Best Guitar Advice You Ever Got

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Back in my 20's I came into a small guitar store off the beaten path just to see what the place was offering. An old guy maybe 80 ran it. As we talked and couldn't agree on anything but we were cordial. Then, he said the one thing that stuck with me for the rest of my days.
If you ever intend to play live there will be times where you wont have a band behind you. Learn to fingerpick,
I'd dabbled in fingerpicking prior to that encounter. Afterwards I became more well rounded as I developed fingerpicking and variations thereof. As a result I'm less concerned about having a pick nearby and not only has it broadened my musical direction but enabled me to play unaccompanied.
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There is what I think is quite a good advice that I myself often give and which I wish someone had given me when I was starting out:

first learn to manage to play one good sounding note before playing a second one - beginners often play something simple and it sounds crap, so they seek to play something more complicated in a vain attempt to play something that doesn't suck - and after that something even more complicated - and they keep trying and trying, while the truth is that a) it's not easy to play a really good sounding note and it's even much harder to play two and b) once you manage to play a good sounding-note most of the time there'll be no need for a second one as the first one will do just fine.

Unfortunately nobody told me, so I had to learn that the hard way.

Many guitar-players never find out so they a) play far too much all the time and b) don't have good tone - which gives the instrument a far worse reputation that it deserves.

The same goes for other instruments too, of course, but for some reason guitar-players tend to be the most obnoxious (by far).
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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I'm learning Travis picking. It's slow going at my age, but there is progress. I can finger pick fine, but when it comes to separating my right thumb from the rest of the hand, it is a work in progress.
Best advice I ever got was to try to find better players than me to jam with. Not that easy, because a lot of guys I knew when I was young disdained playing with people obviously unequal in experience. I was usually the 'better' player that others learned from.
The other advice I'd give is to finf a competent teacher. Would've saved me years.
“The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.”
-Henry A. Wallace

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you're not :insert legend!: find your own sound

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Nothing occurs in a vacuum. If I want, I can sound a bit like Hendrix and a bit like Gilmour, but I always sound like me.
“The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.”
-Henry A. Wallace

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Another bit Mike said, way back: play as if you mean it. Words to that effect.
“The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.”
-Henry A. Wallace

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One bit of advice that I should have been more cognitive in recent years. Play the song all the way through not just the parts you like.

Here's a funny anecdote about memory. When you remember something you've remembered before you aren't accessing the original memory you are accessing your previous memory of the original. So if you choose not to finish the song or only play the part you like that's all you will remember.
^ I'm experiencing this right now. I was playing a song earlier and I could not remember how it ended because the last two times I played it I didn't play it complete.
Synapse Audio Dune 3 I'm in love

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"better choose another instrument, kid".
member of the guild of professional dilettantes.

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Pretty sure it was "take that guitar out of your mouth kid, you don't know where it's been." Fine advice to this day if you aks me. I started pretty young...

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Mine was "maybe try synthesiser, you useless, un-co c**t". Mother could be cruel but she was always honest.
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1. Practice with a metronome
2. Use less gain
3. Buy the AC15 not the WEM Dominator (that was a bloke in Curly Music in Liverpool in about 1978. There was only about £10 difference at the time!)

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Use what you've got, not want for a lot.
Intel Core i7 8700K, 16gb, Windows 10 Pro, Focusrite Scarlet 6i6

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"Singers get more chicks."
Wait... loot _then_ burn? D'oh!

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Bombadil wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 5:16 pm The other advice I'd give is to finf a competent teacher. Would've saved me years.
This. Wish someone explained to me how valuable a good teacher can be. I actually had a decent teacher for a year when I was young, but then I moved and forgot about it. That and my inherent laziness is why I am not nearly as good on guitar as I could’ve been.
Only now, after learning bass for a good year with a good teacher, I realize how much it helps. I think I’ve made more progress in this year on bass than I ever did in the same period on guitar.

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Someone told a friend of mine to pick up pedal steel. He got tons of work from it and ended up playing on a OneRepublic record.

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