By doing a pull off or doing a hammer on. 00:51:56.740 --> 00:51:57.860 That's all you gotta do. 00:51:58.100 --> 00:51:58.820 Watch. 00:51:59.140 --> 00:52:00.980 So here's my eighth notes. 00:52:03.300 --> 00:52:04.980 I'm gonna do a sixteenth note now. 00:52:05.060 --> 00:52:05.860 Watch this. 00:52:37.700 --> 00:52:40.740 When I go to that sixteenth note, it adds energy. 00:52:42.180 --> 00:52:45.380 So if you're struggling with eighth notes, don't worry about sixteenth notes. 00:52:45.460 --> 00:52:46.900 That's not gonna help you. 00:52:47.860 --> 00:52:58.660 But if you're establishing that eighth note and it's kind of feeling good and you're kind of figuring that out, you can move into doing some sixteenth notes just by doing a simple pull off or a simple hammer on. 00:52:59.780 --> 00:53:05.940 Ba da dump, bump, bum, bump, bump, bum, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bum, bada, bump. 00:53:06.820 --> 00:53:10.580 Bump, bump, bump, baby, bump, bada, dump, bump, bum, bump, baby, bump. 00:53:12.100 --> 00:53:22.900 And again, guys, at the end of this class today, we still haven't established direction and landing on the right note at the right time, blah, blah, blah. 00:53:23.060 --> 00:53:24.420 We'll get to all that stuff. 00:53:25.460 --> 00:53:28.260 Because it's just above here, it's just above where we are. 00:53:29.060 --> 00:53:33.140 But what I'm saying is there's no reason to worry about all that if we can't play the groove. 00:53:34.660 --> 00:53:36.420 Because you're just gonna overwhelm your brain. 00:53:36.580 --> 00:53:38.100 It's too much to think about. 00:53:38.980 --> 00:53:42.900 And if you don't know the scale, you can't think about the eighth note. 00:53:43.620 --> 00:53:44.820 You guys all understand that? 00:53:44.980 --> 00:53:47.700 Like, it's gotta be building blocks, that's the whole point. 00:53:48.020 --> 00:53:54.980 You gotta build this, and the parts that are missing, those are the parts you gotta keep trying to focus on where the problem is. 00:53:55.220 --> 00:53:59.940 You don't have to become hyper-psychotic about how fast your 16th notes are. 00:54:00.100 --> 00:54:00.740 You can. 00:54:02.180 --> 00:54:07.220 But then you're just focusing on this one part of your playing, you're not focusing on all the rest of this stuff. 00:54:07.460 --> 00:54:13.860 That's why I'm saying some of the things that we work on are kind of large picture, seeing the whole fretboard. 00:54:14.340 --> 00:54:15.940 And then we've got micro things. 00:54:16.020 --> 00:54:22.340 We're trying to focus on picking or moving between strings or 16th, or whatever, whatever it is. 00:54:22.420 --> 00:54:23.540 Everybody's different. 00:54:23.780 --> 00:54:30.420 But when we move over in the playing realm, not the practice realm, but the playing realm, playing realm, I am not practicing. 00:54:30.740 --> 00:54:32.260 I'm playing. 00:54:34.340 --> 00:54:36.980 As soon as you go, oh, why couldn't I do that lick? 00:54:37.060 --> 00:54:39.620 And you're trying to figure that, okay, you're back in practice realm. 00:54:39.780 --> 00:54:40.340 That's okay. 00:54:40.500 --> 00:54:42.980 But just understand you're no longer in playing realm. 00:54:43.140 --> 00:54:45.220 You moved over to practice again. 00:54:46.500 --> 00:54:51.060 If you want to be in playing realm, you got to follow the rules over here and make music. 00:54:51.220 --> 00:54:53.220 That's what you're trying to do, is make music. 00:54:53.380 --> 00:54:56.500 It's not gonna be your fastest and your best. 00:54:57.300 --> 00:54:58.980 It's supposed to be musical. 00:55:01.220 --> 00:55:06.260 And when you come across something that you're struggling with, you suck that thing and put it over here. 00:55:06.500 --> 00:55:08.900 Now it's in your practice realm and you work on it. 00:55:09.060 --> 00:55:12.260 And you come back over here to playing realm again and you practice. 00:55:12.420 --> 00:55:13.380 You work on these things. 00:55:13.460 --> 00:55:15.140 You're trying to put all this together. 00:55:15.940 --> 00:55:18.020 Does that kind of make sense, guys? 00:55:19.620 --> 00:55:28.500 Every day or at least every week, you guys should be working on practicing, which is studying, understanding, you know, all that kind of stuff that we talked about. 00:55:28.660 --> 00:55:35.780 But you should also, if this is something that's important to you, you got to spend time in the playing realm, not just the practicing realm. 00:55:35.860 --> 00:55:39.060 And then assume when you come over to the side of playing, it's all gonna work. 00:55:39.140 --> 00:55:40.020 It that's not true. 00:55:40.180 --> 00:55:42.820 It's not even that's not even reasonable. 00:55:43.700 --> 00:55:45.780 You gotta practice playing. 00:55:46.900 --> 00:55:47.300 Right? 00:55:47.460 --> 00:55:50.340 You got to spend time practicing playing. 00:55:51.620 --> 00:55:55.620 And then come back over here with whatever you need and then come back over here. 00:55:57.380 --> 00:55:57.780 Right? 00:55:57.940 --> 00:56:04.660 And when you make those backing tracks, when you jam along with something and you send it to your studio instructor, he can look at that and go, Steve, when I want you to notice this. 00:56:04.740 --> 00:56:08.020 When you're playing, every time you start playing a new phrase, it starts on a downbeat. 00:56:08.180 --> 00:56:10.100 Let's try and do some stuff on the offbeat. 00:56:10.260 --> 00:56:12.020 And then you go, oh, you know what? 00:56:12.100 --> 00:56:13.940 I never even thought about that before. 00:56:14.180 --> 00:56:18.340 Hey, Mike, when you listen to this, notice how all your phrases are the same length. 00:56:18.580 --> 00:56:21.620 Bump, bump, bum, bum, bum, bump, bump, bum. 00:56:21.700 --> 00:56:22.500 Let's change that up. 00:56:22.580 --> 00:56:23.620 Try and think about that a

little bit. 00:56:23.700 --> 00:56:25.940 Oh, yeah, gosh, I never even thought about that before. 00:56:26.100 --> 00:56:31.380 Hey, Francois, when you're trying to do this thing, notice how your dynamics are the same every single time. 00:56:31.780 --> 00:56:32.820 Become aware of that. 00:56:32.900 --> 00:56:34.020 Write it on a piece of paper. 00:56:34.180 --> 00:56:35.380 Dynamics. 00:56:36.580 --> 00:56:39.460 You sound good, but it's just everything sounds exactly the same. 00:56:39.700 --> 00:56:41.140 Start thinking about your dynamics. 00:56:41.220 --> 00:56:42.740 Oh, that makes sense. 00:56:45.220 --> 00:56:52.820 You see, when you start thinking about playing and you think about those things, it's not about how fast you are, how smart you are, how many scale positions you know. 00:56:52.900 --> 00:56:53.940 It's does it sound real? 00:56:54.100 --> 00:56:55.300 Does it sound musical? 00:56:57.700 --> 00:56:59.060 Guys, any questions? 00:56:59.860 --> 00:57:02.180 Let's open up the floor for a little bit here. 00:57:06.100 --> 00:57:10.660 I guess the first question I would have for you is should we continue this next week? 00:57:14.340 --> 00:57:15.940 Do you think we should keep going with this? 00:57:16.260 --> 00:57:16.420 Yes. 00:57:17.620 --> 00:57:17.700 Okay. 00:57:19.220 --> 00:57:21.060 Okay, then what I would okay. 00:57:21.220 --> 00:57:28.500 Then what I would like from you guys, what I would like from you guys is over the next week, I need you to dive into this. 00:57:29.540 --> 00:57:33.060 So by next week, next Wednesday, you can come back with questions. 00:57:33.220 --> 00:57:37.300 You can come back with progress reports to tell me how things are going. 00:57:37.700 --> 00:57:39.460 I'm not expecting miracles in a week. 00:57:40.260 --> 00:57:42.660 I just want you to understand how the process works. 00:57:42.740 --> 00:57:44.340 So you can go, yeah, I get it. 00:57:44.500 --> 00:57:47.780 I obviously understand all the things I need to work on, but I understand what's going on. 00:57:47.940 --> 00:57:50.260 Because then we can keep building this thing. 00:57:53.460 --> 00:58:06.020 So, what's great about this way of thinking, this playing thing, is that it's what most of you have always wanted anyway, but you keep getting stuck over here in practice. 00:58:06.820 --> 00:58:11.300 And you're not figuring out how to sing on the instrument. 00:58:14.100 --> 00:58:18.900 And even next week or next month, it might not still be exactly where you want it to be, obviously. 00:58:18.980 --> 00:58:20.020 It's gonna take a little time. 00:58:20.180 --> 00:58:26.100 But as long as you start building out the fundamentals, because without rhythm, you got nothing, guys. 00:58:26.260 --> 00:58:29.700 Without connecting to the groove, you have nothing. 00:58:29.940 --> 00:58:31.940 I'm just being honest with you. 00:58:33.140 --> 00:58:34.900 You gotta connect to the groove. 00:58:34.980 --> 00:58:36.180 I always use this as an example. 00:58:36.260 --> 00:58:47.460 If I was to play this, if I was playing play that funky music, and I'm gonna solo over the top, the first thing I think is what key is it in? 00:58:47.540 --> 00:58:49.780 Oh, it's an E, E minor pentatonic. 00:58:54.500 --> 00:58:56.340 Next thing is what's the groove? 00:58:56.580 --> 00:58:59.540 Bop, bop, pop, bop, pop, pop, pop, pop. 00:58:59.700 --> 00:59:00.100 There it is. 00:59:00.260 --> 00:59:04.580 Bop deca deca deca deca, which would be my 16th notes. 00:59:04.660 --> 00:59:05.780 Those are the two that I got. 00:59:05.940 --> 00:59:18.100 So when I get in there, the groove is what I gotta go with. 00:59:18.260 --> 00:59:22.740 Ba-da-pa-pa-pa-pa-doopa bum ba da ba bump. 00:59:23.140 --> 00:59:25.220 Bada doopa ba ba bum. 00:59:25.780 --> 00:59:27.140 That's what I'm gonna do. 00:59:27.380 --> 00:59:34.740 If I get in there and go, it's not gonna sound like a solo. 00:59:36.500 --> 00:59:36.900 Right? 00:59:37.060 --> 00:59:38.980 That eighth note is the most important thing. 00:59:39.140 --> 00:59:45.380 Bada dun dun dun bum boom bum bada bum bump, throwing those sixteenth notes in to add some energy. 00:59:53.620 --> 00:59:57.780 Now, what to do and how to do it would be the next thing, right? 00:59:57.940 --> 01:00:00.420 Right now we're just learning how to navigate. 01:00:01.380 --> 01:00:05.540 Licks and, you know, all that kind of stuff, all that kind of stuff can come next. 01:00:05.700 --> 01:00:07.940 But we got to establish ourselves first. 01:00:08.180 --> 01:00:10.100 Do we what do we see? 01:00:10.580 --> 01:00:13.380 Not on a practice level, but on a playing level. 01:00:13.700 --> 01:00:16.340 What can we see unequivocally without any question? 01:00:16.500 --> 01:00:23.220 If somebody said, you know, Mike or Todd take a solo in play that funky music, or Greg, take a solo. 01:00:23.620 --> 01:00:24.660 You don't want to panic. 01:00:24.740 --> 01:00:26.500 You want to go, well, what am I dealing with here? 01:00:26.660 --> 01:00:27.860 What key is this? 01:00:28.100 --> 01:00:29.140 What's the groove? 01:00:29.300 --> 01:00:30.740 Where's the eighth note? 01:00:31.620 --> 01:00:35.780 And if you're good at meandering, you're gonna be able to come up with all kinds of cool stuff. 01:00:36.020 --> 01:00:43.540 If you're not, you're gonna go, why? 01:00:43.700 --> 01:00:45.540 Because that's what you practice. 01:00:47.060 --> 01:00:47.700 You see? 01:00:48.980 --> 01:00:51.380 We got to break out of practice and move into playing. 01:00:51.460 --> 01:00:54.660 So, guys, I'm gonna let you go because it's 11 o'clock, but hopefully this helped you. 01:00:54.820 --> 01:00:56.980 I will post it later today when this is done. 01:00:57.220 --> 01:00:59.860 Guys, write down your questions over the week. 01:01:00.100 --> 01:01:02.500 Let's dive further into this next week. 01:01:02.740 --> 01:01:03.060 Okay? 01:01:03.220 --> 01:01:04.100 We're in no hurry. 01:01:04.260 --> 01:01:05.540 We got

a lot of time together. 01:01:05.780 --> 01:01:16.980 Hey, Steve, sorry I was I was late, but uh, did you want to say anything about uh just class and professionalism with regard to uh like Dolly Pardon and kind of like uh how that's helped you get where you are today? 01:01:17.540 --> 01:01:18.980 Say that again, one more time. 01:01:19.300 --> 01:01:20.500 Class and professionalism. 01:01:20.580 --> 01:01:23.300 I mean, that's something that you have, and that's something that she exonerated. 01:01:23.540 --> 01:01:25.060 And it's an important part of playing as well. 01:01:25.140 --> 01:01:27.220 It's not just about about the No. 01:01:27.300 --> 01:01:29.380 Well, listen, let me summarize this. 01:01:29.460 --> 01:01:30.980 Don't ever burn bridges. 01:01:31.460 --> 01:01:32.180 Thank you. 01:01:32.340 --> 01:01:40.740 That I mean, that's the thing, is I, you know, one thing that I'm always proud of is when people meet me, they always say, you know, you're just like you are in your videos. 01:01:40.980 --> 01:01:46.660 And that's something that I take pride in because I've always told myself I never want to make something that my kids would be embarrassed of. 01:01:46.980 --> 01:01:48.820 That's bottom line, right? 01:01:49.060 --> 01:02:01.300 That's so the thing about the industry being from North Dakota, where you know nobody and you're not connected to anybody, and then all of a sudden being connected to a lot of people in the industry is your attitude. 01:02:01.460 --> 01:02:11.940 And it's funny how I meet people all the time that will go, like, I can tell you all kinds of stories about stuff, but meeting people that are, you know, artists and companies and stuff, and they're like, man, I love your attitude. 01:02:12.020 --> 01:02:13.780 Like, you're just a really great guy to be around. 01:02:13.940 --> 01:02:15.700 And I'm not stroking my own ego, guys. 01:02:15.780 --> 01:02:21.620 I'm just saying the better you are as a player and the better you are to work with, the easier you are to work with, the more gigs you get. 01:02:21.780 --> 01:02:23.460 Bottom line, easy. 01:02:24.180 --> 01:02:28.580 Nobody will tell you I'm difficult, but people will tell you that I'm a perfectionist. 01:02:28.980 --> 01:02:29.300 Okay. 01:02:29.620 --> 01:02:38.820 If you and I were in a band together and we show up for rehearsal and you're working on learning the songs, the rehearsal has now been canceled. 01:02:39.380 --> 01:02:44.500 The rehearsal is not for you to learn the songs, the rehearsal is for us to play together. 01:02:44.740 --> 01:02:46.340 That's what a rehearsal is. 01:02:46.580 --> 01:02:48.820 Practice is you learning the songs. 01:02:49.380 --> 01:02:56.980 If we show up for band practice and you're still working on your songs over in the corner for the next 30 minutes and I'm doing this, why am I here? 01:02:57.860 --> 01:02:58.500 You see? 01:02:59.060 --> 01:03:01.300 So professionalism is that too. 01:03:01.380 --> 01:03:02.580 It's it's showing up. 01:03:02.740 --> 01:03:04.180 You don't have to be perfect, guys. 01:03:04.260 --> 01:03:05.700 I'm not even close to that. 01:03:05.940 --> 01:03:08.340 But you show up prepared for whatever it is you're gonna do. 01:03:08.420 --> 01:03:10.180 That's the whole point of what we're talking about today. 01:03:10.260 --> 01:03:11.540 I'm not asking you to be perfect. 01:03:11.620 --> 01:03:12.900 I'm not asking you to know everything. 01:03:12.980 --> 01:03:19.060 What I'm saying is if the situation comes up and you got to play, do you know where to go and do you know what to do? 01:03:19.460 --> 01:03:21.700 And let's keep just expanding that. 01:03:22.980 --> 01:03:26.740 So you can get to a place where you feel good about yourself, you are confident with yourself. 01:03:26.900 --> 01:03:30.820 You know you got more to learn, and you're gonna be way better next year than you are this year. 01:03:31.060 --> 01:03:34.020 But at least you're working on all the tools you need to get there. 01:03:35.140 --> 01:03:36.260 So, okay. 01:03:36.900 --> 01:03:37.460 Thank you. 01:03:37.700 --> 01:03:38.260 All right, guys. 01:03:39.060 --> 01:03:39.380 Yep. 01:03:39.460 --> 01:03:40.340 Have a good week, guys. 01:03:40.420 --> 01:03:40.820 God bless. 01:03:40.900 --> 01:03:41.380 Talk to you later. 01:03:41.540 --> 01:03:41.860 Thank you. 01:03:41.940 --> 01:03:42.420 Thank you so much. 01:03:43.620 --> 01:03:44.020 Bye, guys. 01:03:44.180 --> 01:03:44.340 Bye.